CONCERNING FLIGHT
Episode 79
Part B

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".

 

Voyager's Briefing Room. Tuvok, carrying a PADD: "They were employing a high-energy transporter beam designed to locate objects of technological value and remove them."

He hands the PADD to Chakotay. Chakotay: "They removed a lot - 5 tricorders, 3 phaser rifles, a couple of photon torpedo casings, 2 antimatter injectors, a month's supply of emergency rations....."

Paris jokes: "No great loss there."

Janeway gives him a light look of reproof.

Doctor, on wall monitor: "Excuse me, you're forgetting the most important thing of all - my mobile emitter. Without it I'm stuck in Sickbay! I can't go anywhere."

Janeway: "We'll do the best we can, Doctor but our top priority is the main computer processor. B'Elanna, I want a defence against another transporter attack. Harry, do everything you can to track those ships." Kim: "Yes, ma'am." Janeway: "Dismissed."

Kim enters the Astrometrics Lab. Kim, rather diffidently: "Seven! Hey." Seven: "If you're here to fraternise I do not have the time." Kim: "Actually, the Captain wanted me to locate the ships that attacked us. I've pushed the long-range sensors about as far as they'll go-" Seven: "And now you believe the sensors can be extended by using the deep space imaging system." Kim: "Well, yes." Seven: "I've been working on that exact procedure for the past two hours." Kim: "Really? Let's have a look." Seven: "Do you doubt my ability to finish the task?" Kim: "Er- Look, I came here to work. Erm, I realised you'd already started the job so I offered to help, that's all. I offered to help." Seven: "An algorithmic feedback is interfering with the resolution. Decompile data banks fifty nine through seventeen and attempt to isolate it. Now, or you should leave." Kim, starting work: "OK. I'm a pretty easy-going person. I mean, it takes a lot to ruffle my feathers." He clears his throat nervously. "But that's not true of everybody. You've got to learn how to phrase things a little more diplomatically." As Seven does not respond: "Or not." He gives a little shake of his head.

Janeway: "Captain's log, Stardate 51386.4. With ship's systems at nearly half capacity, it's taken us ten days to track our stolen technology." The picture shows Voyager in orbit around the planet where the stolen technology is.

Voyager’s Bridge. Kim: "I'm picking up Starfleet signatures from two of the continents." Chakotay: "Can you find the main computer processor?" Kim: "It's on the northern continent, in what looks like a city, er but there's a lot of signal interference. I'll never be able to localise it from here."

Tuvok: "Captain, I have identified nearly 27 kinds of alien ships in orbit of this planet. It appears to be an active centre of commerce. We should be able to place an undercover away team on either continent without attracting attention."

Janeway: "That's good enough for now. Tuvok, you and I are going after the processor."

Janeway: "Tom, Neelix, I want you on the other continent. Find out what you can."

Putting an arm on Neelix's shoulder and, mollifying Neelix after Paris' jibe, diplomatically: "At the very least, try to get our emergency rations back. Chakotay, you have the Bridge." The away team leaves.

The main city on the northern continent.

The city's market place.

Traders in the market place.

Janeway and Tuvok enter the market place. Seeing the trading going on, Janeway comments: "It never fails to impress me. No matter how vast the differences may be between cultures, people always have something that somebody else wants, and trade is born."

Tuvok: "Or more to the point, theft."

Janeway: "What have you got?" Tuvok, reporting the read-out on his tricorder: "The materials in the construction of this city, and the technology in use appear to have originated from numerous sources." Janeway: "No doubt stolen." Tuvok: "The myriad signatures have resulted in high interference levels. I am unable to- A moment. I am picking up a Starfleet signature." Janeway: "The computer processor?" Tuvok: "I don't believe so. The signal magnitude is too low. The signature is approaching."

It is the Da Vinci hologram! He sees Janeway. "Catarina! Che meraviglia!" He pushes his way past several merchants. "Out of my way, out of my way! Scusi, scusi."

Da Vinci greets Janeway most warmly, delighted to see her. "Catarina, Catarina! Welcome! Welcome to America!"

Janeway sees that he is wearing the Doctor's mobile emitter!

She turns and stares at Tuvok.

Da Vinci: "Tell me, Catarina, what do you think of the New World?" Janeway: "How did you get here?" Da Vinci: "A question I have asked myself many times. One moment I was packing for my journey to France, the next I was in this land of marvels. Possibly, upon leaving my workshop, I was accosted by Spanish sailors, rendered unconscious, delivered to a galleon in the port of Genoa, and carried like a sack of grain across the vast Atlantic."

Da Vinci, noticing Tuvok's ears: "Curious ears." Janeway: "My travelling companion, Tuvok."

Da Vinci: "Ah, what the old philosophers say is true. Monstrous and wonderful are the peoples of undiscovered lands."

Da Vinci: "But tell me, Catarina, how did you come to the Americas?" Janeway: "Oh, it's a long story er, a Portuguese ship, some Turkish pirates, a couple of hurricanes. I'll tell you about it some other time."

Da Vinci: "Excuse me. There is the man I have been looking for. He has an apparatus that I need for my next invention. My patron is a demanding taskmaster." Janeway: "Your patron?" Da Vinci: "The Prince of this city." He goes over to the merchants. "Buongiorno, signori!" He examines the goods he wants to purchase.

Tuvok: "The Da Vinci character is interpreting this world through the limited capacity of his holodeck program." Janeway: "He sees everything in sixteenth century terms." Tuvok: "But what is he doing here?" Janeway: "I was running the Da Vinci simulation when we were attacked. His program must've been active in the computer's memory when the processor was beamed off the ship." Tuvok: "And then downloaded into the Doctor's mobile emitter. But by whom?" Janeway: "His patron, the Prince?"

Da Vinci returns to Janeway holding the goods he has successfully bought: "Marvellous, no?" Tuvok: "A plasma injector conduit, Starfleet issue."

Da Vinci: "Call it what you will. With this machine I can make mercury flow in three directions at once. You must see my new workshop." Da Vinci continues: "The Prince has been very supportive. Andiamo!"

He sets off. Janeway interprets for Tuvok and follows him: "Let's go."

They enter Da Vinci's new Workshop. Da Vinci: "So, Catarina, what do you think of this place? My workshop in Florence was but a cave of ignorance in comparison." Janeway: "Your new patron gave you all this?"

Da Vinci: "He is the perfect prince - intelligent, but not overly so; in awe of my talent, but not threatened by it. And above all, and most importantly his purse is inexhaustible." As he talks, he sketches the shape of one of Tuvok's ears. Janeway: "And in return for all this support?"

Da Vinci: "I give him my ideas." She sees her interest in his drawing of his flying machine and a model he has made for a prototype.

Da Vinci: "I have even resurrected my Great Bird like the Phoenix of legend. They have materials here, Catarina, that are so strong and so light that surely my prototype will ascend to the heavens."

Da Vinci, sketching Tuvok's ear.

Janeway sees a phaser on the table and starts to pick it up.