REAL LIFE
Episode 64
Part D

 

"Where's Jeffrey?" "Thank you all for coming." "To that end, I have drawn up a revised family schedule and a list of rules and regulations." "You've re-arranged my lecture night!" "That puts me on the second team! I'm good enough to be on the first team!" "What's this mean about no Klingon friends?!" "Charlene." "You know very well how important it is to keep a united front." "This whole meeting is a Vulky idea." "I don't want to argue this in front of the children." "You really made a mess of things, didn't you, Daddy?" "I love you, Daddy, even if you did make a mess of things."

On the Holodeck, in the holoprogram Doctor's Family Program Beta-Rho. Doctor, looking impatiently up the stairs: "Where's Jeffrey?" Charlene: "He's coming." Doctor: "I asked everyone to be here at 1600 hours precisely." Belle: "Jeffrey was asleep." Doctor: "Asleep? In the middle of the afternoon?" Jeffrey comes downstairs. He looks the worse for wear and sinks onto the sofa. "Is this true? Were you asleep?" Charlene feels Jeffrey's cheek, concerned: "Are you sick?" Jeffrey: "I had a late night." Doctor: "That's one of the matters I want to discuss." He claps his hands together and begins the meeting. "Thank you all for coming. I thought it would be a good idea if we had a family meeting. In fact, I'd like to do this on a regular basis." Jeffrey, in a low voice, sarcastically: "Something to look forward to." Doctor: "If you have something to say, Jeffrey, say it so everyone can hear." Jeffrey, truculently: "Nothing." Doctor: "I've been feeling that this family is beginning to spin out of control. As husband and father I believe it is my duty to set some parameters. It's part of good parenting." Belle: "What are 'parameters'?" Doctor: "Limits, boundaries. To that end, I have drawn up a revised family schedule and a list of rules and regulations." He hands everyone a PADD. "I'd like you all to study them carefully." Charlene cannot believe what she is reading on her PADD: "You've re-arranged my lecture night!" Doctor: "I had to do that in order to make everything work. Everybody has had to make some sacrifices." Belle: "Daddy, you changed Parrises Squares from Monday, Wednesday, Friday to Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday! That puts me on the second team! I'm good enough to be on the first team!" Doctor: "You shouldn't be on the first team. You're not old enough. As I said, Belle, we must all make sacrifices." Jeffrey, insolently: "What sacrifices did you make?" Doctor thinks quickly. "I will make dinner, on the nights your mother lectures." Belle is unimpressed: "You do that anyway. That's not a sacrifice." Jeffrey nearly explodes as he reads his PADD. Angrily: "What's this mean about no Klingon friends?!" Doctor: "Exactly that. They're a bad influence on you. They're prone to violence, they keep you out till all hours. Why don't you find some nice Vulcan friends?" Jeffrey: "You can't just decide who my friends will be!" Charlene tells him: "Hold on." She turns to the Doctor: "Kenneth, that may be a bit unreasonable." The Doctor crooks a finger: "Charlene." She gets up and they go over toward the window to have a private conversation, although the children can still hear them. He rebukes her: "You know very well how important it is to keep a united front. I expect you to support me in these decisions." Charlene: "Well, if that's what you expect then maybe you should've asked my opinion before you started," flinging her arms wide in frustration, "unilaterally deciding things! I'm not one of the children, after all. I believe I should have some say in just what rules and regulations are established. And I think it's unfair for you to tell Jeffrey what friends he can and cannot have!" Jeffrey stands up: "Right! This whole meeting is a Vulky idea, and you can have it without me." He turns and heads for the stairs. Doctor: "Jeffrey! You are not excused!" Charlene to the Doctor: "You've upset him, let him go. I don't want to argue this in front of the children. We'll discuss it later!" She slaps the PADD in his hand and heads upstairs too. The Doctor is crestfallen and bemused. Belle: "You really made a mess of things, didn't you, Daddy?" Doctor: "Apparently so although I must admit I fail to understand their reaction. I, I'm just trying to help the family function better." Belle: "How does it make the family function better if I go to Parrises Squares Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday?" Doctor: "Belle, you've been playing with children two and three years older than you. That is much too dangerous." Belle: "But that's what's fun about it." Doctor: "You're not old enough to realise how hazardous that game can be. It's up to me to keep you safe. I'm just trying to be a good father." Belle: "If it'll help, Daddy, I'll be on the second team." Doctor: "Thank you, Belle. That's very grown up of you." Belle: "And I think you're a very good father." Doctor: "Why, thank you." Belle: "I love you, Daddy, even if you did make a mess of things."

