FLASHBACK
Episode 44
Part D

 

Sulu: "Shields! Shields!!"

The wave slams the starship, which is tossed around uncontrollably. As it lurches, the Bridge crew, plus Janeway, are thrown off-balance.

A crewmember is thrown onto the floor by the impact.

The bridge crew struggle to keep their posts as the starship is tossed about by the shockwave.

Sulu, hurled to the floor by the wave's impact, hears the helmsman report: "She's not answering the helm." Sulu: "Starboard thrusters! Turn her into the wave!" "Aye, sir."

Sulu manages to regain the captain's chair. "Quarter impulse power! Damage report!" "Checking all systems, Captain." Sulu: "Don't tell me that was any meteor shower."

USS Excelsior steadies as the shockwave passes by.

Valtane: "Negative, sir. The subspace shockwave originated at bearing 323 mark 75. Location.... It's Praxis, sir. It's a Klingon moon." Sulu: "Praxis is their key energy-producing facility." Janeway: "So what happened? Did you go to Praxis?"

Tuvok to Janeway: "No. We were warned off by the Klingons and resumed our survey mission. However, two days later we learned that two Starfleet officers were accused of murdering the Klingon Chancellor. They were brought back to the Klingon homeworld to stand trial. Captain Sulu had served under both officers for many years, and he felt an intense loyalty to them."

Suddenly Janeway and Tuvok are 'transported' to two days later. Sulu: "Helm, set a course for Qo'Nos, maximum warp. Take us through the Azure Nebula. That should conceal our approach." Helmsman: "Aye, sir." With Sulu's order, the Bridge seems to come alive with a not unpleasant sense of excitement and anticipation. Janeway: "I don't get it. What's going on?" Tuvok to Janeway: "He is about to attempt a rescue of Captain Kirk and Dr McCoy. As you can see, everyone seemed perfectly willing to go along with this breach of orders. However, I felt differently."

As if there is no difference between his reality and his memory, Tuvok turns and approaches Sulu. "Captain, am I correct in assuming that you have decided to embark on a rescue mission?" Sulu: "That's right. Do you have a problem with that, Ensign?" Tuvok: "I do. It is a direct violation of our orders from Starfleet Command. And it could precipitate an armed conflict between the Klingon Empire and the Federation." Sulu: "Objection noted. Resume your station."

Tuvok: "Sir, as a Starfleet officer, it is my duty to formally protest."
The mood on the Bridge changes and becomes tense. Everyone turns to look at Tuvok with astonishment.
Rand exclaims: "Tuvok!"
Sulu: "A pretty bold statement for an ensign with only two months' space duty under his belt."
Tuvok: "I am aware of my limited experience. But I am also very much aware of Starfleet regulations and my obligation to carry them out."

At once Rand stands up and comes forward. "That's enough," she snaps at Tuvok. "Ensign, you're relieved." To Sulu: "I'm sorry about this, Captain. I assure you it will not happen again."

But Sulu raises a hand to stop her. He tells Tuvok: "Ensign, you're absolutely right. But you're also absolutely wrong. You'll find that more happens on the Bridge of a starship than just carrying out orders and observing regulations. There's a sense of loyalty to the men and women you serve with, a sense of family. Those two men on trial - I served with them for a long time. I owe them my life a dozen times over. And right now, they're in trouble, and I'm going to help them. Let the regulations be damned." Tuvok: "Sir, that is a most illogical line of reasoning." Sulu: "You'd better believe it." With that he dismisses Tuvok's protest. "Helm, engage."

The bridge crew return to their duties. Janeway tells him comfortingly: "You know, you did the right thing." Tuvok to Janeway: "Perhaps." He returns to his station.

USS Excelsior.

Janeway on the Excelsior's bridge, unseen by any of the crew. She passes behind Tuvok, who is at his science station.

Valtane: "Captain, we're approaching the Azure Nebula." Sulu: "On screen." A large blue mass appears on the main viewscreen.

