LIVING WITNESS
Episode 91 : Part C
The episode's script uses "Revised" for certain characters. I shall do the same.
 | Revised Daleth and Revised Doctor are already in Chamber 19 when Revised Janeway enters. The Chamber is a Revised version of USS Voyager's real Messhall, but there is none of the real furniture and furnishings, and indeed, the Chamber is completely empty. Tedran and his aide are there, with two security guards behind them. |
 | Revised Chakotay and Revised Kim look on. |
 | She tells Tedran: "Welcome aboard."
Revised Tedran has not been treated well. He replies lightly but sarcastically. "I appreciate your hospitality. Are all your guests treated so well." |
| Revised Janeway: "It's not every day that we receive such an important visitor - the great Tedran, a man of wisdom and peace, a servant of his people. Well, your people need you, now more than ever."
Revised Tedran: "State your demands." Revised Janeway: "Tell your forces to stand down and I'll call off my attack." Revised Tedran: "I understand what the Vaskans want: more of our territory, more resources. But what do you want, Captain? Why are you doing this to us?" Revised Janeway: "He's offered my crew a way home." Revised Tedran: "To reach your home, you would destroy ours?" Revised Janeway: "That's right. And you'd do the same in my position." Revised Tedran, firmly: "No, I would not." |
 | Revised Janeway: "Spoken like a true martyr. You're very enlightened, but are you so proud that you'd let your people die before you'd humble yourself?" She signals the security guards behind Tedran and his aide, who force the prisoners to kneel.
Revised Janeway walks to behind the prisoners, taking the phaser rifle from one of the Revised guards as she does so. She aims it at the back of the head of Tedran's aide: "Tell them to surrender." Revised Tedran addresses Revised Daleth: "You have shamed us all. We could have ended this on our own, peacefully, without her." Revised Janeway to Revised Tedran: "Surrender." Revised Tedran: "No." Revised Janeway fires at the aide, who falls forward, dead. |
 | Revised Janeway moves to aim the phaser rifle at the back of Revised Tedran's head. With firm resolve, Revised Tedran proclaims: "We will prevail." |  |
 | Revised Janeway fires, and he falls dead. |  |
 | She throws the phaser rifle back to the Revised security guard. She tells Revised Daleth: "Don't look so shocked, Ambassador. This is what you wanted, isn't it?" |
 | Quarren and the Museum visitors watch. |
 | The last part of this Voyager Encounter scenario to be shown has Revised Janeway leaving Chamber 19, followed by her crewmembers. Revised Daleth pauses a moment, stares at the dead bodies, and then stumbles out of the Chamber. |
 | Quarren addresses the group of visitors in the Museum who have been watching the simulation: "The ensuing conflict was brief but brutal - two million Kyrians slaughtered within days. The Warship Voyager continued on its way, leaving the Kyrian dynasty in ruins. The Vaskan leaders proceeded to occupy our lands, forcing my people into subservience. It took centuries for us to undo the damage that Captain Janeway had done, and the Kyrian struggle for equality is far from over. This simulation and this Museum are a testament to that struggle. I hope you found your experience here worthwhile. If you'd like to learn more about Voyager and its role in the history of our planet, I suggest you explore the rest of this exhibit. Thank you for your time." |
 | Some of the listening Museum visitors. |
 | The group of visitors applaud as a thank you to the Curator, then the individuals disperse and look round the Museum. |
 | One of the exhibits is a Voyager torpedo casing. |
 | A while later, as the visitors are going round the various exhibits, Quarren is moving among them keeping in a general supervisory role as Curator and encouraging visitor interest. "Please feel free to try the simulation," he tells one visitor. |
 | He comes down the steps to where a youth is examining a Voyager artefact. "I wouldn't touch that if I were you," Quarren says lightly to the youth. The boy stops and looks up, slightly startled. "One of the Voyager torpedoes, 25 isoton yield. It could destroy an entire city within seconds. It's been inactive for centuries but you never know." Alarmed the youth backs away. Quarren smiles. "I'm only teasing," he reassures him. Seriously: "But please, be careful. If you damage any of these relics they can never be replaced. The history of our people should be respected." The youth, feeling serious and rather in awe, acknowledges this. |
 | A Vaskan man calls out to Quarren: "I have a question about that history."
Quarren goes to talk to him. "Please." The Vaskan is confrontational. "How can you prove that it's true?" Quarren: "Take a closer look. The evidence is all around you." Vaskan: "Some musty fossils and a re-creation? That doesn't prove anything." Quarren: "I disagree." |
 | Their conversation draws the attention of other visitors, Kyrian and Vaskan alike. |
 | Vaskan: "You're trying to blame the Vaskans for all your troubles as you always do. I don't have a problem with your species. I have Kyrian friends. But I don't appreciate seeing my people portrayed as villains in your little simulation. And I certainly don't want your history taught to my children!"
Quarren: "Well, you'd better get used to the idea, because we've just uncovered an artefact that's going to confirm everything you've seen here. Three weeks ago, our research team found a data storage device buried nine metres beneath the ruins of Kessef. I've confirmed that it came from Voyager." The Vaskan is sceptical: "Another fossil?" |
 | Quarren: "The device contains active data, possibly crew logs, possibly Captain Janeway's personal almanack. In the next few days we could be hearing Voyager's version of these events, in their own words!"
