GOOD SHEPHERD : Episode 140 : Part C

	The Delta Flyer, now with a piece of outer hull missing.
	Celes suggests that they retrieve the piece of hull as there might be a quantum signature in it, and this would give them information. In the rear section of the Delta Flyer, Janeway scans the retrieved piece of hull, then orders Celes to download the information into the main computer.

Celes: "Captain, I'm sorry. I thought that spatial fluctuation we ran into was background noise. Some noise." Janeway: "I saw the same sensor readings you did and came to the same conclusion. You don't have to doubt yourself all the time." Celes: "Yes I do, and you should too. You're right to be always looking over my shoulder." Janeway: "We all make mistakes, even me." Celes: "Every day? Every time you report for duty? On Voyager it doesn't matter because nothing I do is that critical. Seven doesn't trust me with anything important. The crew is protected from my mistakes by the people around me, but out here I could get us killed."

Janeway: "You went through Starfleet training courses."
Celes: "I had to cram for every exam."
Janeway: "At the Academy I was infamous for my all-nighters."
Celes: "Every night? Because that's what it took. That's the only way I made it through. Not to mention the sympathy votes. The conflict on Bajor worked in my favour. The Federation was so eager to have Bajorans in Starfleet that my instructors gave me the benefit of the doubt. So did you, when you accepted my application."
Janeway: "You showed evidence of unconventional thinking. I liked that. Not everyone would have thought to retrieve that hull plating."
Celes: "Just don't trust me with the analysis. I guarantee I'll get it wrong."
Janeway: "Well, with that attitude I'm sure you will."

Celes: "This has nothing to do with attitude, Captain. You and I are wired differently. To you this is nothing but data. To me it, it's a monster with, with fangs and claws. In my nightmares I am chased by algorithms. My brain just wasn't built to understand this." Janeway: "We can find you another post on Voyager." Celes: "There isn't another post on Voyager, not for me, unless you need a waitress in the Messhall."

Janeway: "You know, there's more to duty than the ability to manipulate algorithms. Everybody on Voyager has showed a courage far beyond what I expected. So have you." Celes: "If we were still in the Alpha Quadrant would that be enough to keep me on board?" Janeway: "I can't answer that." Celes: "I don't deserve to be on your ship, Captain, and I'm not really a part of Voyager. I just live there."

In the front section of the Delta Flyer Harran and Telfer argue after Telfer is so busy scanning himself with a medical tricorder and being worried by the readings that Harran is almost, as he puts it, killed by a plasma discharge because Telfer cuts the plasma flow some seconds after he is asked. Harran: "What is wrong with you!" Telfer, showing him the tricorder readings: "Everything." Eventually Telfer suggests that Harran try spending time with him and Celes once they return to Voyager but Harran says this would mean putting theory into practice, and he is solely a theorist.

Janeway: "Our scans of the hull fragment were inconclusive. We found some displaced positrons that could have been caused by a dark matter impact."
Telfer: "But could've been caused by something else."
Harran: "Proof enough."
Janeway: "Not enough for me, not enough to jettison the remaining anti-matter. There's a gas giant only a few hours from our current position: T-class, surrounded by orbital rings including one that's radiogenic. We could use those particles to re-initialise our warp reaction."
Harran: "With 10 percent of our anti-matter left we'd only be able to make warp 2 but it would be enough to get us back on the road."
Janeway: "Set a course."
As they proceed towards the gas giant Celes detects another fluctuation. Harran insists they eject the warp core but Janeway tries to communicate with the fluctuation in case it is a sentient being but there is no response. As the force is attracted to anti-matter she orders Telfer to fire a photon torpedo which contains anti-matter, and so draw the attack towards the torpedo not the Delta Flyer. It works but firing the torpedo could be construed as an attack.

They hear a humming sound. Going by the readings on their tricorders they converge on Telfer, and look on as Telfer unexpectedly dematerialises and then vanishes. Suddenly he reappears and collapses to the floor. Something is writhing beneath his skin.

They put Telfer on the sickbed in the rear section of the Delta Flyer. Celes reports that the transporter cannot get a lock on the entity inside Telfer and Janeway finds that the tricorder cannot scan it. Despite Harran's protests that it is impossible, Janeway says it could be "some kind of dark matter lifeform".

Janeway: "Where did they take you?" Telfer: "I don't know, it was dark. I could hear breathing all around me." Janeway: "Did anyone try to communicate with you?" Telfer: "I tried to say something but there wasn't enough air, I tried to move but something was pressing down on me." He begs for a sedative to ease the pain but Janeway replies that it could lower his immune response and so he must stay conscious. Celes: "Billy, if it wanted to kill you, it would've done it by now. It never would've sent you back here. Maybe it was trying to scan you or something." Telfer: "If it wanted to get to know me better it should've just asked me out for a drink."

Janeway erects a forcefield over the sickbed and leaves Celes to stay with him.

Janeway sets a course for the rings and orders Harran to shunt as much power as possible to the impulse engines. Janeway tries to engage Harran in further conversation. Harran: "I wasn't meant to be an explorer." Janeway: "And I wasn't meant to guide a ship across an unknown Quadrant." Harran: "Then we're both victims of circumstance." Janeway: "Oh, I've seen things I'd never've imagined, grown closer to people that I never thought possible. I wouldn't call myself a victim and I wouldn't trade the last six years for anything." Harran: "Then you've been deluded, by the inexhaustible human capacity for avoiding the truth." Eventually Harran tells Janeway with finality: "You don't know me at all." Harran achieves three more percentage points of power for the engines.

Celes calls a warning and they are amazed to see Telfer walking into the cockpit - the forcefield had not contained him. Telfer apologises that he cannot stop the lifeform inside him as it is activating his motor neurons, and he says that Janeway will have to stop it. Accordingly Janeway fires at Telfer.