Episode 65 : Distant Origin : PART B

Neelix says he cannot see any intruders.

Tuvok detects where in the Messhall the intruders are. Chakotay fires a phaser which reveals Gegen and Veer. Veer panics, letting out saurian clicking sounds, and fires a tranquiliser dart at Chakotay who falls. Tuvok stuns Veer. Gegen transports himself and Chakotay back to his ship. Veer is surrounded.

	On Gegen's ship, Chakotay says, "Do you always harpoon the local wildlife?"
	Voyager's Sickbay. When Janeway questions Veer he makes clicking noises indicating his fear and panic. He deliberately lowers his heart beat and body temperature, almost closes down his metabolism and sends himself into what the Doctor calls "some sort of protective hibernation". The Doctor reports that the patient and humans share 47 genetic markers and are distant cousins.
	On the Holodeck, Janeway and the Doctor discover an ancestor common to both humans and Veer. They view firstly an eryops from the Devonian Era over 100 million years ago, which was thought to be the last common ancestor of the cold-blooded and warm-blooded organisms. Secondly (pictured) they view the most highly developed creature to evolve from the eryops - the hadrosaur, which became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period. Janeway asks what if the hadrosaur did not die off; what if survivors continued to evolve?

Janeway orders the computer: "Run a genome projection algorithm: if the hadrosaur had continued to evolve over the past 65 million years, extrapolate the most probable appearance." Doctor: "That creature napping in Sickbay is a dinosaur."

Tuvok and Paris test Veer's personal cloaking device on an apple. Tuvok says it is a technology more advanced than he has ever seen.

	The Voth city-ship arrives (presumably having located them via Gegen's transmission to his daughter) and Voyager is transported inside it.
	Voyager's weapons prove no match for the Voth.

Gegen tells Chakotay that an automated transmission from the Ministry of Elders says that unless Gegen is willing to face his accusers they will destroy his evidence i.e. Voyager, kill everyone on board. Gegen: "I won't be responsible for those deaths, but if I go back now without my support they'll discredit my theory, suppress the truth." Chakotay: "That might be difficult with the evidence standing right beside you. They've taken my ship. Sounds to me like we're all on trial here."

Minister Odala: "I will not deny 20 million years of history and doctrine just because one insignificant saurian has a theory!"

Veer has clearly been coerced to say that Gegen's research is flawed.

Chakotay: "How you think about yourselves, your place in the universe, that is on trial, and this isn't the first time. ... I've had the opportunity over the last few days to learn something of your culture, your great accomplishments. Consider the breakthrough into transwarp, an incredible achievement. And yet your ancient predicted terrible disasters if it were even attempted. That held your race back for millenia, until someone took a chance and challenged that prediction. They succeeded and your society entered a new chapter of exploration, and your Doctrine was changed accordingly. I know from the history of my own planet that change is difficult. New ideas are often greeted with scepticism, even fear. But sometimes those ideas are accepted, and when they are, progress is made - eyes are opened."
Odala: "When I open my eyes to this theory, what I see appalls me. I see my race fleeing your wretched planet, a group of pathetic refugees crawling and scratching their way across the galaxy, stumbling into this domain. I see a race with no birthright, no legacy. That is unacceptable."
Chakotay: "I see something very different, Minister. An ancient race of saurians, probably the first intelligent life on Earth, surrounded by some of the most terrifying creatures that ever lived. And yet they thrived, developed language and culture, and technology, and when the planet was threatened with disaster they boldly launched themselves into space, crossed what must have seemed like unimaginable distances, facing the unknown every day, but somehow they stayed together, kept going with the same courage that had served them before, until they reached this quadrant, where they laid the foundation of what was to become the great Voth culture. Deny that past, and you deny the struggle and achievement of your ancestors. Deny your origins on Earth, and you deny your true heritage."

Odala sentences Gegen to a detention colony, along with the Voyager crew and the destruction of the Voyager ship. To avert Voyager's fate, Gegen retracts his assertions, whereupon Odala removes Gegen from paleontology to metallurgical analysis. She tells Chakotay to set course away from Voth territory: "It would be in your best interests if I never saw you again."

	Voyager and Gegen's ship.
	Gegen: "I am not so good at chemistry. My career as a metallurgical scientist is likely to be undistinguished. I was foolish, arrogant, and I lost everything." Chakotay: "You were courageous, as the Voth have always been, from the first time they left Earth." Gegen: "And you Chakotay, have been a colleague, a friend. I will not forget you."
	Chakotay gives Gegen a small model of Earth. Gegen: "Some day every Voth will see this as home." Chakotay: "Some day. Eyes open." Gegen: "Eyes open."