ONE SMALL STEP
Episode 128
Part F

 

Janeway: "Just a few more metres." Torres: "We're too close!"
Voyager is right on the edge of the ellipse.
Tuvok: "I've got a lock." Immediately Janeway orders: "Reverse thrusters, full impulse."
With effort, Voyager reverses and pulls the Delta Flyer along with it.

	Voyager manages to pull out the Delta Flyer - only just in time!
84Kb	The Delta Flyer is pulled free as the ellipse starts to disappear into subspace.

Seven looks at her tricorder. It contains Kelly's legacy - his database of sensor readings on the graviton ellipse and his personal log.

Janeway: "Captain's log, Stardate 53301.2. The away team collected over 60 teraquads of data on the anomaly. Before we begin to analyse them, we've decided to pay our respects to an old colleague."

On Voyager's Bridge, senior officers have donned dress uniform for Kelly's funeral. His body has been laid to rest inside a photon torpedo casing, which is the traditional coffin used for Starfleet burials in space. The Federation flag is draped over it.

Janeway addresses the crew, and her words are relayed throughout the ship via comms: "Space - literally it means nothing, a vacuum between stars and planets, but by the same token it means everything. It's what connects all our worlds - Vulcan, Qo'noS, Talax, Earth. Centuries ago, mankind sent its first wave of explorers into that void, astronauts like Mr Kelly. They paved the way for the first colonies, the first starships, for those of us who've made space our home."

Janeway: "We commend the spirit and the bravery of Lieutenant John Mark Kelly as we commit his body to space. He will not be forgotten."

Seven: "Captain?" Janeway signals agreement for her to speak. Seven addresses the crew: "I did not know this individual. Had I encountered him while I was a Borg I would've found his technology unworthy of assimilation."

Seven: "But we are more alike than one might think. In a sense his desire to explore was not unlike a quest for perfection."

In Sickbay, Chakotay and the Doctor are listening.

Chakotay is heartened also by the fact that Seven has learned to appreciate the past.

Seven continues: "His contribution helped secure humanity's future, and in some ways my own."

She ends by placing a hand a hand on the coffin and whispering to Kelly, telling him the information that he regretted he would not know: "The Yankees, in six games."

Paris smiles.

Janeway nods to Tuvok. Tuvok: "All hands, attention. Honour guard."

The members of the honour guard take up position around the coffin - Paris, Seven and Lieutenant Ayala. The bo'sun's whistle is blown and Kelly's coffin is readied for the final journey.

From the forward starboard torpedo tube, the coffin is launched deep into the Delta Quadrant - John Kelly's last flight.