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JETREL
Episode 15
Part D

 

Bridge. Paris at the conn.

Janeway and Chakotay turn when Neelix enters the Bridge. audio: standard doorsstandard doors

Paris turns from his console to report: "Entering synchronous orbit, Captain."
Neelix is transfixed by the appearance of his dead home.

The main viewscreen shows Rinax, with Talax behind.

Neelix: "Hard to believe that on clear nights you could look up from Talax and see the shimmering lights of the colony. The night of the Cascade, a bright flash cut across the sky. It was so blinding that people threw themselves to the ground. Then everything stopped, like a moment out of time, then we all looked up to see where the flash had come from, but the sky seemed oddly empty. Took most of us a few seconds to realise it was because Rinax was......gone. Of course the moon was still there, we just couldn't see it because of that Metreon Cloud."

The comm. signal sounds. audio: comms. signalcomms. signal Torres, via comms: "Engineering to bridge. We're ready to begin transporter pre-sequencing, Captain."
Janeway, via comms: "Acknowledged." Contact ends.

Neelix: "This brings back too many memories, Captain. If you'll excuse me."
Desolately he makes his way to the exit to the corridor.

Janeway: "Of course."

An engineer works on configuring a container in which a sample of the Metreon Cloud will be collected.

Jetrel enters engineering. audio: standard doorsstandard doors He notices the container as he walks past on his way over to Torres.

Jetrel: "I believe I asked for a larger container."

Torres: "Correct me if I'm wrong, Dr, but we're talking about a Cloud sample large enough to contain a few subatomic particles, right?"
Jetrel: "Yes, but the isotope accounts for just a miniscule fraction of the Cloud's total mass. I want to be sure we get enough."

>Torres: "Don't worry, we do this all the time." She taps her combadge. audio: combadgecombadge "Pre-sequencing complete, Captain. I'm ready to begin transport."
Janeway, via comms: "Proceed."

Torres: "Targetting scanners, locking on. Energise." audio: transportertransporter


the container starts filling		Torres, via comms: "Captain, we have the sample aboard. The containment field is holding."
Janeway, via comms: "Well done, Janeway out."
Torres: "Good luck, Dr."

Kes goes to the Messhall.

Kes enters the Messhall. It is dark. audio: standard doorsstandard doors
Kes: "Neelix? Neelix, are you in here?"

She looks over the counter and sees him. "Neelix? I've been looking for you everywhere."

Kes sits with him: "Why did you take your combadge off?"
Neelix: "I wanted to be alone."
Kes: "I'm sorry to bother you, but I was worried. I know how you must feel."
Neelix: "No, you don't know! Not everything. You don't know where I was the night Rinax was destroyed."
Kes: "On Talax, fighting with the defence forces."
Neelix: "I was on Talax, but I wasn't fighting with the defence forces. I was hiding from them. I wasn't a hero at the battle of the Pyrithian Gorge. Never even been there."

Kes: "I don't understand."
Neelix: "I never reported for duty."
Kes: "Why not?"
Neelix: "I thought the war was unjust, that Talax was fighting for reasons that weren't worth killing for, or at least, that's what I told myself. But the real reason I didn't report was because I was a coward. Now you know."
Kes: "If the Talaxian authorities would've caught you, what would they have done?"
Neelix: "During wartime, the punishment for refusing military service was death."

Kes: "So you put your life at risk for something you believed in, and you think that makes you a coward. I don't understand."
Neelix: "It makes me a liar! I lied about it all these years, to you, to Jetrel, to everyone."
Kes: "Because you're dishonest."
Neelix: "Because I'm ashamed."
Kes: "What an awful burden you've carried all these years. No wonder you're so angry with Jetrel."
Neelix: "Of course I am. He killed them all - my mother, my father, my little brothers....."

Kes: "Is that really why? Every since Jetrel came on board you've despised him. The hurt and anger you've held in all these years was vented right at him. But was it really Jetrel you're angry with? Is he the one you blamed for what happened?"
Neelix: "I don't know."
Kes: "Or was he just a convenient target to keep you from looking somewhere else?"

Neelix: "You mean from looking at myself. You may be right, but I hate him. And I don't think I can stop hating him."
Kes: "Maybe you have to stop hating yourself first."

In Sickbay, Jetrel configures and inserts a cylindrical component into his equipment.

Doctor: "Are we ready to begin synthesis?"

Jetrel: "Computer override command one EMH alpha and end program."

Doctor: "Now just wait one-" He goes offline.

Jetrel activates the device.

The sample in the container begins to change.


 

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