Kim: We shouldn't be here.
Tal: Don't worry. Nobody saw us leave. (She removes his comm, badge.(
Kim: Hey, I need that. What if somebody tries to call?
Tal: Shush.
Kim: What was that?
Tal: Don't worry. Come here.
Janeway: Captain's log, supplemental. After two weeks we're close to repairing the Varro's warp drive. Then there's the Varro crew. I'm starting to think they'd rather give up warp travel than accept help from strangers.
Jippeq: I thought we agreed Central Control would be off limits.
Janeway: We did, but I need to access your warp assembly.
Jippeq: That technology's classified.
Janeway: We have to reconfigure the assembly if we're going to finish this job.
Jippeq: Then consider it finished.
Janeway: We've come this far.
Jippeq: You've turned our ship upside down for two weeks, and I've yet to see any results.
Janeway: You might check the antimatter injectors.
Jippeq: Back online.
Janeway: All you need now is a jolt of antimatter from Voyager's engines and you'll be back in business, but I need access to your warp assembly. You know, I can understand why you're distrustful of other species. Frankly, we've had a rough time in the Delta Quadrant ourselves. But our two species have made remarkable progress working together to repair your engines. We've come a long way since you ignored our opening hails. Let's not throw all that away.
Jippeq: I'll admit we do share some things in common.
Janeway: We're both on long journeys, looking for allies. In many ways, we're like cousins.
Jippeq: Cousins?
Janeway: Well, distant cousins. Think about it. Four hundred years ago you started out the same way we did, a single starship, a small crew, facing the unknown. And now, centuries later, you've grown into a generational ship with a history and culture all your own. When I look at your vessel, I can't help but wonder if I'm seeing Voyager's future. Our journey could easily last several generations. So, what do you say, cousin?
Jippeq: You can access the warp assembly from here.
Janeway: Thank you.
Janeway: Status?
Torres: The plasma couplings are online. We're ready for the antimatter transfer.
Janeway: Then let's get started. Janeway to
Janeway: Voyager. Status.
Chakotay: Ready here, Captain.
Janeway: Initiate the transfer.
Jippeq: Warp reactors one through fourteen are coming online. It's working.
Janeway: Keep your fingers crossed. For luck.
Tal: If you're planning on leaving through the viewport, you might want to get dressed. The interstellar vacuum might get a little chilly.
Kim: What? Oh, funny.
Tal: Come back to bed.
Kim: I can't sleep.
Tal: Cuddle.
Kim: I can't cuddle.
Tal: I told you we're not going to get caught. If someone had seen us, they would've reported it by now.
Kim: I'm violating about half a dozen regulations by just being in this room. And what we did earlier? I don't know if Starfleet even has a regulation for that.
Tal: What are you saying? Making love is a crime in your culture?
Kim: Yes! No. What I'm saying is, it's a breach of protocol.
Tal: How romantic.
Kim: The Captain instructed all away teams. No personal interaction with the Varro crew. I violated a direct order.
Tal: Come back to bed. That's an order.
Tal: Are all humans so jumpy?
Kim: No, only me.
Kim: The warp engines. They've started the plasma transfer. We've got to get down there. We're late. What are you waiting for?
Tal: To see what you look like in my uniform.
Kim: You don't understand. If I'm not at my post.
Tal: You'll be executed?
Kim: Funny. We'd better go in separately.
Torres: Impressive.
Paris: Just trying to orchestrate the antimatter flow.
Torres: You should try some Chopin when you're done. Look who showed up for the final movement.
Kim: Excuse me?
Paris: Just a little late for the joke, as well as the job.
Kim: I was checking the manifolds in segment twenty two.
Jippeq: Warp reaction's destabilizing. Tal?
Tal: I can't find the problem.
Janeway: We're less than a minute away from multiple core breaches. Abort the transfer.
Jippeq: So much for finger crossing.
Janeway: B'Elanna?
Torres: I'm reading microfractures all over the hull.
Jippeq: Why couldn't we detect that before?
Janeway: Good question. We'll have to check the hulls in each of your vessel's segments.
Jippeq: But that'll take days.
Janeway: The sooner we start, the sooner we finish.
Paris: Friendly people.
Kim: They've had a lot of bad experiences with other species.
Paris: Well, I don't know. It seems like your first contact went pretty well.
Kim: What's that supposed to mean?
Paris: I was just wondering where you disappeared to today.
Kim: I told you. I was checking the plasma conduits
Paris: In segment twenty two, I know. They must have sonic showers over there. You're a lot cleaner than you were when you left. You are such a lousy liar. Haven't you learned anything from me after five years? She's cute.
Kim: Who.
Paris: That assistant engineer, Tal.
Kim: Cute enough.
Paris: Oh, here we go again.
Kim: What?
Paris: You, going after impossible women. A hologram, an ex-Borg, the wrong twin, and now a girl from a xenophobic species?
Kim: You're right. You're absolutely right. I'm putting her out of my mind, I promise.
Paris: Good. Glad to hear it. I'm due back on the bridge.
Kim: See you in the morning.
Kim: Computer, open a channel to Varro ship, segment sixteen, station two oh four. Encode transmission with security code alpha seven.
Computer: Channel open.
Tal: What took you so long? I've been waiting twenty two minutes for you to call.
Kim: I was testing myself. Seeing how long I could resist calling you.
Tal: And?
Kim: I lasted twenty two minutes.
Tal: Should I feel complimented or insulted?
Kim: Since this is the first chance I've had to open a comm. link, complimented.
Tal: So you liked what happened?
Kim: Yeah, a lot.
Tal: Enough to try it again?
Kim: Absolutely. I've got to be honest, I wasn't expecting something so different.
Tal: Neither was I. Our species look so similar. Well, at least on the surface.
Kim: I would've never guessed when it came down to the basics. Well, let's just say the birds and bees would be very confused.
Tal: The birds and bees?
Paris: I'm telling you, you should take a look at their database. They've got some pretty amazing stuff on that ship.
Tuvok: Stuff?
Paris: Their environmental control system, for instance. It's completely regenerative. Zero waste.
Tuvok: Impressive.
Paris: It can be programmed to create almost any habitat. If you wanted to, you could recreate Vulcan in your quarters with that system.
Tuvok: Why would I want to?
Paris: A little taste of home in the Delta Quadrant? Think about it. Springtime on the shores of Lake Yaron.
Tuvok: I require a desk and a bed. Nothing more.
Paris: You're missing the point.
Tuvok: No doubt.
Paris: These people have been traveling for four hundred years. They've learned a thing or two about living comfortably.
Tuvok: Our systems are more than adequate.
Paris: Oh, I give up.
Chakotay: After only two minutes? Tuvok, how do you do it?
Tuvok: I wait until his own illogic overwhelms him. I'm detecting an unauthorized transmission.
Chakotay: Origin?
Tuvok: Unknown. It's been encoded.
Chakotay: Find out where it's going.
Kim: Where would you most like to be right now?
Tal: Besides your quarters?
Kim: Besides my quarters.
Tal: On a distant moon, where the air is warm and the gravity is light. No bulkheads around me. Where, if I walk too quickly, I can almost fly.
Kim: I like that.
Tal: What about you? Where would you most want to be right now?
Kim: Besides your cabin?
Tal: Besides my cabin.
Kim: Sorry, I can't come up with anything better than your cabin.
Tal: And what would you do if you were here?
Kim: Now?
Tal: This very moment.
Kim: I'd ask you to dim the lights.
Tal: And what if I said no?
Kim: Okay, so we leave the lights on.
Tuvok: The message is being sent to the Varro ship, segment sixteen.
Chakotay: Living quarters.
Paris: Er, Commander? I think I can track that down for you. Hold on, something's wrong. I'm losing the signal.
Kim: Tal?
Tuvok: The transmission has ended.
Paris: If it was a transmission. It could have just been a glitch in the comm. system.
Chakotay: Run a diagnostic.
Chakotay: Finding the source of these structural problems isn't going to be easy. They've already scanned most of their ship and come up empty. I'm hoping we'll do a better job.
Tuvok: We should form smaller teams to maximize efficiency.
Chakotay: Agreed. We'll work in pairs. Now, what I'd like to do is start with their reactor bay, where we first detected the problem.
Paris: You owe me.
Kim: What?
Paris: Eyes front. Last night I had to sabotage the comm. system to cover your tracks. You called her, didn't you?
Kim: Guilty.
Paris: How long has this been going on? The truth.
Kim: From the moment we first saw each other. It was like touching an open plasma relay.
Paris: Sounds serious.
Kim: Maybe it is.
Paris: Has it occurred to you that you're breaking a few dozen protocols?
Kim: We know what we're getting into.
Chakotay: Dismissed.
Paris: Do you?
Seven: Our duty assignment. We're to survey the generational ship from Astrometrics.
Seven: Team alpha and gamma have finished scanning sections one through sixty four.
Kim: Kind of puts a Borg cube to shame, doesn't it?
Seven: The vessel's technology is impressive, but its construction is haphazard.
Kim: I guess they sort of improvised as they went along. Seven, you've been around humans for a while now. What do you think about love?
Seven: We're scanning for microfractures. I don't see the relevance.
Kim: Just curious.
Seven: Parental love, romantic love, affection between friends. Specify.
Kim: Romantic love.
Seven: An attraction based on sexual desire when it facilitates procreation.
Kim: I guess I'm asking the wrong person.
Seven: Not at all. The Borg have referenced this condition in over six thousand assimilated species.
Kim: Condition? You make it sound like a disease.
Seven: Physiologically, it bears a striking similarity to disease. A series of biochemical responses that trigger an emotional cascade impairing normal functioning.
Kim: Forget it.
Seven: Are you in love, Ensign?
Kim: I guess that's what I've been asking myself.
Seven: You're glowing.
Kim: I beg your pardon?
Seven: Your epidermis luminesced.
Kim: Oh, it must be the lighting in here.
Seven: No, it was you.
Seven: You should report to Sickbay.
Kim: It's nothing.
Seven: You must comply.
Emh: Lie still.
Kim: I feel fine.
Emh: No doubt you're feeling wonderful. Your beta endorphins are abnormally elevated.
Kim: Really?
Emh: You've been spending a lot of time on the generational ship. Do you recall coming into contact with any toxins? Antimatter radiation?
Kim: No.
Emh: Maybe something in one of their medical bays. A biological agent?
Kim: No.
Emh: Did you consume any of their cuisine?
Kim: No.
Seven: Doctor, there is unusual synaptic activity in his cerebral cortex.
Kim: No kidding.
Emh: This could be the work of an alien virus. We'll have to initiate full quarantine protocols. Inform the Captain and request a bio-alert.
Kim: Wait! There's no need for that. I can explain.
Emh: I'm listening.
Kim: Could you give us some privacy?
Seven: If there is the possibility of an epidemic the Doctor may require my assistance.
