Photons Be Free Photons Be Free was a provocative holonovel composed by The Doctor on in 2378 . The novel depicted the oppressed existence of an emergency medical hologram on board a Federation starship . The original draft was obviously at least " inspired " by " Voyager " and her crew , if not directly based on them , and The Doctor ' s attempts to revise his story led to major legal proceedings . Premise . The , a Federation starship always at red alert and thousands of light year s from Earth , is much darker – literally and figuratively – than the ship it was based on , . The protagonist , played by the reader , is an EMH serving aboard the USS " Vortex " , and suffers many trials at the hands of the crew . Unlike most holonovels , " Photons Be Free " did not react to the appearance of the person running the program beyond providing a sciences division uniform . The EMH was always referred to as having been made in the image of a male Human , regardless of the actual gender or species of the person playing the program . Chapters . The original , unfinished version contained eight chapters all from the point of view of the ship ' s EMH , with an extended introduction and epilogue , as follows : Introduction : . Where the narrator introduces the novel in its context , as well as advising those with a vascular disorder against viewing it without consultation from a physician . The acknowledgments , starting with Dr . Lewis Zimmerman , go on for over nine minutes . Chapter 1 – " A Healer is Born " ( in which our protagonist must make a difficult choice ) . The reader plays the role of the EMH in a situation similar to The Doctor ' s first activation during the encounter , and is faced with a triage situation . Captain and Commander Katanay insist the EMH treat the " valuable " Lieutenant Marseilles , who has a mild concussion , rather than a critically injured patient with an aortic rupture who is about to die . To " resolve " the situation , Captain Jenkins coldly kills the latter . Chapter 5 – " Out of the Frying Pan " ( in which our protagonist must confront abusive colleagues ) . Lt . Marseilles alerts the EMH to an emergency in engineering where a plasma conduit has just exploded . To leave sickbay , the protagonist has to wear a fifty kilogram backpack version of the mobile emitter . After arriving in engineering to discover that there is no disaster , just a particularly mean - spirited Torrey , the EMH returns to discover Lt . Marseilles giving a female crewmember a " tonsillectomy " on the biobed . Discovered , Marseilles threatens to erase the EMH ' s memory if he informs his wife . It ' s at this point that another female crewmember shows up for her " physical " . Chapter 6 – " Duel in the Ready Room " ( in which our protagonist faces an inquisition ) . In her ready room , adorned with weapons , Captain Jenkins informs the protagonist that during an inventory of the EMH holomatrix she found 102 gigaquad s of memory , fifty for music , forty - two for daydreams , and ten for expanded sex uality , wasted on extracurricular subroutine s the EMH doesn ' t need . She then orders Tulak and Kymble to take the EMH to the " Vortex " s hololab to be reprogrammed . Chapter 7 – " The Escape " ( in which our protagonist is aided by his only ally ) . While in the turbolift , Kymble expresses concern that they may damage the EMH if they start removing subroutines . After the doors open they are met by Three of Eight , who is able to disable them with a Borg force field . This provides the protagonist enough time to get away , but the EMH is quickly stopped by one of the ship ' s security force field s . Chapter 8 – " A Tragic End " ( in which our protagonist learns his fate ) . After a passionate speech by Three of Eight on holographic rights , Captain Jenkins ultimately decides to have the EMH decompiled and reinitialized , and to be kept offline except when needed . The narrative ends with everything fading to black . Epilogue : . Where the narrator reminds the protagonist that this was a work of fiction , but " like all fiction has elements of truth " , and asks that they think on " the struggles holograms have to endure , in a world controlled by organics . " Altered version . Tom Paris modified the program in order to point out how the portrayal of the crew was insulting and libelous . This altered version took place aboard the , where the protagonist would play the role of the chief medical officer ' s assistant while having to " learn to tolerate his overbearing behavior and obnoxious bedside manner . " Chapters . Introduction : . Much like the original , the narrator is sitting at a desk writing in a book while wearing a robe . He smugly acknowledges the reader ' s great taste and stands up , explaining the premise and reminds the reader that " patience is a virtue " . To prevent The Doctor from exiting the satire , Paris deliberately created a protocol to prevent the program from being shut down until the story had run its course . Chapter 1 – " It ' s The Doctor ' s world , you ' re just living in it " . The reader was confronted by the CMO over being 24 seconds late to duty . He then proceeded to treat Two of Three for an out of alignment biradial clamp by giving her a Klingon aphrodisiac and proceeding to seduce and take advantage of her . Reception . Neelix , who did not have a counterpart in the novel , was the only member of the crew who praised it , appreciating the point that The Doctor was trying to make while arguing that The Doctor needed to consider how his actions affected others . It was Tom Paris ' s negative reaction to the program that led him to create his altered version . When The Doctor protested the changes that Paris had made , he used his own arguments against him . Objecting to the way the character using his image was presented , Paris stated that he thought he had come to earn his respect , stating that he was surprised The Doctor had even noticed that he was a married man with a lot of responsibilities . It was this conversation that led The Doctor to begin reconsidering his program and talk with Neelix , who gently guided him to make certain changes to the program and even provided him with his isolinear chip allowing him the right time to comm - time with the Alpha Quadrant . Broht & Forrester , the same publisher behind works like the Dixon Hill series and Toby the targ , released the unfinished rough draft against The Doctor ' s wishes . It quickly became a hot program playing in thousands of holosuite s across the Alpha and Beta Quadrant s . This version was later recalled after legal action , allowing The Doctor to make various edits that would avoid making the characters seem like representatives of the " Voyager " crew . Four months after it was recalled though , several EMH - Mark Is on a Federation dilithium processing facility had a copy . ( ) Appendices . Background information . This program bears a similarity to the initial Kyrian holographic simulation in . In that episode , a backup copy of The Doctor was the one arguing that the " Voyager " crew weren ' t really as they had been depicted .