Vaskan: "And what if those words tell a different story? What then?" Quarren: "We will change our views accordingly." Vaskan, not convinced: "I'm sure you will." Quarren addresses the several visitors who have been drawn to listen to the exchange. "I apologise. Please, enjoy the rest of your visit." The visitors disperse and go back to looking around the Museum. |
 | The city in the evening, after the Museum has closed. |
 | Inside the Museum, at the computer control console, Quarren instruct the computer: "Activate re-creation: Voyager Encounter. Display engine room." He goes to enter it. |
 | In the engine room simulation he sits at a work station. |
 | Holding the precious artefact which is the data storage device he spoke to the Vaskan man about, he speaks to his recording device: "Begin dictation. I'm resuming work on Artefact 271, the Voyager data storage device. I've decided to try using period tools from the simulation itself. With any luck, they'll be more compatible. There's far more data here than I expected. Seems more like a program of some sort." He becomes most excited: "Yes, yes, it's an optronic data stream. A hologram!" |
 | He activates controls on a wall-panel. |
 | The hologram activates and the Doctor materialises. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency." The Doctor's vocal subroutines are slightly distorted. Quarren adjusts the controls, and the Doctor's voice becomes clear. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency."
Quarren: "I recognise you. You're Voyager's Doctor." |
 | Doctor: "What am I doing in Engineering? Where's my mobile emitter?"
Quarren: "You're not an android." Doctor: "Of course not. What are you talking about?!" He recognises Quarren's species. "A Kyrian." He taps his combadge. "Doctor to the Bridge. Intruder alert. Security to Engineering." Quarren: "You won't have much luck with that. Nothing in here's real. It's a simulation." Doctor: "A holodeck?" Quarren: "No. You're in the Museum of Kyrian Heritage." |
Doctor: "You've stolen my program! How?!"
Quarren: "Please, let me try to explain."
Doctor: "Try quickly."
Quarren: "You-" He cannot get over his new discovery. "You're a hologram!"
Doctor: "That I know!"
Quarren: "I just discovered your program inside this data storage device."
Doctor: "That's the EMH back-up module. One of your attack parties must've taken it from Sickbay."
In this Episode Guide, "the Doctor" refers to this Doctor, i.e. the one contained in the back-up module, as distinct from the Doctor who would have travelled onward with USS Voyager 700 years previously.
Quarren: "Actually we found it at the ruins of Kessef. I know this will be difficult for you to accept, but a great deal of time has passed since Voyager encountered the Kyrians."
Doctor: "How much time?"
Quarren: "700 years, give or take a decade, we're not sure."
Doctor: "I don't believe you."
 | Quarren: "Think about it: your program is inactive. A moment or a millennium are the same to you."
Doctor: "700 years?? What about my ship? What happened to my crew?" Quarren: "No one knows. It's safe to say they're long dead." Doctor: "And I'm some sort of fossil?" Quarren: "No, not a fossil! - a witness, a living witness to history. There's so much we don't know about what happened, but you saw it, you lived through those times. You helped to shape them. Doctor, you could be the most important discovery of all time!" Doctor: "No. This isn't possible. I don't believe you!" |
 | The Doctor rushes out of Sickbay. In vain Quarren calls after him: "Doctor!"
Quarren goes after him. He finds the Doctor in the Museum staring around in stunned disbelief. |  |
| Doctor: "What's going to happen to me now? Will you put me on display - a holographic Rip Van Winkle?"
Quarren: "I'm not sure." Doctor: "I'm going to try and contact Starfleet." A thought occurs to him: "If there still is a Starfleet." Quarren: "That will have to wait." Doctor: "Wait for what?" Quarren: "There are other issues to be resolved." Doctor: "What kind of issues?" Quarren: "You're the Voyager Doctor. A lot of people are going to have questions. On our world artificial lifeforms are considered sentient, responsible for their actions. You might have to face charges." Doctor: "Charges??" Quarren: "For your crimes. You designed a bio-weapon that killed eight million Kyrians." The Doctor is offended and indignant: "I did nothing of the sort!" Quarren: "All of our evidence shows that you were a war criminal." Doctor: "Evidence, what evidence? Like this, for example! - triple-armoured hull, 30 torpedo tubes, 25 phaser banks? This isn't what our ship looked like." Quarren: "We reconstructed it from a partial schematic found in the Cyrik Ocean which was badly damaged by corrosion. We were bound to get a few details wrong." Doctor: "Voyager wasn't a warship. We were explorers." Quarren: "Yes, I know, trying to get home, to Mars." Doctor: "Earth! You see, you couldn't even get that right! This is a nightmare. What if I'm found guilty? What's going to happen to me?" Quarren: "That's up to the Arbiters. But I imagine that the penalty would be severe. Your program could be decompiled." Doctor: "You've got to believe me. To you, this may be ancient history. To me it's yesterday. You called me a living witness. Well, at least give me the chance to set the record straight. I want to see your version of what happened." |
|
