Endorphins Feed the Vine — Pulaski Reprograms the Stimulator
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Pulaski crosses from the monitor to Troi and nails the causal link: the organism’s growth tracks with Riker’s memories.
Troi sharpens the aim, shifting focus from recalled events to the emotions powering them.
Pulaski grounds the theory in biochemistry, proposing the organisms respond to brain endorphins released by different mental processes.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Not applicable as an organism, but functionally reactive — described as accelerating proliferation when exposed to certain host neurochemistry and slowing when that chemistry changes.
The Endorphin-Sensitive Organism itself is discussed as the responsive antagonist: its growth rate is described as correlated to the emotional chemistry evoked by memories, and the crew treats it as a chemically driven agent that may be attracted to some endorphin patterns and repelled by others.
- • Exploit host neurochemical states that favor its proliferation.
- • Persist and spread within the host's nervous system.
- • Respond adaptively to changes in the host's biochemical environment.
- • Operates according to neurochemical cues rather than conscious intent.
- • Is susceptible to changes in host chemistry that may inhibit growth.
- • Can be inadvertently fed by therapeutic actions that increase attractive neurochemicals.
Focused urgency — precise and controlled on the surface, driven by anxiety about time and the patient's deterioration underneath.
Pulaski moves from the bedside monitor to Troi's side, states the correlation between memories and organism growth, hypothesizes endorphin sensitivity, then quickly manipulates the stimulator controls and activates the device to alter the differential current pattern.
- • Test the hypothesis that the organism is responding to specific neurochemicals.
- • Reprogram the stimulator to change Riker's neurochemical output and repel the organism.
- • Prevent further proliferation and stabilize the patient.
- • Move quickly to produce measurable results before the organism reaches critical territory.
- • The organism's growth is biochemically driven and can be influenced externally.
- • Altering the pattern of neural stimulation will change the host's chemical milieu.
- • Decisive experimental intervention is justified given the time-sensitive threat.
- • Troi's emotional readings are clinically useful for shaping treatment.
Concerned and alert — protective of the patient and invested in accurate translation of emotional data into clinical action.
Troi stands at Pulaski's side offering an interpretive reframe: memories act through emotion and chemistry. She supplies the empathic-technical link that converts Pulaski's observation into a treatmentable hypothesis.
- • Translate subjective memory material into objective chemical signals the medical team can manipulate.
- • Support Pulaski's clinical decision-making with empathic insight.
- • Prevent the therapeutic process from inadvertently worsening the infection.
- • Ensure that the patient's emotional integrity is considered during intervention.
- • Emotions produced by memories have distinct neurochemical signatures.
- • Her empathic readings are reliable data for shaping medical intervention.
- • Memory stimulation can both help and harm depending on the chemistry it triggers.
- • Rapid adaptation of therapy based on affective input is necessary.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The compact, jury-rigged stimulator ('the device') is engaged by Pulaski: she manipulates its controls to change the differential current pattern and then activates it. Functionally it translates Pulaski's clinical decision into an immediate alteration of the patient's neural input, making it the tactical instrument of the pivot from probing to intervention.
The Sickbay Vital Signs Monitor Array functions as the diagnostic anchor Pulaski moves away from; its readouts presumably provided the empirical correlation between memory stimulation and organism growth that triggers the affect-driven hypothesis and the decision to change stimulation patterns.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Enterprise Sickbay serves as the clinical arena where diagnosis, ethical risk, and tactical improvisation converge. Its equipment and proximity to the patient allow Pulaski and Troi to translate an empathic observation into immediate technological action, turning the room into a pressure chamber of medical authority and urgent experimentation.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The spike in microbial growth triggers Pulaski and Troi to link the change to Riker’s memories."
"Hypothesis that some endorphins repel the organisms leads to adjusting the stimulator’s current pattern."
"Hypothesis that some endorphins repel the organisms leads to adjusting the stimulator’s current pattern."
"The new strategy immediately drives Riker into grief-laden memories, starting with Tasha’s death."
"The new strategy immediately drives Riker into grief-laden memories, starting with Tasha’s death."
Key Dialogue
"Pulaski: "Now we know the organism's growth rate is related to the memories he's experiencing.""
"Troi: "Or the emotions they produce.""
"Pulaski: "Different mental processes generate different chemicals. Perhaps the organisms are sensitive to brain endorphins. ... I'm going to change the differential current pattern and see what happens.""