Kim: There isn't and he won't. Please.
Kim: Last night I had an encounter with one of the Varro.
Emh: Encounter?
Kim: A personal encounter.
Emh: Specifically?
Kim: Sex. We had sex.
Emh: You had intimate contact with an alien species without medical clearance?
Kim: It was in the heat of the moment. I didn't think anything like this would happen.
Emh: Correction. If you'd been thinking, you would have considered the risks and exercised restraint. Sit down. You'll need a full biomedical workup and your friend will have to come in as well.
Kim: Do we have to drag her into this?
Emh: It is my medical responsibility. Which, I'm sorry to say, also requires me to report this to the Captain.
Janeway: I expected more from you.
Kim: I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking.
Janeway: Don't you? I've seen Tal. She's an impressive young woman, beautiful. But that's no excuse to ignore your obligations as a Starfleet officer.
Kim: Yes, ma'am.
Janeway: There's a reason you took a semester of interspecies protocol at the Academy. There's also a reason why the Handbook on Personal Relationships is three centimeters thick.
Kim: All Starfleet personnel must obtain authorisation from their C.O. as well as clearance from their Medical Officer before initiating an intimate relationship with an alien species.
Janeway: Bravo. Unfortunately, your recitation comes a little late. According to the Doctor, your condition isn't life-threatening. There's no reason to confine you to Sickbay. Nut I do agree with his recommendation to run full bioscans on both you and Tal. And her people need to be told so they can evaluate any bio-threat you might have introduced into their population. We're trying to help these people, Ensign, earn their trust. I was even hoping they might return the favor, share their technology, their insights into long-term space travel. But your little escapade put that in jeopardy.
Kim: Permission to speak freely? With all due respect, this wasn't a fling. I've really gotten to know Tal, and I've developed true feelings for her.
Janeway: Noted. But there are regulations, and you've broken them. I'm entering a formal reprimand into your record, and I'm ordering you to break off this relationship. Do you understand?
Kim: Yes, ma'am.
Janeway: Dismissed.
Neelix: Commander, I wanted to share a few security concerns. A few days ago I noticed some mess hall supplies had disappeared. Liquid nutriments, emergency rations. Nothing to warrant a red alert, but I took the liberty of investigating on my own. Take a look at this.
Tuvok: Unauthorized use of the mess hall replicator is hardly a felony.
Neelix: It wasn't just unauthorized. Someone accessed the ship's environmental controls from that station.
Tuvok: Life support was routed to Jefferies tube G thirty three, deck fifteen.
Neelix: Isn't that section normally uninhabited?
Tuvok: Whoever did this encoded the procedure so it wouldn't be detected.
Tuvok: It appears we have intruders.
Neelix: It looks like a Varro scanning device.
Tuvok: Breathable oxygen is confined to this chamber and the area immediately behind this hatch. Stand back.
Tal: Come in.
Kim: Work?
Tal: No, I'm just tormenting myself with what ifs. What if I actually had the chance to see that pulsar field? Go there instead of just squinting at it through long range sensors.
Kim: Too far off your course, huh?
Tal: Too close to an inhabited planet. They might make contact with us. It's too dangerous. It's always the same thing. The mighty generational ship. All we do is run away from anything that's different. But that's going to change.
Kim: I'm afraid I've got some bad news. I er, I can't see you anymore. Captain's orders.
Tal: How did she find out?
Kim: Something happened to me this morning. I had a strange sensation and then my skin luminesced, just like last night.
Tal: That shouldn't have happened. Our species are too dissimilar.
Kim: What shouldn't have happened?
Tal: We call it Olan'vora, the shared heart, when two of us merge. You know the biological connection we had last night? It becomes stronger. It won't hurt you, Harry, but it will change you. It'll change both of us. Bring us closer.
Kim: So can this process be reversed?
Tal: In time, if we stay away from each other. But if we don't, the more we're together, the harder it will be to stop it. But then, you have your orders.
Kim: Orders. It's an old story. Boy meets girl from the wrong side of the galaxy. Boy loses girl.
Tal: And girl loses boy.
Kim: It's not like we didn't know this was going to end.
Tal: At least we had two weeks.
Kim: Two great weeks.
Tal: Goodbye, Harry.
Kim: Bye. Are you really going to let me leave?
Tal: If that's what you want.
Kim: It's not.
Chakotay: Welcome aboard. Normally we like to know something about our guests before we invite them to join us. Care to tell us how you got here?
Stowaway: Through a docking port.
Tuvok: Your entry would have triggered an intruder alert.
Stowaway: Your technology's easy to circumvent. It doesn't matter how I got here. I'm not going back.
Chakotay: That remains to be seen. You haven't explained your reasons for leaving the generational ship.
Stowaway: I'm not a criminal, if that's what you think. If you leave me at the next inhabited system, I'll manage from there.
Chakotay: Your next stop is the Brig, unless you answer my questions.
Stowaway: I came aboard four days ago with one of the work details.
Chakotay: Why?
Stowaway: Our ship's not the paradise our leaders make it out to be. There are thousands of us who feel like prisoners, and others who
Tuvok: Continue.
Stowaway: There are rumors of a movement. People who want to leave the ship. Some of them are willing to take violent action.
Tuvok: Can you be more specific?
Stowaway: This is a trick.
Tuvok: A trick?
Stowaway: You're trying to get me to expose the movement. Our leaders put you up to this.
Tuvok: On the contrary. We haven't even told them we've found you.
Stowaway: You're lying.
Chakotay: I don't have time for a debate. You asked for asylum. Fine, I'll consider it. But only if you answer my questions. What movement? Contact the Varro authorities. Let them know we've found one of their people, then take him to the Brig.
Stowaway: You can tell the authorities that I'm not the only one. There are hundreds more like me.
Chakotay: Do we know anything about this supposed uprising?
Janeway: Jippeq said the rumors are just that, rumors. But he's questioning our stowaway, just to be certain. New protocols for working with the Varro. After the incident with Ensign Kim, they insisted we keep our crews segregated.
Chakotay: That's pretty severe.
Janeway: Harry violated protocol. Frankly, I understand their position.
Chakotay: Is that why you came down so hard on him? A formal reprimand for being intimate with a young woman?
Janeway: I know it seems a little extreme, but I wanted to leave a lasting impression. Chalk it up to growing pains.
Chakotay: Well, he looks pained, all right. Until now he's had a spotless record. Maybe you should reconsider.
Janeway: What are you implying?
Chakotay: Are you angry because Harry disobeyed orders, or because he let you down.
Janeway: I set the same standards for all my officers.
Chakotay: If I object to one of your decisions you'll hear me out, even insist I speak up.
Janeway: You're my First Officer, he's an Ensign. He hasn't earned the right to question my orders, whatever his personal views.
Chakotay: I see.
Torres: Engineering to the Captain.
Janeway: Yes?
Torres: We've found something.
Janeway: On my way.
Jippeq: Do your officers make a habit of seducing the species they encounter?
Janeway: Certainly not. But it's my understanding this relationship was consensual.
Jippeq: I find that difficult to believe. We don't share your cavalier attitude toward intimacy.
Janeway: Our attitude is anything but cavalier. Ensign Kim has already been reprimanded. What about Tal? What happens to her?
Jippeq: In our society, mating is taken very seriously. When two people chose each other the bonding is permanent. They become biochemically linked. Separation is rare. It induces illness, sometimes fatal. What's to become of Tal when your Ensign flies off in search of his next conquest?
Torres: Captain.
Janeway: You found something?
Torres: We've detected microfractures in one of Voyager's docking ports.
Jippeq: Microfractures? That's the same problem we've been having.
Janeway: A coincidence?
Torres: I had suspicions that it wasn't. Seven confirmed them.
Seven: Observe. Silicon-based parasites which feed on duranium alloys. Apparently they began replicating on the Varro ship's hull several months ago, and then migrated to Voyager.
Torres: We analyzed them and found artificial gene sequences. The parasites are synthetic.
Seven: They may have been created by someone aboard your vessel.
Jippeq: Sabotage? I don't believe it.
Seven: Perhaps not everyone is content to be in your Collective.
Kim: Tal, are you there?
Tal: Harry?
Kim: I can't keep this comm. link open. Where are you?
Tal: By my computer.
Kim: Okay. Get ready for a ride, I'm locking on.
Tal: A ride?
Tal: Where are we?
Kim: A shuttlecraft.
Tal: A shuttlecraft?
Kim: A short range vessel. We use it for away mission.
Tal: We can go anywhere we want?
Kim: Anywhere. For a while, anyway. I'm not due back on Voyager until nineteen hundred hours. They think I'm still out repairing a hull fracture. I finished early.
Tal: You're a fugitive now. How many protocols did you break this time? Let's see. Unauthorized use of a shuttlecraft, kidnapping.
Kim: Direct violation of the Captain's orders. I must be crazy.
Tal: I like you crazy. Navigation?
Kim: Careful, that's the weapons array. You know you almost vaporized your living quarters.
Tal: Well, they could use a good cleaning. Let's go somewhere.
Kim: Where?
Tal: There's a nebula about three hundred thousand kilometers from here. I've been watching it on the sensors for the past few days. Oh, I would love to see it with my own eyes.
Kim: Have a seat.
Tal: Look at this. A subspace vacuole near the center of the cloud. It must act as a gravitational anchor. There's so much data here it'll take weeks to analyze. Do you have a storage device? We need to download these reading. What?
Kim: I've just never seen anyone so excited about a class three nebula before.
Tal: Maybe you've been taking them for granted.
Kim: Maybe I have. Don't stop. You're beautiful when you're scanning.
Tal: Is that what you say to every girl you take for a ride? I bet you've left a trail of broken hearts across the Delta Quadrant.
Kim: Actually
Tal: Problem?
Kim: Stray radiation from the nebula. I thought it was the proximity alarm.
Tal: You said we had a couple of hours. No one's going to come looking for us.
Kim: Oh, you don't know Commander Tuvok. If he sees one electron out of place he calls for red alert. Here we are alone and all I can think about is duty and orders.
Tal: Those things are important. I think about them, too. But sometimes you need to follow a different kind of protocol. If you believe in something strongly enough, you can't ignore it, even if it means breaking a few rules.
Kim: That's why I took this shuttle. But every time I break a rule, I feel like my skull is going to decompress. I'm like some kind of Borg drone. Programmed. Except I was designed to be the perfect Starfleet officer. Top of his class, Captain of the Velocity team. Interstellar honors. First field assignment, bridge officer on a starship. Every cadet's dream come true.
Tal: You're not a program. In fact, I envy your freedom. I mean, your crew's mission to seek out life. What could be more liberating? You explore the unknown. Don't be afraid to explore what's happening between us.
Kim: Oh no, the Delta Flyer.
Tal: Commander Tuvok?
Kim: We're being hailed.
Tal: Well, you'd better answer them before they open fire.
