Duty Intrudes — Passengers Awake, a Promise of Danger
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Pulaski cuts in over com: the passengers are up. Picard presses for status, hears "Hungry," and Riker breaks off for the bridge as duty snaps back into focus.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Content and engaged one moment, potentially blindsided or bemused by Mrs. Troi's sudden leave‑taking the next.
Rex remains at his table as Picard approaches, receives Mrs. Troi's affectionate pat and her promise she'll return, and is left behind when she is escorted out; he occupies the social center of the bar and registers the abrupt departure.
- • Enjoy the intimate connection with Mrs. Troi and cement their impulsive engagement.
- • Maintain the bar's convivial atmosphere and accept the social promise that she'll return.
- • Mrs. Troi's affection is genuine and promises will be kept.
- • The bar is a place for personal refuge where social arrangements are legitimate.
Urgent and task‑focused; sets aside social ease to fulfill duty without visible hesitation.
Riker receives the comm, immediately announces he must get to the bridge, and exits briskly — abandoning the relaxed holodeck pose to assume operational command responsibilities.
- • Get to the bridge to manage whatever the passengers' status implies.
- • Stabilize the ship's operational posture and advise the captain as needed.
- • Immediate physical presence on the bridge matters more than remaining in a recreational program.
- • Clear, prompt action prevents escalation of ambiguous threats.
Externally composed and duty‑bound; privately concerned and slightly uneasy about both the passengers' status and Mrs. Troi's impulsive choices.
Picard listens to Pulaski's comm, nods in acknowledgement, crosses to Rex's table, insists Mrs. Troi must go to the conference, begins to escort her toward the exit and leans in to deliver a private warning about Rex as the doors close behind them.
- • Ensure Mrs. Troi is delivered to the Pacifica conference as his duty requires.
- • Contain shipboard risk by responding to Pulaski's report (via chain of command).
- • Minimize public embarrassment for the ship and for Mrs. Troi.
- • Quietly seed doubt about Rex to protect Mrs. Troi from impulsive choices.
- • Starfleet obligations and diplomatic protocol must be honored, even at personal cost.
- • A terse medical/security report ('hungry') signals an operational threat that requires immediate attention.
- • Personal interventions (a private word about Rex) can alter choices without public confrontation.
- • Maintaining composure preserves command authority during tonal shifts.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The aft turbolift/bridge doors function as a literal and narrative closure: they move to separate the private holodeck/bar moment from command duties. As they close behind Picard and Mrs. Troi, they cut off the remainder of Picard's warning and seal the tonal shift.
The small candlelit table concentrates the scene's intimacy: Mrs. Troi pats Rex across it, the wine and candle imply private warmth, and the table's tight footprint forces physical proximity that heightens the awkwardness of Picard's extraction and the emotional cost of leaving.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The bridge exists offstage as the operational locus to which Riker rushes; it functions as the destination that enforces the tonal change from private to public responsibility and the place where Pulaski's report will be coordinated.
The Pacifica Diplomatic Conference is the offstage obligation Picard invokes to compel Mrs. Troi's compliance; its existence as a high‑stakes diplomatic waypoint provides the narrative pressure that forces the extraction and reframes personal choices as matters of statecraft.
Rex's Bar serves as the social refuge and staging ground for the beat: a holodeck recreation that hosts private flirtation and comic respite, which is violently contrasted by the clinical comm. It frames the emotional stakes that must be surrendered for duty.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Pulaski's report to Picard interrupts the Holodeck refuge, pulling him back to duty."
"Pulaski's report to Picard interrupts the Holodeck refuge, pulling him back to duty."
"Picard's escape into fantasy is later interrupted by duty, reinforcing the duty versus desire theme."
"Upon learning the passengers are awake, Picard decides it's time to leave the fantasy."
"Upon learning the passengers are awake, Picard decides it's time to leave the fantasy."
"Picard reasserts the mission and escorts Lwaxana, leading directly to her confrontation with the Antedians in the transporter room."
"Picard reasserts the mission and escorts Lwaxana, leading directly to her confrontation with the Antedians in the transporter room."
Key Dialogue
"PULASKI COM VOICE: "Our passengers are on their feet.""
"PULASKI COM VOICE: "Hungry.""
"PICARD: "There is something about Rex I think you had better know...""