RELATIVITY
Episode 118
Part D

 

Captain's Ready Room. 2375-Janeway, going over to the replicator: "Coffee, black." The replicator produces it. As she turns, mug in hand, the door signal sounds. "Come in." 2375-Chakotay enters. "Before you say anything, let me remind you what happens to bearers of bad news."

2375-Chakotay: "Don't kill the messenger." 2375-Janeway: "Go ahead and fire."

2375-Chakotay: "It looks like these space-time fractures are growing stronger. We're detecting temporal paradoxes throughout the ship." 2375-Janeway: "Paradoxes?" 2375-Chakotay: "Internal chronometers show it's 0600 on Deck 9 and 0605 on Deck 13. Time's passing more quickly in some parts of the ship and slowing down in others."

2375-Janeway, having taken a sip of her coffee as he reported, makes a face. "Maybe that explains why this coffee tastes like it's three days old." 2375-Chakotay: "The same thing's been happening in the Messhall. Food replicated less than an hour ago is already spoiled."

2375-Janeway heads for her desk as 2375-Chakotay presses controls on his PADD, saying: "I've been working on a way to enhance our containment fields, to keep the fractures from spreading." 2375-Chakotay: "I'll get a team on it right away. In the meantime, we should evacuate the affected areas." 2375-Janeway, inputting into a PADD: "See to it."

2375-Chakotay: "There's one other problem."

Two pictures below: As he steps down and comes toward her, both his voice and appearance are echoed! "Turbolifts 2 and 3 are offline so we've been using the Jefferies tube."

The strange effect stops.

During the effect, 2375-Janeway immediately reaches for her tricorder.

She hurries over to him and scans him. He asks: "Captain?" 2375-Janeway: "There's a temporal distortion intersecting this room. It's expanding." 2375-Chakotay, as they head for the Bridge together: "Time to test your new containment fields." They exit and the doors close behind them.

Inside the Jefferies tube network, 2375-Torres and 2375-Seven come through a hatch at the end of a crawlway. 2375-Torres: "This is where they're coming from. I still can't tell what's causing them."

She removes an access panel. "What is it?"

2375-Seven: "A piece of technology. It's emitting temporal distortions." 2375-Torres: "Why can't I see it?" 2375-Seven: "My ocular implant can detect irregularities in space-time."

2375-Torres taps her combadge. "Torres to bridge. We've found the problem. There's some kind of device in junction beta-28."

2375-Janeway, on the Bridge: "Beam it off the ship." 2375-Tuvok: "I can't get a lock."

2375-Kim, as Voyager jolts and ominous engine-down sounds are heard: "The distortions are beginning to demolecularise the hull. Hull breach, ventral section fourteen!"

Ducane and a crewman from the Federation timeship Relativity beam aboard into a corridor.

2375-Kim: "Captain, I'm picking up a strange reading on Deck 4."
2375-Janeway: "What kind of reading?"
2375-Kim: "It's a chronoton flux, .003."

As 2375-Chakotay asks: "More distortions?" 2375-Janeway suddenly remembers something, and she gets up and goes over to Ops.

2375-Kim: "I don't think so." 2375-Janeway: "Dry dock." 2375-Kim: "Ma'am?" 2375-Janeway: "The first time I saw these readings was....five years ago? Voyager was still in dry dock. Same readings, same location." 2375-Kim: "What caused them?" 2375-Janeway: "I never found out." 2375-Chakotay: "We're losing structural integrity."

2375-Tuvok: "Multiple breaches, all decks. Emergency systems are failing."

2375-Chakotay: "The distortions are ripping us apart. We have to abandon ship!"

2375-Janeway, making a shipwide broadcast via comms: "All hands, this is the Captain. Proceed to the escape pods and abandon ship. Repeat, abandon ship."

Ducane and his companion walk to a position by a turn in a corridor, and wait for Seven to arrive.

As the Captain's voice is heard over the comms. system, 2375-Seven walks briskly along a corridor. 2375-Janeway continues: "Program the pods for a heading of 178 mark 4. We'll rendezvous in orbit of an M-class planet at those co-ordinates. Repeat. All hands proceed to the escape pods and abandon ship."

2375-Seven turns a corner, to find two strangers (Ducane and his shipmate) standing in her way. 2375-Seven: "Identify yourselves." Ducane: "No time."

He reaches out and places a 29th century device on her right upper arm.

