FUTURE'S END
Episodes 50 and 51
Part H

 

In Transporter Room 1, there is a problem materialising Starling. Janeway and Kim enter. Janeway: "He's got what looks like a tricorder."

She goes to the console: "It's putting out some kind of interference signal." Kim: "I'm isolating it. I'm suppressing the amplitude. Got him."

Starling materialises fully. Starling: "Uh. Damn it." He collapses unconscious. Janeway, via comms: "Janeway to Sickbay. Medical emergency in Transporter Room 1." Kes, via comms: "Acknowledged, Captain."

Janeway goes up to Starling and removes the device he is holding.

Shuttlecraft. Chakotay: "Propulsion is offline. Voyager, we're going down!"

The shuttlecraft hurtles towards the ground. They are going to crash!

Later, in the cellar of a remote farm outbuilding, Torres regains consciousness, to find that she and Chakotay are lying bound hand and foot.

The door opens and two men enter, descend the stairs and come over and look at them.

Torres: "Where are we?" They ignore her question. Porter to his companion: "This one looks like an Indian, and that one, I don't know what her story is."

Butch: "What's that thing on her head?" He reaches out a finger to touch Torres' forehead. Porter: "Careful, Butch, she looks like a fighter." Torres snarls and Butch jumps back. Porter laughs at Butch's discomfiture.

Chakotay: "Who are you?" Porter: "You first. Are you spying on us," and being sarcastic to him thinking him to be a Red Indian: "chief?" Chakotay decides to laugh at the joke. Then: "No, just passing by." Butch: "In your new stealth plane? Who sent you?" Torres: "Nobody sent us. We had engine trouble."

Butch: "I don't believe her. They're wearing military uniforms, flying a secret plane, they're coming for us." Porter: "USS equals Federal Government. The Federal Government is the Beast." Chakotay: "We are not from the Beast. Just take us to our plane." Butch: "Shut up!"

He kicks Chakotay. Angrily Torres lashes out and lays Butch on the ground.

Porter cocks his rifle. Butch gets up. Porter to the prisoners: "That'll be all!" To Butch: "Call for reinforcements."

Butch leaves. Porter stands over the two prisoners for a moment.

Porter sets up a chair and sits on it, rifle across his lap. To the prisoners with unpleasant geniality: "It's going to be a long day."

Rain is driving her camper van, with Paris next to her, and the Doctor and Tuvok in the back. Rain: "I've gone out with guys who've disappeared into thin air on the first date." Doctor: "I assume she is speaking figuratively."

Rain: "But I have never actually seen it happen. And you, Mr Leisure Suit."

Doctor: "There's a name I hadn't considered." Rain: "That guy punched you a bunch of times. You should have a, a black eye or a swollen lip, a broken nose-" Doctor: "Try to relax. You appear to be," he searches for the right word, "hallucinating." Rain: "Oh, is that what I am? I'm hallucinating. Oh." Paris: "Rain, I'm sorry you got dragged into all this." The phone rings. Tuvok answers it. Tuvok, via comms: "Tuvok here."

Janeway, in Sickbay and looking on as Kes attends the unconscious Starling: "Tuvok, we've got Starling, but we've lost contact with Chakotay and Torres. Their shuttle went down over Arizona. Mr Kim is transmitting the co-ordinates to your tricorder. I want you to find them."

Tuvok, via comms: "Aye, Captain. Tuvok out."

He leans forward to speak to Paris. He is surprised when the Doctor leans forward to join in the conversation. "Mr Starling is under of control. I suggest you return to Chronowerx and continue the business there. The Doctor and I must make our way to Arizona."

Tuvok and the Doctor sit back again. The Doctor looks pleased at the prospect of an away mission. He is enjoying his time away from Voyager's Sickbay.

USS Voyager, orbiting the Earth.

Voyager's Sickbay. There are two armed security guards in attendance in the background. Kes reports to Janeway on Starling's condition: "He suffered minor synaptic stress during the extended transport, enough to cause unconsciousness but not any permanent damage." Janeway: "Can you bring him out of it?" Kes: "Yes, Captain." She picks up a hypospray from the top of the panel on the side of the biobed and gives Starling a hypospray injection.