Kim: Kim here.
Tuvok: Ensign, you are in direct violation of the Captain's orders. Return to Voyager immediately, and bring Derran Tal with you.
Kim: Yes sir, but why bring Tal?
Tuvok: She's wanted by the Varro authorities regarding an act of sabotage.
Jippeq: There's no point in lying. We found a schematic for the parasite on your personal database. You realize this could destroy our ship, our home?
Tal: To some of us it's more like a prison.
Jippeq: So you've resorted to sabotage, no doubt involving him.
Tuvok: Mister Kim's complicity remains to be proven.
Tal: He had nothing to do with our movement.
Jippeq: Movement?
Tal: Tell them.
Jippeq: It's none of their concern.
Janeway: If you want our help, you'll need to explain.
Jippeq: She's referring to a small group of dissidents.
Tal: It's not a small group. There are hundreds of us.
Janeway: What are you trying to achieve?
Tal: Our freedom. The right to live where we choose, to go where we choose.
Tuvok: How will you accomplish that if your vessel is destroyed?
Tal: We're not trying to destroy it. We're trying to dismantle it. The parasites weren't placed randomly. They're targeting the linkages between segments. Each segment will become its own ship. People can decide whether to go or stay.
Jippeq: You're destroying the work of every generation that came before you. Our ship isn't just a collection of modules, it's an expression of unity, tradition. For the sake of our history we must respect the rights of
Tal: Of the majority.
Jippeq: Yes.
Tal: What about the rights of the minority?
Janeway: Tal, if those segments come apart there could be decompressive explosions, most likely casualties. Is that what you want? You know more about the parasites than we do. You could help us.
Jippeq: Captain, she's a criminal.
Janeway: And maybe your only chance of stopping a catastrophe. Set up a datalink with Voyager. We'll do what we can from our end.
Kim: Tal?
Tal: I'll help you slow down the parasites so you can evacuate the segments in danger. Nothing more.
Jippeq: Let's get started.
Kim: Captain.
Janeway: Stow it, Ensign. Right now the only thing standing between you and the Brig is this report. The Doctor's bioscans confirm that you and Tal have developed some sort of biochemical bond. Clearly it's affected your behavior, so I have to assume that's why you disobeyed my orders. Report to Sickbay. You'll be confined there until this is over.
Kim: Captain!
Janeway: I told you to report for treatment.
Kim: I don't want treatment!
Janeway: In my ready room.
Janeway: You've got thirty seconds before I have Tuvok drag you to Sickbay.
Kim: Captain, I am not sick. I didn't disobey your orders because I'm under some alien influence. I disobeyed your orders because Tal and I are in love, and it's not right for you to keep us apart!
Janeway: Listen to yourself. You don't sound anything like the Harry Kim I know.
Kim: Good. I have served on this ship for five years and said, yes, ma'am to every one of your orders. But not this time.
Janeway: You're willing to risk your rank, your career, over this?
Kim: Have you ever been in love, Captain?
Janeway: Your point?
Kim: Did your skin ever flush when you were near another person? Did your stomach ever feel like someone hollowed it out with a knife when you were apart? Did your throat ever swell when you realized it was over? Seven of Nine, Seven of Nine told me love's like a disease. Well, maybe it is. Pheromones, endorphins, chemicals in our blood, changing our responses, physical discomfort, but any way you look at it, it's still love.
Janeway: For the sake of argument, let's say you're right. Your feelings for Tal are no different than mine for what, the man I was engaged to marry? Well, I lost him and you're going to lose Tal. You know that. What the Doctor is offering you is a way to ease the pain.
Kim: That man you were going to marry. If you could have just taken a hypospray to make yourself stop loving him, so that it didn't hurt so much when you were away from him, would you have done that?
Chakotay: Captain to the bridge.
Chakotay: We're detecting structural breaches on the Varro ship.
Janeway: Take your station.
Tuvok: Their shields are weakening.
Kim: One of the junctions is about to decompress.
Janeway: On screen. Mister Paris, release the docking clamps. Back us away.
Paris: Docking controls are offline. I can't break us free.
Tuvok: Their shields are continuing to weaken. The superstructure will collapse in less than three minutes.
Chakotay: If that happens while we're still docked
Janeway: Keep trying to break free. Janeway to
Janeway: Varro control room. What's your status?
Jippeq: Tal was able to slow the parasites' growth with a polaron surge, but the junctions are still destabilizing.
Janeway: How much longer until you've evacuated the affected areas?
Tal: We need another two minutes at least.
Paris: I've got the docking controls back online.
Chakotay: Initiate decompression sequence.
Kim: Wait. If we stay where we are, and extend Voyager's structural integrity field around the Varro ship, we could buy them another minute or two. They could finish the evacuation.
Tuvok: However, if an explosion occurs while both ships are inside the field, neither vessel will survive.
Kim: We can do it, Captain.
Janeway: Keep us where we are. Janeway to Engineering.
Torres: Torres here.
Janeway: Divert all available power to the integrity field, and extend it around the Varro ship.
Torres: Understood.
Tal: Voyager's reinforcing our shields. Surprising, isn't it? A ship of outsiders risking their lives to save ours.
Jippeq: They're unusual people.
Tal: Well, maybe the galaxy isn't as hostile as you think. All junctions are clear. What are you waiting for? Tell Voyager to move away.
Jippeq: I'm initiating another polaron surge. We can destroy these parasites.
Tal: It's too late. You'll only destroy Voyager along with our ship. Let them go. Let us go.
Tal: Tal to Voyager.
Tal: The evacuation's complete. Disengage your structural field and move to a safe distance.
Paris: Releasing docking clamps.
Janeway: Captain's log, supplemental. Most of the Varro have opted to stay together, traveling in separate ships, but the dissident group has been granted permission to break away and find their own path. We wish them luck.
Tal: Come in.
Tal: I wasn't sure I'd see you again.
Kim: The Captain gave me permission to say goodbye.
Tal: How are you feeling?
Kim: Lovesick.
Tal: Me, too.
Kim: Will you manage?
Tal: We have medications. I'll recover eventually.
Kim: So, where are you going?
Tal: The Natori system. A pair of binary stars caught in each other's gravity. We passed within a parsec three months ago. Now we're going back for a real look.
Kim: Do me one favor.
Tal: Anything.
Kim: Next time you run across a class three nebula, think of me.
Emh: Chronic sleep loss, acute gastroenteritis. You must feel awful, yet you're still refusing treatment?
Emh: Captain, just the person I wanted to see. This nonsense has gone on long enough. Order Mister Kim to take his medicine.
Janeway: Is his condition fatal?
Emh: That's hardly the point.
Janeway: Will he recover without taking his medicine?
Emh: Yes, but it could take weeks, even months.
Janeway: Well then, if Mister Kim wants to suffer.
Emh: Sometimes I think everyone on this ship has been possessed by alien hormones.
Janeway: Would you excuse us, please?
Kim: Thank you.
Janeway: Oh, don't thank me. I have no intention of relieving you of your duties, no matter how lousy you feel.
Kim: I understand.
Janeway: And the reprimand still stands. I've been thinking about how I reacted to your relationship with Tal.
Kim: You reacted like any Captain would.
Janeway: Probably. But I can't help wondering if my response would have been the same if it had been, say, Tom Paris instead of you. Oh don't get me wrong, I still would have been angry and disappointed, but I wouldn't have been surprised.
Kim: Because Ensign Kim doesn't break the rules.
Janeway: The truth is, Harry, I think about you differently than the rest of the crew. Which isn't to suggest that I don't care deeply about each of them. You came to me fresh out of the Academy, wide-eyed with excitement about your first deep space assignment. From that first day, I've always felt more protective of you than the others.
Kim: I appreciate that. But that was five years ago. I've changed.
Janeway: Yes, you have.
Kim: Maybe I'm not the perfect officer anymore.
Janeway: Maybe not. But you're a better man.
Neelix: Last call. There's a bowl of soup in storage and I left the replicator online.
Kim: Thanks.
Neelix: Good night.
Neelix: Oh, I was just closing up for the evening, but if you need anything?
Seven: I'm here to see Ensign Kim.
Neelix: Oh, good luck.
Seven: Ensign.
Kim: Hmm?
Seven: Thank you.
Kim: For what?
Seven: You completed several of my astrometric scans this morning.
Kim: You're welcome. I had some time between duty shifts. Besides, it kept me occupied.
Seven: You are attempting to distract yourself from your emotional damage?
Kim: I wish I could say it was working.
Seven: The treatment to relieve your condition was available and yet you refused.
Kim: I've got a disease, but I'm willing to live with the symptoms. Doesn't make much sense, does it?
Seven: I assumed that romantic love was a human weakness, but clearly it can also be a source of strength. Perhaps my analogy was flawed. Love is not a disease. Get well soon.


Neelix: Are you sure this rice isn't supposed to be cooked? Steamed, fried?
Emh: The idea is to shower the couple with a symbol of good fortune, not garnish them like a roast chicken. Smile.
Neelix: Rice, anyone?
Crewwoman: I'll take one.
Neelix: Red alert.
Kim: Ready?
Janeway: This is it, Tom. Your bachelor days are over.
Paris: Not a moment too soon.
Janeway: Second thoughts?
Paris: Second, third, fourth.
Emh: I never thought I'd see the day.
Seven: Given the volatile nature of their relationship, one might have predicted homicide rather than matrimony.
Tuvok: When it comes to affairs of the human heart, it is wise to look beyond logic.
Janeway: We're gathered here today, not as Starfleet officers, but as friends and family, to celebrate the marriage of two of Voyager's finest. B'Elanna has asked me to forego the rigors of Klingon painsticks in favor of a more traditional ceremony.
Kim: They're saving the painsticks for the honeymoon.
Janeway: As Captain, the honor of joining these two people has fallen to me. But before I declare them husband and wife, Tom and B'Elanna have prepared their own vows.
Paris: I still don't know what I've done to deserve you, But whatever it is, I'll try to keep doing it. And I promise to stand by you, to honor you, till death do us part.
Janeway: Ensign?
Kim: Hmm?
Janeway: The ring.
Kim: Oh.
Paris: May this ring be the symbol of our eternal love.
Torres: You stood by me when most people would have run for the nearest airlock. You were willing to see past my shortcomings, and to take all the bumps and bruises that came along with it. You made me a better person, even though I put up one hell of a fight. I look forward to our journey together.
Janeway: Commander.
Torres: May this ring be the symbol of our eternal love.
Janeway: Not so fast. Lieutenant Thomas Eugene Paris, Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres. With the power vested in my by Starfleet Command and the United Federation of Planets, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Now, Tom. Bravo.
Emh: Congratulations.
Seven: For what?
Tuvok: You may not want to know. Captain's log, stardate 52586.3. We've had a lot to celebrate lately. Tom and B'Elanna's wedding, Ensign Harper's new baby, and the continued health of our warp drive, which has taken us within striking distance of home.
