Paris: Holding course three five one mark one zero, warp seven. We'll be passing a red dwarf system in forty minutes. I can't tell you if there are any M-class planets.
Paris: You ready?
Kim: No, I really want to get on that transtator assembly diagnostic.
Paris: Harry, I can't do this alone.
Kim: I'm sorry.
Paris: You're making a big mistake. Can't you see what's going to happen? We're the only humans out here, Harry. People are going to start pairing off, and if we don't get to the Delany sisters in Stellar Cartography soon, somebody else will.
Kim: I've got a girl back home.
Paris: So what? I've got five.
Kim: I plan on seeing mine again.
Paris: Harry, Harry, Harry, Harry, Harry. You really think she's going to wait for you?
Kim: I hope so.
Paris: Let her go. Let her have a husband and kids and a good life, while you and I have the Delany sisters.
Kim: I told you, I need to run a transtator diagnostic.
Paris: You need to run a self-diagnostic. Look, they come as a pair. It's a double date or no date. Come on. I told them all about you.
Kim: What did you tell them about me?
Paris: Well, for one thing, how you broke the single pilot speed record at the Academy.
Kim: Record. I never broke any record!
Paris: And who are they going to check it with?
Janeway: Report!
Tuvok: We're at the leading edge of a shockwave.
Kim: Minor hull breach on deck three. Contained. Shields are holding.
Torres: Engineering is undamaged, Captain. All systems operational.
Janeway: Mister Paris, can you identify the source of the wave?
Paris: I'm not sure. Scanners are picking up a debris cloud in the red dwarf system we're approaching.
Tuvok: It consists of differentially charged polaric ions, Captain.
Janeway: Differentially charged? That would suggest a massive detonation. Are you familiar with any intelligent life forms in this system, Mister Neelix?
Neelix: Familiar? Not exactly familiar. Considerably less than familiar, actually.
Janeway: Adjust course to investigate.
Paris: Aye, Captain.
Paris: Entering the system Captain. Heading zero one zero mark four. Deflectors at maximum.
Neelix: Kes, what are you doing here?
Kes: I had to know.
Neelix: Know? Know what?
Paris: The origin of the shockwave is an M-class planet, Captain. We're within visual range.
Janeway: On screen.
Kim: All vegetation on the planet has been destroyed.
Tuvok: No satellite system in orbit, no evidence of space craft.
Janeway: Life signs?
Kes: None.
Paris: None. But the polaric radiation may be interfering with the scanners.
Janeway: Take us into orbit.
Chakotay: Density patterns on the surface show artificial waterways and a global aqueduct system. There is a civilization down there, Captain.
Janeway: Or there was. What do we know about surface conditions?
Tuvok: Radiation is within acceptable levels. Atmosphere, breathable.
Janeway: Mister Paris, Tuvok, you're with me. Miss Torres, meet us in transporter room two.
Torres: On my way.
Janeway: Commander, you have the Bridge.
Torres: The entire surface of the planet was just seared.
Janeway: There was a chain reaction in subspace, very likely triggered by the detonation of one or more polaric ion devices.
Paris: If that's what happened, the people here never had a chance.
Torres: They're gone. Vaporized. Every organic has basically been obliterated.
Janeway: At least it happened quickly. Polaric detonation would have swept through this city in seconds.
Tuvok: It recalls the Chaltok Four incident.
Torres: Chaltok Four?
Tuvok: A Romulan research colony was nearly destroyed during the testing of one these devices. It lead to the Polaric Test Ban Treaty of 2268.
Torres: So, we're looking at the end of a war.
Paris: I wonder who won?
Janeway: I'm not so sure there was a war. Look at these readings, B'Elanna.
Torres: Polaric ion concentrations are so high I can't get an accurate reading.
Janeway: I'd say these conduits were the source of the explosion, wouldn't you?
Torres: A civilization powered by polaric ion energy?
Janeway: That's what it looks like. A time bomb underneath every street, running into every home.
Neelix: What do you mean, you saw it? How could you see it?
Kes: I don't know.
Neelix: What did you see?
Kes: I saw them burn. Their bodies ashes where they stood.
Neelix: You felt the shockwave in your sleep. It's just your imagination, a strange coincidence.
Kes: I don't think so.
Neelix: What else could it be?
Kes: It was almost telepathic.
Neelix: Telepathy is a message, words, a voice. What you're describing, why, its almost like the visions of Drakian forest dwellers.
Kes: Who?
Neelix: A tribe with para-normal abilities. They can walk into an empty room
Kes: Neelix. My ancestors were said to have unusual mental abilities.
Neelix: No one believes those stories.
Kes: I always have.
Paris: Look. This may be some kind of time piece, stopped at the moment of the explosion.
Paris: What was that?
Torres: What?
Paris: Didn't you hear that?
Tuvok: Hear what, Lieutenant?
Paris: Kids playing. They were as close to me as
Paris: I don't understand. I was here in this square, but there were people.
Janeway: You never left here, Tom.
Paris: But I saw them! Lots of people, children playing, and the sun was shining. There was no evidence of an explosion. Everyone was alive and happy.
Janeway: You were standing here the whole time.
Torres: Your central nervous system is showing a temporal flux, but it's rapidly returning to normal.
Tuvok: The chain reaction has shattered subspace, Captain.
Janeway: I want everyone to stand exactly where they are. If Tuvok's right, there may be subspace fractures floating like icebergs across the planet's surface. Away team to Voyager.
Chakotay: Go ahead.
Janeway: Four to beam up.
Janeway: Tuvok! B'Elanna! Janeway
Guard: Hey, calm down. It's all right. Now, what's the problem?
Latika: I saw them. They appeared out of thin air! They're some kind of demons. I saw them with my own eyes.
Janeway: I'm sorry we startled him. We just came around the corner.
Latika: They're lying!
Guard: Shh. Now, calm down. You've been reading too many of those Dark Storm tales, young fellow. There's no such thing as demons.
Latika: But, I'm telling you.
Guard: Ah, ah, ah! Run along now. Have a confection bar and calm down. All right everybody, back to your business. Nothing else to see here now.
Guard: Oh, sorry about that.
Paris: No problem.
Guard: Who knows what gets into their heads, huh?
Janeway: Perhaps the uniform scared him. We're not from this area.
Guard: Come in on the continental transport?
Janeway: This morning.
Guard: Is, er, that what they're wearing in Kalto province these days?
Paris: Er, this is a little more formal than most. You know how it is when you travel.
Janeway: We were actually looking for a clothing shop. We thought we'd change into something more appropriate.
Guard: There's one right over there. I hope the rest of your stay with us is more enjoyable.
Paris: I wish I could say it will be. (He goes to the shop display where the timepiece is counting. 371-20-01 The owner comes out.)
Shopkeeper: Need a timepiece?
Paris: Maybe you could help me. I'm from Kalto Province. I'm not used to your timepieces.
Shopkeeper: They're no different that Kalton pieces.
Paris: Are you sure? What do these numbers stand for?
Shopkeeper: Rotations, intervals, fractions. Same as any timepiece. Fourteen kalodas.
Paris: A fair price. I might stop back later, if there's time.
Paris: If I understood correctly, this world is going to be destroyed sometime tomorrow. First officers log, supplemental. There's been no sign of Captain Janeway or Lieutenant Paris since they were lost in a subspace fracture.
Kim: This is one of the subspace fractures we've located with a magneton scan of the surface. This is the time of the explosion, where the fracture opens. Then as the shock waves dissipate, the fracture grows more narrow. We believe that the Captain and Lieutenant Paris are trapped at the narrow end.
Torres: Shockwaves from most explosions dissipate into the future, but we're speculating, based in part on what Paris told us he saw, that these dissipate into the past.
Kim: That's consistent with the subspace damage we've observed.
Tuvok: Why haven't they been able to return as Mister Paris did the first time?
Torres: He wasn't all the way inside a fracture, remember? We still saw Paris standing there even when he could see the other side.
Chakotay: So it's possible that the Captain and Paris are existing only hours and minutes before the explosion occurs.
Torres: There's no way for us to measure exactly how far back these fractures go.
Chakotay: How do we find them?
Tuvok: If I know Captain Janeway, she would activate a subspace beacon to assist us.
Kim: We're counting on it. First we have to find a fracture in a location where they've been. Then we have to microscan the fracture to try to pick up the signal from their subspace beacon.
Torres: Once we've identified where and when they re, then we have to widen the fracture at that point.
Tuvok: How do you suggest we do that?
Kim: We're not sure yet.
Emh: Hmm. Hmm, hmm.
Neelix: What?
Emh: Hmm?
Neelix: Is something wrong?
Emh: Yes, terribly wrong. Your brain is not on file. Either your government failed to transmit the standard fifteen five oh one crew personnel report or somebody at Starfleet Medical really fouled up.
Kes: I'm not a member of the Starfleet crew.
Neelix: We came aboard at mid-expedition.
Emh: And no one asked you for your medical histories when you arrived? Of course not. That would be the ship's doctor's job. My job, if anyone had bothered to tell me about new passengers, but I seem to be just about the last to know about everything around here. So, tell me, just how many other new arrivals are there?
Neelix: Just us.
Kes: And the crew from another ship that was destroyed.
Emh: Another crew. That's nice. This is the Emergency Medical Holographic system to Captain Janeway.
Neelix: She's not on board. She's missing on the surface of a planet.
Emh: Missing. The Captain is missing. It seems I've found myself on the Voyage of the Damned. Very well. Please advise the highest ranking officer who is not missing, to see me at his earliest convenience. You may shut off my program now.
Neelix: But you haven't told us anything about her condition.
Emh: She is the healthiest member of her species I've ever seen. The only member of her species I've ever seen. You have a lovely brain. It will make a fine addition to our files. I wouldn't worry. If your species has a history of extraordinary mental abilities, this may simply be your way of flexing those muscles for the first time. Living in space requires the body to make a variety of biological adjustments. This could be a side-effect of that process. Go home. Get a good night's sleep and drink plenty of fluids.
Kes: Fluids?
Emh: Everybody should drink plenty of fluids. Don't leave without turning me off.
Kes: Computer, end program.
Emh: And call me in the morning.
Janeway: We can assume that Voyager will be looking for a way to reach us. I'll set my comm. badge to emit a subspace beacon. If they get close, maybe they'll pick it up. I know.
Paris: Maybe there's some way that
Janeway: Don't even think about it, Tom. The Prime Directive is clear. We cannot allow our presence to alter this planet's natural course of events.
Paris: Even if the natural course of events is annihilation?
Janeway: Yeah.
Paris: My father used to talk at length to us about the Prime Directive, once a year, like a holiday sermon.
Janeway: He considered it the guiding principle of space exploration.
Paris: To be honest, I tuned out most of his sermons years ago.
Janeway: Well, tune back into this one, because I agree with him. You have no idea what the consequences might be once you involve yourself.
Paris: The consequences would have to be better than mass destruction.
Janeway: You're not to warn these people. That's an order.
Janeway: Oh, god. Come on.
Latika: I know you're lying.
