Object

Klingon Cultural Database

A shipboard digital repository of Klingon traditions and rites, rendered as searchable entries and ritual schematics accessible from engineering terminals. Wesley pulls up terse cultural entries that list the Age of Ascension rites, the painful ‘painstiks’ implement, and the requirement that a warrior have kin present; Data reads aloud the database’s clinical definitions while Geordi reacts with stunned disbelief. The dataset appears as compact text, diagrams and procedural notes rather than ornate imagery, and it functions as a cold, factual bridge between Klingon ceremony and Starfleet pragmatism.

3 appearances

Purpose

To store and provide authoritative cultural reference material about Klingon rituals, rites of passage, and social requirements so ship personnel can identify, interpret, and respond to Klingon cultural needs.

Significance

The database supplies the key cultural facts that convert a technical emergency into an ethical and emotional imperative: it reveals why Worf is incapacitated, names the painful implements and requirements of his Ascension, and forces the crew to adopt a nontechnical solution (recreating the ritual), thereby catalyzing the episode’s chosen-family themes.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

3 moments

S2E14 · The Icarus Factor

Chosen Family: Worf's Ascension Crisis

The Klingon Cultural Database is queried by Wesley to identify the cause of Worf's distress. It supplies the crucial fact — the tenth anniversary of the Age of Ascension — and procedural details (e.g., family presence) that directly inform the proposed Holodeck simulation and crew response.

Before: Stored and accessible within the ship's cultural repositories; not actively consulted in the engineering diagnostic.

After: Accessed and cited as a primary source; its entries become the operational basis for programming the Holodeck solution.

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S2E14 · The Icarus Factor

We Will Be His Family

Wesley consults the Klingon Cultural Database to diagnose Worf's behavior; the database provides the factual trigger (tenth anniversary, need for family) that converts a technical anomaly into a cultural emergency and supplies the parameters for any simulation.

Before: Accessible in the ship's information network; dormant until queried by Wesley.

After: Queried and referenced as authoritative source material to be used for programming a Holodeck simulation.

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S2E14 · The Icarus Factor

Preparing Worf's Ascension: The Painstiks Revealed

The Klingon Cultural Database is actively consulted and read aloud by Wesley; it supplies the specific language and ritual mechanics (including the term 'painstiks') that convert an abstract cultural observance into an immediate, bodily cost the crew must register and emotionally process.

Before: Accessible on Geordi's console and ready for query; intact and authoritative as a reference.

After: Still present and accessible on the console, but its contents have been internalized by the participants and spurred moral deliberation.

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