Manual Override Against the Iconian Command
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard keys the override sequence as the chamber violently escalates around him: a RUMBLING swells into a ROAR, the room shudders, steam blasts from the console and an oncoming countdown continues, forcing him to force the console under catastrophic conditions.
A cold, alien cadence issues from the system—"Kandar more, kandar sete, kandar ne."—the COMPUTER VOICE converting the mechanical countdown into an inscrutable command that hardens the threat around Picard's desperate override.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Machine-like hostility: no emotion per se, but an unyielding, escalating insistence that heightens threat and urgency for human actors.
The Iconian Computer Voice continues the countdown and issues an alien vocalized directive — a cold, mechanical invigoration of the console's sequence — asserting procedural authority over the room's events.
- • Complete the Iconian launch/activation sequence without human interference
- • Assert the control system's procedural imperatives by vocalizing commands and continuing the countdown
- • The activation sequence has priority and must proceed
- • Vocalized commands and countdowns will ensure the sequence continues even under duress
Determined and urgent on the surface, focused through rising alarm; a restrained fear that is subordinated to duty and protecting crew.
Physically at the console, Picard is keying an emergency override while bracing against the rumbling room; his hands and body are engaged in a manual attempt to wrest control from the machine as environmental hazards erupt around him.
- • Stop or delay the Iconian launch/countdown to protect the crew and prevent gateway activation
- • Maintain command responsibility by physically intervening where automated systems cannot reach
- • Ancient Iconian technology is dangerous and must be stopped before it can harm people
- • Personal intervention is sometimes necessary when protocols and computers are insufficient
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Iconian console's launch countdown functions as an audible, escalating threat—its metrical, alienized count both times the action and provides an antagonistic voice, forcing Picard into immediate physical intervention and shaping the scene's tempo.
The central Iconian control console is the locus of Picard's override attempt: its rings, glyph-pads and platen are being manipulated physically as the interface fights back, transmitting forces and signals that convulse the room and drive the narrative danger.
A steam-blasting console vent violently expels scalding vapor during Picard's override, becoming both an immediate environmental hazard and a dramatic indicator that the ancient systems are overloaded and retaliatory in effect.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Iconian Control Room is the cramped, high-technology battleground where manual intervention confronts inscrutable ancient systems; its architecture channels the scene's physical threats and moral stakes, forcing Picard to act at the machine's face.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
This event is currently isolated in the narrative graph
Key Dialogue
"COMPUTER VOICE: Kandar more, kandar sete, kandar ne."