Janeway: Young man, we're here on a business trip and we have a lot of work to do.
Latika: The officer told me you came here on the continental transport.
Janeway: That's right, we're from Kalto Province.
Latika: Yeah? Well I just talked to the transport attendant, He told me four people came today from Kalto. Two of them were a lot older than you and they had a child with them.
Janeway: Well the attendant was wrong. That was us.
Latika: So, where's the child?
Paris: We ate him, because we are demons and we eat children and I haven't had my supper yet.
Paris: Sorry. I just figured it was the quickest way.
Janeway: Let's concentrate on getting out of here.
Paris: The same subspace fractures that brought us here might still be around. If they were caused by a polaric explosion? Is there any way we could use polaric energy to get us back?
Janeway: If we had access to a polaric ion generator, we could modify a tricorder to emit a polaric field. At the very least it might help us scan for a fracture.
Paris: I wonder where these conduits get their power?
Makull: This is a lawful demonstration.
Terla: We have a right to be here.
Paris: Under normal circumstances I'd say we should come back tomorrow.
Torres: This device uses the same polaric energy that destroyed the planet.
Kim: At intense levels it can open a subspace fracture.
Chakotay: Wide enough for the Captain and Paris to get through?
Torres: If we can locate them, this is capable of bringing them back.
Tuvok: The logical place to begin would be at the same location they disappeared.
Kim: Only problem is, at the necessary intensity, the polaric generator will burn itself out after thirty seconds at best.
Chakotay: Can't we re-initialize the generator and start again?
Torres: Not at the same location. Once we make an attempt at any given location, the damage to subspace will make a second attempt impossible.
Chakotay: How do we prevent one of us getting trapped in a fracture?
Torres: We've modified our tricorders to detect the fractures, and all of us will be wearing one of these.
Torres: It puts out an anti-polaric field. It should repel the fractures when they get within three meters.
Chakotay: Nice work.
Neelix: Ah, Commander. Will you be going back to the planet surface?
Chakotay: We're getting ready to leave right now.
Kes: I have to go with you.
Chakotay: There's nothing down there you want to see, Kes.
Neelix: That's what I told her.
Kes: I've already seen it. I have to go.
Makull: We're sorry to involve you in this. Pe'Nar Makull. My colleague, Ny Terla.
Terla: Apparently you just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Paris: I was just thinking the very same thing.
Makull: What were you doing there?
Janeway: We're from Kalto Province. We were hoping to tour your power facility, compare it to our own.
Terla: I've never seen a Kalton with your color hair.
Janeway: Well, now you have.
Makull: My friend thinks you were sent by the government to infiltrate us.
Paris: Infiltrate? You were there when she got this.
Terla: Perhaps you were told to put on a good show for us.
Paris: We don't even know why someone would want to infiltrate you.
Terla: That's hard to believe. Even in Kalto there are protests against polaric energy.
Janeway: We're not spies.
Makull: When was the last time you were in a power plant?
Janeway: Not since we left home.
Makull: You weren't in that plant yesterday?
Paris: We were just getting there when we stumbled into you.
Makull: We know you're not telling the truth. We have safety monitors to measure polaric energy. When you were brought here, they registered five times the normal readings.
Terla: To register levels this high you were either inside that plant yesterday, or at the site of a polaric disaster worse than any in the history of this planet.
Chakotay: What is it?
Kes: It's as though I can sense the people who were here.
Chakotay: I know. It's like walking through a graveyard.
Kes: No, it's more than that. I almost feel as if I could touch the people who were here.
Chakotay: What have you found?
Tuvok: The scanners are not showing any subspace fractures in the area now.
Torres: That probably indicates the subspace damage is beginning to dissipate. If that's true, it's going to be harder to locate Tom and the Captain.
Kim: Commander, I'm picking up a signal from a comm. badge.
Chakotay: The subspace beacon?
Kim: No, it's not on subspace. It's here, now. Kim to Janeway. Kim to Paris.
Chakotay: Can we locate the source of the signal?
Kim: Yes, sir. This way.
Makull: What's your name?
Janeway: Janeway.
Makull: Unusual name.
Janeway: Not where I'm from.
Makull: What part of Kalto province was that again?
Janeway: I don't see any point in this.
Makull: There is a point, a very important one. It has to do with our schedule, and whether we can keep it or not. Can we?
Janeway: I don't know.
Makull: Do they know our plan?
Janeway: I have no idea.
Latika: Let me go!
Terla: Look what I caught sneaking around outside.
Tuvok: I'm still not showing any lifesigns.
Janeway: The boy has nothing to do with any of this.
Makull: Is he yours?
Janeway: No, he's just somebody we met here.
Latika: Don't trust them. They aren't who they say they are.
Makull: Really?
Paris: Thanks, kid.
Janeway: Look, this is all a misunderstanding.
Latika: They lied about coming here on the Continental transport. I talked to the attendant myself. Let me go.
Terla: What do we do with him? We can't let him go.
Makull: Just put him over there with the other.
Terla: Now stay quiet.
Kim: The comm. badge is designed to self-activate when the casing is destroyed to help searchers locate victims.
Torres: I guess it means they were caught in the explosion.
Tuvok: It only means their comm. badges were caught in the explosion. Further speculation serves no purpose. I suggest we search for other tangible evidence.
Makull: None of us have seen devices like these before. Terla believes they're spy equipment.
Janeway: They're for surveying property. I've been thinking of buying land here. I need to survey it.
Terla: I'd be curious to know how they work. Would you show me?
Makull: But then one of them might be a weapon, and I wouldn't want you to show me how that works, would I?
Paris: Hey, kid, you were right about one thing. I was lying. I don't eat children
Latika: You don't scare me. My father works for the Media Bureau and when I tell him all about this
Paris: What is he, some kind of journalist?
Latika: Yes, and so am I.
Paris: Is that right?
Latika: I report for my school journal. That's right where everyone's going to find out about you when I write about this in next week's edition.
Paris: What's your name?
Latika: Latika.
Paris: Latika. I'm sorry.
Latika: For what?
Paris: I just am.
Makull: I realize how this must appear to you but I'm just a patriot.
Janeway: A patriot?
Makull: I sincerely believe polaric energy has the potential to destroy this entire world.
Janeway: And I take it very few people here agree with you.
Makull: We have more support since the accident at Markov. We know the companies are afraid of us. We know they've increased security at all their plants, but it will not be enough to stop us. We can't wait another week, we have to move up the schedule. We know they're not telling us the truth. We have to assume the government sent them. Tell everyone we begin at four hundred tomorrow.
Janeway: Wait a minute.
Kes: Captain?
Janeway: Kes.
Makull: Do you have something to tell me, Janeway? If that's your real name.
Janeway: It is my real name. Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager.
Kes: I can feel their presence.
Tuvok: Please elaborate. How can you feel their presence?
Kes: I don't know. I just can. They've been in this room, I know it.
Chakotay: Is there a subspace fracture anywhere in here?
Tuvok: Affirmative.
Chakotay: Set up the equipment.
Janeway: You wanted the truth, all right, here's the truth. We're from the future. Exactly one day in the future.
Latika: You mean I was right?
Paris: We weren't allowed to tell. At least, I thought we weren't.
Janeway: In a few hours from now there will be a serious accident on this world. It will be caused by a polaric detonation. We came here in an interstellar ship to investigate that explosion. When we arrived, we were exposed to the polaric radiation.
Tuvok: Showing a subspace fracture, co-ordinates one four one by twenty one by fourteen, five percent drift, range four meters.
Kim: Got it. Initiating generator.
Torres: Initiating microscanner for subspace fracture.
Janeway: It's very likely that what ever you're planning to do could be responsible for this tragedy.
Makull: And somehow you are able to come back here to warn us?
Janeway: The explosion had an after-effect that no one expected. It created fractures in time. We fell through one of those fractures.
Makull: Interstellar ships, fractures in time, do you honestly expect us to believe all this?
Torres: I've found them. Scanners are picking up a subspace beacon. Adjusting penetration co-ordinates to match. I'll try to open up the other end.
Chakotay: Chakotay to Janeway.
Chakotay: Captain, can you read us?
Terla: Eavesdropping devices.
Janeway: No, but they are for communication. My crew is trying to contact me.
Terla: From the future, of course.
Makull: Get the particle injector.
Makull: Bring them with us. The boy, too. I have an idea how they can help.
Chakotay: Chakotay to Janeway, can you read me? Please respond.
Paris: I don't get it, Captain, this morning you were giving orders about not interfering because of the Prime Directive, and now you're telling them everything.
Janeway: I told them the truth when I realized we'd already violated the Prime Directive in the worst possible manner.
Paris: How did we do that?
Janeway: Just by being here. Because if we hadn't been here it's very possible this world would not have been destroyed.
Paris: What?
Janeway: Think about it, Tom. Before we got involved, these people were planning to commit some kind of sabotage next week. We were the ones who forced a change in their schedule. Because of us, they decided to begin today at four hundred rotations, and we know the detonation takes place today at just after four hundred and one .
Paris: Four oh one twenty two eighty four. Wait a minute. You're saying we're responsible for an explosion even though it occurred before our ship arrived here.
Janeway: We've traveled back to a point in time before the explosion, so, yes, we can be responsible for it.
Paris: Let's say we never came, and their plans didn't change. Wouldn't the accident simply have occurred next week instead of today?
Janeway: Who knows what might have happened between now and then. They could have been arrested before they got a chance to carry it out, conditions at the plant might not have been the same next week. But it's become our problem now, Tom, and we have got to find a way to solve it.
Kim: We're running out of time. The subspacefractures are closing. We've lost over seventy percent of them.
Torres: At this point we're suggesting we concentrate our search at the flash-point.
Tuvok: May I ask what you expect to accomplish by doing that?
Kim: We figure the Captain and Paris might have looked for the origin of the explosion to try and prevent it.
Tuvok: Unlikely. It would be a highly questionable decision in light of the Prime Directive.
Chakotay: If it were me, I would have tried to get there.
Tuvok: The issue is whether Captain Janeway would go there, not you, Commander.
Chakotay: You think you can locate the flash-point?
Torres: We already have.
Chakotay: Let's go.
Makull: Your job is to get us past the guards. You'll tell them you're bringing us here to negotiate a settlement of our dispute with the power company.
Janeway: I cannot and will not do anything to help you.
Makull: Think before you say no. Terla has a weapon trained on the boy. If shooting begins he'll be the first victim.
Guard: Is there something I can do for you?
Makull: She's a government representative on official business.
Janeway: I am a hostage. These men are here to break into the plant.
Makull: Their lives are on your conscience, Janeway!
Latika: You saved my life.
Paris: Don't waste time with me, Captain. Got to stop them.
Janeway: Will you stay with him until help arrives?
Paris: Sure he will, the kid and I, we're old friends now, aren't we?
Latika: Yeah.
Janeway: I'll be back for you.
Paris: We'll be here.
Kim: The polaric levels are higher here than any place we've been so far.
Torres: This was undoubtedly the flash-point of the explosion. Whatever went wrong, it started here.
