PARTURITION
Episode 23
Part D

 

Kes is in her quarters, waiting for news, anxious, upset.

The door signal sounds. door signal "Come in." standard doors Kim enters. "Harry, any word yet?" He sits down. "We're doing everything possible. The transporter just doesn't want to work in that atmosphere. How are you doing?"

Kes: "Oh, I'm alright," although she is actually very upset. "It's just er I was very angry at them a few hours ago." Kim: "You had every right to be." Kes: "And now they might both be dead. I'm sitting here, and I'm feeling guilty for some reason." Kim: "Guilty? Why?" Kes: "I don't know. I don't like it. And it's their fault. And I can't even tell them how angry I am at them. And I may never be able to tell them how angry I am at them! So it doesn't matter, does it!"

Kim: "Look, you know if there was any way to land that shuttle, Tom Paris got it down."

Kes: "And no one has stronger survival skills than Neelix." Kim: "I'm sure they'll both be fine."

Kes tries to joke: "Unless they kill each other." Kim plays along. "They're professionals." Kes: "Oh, they better be alright, because when I see them, I'm personally going to tell them that I never intend to speak to either one of them again!"

The ship jolts violently. Chakotay's voice comes over the com. system: "Chakotay to crew. Battle stations." Kim hurries out, followed closely by Kes.

Paris and Neelix enter a cave. Paris: "This is good. We can last a while in here."

They move a short distance inside the cave, turn and fire their phasers just above the cave entrance to cause a rockfall and seal the entrance. Paris: "That should do it."

Neelix: "Garnesite. This will give us a little heat, at least." Paris: "We'd better conserve our beacon cells." They turn off their wrist-beacons. Neelix phasers four rocks. The rocks glow with heat and they huddle by them.

Neelix: "So, what is Starfleet protocol for situations like this?" Paris: "Oh, there's a whole course at the Academy full of all sorts of survival strategies." Neelix: "I hope you had a passing grade." Paris: "B minus." Neelix: "That's not very encouraging." Paris: "My father was teaching the class that year." Neelix: "And he gave you a B minus? I guess he didn't play favourites, huh?"

Paris: "What about Talaxian protocols?" Neelix: "I wrote my own book. My life before Voyager was no bed of Felaran rose petals."

Paris: "Ha, no, more like a bed of-" Neelix: "What?" Paris: "Nothing." Neelix: "You were going to say 'junk', perhaps? Go ahead. Say it: 'Junk.' I was a dealer in junk, perhaps not worthy of a woman like Kes, in your opinion." Paris: "Neelix, I didn't say that! I never even-"

They hear a strange sound, like a creature's call. They get up and go to investigate. Neelix: "Tell me something. In that Starfleet survival course, did your father teach you to check for lifesigns before you seal yourself inside a cave?" Paris: "I checked for lifesigns. There weren't any." Neelix: "There are now."

Voyager's bridge. Janeway: "Hail them." Tuvok: "They do not respond, Captain."

The alien ship positions itself below Voyager, between Voyager and the planet, facing Voyager.

Kim: "They're powering down their weapons systems." Tuvok: "Their vessel has taken up a position directly beneath us." Janeway: "What do you make of it, Lieutenant?" Tuvok: "They would seem to have adopted a defensive posture, Captain." Janeway: "I agree. But defending what? The planet?"

Chakotay: "Or something on it."

Janeway's concern is the away team on the planet.

In the cave on the planet. Paris, using a tricorder: "Whatever this lifeform is, its vital signs are awfully faint." Neelix: "In this atmosphere, it could be dying of exposure." Paris: "No, I don't think so. They're faint, but steady." Neelix, as they come across a large footprint: "I'd say it's becoming more and more evident that we chose the wrong cave."

They come upon an alien nest which contains eggs. Paris: "This is where the lifesigns are coming from. They're embryonic lifeforms. These two are half-formed. This one almost seems to-"

The egg shell cracks and a hatchling's head emerges. Paris and Neelix are taken aback and they briefly exchange glances.

Voyager, above the planet - stand-off, with an alien starship positioned between Voyager and the planet.

