THE CHUTE
Episode 45
Part C

 

Akritirian prison - Zio's shelter. Zio, who is writing, turns as Kim and Paris arrive. Kim: "OK, here's the deal - my boots for some clean cloth, a litre of water, two of those food cakes and my friend gets to stay in there until he's better." Zio: "I don't take in boarders." Kim: "What about the rest of it?" Zio: "I don't like the colour." Paris: "Ah. Come on. Let's go. This guy's not going to help us." Kim: "Just tell me what you want for the food and the bandages, OK?" Zio: "That pipe you were working with interests me." Kim: "I can't trade the pipe." Zio: "Then I guess we don't have a deal. Now move on. You're blocking my light." Kim, desperately: "I'll take you with me." Zio: "Take me where?" Kim: "I know a way out of this place." Zio: "I've been in here six years. I've never heard of a way out." Kim: "The Chute." Zio: "Anybody that tries to get in there gets hit with an energy pulse." Kim: "With this pipe, I can disable the forcefield. With a little luck, we can make it to the surface." Zio gets up, comes right up to him and stares at him. "What are you staring at?" Zio: "I'm trying to figure out if you're a liar or if the clamp has already made you crazy." Kim: "Neither, and I'll prove it to you." Zio: "You stand your ground. I like that." Kim: "Then we have a deal?" Zio: "Just remember one thing - if you're lying, I'll kill you."

Janeway: "Captain's log, supplemental. So far we've located three ships with paralithium plasma emissions, but none of them appears to have produced explosives. We're currently in pursuit of a fourth vessel."

Chakotay: "We're in hailing range of the Akritirian freighter, Captain."

Tuvok: "I'm only reading two lifesigns aboard." Janeway: "Open a channel."

Janeway: "This is Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager to the captain of the Akritirian cargo vessel." Two youthful Akritirians appear on the main viewscreen. The male, called Vel, replies: "I'm the captain of this vessel. What do you want?" Janeway: "Two of my crewmembers were convicted by the Akritirians of a terrorist bombing. We're trying to prove their innocence, and we have reason to believe a ship like yours, which uses paralithium for fuel, might've been involved in the production of the explosives."

Vel's companion, named Piri, tells him: "Let's get out of here." Vel to Piri: "Quiet." To Janeway: "This is a cargo vessel." Janeway: "Then you won't mind if a few of my crewmembers come aboard to have a look around." Vel: "Not if they don't mind having their throats cut." Janeway: "There's no need to be abrupt." Contact ends, abruptly. Chakotay to Janeway: "Guess you're not the only captain who doesn't want their ship boarded."

Torres reports, and Janeway goes over and joins her at the Engineering II station: "Captain, I'm picking up residual traces of trilithium. They're faint but they're there. I think we may've found our bomb-makers."

Janeway: "Mr Tuvok, send a security detail to Transporter Room 2. Lieutenant Torres, beam the two of them aboard and tractor their ship into the Shuttlebay." Torres: "Aye, Captain."

Voyager's Briefing Room. Security guards bring in Piri and Vel.

Vel, indignant: "You have no right to hold us." Janeway: "My people have been accused of aiding a terrorist group called Open Sky. What do you know about them?" Piri: "They're not terrorists. They're patriots. One day they'll lead the legitimate government of our people." Vel: "We don't have to answer any of their questions, Piri." Janeway: "Sounds to me like your young friend here sympathises with these patriots." Vel: "She's not my friend, she's my sister. And our political views are none of your business." Janeway: "I don't know much about your world, but I do know that my people are being held for a crime they didn't commit and I'm going to do everything in my power to get them out." Tuvok enters. Janeway continues to Vel: "Do you understand that?" Tuvok reports to Janeway: "We have confirmed that explosives were indeed produced aboard their ship." Janeway: "Escort them to the Brig." Tuvok: "Aye, Captain." Janeway: "And have Mr Chakotay lay in a course to the Akritirian border." Vel: "Let my sister go. She didn't have anything to do with the bombing and she's only 14." Piri: "Prison doesn't scare-" Vel: "Quiet, Piri. Please, you don't know what you're saying." To Janeway: "Nobody ever gets out of prison on Akritiri. They'll just let her rot in there for the rest of her life." Janeway: "I admire your desire to protect your sister but it's not really up to me, is it?" Piri to Vel: "Tell them what we know." Janeway: "Tell me what?" Vel: "Piri, don't." Piri to Janeway: "Our brigade found out where the maximum security detention facility is located." Vel to Janeway: "Oh, my sister has quite a vivid imagination."

Piri to Janeway: "With this ship, you can attack the prison and get your people out." Janeway: "I'm sorry. That's not how we do things where I come from." Piri: "Coward."

Janeway: "Mr Tuvok, see that they get a bath and a hot meal."

