FUTURE'S END
Episodes 50 and 51
Part F

 

Torres: "Every time I try to disable his downlink he comes up with a new command override." Janeway: "Starling is using 29th century technology against us. We may not be able to keep up with him." The ship jolts. Chakotay: "Inertial dampers are offline. He's gotten into our propulsion systems." Voyger jolts again. Janeway: "Disengage transporters." Torres: "Destabilising matter stream. Transporters offline!"

Kim: "We've terminated the downlink, Captain, but he got at least 20 per cent of our main computer files." Janeway: "Get us back into orbit and I want a full damage report-"

Starling, via comms: "Captain Janeway, Henry Starling here." Janeway, via comms: "This is Janeway." Starling, looking at displays on his computer from Voyager's database, and communicating using Janeway's appropriated combadge: "USS Voyager, Intrepid class, much bigger than I expected, and much less advanced. Says here your ship was launched in the year 2371. You're from the 24th century? And here all this time I thought you were from the 29th. Looks like I have the home field advantage. Ooo, what's this? Oh, now this is interesting."

Janeway signals that he be cut off. Chakotay: "Damage reports are coming in. Some minor power fluctuations in the impulse drive and a few burned out circuits in the main computer core. Nothing we can't handle."

The com. signal sounds. Kes, via comms: "Sickbay to Bridge. Captain, I can't find the Doctor." Janeway, via comms: "Is his program offline?" Kes, via comms: "No. His program is gone."

Starling's office at Chronowerx. The Doctor materialises. Doctor: "Where am I?"

The Doctor turns and sees Starling and Dunbar, and asks: "Who are you?" Starling: "Welcome."

In the Briefing Room, Neelix sees a media broadcast and taps his combadge. "Captain, this is Neelix. There's something on the television I think you should see. It's a current events programme." Kim explains: "I asked Neelix to monitor Earth broadcasts. I'm transferring it to the main viewer."

The television broadcast is displayed on the Bridge's main viewscreen. News reader voiceover: "Incredible footage was caught just an hour ago by a man using his camcorder to tape a backyard barbeque. The massive unidentifiable object doesn't appear to be a meteorite, weather balloon or satellite and one aviation expert we've spoken to has stated that it's definitely not any kind of US aircraft currently in use. We're waiting investigation by local authorities and we'll keep you updated as news develops on this incredible story."

Janeway gets up and moves closer to the screen and stares. The people of Earth have discovered Voyager! parts of news broadcast and dramatic music ending the episode

This is where the end of Part 1 occurs as aired on television.

This is where the start of Part 2 occurs as aired on television.

Next morning, Rain checks her camper van which is parked by the pavement. She goes over to where Paris is working on an electric device. Rain: "Let me guess. Someone broke into the van last night while I was sleeping, tried to snatch the stereo, you bravely fought them off and now you're repairing the damage." Paris, joining in the banter: "That's exactly what happened." Rain: "My hero." Paris: "Mmm."

Rain: "What's it like? Life as a spy I mean." Paris: "Classified." Rain: "Oh, right. I forgot. But you said 'secret agent' and nobody says 'secret agent'. And you do that a lot - you get things not quite right, like you don't belong here."

Paris: "Rain, you're fantasising." Rain: "And you're insulting my intelligence! Yesterday afternoon I picked up a UFO in orbit, today my life is completely out of control, so don't think I'm too stupid to notice."

Paris stops working. Seriously: "I apologise." Rain: "Accepted." Paris: "Would you also accept that there are lives at stake here? The more you keep asking me questions the more difficult you make things, for everybody."

Rain: "I'll try." She smiles. Paris starts work again. "So, why'd you become an astronomer?" Rain: "My brother had a telescope, a little refractor. You could barely see in the tree house next door actually but it was enough. It was enough to see the rings of Saturn. I remember, I remember I used to think that they looked like jewels from a pirate's treasure. All I ever wanted since then was to reach up and touch them."