Chakotay: Do we have subspace fractures to work with here?
Tuvok: Affirmative. They remain quite numerous in this area.
Chakotay: Set up the equipment.
Kim: Aye, sir.
Terla: I need the injector.
Janeway: Just hand that bag to me.
Tuvok: Four one by three one zero. Two percent drift, range six meters, mark.
Kim: I have it. Initiating generator.
Torres: Scanning for the subspace beacon. It doesn't look like they were here.
Tuvok: It is highly unlikely that Captain Janeway would come here to
Kes: No, the Captain did come. She was here. This is where she died.
Janeway: Everybody on this planet has less than three minutes to live if you go through with this, Makull. Don't!
Makull: What exactly do you think we are planning to do here?
Janeway: I assume you're going to sabotage the plant, probably by detonating some kind of device.
Makull: We're not stupid enough to blow up anything here.
Janeway: That may be true, but something will go wrong.
Makull: Nothing is going to go wrong unless you fire that weapon near a polaric conduit. For everyone's safety, I suggest you put it down.
Janeway: Give me the bag.
Janeway: All right then, we'll wait.
Chakotay: If Kes is right, the Captain was here at the moment the explosion occurred. Is there anyway to break through subspace a few minutes before the detonation?
Kim: If the widest point of the fracture represents the time of the explosion, couldn't we open a hole just before the widest point?
Torres: There's no way we could pin-point the exact time we'd be penetrating but we could make an educated guess.
Tuvok: I feel it is my duty to point out there is absolutely no logical reason to believe Kes is correct. However, since I have no alternative course of action to recommend at this time, I suggest we proceed.
Torres: Commander?
Janeway: What time is it?
Terla: Four oh one rotations plus twenty one.
Janeway: We'll just wait until twenty three.
Makull: Twenty three? What's the importance of twenty three? Oh, this is all about the alleged time of our self-annihilation. All right, let's just see if we can all get through the next
Terla: What's going on?
Janeway: They're cutting through subspace.
Makull: My god, it's going to intersect with the conduit wall!
Janeway: Our own rescue attempt. That's what sets it off! My weapon may be able to seal that hole. It's our only chance.
Torres: I'm getting nadion particle resistance from the other side.
Kim: Increasing generator to maximum output. The generator's overloading.
Torres: I don't understand. It's not working. We're not penetrating the fracture.
Paris: Harry, Harry, Harry, Harry, Harry. You really think she's going to wait for you?
Kim: I hope so.
Paris: Let her go. Let her have a husband and kids and a good life, while you and I have the Delany sisters.
Kim: I told you, I need to run a transtator diagnostic.
Paris: You need to run a self-diagnostic. Look, they come as a pair. It's a double date or no date. Come on. I told them all about you.
Kim: What did you tell them about me?
Paris: Well, for one thing, how you broke the single pilot speed record at the Academy.
Kim: Record? I never broke any record!
Paris: And who are they going to check it with?
Chakotay: Chakotay to Captain Janeway.
Janeway: Yes, Commander.
Chakotay: We've identified an M-class planet in the red dwarf system we're approaching. Do you want to change course to investigate?
Janeway: Are you familiar with any intelligent life forms in this system, Mister Neelix?
Neelix: Familiar. Not exactly familiar. Considerably less than familiar, actually.
Neelix: Kes, what are you doing here?
Kes: I had to know.
Neelix: Know? Know what?
Kes: The planet. Everyone was killed. There was this terrible explosion.
Neelix: You had a bad dream.
Kes: No, it was more than a dream.
Janeway: Mister Tuvok, any indications of trouble on that M-class planet?
Tuvok: Negative, Captain.
Janeway: Is it populated?
Tuvok: Sensors do show humanoid life. There is no satellite system and no indications of space craft in the vicinity. It appears to be a pre-warp civilization.
Janeway: Which means, as a policy, we don't involve ourselves in their affairs.
Neelix: Of course. A most enlightened philosophy. Come on, Kes.
Kes: I'm sorry. Captain, is it possible to see this planet on the view screen?
Janeway: There it is.
Kes: Thank you.
Paris: Come on. Come on. Just go.
Janeway: Enter the planet's co-ordinates into the log and maintain present heading, Commander, warp six.
Chakotay: Aye, Captain.


Janeway: Captain's log, stardate 48532.4. We're on our way to a rogue planetoid which Mister Neelix tells us is an extremely rich source of raw dilithium. If he's right, this could go a long way toward easing our power shortage.
Janeway: Assuming we do find dilithium on this planetoid, we're going to need a refining facility on the ship to process it.
Chakotay: Lieutenant Torres has already asked permission to start modifications to the auxiliary impulse reactor. It could be converted into a crude dilithium refinery.
Janeway: The impulse reactor? Sometimes I think B'Elanna goes out of her way to find solutions that ignore Starfleet procedures.
Chakotay: Her arguments are quite convincing. She thinks it can be done safely.
Janeway: I'm sure it can. Tell her I want regular reports on her progress every step of the way. Are you sure you won't join me for breakfast? I was thinking of having eggs Benedict with asparagus, strawberries and cream.
Chakotay: Ah.
Janeway: I said I was thinking about it. I'm actually having ration pack number five. Stewed tomatoes with dehydrated eggs.
Chakotay: Mmm. Sounds delicious, but I've already had my vacuum-packed oatmeal this morning.
Janeway: I'll see you on the bridge.
Neelix: Hope you enjoy it.
Janeway: What is going on here?
Neelix: Captain, you caught me by surprise.
Janeway: I could say the same thing. What are you doing?
Neelix: Well, I know how you and the other senior officers have been, excuse me, disappointed with the rations lately, so I thought I'd use a few of the vegetables from the hydroponics bay and whip up a little breakfast.
Janeway: You have turned this into a galley?
Neelix: It wasn't easy. I had to completely re-route the mess hall power conduits and scrounge a lot of supplies from all over the ship, but that's my specialty, making something out of nothing. I know it doesn't look like much now, but in a few days you'll swear there'd been a galley here for years. Be careful, that one is a little spicy.
Janeway: Neelix, who approved this?
Neelix: Ah, well, no one.
Janeway: Well, you might have asked me first. This used to be my private dining room.
Neelix: Your? Your dining room?
Janeway: If you had checked the ship's directory, you would have noticed that cabin one two five alpha deck two is designated as the Captain's private dining room.
Neelix: Oh! Then I guess that you'll be wanting me to move all of this stuff out of your way.
Chakotay: Bridge to Captain Janeway.
Janeway: Go ahead.
Chakotay: We're approaching the rogue planetoid, Captain.
Janeway: On my way. I want you to come with me. We will deal with this later.
Neelix: Ensign Parsons, would you mind keeping an eye on things until I get back and er, rotate the darvot fritters every ten minutes until they turn a deep chartreuse. And remember one, one to a customer.
Janeway: What have you found?
Kim: We're picking up definite dilithium signatures, Captain. The strongest readings are originating from ten to twenty kilometers inside the planetoid.
Torres: It also looks like there's a series of subterranean caves with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere.
Chakotay: Class M. It'll make mining a lot easier if we can go in there without environmental suits.
Janeway: How much dilithium are we talking about?
Torres: It's hard to get a precise reading. It could be anywhere from five hundred to one thousand metric tons.
Neelix: Just as I said. I bet there are a few Yallitaian engineers who'd give all three of their spinal columns to know where this planet is.
Janeway: Commander, take an away team down into those caves and do a preliminary geological analysis. Lieutenant, you'd better get your dilithium refinery on-line.
Torres: It'll be ready to go in three days.
Chakotay: Ensign Kim.
Chakotay: Where are you going?
Neelix: With you. I've been studying my tricorder operations manual. Lieutenant Torres has brought me up to date on dilithium geophysics. I've been preparing for this mission all week.
Janeway: Very well, Mister Neelix.
Neelix: I think you'll find me extremely helpful, Commander. I remember the first time I flew past this planet, it was about three years ago
Kim: Deck four.
Chakotay: It looks like there are several large deposits in this general vicinity. Let's split up and begin taking geological scans. Keep your comm. channels open at all times and don't wander too far. Stay within a fifty meter radius of this position.
Chakotay: Chakotay to Kim.
Kim: Go ahead.
Chakotay: I'm still picking up dilithium signatures but there are no dilithium formations here. Have you found anything yet?
Kim: I'm running a geo-strato analysis of the rock in this vicinity. So far there's no indication of any dilithium.
Chakotay: Keep looking.
Neelix: Neelix to Commander Chakotay.
Chakotay: Go ahead.
Neelix: I think I've found something. A large cavern approximately twenty meters from my position. I'm reading a huge dilithium formation there.
Chakotay: Don't go any further
Chakotay: Neelix. Stay within the search radius. I'll be with you in a minute.
Neelix: But it's right here. I'm in the cavern now, Commander, but I don't understand this.
Chakotay: Let me guess, nothing there.
Neelix: Not so much as a sliver of dilithium, and yet according to my readings I should be surrounded by it.
Chakotay: All right, I've had enough
Chakotay: Of this. Kim, Neelix, we're heading back to the ship.
Chakotay: Rendezvous at the
Neelix: Wait a minute. I'm getting unusual readings from this rock face. Traces of organic energy. Looks like a bio-electrical signature. I think there's something alive down here. It's about two meters into this rock face.
Chakotay: Neelix, I said get back here! Neelix, did you hear what I said?
Neelix: Just one minute, Commander.
Neelix: Hello? Is there someone there? Hello? I know there's somebody.
Chakotay: Neelix, what's wrong? Neelix! Kim!
Kim: I'm on my way sir.
Chakotay: I can't be certain, but I think he's going into shock. Chakotay to Voyager, medical emergency. Beam us directly to sickbay.
Emh: Get the blood-gas infuser.
Chakotay: The what?
Emh: Equipment storage unit two, second shelf on the left. Now!
Emh: Hold him still.
Kim: What's happening, Doctor?
Emh: He's going into a coma.
Emh: The infuser will keep his oxygen levels stable for the next hour or so, but after that he'll die. His lungs have been removed.
Chakotay: By the time we got to him he was unconscious.
Janeway: How could anyone remove his organs so quickly?
Chakotay: The Doctor says whoever did this used some kind of transporter to beam the lungs directly out of his body.
Kes: What happened?
Janeway: It appears that Neelix was attacked. We don't know how it happened, but someone has surgically removed his lungs.
Janeway: Did you find any evidence of the life sign that Neelix reported?
Chakotay: No.
Kim: Captain, I've analyzed the sensor logs from Neelix's tricorder. The bio-scanner picked up a single class three humanoid organism.
Emh: The blood gas infuser will keep him alive for another forty seven minutes. The only chance for his survival I see at the moment is to get his own lungs back.
Janeway: Can't we fit him with a pair of artificial lungs?
Emh: His respiratory system is directly linked to multiple points along his spinal column. It's too complex to replicate. I may be able to surgically reattach the organs if we get them back. In the meantime I'll have to search for other options.
Janeway: Commander, I'm taking an away team back to the planet. You're in charge until we return. Inform Mister Tuvok I want three armed security detachments to accompany us. Issue type three phasers.