The prisoners are escorted away.

Akritirian prison - Zio's shelter, while Zio is out. Paris: "I don't trust that guy, Harry." Kim: "I can handle him." Paris: "Just watch your back, OK?" Kim: "Try to get some rest." Paris: "Remember our deal?" Kim: "What deal?" Paris: "If it comes down to it, you're going to save yourself, right? If-if you see a chance, just go. Don't come back for me." Kim: "I think the clamp must really be starting to make you crazy." Paris: "I'm serious, Harry." Zio appears at the makeshift doorway: "I'm getting tired of waiting." Kim: "I've got to go." Paris: "Harry." But he has gone.

Akritirian prison – concourse. Kim is working on exposed circuitry at the base of the Chute. The clamp is a constant irritant, making concentration very hard. His fingers fumble and something short-circuits. "Damn, damn it!"

Zio, serenely: "Don't fight it. Use it." Kim: "How do I do that? I feel like there's a million fire ants in my brain." Zio: "Good. Make them work for you." Kim: "How?" Zio: "Fire ants sound vicious. Imagine them as your army moving in a vast wave to conquer your enemy. There's a massive struggle going on inside you, a battle to the death between you and the clamp. You have to use whatever force you can to defeat it."

Kim: "I'd rather use my energy to work on getting out of here." Zio: "When I first got here, I assumed the clamp was just a refined form of torture, to make our prison stay that much more arduous. Gradually I began to understand it more fully. It's all right here in my manifesto - my insights, my reasoning, my evidence. It's an experiment. They're studying us like animals, pitting us against each other to find out what happens. You can see that, can't you?" Kim: "I guess so." Zio: "The greatest threat, of course, would be if we started to co-operate with each other, so they prevented that. But there had to be more to it than that. And the longer I was in here, the more I knew it was my job to figure it out. That's the reason I was put here. And eventually it came to me as though a fireball had exploded in my mind." He starts to look upward and, with the camera framing his head with the circle of the Chute's light, he looks like a messiah, which is rather how he sees himself. "And the realisation gave me a power over the others. They don't come near me any more. They're afraid of me because I know the truth. Well? Don't you want to know what it is? What is the ultimate purpose of the clamp?" Kim, still working, rather indifferent to Zio's monologue: "OK." Zio: "It's inspired, brilliant - it's a method for controlling the prison population. We kill each other off." Kim: "Sure, whatever you say." Zio: "So you must enter into the battle. If you let the clamp control you, you'll end up like that crazy old man that took over your shelter. But if you learn to control it, you'll survive, like me."

Kim, as he succeeds with the circuitry and an electronic sound confirms it: "Yes." To Zio: "I plan to be out of here before it even becomes an issue. Go ahead. Touch it."

Tentatively Zio does so. The forcefield is on but does not give out an energy pulse.

Zio draws back and Kim, forcing open the hatchway, clambers into the Chute.

Zio follows him and they laboriously climb up. The top of Kim's head can be seen in this picture.

Zio and Kim climb up the Chute.

At the top of the Chute, Kim finds a porthole window. Zio: "What d'you see?" Kim: "Some kind of hatch."

Zio: "What d'you see? Are we at the surface?" Kim wipes part of the window in order to see out.

This picture is from the outside of the prison, looking at Kim as he wipes the window and peers out. He sees......space - they are in deep space.

The Akritirian prison is a starship! (The picture shows its exterior.) There is no escape!

Akritirian prison - Zio's shelter. Paris: "Harry." Kim: "How are you feeling?" Paris: "Er, I was dreaming about Megan Delaney." Kim: "Next time I'll try not to wake you." Paris: "The Chute. You made it in? Did you find a way out?" Kim: "Not yet, but we're very close. It's just a matter of time, so you've got to hang in there, OK?"

Paris sees and feels the wound: "Er, wh-what happened to me?" Kim: "Easy, Tom. You got stabbed, remember?" Paris: "Who-who did it?" Kim: "One of the prisoners."

Paris: "No. No, it was YOU!" He tries to push Kim away in defence. Kim: "I'm trying to change your bandage."

Paris: "No, get away from me!"
Kim: "Please!"
Paris: "Get away from me!"
Kim: "I'm trying to help you! Tom!" Paris seizes the pipe to use as a weapon. "Tom, give me the pipe. We need it to get out of here, remember? It's OK. Let me take it."

Paris lets him take it and Kim drops it on the floor next to him: "Harry, what's happening to me?" Kim: "You're going to be OK." Paris: "Harry?" Kim: "Yeah?" Paris: "Don't leave me here." Kim grips his hand reassuringly.

Kim: "Close your eyes." Paris does so. The echoes of the inmates' jeers are in his mind at first but then as the fever rolls over him he drifts into sleep, feeling calmer.