Object
Imagined Twenty-Piece Orchestra (Hypothetical)
A purely verbal, twenty-piece orchestral image — strings, a small brass section, woodwinds and percussion — conjured by a crew member as a rhetorical soundscape. No instruments or musicians appear; the crew reacts with tight smiles, raised brows or stilted silence when the image is invoked, treating it as an ironic, unreal soundtrack that punctuates the ship’s collapsed certainties.
1 appearances
Purpose
To function as an imagined musical accompaniment invoked in speech: a metaphoric auditory backdrop used to punctuate sarcasm, measure ceremonial pageantry, and shape the tone of tense conversational moments on the bridge.
Significance
Operates as a rhetorical prop that deflates ceremonial pretense and sharpens the contrast between formal ritual and the ship’s immediate crisis; it channels crew responses (mockery, disbelief, emotional strain) and intensifies the moral and command-versus-counsel stakes during the Q-induced displacement.
Appearances in the Narrative
When this object appears and how it's used