BASICS
Episodes 42 and 43

Part B

 

The Voyager senior staff gather in the Briefing Room to discuss the decision to rescue Seska and the baby. Neelix: "I've been in touch with the Talaxian mining colony on Prema II. They're willing to come to our assistance, if we run into trouble." Paris: "That's good for about forty hours if we average warp two. After that we're out of their comm. range." Janeway: "Well, it's nice to know we have friends in the area. Thank you, Neelix." Tuvok: "I recommend a full diagnostic of our tactical array prior to the start of the mission, Captain." Janeway: "Agreed. But I want more from tactical, Lieutenant. I want to anticipate a trap, and I want a few tricks up our sleeves if we need them." Kim: "Captain, I could program the deflector grid to make it look like we have help on the way. I'll show you what I mean. Excuse me, Doctor." He turns the Doctor off and replaces his image with an animated schematic. Torres: "Echo displacement." Kim: "Exactly. This is how we'd look to the enemy's sensors. If we generate multiple decoy images like these, the Kazon would think that ships are coming toward us. We could create as many as we want." Janeway: "That's a good start, Harry. It should distract them for a while. But what else can we do if we're eventually intercepted by a superior force?" Doctor's voice on monitor: "If you don't mind, I do have something to add." Kim switches the monitor display to show him. "Thank you." He addresses the meeting: "Captain, I hesitate to offer suggestions in a field of endeavour that is not within my usual area of expertise." Janeway: "Please, Doctor, your suggestions on any subject are always welcome." Doctor, on monitor: "Really? In that case, you may expect several more on a variety of matters in the near future. Right now, may I suggest that we also consider attempting to create an actual holographic illusion of friendly ships?" Torres: "With all due respect, Doctor, we can't even figure out how to project you into this room. How are we supposed to create holographic ships in space?" Doctor, on monitor: "I would humbly submit that my program is far more sophisticated than your run-of-the-mill hologram. In fact, projecting the illusion of a large, three-dimensional object has been a trick of magicians for centuries." Paris jokes: "We'll just do it with mirrors." Doctor, on monitor: "Mr Paris' predictable attempts at humour notwithstanding, that is precisely what I would suggest - installing holo-emitters along the hull with parabolic mirrors to enlarge the images as they are reflected into space." Kim: "We're going to use up a lot of our power reserves trying to pull it off." Chakotay: "If these ships can fool the Kazon, it's worth it." Tuvok: "But can they? If the Kazon scan the holograms, they will immediately realise there are no lifesigns on board, no power signatures." Janeway: "OK, so we can't fool them for long, but maybe it'll be long enough. It's an advantage, and we'll need every advantage we can get on this mission. Work with the Doctor on it, B'Elanna. Mr Kim, cut power to all systems to minimum requirements. I don't want to show up on any Kazon long-range scanners. Mr Paris, locate the warp signature from Culluh's ship and set a course to follow, warp two." Paris: "Aye, Captain." Janeway: "Dismissed."

Officers are about to leave for the Bridge when Chakotay calls out: "Er, excuse me, but there is one more thing."

They turn back. Chakotay: "Thank you."

Voyager travelling at warp speed.

Janeway enters the Bridge in response to a summons. Chakotay replies; he is standing next to Paris at the conn. "It's not Culluh's ship. Looks more like a shuttle."

Janeway: "Slow to impulse. Set an intercept course, Mr Paris. Have they indicated the nature of the distress?" Kim: "Just a signal, Captain. No response to our hails." Janeway: "Let's go to red alert." Lights dim and klaxons sound. Kim: "Visual range." Janeway: "On screen."

A Kazon ship appears on the viewscreen. It has been heavily damaged somehow and is adrift.

Kim: "Showing one lifesign, adult Kazon male. He's in critical condition." Janeway, via comms: "Janeway to Sickbay. Prepare to receive an emergency transport." Kes, via comms: "Standing by, Captain." Janeway heads for Sickbay and indicates Chakotay should join her: "Commander." To Tuvok: "Mr Tuvok, you have the Bridge. Remain at red alert." Tuvok: "Aye, Captain." As she and Chakotay enter the turbolift, he heads for the captain's chair.

Janeway and Chakotay arrive in Sickbay. Kes: "His hip is broken - showing severe inflammation in the bronchial tissue." Doctor: "It appears he inhaled noxious gases vented in the damaged shuttle." To Kes so that he can inject the patient: "40 milligrams pulmozine."

Chakotay: "I know this man. His name's Tierna. He's one of Seska's aides. She had him work me over when I was on their ship."

Tierna reaches out and grasps hold of Chakotay. He gasps: "Seska is dead!"

USS Voyager by the stricken Kazon ship.

Tierna continues, though speech is an effort due to his damaged throat: "Seska thought that she could manipulate the Maje. She bragged about it to me more than once. But this time, she was wrong. We'd just launched the buoy with the message for you. Then they came for her. They cut her throat as Culluh watched. He ordered them to execute me, but I bribed one of the guards to get me to a shuttle. As soon as he saw it leaving, Culluh opened fire, destroyed my life support systems. He left me in space to die." Chakotay: "What about the child?" Tierna: "Taken to the Gema IV colony to be raised as a servant." Chakotay: "We'll be needing your help getting to the Gema system." Tierna: "You're going after him? This ship, alone? I want nothing to do with this. I'm not taking you into Nistrim space." Chakotay: "Under the circumstances, I'd say you don't have much of a choice."

He follows the Doctor into his office and asks: "What's his prognosis?" Doctor: "He'll be on his feet in a day or two but there's still a number of things we need to keep an eye on. He's had a nasty concussion, spinal cord trauma and a polycythemia, the cause of which I've yet to discover." Chakotay: "Polycythemia?" Doctor: "An abnormal increase in the number of red blood cells."

Chakotay: "I'd like you to run an Autonomic Response Analysis the next time I question him." Doctor: "I'm afraid that won't help you determine if he's telling you the truth, Commander. An ARA depends on making a baseline comparison with the known response for a given species. Any Tom, Dick or Harry from the Alpha Quadrant, I could probably help you, but not with any of the new species of the Delta Quadrant."

Doctor, as Chakotay turns to leave: "Regarding his veracity, it may help you to know that if we'd arrived an hour later, he would have been dead from his injuries."

On Voyager, in Main Engineering. Torres: "The molecular variance residual on his shuttle is evidence of disruptor blasts, and the signature is Kazon so at least that part of his story seems to be true."

Kim: "Plus we confirmed nitrogen tetroxide fumes were in the cabin. If all this was part of a Kazon scheme, he had to be willing to breathe poison for hours before we got there." Chakotay: "Have you found anything at all that would cast doubt on his story?" Kim shakes his head: "No."

Chakotay: "I still don't trust him."

Kazon graphic web work by me. About the Kazon graphic / How to use the image map (pop-up)