Emh: Mister Paris, did they teach you how to run a respiratory series in your bio-chemistry classes at the Academy?
Paris: No, I'm afraid they didn't.
Emh: Fine, I'll run it myself. Get me a pulmonary scanner. I'm going to have to ask you to leave.
Kes: I'm not leaving.
Emh: All right, just keep out of the way.
Kim: Here it is. This is where Neelix was standing when he was attacked. According to his tricorder log he was scanning this rock face when he detected the life sign.
Janeway: Neelix said there was a life sign two meters behind this wall, but my tricorder says there's nothing but solid rock for another fifteen meters.
Kim: Sounds like our tricorders aren't giving us the real picture behind what's going on here.
Janeway: Wait a minute. The rock is warmer here.
Kim: You're right, Captain. There's a two degree differential in this section of the wall.
Tuvok: There are no natural geological phenomena that could be creating this heat source.
Janeway: Let's make a little heat of our own.
Tuvok: There was a highly sophisticated forcefield in place.
Janeway: There's a chamber down this corridor.
Paris: Doc, I think his cellular toxicity level is rising.
Emh: It's up to thirty two percent. Lets see if we can stabilize those levels. Get me a cytoplasmic stimulator.
Paris: We don't have one.
Emh: Then replicate one. The design schematics are in the ship's medical database.
Paris: Right.
Emh: The man drives a seven hundred thousand ton starship so somebody thinks he'd make a good medic.
Kes: I can survive with one lung, can't I? What if I donated a lung to Neelix?
Emh: A transplant is not an option. No one on board is a compatible match for a Talaxian.
Emh: We're going to need a completely new way to oxygenate his blood supply and relay neuro-electrical impulses. Our replicators can't produce compatible artificial organs for him, but maybe there's a way to mimic their functions and give us direct control of his respiratory system. Computer, is there an identification matrix on Mister Neelix from the last time he used the transporter?
Computer: Affirmative.
Emh: Transfer it to console four.
Paris: What are you doing?
Emh: I'm using the transporter matrix to get exact specifications for Neelix's lungs.
Paris: I thought you just said we can't replicate his lungs.
Emh: We can't. But if I can reconfigure my emitter array I might be able to create a pair of holographic lungs for Mister Neelix.
Paris: Holographic lungs?
Emh: If it's successful, we can precisely control his pulmonary functions to allow normal breathing.
Paris: But a hologram is just a projection of light held in a magnetic containment field. There's no real matter involved.
Emh: Now, you hit me.
Emh: The magnetic containment field that creates the illusion of my body can be modulated to allow matter to pass through it or be stopped. I might be able to modulate the holographic lungs in the same way, allowing oxygen and carbon dioxide to pass from the lungs to the blood stream.
Kes: I want to know what this means. What are you going to do to him?
Emh: There's no time to explain the exact procedure to you right now.
Kes: Oh, you'll make the time, because I'm not going to let you perform any experimental surgery on Neelix until I know exactly what you're doing and what the risks are.
Emh: The risk is that it won't work, and if it doesn't he'll die. But it is his only immediate chance for survival. If he does survive, he'll have to be held motionless in an isotropic restraint. The lungs need to be perfectly aligned to his internal physiology. The computer won't be able to compensate for any body movement whatsoever.
Kes: How long will he have to stay like that?
Emh: For the rest of his life, unless the holo-lungs can be replaced by his original organs. And he will never be able to leave the holographic environment of this room. The holo-lungs would disappear the moment he went out the door.
Paris: Kes, I know it sounds pretty grim, but it's better than losing him completely. This way, he'll still be alive, and maybe we can find a better solution somewhere down the road. What do you think Neelix would want?
Kes: I'm not sure. But I do know that I want him to live.
Tuvok: This room is the source of the dilithium signature we detected earlier. The power systems here are running on an unusual dilithium matrix.
Kim: So there are actually no dilithium deposits on this planet.
Tuvok: It would appear not.
Kim: Are these organs?
Janeway: This looks like some sort of storage facility.
Tuvok: I would say you are correct, Captain. This appears to be a biological repository.
Janeway: Any sign of Neelix's lungs?
Tuvok: Negative. There is however a Kazon liver, and although I cannot identify the other organs on display here I would say they bear a striking similarity to pulmonary organs, epidermal tissue, ocular nerve fiber
Janeway: Save the cataloging for later, Tuvok, according to my tricorder there was a lifeform in this room less than ten minutes ago.
Kim: Captain.
Janeway: Open it. One life sign twenty meters ahead. Let's go.
Tuvok: They have erected a forcefield with a rotating phase modulation. We will not be able to disrupt it.
Chakotay: Voyager to Captain Janeway.
Janeway: Go ahead.
Chakotay: We've just picked
Chakotay: Up an alien ship leaving the planet.
Janeway: Tractor them
Janeway: Commander.
Chakotay: Sorry, Captain. They went into warp too quickly.
Janeway: Beam us back. As soon as we're aboard lay in a course for pursuit.
Janeway: Maximum warp.
Chakotay: Aye Captain.
Paris: Okay. The isotropic restraint is activated. He won't be able to move more than two microns in any direction.
Emh: One micron would be preferable, but I suppose it'll have to do. Initiating the holographic emitter array.
Paris: His cellular toxicity is rising. Eight two percent. Eighty six percent.
Emh: Computer, activate program Neelix One. Deactivate the infuser.
Paris: It's offline.
Emh: Here we go.
Paris: Ninety percent. Ninety five percent.
Paris: Toxicity returning to normal.
Janeway: Captain's log, supplemental. We are pursuing the alien ship from the moon. They are not responding to hails and it appears that our two ships are evenly matched for speed.
Neelix: Holographic lungs?
Emh: Yes, and they're working perfectly, if I do say so myself. Try to breath normally.
Neelix: How long can I live like this?
Emh: I don't know. This is an unprecedented medical procedure. We will be closely monitoring your condition.
Neelix: When do I get out of this restraint?
Emh: Unless Captain Janeway is successful in retrieving your original lungs, you'll have to stay in the isotropic restraint indefinitely.
Neelix: Indefinitely? You mean I could be in here the rest of my life.
Emh: Yes.
Kes: But we're trying to find the aliens that did this to you. The Captain is doing everything she can.
Neelix: Well, if I'm going to be in here a while, now's as good a time as any to tell you. Your ceiling is hideous.
Emh: I didn't design the room, I just work here.
Neelix: Something with a bit of color would help. Maybe a nice tapestry or a painting. Could you dim the lights a little?
Emh: I'm a doctor, Mister Neelix, not a decorator. Perhaps you would be willing to accommodate his esthetic needs.
Neelix: And some music would be nice. Or better yet, are you programmed to sing?
Janeway: Janeway to Paris. Please report to the bridge.
Paris: I'm on my way, Captain. You know where I am if you need me.
Kes: Thanks for everything.
Neelix: Oh, fine. I have a little accident, I lose a pair of lungs, and the next thing I know Paris is swooping in like a Rectillian vulture.
Kes: What are you talking about?
Neelix: Didn't you hear the way that he said that? I'll be on the bridge if you need me. If you need me.
Kes: Neelix
Neelix: Why doesn't he just pull the plug on the holographic emitter and get it over with. Get me out of the way so he can have you all to himself.
Kes: Neelix, you're over-reacting. Tom's been very supportive.
Neelix: Ah, so it's Tom now, is it?
Kes: You really have nothing to worry about. We're friends, that's all.
Neelix: It's not you I'm worried about. It's him. He's just one big hormone walking around the ship. Don't you see the way that he looks at you?
Kes: This is ridiculous. I'm not going to argue with you about something that exists only in your imagination. I know you, Neelix, and I know you're afraid. I just want you to know that no matter what happens, I'll be here with you.
Neelix: Kes, I could be in here a very long time. You need to go on with your life. Don't worry about me.
Kes: Neelix
Neelix: You should just let me die.
Kes: Stop that. We're going to get through this together.
Emh: Visiting hours are over. He needs rest.
Kes: When can I come back?
Emh: Seventeen hundred hours. Not a minute before.
Kes: I'll see you then.
Emh: Don't worry, I'm not going to kiss you, I'm only adjusting the restraint.
Neelix: I'll try to contain my disappointment.
Torres: Captain! We've completed our diagnostic on the alien device. It appears to be more than a weapon. It's also a very sophisticated medical scanner and surgical instrument.
Tuvok: From what we can tell, it uses a neural resonator to stun the victim, while a quantum imaging begins a microcellular analysis of the entire body.
Torres: The amount of information this thing can gather puts a tricorder to shame. You fire this at someone, you learn everything about their anatomy, right down to their DNA sequencing.
Janeway: So it sounds like we're dealing with aliens who've developed a technology specifically designed to locate and extract organs from other beings. Why?
Chakotay: Captain! The alien ship has dropped out of warp. It's approaching a large asteroid.
Janeway: On screen.
Paris: It's entered the asteroid, Captain.
Janeway: Hold position here. Mister Kim?
Kim: I can't scan the interior. The surface stratum is made up of some sort of neutronium alloy. It doesn't look like a natural formation.
Chakotay: Are you saying some one built this asteroid?
Kim: It's possible.
Janeway: Any sign of weapons or defense systems?
Tuvok: Negative.
Paris: I think I've located where the alien ship entered. There's an open crater on the limb of the asteroid.
Chakotay: Let's see it.
Paris: The ion trail from the alien ship leads directly inside.
Janeway: How large is that crater?
Paris: Two hundred meters in diameter.
Tuvok: Captain, may I suggest you consider carefully what you are about to do.
Janeway: How do you know what I'm about to do?
Tuvok: I could describe to you in detail the psychological observations I have made about you over the past four years which lead me to conclude you are about to take this ship inside the asteroid. But suffice it to say, I know you quite well.
Janeway: One of these days I'm going to surprise you, Tuvok, but not today. I've already considered other options. If Neelix has any chance of surviving, we have to act fast. Red alert. Mister Paris, lay in a course.
Paris: Aye, Captain.
Janeway: Mister Tuvok, maximum shields. Phasers at the ready.
Paris: Captain, I'm reducing power to the aft thrusters only. This passageway is getting a little too narrow for my taste.
Janeway: Use your diskretion, Mister Paris. Any sign of the vessel, Lieutenant?
Tuvok: We are still following the ion trail, but electro-magnetic interference is limiting our sensor range. I am only able to scan five hundred meters ahead of us.
Chakotay: Are there any indications we're being scanned or probed, Mister Kim?
Kim: Not yet.
Neelix: Doctor? Doctor, I require your assistance.
Emh: What is it, Mister Neelix?
Neelix: Please, it's urgent.
Emh: Yes?
Neelix: I have an itch
Emh: An itch.
Neelix: Just above my left eyebrow.
Neelix: A little higher. Ah. Thank you.
Emh: You're quite welcome.
Neelix: Doctor, wait, don't leave.
Emh: I'm not leaving, Mister Neelix, I'm simply going back to work.
