THE VOYAGER CONSPIRACY
Episode 129
Part B

Flashbacks are given in this style.

 

USS Voyager cruising at warp speed.

Voyager's bridge. Kim: "I'm picking up graviton fluctuations." Janeway: "Take us out of warp. On screen."

Paris: "Anybody want to hazard a guess?"

Tuvok: "They are hailing us." Janeway: "On screen."

An alien, whose name is Tash, appears on the main viewscreen: "I recommend maximum shielding. There are a few technical issues I haven't worked out yet." Kim: "There's a massive graviton surge coming from that thing." Tuvok: "Shields to full."

Janeway: "Your apparatus appears to be destabilising." Tash, on viewscreen: "If I don't find a way to repair this power core they'll be able to see the explosion all the way to, er, where did you say you were from?" Janeway: "I didn't, but we're from a planet called Earth." Tash, on viewscreen: "All the way to Earth."

Chakotay: "Can we ask you what it's supposed to do?" Tash, on viewscreen: "Catapult a vessel across space, in the time it takes to say 'catapult a vessel across space'. It'll make warp drive look like a wooden sled." Janeway, seeing a chance for Voyager to shortcut the journey home: "Maybe we can help you with that power core." Tash, on viewscreen, surprised: "Huh?"

Tash explains at a meeting of certain senior staff in Voyager's Briefing Room. Tash: "The core sends a graviton surge through the projectors which locks onto a ship and sends it hurtling into null space, to emerge a few hours later hundreds, if not thousands, of light years away." He pushes the mug along the table. It quickly slides along until....

Chakotay stops it and picks it up, looking at it thoughtfully - the mug represents Tash's starship....or any starship. Chakotay: "I'm curious why you built this Catapult."

Tash: "Simple. I've been looking for a way to get home." Kim: "We know the feeling."

Tash: "I'd been exploring an unstable wormhole. Before I knew it, I was here and my home planet was there. I was facing a journey of at least ten years. Instead, I decided to build a catapult." Torres: "Have you tested it yet?" Tash: "Two weeks ago I sent a probe nearly six hundred light years, but it destabilised the core. I've been trying to fix it ever since." Chakotay: "We can send an engineering team over to help you."

Tash: "No, no, it's too dangerous. I wouldn't send my own crew in there." Kim: "Then we could find a way to adjust the core reaction from here." Torres: "A few well-timed graviton pulses from our deflector dish might do it." Tash: "That's generous, but I have nothing to give in return."

Janeway: "We're not asking for anything in return." Tash: "You could use the Catapult after I've made my jump! It should still be functional. A thousand light years won't exactly get you back to Earth." Kim: "But it would cut a few years off our trip." Janeway: "If you're successful, and if I'm satisfied a jump would be safe for Voyager, then we'll take you up on that offer, thank you. Let's get started."

Below 4 pictures: Seven affixes a Borg datanode to her alcove, activates it and downloads Catapult data as she regenerates.

A	B
C	D

USS Voyager.

Janeway's quarters. The door signal sounds. Janeway: "Come in." Seven enters. "Good morning."

Seven: "Perhaps not. The alien, Mr Tash, is trying to deceive us. His Catapult is the same type of technology that was used to trap Voyager in the Delta Quadrant five years ago."

Janeway: "I scanned the Catapult myself. Sensors didn't pick up anything unusual. You spent the night in your new alcove."

flashback - Voyager in the displacement wave

Seven: "Processing the same information and cross-referencing it with Voyager's database. When the Catapult destabilised yesterday, astrometric sensors recorded a momentary burst of epsilon radiation." Janeway: "Unusual, but not unheard of."

flashback - the Caretaker's Array, on Voyager's viewscreen

Seven: "Epsilon radiation is one of the by-products of a tetryon reactor. According to your own entries in the database, your only encounter with that kind of technology occurred five years ago in the Alpha Quadrant. A coherent tetryon beam locked onto Voyager, and you were hit by a massive displacement wave, which pulled you across seventy thousand light years in a matter of minutes. The source of that tetryon beam was the Caretaker's array. Mr Tash claims that his Catapult will be able to do something very similar."

Janeway, going over to her desk: "He didn't want us to send over a repair team." Seven: "Out of concern for our safety. It's obvious he was trying to hide his tetryon reactor."

