LATENT IMAGE
Episode 105
Part E

Memories are shown in this style.

 

Crewmen assist as the away team are beamed to Sickbay. Doctor: "Prepare these people for surgery."

Paris: "Here, what happened?" Doctor: "We were fired on."

Doctor: "There's something wrong with their nervous systems. We've got to stabilise their synapses. Get me a choline compound." Paris: "Which choline compound?"

Doctor: "It doesn't matter. Just make sure it's a pure base." He scans Jetal with a medical tricorder. "Her spinal cord's deteriorating." He scans Kim. "Same rate of collapse."

Paris: "Acetylcholine, 25 microlitres. It's not helping. I'm getting massive synaptic failure." Doctor: "This doesn't make any sense."

The ship shakes as the aliens attack USS Voyager. The lights flicker.
Paris, via comms: "Paris to Engineering. Transfer all available power to Sickbay."
Torres, via comms: "Acknowledged."

Doctor: "Some kind of plasmic energy is arcing between their neural membranes. That weapon, it was designed to do this." Paris: "To leave a residual charge in the victim's body?" Doctor: "An energy pulse that remains in the neural membranes, working its way up the spinal and cord and into the brain. They'll be dead in minutes if we don't find a way to stop it. I've got to protect their brain functions." Paris, urgently: "His neocortex is failing."

Doctor: "A spinal shunt. I'll isolate the spinal cord from the brain stem until I can repair the cellular damage. But I don't have time to perform the procedure on both of them." Paris: "Then talk me through it. We'll do them together." Doctor: "It's too complex!" Paris: "Then make a choice before we lose them both!"

A fraction of a second, then the Doctor decides. He heads for Kim. Paris wheels the medical trolley to beside his biobed and passes him the medical instruments as he asks for them: "Subdermal scalpel. Bio-electric field generator." Paris: "His vital signs are stabilising. It's working."

Doctor: "Cellular regenerator." Paris hands it to him. The Doctor uses it. "His neural membranes are re-establishing themselves. Good."

Suddenly there is a single monotone audio alert from the adjacent biobed's instruments. Jetal has died.

Paris and the Doctor exchange a look.

One patient saved, but another has died.

The Doctor, who had to make an impossible decision.

The memories pause at this stage. Doctor: "The attack. How did it end? Were there more casualties?"

Janeway: "We exchanged fire for another few minutes then the aliens withdrew. There was only one casualty - Ensign Jetal." Doctor: "I don't mean to seem unfeeling, but I'm programmed to accept the loss of a patient with professional detachment."

Voyager's Bridge - funeral for Jetal. Janeway: "We are assembled here today to pay final respects to our honoured dead, Ensign Ahni Jetal. Her intelligence and her charm have made our long journey home seem not quite so long. As she continues on a journey of her own, we will keep her in our hearts and in our memories."

Jetal's body, inside the photon torpedo casing that acts as her coffin, is fired into space.

Later, in the Messhall. Doctor: "We're low on synthetic antigens, and I'm sorry to report many of the medicinal plants you've collected over the past several months were destroyed as well." Neelix: "I have some herbs in storage you might be able to use." Doctor: "Been holding out on me?" Neelix: "No, I was keeping them around just in case." Doctor: "Good planning."

Neelix: "As for the antigens, I'll have to start replicating them in batches. Which do you want first?" Doctor: "Decisions, decisions. How do you make a decision, Mr Neelix? In general, I mean." Neelix: "I guess I weigh the alternatives and try to decide which is best."

Doctor: "Which is best - how do you determine that?" Neelix: "I never thought about it really." Doctor: "Well, maybe you should, think about it, I mean."

Neelix: "I guess every situation is a little different." Doctor: "Huh, for me, it's rather simple." Taking two different coloured fruits, one yellow, one red: "While I'm faced with a decision my program calculates the variables, and I take action. For example, what could be simpler than a triage situation in Sickbay? Two patients, for example, both injured, for example, both in imminent danger of dying."

Doctor: "Calculate the variables. My program needs to ascertain which patient has the greater chance of survival, and that's the one I treat. Simple."

He bowls the red fruit toward the window, where the crew there look up startled.

Doctor, taking two identical nuts: "But, what if they have an equal chance of survival? What then? Huh, hmm?"

Doctor: "Flip a coin?! Pick a card?!" He slams his hand on the counter. Neelix: "Doctor-"

Doctor: "Oh, I'm alright. I'm a hologram. I don't get injured, I don't feel pain, I don't die. Unlike some people I could tell you about. For example, two patients, both injured, both in imminent danger of-"

Neelix puts out a sympathetic hand. Doctor: "Don't touch me! I'm a hologram, photonic energy, don't waste your time."

Neelix taps his combadge. Via comms: "Neelix to Security. Send a team to the Messhall, please." Doctor: "A whole team, Mr Neelix?"