Voyager's bridge. Janeway, Chakotay, Torres and Kim are holding a discussion at Kim's station, Ops. Kim: "The EM disturbance patterns match the computer simulations. I'd say we'll get a shot at an atmospheric window in about 53 minutes." Chakotay: "Where does that leave us with the transporter?" Torres: "Our range will still be limited, but the transporter should work as long as we stay in an area with reduced electromagnetic activity." Janeway: "The problem is we don't know where our shuttle went down." Chakotay: "So there's no way to know how close they'll be to the window when it opens." Janeway: "Recommendations?" Torres: "Take the ship through the window into the atmosphere. The closer you can get us to the surface, the better our chances for a successful beam out." Janeway: "Get on it." Torres acknowledges. Chakotay: "Are you going to be able to warn us before the window closes again?" Kim: "I think so." Janeway: "Mr Kim, that's not an answer I can live with." Kim: "I'll try to get you a better one, Captain."

She goes over to Tuvok at the tactical/security station.
Janeway: "Mr Tuvok, we need you to find a way to get us by that ship."
Tuvok: "I have anticipated your request, Captain. Am I correct in the assumption that you will want to use minimal force?"
Janeway: "Assumption confirmed."

Tuvok: "I cannot guarantee success. My evaluation of their weapon systems suggest a capacity equal to our own. However-" Janeway surmises: "You've come up with an ingenious plan to neutralise them." Tuvok: "I have. In my analysis of our first encounter, I have detected what I believe to be a vulnerability in their shield configuration. There appears to be a slight phase retraction when auxiliary power is transferred to their aft weapons systems." Chakotay: "A co-variant phaser pulse into their aft control systems might disable their entire weapons array." Tuvok: "That was my ingenious plan, Commander. You are correct." Janeway: "Very well."

Janeway orders: "Red alert." The lights dim and klaxons sound. "Mr Kim, set co-ordinates. Torres, speed at two thousand k.p.h." Torres: "Aye, Captain."

Janeway goes to the captain's chair. "Chakotay, take the helm." He does so. Kim: "Co-ordinates entered." Janeway: "Engage."

In the cave on the planet. Paris, reporting tricorder scans: "This creature's going to have the ability to stand upright. It has the skeletal system of a humanoid. It's cold-blooded, has reptilian epidermis. Its brain is significantly larger than most reptilian species. I'd say we're dealing with a sentient lifeform here, Neelix."

Neelix: "If this species is sentient, wouldn't that suggest that its parents might return to care for it?" Paris: "It's hard to say. Most common reptiles lay their eggs and never return to protect them." Neelix: "I think we've established we're not dealing with a common reptile." Paris: "True. And if this thing does have a mother, I'd say we don't want to be around when she gets back." He starts to leave. "Come on."

Neelix: "We can't just leave it here!"
Paris: "We're not leaving it here. Its mother left it here. We just happened to wander in."
Neelix: "But we blocked off the cave. The mother might have been trapped outside."
Paris: "We'll leave the door open for her when we go, OK?"
Neelix: "Look, it's not that simple. What if she can sense we were here? She, she might be able to smell that faux lime aftershave of yours." Paris looks down at himself, bemused. "I'm sure you realise many species won't return to a nest after it's been tampered with."
Paris: "There's not much we can do about that now, is there? We should just leave all this the way we found it."
Neelix: "No."
Paris: "Neelix!"
Neelix, firmly: "This creature is our responsibility."
Paris: "Ours?"
Neelix: "The moment we came in here, it became our responsibility."
Paris: "And you expect to take care of this thing until what? It graduates from high school, college? And what if mom doesn't come back? Are you planning to bring this with us back on the ship?"
Neelix: "Look, if she does return and accepts the hatchling, it'll solve everything. We just have to wait and see what she does. I don't know how it is in your quadrant, but in mine we don't abandon a new-born....." he hunts for the right word but can only come up with an indeterminate one: "thing."
Paris: "Fine. Fine. You made your point. I officially designate you its godfather."
Neelix: "It stopped crying."
Paris: "It's shivering." Worried: "That's normal, isn't it? I mean, newborn lifeforms do shiver, don't they?"
Neelix: "To be honest, I haven't been around many newborns."
Paris: "Me neither."

Neelix takes off his jacket and wraps the hatchling in it. "Aw, look at this, Paris. It's stopped shivering." Paris goes up to it. He is becoming fond of the creature, just as Neelix is. "It's asleep. Forget what I said, Neelix. You're not its godfather. You're its godmother."