Chakotay: In this case the shortest path is a straight line. We'll pass right through the center of the Milky Way.
Janeway: And be in sector zero zero one within two years?
Chakotay: More or less.
Janeway: You had Seven double-check the calculations?
Chakotay: Two years, eleven days, six hours, provided we continue to operate at peak efficiency.
Janeway: Naturally. Of course, if we operate at peak efficiency, we'll be missing some interesting phenomena along the way. An anomalous gradient to the curvature of space, unusual bioharmonic readings from a binary system we'll reach about six months from now.
Chakotay: And the scientist in you can't resist stopping to take a look.
Janeway: It would only add another two or three months. Do you think the crew would mutiny?
Chakotay: On the contrary. Everyone'll jump at the chance for some last-minute exploration.
Janeway: Everyone, except Seven.
Chakotay: Let your First Officer deal with the personnel problems.
Neelix: Here's a lovely program modeled after a mountain resort on the fifth moon of Cytax. Just you, B'Elanna, and the crickets.
Paris: Crickets?
Neelix: Cytaxian crickets. Their song is reputed to be an auditory aphrodisiac.
Paris: Ah. Well, between you and me, B'Elanna and I don't need aphrodisiacs.
Neelix: There's always the beaches of Ahmedeen. Windsurfing on a sea of liquid argon.
Paris: I was hoping for some place a little more down to earth.
Neelix: Well, it's your honeymoon. Just how down to earth did you mean?
Paris: Earth. I was thinking Chicago in the Roaring Twenties. Speakeasies, flappers, the Charleston.
Neelix: If that's what you want.
Paris: Is there a problem?
Neelix: No, of course not. It's just that we're so close to Earth anyway, I thought you might want to try something a little more exotic.
Paris: Let me let you in on a little secret, Neelix. Earth has the best vacation spots in the galaxy. It's got the cultures, the climates, the history, the people. It has everything you ever want in a planet.
Neelix: You sound like a travel brochure.
Paris: No, no. Just a native.
Torres: Oh, and make sure the deuterium manifolds are never opened wider than six hundred microns.
Seven: I am familiar with the specifications.
Torres: Are you familiar with how temperamental the isolitic converter can be?
Seven: Yes.
Torres: Most important, the enhanced warp drive. With the dilithium matrix running hot all the time now, you have to watch it like a hawk.
Seven: There is no point in providing me with knowledge I already possess.
Torres: I guess I am being a little overcautious. I've just, er, never been away from Engineering for more than a couple of days. Certainly never a week.
Seven: My engineering abilities are more than sufficient. Enjoy your honeymoon.
Torres: You may understand the isodynamics of this engine, but I don't think you understand its personality.
Seven: Personality? It is a propulsion device.
Torres: That's my point. It's not just a device. It it has its own quirks, its own, its own moods
Seven: That's just a minor fluctuation in a subsidiary injector port. I will take care of it.
Torres: I'm going with you.
Seven: Lieutenant, you are on leave.
Torres: Not for another twenty minutes.
Torres: So, who's the lucky guy? You caught the bouquet. That means you're next in line for the altar.
Seven: Yes, the Doctor informed me of that archaic human superstition.
Torres: How about Harry Kim?
Seven: I fail to see the benefit of monogamous relationships.
Torres: So you want to stay single?
Seven: If you mean remain open to social situations with a wide variety of individuals, then yes.
Torres: I'm married. I'm not going into stasis for the rest of my life. No, I plan to have
Seven: I do not wish to be dependent on anyone. By marrying, one limits one's romantic interactions to a single individual, a circumstance which implies extreme monotony.
Torres: I'm glad we had this little talk.
Torres: Try the manual release.
Torres: I thought you said it was a minor fluctuation,
Seven: This entire Jefferies tube is losing molecular cohesion.
Torres: I guess the honeymoon's off.
Torres: It's our warp field. The enhanced drive is emitting some form of subspace radiation that's affecting Voyager's infrastructure.
Tuvok: It's beginning to break down the molecular bonds in all surrounding sections.
Torres: We're seeing early stages of the effect in the warp core. Reaction chamber, injector ports, they're all showing signs of de-cohesion.
Kim: It doesn't make any sense. We knew about the subspace radiation and we ran dozens of simulations before we brought the new drive online.
Janeway: Have you tried taking the core offline?
Torres: It's not stopping the problem.
Janeway: Try to isolate the cause of this, and stabilize the sections that have already been affected. Dismissed.
Torres: Computer, begin Chief Engineer's Log, supplemental. I've spent the last four hours analyzing the warp field schematics, but I'm still no closer to finding out what's going wrong. Computer, did it just get colder in here?
Computer: Negative.
Torres: Raise the temperature by five degrees.
Kim: Hungry?
Paris: Ah, can't join you tonight. Dinner with B'Elanna.
Kim: Married one day and you're already domesticated.
Paris: Jealous? Good night, Harry.
Paris: B'Elanna? If we're going to live together we're going to have to compromise on the temperature. Computer, reset environmental controls to standard. B'Elanna!
Paris: Shush.
Emh: Bring her in, quickly. It looks like we've got an epidemic on our hands.
Janeway: Acute cellular degradation?
Emh: Their chromosomes are breaking down at the molecular level.
Janeway: Proximity to the warp field?
Emh: I believe so. B'Elanna and my other three patients all work in Engineering. They've been subjected to the heaviest exposure. But preliminary scans suggest the rest of the crew has been affected as well, including the Captain. It's only a matter of time before you begin showing the same symptoms.
Janeway: We've shut down the warp drive. The ship is still deteriorating and so are we. Why?
Tuvok: Every bulkhead and conduit from deck one to fifteen show signs of molecular de-cohesion.
Neelix: Even food from the replicator shows signs of decay.
Chakotay: As soon as anything comes into contact with Voyager's atmosphere, it's affected.
Neelix: That's what we thought at first but take a look at this. These vegetables are completely free of decay.
Chakotay: I thought you said the replicators
Neelix: They weren't replicated. I harvested them on an away mission last week. The same goes for these particle accelerators, the trilithium ore samples, the keg of Hazari ale. All of them were brought aboard over the last few months, and none of them is disintegrating.
Tuvok: We haven't been able to narrow the time frame precisely, but it appears that anything brought on board over the past thirty to forty weeks is immune.
Chakotay: Something happened to the ship months ago that's causing this decay.
Tuvok: A logical conclusion.
Tuvok: Eight months, seventeen days ago, first contact with the Kmada.
Chakotay: They tried to sabotage our life-support systems with low-frequency theta radiation. Any chance that could have caused the phenomenon?
Tuvok: Unlikely.
Chakotay: Let's keep looking.
Tuvok: The next event of note took place nine months, two days ago when the N'Kree tried to conscript Voyager into their battle fleet.
Chakotay: And failed. Next?
Paris: Hey.
Torres: Hey.
Paris: How's my old lady?
Torres: Well enough to break your nose if you call me that again.
Paris: Here it is.
Torres: What?
Paris: Our honeymoon.
Torres: Tell me.
Paris: Six days and seven nights in the historic Graystone Hotel in beautiful downtown Chicago, circa 1928. Wait till you see it. Crystal chandeliers, wall to wall Italian marble. We'll take a drive up Michigan Avenue in a vintage Duesenberg, hobnob with the stars of the silver screen, dance the Charleston at a genuine speakeasy called the Green Mill.
Torres: What do I wear?
Paris: That's already taken care of. Our bags are packed and waiting for us at the hotel.
Torres: Champagne?
Paris: It's on ice, in a silver bucket right next to our canopy bed. B'Elanna? Doctor!
Emh: Cortical stimulator. Initiate an iso-synaptic pulse. It's not working. Again! Increase the electrolytic levels to seventy five millijoules. We've lost her.
Paris: Increasing electrolytic levels to ninety millijoules.
Emh: There's nothing more we can do.
Paris: Maybe we can try a direct neural resequencing.
Emh: Lieutenant.
Paris: We can't just let her die!
Emh: Return to your quarters.
Paris: No! I don't want to leave her.
Emh: I understand. But I need to perform an analysis before her cells have completely degraded. Please.
Tuvok: Nine months, twenty eight days. We collected silicate from a comet in the Podaris sector.
Chakotay: According to Neelix's manifest, those samples are stored in the geology lab. They're showing no signs of molecular degradation. Take us further back.
Tuvok: Ten months, eleven days ago. Voyager was forced to land on a class Y planetoid in the Vaskan sector.
Chakotay: The Demon class planet. One of our more interesting missions. We set down looking for deuterium and ended up helping a new form of life to be born.
Tuvok: The planet possessed a biomimetic compound.
Chakotay: The silver blood. It sampled our DNA and created duplicates of the entire crew.
Tuvok: I've often wondered what happened to them. Are they flourishing? Have they continued to evolve?
Chakotay: Do they still resemble us?
Chakotay: Is she?
Emh: I'm afraid so.
Chakotay: Scan for traces of deuterium, hydrogen sulfate and dichromates.
Emh: Dichromates?
Chakotay: Just do it.
Emh: What's this about?
Tuvok: We have a disturbing theory.
Emh: I'm detecting all of those compounds.
Chakotay: I want you to inject her with a dichromate catalyst.
Emh: Commander?
Chakotay: We've got to be sure.
Emh: I don't understand.
Chakotay: That wasn't B'Elanna. It was a duplicate. A biomimetic copy.
Emh: Copy?
Tuvok: We are all duplicates. None of us are real.
Emh: Behold the primordial soup.
Janeway: That's what created us?
Chakotay: Not just us. The entire ship is composed of the same material.
Emh: It's a biomimetic compound that duplicated the crew's molecular structure so precisely that I would never have detected it, if I hadn't known what to look for.
Janeway: I was born on Earth in Indiana. I remember growing up there. I remember graduating from the Academy. I have no memory of being a copy.
Emh: Apparently, the original Kathryn Janeway's memories were duplicated as well. Somehow, after the real Voyager left, we began to forget we were duplicates.
Chakotay: Eventually, we assumed their lives and set a course for Earth.
Janeway: And now the warp core is breaking down our cellular structure. We didn't think the radiation would hurt us because it isn't harmful to humanoids.
Emh: Each and every one of you will disintegrate just as B'Elanna did. I'm not immune, either. The holo-emitters, like everything else, are copies. It's only a matter of time before my program begins to degrade.
Janeway: What can we do to stop the process?
Chakotay: There is one option. Go back.
Janeway: To the Demon class planet?
Chakotay: We were created to survive there.
Tuvok: He's correct. It's reasonable to assume that if we return to our native environment, the degradation will cease.
Janeway: Even if we survived the trip, we'd be traveling thousands of light years in the wrong direction.
Chakotay: It may be the only way.
