SACRED GROUND
Episode 49
Part F

 

As Chakotay walks along a corridor, the comm signal sounds. comms. signal "Janeway to Chakotay." Chakotay, via comms: "Captain, we've been worried about you." Janeway, via comms: "I'm alright. I want you to beam Kes down here to the Sanctuary." Chakotay, via comms: "Acknowledged. I'll bring her down myself." Contact ends. He taps his combadge. combadge "Chakotay to Sickbay. Doctor, prepare Kes for transport." Doctor, via comms: "Understood."

Janeway waits in the Shrine. She turns as Chakotay beams down with Kes and Neelix.

Chakotay: "The Doctor says her lifesigns are deteriorating. He almost wouldn't let us take her out of Sickbay." Neelix: "Have you found a way to help her?" Janeway: "Yes I have. I'm taking her back into the biogenic field." Neelix is horrified. Neelix: "I hate to question you Captain, but why?!" Janeway: "I believe it will save her life." Chakotay: "You have some new information on the effects of the field?" Janeway: "I can't explain it to you."

Chakotay: "Captain, you've been through a lot in the past few days." Janeway: "I know what I'm doing." Chakotay: "Are you sure of that?" He scans the Shrine. "There are 800 megajoules of biogenic energy running through that shrine. The thoron radiation levels are off the scale. That's what you'd be taking yourself and her into. Why don't you take some time to think about this and let us run a few more scans?" Janeway: "No." Chakotay stands blocking her way. "Captain, this isn't like you."

Neelix: "You know you'll always have my gratitude for everything you've done to save Kes, but I couldn't, and I know she couldn't, ask you to risk your own life like this. There are too many other people who need you."

Chakotay: "He's right. It's my responsibility to keep you safe, for the crew's sake if not for your own. I'd rather not have to relieve you of duty, but if your judgment's been impaired in any way-" Guide: "He can't really do that, can he?" Janeway: "Yes, he can."

Guide: "I suppose it might be necessary if the Captain of a ship were really mentally impaired, but you're not crazy, Kathryn, you know that." Neelix is indignant. "These are the same people who were willing to let Kes die just for disturbing their shrine! Can you take their word for it that you'll be safe in there?" Guide: "I can't give you my word on that. Nobody knows what will happen to them in the Shrine until they go in. I don't know the answers, but you do."

Chakotay: "Captain, I don't understand this." Janeway: "Neither do I. That's the challenge." She picks Kes up

Janeway, carrying Kes, determinedly walks into the Shrine, and waits there.

The Shrine lights up with energy which bathes the two of them.

Janeway stands there, having faith that the Ancestral Spirits will not harm her and will restore Kes.

Suddenly Kes' eyes open. Janeway is relieved and moved. "Kes." Kes smiles.

Neelix and Chakotay are surprised but relieved.

Later, after their return to Voyager, Janeway, Kes and the Doctor are in his office in Sickbay. Doctor: "The tricorder readings Commander Chakotay took at the Shrine revealed traces of iridium ions which we could've known about sooner if we'd been permitted to take those readings in the first place."

Kes: "And iridium ions are significant?"

Doctor: "They caused a temporary di-electric effect in the outer epidermal layers which neutralised some of the biogenic energy, not much, but enough to make the Captain's altered bio-chemistry an effective defence." Kes: "Then how was I cured?" Doctor: "The metabolic treatment I administered protected you against the full impact of exposure to the field when the Captain took you through. That exposure functioned like a natural cortical stimulator and re-activated your synaptic pathways." Kes: "That's fascinating, Doctor."

Doctor: "Captain? If there's something about my analysis you disagree with?"

Janeway: "It's a perfectly sound explanation, Doctor. Very scientific."

She leaves. Having eventuallytruly believed in the Shrine, now, as when Chakotay learnt the science underlying the vision quest, she is disappointed.