EQUINOX
Episode 120 (Season 5) and Episode 121 (Season 6)
Part I
 | Voyager's bridge.
Janeway looks at the PADD. "It's not exactly Shakespeare but it gets the point across." Chakotay: "A small olive branch is still an olive branch." Janeway to Kim: "Run this through your translation matrix." |
 | Chakotay addresses the Bridge personnel: "Set your weapons down."
Paris: "Commander?" Chakotay: "Somebody's got to start trusting somebody around here." Janeway: "Belay that order. I appreciate your optimism, but in this case, weapons." |
 | Kim: "Ready to transmit."
Janeway: "Drop shields, bridge only. Go ahead, Harry." They wait. |
 | Soon a fissure opens. |
 | A nucleogenic lifeform comes through the fissure. It flies up to Kim and inspects him. |
 | The lifeform examines Kim and then returns to its realm.
Janeway: "Raise shields." Kim: "If they understood our message, they haven't responded." |
 | Suddenly the air is filled with the alien tone, indicating another attack.
Janeway: "There's your response. Activate another deflector pulse." Tuvok: "Shields are holding at 62%." |
 | Janeway: "That should buy us another few minutes of peace and quiet. I suggest we make the most of it. Focus your efforts on repairing the warp drive. We've got to find the Equinox."
Chakotay: "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to take another stab at the message. If we can reword-" Janeway: "They're not listening, Chakotay. We should be tracking Ransom, not tinkering with adverbs." She goes to her Ready Room. |
 | Chakotay follows her, uninvited.
Chakotay: "Want your First Officer's advice?!" |
 | Janeway: "Allow me: 'Our deflector's losing power and when it fails we'll be defenceless. It's Voyager we should be worrying about, not the Equinox'."
Chakotay: "You'd make a great First Officer. It's advice worth taking."  |
 | Janeway: "Maybe so. But we have a crewmember trapped on that ship."
Chakotay: "Is this really about Seven, or is it about Ransom?" Janeway: "I don't know what you're talking about." Chakotay: "You've been known to hold a grudge. This man betrayed Starfleet. He broke the Prime Directive, dishonoured everything you believe in, and threw Voyager to the wolves." Janeway: "Borg, Hirogen, Malon - we've run into our share of bad guys. Ransom's no different." |
 | Chakotay: "Yes he is. You said it yourself. He's human. I don't blame you for being angry but you can't compromise the safety of this ship to satisfy some personal vendetta."
Janeway: "I appreciate your candour. Now let me be just as blunt. You're right, I am angry. I'm damned angry. He's a Starfleet captain and he's decided to abandon everything this uniform stands for." |
 | Janeway: "He's out there right now, torturing and murdering innocent lifeforms just to get home a little quicker. I'm not going to stand for it. I'm going to hunt him down no matter how long it takes, no matter what the cost." |
 | Janeway: "If you want to call that a vendetta, go right ahead."
|
 | The Equinox enters planetary orbit. |
 | On board the Equinox.
Burke: "Why did you bring us here?" Ransom: "This planet has a pathogenic atmosphere. It's keep us from being detected while we make repairs." |
 | Lessing: "We also found a few deuterium deposits."
Ransom: "Take an away team, and see if you can localise the ore." Burke to Lessing: "You won't be protected from the aliens. Arm yourselves with phasers. At the first sign of trouble we'll beam you back." Lessing: "Aye, sir." |
 | The Doctor is performing macabre surgery on Seven who is still conscious. He is singing: "The ocular node's connected to the sensory node, the sensory node's connected to the cortical node, the cortical node's connected to the reticular node-" He stops. "Oh, now don't look so gloomy. There is a silver lining to all this. Just think, we're finally going to see Earth."
Seven: "You're obviously delusional. Allow me to repair your program." Doctor: "Now why would I want you to do that? You of all people should understand being unfettered by ethical subroutines has made me far more efficient." |
 | Ransom enters. "Status?"
Doctor: "I'm going to extract her cortical array. It contains an index of her memory engrams. But once I've removed it her higher brain functions - language, cognitive skills - will be severely damaged." |
 | Ransom: "Tell me the codes."
Seven: "No." |
 | Ransom crouches so that he can better see Seven and she him: "Janeway was right about one thing. You are unique. It would be a shame to lose you."
Seven: "Your compassion is irrelevant." Ransom: "Do you think this is easy for me? The sight of you on that table... But you're leaving me no choice." Seven: "No choice. You say that frequently. You destroy lifeforms to attain your goal then claim that they left you no choice. Does that logic comfort you?" Ransom hesitates then pushes her words aside as his resolve stiffens. He demands: "The codes." Seven: "You'll have to destroy me to obtain them." |
 | Ransom straightens up and indicates the Doctor should continue. As Ransom leaves the Doctor resumes his macabre song: "The reticular node's connected to the occipital node..." |
Janeway: "Captain's log, supplemental. Our warp drive's back online but repeated sensor sweeps have failed to locate the Equinox."
 | Captain's Ready Room.
The door signal sounds.  door signal "Come in." standard doors
Chakotay enters. Janeway has Ransom's service record called up on her personal computer. |
 | Chakotay: "You wanted to see me?"
Janeway: "It's not like you to submit recommendations in writing." Chakotay: "The last time we spoke you weren't exactly receptive." Janeway, returning his PADD: "I'm afraid I'm not going to be very receptive this time either. It's an interesting idea, but the Ankari are 50 light years in the wrong direction." |
 | Chakotay: "I understand that. But they're the ones who introduced Ransom to these lifeforms. It stands to reason they might be able to communicate with them, tell them to call off their attacks." |
 | Janeway: "Our first priority is to find Ransom. Still no sign of nucleogenic particles?"
Chakotay: "Not yet." Janeway: "Then he couldn't have gotten far. Without his enhanced drive his ship's only capable of warp 6." |
 | Janeway: "I've been studying his service record. He's had his share of run-ins with hostile aiens. It seems that when he's being pursued he tends to hide." |
 | Janeway: "At Epsilon IV he ran into a Klingon bird-of-prey and played cat-and-mouse for three days in a nebula before the Klingons finally gave up. Two years later he eluded a Romulan warbird by taking his vessel into the atmosphere of a gas giant. Go to Astrometrics. Start looking for the kind of place you'd hide if your ship was damaged."
Chakotay realises this is no time to protest her decision. After a moment's hesitation, he says: "Yes, ma'am." and leaves to obey. |
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