Janeway: Duplicate or not, I'm still the same person I was yesterday and so are all of you, and that means we're going to do everything possible to complete our mission, which is to reach Earth. Is that clear?
Chakotay: Yes, ma'am.
Janeway: I want you to adjust the environmental controls to simulate a class Y planet. That should slow the rate of degradation.
Tuvok: It's only a matter of time before the environmental controls themselves are affected.
Janeway: I realize that. That's why we're going to try and find a safe harbor till we can figure out a way to stop the degradation. Scan for the nearest class Y planet and set a course. In the meantime, I'll explain our situation to the crew.
Janeway: There's still a great deal we don't know about this phenomenon, and I have every confidence we'll find a way to reverse it.
Kim: So you're saying all our experiences before we were duplicated, none of it's real?
Janeway: I don't pretend to understand it myself, Harry, but the way I choose to look at it is this. If everything about us was duplicated, that includes our memory engrams, the emotional centers of our brain. So if you feel something, remember something, believe something, I'm not about to tell you it's not real.
Neelix: But there is another crew out there, right? The real Voyager.
Janeway: I suppose there is, but I don't want that thought to distract any of you from our mission.
Paris: What mission is that?
Janeway: The same as it's always been, Tom. To reach the Alpha Quadrant safe and sound. But to do that we're going to have to beat this problem, and for now that means conserving energy, running the ship in gray mode, cutting crew shifts in half. The less you exert yourselves, the slower the cellular decay. Duplicates or not, you're still my crew. Dismissed.
Kim: Tom.
Paris: There's no one here by that name.
Kim: I just wanted to say, I'm sorry about B'Elanna.
Paris: Sorry? What for?
Kim: She was your wife.
Paris: She was a duplicate, just like you are, Harry.
Kim: You heard the Captain. If we're going to survive this, we've got to believe in ourselves.
Paris: You can drop the good soldier routine. You don't have to do everything the Captain says anymore. Hell, she's not even the Captain.
Kim: She is to me.
Paris: Okay. Well, let's suppose she does get us back to Earth. What then? You really think your family is going to welcome you with open arms?
Kim: I don't know.
Paris: For all you know the real Harry Kim is having Sunday dinner with them right now. And you come strolling through the door, they're going to see you for exactly what you are. An impostor.
Kim: So what are we going to do, huh? Wait around till we all disintegrate?
Janeway: Come in. Chicken paprikash. My grandmother's recipe. Well, maybe not my grandmother, but it's still delicious. It's our weekly dinner together. Don't tell me you forgot.
Chakotay: We've lost three more people. We've got to head back.
Janeway: I've spent the past five years trying to get this crew home. I'm not about to quit now.
Chakotay: Listen to yourself. You haven't even been alive for five years. Home is a class Y planet in the Delta Quadrant. We don't belong on Earth.
Janeway: How do you know where we belong? For all we know, the real Voyager's been destroyed and we're all that's left. For all we know, we're supposed to be living their lives.
Chakotay: That's a pretty big assumption, and it's putting this crew in danger.
Janeway: There's only one thing I know how to be, Chakotay, and that's Kathryn Janeway.
Chakotay: I'd like to think I know Kathryn Janeway pretty well myself. And as much as she'd like to get her crew home, I don't think she'd be willing to kill them in the process.
Janeway: Maybe this dinner wasn't such a good idea after all.
Emh: I've tried everything I could think of. Biomolecular enhancers, gene splicing with replicated DNA, and I'm no closer to finding a cure. But I do have an idea.
Janeway: I'm listening.
Emh: Find the original Voyager. If the real Captain Janeway were here, we could sample her DNA and imprint it onto your mimetic pattern.
Janeway: But Doctor, we have no way of knowing where they are. They could be behind us, ahead of us, back on Earth, destroyed. Besides, even if we could find the real Janeway, how do we know she'd help?
Emh: She's you. My emitter is starting to degrade.
Janeway: You'd better get back to Sickbay.
Tuvok: Tuvok to the Captain. Sensors have detected a class Y planet.
Janeway: On my way.
Kim: It may not be home, but it checks out. Thermionic radiation, surface temperatures in excess of five hundred Kelvins.
Janeway: Just what the Doctor ordered. Safe harbor?
Chakotay: There's no guarantee this is going to work.
Janeway: Harry, vent all plasma from the nacelles, transfer available power to atmospheric thrusters and stand by to commence landing sequence.
Kim: Yes, ma'am.
Janeway: Red alert.
Paris: Landing struts online. Inertial dampers at maximum.
Janeway: Take us down, Mister Paris.
Tuvok: Captain, a vessel is approaching from the planet surface.
Janeway: On screen.
Kim: They're hailing.
Janeway: Open a channel.
Alien: You're in direct violation of the Ord'Mirit mining treaty. Leave orbit or you'll be destroyed.
Tuvok: They are firing weapons.
Janeway: This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. We are not your enemy.
Chakotay: They seem to disagree.
Janeway: We're not interested in your mining operation. Our ship is badly damaged. We need to set down on the surface to make repairs.
Alien: We repeat. Leave or be destroyed.
Tuvok: Shields down to fifty two percent.
Chakotay: With our systems degrading, we won't be able to take this much longer.
Janeway: Target their weapons systems. Fire.
Tuvok: No effect. Hull breaches on decks eleven, fourteen and fifteen.
Kim: The damaged sections are turning into biomimetic matter. Containment fields are failing.
Janeway: Evacuate those decks.
Tuvok: If we emit a polaron burst, we can disable their shields long enough to target their warp core.
Janeway: No, we're not going to destroy them over a misunderstanding.
Tuvok: Either that or retreat.
Janeway: We're Starfleet officers, we can't forget that. Break orbit.
Paris: That planet may be our last chance for survival.
Janeway: We'll have to find another option.
Paris: I'm not sure why we're still taking orders from you.
Chakotay: Lieutenant, follow orders or leave the bridge.
Tuvok: The alien vessel's not pursuing.
Janeway: Begin scanning for other class Y planets. Harry, transmit a distress call on all subspace bands. If the real Voyager is out there, I want to find them.
Paris: In the meantime, which direction do you want me to go?
Janeway: Resume course for the Alpha Quadrant, Mister Paris.
Janeway: I know what you're going to say and I don't want to hear it.
Chakotay: Too bad.
Janeway: I'm willing to take a little insolence from Tom, but I shouldn't have to remind you that I'm still the Captain.
Chakotay: You're not. You're a biomimetic lifeform created in her image.
Janeway: Are you saying you're not taking orders from me anymore?
Chakotay: I'm saying you need to step back and look at our situation objectively.
Janeway: You think I should have given the order to fire on that vessel.
Chakotay: No, I agreed with your decision to stand down. But how long can we adhere to Starfleet principles before we start making compromises?
Janeway: As long as it takes. Our ship may be deteriorating, but our humanity is intact.
Chakotay: Belief alone won't hold this ship together.
Janeway: It's gotten us this far.
Chakotay: Not far enough. Tom and I aren't the only ones who question your decisions. Now that the truth is known, a lot of people think we should turn around and head for the class Y planet. They're starting to remember their existence before Voyager.
Janeway: What, what existence? Pools of biomimetic fluid? We didn't even experience sentience until Voyager came along.
Chakotay: What good is sentience if we're not alive to experience it? Kathryn, we've got to go back.
Janeway: I promised the crew I'd get them home.
Chakotay: Home isn't Earth.
Janeway: Janeway to Sickbay, medical emergency.
Emh: He's not responding. His neural pathways are destabilizing.
Janeway: We've lost Commander Chakotay. Duplicate or not, he was real to me and he was a fine Starfleet officer. And he was a friend who wasn't afraid to let me know when I am wrong. Mister Kim, bring the enhanced warp drive online. Turn Voyager around. We're going home.
Paris: Captain?
Janeway: Set a course for the Demon planet.
Janeway: Captain's log, supplemental. We've lost sixty three crewmen, and our systems are continuing to fail. Though we're still five weeks away from the Demon Planet, we haven't given up hope.
Kim: The holographic projectors in Sickbay went offline at oh three hundred. We've lost the Doctor.
Janeway: What's Tom's condition?
Kim: No change.
Janeway: Well, looks like we're in the market for a new medical officer. Feel up to it, Neelix?
Neelix: I've only been trained as a field medic.
Janeway: It'll have to do.
Neelix: What about my other duties?
Janeway: Make Sickbay your priority. At this point morale is a luxury. How's the core holding up?
Seven: The modified nanoprobes are still reinforcing the warp field. It should remain functioning until we reach the Demon Planet. However, there is less than a twenty percent probability that Voyager will remain intact that long.
Janeway: Well, it won't be the first time this crew has been up against
Kim: Captain?
Janeway: It's all right, I'm just a little tired.
Neelix: Let Ensign Kim take command for a little while.
Janeway: I'm still the Captain.
Neelix: And I am the Chief Medical Officer. Don't force me to relieve you of your duties.
Janeway: Your concerns have been noted, sir. Now, there is another matter. I want to download the ship's database and our personal logs into a signal beacon. In the event we don't survive, there should be some record of our accomplishments.
Kim: A time capsule.
Janeway: This crew's existence may have been brief, but it's been distinguished. None of you deserves to be forgotten.
Seven: I will use unaffected components to construct a beacon.
Kim: The deflector's offline. Interstellar dust is contaminating the warp field.
Janeway: Purge it.
Seven: I can't. The exhaust manifolds have disintegrated.
Janeway: We've come too far to be stopped by dust. Reroute auxiliary power to the deflector.
Seven: Warp field failure in eight, seven, six, five, four, three
Kim: Got it.
Seven: Reinitializing the deflector. The warp field has stabilized.
Neelix: I may not be morale officer anymore, but I think this is a cause for celebration. What do you say, Captain? Captain?
Neelix: She's gone.
Kim: Acting
Janeway: Captain's log, stardate 52597.4. Our situation's getting worse every day. More than eighty percent of the ship is uninhabitable. Most of the crew are gone. It seems less and less likely that the few of us left will reach our destination.
Kim: Computer, hull status.
Computer: Hull integrity at forty five percent.
Kim: What was that?
Computer: Cargo bay two has decompressed.
Kim: Seal off that deck.
Kim: Computer, erect a level ten force field around the bridge.
Computer: Unable to comply.
Kim: Seven, I need more power up here. The bulkheads are coming apart.
Seven: I'm transferring the last of our power reserves.
Computer: Deck one force field is in place.
Kim: That's better. How's life support?
Seven: Degrading.
Seven: We have approximately ten hours of air remaining.
Kim: What about the time capsule?
Seven: It's ready for launch.
Kim: Do it.
Seven: The launch sequencer has misfired.
Kim: Reset the
Kim: Initiator. Try it again.
Seven: It won't work. The launch mechanism is demolecularised.
Kim: Salvage the probe.
Seven: It's too late. It's been destroyed.