Tuvok: "Good morning." Rain: "Agent Tuvok! What's up?" Tuvok: "Breakfast is 'up'." To Paris: "Have you made any progress?" Paris: "I think so." Rain looks in the takeaway bag. "Chili burritos, foot long hot dogs and Goliath gulps. This is not a breakfast, this is an afternoon at Dodger Stadium." Tuvok: "And that is a non sequitur. Would you please hand me a burrito." Rain: "Everything you guys do is just a little bit off."

Paris' handiwork shorts out. Paris: "These things are kind of crude. So much for sending a locator signal."

Tuvok: "There is another option." Paris, following Tuvok's thinking: "The radio dish at the Observatory. We could use the same set-up-" Rain: "The same set-up as I used to send that message to your whatever it is up there in orbit." Tuvok: "We will require your assistance."

Rain: "No kidding." Paris: "Well?" Rain, smiling, reaching for the unusual breakfast: "Not on an empty stomach." Paris smiles back.

USS Voyager orbits the Earth.

Voyager's Briefing Room. Chakotay: "Starling downloaded nearly 20 per cent of computer core while we were trying to beam the timeship out of his building."

Torres: "I'm replacing those programs as quickly as I can, but some of it isn't retrievable." Kes: "Like the Doctor. There's literally nothing left of him. He's just gone."

Janeway: "Unfortunately the Doctor is only one of our problems. Our weapons are offline, Tuvok and Paris are still missing somewhere in Los Angeles, and we've confirmed Captain Braxton's hypothesis. If Starling does attempt a flight to the future, it will most likely end in disaster."

Kim: "Captain." He spreads out Braxton's sheet of data and diagrams on the table. "I've analysed Braxton's er," he searches for a suitable word, "schematic. The temporal technology is incredibly complex." Torres: "No matter how much a genius this Starling might be, he is not a trained pilot from the 29th century." Chakotay: "Without the exact calibration, that ship will rip the time-space continuum apart." Kim: "The instant he jumps to the 29th century, there won't be a 29th century, not for Earth anyway. The entire solar system will be destroyed."

Janeway: "I want that timeship." Torres: "Long-range transporters are still down. We'd have to drop out of orbit again." Neelix: "Captain, I strongly recommend against that." He gets up and goes over to the wall panel and activates the monitor to display media broadcasts. "The more legitimate news organisations have apparently decided that the Voyager image is fraudulent. However, I've also been monitoring more official channels and the United States military is taking things just a little more seriously." Chakotay: "If we risk another pass through the lower atmosphere there's a chance of getting intercepted by the Air Force."

Janeway: "If we can't get to the ship, maybe we can get to the man. Torres, I want-" As she says "Torres" the com. signal sounds. Female crewmember, via comms: "Captain Janeway. I'm receiving a transmission from Lieutenant Tuvok, audio only." Janeway: "Mr Tuvok, report."

Tuvok, via comms, using Rain's mobile phone: "Lieutenant Paris and I are at the Griffith Observatory in the Hollywood Hills. We have modified the satellite dish transmitter to carry and receive Voyager communication frequencies. I regret the bad connection." Janeway, via comms: "That's quite alright, Mr Tuvok. What's happened?"

Tuvok, via comms: "We have become associated with a young woman employed at the astronomical laboratory. It was she who sent the message to Voyager, but her lab is under the supervision of an individual named Henry Starling."
Janeway, via comms: "Oh, we've met Mr Starling. He has the timeship and he's the one who will cause the disaster in the 29th century."
Tuvok, via comms: "Then it would seem we must find a way to stop him."

Janeway, via comms: "Tell me about this young woman. Can we trust her?" Tuvok, looking across at Paris and Rain.

They are looking at sci-fi comics together, via comms: "She and Lieutenant Paris appear to be bonding on a cross-cultural level. I would have to say yes." Janeway, via comms: "Ask if she'd be willing to help us." Tuvok turns to Rain.

Chronowerx headquarters.

