PART F

 

In Sickbay the Vidiians throw Kes' body onto a bio-bed. The Vidiian officer reports from his bio-probe scans: "Ocampa. Female. The organs are healthy. She has an extremely high rate of tissue regeneration."

Vidiian captain: "Extract her pelvic ridge. We'll analyse the bone marrow for phage resistance."

Vidiian officer: "The others are human. My scans indicate their pancreatic tissues are well suited for transplant."

The Doctor is hiding, crouched down by a wall inside his office, holding Wildman's baby. He rocks her to try and soothe her and thus keep her quiet.

Vidiian captain: "Begin the extraction procedure." Vidiian officer: "This one. A female human. She's recently given birth." Vidiian captain: "Are you certain?" Vidiian officer: "Yes. Her haemo-uterine levels are far above normal." Vidiian captain: "Where's the infant? Set your bio-probe to maximum. Find it."

Kim manages to avoid the Vidiians as he rushes to Sickbay.

In Sickbay, a Vidiian uses his bio-probe to commence organ extraction from Wildman's body.

Kim enters Sickbay and phasers a Vidiian.	The other Vidiian fires at him but just misses Kim as he ducks.
Kim rolls over to the cover of the computer console.	Kim phasers the second Vidiian.

Kim finds the baby apparently gone. "No!"

Hearing his voice, the Doctor calls out: "Ensign Kim, is that you?" He emerges. Kim, seeing him and the baby: "Doc, am I glad to see you." Doctor: "Have we re-taken the ship?" Kim: "No. Actually, the Captain's put the ship on self-destruct. She ordered me to take the baby and go to the other Voyager." Doctor, handing him the baby: "I guess you'd better hurry."

Kim: "Goodbye, Doc." Doctor: "Ensign, tell my counterpart that I've corrected all signs of haemocythemia. He'll know what that means." Kim: "Will do." He leaves.

The Doctor contemplates the end of his existence.

The Vidiian captain and two of his men enter the Bridge from the turbolift.

Janeway to the Vidiians who enter the Bridge: "Hello. I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway. Welcome to the Bridge."

Too late a Vidiian officer draws his commander's attention to the LCARS monitor display.

Voyager self-destructs, taking the Vidiians and their ship with it.

The other Voyager, intact, and safe from Vidiians.

Kim comes through the rift holding Wildman's baby.

Torres: "It's about time." Tuvok, via comms.: "Tuvok to Janeway. Ensign Kim has made it through the rift, with the infant." Janeway: "Acknowledged."

Chakotay: "Captain, the Vidiian ship has been destroyed. So has the other Voyager."

Janeway: "Captain's log, stardate 49548.7. There are no signs of any pursuing Vidiian vessels and we have resumed a course toward home."

In Sickbay, Janeway's cut has been treated and she has cleaned herself up. Tuvok: "Repair efforts are under way. Lieutenant Torres estimates we'll be able to return to the Bridge within three days." Janeway: "Good. I'm not sure how much long B'Elanna can tolerate my standing over her shoulder in Engineering. Tuvok, is there something on your mind?" Tuvok: "I am curious, Captain. Before the Vidiians attacked, when you were in disagreement with the other Captain-" Janeway: "Would I have given the order to self-destruct our ship? I've gone over that moment a thousand times in my mind. The truth is, yes I would have given the order, but I will admit there was a part of me that could see her point of view." Tuvok: "One could say that you were both the doubter and the doubted. I do not envy the paradox of logic you were faced with in that situation." Janeway: "Neither did I, and neither did she."

Wildman to Kim: "Thank you. Thank you so much."

Kim: "You're welcome, but you should also thank the Doctor. It was his counterpart who saved her from the Vidiians." Doctor: "I'm not surprised. I am programmed to be heroic when the need arises. By the way, Ensign, this other doctor, did he have a name?" Kim: "I really didn't have time to ask."

Janeway: "Am I allowed to go back to my temporary bridge now, Doctor?" Doctor: "By all means."

As Janeway and Kim leave Sickbay and walk down the corridor, she tells him: "It's good to have you back, Ensign." Kim: "Thank you, I think." Janeway: "Something wrong?" Kim: "I'm not sure. I mean, this really isn't my ship, and you're not really my captain, and yet you are and there's no difference. But I know there's a difference. Or is there? It's all a little weird."

Janeway: "Mr Kim, we're Starfleet officers. 'Weird' is part of the job."

The events depicted in this story mean that the Ensign Harry Kim seen in subsequent episodes is the duplicate Kim. This is the assumption made by canon sources, otherwise it would be possible to speculate that the original Voyager was destroyed, except for Kim and Wildman's baby, and the duplicate crew survives to have further adventures.... The font colors used in this episode guide are 'neutral' to avoid making it clear before the story does which crew survives; for the same reason I avoid labelling anyone "duplicate". Apart from this story, I denote Kim (of course) in the same font style and color as for the other crew.