Kim: Personal logs, mission logs, all our history, gone. Now what?
Seven: I'm detecting a vessel twenty two light years away.
Kim: I see it. I'm trying to hail them. The subspace transceiver's malfunctioning. If they move out of range, they won't see us. We still have one active comm. circuit but we'll have to go to impulse to use it. Seven, drop out of warp.
Seven: The engine controls are fused.
Kim: Then unfuse them.
Seven: Without an isolitic
Seven: Converter, I cannot comply.
Kim: Dump the core.
Seven: Ensign, dropping out of warp at this velocity could
Seven: Tear the ship apart.
Kim: We're already falling apart. We're not going to make it
Kim: To the class Y planet in one piece
Kim: Which means that ship is our only hope. Think about it. What would Captain Janeway have done?
Seven: Computer, prepare to eject the warp core. Authorisation Seven of Nine, omega phi nine three.
Computer: Warp ejection systems enabled.
Seven: Eject the core.
Seven: We've lost attitude control and shields. Hull integrity at nineteen percent.
Kim: Reroute life support! Hell, reroute everything we've got left to the containment fields.
Seven: Hull breaches on
Seven: Decks nine, ten and eleven.
Kim: Seven. Seven! Computer, how long until we're within hailing range of that ship?
Computer: Five minutes and thirty four seconds.
Janeway: Range?
Paris: Five million kilometers.
Janeway: Try hailing again.
Tuvok: No response.
Kim: Captain, I've found the source of the distress call. It's coming from a vessel.
Chakotay: Can you identify it?
Kim: No, the readings are erratic. Looks like they've taken heavy damage.
Paris: Four hundred thousand kilometers.
Janeway: Drop to impulse. Are the rescue teams ready? Bridge to Sickbay, stand by for casualties.
Tuvok: In visual range.
Janeway: On screen.
Janeway: Where's the ship?
Kim: No sign of it.
Chakotay: That debris, that couldn't be all that's left.
Tuvok: I'm detecting residual deuterium, anti-neutrons, traces of dichromates. If it was a vessel, it isn't anymore.
Janeway: Scan for lifesigns, escape pods.
Tuvok: None.
Janeway: Make a note in the ship's record. We received a distress call at oh nine hundred hours. Arrived at the vessel's last known coordinates at twenty one twenty. The ship was destroyed. Cause unknown. No survivors. Mister Paris, resume course.
Paris: Aye, sir.


Chakotay: No! Make them stop!
Emh: Anything?
Seven: Nothing of relevance. His neural pathways are still fluctuating.
Paris: Doc! Can't you do something? Look how much he's suffering.
Emh: If I sedate him we could lose any chance of making contact with the aliens.
Chakotay: Get them out!
Emh: Commander, can you hear me? Focus on the sound of my voice.
Chakotay: I can't understand them. They won't stop talking!
Emh: What are they saying?
Chakotay: I don't know! Make them stop, please!
Janeway: Janeway to Sickbay. Any progress, Doctor?
Emh: It's not going well.
Emh: Our ambassador is still delusional.
Janeway: We're running out of time.
Torres: The graviton shear is buckling the hull. If we don't find a way out of Chaotic space soon, we're going to die here,
Emh: Chief Medical Officer's Log, supplemental. Despite my efforts, Chakotay's condition continues to deteriorate.
Chakotay: Doctor!
Emh: Yes, Commander.
Chakotay: I'm tired. I want to sleep.
Emh: If you lose consciousness, it could sever your link with the aliens.
Chakotay: Aliens?
Emh: The ones who live in this place. We're trapped here. They may know a way out. It's urgent that you speak with them.
Chakotay: But I don't understand what they're saying.
Emh: I can try to help you understand.
Chakotay: I'm going to end up like my grandfather. A crazy old man.
Emh: No, you're not crazy. I believe the aliens are reconfiguring your neural pathways so they can communicate with you. Do you remember the day you were injured on the holodeck?
Chakotay: In the boxing simulation?
Emh: Yes. You were knocked down, remember?
Chakotay: I was injured. I came to see you. We had an argument.
Emh: That's right. Try to remember more about the holodeck.
Chakotay: I was sparring with a Terrellian, and Boothby was there. He used to train me when I was a cadet.
Emh: Keep going. What round was it?
Chakotay: Three. Round three. The fight was going badly. I was avoiding my opponent.
Boothby: Stay away from the ropes, son. That's it, that's it.
Computer: End of round three.
Chakotay: That wasn't so bad.
Boothby: It was terrible.
Chakotay: Am I missing something? He barely landed a glove on me.
Boothby: Give him time. You're not reading him. You think he's slow and stupid. I know better. In fact, I know his kind in my bones. Literally. I can count the fractures, if you'd like.
Chakotay: He's not landing any punches.
Boothby: That's the problem. You're not letting him.
Chakotay: Have I got this sport all wrong?
Boothby: Boxing is more about taking the shots than dishing them out. You shouldn't be dancing away from this fellow. Let him punch himself out a little. It all comes down to the heart. Do you have the heart for this? That's the contest. It's not against him. It's against your own natural human desire not to get hurt. That's the real fight.
Computer: Begin round four.
Boothby: Go. Go, go, go.
Boothby: Stay with him. Too close. Come on, come on, break it up. Atta boy. Keep him busy.
Boothby: Gloves up!
Emh: How many?
Chakotay: Three.
Emh: Good guess. I've got a good mind to use a needle and thread. Add a little authenticity to your fun.
Chakotay: Be my guest
Emh: You'd like that. A manly scar above your eye. Chakotay, the Maquis Mauler. Pointless violence. That program shouldn't even be in our database.
Chakotay: There's nothing like a good fight, Doctor. I was there when Pryce-Jones went twenty three rounds with Gul Tulet. The Knockout in the Neutral Zone. Best match I ever saw.
Emh: Really? Most blood spilled, or did Pryce-Jones drive Gul Tulet's nasal bone up into his brain?
Chakotay: You've got the wrong idea.
Emh: The idea is simple enough. Do enough damage to your opponent to render him unconscious. How's the headache?
Chakotay: It hurts.
Emh: Oedema beneath the anterior fossa of the cranium. Hairline fracture of the septum.
Chakotay: I saw something strange.
Emh: I'll bet you did.
Chakotay: No, before I got hit.
Emh: What do you mean?
Chakotay: I looked over at Boothby. He yelled at me. I turned back, then the ring got distorted.
Emh: An hallucination. You probably had some pressure building up along the optic nerves from a previous blow.
Chakotay: No, I was keeping away from him the whole fight. He never touched me.
Emh: Hmm. A number of the ganglia in your visual cortex are hyperactive. Your opponent wasn't firing on you with an energy weapon, was he?
Chakotay: Just his gloves.
Janeway: Chakotay to the bridge.
Chakotay: On my way.
Emh: I want you back in here for some tests, unless you want to be seeing things on a regular basis.
Kim: It's changed course again. Twenty thousand kilometers off starboard.
Chakotay: Ion storm?
Janeway: Not exactly. It's two light years across, emits enough energy for a dozen stars, it doesn't match any phenomenon in our database, and it won't sit still.
Kim: Okay, eleven thousand kilometers off the port bow.
Tuvok: We are too close.
Paris: I'm backing us off.
Tuvok: The phenomenon has been shifting positions every few minutes.
Chakotay: Nothing so massive could move that fast.
Janeway: Full reverse. Maximum shields.
Janeway: Full stop. Anybody want to tell me where we are?
Tuvok: We appear to be inside the disturbance.
Kim: I'm picking up a lot of raw data. Subspace flux, graviton waves. Sensors must be confused. The readings are shifting around so much I can't make heads or tails of what's out there.
Seven: Captain, this is Seven of Nine. Please report to Astrometrics at once.
Seven: The Borg have been aware of this phenomenon for many years. It is a zone where the law of physics are in a state of flux. Chaotic space.
Janeway: Why didn't sensors warn us in time?
Seven: Chaotic space appears randomly and unexpectedly. The Borg have observed it throughout the galaxy.
Tuvok: Then why hasn't a Federation starship encountered anything like this?
Seven: No doubt some have.
Chakotay: Think of all the Starfleet vessels that disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
Seven: Borg vessels are more advanced, but only one Cube has survived an encounter with Chaotic space.
Chakotay: Those aren't good odds.
Tuvok: If the physical constants are shifting, our sensors can't function.
Seven: The problem is here. Changes in the gravitational coefficient will cause sudden shear forces against our hull. Shields will protect us, but only for a time.
Janeway: How much time?
Seven: Unknown.
Janeway: We've got to recalibrate the sensors, redesign them if necessary, otherwise we're flying blind. Let's get to work.
Computer: Begin round one.
Chakotay: Computer, did you say something?
Computer: Negative.
Boothby: Pick them up, son. It's the fight you've been waiting for.
Computer: Begin round one.
Tuvok: Bridge to Commander Chakotay.
Chakotay: Go ahead, Tuvok.
Tuvok: Please report to the bridge.
Chakotay: On my way.
Kim: Graviton wave displacement says we're moving at warp six. Subspace sensors show we're standing still.
Paris: We can't be that far from where we entered. Maybe we should just set a course, go to impulse and see what happens.
Tuvok: What would most likely happen is a collision with an asteroid field or a star.
Paris: That'd be better than just sitting here waiting for.
Chakotay: Report.
Kim: Torsional shear has increased by two hundred percent.
Chakotay: Shields?
Tuvok: Holding.
Paris: Like I was saying. Better than just sitting here waiting for our hull to breach.
Tuvok: Perhaps we could drop a series of beacons to help us navigate.
Paris: Now that's an idea.
Chakotay: Did you hear something?
Tuvok: I heard nothing unusual.
Paris: I didn't hear anything.
Computer: Begin round one.
Paris: I'll plot a course. We'll take it slow. What do you think, Chakotay?
Mc: The Challenger, Chakotay!
Chakotay: Don't you hear that?
Paris: Hear what?
Chakotay: Look.
Tuvok: Commander. Are you all right?
Boothby: Put on the gloves, son.
Chakotay: I'm not ready.
Tuvok: Commander.
Mc: In this corner, wearing the red trunks.
Computer: Begin round one.
Paris: Bridge to Sickbay. We've got a medical emergency.
Emh: Laaaa. Laaaa. Lets go to eight hundred eighty hertz. Laaaa.
Janeway: Music lessons?
Chakotay: Pretty soon we'll be singing duets.
Emh: I'm checking to see if there's been any damage to the auditory nerves. Nothing so far. His vision checks out as well. I'm afraid the source of the trouble may be a little deeper.
Chakotay: The family curse.
Janeway: What do you mean?
Emh: Chakotay has the genetic marker for a cognitive disorder. Sensory tremens. The primary symptoms are visual and auditory hallucinations.
