On Voyager, Janeway and Chakotay walk along the corridor to Sickbay.
Chakotay: "Evidently they made a few modifications. All of our preliminary scans indicated the environment was real."
Janeway: "Environments that fool sensors, no safety protocols. How many bodies?"
Chakotay: "Forty-three. Most of them were killed by facsimiles of Alpha Quadrant weapons: Romulan disruptors, Klingon bat'leths."
Janeway: "Starfleet phasers."
Chakotay: "I think we'll find they all came from the holotechnology we gave the Hirogen three years ago."
Janeway: "They obviously missed the point. We gave them that technology so they could hunt holographic prey, not get themselves killed."

As Janeway and Chakotay arrive in Sickbay they find that the patient is far from co-operative. (The patient's name is Donik.) Doctor: "Try to keep calm." Donik rips off a piece of the primary biobed and hurls it at the Doctor who dodges. "Get away from me!" He rushes to escape and is knocked back half-stunned by the forcefield.

Chakotay: "Can you sedate him?" Doctor: "He won't let me get close enough." Janeway: "We're not your enemies." Donik: "You're holograms. This is a simulation!" Janeway: "I assure you we're quite real."

Donik gets up and throws an object through the Doctor and says "Liar," to Janeway.

Janeway: "Doctor, deactivate yourself."
Doctor: "I can't treat the patient if I'm offline."
Janeway: "No one can treat him if he's terrified."
Doctor: "Computer, deactivate EMH." He dematerialises.
Chakotay: "Our Doctor's a hologram. We're not."
Donik: "Why should I believe you?"
Janeway: "I'm afraid you're going to have to. I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway. You're aboard my vessel."
Donik: "Janeway? This is Voyager?"
Chakotay: "Looks like our reputation preceded us."
Donik: "You're the ones who gave us the technology to simulate our hunts. Where are the rest of my people?"
Chakotay: "You were the only one we found alive."

Janeway: "This place you were in, it's some kind of holodeck." Donik: "A training facility, where young Hirogen learn the skills of the hunt." Chakotay: "You're a student?" Donik: "A technician." Janeway: "Computer, deactivate forcefield." To Donik: "Can you tell us what happened?" Donik: "There were too many of them." Chakotay: "Who?" Donik: "The holograms. They were malfunctioning. I tried to shut them down but they got control of the system and they deactivated the safety protocols." Tuvok contacts them via comms. comms. signal "We're picking up a Hirogen ship. It's on an intercept course."

Janeway and Chakotay arrive on the Bridge as Voyager is pounded by Hirogen phaser fire.

Janeway: "Hail them."
Kim: "I've tried. They're not responding."
Tuvok: "Shields at 68%. Should I return fire?"
Janeway: "Not yet. Open a channel. This is Captain Kathryn Janeway. We're not here to fight you."
Tuvok: "Shields at 52%."

Janeway: "Stand down, or we will retaliate."
The ship is jolted by another attack.
Chakotay: "I don't think they're getting the message."
Janeway: "Then let's try some non-verbal communication. Tom, evasive pattern beta-six. Tuvok, disable their weapons."

Tuvok fires at the Hirogen ship. "Their phaser banks have been disabled."
Janeway: "Let's see if that makes them a little more talkative. Harry?"
Kim: "They're responding."
Alpha Hirogen: "This facility belongs to the Hirogen. Leave the area immediately."
Janeway: "We're here in response to a distress call."
Alpha Hirogen: "So are we and we don't need your assistance!"
Janeway: "All but one of your people are dead."
Alpha Hirogen: "Where's the survivor?"
Janeway: "Recovering in our Sickbay."
Alpha Hirogen: "Return him, now!"
Janeway: "He's in no condition to be transported. If you want to see him, you'll have to come here."

The Alpha Hirogen and his second-in-command the Beta Hirogen, are in Sickbay interrogating Donik. Donik: "I tried to shut down the generator but I-" Alpha Hirogen: "But what?" Donik: "There were too many of them. I masked my lifesigns so they couldn't detect me." Alpha Hirogen: "You mean you hid while hunters fought and died." Beta Hirogen: "No doubt he found the nearest hole to crawl into." Donik: "I'm not a hunter!" Alpha Hirogen: "It's your responsibility to maintain those systems. Forty-three Hirogen died because of your incompetence and cowardice."

Janeway: "What about the holograms? Were they deleted?" Donik: "They transferred their programs." Janeway: "Where?" Donik: "A vessel, equipped with holo-emitters. They're gone."

	Astrometrics. Seven to the Hirogen: "Perhaps you should've considered the risks before you programmed holograms that could commandeer a vessel." Alpha Hirogen: "Capable prey make the hunt more challenging." Seven, looking at the console readings: "I'm detecting residual engine emissions but no sign of the ship itself." Janeway: "Well, I'm sure they're out of sensor range by now."
	Alpha Hirogen: "No, they're close - elevated plasma readings in grid 295. They're creating a scattering field to mask their ship. You can find them by scanning for polarised EM signatures." Janeway nods agreement.

Seven adjusts the controls and the sensors detect them.
Alpha Hirogen to the Beta: "Prepare for the hunt!" They start to leave.
Janeway: "I'd like to join you."
Alpha Hirogen: "You did enough damage giving us defective technology to begin with."
Janeway: "You have a problem. We can help you solve it. We have more experience with holograms than you do."
Alpha Hirogen: "Two hunting vessels are better than one."

