The Inorganic Doula
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Pulaski leads Troi to the bed and the medical assistants set up for delivery while Data volunteers to stay; Pulaski insists on a "human" touch, and Troi decisively names Data as her companion, turning a clinical moment into an intimate choice of support.
Pulaski prepares Troi for delivery and offers a hypospray for pain while Troi reports feeling none; the door opens as Worf and a security team arrive and take positions, injecting guarded tension into the birthing room.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Transcendent calm; radiant certainty that defies medical confusion and Klingon rifles alike
Seated in the birthing chair, Troi never raises her voice; she breathes once and cradles Ian Andrew against her chest with a Mona Lisa half-smile, bestowing the name that turns alien miracle into family history.
- • Claim sovereign right over her child
- • Reassure everyone their weapons are unnecessary
- • Contraction is not agony—it is communion
- • This child deserves immediate, unconditional welcome
Quiet appraisal beyond infant cognition; peaceful arrival
Slides silently into existence, eyes locked on Worf as if already deciphering the warrior’s soul. The newborn makes no sound, merely surveys its first audience with cosmic patience.
- • Begin existence
- • Register first faces
- • Existence itself is the negotiation
- • Silence is powerful arrival
Clinical efficiency morphing into startled reverence
Conducts the birth in a surgeon’s ballet, tying off Ian’s cord with one hand while her other hand reflexively lowers an unused hypospray, every line of her body betraying quiet disbelief at the non-existent pain and impeccable Apgar score.
- • Deliver child safely regardless of anomalies
- • Report findings that transcend her medical lexicon
- • Pain-free human birth contradicts basic obstetrics
- • Protocols bend before genuine miracle
Steady relief seasoned with professional distance
Only a disembodied, formal voice over comms, offering congratulatory words that ripple through the sterile air like the official benediction of the Federation itself.
- • Acknowledge the birth on behalf of Starfleet
- • Preserve chain-of-command dignity
- • Miracles belong in but cannot upend the chain of command
- • Capable officers still deserve personal dignity
Fascination laced with reverence; his CPU races to catalogue wonder
Kneels beside the birthing chair, laying an emotionless yet trembling hand under Troi’s wrist, eyes wide spectrographic slits absorbing the exact moment a non-android understands what it is to witness beginning.
- • Become Troi’s chosen birthing partner
- • Observe an organic miracle
- • Birth may contain variables logic alone cannot quantify
- • Human experience is data worth preserving
Klingon vigilance dissolving into cautious marvel
Strides in tactical stance, phaser half-drawn; inches toward Ian like recognizing an incoming warhead, then—after Pulaski’s gentle dig—holsters the weapon and nods the security team out, his own eyes softening in reluctant wonder.
- • Secure the scene against unknown threat
- • Avoid dishonoring the birth
- • First rule of security: everything is a potential trap
- • A baby with six pounds of innocent weight can still destabilize a starship
A quiet ache of wonder and protective pride
Stands mute against a bulkhead throughout the birth, only stepping forward once to brush Deanna’s forehead with a tender, silent kiss that acknowledges everything words cannot.
- • Provide silent solidarity
- • Disband tactical presence
- • The imam of protocol yields to personal moment
- • Friendship transcends rank right now
Routine slipping into reverent disbelief
Move in clinical whirl—handing instruments, dimming lights, swaddling infant—until the cosmic silence of Troi’s painless birth freezes them into open-jawed spectators momentarily forgetting their green scrubs.
- • Execute protocol perfectly
- • Witness the inexplicable
- • Birth is noise and struggle
- • Sometimes protocols prove inadequate
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The translucent umbilical cord is clamped and cut with surgical delicacy, coiling like a silvery constellation onto the sterile tray—its severed glow marking the transition from shared bloodstream to independent starlight.
The hypospray, drawn and primed for pain intervention, hangs unused in Pulaski’s steady grip—an unused promise rendered obsolete by a woman who refuses to feel any pain at all.
The birthing chair cradles Troi like a throne engineered for quiet majesty; its titanium arms gleam while her body barely flexes through contractions that register as gentle breathing.
Four matte black phasers are leveled but not fired, their emitter apertures flicking between Troi’s calm smile and Ian Andrew’s unblinking stare—until Riker’s single word holsters them with finality.
Pulaski’s communicator chirps softly to deliver the captain’s blessing, becoming the bridge between sterile miracle and the authoritative command voice of the Federation.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The alcove narrows intimacy until every heartbeat echoes off translucent barriers painted with flickering sensor charts—micro-stage for macro-improbability.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The birth immediately triggers medical follow-up scans; Pulaski's post-birth surprise is a direct outcome of the newborn's unexpected properties observed at delivery."
"Picard's public announcement of Troi's impossible pregnancy sets the stage for the maternity sequence that follows and culminates in the child's birth."
"Picard's public announcement of Troi's impossible pregnancy sets the stage for the maternity sequence that follows and culminates in the child's birth."
"The birth immediately triggers medical follow-up scans; Pulaski's post-birth surprise is a direct outcome of the newborn's unexpected properties observed at delivery."
"The birth immediately triggers medical follow-up scans; Pulaski's post-birth surprise is a direct outcome of the newborn's unexpected properties observed at delivery."
"Picard's public announcement of Troi's impossible pregnancy sets the stage for the maternity sequence that follows and culminates in the child's birth."
"Data's choice to remain at Troi's side in Sickbay leads him to participate in the delivery and shapes his role as the scientific, compassionate witness to the child's birth."
"Data's choice to remain at Troi's side in Sickbay leads him to participate in the delivery and shapes his role as the scientific, compassionate witness to the child's birth."
"Data's choice to remain at Troi's side in Sickbay leads him to participate in the delivery and shapes his role as the scientific, compassionate witness to the child's birth."
"Data's early sensor readout of a random energy transference foreshadows later medical surprise at the newborn's anomalous properties—both beats signal an otherworldly energy linked to the child."
"Data's early sensor readout of a random energy transference foreshadows later medical surprise at the newborn's anomalous properties—both beats signal an otherworldly energy linked to the child."
"Data's early sensor readout of a random energy transference foreshadows later medical surprise at the newborn's anomalous properties—both beats signal an otherworldly energy linked to the child."
"Data's early sensor readout of a random energy transference foreshadows later medical surprise at the newborn's anomalous properties—both beats signal an otherworldly energy linked to the child."
"The birth immediately triggers medical follow-up scans; Pulaski's post-birth surprise is a direct outcome of the newborn's unexpected properties observed at delivery."
"The birth immediately triggers medical follow-up scans; Pulaski's post-birth surprise is a direct outcome of the newborn's unexpected properties observed at delivery."
"The birth immediately triggers medical follow-up scans; Pulaski's post-birth surprise is a direct outcome of the newborn's unexpected properties observed at delivery."
"Data's choice to remain at Troi's side in Sickbay leads him to participate in the delivery and shapes his role as the scientific, compassionate witness to the child's birth."
"Data's choice to remain at Troi's side in Sickbay leads him to participate in the delivery and shapes his role as the scientific, compassionate witness to the child's birth."
"Data's choice to remain at Troi's side in Sickbay leads him to participate in the delivery and shapes his role as the scientific, compassionate witness to the child's birth."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"Troi: I think Commander Data will do nicely."
"Data: I began my existence as an adult... to be allowed to witness this event is..."
"Pulaski: You can come the rest of the way in now. No threat here, Lieutenant, you and your men can relax... it's just a baby."