Chakotay: My family doctor suppressed the gene before I was even born, so I never had to go through what the others did, like my grandfather.
Emh: For some reason, the gene's been switched on. I'm not saying for certain that's why Chakotay thought he was getting ready for a prize-fight, but it's a good bet. The holodeck boxing simulation was fresh in his memory. A few misfiring neurons did the rest.
Janeway: This Chaotic space we've entered, could it be stimulating the gene?
Emh: Possibly. The only way to make certain would be to get the ship out of here. In the meantime, the Commander will have to stay in Sickbay.
Janeway: Tuvok tells me you've got a mean left jab.
Chakotay: Never spar with a Vulcan.
Janeway: How are you doing?
Chakotay: I'm all right. When I was a boy, my grandfather started seeing things nobody else could see, hearing what nobody else could hear. He refused treatment. A couple of hyposprays a day, that's all he would have needed, but he was stubborn. He said his spirit was in pain, but that the wound must be honored. Crazy old man.
Kim: Ready, Captain.
Janeway: Janeway to Seven. Bring the grid back online.
Seven: Stand by.
Kim: We've got sensors. Scanning to one hundred thousand kilometers, seven hundred thousand.
Tuvok: Sensors are stable to one million kilometers. We won't be able to scan any further.
Janeway: Are you picking up anything at that range?
Kim: No planets, no asteroid fields, no sink holes.
Paris: Good enough for me.
Janeway: Set a course dead ahead, one quarter impulse. Sensor status?
Tuvok: Continuing to function.
Kim: Still nothing ahead.
Janeway: Good. Let's increase our speed. Mister Paris, go to half impulse.
Kim: Wait! It's a ship.
Tuvok: Warp capable. It's adrift and the outer hull is damaged.
Kim: No lifesigns.
Janeway: Let's take a closer look.
Janeway: Computer, let's hear that again.
Alien: Why won't you answer? Did you give up on me for being so late? It's not my fault. We got lost in here. Why do the stars make such a noise? Let me sleep! I don't understand them, I don't want to talk to them. I just want to go home.
Tuvok: That was the final distress call.
Emh: According to the vessel's medical records, the Captain and one of his engineers started hallucinating after they entered this space. The physician on board never found a way to treat them.
Janeway: How long were they stranded here?
Kim: Almost a year. Eventually their systems were compromised.
Emh: They died of exposure.
Kim: The sensors in that ship are more advanced than ours, and they couldn't find a way out.
Janeway: Let's hold our position until we get a better idea of what we're up against.
Torres: It looks like that's what they did.
Paris: Along the way, a couple of them started sounding just like Chakotay.
Emh: I can't believe that's a coincidence.
Tuvok: Then why hasn't anyone else been affected?
Emh: That's a question I can't answer. Not yet. Request permission to beam their captain's body on board. I'd like to perform an autopsy.
Janeway: Granted. Pull the sensor technology off that ship. Use it to enhance ours. We're going to need all the help we can get.
Emh: I made a deep scan of the alien's brain tissue and sensory organs. The optic and auditory neurons have been partially stripped of their normal protein insulation. The result, auditory and visual hallucinations.
Janeway: The same symptoms as Chakotay, but a different cause.
Emh: Exactly. In this case the gene responsible for producing protein insulation was shut down.
Chakotay: By what?
Emh: There might be something in Chaotic space that reacts with DNA, alters it. But why it targeted him specifically and now you I can't say.
Janeway: Is there a treatment?
Emh: I can control the hallucinations using a neural suppressant, but unless I can find a way to deactivate that gene of yours
Chakotay: I need to go on a vision quest. Captain?
Emh: That's not the best idea right now. A vision quest taps directly into your frontal cortex. It could agitate your mind.
Chakotay: Or help me control it.
Janeway: Permission granted.
Emh: Very well. I will ask you to wear a cortical monitor. It'll help me keep track of your vital signs.
Chakotay: A-koo-chee-moya. I am far from the sacred places of my grandfathers, I am far from the bones of my people. But perhaps there is a powerful being who will embrace me and give me the answers I seek.
Chakotay: Grandfather! what are you doing here?
Grandfather: I, er seem to be lost. Just a little lost.
Chakotay: You didn't take your medicine this morning.
Grandfather: Which medicine are you talking about? There are many medicines.
Chakotay: The one the hospital gave us.
Grandfather: Oh, that one.
Chakotay: Where are you going?
Grandfather: My spirit doesn't want that medicine.
Chakotay: I don't care what your spirit wants. You're going to take it.
Grandfather: I don't think so.
Chakotay: Come with me back to the house.
Grandfather: Now why would I want to do that? It's better where I'm going. It's more interesting.
Chakotay: Where are you going?
Grandfather: To the place where my spirit lives.
Chakotay: Grandfather! Where are you? Answer me!
Computer: Begin round one.
Computer: Begin round one.
Chakotay: The aliens. They were there, watching me.
Emh: Inside your vision quest?
Chakotay: They were trying to tell me something.
Emh: What was it?
Chakotay: I don't know.
Emh: Are they with you now? Can you hear them?
Chakotay: Yes.
Emh: Let them speak to you.
Chakotay: No! They'll make me go crazy.
Emh: You're not going crazy. They're doing this for a reason. You've got to trust them. Stop fighting. Open your mind. Let go. Listen.
Chakotay: Chaotic space intersects ours at the eighteenth dimensional gradient. Voyager entered through a trimetric fracture.
Emh: Trimetric fracture?
Chakotay: We must escape, or we'll be destroyed.
Emh: How do we escape?
Chakotay: We've got to alter our warp field.
Emh: In what way?
Chakotay: Rentrillic projectory.
Emh: Rentrillic?
Chakotay: It doesn't make any sense. I can't understand it. I'm scared I'm losing my mind.
Emh: Try to focus!
Chakotay: It's too much! I can't! It's too much!
Emh: Chakotay!
Chakotay: Get them out!
Janeway: First contact?
Emh: It was brief, but he definitely communicated with them.
Janeway: Rentrillic trajectory.
Emh: Unfortunately, they never got around to explaining what that meant.
Janeway: Could be some sort of alien geometry, but we'll need much more. Is it safe for him to try to make contact again?
Emh: Medically speaking, yes. The problem is convincing the Commander of that.
Janeway: I realize you're frightened, but you're our only hope out of this place. You think this could risk your sanity, but your sanity won't do you any good if we remain in Chaotic space. I need you to keep trying, Chakotay. Will you keep trying? Keep me posted.
Emh: Are you ready to continue? Try to focus on the alien voices, tell me what they're saying.
Chakotay: I can't hear them.
Emh: Are you sure? Listen carefully. Maybe we can return you to a more receptive frame of mind. Think back to when you first heard them in the vision quest. What were you doing? Where were you?
Chakotay: In their boxing ring. A strange ring.
Emh: Was anyone else there?
Chakotay: Yes. My opponent, Kid Chaos.
Emh: Describe him.
Chakotay: Tuvok, move into position.
Tuvok: Thompson and Sharr, target the midsection. Ensign MacAlister, you and I will aim for the head.
Chakotay: Set your phasers to kill.
Boothby: Not exactly the Marquis of Queensberry rules, now, is it? Set to kill? That's not even Starfleet! Put down the weapons, son.
Tuvok: Tactical advice from an Academy groundskeeper? We fire at your command, sir.
Boothby: Give that order and you'll be out for the count, the whole lot of you.
Chakotay: Lower your weapons.
Tuvok: Commander.
Chakotay: I said, stand down.
Paris: We've just heard from Vegas, Mars and Orion Three. The odds are running thirty three to one that he'll outpoint you. Eleven to one that you'll be k-o'ed by the fifth. Subspace radio is calling it the Disaster in the Delta. We can still scratch the card. I'll call the Doctor. We'll get you out on a medical.
Boothby: He's trying to hornswoggle us. Double check those calculations.
Chakotay: Let me see that PADD.
Paris: No. Fine, don't want to trust your friends? You're on your own.
Neelix: I'm filing a grievance with the Delta Quadrant Boxing Commission. This bout came out of nowhere. There's some scheduling mix-up. You haven't had the time to train, you're not ready. If you fight now, you'll be destroyed!
Chakotay: I can't fight now. I'm not ready for this! I can't stay here!
Kim: I follow your example, learn from you, look up to you. I don't want to lose that.
Chakotay: You'll find another role model. You'll be okay.
Janeway: You're my First Officer. Your duty is to this crew. If something happens to me, you've got to get Voyager home.
Tuvok: Tuvok can take command.
Torres: You're being selfish, Chakotay.
Chakotay: I'm doing this for you, for all of you!
Emh: A delusion. Dementia puglistica. You're punch-drunk, Commander.
Emh: A hard shot to the head and neck collapses the carotid artery and cuts the flow of blood to the brain. The hook. The head and neck twist laterally, traumatizing the cerebral tissue. And who can forget the upper cut? The head snaps back, rupturing tissue in the cerebellum and upper spinal cord. Yes! And the result of all this poetry in motion? Neurologic dysfunction, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, loss of balance and coordination, loss of memory. Starting to sound familiar?
Neelix: Chakotay's fine. He just needs a little conditioning, that's all.
Emh: He needs to listen to his doctor and not to his fantasies. Step into that arena and you'll become what you most fear.
Neelix: What are you talking about?
Emh: He knows what I mean, don't you, Chakotay? Hmm?
Neelix: What's wrong?
Emh: Victory. Defeat. Knockout. TKO. It's all beside the point. We know how it really ends. A crazy old man. It's your fate, your destiny. There's no escape.
Neelix: You just got to do your best. You can't let yourself give into your fears.
Chakotay: I'm not afraid.
Neelix: Who said you were?
Chakotay: I'm sorry! Please, come back!
Grandfather: They got away.
Chakotay: Grandfather, where did you go?
Grandfather: Some people were shouting at me. They were going for a walk. They wanted me to come along. It's hard to follow them. Oh, God, they go to strange places.
Chakotay: I'm supposed to be watching you. We're going to get in trouble if we don't go back home.
Grandfather: Be a good boy and go. We understand.
Chakotay: You have to come with me.
Grandfather: They say you can come with us.
Chakotay: There's nobody else here.
Grandfather: They say you're just like we are.
Chakotay: I'm not! I'm not like you!
Grandfather: It's not so bad. When you get used to it, they're not so bad. They're just a lot of talk. Sometimes I wish they were more quiet, but they like to talk.
Chakotay: Come home.
Grandfather: Oh, I'm too tired. This is a nice place. A nice place to call home.
Computer: Begin round one.
Grandfather: Did you hear that?
Chakotay: No.
Grandfather: Yes, you did. There's a lot of them this time.
Chakotay: Tell them to go away!
Grandfather: Go away! They've got other ideas.
Chakotay: I have to go home.
Grandfather: They, they're coming for you.
Mc: The challenger, Chakotay!
