S2E10
· The Dauphin

Anya Revealed — Command, Contagion, and the Ethics of Protection

In Sickbay the creature abruptly reverts to Anya, exposing a terrifying truth: Starfleet faces not a mindless monster but a sovereign, shape‑shifting protector whose priorities clash with medical ethics. Dr. Pulaski shields the contagious patient Hennesey and insists on containment and care; Anya counters that the patient threatens her ward, Salia. Picard intervenes, asserting command, ordering confinement and guard detail. The scene crystallizes the central conflict — Anya’s lethal maternal instinct versus Starfleet duty, containment, and moral law — and sets up enforcement and scientific classification.

Plot Beats

The narrative micro-steps within this event

2

THE MONSTER sheds its terrors and transmutes back into its governess form, Anya, leaving the sickbay stunned as PULASKI immediately moves to tend the patient and the room scrambles to process the revelation.

horror to stunned astonishment

Pulaski and Anya clash in a rapid-fire moral fight—Pulaski screams that there is no contagion and demands Anya be kept away while Anya insists Hennesey's disease threatens SALIA—Picard moves to assert command and calm the fray, declaring the situation under control.

frantic accusation to authoritative containment

Who Was There

Characters present in this moment

5
Anya Guard
primary

Furious and protective—aggressive maternal instinct dominates, with a deep conviction that her intervention is necessary to protect Salia.

The attacking creature transmutes into this governess figure, vocally challenges Picard and Pulaski, insists Hennesey is a threat to Salia, glares with fury, refuses interference, but ultimately is outwardly compliant and is escorted from Sickbay under guard.

Goals in this moment
  • remove or neutralize the perceived threat to Salia
  • refuse external control and maintain autonomy over her ward's safety
  • resist Starfleet's attempts to confine or dismiss her authority
Active beliefs
  • Her powers and duty to Salia supersede Starfleet jurisdiction
  • The patient's disease genuinely endangers Salia and justifies lethal action
  • Obedience to Starfleet orders is negotiable when it conflicts with her protective mandate
Character traits
ferociously protective defiant sovereign in bearing emotionally volatile
Follow Anya Guard's journey
Hennesey
primary

Implied fear and helplessness (patient unconscious), dependent entirely on Starfleet personnel for protection and care.

Lies vulnerable and unconscious on the Sickbay bed; becomes the focal point of Pulaski's protective actions and the justification for both Anya's aggression and Starfleet's protective measures.

Goals in this moment
  • survive and receive medical treatment
  • not be harmed by external forces (monster/Anya) or by misapplied security measures
Active beliefs
  • Implicit trust in Starfleet medical care (by virtue of being in Sickbay)
  • Cannot actively influence events; survival depends on the actions of caregivers
Character traits
passive vulnerable innocent in the conflict catalytic (drives others' actions)
Follow Hennesey's journey

Frightened and frantic but professionally centered; fear for the patient's safety drives an insistence on medical fact and procedure.

Shields the unconscious patient by physically placing herself and the bed between Hennesey and the attacker, calls for security, pushes the bed away from the struggle, checks the patient's condition, and argues forcefully with both Anya and Picard about contagion risk and medical protocol.

Goals in this moment
  • ensure Hennesey receives appropriate medical care and is not needlessly endangered
  • secure containment and medical protocol rather than summary destruction
  • prevent panic and preserve medical integrity aboard Sickbay
Active beliefs
  • Medical ethics require treatment and containment rather than immediate destruction
  • There is no recorded contagious risk from this patient per existing medical records
  • Institutional knowledge (the catalog) should guide decisions about unknown life-forms
Character traits
protective of patients procedural anxious under threat scientifically skeptical
Follow Katherine Pulaski's journey

Controlled and authoritative on the surface, barely containing an undercurrent of anger and personal affront at being defied by a sovereign protector.

Enters Sickbay at the height of the struggle, commands guards to hold fire, addresses Anya authoritatively, issues orders to confine her to quarters and to post security outside Sickbay, containing both the immediate physical threat and the ship's moral response.

Goals in this moment
  • de-escalate the violent confrontation and protect the patient and crew
  • reassert Starfleet command and legal authority aboard the Enterprise
  • prevent further transformations or casualties by imposing confinement and security
Active beliefs
  • Starfleet command structure must be enforced to preserve order
  • Containment and oversight are the appropriate responses to an unknown, potentially dangerous entity
  • Medical and security issues aboard the ship must be balanced by command decisions
Character traits
authoritative calm under pressure diplomatic enforcement morally resolute
Follow Jean-Luc Picard's journey

Tense, focused, and ready to use force if necessary; a steady professionalism overlaying concern for the patient and crew safety.

Physically engages the monster, drawing and attempting to fire his phaser, is grappled and pulled off balance, then follows Picard's orders—motions to the security personnel and helps oversee Anya being led out under guard while preparing to post guards outside Sickbay.

Goals in this moment
  • protect Hennesey and the medical staff from physical harm
  • carry out Picard's orders to secure and restrain Anya
  • prevent further transformations or escalation by maintaining a security presence
Active beliefs
  • Use of force is justified to protect lives aboard the ship
  • Chain of command must be obeyed and enacted swiftly
  • An unknown shapeshifter is an immediate security hazard
Character traits
physically resolute duty-bound tactically alert straightforward
Follow Worf's journey

Objects Involved

Significant items in this scene

4
USS Enterprise-D — Main Bridge Aft Turbolift Doors

Doors on both sides of Sickbay slide open to admit three security personnel whose arrival changes the dynamic of the struggle; the opening doors act as the physical threshold through which enforcement enters and containment becomes possible.