Neelix: I can't see you over there. I feel like I'm all alone.
Emh: You are all alone. I'm a holographic projection. A projection with a lot of work to do, I might add.
Neelix: That's very amusing, Doctor. But, I'm really starting to feel a little trapped in here. A little claustrophobic, maybe. I'm not sure what to do.
Emh: There's nothing you can do except lie there and be quiet.
Neelix: I'm going to lie here for the rest of my life, aren't I? Just staring up at the ceiling. I'm not sure I can take that. I really need to get out of this restraint. Doctor, I want you to let me out of this thing right now.
Emh: You know that's impossible.
Neelix: I'm the patient, I know what my rights are. I want to be released from this restraint immediately. Immediately!
Emh: Mister Neelix, you are alive. You are breathing and for the moment your condition is stable. That is more than most people can say in your situation. Now it is critical to your recovery that you not subject yourself to any additional stress. Try to calm down.
Neelix: Don't tell me to calm down! You're not the one trapped in a restraining field with holo, holo-lungs. I don't think they're working. I can't, can't get enough oxygen. There's something wrong.
Emh: You're hyperventilating. Try to take slow, natural breaths.
Neelix: I can't. I'm dying. Let me out of here. Help me. Help me.
Janeway: You're doing fine, Mister Paris. Just fine.
Paris: Thanks, Captain.
Tuvok: Sensors detect a large chamber ahead.
Chakotay: What the hell?
Kim: We appear to be seeing Voyager and the alien ship reflecting off the walls of the chamber.
Janeway: Can you determine which ship is the real one?
Tuvok: No, Captain. The walls are emanating severe electro-magnetic interference. I cannot scan them directly.
Janeway: It's like trying to move through a hall of mirrors. You never know when you're going to walk into the glass.
Paris: I'm still picking up the alien's ion trail. Maybe we should follow that.
Chakotay: He might have left a fake ion trail to lure us in here. It could lead us right into one of those walls.
Janeway: That's a chance we're going to have to take. Tuvok, extend the deflectors to maximum range. If we do run into something, it'll give us an extra margin of error. Follow the ion trail, Mister Paris, slowly. Mister Kim, continuous scans.
Kim: Aye, Captain.
Kes: I'll do what I can to reassure him, Doctor.
Emh: Good. If you don't mind I'd like you to remain in sickbay so you're here when he wakes up.
Kes: Of course. Are you all right?
Emh: Me?
Kes: You seem agitated about something.
Emh: Of course I'm agitated. This entire situation is getting out of control.
Kes: You mean Neelix.
Emh: First they tell me there's no doctor, so I have to be on call twenty four hours a day. And then they tell me there are no nurses so I have no one to assist me.
Kes: I thought Tom Paris was assigned to you.
Emh: Like I said, no one to assist me. And now I have a patient with severe and possibly long term emotional problems and there's no counselor on board. I am an emergency medical supplement. A supplement, that's all. I wasn't programmed for any of this. It's just unacceptable.
Kes: I don't know anything about holographic engineering, but if you want my opinion, you haven't been acceptable, you've been remarkable.
Emh: I've only done what the program allows me to.
Kes: Give yourself some credit. You saved his life. You did, not some program.
Emh: It may seem that way to you.
Kes: That's exactly how it seems.
Emh: You're very kind.
Kes: How does a real doctor learn to deal with patient's emotional problems anyway?
Emh: They learn from experience.
Kes: Aren't you capable of learning?
Emh: I have the capacity to accumulate and process data, yes.
Kes: Then I guess you'll just have to learn like the rest of us.
Emh: Have you ever considered a career in medicine? Neelix is starting to regain consciousness.
Seska: Lieutenant, I'm picking up a minor power fluctuation in the warp core.
Torres: Compensate with the KLS stabilizer.
Seska: No effect. In fact, the power loss is starting to accelerate.
Janeway: Janeway to Torres, what's going on down there?
Torres: Some kind of power drain. I can't localize it but we're losing power at the rate of
Torres: Seven percent per minute.
Kim: The power drain is coming from somewhere in this chamber, Captain. It's some kind of dampening field. It's bleeding energy directly from the warp nacelles.
Janeway: B'Elanna, shut down the warp core.
Janeway: Go to emergency power.
Torres: No effect, Captain.
Janeway: Keep me informed.
Janeway: Bridge out. Can you pinpoint the source of the dampening field?
Kim: It appears to be coming from two one seven mark zero one five. Distance, five hundred and forty seven meters.
Janeway: Tuvok, what would happen if we locked phasers and fired at the source.
Tuvok: The walls of this chamber reflect directed energy. The phaser beam would ricochet along an unpredictable path, possibly impacting our ship in the process.
Janeway: All right, we won't try that.
Chakotay: Well, maybe we should. Tuvok, what would happen if we reduced the phaser power level to a minimum setting and sent out a continuous beam.
Tuvok: The phaser would continue to reflect off the bulkheads until it encountered a non-reflective material.
Chakotay: Until it encountered a non-reflective material, like the real alien ship.
Janeway: So we could use the phasers like a searchlight, scan the interior of the station until we find the ship.
Chakotay: Exactly.
Janeway: Do it.
Tuvok: Adjusting phaser azimuth to fifteen degrees.
Kim: Wait a minute. I think I've found the real ship.
Janeway: On screen.
Janeway: Mister Paris, bring us within transporter range of that ship.
Paris: Aye, Captain.
Kim: Picking up two life signs.
Tuvok: They are powering engines.
Janeway: Bridge to transporter room three. Lock onto those two life signs and beam them aboard.
Tuvok: Security, meet me in transporter room three.
Crewman: Aye sir.
Janeway: You're on the Starship Voyager. I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the United Federation of Planets.
Dereth: I'm Dereth, of the Vidiian Sodality.
Janeway: You attacked one of our crewmembers and you have lured us into this asteroid. Why?
Dereth: We are gathering replacement organs and suitable bio-matter. It is the only way we have to fight the phage.
Janeway: A virus? Some kind of disease?
Motura: Yes, it attacked our people over two millennia ago. It consumes our bodies, destroys our genetic codes and cellular structures.
Janeway: So you harvest the bodies of other beings to replace your own tissues as they're consumed by this phage?
Motura: Our immuno-technology cannot keep up. The phage adapts. It resists all attempts to destroy it. Our society has been ravaged. Thousands die each day. There is no other way for us to survive.
Janeway: I have a great sympathy for what your race has endured, but I cannot allow you to keep the organs you removed from one of our crew members. We need them back immediately.
Dereth: I'm afraid that isn't possible. I have already bio-chemically altered the air-breathing organs and grafted them into Motura's body. They are a part of him now.
Motura: He is my honatta. His task is to find the organs I need for survival. We, we try to extract them from the dead
Dereth: But sometimes, when the need is immediate, more aggressive actions are required.
Janeway: So now I am left with the same choice you made. Whether to commit murder to save a life, or to allow my own crewman to die while you breath air through his lungs.
Motura: It must be impossible for you to understand how any civilized people could come to this. Before the phage began, we were known as educators and explorers, a people whose greatest achievements were artistic. I myself am a sculptor of note on my world. All I can say is that when your entire existence is at stake
Dereth: You don't have to explain yourself, Motura.
Motura: If the consequence of this act is a death sentence, so be it. At least it will put an end to my suffering.
Janeway: I can't begin to understand what your people have gone through. They may have found a way to ignore the moral implications of what you are doing, but I have no such luxury. I don't have the freedom to kill you to save another. My culture finds that to be a reprehensible and entirely unacceptable act. If we were closer to home I would lock you up and turn you over to my authorities for trial, but I don't even have that ability here, and I am not prepared to carry you forever in our brig. So I see no other alternative but to let you go. Take a message to your people. If I ever encounter your kind again, I will do whatever is necessary to protect my people from this harvesting of yours. Any aggressive actions against this ship or it's crew will be met by the deadliest force. Is that clear?
Dereth: Quite.
Motura: Wait. I want to see this crewman of yours.
Dereth: That can serve no useful purpose.
Motura: Maybe it can. Our medical technologies may be superior to theirs.
Janeway: I can tell you, from what we've observed of them, that they are considerably superior.
Motura: She spared my life. Our lives. We owe it to them to see if there's anything we can do to help him.
Janeway: I'll take you to him.
Dereth: His simulated organs are primitive. It's amazing he is still alive.
Dereth: This is set to scan only.
Tuvok: Proceed, carefully. (Dereth scans Tuvok, then Kes, Janeway, a security guard, then the EMH.)
Dereth: Strange. According to my readings, you are not here.
Emh: Believe me, I wish I weren't.
Dereth: The rest of you are healthy. You are compatible for organ transplant.
Emh: Wait a minute. We've already considered this. Talaxian physiology is different from that of anyone else on this ship. His immune system would reject their lungs immediately.
Dereth: Your surgical knowledge is inferior. We will simply adapt his immunogenicity. It won't be a problem. Which of you will donate a lung?
Kes: Me.
Neelix: No, absolutely not. It's too dangerous. Let someone else do it.
Kes: No, I want to do it, Neelix. I'm willing to take the risk. Besides, you've done so much for me, let me give you something this once. Just for once
Neelix: All right.
Janeway: I look forward to sampling your cooking, Mister Neelix.
Neelix: You mean I can keep my kitchen?
Janeway: Well, at least until we get the replicators back online.
Neelix: Thank you, Captain. And Captain? I'll see you at breakfast.
Janeway: Captain's log, supplemental. The aliens have successfully transplanted one of Kes' lungs into Neelix. The dampening field has been deactivated, and I have allowed them to beam back to their vessel. We are resuming a course home.
Emh: It's all right. The operation was a success. Neelix is asleep and breathing on his own now. With your lung.
Kes: I feel a little light-headed.
Emh: That will pass. You'll soon adapt to diminished lung capacity. I spoke to the Captain about you. She's given me permission to begin training you as a medical assistant. You'll be a back-up for Mister Paris, or possibly a replacement. That is, assuming you're interested.
Kes: Of course I'm interested. When do we start?
Emh: We'll begin your lessons as soon as you've fully recovered.
Kes: Thank you, Doctor.
Emh: Thank you. You've given me a lot to think about.


Janeway: Personal log, Stardate 48546.2. Our journey home is several weeks old now, and I have begun to notice in my crew and in myself, a subtle change as the reality of our situation settles in. Here in the Delta Quadrant, we are virtually the entire family of man. We are more than a crew and I must find a way to be more than a captain to these people, but it's not clear to me exactly how to begin.
Janeway: At the Academy, we are taught that a captain is expected to maintain a certain distance. Until now, I've always been comfortable with that distance.
Torres: Captain, I didn't realize there was an inspection scheduled.
Janeway: Not an inspection, Lieutenant. A stroll.
Torres: We should have the warp drive up and running by oh nine hundred hours. Recalibrating the reactant injectors is the only thing we have left to do.
Janeway: Carry on.
Janeway: Maybe this is just the way it works. Maybe the distance is necessary. Maybe more than ever now, they need me to be larger than life.