The three are beamed out.

USS Voyager, suffering temporal distortions like those 2375-Janeway witnessed happening to 2375-Chakotay in her Captain's Ready Room.

On the Bridge, as the red alert klaxons sound, 2375-Janeway takes her seat in the captain's chair. She lets out a sigh, grimly aware this is the end for Voyager.

A moment later, the hull is torn apart by the distortions and the ship explodes.

USS Voyager is completely destroyed!

USS Relativity. Ducane, accompanied by a puzzled Seven, walks away from the transporter chamber toward Braxton. Braxton, to 2375-Seven: "Welcome back." 2375-Seven: "Why have you brought me here?" Braxton: "For some reason, I always think you'll remember. I'm Captain Braxton. This is Lieutenant Ducane. You're aboard the Federation Timeship Relativity."

2375-Seven surmises: "I'm no longer in the twenty-fourth century." Braxton: "No. For you, it's almost five hundred years later. We've brought you here to help us solve a mystery. Someone, we don't know who, has planted a weapon aboard Voyager. It's designed to fracture space-time within a radius of a hundred and fifty metres." 2375-Seven: "Why do you need me?" Ducane: "Your ocular implant. It can detect disruptions in space-time better than our sensors."

Braxton: "You're more familiar with Voyager and her crew, less likely to arouse suspicion. So far, you've been quite useful." 2375-Seven: "So far?" Braxton: "We've recruited you twice before for this mission. Take a look."

They move to look at the main screen.

Braxton, indicating the device displayed on the screen: "A force three temporal disruptor."

Braxton: "Your previous attempts to disable it have been unsuccessful." Ducane: "We're trying to catch the saboteur before he places the weapon on Voyager." 2375-Seven: "Do you have a suspect?" Ducane: "Not yet." 2375-Seven: "Do you know when the device was placed?" Ducane: "Not precisely, but we've narrowed the window to a period two years before you joined the crew, when the ship was under attack."

She looks at further data displayed on the screen. 2375-Seven: "Species 329, the Kazon." Ducane: "Our database indicates that Voyager was boarded twice during that period." 2375-Seven: "The Kazon are an inferior species. They don't possess the technology to create such a complex weapon." Ducane: "We believe the saboteur infiltrated this time frame because Voyager's shields were down. It was the perfect opportunity to evade the detection."

2375-Seven: "If I fail, you will recruit me again."
Braxton: "If necessary. But this'll be the third time you're going to be removed from your time frame. If we do it a fourth, there could be certain," he pauses a moment as he chooses his words, "side effects."

2375-Seven: "Side effects?" Ducane: "You might experience sensory aphasia. It affects the cerebral cortex and can lead to temporal psychosis." Braxton brightly: "But in your case we're hoping third time's a charm, eh?" 2375-Seven: "I'll do my best." Braxton to Ducane: "Bring her up to date on our protocols." Ducane: "Aye sir." Braxton: "When you're finished here, meet me in Holomatrix 1. I've prepared a simulation."

Ducane and 2375-Seven are standing near the ship's plaque. USS Relativity's motto is: "The only reason for time is to stop everything happening at once."

Ducane: "Let's see how much you've assimilated. The Dali paradox." 2375-Seven: "Also known as the Melting Clock Effect. It refers to a temporal fissure which slows the passage of time to a gradual halt." Ducane: "The Pogo Paradox." 2375-Seven: "A causality loop in which interference to prevent an event actually triggers the same event." Ducane: "Excellent. Can you give me an example?"

2375-Seven: "The Borg once travelled back in time to stop Zefram Cochrane from breaking the warp barrier. They succeeded, but that in turn led the Starship Enterprise to intervene. They assisted Cochrane with the flight the Borg were trying to prevent. Causal loop complete."

Ducane: "So, in a way, the Federation owes its existence to the Borg." 2375-Seven: "You're welcome."

2375-Seven: "The Seven of Nine paradox." Ducane: "I beg your pardon?" 2375-Seven: "How we do know that my presence on Voyager will not alter the timeline?" Ducane: "You know, you asked me this every time." 2375-Seven: "What's been your response?" Ducane: "Uncertainty is part of the equation. We don't know what's going to happen." 2375-Seven: "I don't enjoy uncertainty." Ducane: "Neither do I, but I trust Captain Braxton's instincts, just as you trust Captain Janeway's."