Boothby: Better late than never. They almost scrubbed the bout.
Chakotay: I'm afraid.
Boothby: I know you are. You'd be a liar if you said anything else.
Chakotay: But I've always been afraid.
Boothby: I know that too.
Mc: The Champion, Kid Chaos!
Emh: That's it! All over! The fight's been canceled on medical grounds. Put them down, let's go. I hear there's some bear-baiting at the arena next door. Have fun.
Paris: He's coming out of it.
Chakotay: You stopped the fight.
Paris: You were stuck in the vision quest.
Chakotay: I've got to go back.
Emh: You're going nowhere but Sickbay.
Chakotay: Let me go.
Paris: Calm down. It's over for you.
Chakotay: No, let me get in the ring.
Paris: Chakotay.
Chakotay: Let me back in the ring. Let me
Kim: Two hundred thousand kilometers.
Janeway: Launch another beacon.
Tuvok: Beacon launched.
Kim: I'm reading a shift of point zero zero three in the graviton shear.
Janeway: Status.
Tuvok: Shields holding.
Paris: Speed is steady at one quarter impulse.
Janeway: Maintain course and heading, Mister Paris.
Kim: Sensors are functioning. Our course is still clear.
Paris: Captain, I recommend we go to three quarters impulse.
Tuvok: Increasing power to the engines could affect Chaotic space. There are too many unknowns.
Paris: At this speed we should see daylight in about two months. The longer we're in Chaotic space, the longer we're exposed to these unknowns.
Tuvok: His logic is undeniable, Captain. We should increase our speed.
Paris: Finally.
Janeway: Who am I to dispute logic?
Kim: Take a look at this.
Kim: It's the first beacon we launched three hours ago.
Paris: We've been going in circles?
Tuvok: To be precise, one large circle.
Janeway: Hold our position.
Paris: All stop.
Janeway: Report.
Seven: I've applied ten thousand fifty three algorithms to the energy signatures produced by Chaotic space. There is a pattern.
Janeway: Order to chaos?
Seven: Observe. An isolinear frequency.
Janeway: Some kind of signal?
Seven: I haven't located the source. It may be natural. A star or quasar that's managed to survive in chaotic space.
Janeway: But it could be a transmission.
Seven: Possibly.
Janeway: Have you tried the standard language decryptions?
Seven: All of them, with no success.
Janeway: Success seems to be in short supply lately. Oh! Impossible.
Seven: Captain?
Janeway: And to think that kept me from getting an A.
Janeway: It was the only question I missed in exogenetics my senior year.
Emh: The nucleotide resonance frequency.
Janeway: That signal was designed to activate DNA.
Emh: It realigned his molecular bonds.
Chakotay: Now do you believe me? They're the ones who scheduled the fight. They're promoting it. They're putting up the purse.
Emh: His sensory cortex is hyperactive. He's still hallucinating.
Chakotay: It's not an hallucination, not a vision quest. It's a prize-fight!
Janeway: Chakotay, do you know me? Do you know where you are?
Chakotay: I know you, Captain. But you stopped the fight. You ruined my career. Nobody will put me on the card after this!
Janeway: It's better for you to rest, Chakotay, until we can figure out why this is happening to you.
Chakotay: They want to contact me.
Janeway: Who does?
Chakotay: The people who live here.
Emh: This will sedate him.
Janeway: Wait a minute. You believe somebody lives here, in Chaotic space, and they're trying to communicate with you?
Chakotay: Yes. I saw him.
Janeway: Tell me about him. What does he look like?
Chakotay: He's got a couple of kilos on me, a few centimeters in height, but I can take him, Captain. I just have to stay off the ropes.
Emh: The Holodeck boxing simulation is still strong in his memory. Obviously, it's the primary source of imagery for his hallucinations.
Janeway: What if those hallucinations are being induced for a purpose? Aliens who exist on some perceptual wavelength that our senses can't detect, and the only way for them to communicate with us is to alter our senses. Chakotay's bad gene gave them the opportunity.
Emh: What are you proposing?
Janeway: Remember the derelict ship? Two of their crewmembers claimed they were seeing things. Was somebody trying to communicate with them? Was somebody trying to warn them, help them?
Emh: Or trying to destroy them, just as they're trying to destroy us.
Janeway: Why go through all the trouble? We're trapped here anyway.
Chakotay: Let me back in the ring.
Emh: Even if this is some kind of alien communication it could harm him. Permanently.
Tuvok: Bridge to Captain Janeway.
Janeway: Go ahead, Tuvok.
Tuvok: Graviton shear has increased again. Hull pressure is rising.
Janeway: I'm on my way.
Chakotay: Captain. When have we ever turned away from a first contact?
Janeway: Send him back in the ring.
Janeway: Report.
Kim: Some kind of spatial sinkhole just opened up beneath us.
Janeway: Full thrusters. Status?
Paris: We managed to side-step that one but graviton shear has increased by another three hundred and ten percent.
Janeway: Janeway to Sickbay.
Emh: Sickbay here.
Janeway: It's now or never.
Emh: Understood, Captain.
Chakotay: I've got to get in there. They're about to ring the bell.
Emh: I'm going to subject you to a field that will enhance the nucleotide bonds. The gene should become fully activated. Do you understand?
Chakotay: I understand.
Emh: Find us a way out of here.
Chakotay: I'll try.
Boothby: Good idea. Keep him waiting. Let him sweat it out.
Mc: In this corner, representing the Alpha Quadrant, Earth and Humanity. The challenger, Chakotay!
Boothby: Everybody loves an underdog.
Mc: And on this corner, champion of the Delta Quadrant, Kid Chaos!
Chakotay: Looks like he's got a lot of upper body strength. A real puncher.
Boothby: Just keep your elbow low when you throw the right, and don't come in too straight. You'll be okay.
Chakotay: Where's the scouting report? We don't know anything about this guy. I don't know who I'm up against!
Boothby: You're up against yourself, that's all you've got to remember. And don't raise the elbow.
Computer: Begin round one.
Chakotay: Boothby, where are you?
Boothby: Still here, son. I'm not going anywhere.
Emh: You
Janeway: Are
Paris: Far from where
Emh: You
Grandfather: Call home.
Emh: You
Janeway: Are
Grandfather: Lost.
Emh: Do you understand?
Chakotay: Yes. We are far from home. We are lost.
Janeway: Our
Grandfather: Home
Seven: Is here.
Janeway: Our
Grandfather: Home
Seven: Is here.
Janeway: In Chaotic space.
Seven: Chaotic space.
Emh: Chaotic space.
Boothby: Hang in there, son. Protect your head.
Chakotay: I understand!
Tuvok: We are too
Emh: Alien
Paris: For you
Tuvok: We are too
Seven: Strange
Paris: For you.
Chakotay: Maybe we're the ones who are too alien, too strange.
Janeway: If
Emh: You
Boothby: Stay
Janeway: In Chaotic space
Seven: Chaotic space.
Emh: Chaotic space.
Neelix: You'll be destroyed!
Chakotay: We know that, but we can't navigate. Our sensors don't work in your space.
Boothby: Twenty more seconds. Don't go down.
Emh: Your
Kim: Sensors must be.
Emh: Realigned.
Chakotay: How can I?
Emh: Your mind
Kim: Must be
Emh: Realigned. Realigned. Realigned. Your mind
Kim: Must be.
Emh: Realigned.
Chakotay: I understand.
Computer: End round one.
Chakotay: Get them out!
Emh: Let go, Commander.
Chakotay: I can't take any more punches!
Emh: They aren't hitting you!
Chakotay: Duck, feint, clinch.
Emh: Stop fighting!
Chakotay: I can't. They'll destroy me.
Emh: That's a risk you'll have to take.
Chakotay: You take the damn risk.
Emh: They want you.
Chakotay: Why?
Emh: Because you have the gene.
Chakotay: The crazy gene.
Emh: Yes, the crazy gene. The aliens are trying to speak to you, and the only thing keeping you from understanding them is your own fear. Your fear of losing control, your fear of the unknown.
Chakotay: The unknown. And I don't want to know.
Emh: But we have to know, or we're all going to die. Allow yourself to hear them for just a few moments. Do it for us.
Chakotay: What will happen to me when they're done?
Emh: You'll be on Voyager, surrounded by friends.
Chakotay: I can't understand them.
Emh: You will.
Chakotay: They're talking too fast. Too many words.
Emh: Try to focus on one word at a time.
Chakotay: Too many words.
Emh: Don't stop.
Chakotay: I'm scared. I don't want to die.
Emh: They won't hurt you. No one will hurt you.
Chakotay: Eighteenth gradient. Trimetric fracture.
Emh: Keep going.
Chakotay: We have to modify our deflector. We have to induce a paralateral rentrillic trajectory.
Emh: How do we do that?
Chakotay: I think I understand. It's making sense.
Emh: Where are you going?
Chakotay: I can make the adjustments myself. I have to get to the bridge. I don't know how much longer I can keep it in my mind.
Tuvok: Commander.
Janeway: What happened?
Chakotay: He's got a right uppercut almost knocked me out. Move over, Harry.
Janeway: Hang on, Ensign.
Chakotay: They showed me how to get out.
Emh: He's hallucinating.
Chakotay: Out of the way.
Janeway: Tell us what to do.
Chakotay: I can't! It's too difficult to explain
Kim: I'm locking him out.
Janeway: No. Give up your post.
Tuvok: He's recalibrating the deflector dish and routing it through the sensor array.
Chakotay: It must be altered.
Paris: Captain, the graviton shear is increasing.
Tuvok: I'm reading microfractures on the hull.
Chakotay: Stay and we'll be destroyed. Activate the deflector. Maximum amplitude. Bring sensors online.
Tuvok: Captain.
Janeway: Do it.
Kim: I don't know how, but the sensors have found us a course.
Chakotay: Maximum impulse, now!
Paris: Captain, if that course is wrong, we could breach our hull.
Janeway: Engage.
Tuvok: We've re-entered normal space.
Janeway: Mister Paris, resume a course to the Alpha Quadrant.
Paris: Aye, sir.
Janeway: When I said you should take the next day or two off, I thought you'd want to stay in your quarters with a good book.
Chakotay: Boxing helps me unwind.
Janeway: Well in that case, report for duty first thing in the morning.
Chakotay: See you then. Computer, run Chakotay training program fifteen beta.
Boothby: Ah, come for a little more punishment?
Chakotay: I thought I'd spar for a few rounds.
Boothby: After that last bout? Did you talk to the Doc?
Chakotay: I've got a clean bill of health.
Boothby: That's good enough for me. Okay. I've been watching him fight. He falls in too much when he clinches, and he moves more to his right than he does to his left.
Chakotay: I'll double up on the left jabs and see what happens.
Boothby: You sure you're ready for this?
Chakotay: I'm ready.
Boothby: Okay.
Computer: Begin round one.