CONCERNING FLIGHT
Episode 79
Part A

The character "Da Vinci" is a holographic character. I omit mention of his holographic nature to avoid having to constantly denote him using the long and unwieldy term "Hologram Da Vinci".

 

On Voyager's Holodeck, in Janeway's holoscenario of Leonardo da Vinci’s Workshop, in which she is apprentice to the holographic re-creation of the great historical figure, she follows the Maestro to the open window. They look out at the crowd gathered below. Both she and Da Vinci are soaked. The crowd is jeering. Da Vinci shouts down at the crowd: "Animali! Stupido animali! Animali!"

Townsperson, calling up from the street below: "No, Leonardo, you are the animali!" Second townsperson, joining in the jeering: "A bird who cannot fly!" Da Vinci: "Better than a man who cannot think!" The crowd taunts: "The pigeon speaks! Cuckoo, cuckoo!" Da Vinci snatches up a pot he made, about to hurl it at the crowd.

Janeway grabs it from him. "Maestro!" Da Vinci yells down at the mocking crowd: "Stupido! Foolish Florentines!"

He leaves the window. "A bird is a mechanical instrument that works according to mathematical laws. An instrument that surely I can recreate. How did it fail?"

Janeway, drying her hair: "Maybe you underestimated the wingspan." Da Vinci, coming to look re-appraisingly at his schematic for his flying machine: "Had not the River Arno taken us to its arms we would both have died."

Janeway: "Jumping off the bridge was a wise precaution."

Da Vinci: "Against death, yes; against humiliation, no. 'The great bird will take flight and bring glory to its nest.' So I have bragged for months. Instead, we almost drown with half of Florence watching. Bah! Finito!" Furious with himself, he rips the plan, to Janeway's horror. "No more."

Da Vinci: "Catarina, have you been to France?" Janeway: "Not recently." Da Vinci: "Ah. The King of France is a great admirer of mine. 'The Divine Leonardo' is all I hear when I walk through his streets. And what music do I find in the streets of Florence, eh? The cooing of pigeons and the babbling of fools. Catarina, we are leaving!"

Janeway, rather sternly: "You're giving up." Da Vinci: "Hmm?"

Janeway: "Again. Your beautiful painting of the Adoration, the great bronze horse in Milan, the Battle of Anghiari - unfinished, all of them. You were going to publish your notebooks. You never did. You have given up, abandoned your most important works. Why?" Da Vinci feels uncomfortable. He tries to change the subject. "There is er a tavern just outside Paris, Catarina, a charming bistro where the wine is-"

Suddenly USS Voyager trembles violently. "Terra moto!" (The ground is moving!) Janeway taps her combadge. Via comms: "Janeway to the Bridge." Chakotay, via comms: "We're under attack, Captain." Janeway, via comms: "I'm on my way." She hurries out. Da Vinci, aloud to himself: "Earthquakes and idiots. Florence be damned."

Several ships are attacking Voyager.

Janeway enters the Bridge. Janeway: "Who are they and why are they shooting at us?"

Chakotay: "Unknown, Captain. They're not responding to hails." Janeway: "Damage?" Tuvok: "None."

Kim: "I'm reading a slight destabilisation along the shield perimeter." Tuvok: "Attempting to compensate."

The attacking ships pass over Voyager's hull as close as possible and activate a translocation device.

In Engineering Torres is working, facing the warp core. Suddenly she taps her combadge. "Er, Torres to the Bridge." Janeway, comms: "Go ahead." Torres, via comms: "We just lost the warp diagnostic assembly." Janeway, via comms: "What do you mean, lost?" Torres, via comms: "It disappeared."

The alien attackers target cargo containers.

Cargo containers are transported off the ship!

Voyager's main computer processor is also targetted.

The computer processor is stolen.

The Doctor's mobile emitter is also taken....

The mobile emitter dematerialises.

Kim: "I'm picking up demterialisations on Decks 4 through 12." Janeway: "Evasive maneuvers."

Paris initiates evasive maneuvers.

Paris: "They're matching our course changes."

The Doctor in Sickbay....

....has the primary biobed stolen.

Chakotay: "It's definitely some kind of transporter beam." Janeway: "Fire at will." Tuvok: "I have the will but not the means, Captain. Targetting control is down."

Janeway: "Why?" Kim: "Captain, the main computer processor is gone. We've lost weapons, navigation and propulsion."

Chakotay: "Backup systems are coming online." Janeway to Tuvok: "Full phasers, manual targeting. Keep firing until you hit something."

Tuvok activates the phasers. Voyager fires phasers. (pop-up window)

He hits and destroys one of the attacking ships. Kim: "The other ships are retreating."

Chakotay: "Chakotay to all Decks. Full damage reports." Paris sighs. "I feel like we've just been mugged." Janeway and Chakotay exchange glances.