PART F

Inside the nebula Voyager is being hurled around violently. Janeway: "Shield status?" Kim: "Still holding, Captain, but the inertial dampers are offline." Chakotay: "Starboard shields are down to 80 per cent." Janeway, as Tuvok, Paris and Torres arrive on the Bridge: "What happened down there?" Tuvok: "Marayna attacked us and attempted to restrain me. She has control over the Holodeck characters." Torres: "But she's not actually on the Holodeck. I found an uplink and tracked it to the nebula. She's on a hidden ship or a space station. She's manipulating the Holodeck from there." Chakotay: "She's been using the Marayna character like a puppet!" Janeway: "As an interface, a way to move around Voyager, to interact with us." Marayna, via comms: "Tuvok, come back to me. I'm waiting for you." Janeway: "Harry, try to trace the uplink. Find her." Marayna, via comms: "Don't make this more difficult than it already is, Captain." Janeway, via comms: "Are you responsible for the plasma fires?" Marayna, via comms: "You're giving me no other choice but to force the issue." Janeway, via comms: "What do you want?" Marayna, via comms: "Tuvok. I want Tuvok. Let him come to the Holodeck, alone, or I'll destroy your ship."

	Tuvok returns to the Holodeck. The setting is still the luau.
	Marayna: "Tuvok, you're back." Tuvok: "I had little choice." Marayna: "We're alone now. No one can see us or hear us. We can do whatever we want. We don't have to pretend any more. This is our world." Tuvok: "You successfully lured me here by threatening the ship but any attempt to generate intimacy between us will not be successful."

On the Bridge. Torres: "I've isolated the source of the uplink signal." Janeway: "Stand by to transport."

Tuvok goes to tap his combadge.

Marayna: "I understand your sense of duty, of loyalty to your captain, but we have something stronger, a connection that goes beyond duty and loyalty, I know you want to be with me, Tuvok." Tuvok: "You must leave Voyager now and allow us to continue on our course." Marayna: "I won't." Tuvok: "I suggest you reconsider or Captain Janeway will be forced to take action." Marayna: "There's nothing she can do. You're staying here with with me. She'll just have to accept that."

Tuvok activates his combadge: combadge "Energise." Kim, on the Bridge: "Transporting to the source of the uplink." Marayna turns in surprise as Tuvok is beamed out: "Stop!" The ship continues to be buffeted and, on the Bridge, Chakotay reports: "Shields are down to 47 per cent." Then: "Shields are gone." Janeway: "Try to hail Tuvok!" Kim: "I can't Captain. Something's blocking the signal."

Tuvok transports aboard Marayna's station and sees a figure at a control console. Tuvok moves toward the alien figure. Marayna poses the searching questions: "But what about you, Tuvok? Will you always be alone?" Tuvok turns to look at her. Tuvok is taken by the transporter beam.

Tuvok is beamed aboard Marayna's space station in the nebula. transporter He finds his combadge does not work. Phaser in hand he explores his surroundings and comes across an alien figure sitting at the controls of the station. Tuvok: "Marayna?" Marayna: "Your ship is helpless. If I ignite one more strand the hull will fail." Tuvok: "You are using the nebula as a weapon." Marayna: "My nebula." Tuvok: "I will fire if necessary." Marayna: "You're too late. I've already set the ignition sequence. Only I can stop it." Tuvok: "Are you alone here, on this station, in this nebula?" Marayna: "Yes, it's my work." Tuvok: "I don't understand." Marayna: "I keep the plasma fires from chain-reacting." Tuvok surmises: "You are responsible for the dampening field we've been investigating." Marayna: "That's correct. I generate it from here to preserve the nebula, so that others from my home planet may enjoy its beauty. I watch the ships when they pass by. They don't even know I'm here." Tuvok: "You are lonely." Marayna: "By choice. I prefer to be here, alone." Tuvok: "But you uplinked with our holodeck and created a character in order to interact with us." Marayna: "I have done it before, tapped into the computer of a passing alien vessel, examined all the little details of their lives, but I never expected to find something as diverting as your holodeck. I never expected to find you. You are like nothing else I've ever encountered. And I can't be without you. Stay here with me, and I will let your ship resume course." Tuvok: "If it is the only option, I would willingly sacrifice myself to save my crewmates." Marayna: "No, that's not enough! You have to want to be with me." Tuvok: "If you truly knew and understood what I am, you would know that I could never return your affections." Marayna: "But you are more like me than you are like them. I've seen the way you isolate yourself, even in a crowd of people, you alone. We should be together." Tuvok: "I must admit I found our conversation stimulating, your insight and intelligence fresh and unexpected. In other circumstances I would be willing to spend time in your company, to continue to share knowledge and ideas. But I have a home and a spouse on Vulcan. I have a mission and colleagues who depend on me. I do not have a complete understanding of emotion, but I believe that if you truly care for me you will not pursue this course of action." Marayna operates some controls on her console. Marayna: "You may go. Your communicator will function now." Tuvok, activating his combadge, combadge : "Tuvok to Voyager." Janeway replies via comms: "Go ahead, Tuvok." Tuvok: "I am ready to return. Stand by to beam me aboard." Kim reports: "Captain, ship's systems are coming back online." Janeway, via comms: "Acknowledged, Tuvok. Standing by." Tuvok to Marayna: "Consider this: your feelings toward me may be evidence of a deeper need, a more profound loneliness than you are willing to admit. Why don't you call for a replacement, let another occupy this task, attempt for a time to live among your own kind." Marayna: "Logically that would be the best thing to do." Tuvok: "Yes." Marayna: "Perhaps I will." Tuvok, via comms: "Tuvok to Voyager. Ready for transport." Marayna: "But what about you, Tuvok? Will you always be alone?" Tuvok is beamed back aboard Voyager, leaving Marayna alone again.

Tuvok: "Security chief's log, stardate 50471.3. The remaining damage to the ship was easily repaired and we soon left Marayna's nebula behind. Voyager is back on course and I have resumed my normal routine."

	In his quarters Tuvok is playing kal-toh but is preoccupied.
	He turns the gameboard off, rises to his feet, picks up the gameboard and leaves his quarters.

	Tuvok enters the Holodeck, where the Neelix Resort Program is running, and he seeks out Kim. Tuvok: "Mr Kim, would you be interested in learning to play kal-toh?" Kim: "I thought kal-toh was beyond human understanding?" Tuvok: "Not entirely." He sits down opposite Kim, places the gameboard on the table and activates it.
	Tuvok: "Ensign, I failed to respect the complexity of your emotions. I apologise for my lack of consideration."
	Kim: "Don't worry about it, Tuvok. Apology accepted."
	Then Kim concentrates on kal-toh. "Won't this take years to learn?" Tuvok: "It will indeed." Kim smiles.