Dreadnought : Episode 33 Part A :: EPISODE GUIDES :: Janet's Star Trek Voyager Site

DREADNOUGHT : Episode 33

Wildman: "'Greskrendtregk' would make
a good middle name, don't you think?"
In Sickbay the Doctor is giving the pregnant Ensign Samantha Wildman a medical check-up.
Wildman: "I've been considering naming him after my husband. It's been a tradition in his family for over five generations."
Kes: "I'm sure he'd be very pleased."
Wildman: "My husband's name is Greskrendtregk. He's Ktarian."
Doctor: "Choosing a name is no easy matter. I speak from experience."
Wildman: "Have you had any progress, Doctor?"
Doctor: "I reviewed historical, literary and anthropological databases from over five hundred worlds and have yet to find a suitable name. However, I may want to give some thought to 'Greskrendtregk'."
Wildman: "To be honest, I've been thinking of something simpler. What do you think of 'Cameron'?"
Kes: "I like it."
Doctor: "Cameron - the ancient Celtic term for 'one whose nose is bent'."
Wildman: "Or what about 'Frederick'?"
Doctor: "Frederick - very distinguished. However it bears a close resemblance to a rather impolite term on the Bolian homeworld."
Wildman: "Well, it doesn't have to be a human name. I like 'Sural'. It's Vulcan."
Doctor: "Yes, unfortunately it was also the name of a dictator on Sakura Prime, famed for beheading his rivals and his parents."
Kes: "You won't have any objection to 'Benaren'?"
Doctor: "You're right. I've never heard that name before."
Wildman: "I think it's lovely. Is it Ocampan?"
Kes: "Benaren was my father's name. He was the greatest inspiration in my life."
The comm. signal sounds. comms. signal Janeway's voice is heard shipwide: "All science officers, please report to your stations."
The Doctor tells Wildman: "Your scans look fine, Ensign. We'll see you in a week."
Wildman: "Thank you." As she leaves, she says, "'Greskrendtregk' would make a good middle name, don't you think?"
Doctor: "You never suggested your father's name to me."
Kes: "I thought you were only considering human names."
Doctor: "Ah, well, you were mistaken."
Kes: "If you like 'Benaren' there's no reason why you can't use it too. I'm sure she won't mind."
Doctor: "Won't mind that I just usurped her baby's name the moment I heard it? Thank you but no thank you."
Kes: "My uncle's name was Elrem." As the Doctor leaves for his lab, she calls after him helpfully: "I once knew a boy named Tarik."

Bridge.
Paris "There's not much left of whatever it was. From the amount of debris I'd guess that it was a small ship, no bigger than a shuttlecraft."

Kim: "I'm not reading any organic material in the debris field. It must've been an unmanned vessel, possibly a probe."

Janeway: "Any idea of what happened to it?"
Tuvok: "The high residual energy signature indicates repeated weapons fire."
Kim: "Captain, the wreckage is composed primarily of duritanium polyalloy."
Janeway: "Duritanium?"
Chakotay: "I haven't seen many weapons that could do that kind of damage to a duritanium hull."
Janeway: "Transport some samples of the debris to Engineering for analysis."
Chakotay: "Continuous scans, Lieutenant. We don't want whoever did this to catch us by surprise."

Janeway arrives at engineering via turbolift and strides towards where Torres and Chakotay have been carrying out an analysis of the debris sample.
Janeway: "Any conclusions?"
Chakotay: "Afraid so."
Torres: "We've identified the signature left by the weapons fire. There's no question: it was Cardassian.
Janeway: "Cardassian. Could Seska be responsible?"

Torres: "No, Captain. I am."

At a meeting of the senior staff held in the Briefing Room Torres reports: "The probe was destroyed by an experimental Cardassian weapon from the Alpha Quadrant."

She is interrupted when Paris hurries in, late, and looking unkempt. He says, "Sorry." and takes his seat. Torres continues: "I recognise its signature because, because I know this weapon very well. Chakotay and I got our hands on it when we were fighting the Cardassians."

Kim: "How did it get here?"
Chakotay: "Probably the same way we did."
Torres: "The last time we saw it, it was heading in the same direction in the Badlands where the Caretaker picked us up."
Chakotay: "Originally the Cardassians sent this thing to destroy a Maquis munitions base. We nicknamed it Dreadnought. It's a self-guided tactical missile, carrying a charge of a 1,000 kilos of matter and another 1,000 of anti-matter."
Tuvok: "Enough to destroy a small moon."

Torres: "Now add to that one of the most sophisticated computer systems I've ever seen. They made this missile adaptable, evasive, armed with its own defensive weaponry. In other words: unstoppable."
Neelix: "So, how did you stop it?"
Chakotay: "We didn't. It got through all our defences. Worked like it was supposed to, except for one minor detail. It didn't go off."
Torres: "Leave it to the Cardassians to build such an incredibly advanced tactical weapon and then arm the warhead with an old kinetic detonator."
Chakotay: "The missile skipped off into the atmosphere and quietly went into orbit."

Torres: "I got inside it and reprogrammed the computer. Hell, I didn't just reprogram it, I changed its identity. I made it forget about being Cardassian. Now it was working for the Maquis."
Chakotay: "And with a new mission: to destroy the Cardassian fuel depot on Aschelan V, but it never made it out of the Badlands. We thought it had been destroyed in one of the plasma storms."

Janeway: "So how do we stop this weapon before it causes any more damage?"
Torres: "Dreadnought masks its warp trail with a randomised EM field, but I can modify our navigational sensors to cut through that."

