LIFESIGNS
Episode 35
Part F

 

Janeway stands up slowly, her face grim - Paris has struck an officer.

Chakotay gets up.

Janeway: "Mr Tuvok." Tuvok: "Yes, Captain?" Janeway: "Please escort Mr Paris to the Brig."

Kim looks down, disappointed in his friend Paris who has got himself into trouble.

Tuvok comes up behind Paris, who looks shocked but still defiant then heads toward the turbolift.

Janeway looks at Chakotay.

Jonas paces up and down in his quarters. At last his personal computer signals an incoming transmission and Seska's image appears on the computer screen.

Jonas, relieved: "Oh, boy," he sits down quickly at the computer, "am I glad to see you. I wasn't even sure if they were giving you my messages." Seska, on computer screen: "I've gotten them all, Mike. You've been very helpful." Jonas: "Do you know what they're asking me to do?" Seska, on computer screen: "You mean about the warp coils? I was thinking you could do it by forcing the magnetic constrictors out of alignment." Jonas: "Look, Seska, I don't mind feeding you information but if you're planning some kind of attack...." Seska, on computer screen: "I have no intention of raising my child on a Kazon ship! One way or another, I'm going to take Voyager! You can either help me, or you can suffer along with Janeway and the others. Don't worry, Mike. Everything's been planned to the letter. Here's how it's going to work. We'll be waiting for you on a planet called Hemikek IV."

USS Voyager cruising at warp speed towards Danara's home. Doctor: "Doctor's personal log, Stardate 49507.2. The more time I spend with Danara, the more my programming continues to adapt. I look forward to perfecting my romantic skills once we've completed the synaptic transfer."

The Doctor is performing more treatment on Danara's real body, assisted by Kes at the main console, and watched by Danara. Doctor: "Set the delta band frequency of the holo-emitter to 7 terahertz." Kes, doing so: "7 terahertz."

Doctor, worried by the instrument readings: "Wait a minute. Did you administer the cervaline as I instructed?" Kes: "500 milligrams every four hours."

Doctor: "I don't understand it." Danara: "What's wrong?" Doctor: "The brain, your brain, it's rejecting the graft. We can't go through with the transfer." He opens the 'clamshell'.

Doctor: "I'm detecting elevated levels of nytoxinol." Kes: "Where could that have come from?" Doctor: "Is it possible you made an error? Administered nytoxinol instead of cervaline?"

Kes: "No, I don't think so. But here's the hypospray I used. Check for yourself." Doctor: "You're correct. It's cervaline. Has anyone else been in Sickbay during the last 24 hours other than you and Danara?" Kes: "Crewman Foster came in for some analgesic, and, and Ensign Wildman was here for her regular pre-natal visit. Why?"

Doctor: "Because if the nytoxinol was not administered by accident, I can only conclude that someone is deliberately trying to kill Danara." Kes: "Who would want to kill her?" Doctor: "Perhaps someone who bears ill will towards Vidiians. Whoever it is, I intend to find out. I'm calling Lieutenant Tuvok." Danara: "Please don't do that." Doctor: "We have to find out who's trying to obstruct your recovery." Danara: "I administered the nytoxinol."

Doctor: "Didn't you know it would kill you?" Danara: "You mean kill her." Doctor: "She is you." Danara: "Was me. I don't ever want to be her again! What are you doing?"

The Doctor is searching in the medical lab.
Doctor, urgently: "Looking for the cervaline. I have to reduce the rate of tissue rejection before it's too late."
Danara: "Kes, would you excuse us?" Kes leaves.

Danara: "I don't want to go through with the transfer." Doctor: "If we don't get your neural patterns out of the holo-buffer, you'll be brain-dead in a matter of days. I can't let that happen." Danara: "I'd rather live two more days like this with you than go on for who knows how long wasting away a piece at a time." Doctor: "It's my duty to keep you alive." Danara: "I thought you were more than my doctor. I thought you were my friend." Doctor: "I am your friend." Danara: "What kind of friend would ask me to go on living like this? And for what? So that I can go back to a world where everyone I ever loved has died, where almost everyone I meet is going to die?" Doctor: "You're a doctor. You can help them." Danara: "I can't help them. I can't cure them. All I can do is prolong their suffering, just like you want to do to me now." Doctor: "Danara, I have no desire to see you suffer." Danara: "Do you know what it's like, do you?" Doctor: "No, but-" Danara: "What it's like to be a nine year old child, and suddenly your best friend doesn't want to come to your house any more. And when you ask your mother why, 'Why won't Mala come and play with me any more?' And she tells you, 'It's because, it's because the other children are afraid of you.' Listen to me. Before I met you, I was just a disease. But now, everything's different. When people look at me, they don't see a disease any more. They see a woman - a woman you made, a woman you love, a woman you're not afraid to touch." Doctor: "Danara, I was never afraid to touch you." Danara: "Why? Because you're a doctor?" Doctor: "Because I love you." Danara: "You say that now. But if I go through with the transfer-" Doctor: "If you go through with the transfer?" Danara: "I will be sick again, and ugly." Doctor: "Danara, you're not ugly. You're simply ill." Danara: "Oh, please. Stop patronising me! I know how people see me!" Doctor: "Danara, do you think if you go back into your own body, I'll feel different about you?" Danara: "Won't you?" Doctor: "Listen to me. Nothing could ever change the way I feel about you, not a few scars, not some diseased skin, nothing." Danara: "You have given me the most extraordinary gift that anyone has ever given me. You, you brought me to this ship where no one is sick and, and people are friendly. You've made me healthy and beautiful. I don't want to go back to the way things were!" Doctor: "You said before you knew me that you were just a disease. Well, before you, I was just a projection of photons held together by forcefields. A computerised physician doing a job, doing it exceptionally well of course, but still it was just a profession, not a life. But now that you are here and my programming has adapted, I'm not just working any more. I'm living, learning what it means to be with someone, to love someone. I don't think I can go back to the way things were either. Danara, please. Don't die." Danara: "I want us to be together." Doctor: "So do I." Danara: "But if you put me back in that body, I'll have to go home and help my people." Doctor: "I know. But we'd still have two weeks together before we reached your colony. Danara, please, be with me for as long as you can." Danara: "Yes."

The Doctor is in the Chez Sandrine holoprogram, alone, waiting for Danara. She enters - in her real body. He is pleased to see her.

Doctor: "Computer, play music program Doctor Alpha." Slow accordion dance music plays.