FLASHBACK
Episode 44
Part G

 

Janeway and Tuvok are 'transported' to the Bridge and the moment after Sulu has lit the sirillium in the nebula. Again, the crew cannot see or hear Janeway. Valtane: "The Klingon ship's been disabled, sir. They're no longer pursuing." Sulu: "Helm, set a course for Qo'Nos. Engage." Excelsior resumes its original course.

Sulu turns to speak to Rand but she is not there. Janeway is at a bridge console a distance away. She is wearing Rand's uniform. She looks across to where Sulu has got up, wondering where Rand is and asking: "Who's at communications?"

Valtane: "Commander Rand's supposed to be on duty, sir." Sulu looks around the Bridge. "Where is she?"

Valtane's console read-out cause him to interrupt: "Sir! Long-range sensors are detecting three Klingon battle cruises on an intercept course! They're arming torpedoes!" Sulu: "Maintain course." Sulu resumes his seat in the captain's chair. Janeway hurries over to Tuvok who is at his station. The Klingons open fire. Excelsior lurches and the Bridge crew are thrown off-balance. Sulu: "Return fire!" Valtane: "They've knocked out our targetting scanners, sir." Sulu: "Switch to manual."

Tuvok calls out urgently: "Mr Valtane, there's a rupture in the plasma conduit behind your console. Get away from that station!"

Valtane calls back: "One more second-" Tuvok gets up and calls urgently: "Dmitri, you must-!" Janeway to Tuvok: "It's about to happen! Try to remember every detail about the next few seconds. Concentrate."

Valtane's console explodes in a shower of sparks. The dying Valtane is thrown onto the deck by the force of the explosion!

Tuvok bends over the dying Valtane. Janeway races over. Valtane: "Tuvok." Valtane does not speak again. He is dead.

Suddenly they are at the precipice. The girl is desperately hanging onto Tuvok's hand. "Help me, help me, Tuvok!" But Tuvok cannot hold on and she plunges into the chasm. Janeway to Tuvok: "I saw her, Tuvok, I saw the girl. Stay with it." Tuvok to Janeway: "I am trying, but my mind is weakening." Janeway to Tuvok: "This is our last chance. Take us to the precipice. Concentrate. Take us to the girl."

The Doctor and Kes are monitoring the treatment.

Doctor: "It's working. The mind-meld is almost broken, and the radiation appears to be killing the virus. Increase thoron levels to- The virus is migrating. It's embedding itself in the Captain's brain! Cortical stimulator!"

The virus embeds itself in Janeway's brain.

Now it is a young Janeway, not Tuvok, who desperately clings onto the girl's hand, trying to stop her from falling into the chasm!

The girl screams: "Kathryn, hold me, Kathryn, please! Don't let me go! Don't let me fall!"

But the young Janeway cannot hold on and the girl plunges into the chasm. The girl screams: "No!!!"

The Doctor attaches a cortical stimulator to Janeway and rapidly adjusts it. Doctor: "Program a 50 kilodyne burst, 5 second duration. On my mark. Now."

The virus is confused and the girl shouts: "Help me, Tuvok!"
The Doctor monitors the progess of the treatment on the monitor. "The virus protein structures are breaking down. It's dying. Increase thoron radiation to 80 kilodynes, 15 seconds. Now."

Janeway experiences the dying moments of the virus, 'seeing' all of its previous hosts in rapid succession, with the girl crying out to each person, "Don't let me go! Don't let me fall!" and screaming, "No!!!" as she falls:

[not all the hosts are not shown]

The mind-meld ends. The virus is dead.

Janeway and Tuvok look at the monitor display of the microscopic image of the now dead virus. Doctor: "It's clearly a viral parasite of some kind, but its origin and genome classification are not on record." Kes: "We were able to kill it using thoron radiation." Janeway: "What do you know about it?" Doctor: "The virus thrives on peptides generated in the brain. It evades the body's immune system by disguising itself as a memory engram." Kes: "Apparently the parasite used the childhood memory of the falling girl as camouflage." Doctor: "Creating a false memory so traumatic that the mind would repress it. And that's where it would live in person after person, hiding in a part of the brain that the conscious mind would want to avoid at all costs." Janeway: "When it sensed the death of the host it would leave to find another." Tuvok: "That's why it migrated from Valtane to me." Kes: "What about the girl? Did she ever really exist? Or did the organism invent the memory?" Doctor: "Memory's a tricky thing. If it was a real event, it's been buried and copied and twisted so many times, there's no way to tell what really happened." Janeway: "Thank you, Doctor."

She and Tuvok leave Sickbay. standard doors They walk along the corridor to the turbolift, with the Bridge as their ultimate destination. Janeway: "I'm curious. Did the Excelsior ever save Kirk and McCoy?"

Tuvok: "Not directly. We were forced to retreat back to Federation space. As usual, Captain Kirk provided his own means of escape. But we did play a pivotal role at the subsequent battle at Khitomer."

Janeway: "Mr Tuvok, if I didn't know you better, I'd say you miss those days on the Excelsior." Tuvok: "On the contrary, I do not experience feelings of nostalgia. But there are times when I think back to those days of meeting Kirk, Spock and the others, and I am pleased that I was part of it."

Janeway: "In a funny way, I feel like I was a part of it too." Tuvok: "Then perhaps you can be nostalgic for both of us." The turbolift doors close and they head to the Bridge.

Later, Voyager leaves the nebula and resumes a course for the Alpha Quadrant.

 

 

Divider's picture of 2290 Starfleet insignia from ST:M. Page's star background by Janet.

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