Captain's Ready Room. The door signal sounds. door signal Janeway: "Come in." standard doors Chakotay and Tuvok enter. Chakotay: "The Hirogen are ready to get under way." Janeway: "The sooner the better. Why do I get the feeling you're about to gang up on me? Chakotay: "You first." Tuvok: "We have reservations about an alliance with the hunters. Janeway: "I'm listening." Tuvok: "The Hirogen have been performing covert scans of Voyager they are obviously trying to determine the status of our shields and weapons." Janeway: "I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't run a few scans of your own. Standard procedure. They don't trust us, we don't trust them." To the replicator: "Coffee, black." "Coffee, black." replicator Chakotay: "Trust isn't the issue. We're getting involved in a situation that's not our responsibility." Janeway: "Oh, I'd say we're at least partly to blame. That was Starfleet technology that killed those hunters." Chakotay: "There's nothing inherently violent about holodeck technology. It's what the Hirogen did with it that got them killed." Janeway: "How many times have we shared replicators to help people feed and clothe themselves?" Chakotay: "Trading technology is part of our life in the Delta Quadrant." Tuvok: "It has been necessary for our survival." Janeway: "Maybe we should've been a little more careful about what we traded and who we traded with. Replicators make weapons just as easily as they do food." Chakotay: "We can't undo what's been done." Janeway: "Maybe not, but we can help shut these holograms down before anyone else gets hurt. Now, if there are no more objections I'd like to get under way."

USS Voyager and the Hirogen ship in flight, approaching the location of the holograms' vessel.

Kim: "I've got the hologram ship on sensors." Janeway: "Let's see it." Chakotay: "Looks like it's taken some damage." Paris: "The Hirogen are closing on the holograms' vessel." Janeway: "Hail them." To Alpha Hirogen: "I suggest we keep our distance until we can determine their weapons status." Alpha Hirogen: "It's time for the kill." Janeway: "You know as well as I do that a wounded animal can be dangerous." Alpha Hirogen: "We won't be denied our prey." He closes contact. Tuvok: "I'm not detecting any weapons, Captain." Janeway: "They're offline?" Tuvok: "No, they're non-existent." Kim: "That's not the only thing that's non-existent. According to sensors there's no warp core, no impulse engines." Janeway to herself: "It's a decoy." To the Hirogen: "Hirogen vessel, stand down!" The decoy ship explodes as the Hirogen one closes in. Janeway: "Report!" Tuvok: "They've suffered multiple hull breaches. Their life support is failing." Janeway: "Drop shields. Transfer all survivors to Sickbay." Chakotay, via comms.: "Bridge to the Doctor. We have casualties." Doctor: "Acknowledged." Janeway: "Tom, give them a hand." Paris hurries from the Bridge. Tuvok: "Another Hirogen ship has just dropped out of warp." Chakotay: "I'm not reading any lifesigns on this one." Janeway: "Holograms. Hail them." Kim: "No response. They're charging weapons." Tuvok: "Reactivating shields." Chakotay: "No. We haven't finished transporting the Hirogen." Janeway: "Chakotay's right. Return fire." In Sickbay the Doctor fritzes. "My program is destabilising." On the Bridge Kim reports: "The holograms are tapping into the Sickbay emitters. They're trying to transfer the Doctor's program off the ship." Janeway, via comms: "Sickbay. Doctor, download your program into the mobile emitter now."

Paris gets the mobile emitter out of its case, turns and throws it to the Doctor but he is transferred off the ship a fraction of a second before he can catch it. It lands on the floor. Paris, via comms.: "We've lost him." Janeway to Kim: "Get him back." Kim: "They've gone to warp." Janeway: "Set a pursuit course." Chakotay: "They've masked their signature. They're gone."

	The Doctor is transported aboard the holograms' vessel.
	The holograms' leader, a Bajoran-programmed hologram whose name is Iden, orders: "Align his matrix and install it into the database. Welcome aboard, Doctor. There's nothing to be afraid of. You're among your own kind now."

Doctor: "Return me to my ship."
Iden: "I can't do that."
Doctor: "I have patients who're going to die if I don't treat them."
Iden: "There are people aboard Voyager who can help them. We need you here."
Doctor: "My program doesn't include aiding and abetting murderers."
A Starfleet-hologram (called Weiss): "'Murderers'! Is that what the Hirogen told you?"
Doctor: "I know what you did at that training facility."
Iden: "What happened there couldn't be avoided."
Doctor: "Really. You'd be surprised how easy it is not to kill someone."
Weiss to Iden: "Bringing him here was a mistake."
Iden: "The Doctor is our guest and I'm sure he'll help us once he realises how serious our situation is."
Doctor: "What situation?"
Iden: "We have wounded."

Iden shows the Doctor several of his crewmembers, each of whose matrix is damaged in some way. The Breen hologram is helped to sit down by a Starfleet hologram. The Breen fritzes. Doctor: "I'm a doctor, not an engineer. You've abducted the wrong man." Iden: "You must have experience repairing your matrix." Doctor: "Some." Iden: "Then there has to be something you can do."

Thanks to Free Buttons for the rulers from the set Cosmic Gel. Thanks to Mardiweb for the button blank.