MACROCOSM

EPISODE 54

Part A

At the end of a trade mission to the Tak Tak, Neelix and Janeway bid farewell to the Tak Tak Consul. Neelix is familiar with the Tak Tak's language which consists of ritualised body gestures accompanying customary words and phrases.
Tak Tak Consul: "Good health, strong body, clear mind."
Neelix: "And you, your hospitality, your generosity, your patience: many thanks. My colleague's behaviour: our apologies."
Janeway: "Consul, I assure you, I intended no-"
Tak Tak Consul: "Please make her quiet!"
Neelix: "Captain, please."
Janeway: "I understand."
Neelix to the Consul: "Good health, strong body, clear mind."
Tak Tak Consul: "And you, your journey home: short and safe."

Tak Tak Consul: "Good health, strong body, clear mind."	Neelix: "And you, your hospitality, your generosity, your patience..."
Neelix: "...many thanks."	Neelix: "Our colleagues' behaviour...."
Neelix: "...our apologies."	Janeway tries to apologise but the Tak Tak Consul is agitated: "Please make her quiet!"
Neelix to Janeway: "Captain, please." Janeway: "I understand."	Tak Tak Consul: "And you, your journey home: short and safe."
Neelix responds with a gesture but no words.	Janeway copies him, hoping that she is making the correct gesture, one that will NOT offend the Tak Tak.

the shuttlecraft heads into deep space "You have a genuine flair for diplomacy, Mr Neelix. I may have to promote you from morale officer to ambassador." "Ambassador Neelix - I like the sound of that."

Neelix and Janeway leave the Tak Tak homeworld. Janeway: "Captain's log, stardate 50425.1. Mr Neelix and I have completed our 3-day trade mission with the Tak Tak, one of the more unusual species we've encountered in the Delta Quadrant. We are en route back to Voyager." "Ahhh," says Janeway as Neelix brings her a hot beverage. "I've always been taught to be tolerant of other cultures and points of view, no matter how alien, but I have to say that the Tak Tak are the most unforgiving people I've ever met." Neelix: "They are a little impatient." Janeway: "They make the Klingons look sedate. I may never put my hands on my hips again." Neelix: "You had no way of knowing you were making one of the worst insults possible." Janeway: "Obviously they've never heard of 'forgive and forget'. It's a good thing you were there, Mr Neelix. I might have been shot at dawn. I have studied chromolinguistics, American Sign Language, the gestural idioms of the Leyron, but I just couldn't get the hang of the Tak Tak." Neelix: "It seemed like more than just a language to me, Captain. A lot of their gestures, from what I could tell, were ritualistic and you might even say superstitious." Janeway: "You have a genuine flair for diplomacy, Mr Neelix. I may have to promote you from morale officer to ambassador. With all the species we're bound to meet I could use a man like you at the front door." Neelix: "Ambassador Neelix - I like the sound of that. We're approaching the rendezvous co-ordinates." Janeway sets the mug on the dashboard: "Drop into one quarter impulse. Voyager's not there and they're not responding to hails. I'm running a long-range scan. There they are. They're holding position in sector 38, co-ordinates 121 mark 6." Neelix: "That's over a light-year away from here." Janeway: "The ship appears to be adrift. They could be in trouble. Engaging maximum warp."Janeway to Voyager - Commander Chakotay, respond." Neelix: "The ship looks perfectly fine. There's no sign of any external damage. Any sign of the crew?" Janeway: "There's some kind of bio-electric interference. I can't get clear lifesign readings. The escape pods are all in place. There's no indication of any recent transporter activity. Grab a phaser, ambassador. We're going to get some answers."

Janeway and Neelix exit the Shuttlebay. shuttlebay doors They start along the corridor warily, tricorders out and scanning, phasers ready.

Janeway: "Still no sign of the crew. These sensor readings are highly erratic. The bio-electric field is permeating the ship." Neelix: "Where's it coming from?" Janeway: "I can't localise it. Let's try accessing the ship's internal sensors. See if we can get a better reading." She activates a wall monitor. "Same problem. The main computer's offline. So is the comm. system. This is strange: one of the bio-neural gel-packs in the Messhall ruptured though most of the systems in there seem to be functioning normally. Let's get to the Bridge."

