MEMORIAL
Season 6 : Episode 134
Part G

 

Astrometrics Lab. Seven: "The structure contains a synaptic transmitter. I believe it was designed to send neurogenic pulses throughout this system." Janeway: "So anyone passing through would experience the Nakan massacre, like we did." Seven: "Precisely."

Chakotay: "Try running those symbols inscribed on the base through the translation matrix."

The ship's universal translator translates the words into English. He reads aloud: Words alone cannot convey the suffering. Words alone cannot prevent what happened here from happening again. Beyond words lies experience. Beyond experience lies truth. Make this truth your own.

Janeway realises: "It's a memorial. We weren't victims of a conspiracy. We were witnesses to a massacre."

Chakotay: "More than witnesses. By being forced to re-live those events, half the crew's been traumatised."
Janeway: "Maybe that was the point. I certainly won't forget what happened here."
Chakotay: "Anything in that database that might tell us who built this thing?"
Seven: "No. The technology has been neglected for more than two centuries. Its power cells are deteriorating."
Janeway: "That could explain why our memories were so fragmented. It was probably designed to transmit the experience in sequence."
Chakotay: "Fascinating. Now let's try to shut it down so nobody else has to go through this. Kathryn?"
Janeway: "Yes of course."

There is a meeting in the Briefing Room. On the wall LCARS monitor is a schematic of the Tarakis memorial.

Doctor: "Even if we do shut down the transmitter I'm afraid your memories of the massacre are permanent." Tuvok: "But we'll prevent this from happening to other passing ships." Neelix: "If we do that, all record of what happened here would be lost." Chakotay: "The monument will still be here." Neelix: "But that doesn't really tell the story. Someone put a lot of time and care into building that transmitter. We can't just deactivate it. We don't have the right." Kim: "Did they have the right to force us to re-live all that?!" Neelix: "They wanted others to know what it was like in the hopes that nothing like it would happen again." Chakotay: "Why should anyone have to experience an atrocity they didn't commit?" Neelix: "Because that's how you learn not to make the same mistake. If we destroy the evidence, we're no better than Saavdra." Paris: "Maybe he had a point." Kim: "It wasn't our fault!" Tuvok: "Given the danger involved, it's only logical-" Neelix: "This isn't about logic, it's about remembering!" Chakotay: "Some things are best forgotten." Janeway: "Not this. I stood by once before and did nothing. Not again." Doctor: "Captain?" Janeway: "I watched while Saavdra vapourised the bodies." Paris: "No offence but those were other peoples' memories." Janeway: "The obelisk at Khitomer, the fields at Gettysburg - those are other peoples' memories too, but we don't honour them any less. The eighty-two colonists who died here, they deserve their memorial." Chakotay: "Captain-" Janeway interrupts his protest: "We're not going to shut down the transmitter. Is that clear?" She is met by silence. "Is that clear?" Tuvok: "Are you suggesting we leave it intact?" Janeway: "I'm suggesting that we repair it, recharge the power cells. I want that monument to function properly for another three hundred years. We'll place a warning buoy in orbit. Anyone who enters this system will know what to expect. Dismissed."

Dorsal view of Voyager as the ship orbits Tarakis. (pop-up window) [#134 Memorial]

Camera pan of the Tarakis monument. (pop-up window) [#134 Memorial]

The members of the original away team (Neelix, Chakotay, Kim, Paris) and Janeway finish their work on the memorial.

Chakotay: "We're ready, Captain."

Janeway: "I know this was hardest on the four of you, but if you hadn't stopped at this planet all the people who died here would've been forgotten, and if they could, I know they'd thank you."

She taps her combadge. combadge Via comms: "Janeway to Voyager. Stand by to initiate power transfer. Five to beam up."

transporter

The Tarakis memorial. The power transfer is made.

The memorial transmits, now working properly. Words alone cannot convey the suffering. Words alone cannot prevent what happened here from happening again. Beyond words lies experience. Beyond experience lies truth. Make this truth your own.