Paris is having a rough ride in the shuttlecraft. Janeway, via comms: "Voyager to Shuttlecraft Cochrane. Do you read?" Paris, via comms: "Loud and clear, Captain. I'm about 3,000 kilometres from the eddy. As soon as it dissipates I'll head for the particle wake."

Janeway, via comms: "If this one follows the pattern of the others, it should begin to collapse within a few seconds." Paris, via comms: "That's good. I'm beginning to wish I hadn't had that second helping of French toast this morning." Janeway smiles and turns to look at Torres, still smiling.

Kim: "Captain, the eddy is starting to dissipate." Janeway, via comms: "Stand by, Tom." Paris, via comms: "I'm ready. I'm in position, Captain. Activating the Bussard collectors. It's working. This may save us from Neelix's pleeka rind casserole after all." Janeway, via comms: "We'll all thank you for that."

Kim: "Captain, subspace just ruptured." Janeway: "Is another eddy forming?" Kim: "It looks that way." Janeway, via comms: "Tom, get out of there NOW." Paris, via comms: "I'm going." But as he speaks, the shuttlecraft is pulled in!

Janeway: "Harry, can you beam him out?" Kim: "Transporters are offline."

Torres: "I'm working on them." Janeway, via comms: "Tom, are you there? Say again."

Paris, via comms: "It's pulling me in! I don't have enough power!"

Janeway: "Where are the transporters?" Torres: "I can't access them." Kim: "Shuttle's being drawn inside the eddy." Janeway, via comms: "Janeway to Paris, do you read me?" There is no reply! Tuvok: "Captain, the astral eddy is beginning to dissipate."

The eddy disappears - they see nothing on the main viewscreen. Everyone stares. Torres is horrified. Paris has vanished!

Janeway: "Harry, when the probe disappeared it kept transmitting. What about Tom's shuttle?" Kim: "Getting a lot of interference. Can't tell if it's a transmission or not."

Janeway: "See if you can clean it up." Kim: "I've adjusted the encoding filter. Try it now." Janeway, via comms: "Voyager to Tom Paris. Can you hear us? Respond." There is a large crackling sound. "Calibrate to a theta band frequency. Maybe that'll help." Kim obeys.

Paris, via comms, but the sound has a lot of interference: "I can't hear you Captain. There's a lot of plasma interference. I can't clean it up." Janeway: "Say again Tom, you're breaking up. Adjust your transceiver lock and try again." Paris, via comms, much clearer now: "I can hear you. Is that better?"

Janeway: "Yes, a little. Where are you?" Paris: "Captain, I wish I could tell you."

In Sickbay, the centrifuge stops and the Doctor tries to concentrate on testing Ensign Parson's cell culture, but he is preoccupied by the unsuccessful family meeting.

Finally, fed up, he goes into his office and sits down. Kes enters. Kes: "Doctor? Can I help you with something?"

Doctor: "Oh, no, no. Er perhaps. I've been trying to do an immuno-genicity analysis on Ensign Parson's cell culture, and I can't seem to get the measurements right."
Kes: "I'd be happy to give it a try."
Doctor: "Thank you, I'd be grateful."
As Kes works, he confides: "Actually I've been having a few problems at home. I can't seem to stop thinking about them."
Kes: "Well, there's nothing important going on here. Why don't you take the afternoon off and spend some time with your family?"
Doctor: "I'm not sure they'd appreciate it."

Kes: "Doctor, you can't just ignore them."

Doctor: "Computer, initiate Doctor's family program beta-rho and transfer the EMH to Holodeck 2." The computer obeys and the Doctor is transferred from Sickbay.

Transfer of Doctor's program complete.