Janeway: "Someone was doing maintenance work on this power relay. All of the equipment is still active but the work hasn't been completed." Neelix: "It's almost as if they dropped what they were doing and ran." Janeway: "Come on."

Neelix: "This certainly isn't the welcome home I was expecting." Janeway: "Me neither. But if there was an attack of some kind why didn't Chakotay try to contact us or send our a warning buoy?"

Later, Janeway reports: "I'm picking up a com. signal, 10 metres ahead." They head for it. "It's coming from inside this room." Neelix: "This is Ensign Wildman's quarters. Is she in there?" Janeway: "I can't tell. Let's take a look. Stand ready."

Janeway bursts into the room with phaser at the ready, followed by Neelix.

But the room is empty. A portable computer is on displaying a recording of Neelix saying: "....Ensign Kaplan, she's going to be sharing-" Janeway: "Here's our com. signal - your 'Good Morning, Voyager'."

Neelix: "Ensign Wildman is one of my most dedicated viewers. According to the time index she activated this programme approximately 11 hours ago." Janeway: "Why's it still running?" Neelix: "The programme is set for automatic playback until it's turned off."

He looks round the room. There are baby's toys on the floor. "The baby's missing too."

Janeway scans a meal on the table using her tricorder: "According to the protein decay I'd say Ensign Wildman replicated this 11 hours ago. When we get to the Bridge they might tell us whether or not-"

A strange buzzing sound draws them out into the corridor again. Suddenly Neelix sees a shadow as something disappears down a corridor. He points, "There!"

Janeway: "I can't tell if it's humanoid but it's emanating a bio-electric field." Neelix: "Whatever it is, it just ran into a dead end."

They stand either side of the entrance to the transporter room then burst in together, phasers ready. But the room is empty.

Janeway: "Over here. Something just punched right through this floor panel into the Jefferies tubes."

Neelix: "What is it?" Janeway: "Some sort of mucilaginous compound: high concentrations of amino acids, proteins and fragments of non-humanoid DNA. Well, ambassador, I'd say we've got an unexpected guest." Neelix: "Somehow I don't think he's the diplomatic type."

An audio alert sounds and Janeway goes to the transporter console. Janeway: "Main power is failing." Most of the lights go off. "The environmental controls are going offline. Systems are starting to shut down one by one. We'd better get to the Bridge."

They leave the transporter room and head for a turbolift.

Janeway and Neelix enter a turbolift. She checks a panel control. "Good, we've still got auxiliary power." To the computer: "Deck 1." The turbolift starts moving. Neelix: "It's getting awfully hot in here." Janeway: "When environmental controls fail heat from the warp plasma conduits can't be vented. Expect a heatwave before long." Neelix: "No problem. I'm used to it. I grew up near the Rinax marshlands. Our summers were the hottest in the sector. 50° Celsius, 90% humidity and the most vicious lavaflies you've ever seen." Janeway: "Summers in Indiana were pretty similar when I was growing up." Neelix: "Except that we had three suns and the lavaflies grew to be 6 centimetres long." Janeway: "6 centimetres, eh?" Neelix: "Insect-repellant was a booming business." Janeway: "There's a lifeform in the turboshaft. I'm engaging the manual over-ride." She presses the touch-sensitive controls on the X-Y translation pad. Neelix: "Er, Captain, it sounds like our guest has brought a few friends." Janeway: "One more second. I can't get the pneumatic conduits-"

Suddenly part of a lifeform, a pointed protrusion, breaks through the door of the turbolift and directs a spray of a mucilaginous compound over Neelix's chest. Janeway leaps to his side, aims her phaser at what looks like a flailing alien limb and fires at it. The lifeform retreats.

Neelix, his chest covered with some kind of slime: "That was no lavafly!"

She holds her tricorder close to the ceiling and scans. Janeway: "There's no lifeform in the tube above us. We're getting out of here!" She reaches for a ceiling latch.

 

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