He comes to, a bit groggy at first, and gets up. Janeway: "Welcome to the 24th century." She deliberately echoes his earlier comment to her and Chakotay of "welcome to the 20th century". She continues: "I took the precaution of removing your tricorder. That's what it's called, by the way." Starling: "Didn't work. Should've blocked your ship's teleporter." Janeway: "It works perfectly. You just don't know how to use it."

Starling: "Give me some credit, Captain. I did pretty well for a primitive." Janeway: "That's all over now. I've won, so disable the forcefield around Chronowerx. I want that timeship." Starling: "You're in no position to be making any demands, Captain." Janeway: "On the contrary."

Starling: "What're you going to do, shoot me?" Janeway: "The thought has crossed my mind."

Starling: "Well, it wouldn't get you anything. I've rigged the timeship. If you try to teleport it again, if you even go near it, Los Angeles will look like the face of the moon." Janeway: "You'd destroy an entire city? You don't care about the future, you don't care about the present, does anything matter to you, Mr Starling?" Starling: "The betterment of mankind." Janeway: "It doesn't look like that."

Starling: "Why do you think I want to go to the future, a vacation?" Janeway suddenly realises: "To get more technology. That's why you're launching the timeship." Starling: "I've cannibalised the ship itself as much as I can. There's nothing left to base a commercial product on." Janeway: "And the future is just waiting to be exploited." Starling: "You just don't get it, do you. I created the microcomputer revolution."

Janeway: "Using technology you never should've had." Starling: "Irrelevant. My products benefit the entire world. Without me there would be no laptops, no internet, no barcode readers. What's good for Chronowerx is good for everybody. I can't stop now. One trip to the 29th century and I can bring back enough technology to start the next ten computer revolutions." Janeway: "If you even attempt to travel to the future you risk creating a temporal explosion that could cost billions of lives, including your own." Starling: "I'm willing to take that risk." Janeway: "In my time, Mr Starling, no human being would dream of endangering the future to gain advantage in the present."

Starling: "Captain, the future you're talking about, that's nine hundred years from now. I can't be concerned about that right now, I have a company to run, and a whole world full of people waiting for me to make their lives a little bit better."

Janeway: "Computer, reactivate forcefield." The forcefield reactivates. Starling is surprised. He had not realised he would be confined in a way he could not escape from.

Janeway turns to leave. "Chronowerx stock is about to crash." She leaves.

Starling puts out a hand and tentatively tests the forcefield.

The downed shuttlecraft, in Arizona.

Outbuilding cellar. Porter: "There are two forces at work in the world - the drive toward collectivity and the drive toward individuality. You are the former, and I am the latter." Torres: "We told you, we are not from the United States Government, and we are not-" Porter: "The Beast has many heads and I'm looking at two of them."

Chakotay: "Listen, I used to think violence could be the solution to a problem, but it's not true." Porter: "You are no patriot." Chakotay: "I was a freedom fighter, so I thought. That gun will get you nowhere."

The door bursts open. Butch and three others start down the steps and stop partway down. Butch: "Porter, they're coming - Feds!" Porter: "How many?" Butch: "Three cars and a chopper. Two miles up Edgemile Road."

Porter: "This is it, men."

He lets them into the back room and they emerge carrying rifles. "Get into position behind the house. Butch and me'll take these two." The men leave. Porter turns to Chakotay and Torres: "Looks like your friends out there still believe in violence. Too bad for you."

Rain's camper van, with Rain at the wheel. Rain: "Let's recap: UFO in orbit, laser pistols, people vanishing. I've seen every episode of 'Mission: Impossible'. You're not secret agents." Paris: "I told you, I can't talk about it." Rain: "Well, you can't keep a girl from hypothesising. I'm a scientist, I'm thinking, I'm thinking: alternate dimension, and close encounter." Paris: "Whatever." Rain: "Talk about a motley crew. We have the Doctor, a guy with the worst, worst taste in clothing I've ever seen. Tuvok, a freakasaurus. Has the guy ever cracked a smile?" Paris: "Not that I can recall." Rain: "And you, Tom Paris. Sexy, in a howdy-doody sort of way. Pretty goofy, although sometimes I think you're the smartest man I've ever met. All this running around you do, your mission, you're so dedicated, you know, like you care about something more than just your own little life." Paris: "Is that so unusual?" Rain: "Yeah." The conversation has distracted her. "Whoa," putting her head out of the window and looking back at the turning, "I missed the turn."