Phantom Borg and Systemic Collapse
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard orders evasive action as the Enterprise faces an anomaly involving a Borg ship.
Worf reports the sudden disappearance of the Borg vessel, leaving the crew bewildered.
Data suggests the possibility of a synthetic image, further deepening the mystery.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Frustrated, urgent, and measuredly fearful — projecting command composure while confronting a baffling failure that endangers the ship.
Commands immediate evasive action, demands diagnostics, and reallocates senior personnel; moves from tactical response to crisis delegation while visibly frustrated and authoritative on the bridge.
- • Protect the ship and crew by ordering evasive maneuvers and diagnostic checks
- • Isolate and understand the failure so mission and safety decisions can be made
- • Organize senior staff into operational and investigative teams
- • An external contact (Borg) would normally require defensive action
- • Systems failure is intolerable and must be diagnosed quickly to preserve lives
- • Chain of command and division of labor are essential under crisis
Calmly analytical with latent concern; maintains intellectual curiosity while acknowledging the gravity of an unprecedented phenomenon.
Offers a clinical hypothesis that the contact could have been synthetically generated, reports that controls are nonresponsive, and is ordered to join Picard and Riker in the conference room for strategic discussion.
- • Provide the most accurate technical hypothesis about the sensor image
- • Diagnose system nonresponsiveness
- • Contribute to command's decision-making about mission continuation
- • Synthetically generated sensor images are possible even if unprecedented
- • Objective analysis will outperform panic in resolving the crisis
- • His own computational faculties and knowledge are valuable to command
Terse concern: restrained alarm with a readiness to act, suspicious of technological anomalies and committed to defensive measures.
Reports the target vector and its sudden disappearance crisply, reacts physically on the bridge, and receives orders to accompany La Forge to assess shields and recovery options.
- • Confirm the disappearance and assess immediate tactical implications
- • Support engineering in evaluating shield prospects
- • Maintain ship security and follow command directives
- • Missing vector suggests sensor or deliberate deception rather than benign glitch
- • Direct action and assessment are required when defenses might be compromised
- • Protocol and honor demand disciplined response
Incredulous and practical — skeptical that the computer produced a false contact while immediately focusing on actionable next steps.
Executes Picard's helm orders, voices incredulity at a computer-generated contact, helps steer tactical and investigative choices, and prepares to join Picard for a strategic debrief.
- • Implement Picard's evasive maneuvers accurately
- • Determine whether the contact was real or a false signature
- • Support command decisions and prepare for mission contingencies
- • Sensors and computers are usually reliable but can fail or be deceived
- • Immediate, competent action reduces harm
- • Logical, procedural investigation will reveal the cause
Frustrated and urgent — strained by failed systems but determined to restore propulsion and stabilize the ship.
Reports propulsion failures (impulse engines down), attempts to restart impulse and warp engines, then decides to return to engineering to effect repairs and further diagnostics.
- • Restore impulse and warp capabilities to regain control
- • Diagnose underlying cause of propulsion and systems failures
- • Coordinate repairs in engineering and report feasibility to command
- • Mechanical and software interventions can remedy system outages
- • Rapid return to engineering is the fastest path to restoring operational systems
- • Crew competence and improvisation will mitigate the crisis
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Shields are placed under suspicion by command: Picard orders Worf and La Forge to report on prospects for recovery, making the shield matrix a strategic concern and a target for assessment amid the ship's systemic failures.
The main bridge viewscreen displays the original Borg contact and its vector, serving as the locus of the tactical reading; when the contact vanishes the screen shifts from clear tactical presentation to evidentiary clue, anchoring the transition from external threat to internal anomaly.
Turbolift doors on the forward bulkhead begin opening and closing unpredictably as a symptom of system-wide malfunctions; their erratic behavior both endangers movement and signals deeper computer control failure.
The Enterprise's impulse engines fail mid-crisis; Geordi attempts manual restart at the helm before announcing they are down, turning the propulsion system into the immediate technical obstacle that forces him back to engineering.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Science One / aft science station (representing the main bridge work area) functions as the immediate operational center where Data monitors sensors and announces nonresponsiveness; it channels the clinical, observational perspective that reframes the incident as a synthetic artifact rather than only a tactical threat.
Main Engineering is invoked as the repair crucible: Geordi must return there to attempt fixes and diagnostics after propulsion fails, making engineering the practical locus for recovery and the narrative place where mechanical, software, and human improvisation will collide.
The Enterprise conference room is designated as the strategic convening point for Picard, Riker, and Data to assess mission viability; it serves as the immediate planning space where command will shift from reactive to deliberative posture.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
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Key Dialogue
"WORF: "Vector... is gone. And so is the Borg vessel.""
"DATA: "It is conceivable that we were viewing a synthetically generated image... although there is no precedent for it.""
"COMPUTER VOICE: "Pawn to King Three... Knight to Rook Four... Queen to Bishop Three...""