Janeway: I only wish I felt larger than life. Computer, delete last sentence.
Janeway: Gentlemen. As you were. So, has Neelix concocted anything interesting this morning?
Kim: There's an ancient Chinese curse, Captain. May you live in interesting times. Mealtime is always interesting now that Neelix is in the kitchen.
Janeway: We shouldn't judge him too harshly. He is helping us conserve replicator energy.
Paris: And I'm sure the gastrointestinal problems will go away as soon as our systems get used to his, er, gourmet touch.
Janeway: Well, I'll see you at duty call.
Kim: We should've asked her to join us.
Paris: Ensigns don't invite captains to sit down.
Kim: Why not?
Paris: Because they don't.
Kim: Well, what's wrong with showing a little courtesy?
Paris: Captains don't want courtesy, they want respect. That's why they don't get chummy with the lower ranks.
Kim: Well, who else is she supposed to get chummy with out here? There aren't many other captains and admirals for her to talk to.
Paris: If she wants to sit with us, she'll ask us to join her. That's the way it's done.
Kim: I think you're working from an old rule book, Paris.
Janeway: Neelix?
Neelix: Captain! May I say, you look beautiful this morning. Is that a new color lipstick?
Janeway: No. No, it's the same color I always wear.
Neelix: Well, perhaps it's just the way the glow of the food heater lamps hit you but you look wonderful. Not to suggest you don't always look wonderful.
Janeway: Neelix. Do we have any coffee left?
Neelix: No, but we have something even better.
Janeway: I don't want something even better. I want coffee.
Neelix: It's made from a proteinaceous seed I discovered on an expedition
Janeway: Never mind. I'll use one of my replicator rations for coffee.
Neelix: That would not be appropriate, Captain.
Janeway: I beg your pardon?
Neelix: You need to set an example for the crew.
Janeway: Well, thank you for reminding me.
Neelix: You're welcome. After all, if you want the crew to begin to accept natural food alternatives instead of futher depleting our energy reserves, you need to encourage them by your own choices, don't you?
Janeway: Fine. Give me your even better than coffee substitute.
Neelix: And how about some Takar loggerhead eggs with that this morning?
Janeway: Just coffee.
Neelix: It's a tiny bit richer blend than you're used to, but you'll learn to love it.
Chakotay: Bridge to Janeway.
Janeway: On my way. Janeway out. Tomorrow maybe.
Janeway: Yes, Commander?
Chakotay: There was no need for you to come to the bridge, Captain.
Janeway: Yes, there was.
Chakotay: I just wanted to alert you to a nebula we've picked up on long range sensors.
Janeway: Put it on screen. Magnify.
Tuvok: There are unusually high levels of omicron particles within this nebula, Captain.
Janeway: Are you thinking we could collect these omicron particles to provide an additional antimatter reserve, Lieutenant?
Tuvok: Precisely.
Janeway: Senior bridge officers, report for duty. Commander, set a new course. There's coffee in that nebula.
Janeway: Exploring this nebula should raise some spirits around here, don't you think, Commander?
Chakotay: No way to go but up.
Janeway: You're closer to the crew than I am. How bad is it?
Chakotay: There's a nuanka, a period of mourning, that everyone's going through. It's a natural reaction.
Janeway: I'm worried about them. I wish we had a counselor on board, but the nature of our mission didn't require one.
Chakotay: We talk to animals. It's a Native American tradition.
Janeway: Animals?
Chakotay: Our own counselors. We're taught that an animal guide accompanies us through life. Basically, it's what Carl Jung thought he invented when he came up with his active imagination technique in 1932, but we've been doing pretty much the same thing for centuries.
Janeway: Is there a different animal guide for everyone?
Chakotay: Actually, yes.
Janeway: Let me guess. Yours is a bear.
Chakotay: Why do you say that?
Janeway: You strike me as the bear type.
Chakotay: Thank you. The bear is a very powerful animal. It has great pokattah. But he's not my animal guide. The creature that guides us doesn't define who we are. It merely chooses to be with us.
Janeway: Okay. If not a bear, then what?
Chakotay: I can't tell you that. It would offend my animal guide if I spoke its name.
Janeway: But he guides you well?
Chakotay: Actually, it's a female. But yes, she usually guides me very well.
Janeway: Can one just choose their own animal guide?
Chakotay: It's not quite that simple.
Paris: Captain. We're approaching the perimeter of the nebula.
Janeway: Slow to one third impulse.
Chakotay: If you're interested, I'll be glad to teach you how to contact your animal guide.
Janeway: You've got a date. Analysis, Mister Kim.
Kim: Seven AU's in diameter. Sensors are picking up intermittent gamma and thermal emissions. Nothing our shields can't handle.
Janeway: Mister Paris, any problems for navigation?
Paris: I'm showing mostly hydrogen, helium and hydroxyl radicals. Some local dust nodules. I don't see them giving us any trouble.
Janeway: Mister Tuvok, can you find us a rich deposit of omicron particles in there?
Tuvok: A significant concentration appears to exist approximately sixty four million kilometers inside the perimeter.
Janeway: Set coordinates.
Tuvok: Aye, Captain.
Janeway: Engines at one quarter impulse. Engage.
Kim: I've never seen anything like it.
Tuvok: Tuvok to Kim. Mister Kim, that is a comment we'd prefer not to hear from a senior officer on the Bridge. It makes the junior officers nervous.
Kim: Yes, sir.
Paris: Density has increased to forty two percent.
Janeway: Cause?
Paris: Not sure. We seem to be drawing some interstellar dust toward us.
Janeway: Engineering, could the magnetic field from our impulse engines be attracting this dust?
Torres: It's a good possibility, Captain. I'm showing the dust with a return force ratio of four to one. Recommend we shut down impulse and go to thrusters.
Janeway: Acknowledged. Engage thrusters.
Janeway: Ahead, slow.
Paris: Density still increasing. Up by seventy percent now.
Janeway: Mister Tuvok?
Tuvok: The level of resistance poses no danger to the hull at this time, Captain.
Janeway: How far to your omicron particle deposits?
Tuvok: Twelve thousand four hundred kilometers.
Janeway: Maintain course and
Janeway: Report!
Paris: We're at a dead stop now.
Torres: Shutting down thrusters.
Tuvok: We seem to have encountered an energy barrier.
Janeway: Is it natural or artificial?
Torres: We're not reading any directed energy source down here, Captain. My guess is it's a natural phenomenon.
Janeway: How far are we from the particles, Lieutenant?
Tuvok: Just over seven thousand kilometers.
Janeway: It's conceivable this energy barrier is related to those particles. Mister Kim, if you can get a transporter beam through the barrier
Kim: Can't do it, Captain. The thoron emissions of the barrier would interfere with the transporter signal.
Janeway: Miss Torres, do we have enough power to take the ship through the barrier?
Torres: The barrier appears to be only fifty meters deep. A four second burst at maximum thrusters ought to do it.
Janeway: All right. Maximum shields. Engage full thrusters for four seconds and then drop to one quarter.
Paris: Acknowledged. Engaging thrusters.
Janeway: What do you make of it, Mister Tuvok?
Tuvok: I am unable to offer identification, Captain.
Kim: Kim to Tuvok. In other words, you've never seen anything like it. Oh, I promise not to tell the junior officers.
Paris: Captain, the breach we just make when we penetrated the field? It just closed behind us.
Neelix: Kes! Now look what she's gotten us into!
Kes: Do all nebulas look like that?
Neelix: I wouldn't know. I'm smart enough to go around nebulas when I encounter them.
Kes: These people are natural born explorers, Neelix.
Neelix: These people are natural born idiots, if you ask me. They don't appreciate what they have here. This ship is the match of any vessel within a hundred light years, and what do they do with it? Well, let's see if we can't find some space anomaly today that might rip it apart!
Kes: I don't think the Captain is an idiot. She cares a great deal about her crew.
Neelix: You don't care a great deal about your crew and introduce them to the specter of death at every opportunity. And I speak as a member of that crew now. I'm not sure I would've wanted you to come along had I known that this is what
Kes: I think it's wonderful.
Neelix: Wonderful?
Kes: If I were Captain, I'd open every crack in the universe and peek inside, just like Captain Janeway does.
Neelix: I don't deny the romantic quality of this sort of casting about. I wouldn't exactly call it wonderful.
Neelix: Although, it's getting more wonderful by the minute.
Kes: I've never kissed anyone inside a nebula before.
Neelix: What did I tell you?
Janeway: Red alert.
Chakotay: Whatever they are, they're passing right through our shields.
Janeway: Try reversing the shield polarity. Mister Tuvok?
Tuvok: They appear to be made up of a non-reactive material that our sensors do not recognize, Captain.
Janeway: Clarify. Are we under attack?
Tuvok: Uncertain. There is no indication of directed fire.
Torres: Torres to Bridge.
Janeway: Go ahead.
Torres: These things are sticking to the hull. And I'm showing a drain on our energy reserves.
Janeway: A drain? Why would we be losing energy?
Torres: I'm not sure, Captain. They seem to be drawing it right through the shield grid along the hull.
Kim: We've lost five percent of our energy reserves. Recommend we shut down all non-essential systems.
Janeway: Do it.
Chakotay: Reversing shield polarity hasn't had any effect.
Kim: Energy reserves are down eight percent.
Janeway: This is not what I had in mind. Mister Paris, take us back through the energy barrier and out of here.
Paris: Reversing course.
Janeway: Full thrusters.
Kim: Thrusters firing.
Paris: We're not penetrating the energy barrier this time.
Tuvok: Sensors show a build-up of magnesite dust along the outer rim of the barrier.
Janeway: Engineering, I need more power.
Torres: We can't go back to impulse, Captain. That's how our problem started. Our best chance is to burn the aft thrusters beyond their recommended limits.
Janeway: Proceed.
Torres: Acknowledged. Accelerating deuterium to rear thrusters.
Chakotay: We have a complement of thirty eight photon torpedoes at our disposal, Captain.
Janeway: And no way to replace them after they're gone.
Torres: Aft thrusters at one hundred five percent. One hundred fifteen percent.
Paris: Barrier still holding. We need something else.
Janeway: Give me a two second blast from the forward phaser bank.
Tuvok: Firing phasers. The barrier is undamaged, Captain.
Chakotay: Ready a photon.
Janeway: Mister Paris, assuming we can breach the energy barrier, it's likely to close as fast as the first time.
Paris: I'll be riding the tail of our torpedo, Captain.
Tuvok: Torpedo is loaded.
Janeway: Align coordinates along ship's heading.
Tuvok: Coordinates set.
Janeway: Fire.
Tuvok: Fifty thousand kilometers to the perimeter.
Paris: I'm having trouble navigating through the energy currents. It's as thick as a Toarian ice storm out there.
Tuvok: Thirty five kilometers to perimeter.
Kim: Energy reserves are still falling.
Tuvok: Fifteen thousand kilometers. We've cleared the central mass.
Janeway: Stand down red alert. Take us to two thousand kilometers off the perimeter and hold position. Get a sample of that matter off the hull for Lieutenant Torres to analyze. I'd like to know what it was that humbled every defense system on this ship. How much of our energy reserves did we lose, Ensign?