Janeway is drawn to it. "Tuvok. That nebula. It looks very similar to the one we observed on Voyager."

Suddenly, as they both look at the nebula, they both see the girl at the precipice. She screams: "Help me, Tuvok! Please don't let go!" But she plunges to her death, screaming: "No!!!" In Voyager's Sickbay, the mind-meld is abruptly broken.

Janeway is startled but she is alright. But the effect on Tuvok's brain has been disastrous. The Doctor shouts to Kes: "50 mm cordrazine!"

Doctor: "There was a sudden disruption in his hippocampus. Luckily, he was in Sickbay, or he'd be in a coma right now. That's the good news. The bad news is that his synaptic pathways are continuing to degrade. If the repressed memory keeps resurfacing on its own, it's going to cause more and more damage. Eventually his entire neural structure will collapse, resulting in brain death."

Janeway: "We were just starting to make some progress. We finally accessed the repressed memory. I saw Tuvok as a boy, and the girl on the precipice. Can I talk to him?"
Doctor: "Not yet. He suffered a severe neural trauma, so I'm keeping him sedated for the next few hours. I'll let you know when it's safe to revive him."

Janeway is working in her Ready Room looking at logs of the USS Excelsior. The door signal sounds. "Come in." standard doors Kim enters carrying a PADD. Janeway: "Ah, Ensign, what have you found?" Handing her the PADD, Kim says: "I don't see any connection between this nebula and the one the Excelsior saw 80 years ago. This one's a Class 17 while theirs was an 11. Both contain trace amounts of sirillium but that's about all." Janeway: "But they do look similar." Kim: "To the naked eye, but not to sensors. Technically they're very different. You know, I've been talking to the Doctor and he tells me it's not unusual for a repressed memory to resurface because of a smell or a visual detail. Maybe the visual similarities between the two nebulas simply triggered Tuvok's memory of the Excelsior." Janeway: "But what about the memory of the little girl? What does she have to do with Tuvok's experiences on board Sulu's ship? The Excelsior seems so far removed from that childhood incident." Kim: "Who knows what goes on in a Vulcan's mind? Maybe there is no connection and going back to the memory of the Excelsior was just an accident, a stray thought Tuvok was having because of the similarities between the two nebulas." Janeway: "You may be right. Nevertheless, I've been studying the Excelsior logs." Kim: "What do they say?" Janeway: "Unfortunately, they don't say anything at all." Kim: "Nothing?" Janeway: "It would seem that Captain Sulu decided not to enter that journey into his official log. The day's entry makes some cryptic remark about his ship's being damaged in a gaseous anomaly and needing repairs but nothing else." Kim: "You mean, he falsified his logs?" Kim seems horrified but Janeway now finds herself more forgiving than she expected, perhaps because she has so recently "seen" Sulu and seen at close hand the kind of man he was. Janeway: "It was a very different time, Mr Kim. Captain Sulu, Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy - they all belonged to a different breed of Starfleet officer. Imagine the era they lived in: the Alpha Quadrant still largely unexplored, humanity on the verge of war with Klingons, Romulans hiding behind every nebula. Even the technology we take for granted was still in its early stages: no plasma weapons, no multi-phasic shields. Their ships were half as fast." Kim: "No replicators, no holodecks. You know, ever since I took Starfleet History at the Academy I always wondered what it would be like to live in those days." Janeway: "Space must've seemed a whole lot bigger back then. It's not surprising they had to bend the rules a little. They were a little slower to invoke the Prime Directive and a little quicker to pull their phasers. Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today, but I have to admit - I would've loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that." The comm. sounds. comms. signal The Doctor's voice says: "Sickbay to Captain Janeway." Janeway, via comms: "Go ahead, Doctor." Doctor, via comms: "I'm ready to revive Mr Tuvok." Janeway, via comms: "Acknowledged." As she turns to leave Kim, she smiles at the Ensign, having enjoyed their chat together. She tells the Doctor: "I'm on my way."