Paris: "And what are we going to do with it once we find it?"
Torres: "I get back inside it. I know all the security codes. I installed them myself."
Janeway: "Lieutenant Paris can assist you with the navigational sensors. Keep me informed. Dismissed."

Everyone leaves, but Janeway's attention is drawn to Chakotay who apprehends Paris. Chakotay tells him: "Lieutenant, I expect everyone to show up for meetings on time and properly dressed."
Paris looks as if he is about to make a retort, but he swallows it and replies, "Yes, sir."

In engineering, Paris is elping Torres modify the navigational sensors.
Paris: "There's still a lot of distortion in the upper frequency. Better. Now let's try filtering out the ion radiation." He notices that Torres is preoccupied. "B'Elanna." He realises what she must be thinking about. "You must be really worried about catching this thing."
Torres: "Chakotay wasn't telling the whole truth. We didn't send Dreadnought on a mission against the Cardassians. I was the one who sent it, without asking him."
Paris: "You were afraid he'd say no."
Torres: "After I did it, he pulled me aside and I was ready to defend myself. I was so sure that I had anticipated everything that could possibly go wrong. I even programmed it to warn Federation ships to stay out of its way, in my own voice."
Paris: "Your voice?"
Torres: "Listening to that Cardassian computer's voice was driving me crazy."
Paris: "I don't blame you."
Torres: "Anyway, Chakotay looked at me. I didn't know him very well yet. And all he said, in that damned soft voice of his, was that I'd hurt him, that he thought he'd earned my trust and loyalty. I was so glad when it disappeared into the Badlands. I remember thinking thank God it's over, but it's not. And if anything happens here because of Dreadnought, it's my fault, no one else's."
Paris: "You took a risk. You were thinking like a Maquis. That was a whole different life."
Torres: "Tell me about it."
Paris: "You know, I've been surprised at how well you've been able to fit in here, a little envious too."
Torres: "Tom, what's been going on with you lately?"
Paris: "Going on, how?"
Torres: "People are starting to talk."
Paris: "Are they? People like who? Chakotay?"
Torres: "No, I mean 'people', like me. Like today. Look at yourself: coming to a briefing late, and is it true that you had a fight with Lieutenant Rollins?"
Paris: "The Lieutenant was unhappy that my conn reports weren't punctuated properly, according to Starfleet protocol. I didn't like his attitude."
Torres: "Was he right about your report?"
Paris: "We're in the Delta Quadrant, nowhere near Starfleet! What diff-" He sees Torres' expression. "Yeah, he was right. I'm the one who's been wrong," adding meaningfully, "wrong about a lot of things." He closes the conversation by abruptly announcing: "I'm going to try running a multiphasic sweep." He walks off.

Thanks to Feeble Minds for the animated star background (tweaked by me).

	Bridge. Paris "There's not much left of whatever it was. From the amount of debris I'd guess that it was a small ship, no bigger than a shuttlecraft."
	Kim: "I'm not reading any organic material in the debris field. It must've been an unmanned vessel, possibly a probe."
	Janeway: "Any idea of what happened to it?" Tuvok: "The high residual energy signature indicates repeated weapons fire." Kim: "Captain, the wreckage is composed primarily of duritanium polyalloy." Janeway: "Duritanium?" Chakotay: "I haven't seen many weapons that could do that kind of damage to a duritanium hull." Janeway: "Transport some samples of the debris to Engineering for analysis." Chakotay: "Continuous scans, Lieutenant. We don't want whoever did this to catch us by surprise."

	Kim: "How did it get here?" Chakotay: "Probably the same way we did." Torres: "The last time we saw it, it was heading in the same direction in the Badlands where the Caretaker picked us up." Chakotay: "Originally the Cardassians sent this thing to destroy a Maquis munitions base. We nicknamed it Dreadnought. It's a self-guided tactical missile, carrying a charge of a 1,000 kilos of matter and another 1,000 of anti-matter." Tuvok: "Enough to destroy a small moon."
	Torres: "Now add to that one of the most sophisticated computer systems I've ever seen. They made this missile adaptable, evasive, armed with its own defensive weaponry. In other words: unstoppable." Neelix: "So, how did you stop it?" Chakotay: "We didn't. It got through all our defences. Worked like it was supposed to, except for one minor detail. It didn't go off." Torres: "Leave it to the Cardassians to build such an incredibly advanced tactical weapon and then arm the warhead with an old kinetic detonator." Chakotay: "The missile skipped off into the atmosphere and quietly went into orbit."
	Torres: "I got inside it and reprogrammed the computer. Hell, I didn't just reprogram it, I changed its identity. I made it forget about being Cardassian. Now it was working for the Maquis." Chakotay: "And with a new mission: to destroy the Cardassian fuel depot on Aschelan V, but it never made it out of the Badlands. We thought it had been destroyed in one of the plasma storms."
	Janeway: "So how do we stop this weapon before it causes any more damage?" Torres: "Dreadnought masks its warp trail with a randomised EM field, but I can modify our navigational sensors to cut through that."
	Paris: "And what are we going to do with it once we find it?" Torres: "I get back inside it. I know all the security codes. I installed them myself." Janeway: "Lieutenant Paris can assist you with the navigational sensors. Keep me informed. Dismissed."
	Everyone leaves, but Janeway's attention is drawn to Chakotay who apprehends Paris. Chakotay tells him: "Lieutenant, I expect everyone to show up for meetings on time and properly dressed." Paris looks as if he is about to make a retort, but he swallows it and replies, "Yes, sir."