Kim: Eleven percent, Captain.
Janeway: I'm just going to have to give up coffee. That's all there is to it.
Paris: Dark enough for you?
Kim: What?
Paris: Get up, Harry. Something you've got to see.
Kim: See? How'd you get in here?
Paris: You'd be surprised the things you learn in prison.
Kim: MacAllister. James Mooney MacAllister. The guy never slept. He'd be studying his algorithms until dawn and the only way I could get any sleep was to wear a mask.
Paris: You could've changed roommates.
Kim: Are you kidding? MacAllister got me through fourth year quantum chemistry.
Paris: Ah.
Kim: Besides, I got used to wearing it. Something about it that reminds me of being in the womb.
Paris: Harry, in order to be reminded of something, you have to first
Kim: I remember being in my mother's womb.
Paris: Right.
Kim: I do. So what is it you have to show me?
Paris: Nothing that's going to compare to that memory of your mother's womb. Computer, activate holodeck program Paris three.
Man: Hey, it's Tom!
Gaunt Gary: Hey, Tom, how you doing?
Paris: What do you think, Harry?
Kim: What is it, a French bistro?
Paris: This is where I spent most of my second semester at the Academy. I chose the Starfleet base outside of Marseilles for my physical training. I always had a thing about the French.
Sandrine: And the French always had a thing about you, Monsieur Thomas. And with a name like Paris and a face like that, how could anyone resist?
Paris: Sandrine, this is my friend Harry Kim.
Sandrine: Oh, enchanté.
Paris: Sandrine owns the place. It's been in her family over six hundred years.
Ricky: Tommy? It's about time. I've been waiting for you.
Paris: This is Ricky. I include her in all my holoprograms.
Ricky: Hi.
Kim: Hi.
Ricky: Your friend the gigolo, wouldn't leave me alone.
Gigolo: It's what I do, Tom. Nothing personal.
Paris: French father, Daliwakan mother.
Sandrine: She just sits there and waits for you, huh? Like a little puppy dog?
Paris: I wouldn't have it any other way.
Sandrine: Oh, really? I thought you liked your women with a little bite?
Ricky: Everyone knows about your bite, Sandrine. It's when you start sucking blood they get scared.
Sandrine: Monsieur, can I get you something to drink?
Kim: Just a cup of tea.
Paris: Harry, this is France. Er, break open a bottle of that '46 Saint Emilion you save behind the bar for me.
Kim: I don't like to drink this late at night. I get an acid heartburn.
Paris: Harry, it's holographic wine. It doesn't give you acid. Try to get in the mood, huh?
Kim: Sorry.
Paris: I learned a great deal that semester at the Academy, most of it right here.
Sandrine: Oui, and most of it from me.
Paris: I found this place just after my pocket was picked walking by the harbor.
Kim: Somebody picked your pocket? On Earth?
Paris: Oh, they just do it for tourists. They give it back. Most of the time.
Gaunt Gary: Nine ball in the corner pocket.
Paris: You see that pool table, Harry? The table at Sandrine's at Marseilles has attracted the world's greatest hustlers throughout the centuries. I thought it might be fun to program in some of the great players to shoot with.
Gaunt Gary: Eight ball in the cross side.
Paris: Gaunt Gary, Ames Pool Hall, New York City, 1953. They say that he hustled the great Willie Mosconi himself.
Kim: Mosconi? Was he some famous billiard player?
Gaunt Gary: The game is pool, kid. Pool. I don't suppose you'd care to wager a fin on a game or two?
Paris: Oh, he's not ready for you yet, Gary. Let me teach him a few tricks first.
Gaunt Gary: Watch out for him, kid. He can swallow your wallet without ever losing his smile.
Kim: I'll keep it in mind. What's a fin?
Paris: I'm not sure. Some old kind of Scandinavian currency. Come on. I'll rack them up, you pick out a cue. Harry, this is my idea of home. My little piece of Earth out here in the Delta Quadrant.
Kim: You shrug it off, or you like to make the rest of us think you're shrugging it off, but you miss it too, don't you?
Paris: What?
Kim: Home.
Paris: Your shot, Harry.
Torres: Computer, activate Emergency Medical Holographic Program.
Emh: Please state the nature of the medical emergency.
Torres: Why do you always have to say that?
Emh: I can only speculate about my programr's motives. Perhaps he thought I might be summoned for important reasons.
Torres: Under the circumstances, don't you think you really ought to change your program?
Emh: Now there's an interesting concept. A hologram that programs himself. What would I do with that ability? Create a family? Raise an army?
Torres: I know a little about holographic programming. I could probably reprogram you.
Emh: That makes me feel particularly confident.
Torres: Has anyone ever told you, you have a lousy attitude?
Emh: If you don't like the doctor's attitude, there's a man sitting in a console in the Jupiter Station Holoprogramming Center you can write to. His name is Zimmerman. He looks a lot like me, actually. Now, not that I don't enjoy the repartee, but was there a reason you stopped in?
Torres: I need a second opinion on this.
Emh: Who gave you the first opinion?
Torres: I gave it to myself. It's a sample of residue we picked up in a nebula.
Emh: A nebula? What were we doing in a nebula? No, wait, don't tell me. We were investigating. That's all we do around here. Why pretend we're going home at all? All we're going to do is investigate every cubic millimeter of this quadrant, aren't we?
Torres: The molecules are isolinear. No polycyclic structures, but
Emh: But this is what brought you to me, isn't it? The nucleogenic peptide bonds.
Torres: Is it some kind of phosopholipid fiber?
Emh: And you were doing so well. No, I suspect it's something far more interesting than that.
Janeway: Come in.
Chakotay: Repair crews have degaussed the hull, Captain.
Janeway: Good. Let's plan an oh seven hundred departure. What's this?
Chakotay: My medicine bundle. I've never showed it to anyone before. After what you said this morning, I thought it was important to let you see.
Janeway: Will it help me find my animal guide?
Chakotay: Eventually you'll have to assemble your own medicine bundle, but this will allow me to assist you in your quest for a guide.
Janeway: Now? Now.
Chakotay: A blackbird's wing. A stone from the river. An akoonah.
Janeway: Akoonah?
Chakotay: My ancestors used psychoactive herbs to assist their vision quests. Now they're no longer necessary. Our scientists have found more modern ways to facilitate the search for animal guides. Place your hand on it and concentrate on the stone. A-koo-chee-moy-a. We are far from the sacred places of our grandfathers. We are far from the bones of our people. But perhaps there is one powerful being who will embrace this woman and give her the answers she seeks. Allow your eyes to close. Breath to fuel the light in your belly, and let it expand until the light is everywhere. Prepare yourself to leave this room and this ship, and return to a place where you were the most content and peaceful you have ever been. You can see all around you and hear the sounds of this place.
Janeway: I know this place. It's
Chakotay: You must not discuss with me what you see, or you will offend your animal guide. As you continue to look around, you will become aware of other life that shares this place with you. It will be the first animal you see. That is the one you will speak to. Do you see an animal?
Janeway: Yes.
Chakotay: Speak to it.
Janeway: What do I say?
Chakotay: You know what you want to ask.
Janeway: I'm sorry. I should've asked the computer for no interruptions. Come in.
Janeway: The Commander was introducing me to my animal guide.
Torres: I hope that you have better luck with yours than I had with mine.
Chakotay: B'Elanna's the only one I know who tried to kill her animal guide.
Torres: I'm sorry to interrupt, but the Doctor and I have come up with a rather surprising analysis of the matter left on the hull. It's organic.
Janeway: Microscopic life forms from the nebula.
Torres: That's not what I mean. The samples are clearly organic elements of a much larger life form. It appears, Captain, that this nebula is not a nebula at all.
Emh: I'm curious, Captain. Exactly what are you looking for?
Janeway: I need to know if we did serious harm to this life form.
Emh: Let's see. You ran your ship through it, fired phasers at it and blew a hole in it with a photon torpedo. I'd say it's a pretty good chance that you did some fairly significant
Janeway: Computer, mute audio. Isolate that concentration of omicron particles we were tying to get to.
Torres: That would be right here.
Janeway: Mister Tuvok?
Tuvok: I'm afraid the concentration of particles is far lower than I originally observed. Furthermore, it appears that many of the particles have now moved outside the energy barrier.
Janeway: Is it possible they're leaking out through the breach we made?
Tuvok: That would be a logical conclusion.
Janeway: It's also a logical conclusion that all of the phenomena we've encountered were actually this life form's natural defense systems.
Chakotay: The way the barrier was protecting the omicron particles almost suggests we were entering a vital organ.
Janeway: So it seems very clear that we've severely hurt an innocent life form. How do we repair the harm we've done?
Paris: Er, Captain?
Janeway: Computer, resume audio.
Emh: How kind of you. You may be interested to know that the analysis of the organic sample suggested this life form has the capacity to regenerate. The process may simply need a helping hand.
Janeway: Any ideas how we could stimulate regeneration?
Emh: Lieutenant Torres has the answer.
Torres: I do?
Emh: You were the one who first observed that this life form has a nucleogenic structure.
Torres: If the life form has a nucleogenic structure, nucleonic radiation ought to assist its healing process. A nucleonic beam along the edges of the breach should theoretically promote regeneration.
Emh: Bravo.
Janeway: Commander, take us to yellow alert and advise the crew that we're going to re-enter the life form. Mister Kim, review all systems in light of our first experience and see if you can provide new safeguards. Tuvok, your job is to find some modification of the shields that will hold off this life form's natural defense systems. We begin at thirteen hundred hours. Dismissed.
Neelix: The bantan is a little on the spicy side. Kes grows them herself in the hydroponics garden. Don't eat any of the little pink things and you'll be fine.
Chakotay: All personnel report to stations. Yellow alert.
Crewwoman: Sorry.
Crewman: Excuse me.
Neelix: Now what? Neelix to Chakotay.
Chakotay: We're very busy up here, Neelix. What do you need?
Neelix: This yellow alert business.
Neelix: I was just starting to serve
Chakotay: Sorry.
Chakotay: We found out that the nebula is actually a life form and we've got to go back in to repair some damage we did to it. Chakotay out.
Neelix: Go back in? Hello? Well, that's it. I've had it.
Kes: Neelix.
Neelix: No. I'm going to the Captain about this.
Janeway: Come in.
Neelix: Captain, I understand that this nebula we've discovered is some kind of monster?
Janeway: Not a monster, Neelix, but it is a life form.
Neelix: Excuse me if I sound crazy, because someone may have been playing a joke on me, but you aren't planning to take us back into the belly of this beast, are you?
Janeway: No joke.
Neelix: Why?
Janeway: Because we hurt it, and we have to help it recover.
Neelix: I did not come on board this ship to be a veterinarian, Captain.
Janeway: And I thought you were a man of unlimited talents.
Neelix: I just reached my limit. So if you don't mind, Kes and I will wait on board my little vessel for you to return.
