RENAISSANCE MAN
Episode 170
Part A

 

In the Delta Flyer the Doctor sings opera.

Janeway enters from the rear section.

Eventually the Doctor turns and sees her. "Captain. Computer, pause music. I didn't wake you, did I?"

Janeway: "That's alright, Doctor. Fifteen minutes of sleep is really all I need."

She goes to the replicator and orders: "Coffee, black." Janeway: "Maybe you should pay a little more attention to flying and a little less to singing."

Doctor: "As a hologram, I can handle a variety of tasks at once. In addition to piloting the Flyer I'm writing a paper on the physiological stresses of long-duration space flight and taking holo-images of this Mutara-class nebula." Janeway, drily: "With a hologram on board who needs a crew?"

Doctor: "I'd never admit this to anyone else but there was a time when I would have given anything to be flesh and blood, but I've come to realise that being a hologram is far superior." Janeway: "Really." Doctor: "No offence. I'll always enjoy the company of organics. In fact, I'm delighted you were able to attend this medical symposium with me."

The Doctor continues: "It's been pleasant spending time with you."

He continues: "Actually I was hoping we might do this sort of thing more often."

The Delta Flyer trembles. Doctor: "Hmm. We're passing through a subspace eddy." Janeway: "Could be the wake of another ship." Doctor: "No, there's nothing on sensors. It's probably just the gravimetric shear from the nebula."

Janeway: "Maybe I should take the controls." Doctor: "Sit down and relax, Captain - you've got a hologram at the helm!"

USS Voyager, cruising in space.

In Engineering, Vorik and Torres have accessed one of the lower wall panels to look at the plasma relays. Torres: "The plasma surges have to be coming from one of these relays. Try re-aligning the deuterium manifolds."

Vorik does so and a relay blows out.

Torres' combadge signals a call. "Paris to Torres." Torres: "Go ahead." Paris: "Can you pull yourself away from engineering for a few minutes. I've got a shuttle down here with a faulty deflector array." Torres: "I'm a little busy right now." Paris: "It's kind of urgent." She leaves.

Torres arrives in the Shuttlebay and finds on entering the shuttlecraft that the claimed fault was an excuse to bring her away from work. Paris is getting out a lunch box!

Torres: "What's this?" Paris: "Well, I thought you'd enjoy a romantic lunch under the glow of a red giant." Torres: "Oh, you replicated potato salad." Paris: "With extra paprika just the way you like it."

Torres: "This is so sweet, but I can't." Paris: "Sure you can. I've already cleared it with Chakotay." He proffers a drumstick. Torres: "I told the Captain I'd have the dilithium matrix recalibrated before she got back." Paris: "You know, this might be our last chance to be alone for the next eighteen years." Torres: "I will make some time before the baby comes, I promise."

After a moment, she tears herself: "I gotta get back." Reluctantly she leaves. He takes a bite of the drumstick himself.

On the Bridge, Kim is in the captain's chair. "Report." Ayala, at the helm: "There's some kind of pulse being directed at our transceiver array. It's coming from the Delta Flyer." Kim: "Hail them." Ayala: "No response."

Kim looks at his monitor: "Looks like they've encoded the pulse with a com. signal." Janeway's image appears on the main viewscreen. Kim: "Captain."

Janeway: "Sorry about the image, Ensign. Our com. system's been damaged. The only way I could send you a signal was through the main deflector." Kim: "Are you and the Doctor alright?" Janeway: "We're fine. Tell Commander Chakotay to meet me in my Ready Room as soon as we dock. Janeway out." She closes contact and the image disappears.

Chakotay is waiting for Janeway in the Captain's Ready Room. Chakotay: "Harry tells me the Flyer took some damage." Janeway: "That's an understatement. We almost didn't make it back in one piece. They're called the R'Kaal. Their technology is decades ahead of ours. Transphasic warp drive, multi-spectral cloaking systems. They could destroy this ship before our sensors knew they were there." Chakotay: "Sound like people we should avoid." Janeway: "I wish that were possible. They control thousands of parsecs from here to the edge of the Beta Quadrant. They're ecological extremists. They believe conventional warp engines damage subspace so they've outlawed warp travel through their territory." Chakotay: "Then we should reverse course and find a way around." Janeway, handing him a PADD with the details: "That's the problem: we've already been in their space for three weeks without knowing it." Chakotay: "You'd think they'd mark their borders a little more clearly." Janeway: "As punishment their law demands that our ship be dismantled." Chakotay: "Obviously we're not going to let that happen." Janeway: "I spent three hours explaining our situation to their Supreme Archon, a thoroughly unpleasant man. I convinced him to spare Voyager but at a price. We're going to rendezvous with their armada and surrender our warp core at a class-M planet where they've agreed to let us settle." Chakotay: "Settle." Janeway: "I didn't make this decision lightly, Chakotay." Chakotay: "We have to bring senior staff in on this. We can find a way to evade their ships or adapt our sensors to their cloaking technology." Janeway: "We could try that and we might make it past their armada but we could lose a lot of people in the process, maybe the entire ship." Chakotay: "Kathryn, there's got to be another way." Janeway: "I'm tired, Chakotay. Tired of continually risking my people on the slim chance that we'll make it home in one piece." Chakotay: "We've found our way out of worse situations." Janeway: "Set a course." Chakotay: "What am I supposed to tell the crew?" Janeway: "For now I'd like to keep this between us." Chakotay: "It's not like you to keep your people in the dark." Janeway: "I'll make an announcement when the time is right. Dismissed."

Janeway enters Engineering. Torres: "Captain." Janeway: "I'm sorry to interrupt but I could use your input on a hypothetical scenario." Torres: "Of course." Janeway: "If we were to eject the core, could it be towed safely at warp?"

Torres: "In theory. But a tractor beam might destablise the containment field. You'd be risking a breach." Janeway: "Could you compensate for that?" Torres: "You could configure the tractor emitters to generate a resonance pulse. That should stabilise the field." Janeway: "Can you make those modifications to the Delta Flyer's tractor emitters?" Torres: "I suppose." Janeway: "How long would it take?" Torres: "Erm, a few hours."

Janeway: "Get started." Torres: "I thought you said this was a hypothetical scenario." Janeway: "We should be prepared just in case." Torres: "In case of what?" Janeway: "Let me know as soon as you've finished." She departs, leaving Torres puzzled.

After Janeway leaves Torres taps her combadge. "Torres to Chakotay. Chakotay, via comms: "Go ahead." Torres, via comms: "Have you got a minute?"