Before: Closed, forming a sealed boundary to the Sickbay …
After: Open, allowing security to enter and later escort …
Before: Closed, forming a sealed boundary to the Sickbay patients' quarters.
After: Open, allowing security to enter and later escort Anya out under Worf's direction.
Enterprise Sickbay Medical Table

The medical bed cradles the unconscious patient and is physically pushed by Dr. Pulaski to create distance between Hennesey and the combatants. It functions as a mobile barrier and visual anchor for Pulaski's protective efforts, framing the medical-staff-versus-security stakes.

Before: Occupied by Hennesey and in its normal clinical …
After: Shifted and used as a protective barrier away …
Before: Occupied by Hennesey and in its normal clinical position within the Sickbay ward.
After: Shifted and used as a protective barrier away from the direct line of conflict; still occupied by the patient and under medical supervision.
Galactic Zoological Catalog

Invoked verbally by Pulaski as the scientific authority that contains no record of the creature; functions narratively as the institutional foil to Anya's claim and as the immediate source for the 'allasomorph' hypothesis.

Before: Available as shipboard reference material (holo/record) and part …
After: Remains an authoritative reference cited in the dispute; …
Before: Available as shipboard reference material (holo/record) and part of medical/scientific resources.
After: Remains an authoritative reference cited in the dispute; prompts the speculative labeling of the creature as a rumored allasomorph.
Worf's Security Phaser (Handheld)

Worf pulls this heavy-duty phaser to engage the monster; the creature seizes it from him mid-struggle, using the weapon as both leverage and a signifier of threatened violence. The phaser's seizure raises the stakes, placing Worf in the line of fire and forcing Picard's intervention.

Before: In Worf's immediate possession/had been drawn for use …
After: Torn from Worf's control during the struggle; ultimately …
Before: In Worf's immediate possession/had been drawn for use against the attacker.
After: Torn from Worf's control during the struggle; ultimately relinquished when the creature transmutes and the immediate fight ends, remaining in Sickbay custody pending recovery.

Location Details

Places and their significance in this event

2
Salia's Quarters (USS Enterprise)

Admiralty Quarters is named by Picard as the mandated place of confinement for Anya; it functions as the institutional solution to neutralize her presence while preserving her personhood and the ship's order.

Atmosphere Implied to be formal, private, and under close watch—designed to reassure diplomatic visitors while supporting …
Function Confinement location and diplomatic accommodation where Anya will be required to remain in present form …
Symbolism Symbolizes the Empire of protocol—Starfleet's attempt to domesticate a sovereign protector through space and ceremony.
Access Restricted and guarded; orders imply limited access and continuous security presence.
Quiet, private quarters with diplomatic furnishings (implied) Designed for privacy but repurposed here as controlled containment
Sickbay (USS Enterprise)

The Patients' Quarters of Sickbay is the staged battleground where medical duty collides with security enforcement. The cramped, clinical space focuses action onto the bed and the people around it, forcing decisions that collapse ethics, authority, and primal protection into a single, intense confrontation.

Atmosphere Tension-filled, clinical, and urgent—antiseptic smells and beeping monitors underscore fear and professional pressure.
Function Battleground and sanctuary simultaneously: a place meant for healing that becomes the site of violent …
Symbolism Represents the conflict between care (medical ethics) and force (security/command), turning a healing space into …
Access Normally restricted to medical staff and authorized personnel; during the event security forces enter with …
Harsh fluorescent lighting that exposes the struggle Beeping medical monitors and diagnostic arrays A hospital bed acting as a physical shield Sliding doors on both sides that open to admit security

Narrative Connections

How this event relates to others in the story

What led here 3
Causal

"Picard's recognition in the Ready Room of a dangerous life-form logically leads to the order to keep Anya confined — command-level concern translates into immediate containment policy."

Containment Plan Shattered by Anya's Fury
S2E10 · The Dauphin
NARRATIVELY_FOLLOWS

"Anya's violent transformation is immediately followed by reversion and the crew's classification attempt (Pulaski invoking 'allasomorphs') — the incident reveals Anya's true nature and forces Starfleet response."

Contagion, Demand, and Anya's Violent Transmutation
S2E10 · The Dauphin
NARRATIVELY_FOLLOWS

"Anya's violent transformation is immediately followed by reversion and the crew's classification attempt (Pulaski invoking 'allasomorphs') — the incident reveals Anya's true nature and forces Starfleet response."

Anya's Protocol-Breaking Metamorphosis
S2E10 · The Dauphin
What this causes 2
Causal

"Picard's orders to confine Anya and restrict transformations set the emotional and physical conditions that drive Salia to confront Anya in her quarters about friendship and agency."

Demanding Choice / Anya's Ultimatum
S2E10 · The Dauphin
Causal

"Picard's orders to confine Anya and restrict transformations set the emotional and physical conditions that drive Salia to confront Anya in her quarters about friendship and agency."

Anya's Ultimatum — Destiny vs. Choice
S2E10 · The Dauphin

Themes This Exemplifies

Thematic resonance and meaning

Part of Larger Arcs

Key Dialogue

"Pulaski: She wants to kill Hennesey!"
"Anya: His disease threatens Salia!"
"Picard: It will have to be."