Janeway: "The first time we met a Caretaker we were pulled halfway across the galaxy. The second time we were almost killed. I'm not eager for a third round."

In Main Engineering, the Doctor scans Tash with a tricorder. A security guard is in attendance. Tash: "Is this any way to treat a colleague?" Doctor, reporting the tricorder readings: "Not so much as a molecule of Caretaker DNA." Janeway: "Thank you, Doctor." The Doctor leaves.

Janeway to Tash: "There's a tetryon reactor powering your Catapult. You didn't want us to find it, did you?" Tash looks uncomfortable. "Unless you answer my questions, I'll resume course and you can ask somebody else for help."

Tash: "Look, I acquired the tetryon reactor at great cost. This territory is full of species who would do anything for such advanced technology, including steal it. I apologise for the deception, but you do understand."

Janeway: "We made an agreement to co-operate. I see no reason not to continue." Tash: "Thank you, Captain." Janeway issues orders. To Torres: "Keep me informed on your progress."

Leaving with Seven, Janeway tells her: "That reactor had to come from somewhere. I can't just ignore the possibility of a Caretaker nearby. Keep scanning. See what you can find."
Seven: "There is another possibility. The reactor may have come from the same Array that brought Voyager to the Delta Quadrant."
Janeway: "That's a long shot, Seven."
Seven: "Maybe not. Again, according to your own reports you believed the only way to keep the Array from falling into the wrong hands was to destroy it. It's possible the destruction was incomplete."
Janeway: "And one of the reactors survived? We scanned for debris. There was nothing left but some fused pieces of metal alloy."

Seven: "I wish to re-examine the sensor records from that event." Janeway, surmises: "In case we were mistaken." Seven: "Yes." Janeway: "Go right ahead."

Astrometrics Lab. Seven: "Computer, describe the debris remaining after the Array was destroyed." Computer: "Particulate dust and metallic fragments composed of an unknown alloy. Vapour composed of hydrogen, helium, mercury and argon." Seven: "Was there anything left of the tetryon reactor?" Computer: "Negative."

Seven: "Specify the yield of the tricobalt device." Computer: "20,000 teracochranes." Seven: "Who programmed the device?" Computer: "Commander Tuvok."

Seven: "Display the detonation." The computer does so. "Advance the image by point zero one seconds." The computer does so. "Again. Isolate grid three-seven and magnify. Is that a tractor beam?" Computer: "Insufficient sensor data." Seven: "Identify its source." Computer: "Insufficient sensor data." Seven: "Identify the isolated section of the Array." Computer: "Secondary power core."

tricobalt device hits the Caretaker's Array and it explodes (opens in a new window) (330Kb. Approx. download for 56K modem 62 seconds)

Seven: "Which contained a tetryon reactor." Computer: "Affirmative."

Seven enters the Bridge from the turbolift. Seven: "Commander, I've been reviewing the data on the destruction of the Caretaker's array. Unfortunately, the sensor records are incomplete." Paris: "I don't doubt it. We were being attacked by the Kazon. Half the ship's systems were down." Seven: "A single Kazon vessel." Paris: "Armed to the teeth." Seven: "Commander, you fired the tricobalt charge that destroyed the Array." Tuvok: "Correct." Seven: "Under the Captain's orders." He nods. "Did you also program the charge?" Tuvok: "Yes." Seven: "Under the Captain's orders as well?" Tuvok: "Not directly. I determined the yield." Seven: "20,000 teracochranes." Tuvok: "That's correct." Seven: "According to sensor estimates of the Array's hull integrity, a charge of half that yield would have been sufficient." Tuvok: "The Captain wanted nothing left for the Kazon to use. I calculated a yield certain to produce that result." Seven: "Something may have escaped the blast. One of the tetryon reactors." Paris: "But we scanned for debris." Seven: "The charge you detonated tore an opening in subspace." Paris: "And that's where the reactor went?" Seven: "Yes." Paris: "How?" Seven: "It was pushed there by a tractor beam." Tuvok: "Do you have evidence of a tractor beam?" Seven: "Perhaps." Tuvok: "Speculation is not evidence. There was no tractor beam because there was no ship in the vicinity to generate one, unless you can prove otherwise." Seven: "Thank you, Commander." She leaves.