Janeway: All our crews are busy preparing for this mission. I'm not pulling them off their duties to prepare your ship for launch. And I'm not going drop you off on the side of the road every time we hit a bump. When we finished, if you want to leave that's your business, but for the moment, find yourself a seat with a good view, because just like Jonah and the whale, you're going in.
Neelix: Is that final?
Janeway: Dismissed. That's a Starfleet expression for get out.
Neelix: Jonah? Whale?
Paris: Approaching the perimeter.
Janeway: Disengage impulse engines.
Paris: Impulse engines offline.
Janeway: Engage thrusters one third.
Paris: Thrusters engaged.
Janeway: Red alert.
Tuvok: Shields are up. Adaptive harmonics are operational.
Paris: Density is already more than double what we encountered last time.
Tuvok: EM hull pressure is approaching dangerous levels, Captain.
Janeway: Mister Kim?
Kim: If my research is right, releasing positive ions through the nacelle should repel some of the dust out there.
Janeway: Without causing further harm to the creature?
Kim: I believe so, Captain.
Janeway: Very well.
Kim: Ion release confirmed.
Paris: Ambient density is dropping.
Tuvok: Hull pressure is decreasing also.
Janeway: Hold your course.
Tuvok: Fourteen thousand kilometers to the breach.
Paris: I can see it.
Janeway: Magnify. Engineering, ready your nucleonic beam.
Torres: Ready and awaiting your orders, Captain.
Janeway: Mister Paris, bring us into position.
Paris: Coming about forty degrees.
Janeway: Report!
Kim: We're being hit by some kind of multi-polar charges. They're not like anything we saw the first time.
Tuvok: Shields at eighty seven percent.
Janeway: Will they hold?
Tuvok: The polarity of each charge is rotating so quickly, the shields can not compensate.
Torres: We've lost the rear driver coil assembly.
Paris: Inertial dampers are offline. I'm losing control. Hold on!
Janeway: Engineering, initiate emergency shutdown of all thrusters.
Torres: Captain
Torres: The only way we can shut down all thrusters is to vent their deuterium into space. We can't afford to lose all that fuel.
Janeway: We have no choice. Do it.
Torres: Acknowledged. Cutting thrusters.
Paris: Inertial dampers are still offline.
Janeway: Reset IDF baseline at three zero zero and reinitialize.
Paris: Field processors coming back on-line. Inertial damping restored.
Janeway: All stop. Damage report.
Kim: Electroplasma leaks reported on deck fourteen. Repair crews are being dispatched. Otherwise, we seem to be in one piece.
Chakotay: I believe the optical data network is down, Ensign.
Kim: Yes, sir. I'll get right on it.
Tuvok: Fourteen injuries reported, Captain. None serious.
Janeway: Have you any idea where we are, Mister Paris?
Paris: Approximately seventy thousand kilometers from our former position. Deeper inside the creature than before.
Janeway: Let's hope it has a slow digestive process.
Paris: Yes, ma'am.
Janeway: We need to get back to the wound without causing a response from its defense systems. Suggestions?
Chakotay: It seems to be leaving us alone now that we've cut off all propulsion systems. Maybe that's what cues it to respond. If I'm right, we might be able to get back without engaging any engines.
Paris: No engines?
Chakotay: We've been reading these swirling energy currents since we first got here. When we thought it was a nebula, we weren't looking for any pattern. We thought they were just random eddies. But now I'm wondering if these currents might be some kind of circulatory system.
Janeway: Mister Kim, are you showing omicron particles in these currents?
Kim: Affirmative, Captain.
Janeway: If the currents are distributing omicron energy throughout the life form, the circulatory system might pass right by that wound.
Paris: We could get in one of those currents and surf back.
Janeway: Use the reaction control thrusters in drift mode only, Mister Paris.
Paris: Aye, Captain. We're on our way. Speed, all of two hundred KPH.
Neelix: Time for refreshment. Ailis paté, Felada onion crisps, stuffed Cardaway leaves. Yum.
Janeway: I appreciate the thought, Neelix, but this is hardly the time.
Neelix: As the morale officer on this ship, I insist that a break in the workload is both healthy and necessary. Go on, Mister Vulcan. It might even help you loosen up. Or not.
Tuvok: May I ask when you became morale officer?
Neelix: Oh, just a few minutes ago when I sensed crew morale might be especially low. Mine certainly was. We were in a free fall at the time.
Kes: Cooking always helps Neelix to unwind.
Neelix: Yes, and after we stabilized, I certainly needed to unwind. So, it seemed to me, I had a choice to either come up here and say I told you so.
Paris: No.
Neelix: Or to try to do something constructive to help out in my own humble manner. Try the stuffed Cardaway leaves. They're irresistible.
Neelix: Now, as your new morale officer, I thought it might be fun for us all to sing a few songs together.
Janeway: Don't push it, Neelix.
Paris: Captain?
Janeway: Well done, Mister Paris. Take us gently out of the current. Stay in RCS drift mode.
Paris: Aye, Captain.
Janeway: Miss Torres, prepare your nucleonic beam.
Torres: We're ready
Torres: Down here, Captain.
Janeway: Let's give the wound
Janeway: Two doses to start. Five bursts at a two second interval. Now. Analysis.
Torres: Scanners are showing the regeneration rate up only point zero four percent.
Torres: I don't know what we can hope to accomplish if this is the best we can do.
Torres: The breach may simply be too large to seal.
Emh: This is the Doctor speaking. Please activate your monitor to the Emergency Medical Holographic Channel. I believe I may have a suggestion that will help.
Emh: Since no one had the courtesy to turn me off after my last consultation, I've had the opportunity to observe your progress, or lack of same.
Emh: I believe a slight alteration of your treatment plan is necessary. As inspiration, I've drawn on an ancient medical technique known as a suture.
Janeway: Suture?
Emh: Before the advent of laser technologies
Emh: Surgical fiber was used to stitch together a wound to allow it to heal naturally.
Torres: How does that help us?
Emh: Your ship's energy systems are compatible with this life form's omicron particles, are they not?
Torres: That's right.
Emh: Then it is very likely that this vessel could serve the life form's needs in much the same manner as a suture. By allowing the ship to serve as an energy conduit across the wound, the life form should be able to regenerate itself more rapidly.
Paris: And how are we supposed to get the ship into the wound without getting the hell beat out of us again?
Emh: That's your problem, not mine. Doctor out.
Paris: That's sort of like asking a hurt dog not to bite you while you tend to its wounds.
Janeway: You like dogs, Mister Paris?
Paris: Yes, ma'am. I always had a dog.
Janeway: I like dogs, too. When I had to clean out a cut on my dog's leg, I needed to create a little diversion first to take her mind off it. Mister Kim? Prepare a class four microprobe.
Kim: Aye, Captain.
Janeway: Lieutenant, if I gave you a short burst from our thrusters, would it be enough for you to maneuver into the breach in ten seconds?
Paris: I'd feel better if I had twenty.
Janeway: Once we launch that probe as a diversion, you might have ten, maybe even less than that.
Paris: Ten sounds good.
Janeway: Mister Kim, status?
Kim: Microprobe is loaded and ready.
Janeway: Set coordinates for launch at one sixty mark seven zero. Cut power after five hundred meters. I don't want to hurt this life form again.
Kim: Acknowledged.
Janeway: Engineering, I'll need a one second burst from our aft
Janeway: Thrusters on my order.
Torres: Standing by.
Janeway: Launch microprobe. Thrusters.
Torres: Firing.
Kim: Reading multi-polar charges, high frequency.
Tuvok: Shields at seventy five percent and holding.
Janeway: Maintain position. Engineering, direct two nucleonic beams fore and aft, parallel to the central axis of the ship.
Torres: Acknowledged. Beam engaged. Captain, I'm showing a rapid growth pattern along the wound.
Tuvok: Regenerative matter approaching from both directions at just under five hundred kilometers per hour.
Janeway: Hold position.
Tuvok: Captain, the shields are only designed to withstand
Janeway: I am aware of that, Mister Tuvok. Hold position.
Tuvok: Regenerative matter approaching. Range, thirty kilometers, fore and aft.
Janeway: Engineering, ready full thrusters. Mister Paris?
Paris: Just tell me when.
Tuvok: Regenerative matter at twenty kilometers. Fifteen. Ten.
Janeway: Disengage nucleonic beam. Fire thrusters.
Torres: Thrusters engaged.
Janeway: Now, Mister Paris.
Paris: Forty thousand kilometers to the perimeter. Thirty thousand.
Chakotay: The life form's regeneration rate is up forty percent, Captain. Looks like it's well on the way to closing that wound.
Paris: We've cleared the central mass. Captain's Log, supplemental. We set out to augment our energy reserves and wound up depleting them by over twenty percent. As a result, we've set a new course for a planet fourteen light years away that Neelix says might have compatible energy sources to offer us. It is out of our way, but circumstances offer few alternatives. So much for raising spirits.
Kim: Turning in for the night, Captain?
Janeway: Actually, I'm going to talk to an animal and then turn in. Something Commander Chakotay taught me. It's supposed to be quite therapeutic. You might want to ask him about it.
Kim: I will.
Kim: Captain?
Janeway: What is it, Ensign?
Kim: Well, I don't mean to be out of place, but if you'd care to join us, you'd be welcome.
Janeway: Join you where?
Ricky: Come on, Tommy. Let's get out of here.
Paris: Easy, honey. I'm setting the Indian up for the big hustle.
Ricky: But he's beating you.
Paris: Yeah, that's exactly what he's supposed to think, too.
Janeway: As you were. Well, this is remarkable. Mister Kim tells me this is your doing, Mister Paris.
Paris: Er, yeah. It's just a little diversion, Captain.
Gigolo: One always knows when a woman of good breeding enters the room. Ma cherie, may I request your favorite song so that we may dance before I take you to my private felucca on the wharf and make passionate love to you.
Paris: I'm sorry. If I had some kind of warning that you were coming
Janeway: You would have changed it and I would've missed all the fun.
Gaunt Gary: I just don't know what the dolls see in the gigolo, do you? Now me, I got a whole different approach to women. Treat a lady like a tramp and a tramp like a lady. Never fails.
Torres: Paris, did you program this guy?
Paris: Yeah. Why?
Torres: He's a pig, and so are you.
Gaunt Gary: Almost never.
Janeway: Is this pool or billiards?
Paris: Er, pool.
Janeway: Right. Pool's the one with the pockets. Would you mind if I gave it a try?
Gigolo: Reculez-vous. Give the handsome young woman some room. Tell me, does she have, er, money?
Janeway: Commander Chakotay, your stick?
Chakotay: It's called a cue, Captain.
Janeway: A cue. All right. So what do we do? Do I go first?
Janeway: Solids.
Sandrine: I saw that coming a mile away, didn't you? Ah, you've got a lot to learn, jeune homme. But then, ah, I've got a lot to teach.
Janeway: Eight ball in the side pocket.
Janeway: A-koo-chee-moy-a. We are far from the sacred places of our grandfathers and from the bones of our people. But perhaps there is one powerful being who will embrace this good crew and give them the answer they seek.