Starling's office at Chronowerx. Starling enters, goes to his desk and presses a button on his computer keyboard. The Doctor comes online.

Starling: "How's it going?" Doctor: "I find your interest in my well-being to be less than genuine." Starling, taking the Doctor's combadge from him: "Try to be a little more grateful, Doc. The schematics I downloaded from your ship indicated you were stuck in the Sickbay 24 hours a day."

Doctor: "I recently suffered a severe program loss and I'm still in the process of retrieving my memory files, but apparently on a few occasions I have been projected into other locations. Undoubtedly you're using a similar procedure." Starling: "My holographic simulator. We use it to test our new microchip designs. I projected you through the emitters in the office. Your program really isn't very sophisticated." Doctor: "That is a matter of opinion. Now would you please return me to my vessel." Starling: "Can't do that, not yet. I've a few questions I want answered."

Doctor: "If you have need of medical expertise I would refer you to a more local physician." Starling: "All Captain Janeway's talk about a disaster I caused is just smoke. You came here to steal my timeship." Doctor: "That is simply not the case." Starling: "That timeship is from the 29th century. Technology five hundred years more advanced than anything you've got. You'd love to get your hands on it. You figured I'd be any easy target, some backwards 20th century Neanderthal that doesn't know what he's got. But you found out otherwise, didn't you." Doctor: "A paranoid response indicative of bipolar personality disorder. If my history is accurate, southern California in the late 20th century had no shortage of psychotherapists, competent and otherwise. I suggest you find one. Now, return me to Voyager."

Starling: "I've learned your weapons are damaged, your ship's teleporters half shot, but I didn't get all the personnel files. I have to know my enemy. Give me Captain Janeway's psychological profile." Doctor: "I'm a doctor, not a database." Starling: "I'd say you're a little bit of both. Start talking." His finger hovers over a control on his computer keyboard.

Doctor: "Or suffer the consequences? Hardly." He picks up a magnifying glass and nonchalantly looks at his hand through it. "I'm a hologram. I experience neither pain nor fear of death. You have no means of coercing me."

Starling presses the control. Suddenly the Doctor drops the magnifying glass, his face distorted. Starling: "Pain. It's an interesting sensation, isn't it." Doctor: "I, I never realised."

Starling: "How unpleasant it could be?" He presses a key and increases the pain. "This is what burning feels like. For a human to experience what you're going through right now he'd have to be on fire."

The Doctor falls on the floor, twisting with the intensity of the pain. As Starling stops the pain, the Doctor gasps: "How?"

Starling, peering over the desk at him: "By reconfiguring your tactile response sensors. Easy as proverbial pie. Feeling more co-operative?"

The intercom buzzer sounds. He presses the intercom button. "I'm in a meeting, Dave." Hearing who it is, he orders Dave: "Put her through."

At the Metro Plaza, Rain is on the mobile phone. Rain, via phone: "Mr Starling. Oh my God, I'm so scared. They're going to find me. I don't know what to do." Starling, via phone: "Take it easy, Rain. Everything's OK." Rain, via phone: "Everything's not OK! People are shooting at me! They're going find me. I don't know what to do." Starling, via phone: "Yes, you do. You're going to jump in a cab and come to my office. You'll be safe here." Rain, via phone: "No, they'll find me." Starling, via phone: "Where are you?" Rain, via phone: "Metro Plaza, by the fountain. Please come get me, please."

Starling, via phone: "I'll send somebody." Rain, via phone: "No! You. I'm really scared." Starling, via phone: "I'll be right there." Contact ends. Rain to Paris and Tuvok: "He bought it, sort of." Paris: "What do you mean?" Rain: "I don't know, his voice sounded a little suspicious."

Starling's office at Chronowerx. Starling, with Dunbar waiting in the background: "Pack a lunch, Doc. We're going for a walk." Doctor: "In case you have forgotten, I can only appear in a room equipped with a holographic projection system. In short, I'm going nowhere." Starling smiles.