Corridor of Lost Wishes
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Sarjenka, trembling with awe and longing, asks Data if she can one day serve on the Enterprise, revealing her childlike idealization of the ship and its crew—a raw admission of attachment that fractures the Prime Directive's cold abstraction into a singular, pleading heart.
Data, stoic and unflinching, answers Sarjenka’s wish with axiomatic detachment—'There are many things in life which we desire but will never receive'—a chillingly logical dismissal that exposes his raw inability to comfort, even as his words sculpt the first fracture in his own emotional armor.
Sarjenka, undeterred by Data’s cold truth, whispers her defiance—'I know, but I can still wish for it'—a quiet rebellion that crystallizes the episode’s central theme: humanity resides not in logic, but in the stubborn, sacred act of wishing despite impossibility.
The Sickbay doors slide open, swallowing the fragile intimacy of their exchange—each step toward the threshold marks Sarjenka’s last walk as a child who remembers the stars, before the scalpel of memory-wiping awaits.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Quietly sad but hopeful — clinging to imagination and desire as a small refuge from fear and uncertainty.
Sarjenka walks closely beside Data, asking hopeful questions and then sighing with wistful sadness; she voices a straightforward, childlike longing to join the ship now, clinging to the possibility of rescue and companionship.
- • To be reassured that she belongs somewhere safe and could one day join the Enterprise.
- • To express immediate desire for safety and companionship by asking to come now.
- • To test the boundaries of kindness and see if adults (or the ship) will respond.
- • The Enterprise represents safety, variety, and a place she could belong.
- • Wishing aloud might change or influence outcomes, even if adults say no.
- • Simple, direct questions can elicit help or comfort from those she trusts.
Calm, clinical compassion — outwardly detached yet motivated by a nascent concern that translates into quiet consolation.
Data walks beside Sarjenka, answers her questions with calm, literal phrasing, and offers a consoling but axiomatic observation about desire and loss, maintaining measured physical restraint while providing emotional ballast.
- • Provide honest comfort to Sarjenka without promising impossible outcomes.
- • Stabilize the child's mood ahead of medical procedures and minimize panic.
- • Preserve ethical clarity by not overstepping promises he cannot keep.
- • There exist immutable limits to what can be given despite empathic understanding.
- • Honesty and measured reassurance serve the child's well-being better than false hope.
- • He must balance compassion with the rules and consequences that govern Starfleet conduct.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Sickbay doors function as a silent punctuation to the exchange: they part precisely as the conversation ends, turning a personal, liminal moment into an institutional one. Their smooth opening signals transition from corridor consolation to clinical intervention and foreshadows the medical procedures that will enforce memory loss.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Enterprise corridor is the immediate setting for the exchange, a neutral, linear space that permits an intimate, unguarded conversation. Its function as a liminal artery amplifies the sense of transition: private longing voiced in a public, institutional spine of the ship.
Sickbay (Patients' Quarters) is the imminent destination: its clinical promise of care also carries the threat of procedures that will erase memory. In this event it exists both as sanctuary and instrument — where compassion will be translated into an ethically fraught medical act.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Data's clinical answer that 'many things we desire but will never receive' directly echoes in the final moment, when he places the Elanin Singer Stone—something that sings for her but not for him—in her hand. The stone is the only thing that satisfies her impossible wish, and he, the machine, gives it to her anyway."
Key Dialogue
"SARJENKA: "You have many different kinds of people here.""
"SARJENKA: "When I'm bigger can I be on your ship?""
"DATA: "There are many things in life which we desire but will never receive. This is one of them.""