Chakotay, via comms: "Beam us directly to Sickbay." Kim: "No. I don't want to go back." Janeway, via comms: "Transporters are still acting up. We can't get individual locks. We're going to have to grab you in a wide beam and bring you in as a group." Chakotay, via comms: "Acknowledged."

Kim, forcefully: "I belong here." Chakotay: "Maybe so, but until we know what's going on you've got to come back with us to the ship." Suddenly Kim races off into the cavern just as the transport is about to start. Chakotay calls after him: "Harry, no!" But then the transporter beam takes him and the remaining three. transporter

Voyager's bridge. Tuvok: "Four of the away team are in Sickbay, Captain. I'm trying to get a lock on the fifth - it is Ensign Kim, or rather, one of the Ensigns Kim. The ship is continuing to sink." Janeway: "Then there's no time. We've got to get back into orbit. We'll worry about Harry or whoever he is once we're up. Bring anti-grav thrusters online." Tuvok: "Thrusters enabled." Janeway, at the helm: "Inertial dampers to flight configuration." Tuvok: "Dampers reconfigured. All stations report ready." Janeway: "Initiating ascent. I need power to the thrusters." Tuvok: "We are being restrained by an electromagnetic force." Janeway: "Compensate." Tuvok: "No effect. Decks 14 and 15 are submerged. The ship is continuing to sink." Janeway: "Report." Tuvok: "Thrusters are offline due to an overload. Decks 13 through 15 are submerged. If we don't lift off soon, the hull will begin to corrode." Janeway, via comms: "Bridge to Engineering." Vorik, via comms. from engineering: "Ensign Vorik here." Janeway, via comms: "I need thrusters back online." Vorik, via comms: "Lieutenant Torres has already sent a team to the thruster control junction." Janeway, via comms: "How long?" Vorik, via comms: "At least a half an hour." Janeway is frustrated by the news - it is urgent that Voyager pull free of the substance. Tuvok: "Even if thrusters are repaired, they won't be of much use if we sink any deeper." Janeway: "There must be some way to disperse it. Try a nadion burst from the phaser emitters. It may weaken the electromagnetic properties of the fluid." Tuvok: "Aye, Captain." Janeway: "I'm on my way to Sickbay to check on Harry and Tom. You've got the Bridge." She hurries into the turbolift.

the duplicate Kim on the planet surface

In Sickbay, Janeway looks on at the unconscious bodies of Kim and Paris - the real Kim and Paris. Janeway: "How are they?" Doctor: "Lucky. The backup systems in their environmental suits kept their vital functions going. It'll take time, but they'll recover." Janeway: "And him?" She indicates the other Tom Paris, the one able to breathe on the planet without an environmental suit. He is in the surgical bay, inside a forcefield, within which are gasses from the planet's atmosphere so that he can breathe. Doctor: "Aside from his ability to breathe the rarified air on this planet, he's the exact duplicate of Mr Paris. He even seems to share his memories," adding, unable to resist the dig, "not to mention his winning personality." Janeway: "B'Elanna and I discovered that the fluid has mimetic properties. Somehow it reads the DNA of whatever it comes in contact with, and re-creates it." Doctor: "Fascinating." Janeway to the duplicate Paris: "Can you tell me who you are?" Duplicate Paris: "Please, just let me go back." Janeway: "Not until I find out why two of my crew have been duplicated." Duplicate Paris: "Captain, you have to believe me: I don't know any more than you do about this. Until he," meaning the other Tom Paris, "showed up, I thought I was Tom Paris, a little changed by my experience on the planet maybe. But now I don't know who or what I am. All I know is that I have to get off this ship and go back down to the surface." Tuvok, via comms: "We're ready to try the nadion burst, Captain." Janeway: "Do it." Duplicate Paris, becoming alarmed: "What are you doing?" Tuvok, via comms: "Captain, we're receiving an urgent hail. It's from Ensign Kim. The one on the surface." Janeway: "Put him through." Duplicate Kim, via comms: "Captain, please, stop what you're doing." Janeway: "If you really do have Harry Kim's memories, you know that I'm going to do whatever it takes to get this ship back in orbit." Duplicate Kim, via comms: "You can't do that!" Janeway, via comms: "Why not?" Duplicate Kim, via comms: "I, I'm not sure I understand it myself." Janeway, via comms: "Well then, you're going to have to help me figure it out." Contact ends. To Tuvok, via comms: "Mr Tuvok, I'm on my way to Transporter Room 1. Erect a level seven force field around the platform. Fill it with atmosphere from the planet and then beam Mr Kim, or rather, his duplicate, aboard." Tuvok, via comms: "Aye, Captain."

the duplicate Kim being beamed aboard for a moment Janeway can see the silver blood rippling inside the duplicate Kim Voyager is free once more; the ground is cracked and totally dry

Janeway enters Transporter Room 1 accompanied by a security guard. Janeway asks the transporter officer: "You have a lock on him?" Transporter officer: "Yes, ma'am." Janeway: "Energise." The duplicate Kim is transported aboard, whether he likes it or not. Janeway orders him: "Release my vessel." Duplicate Kim: "We can't do that." Janeway: "'We'?" Duplicate Kim: "The planet and I, we're connected somehow. I can't explain it, Captain. I only know that you've got to stop." Janeway: "And I'm willing to stop. But I'll say it again, release the ship." Duplicate Kim: "No, we need you." Janeway, via comms: "Janeway to Tuvok. Fire." The nadion blast from the phaser emitters affects the duplicate Kim, somehow hurting him and knocking him to the ground. Janeway can see the silver blood in him rippling. She demands: "What are you?" The nadion attack is somehow hurting the duplicate Kim, who begs: "Stop now!" Janeway: "I'll fire again. Duplicate Kim, in agony: "You're killing us!" Janeway: "You leave me no choice." Duplicate Kim: "It's not fair. It's wrong!" Janeway, via comms: "Janeway to Tuvok." Duplicate Kim, collapsed and weak: "No!" He lunges toward her but is stopped by the forcefield. He begs: "No, no, no. Please. No more." Janeway, via comms: "Hold your fire, Tuvok." Tuvok, via comms: "Captain, we are continuing to submerge." Janeway, via comms, more firmly: "Hold your fire." Tuvok, via comms: "Acknowledged." Janeway: "I want some answers." Duplicate Kim, having recovered some strength after the nadion attack: "I'm trying to understand. This is hard for me as well." Janeway: "You said you have a connection to this planet. You talk about it like it's alive." Duplicate Kim: "Alive." He picks up on the word. "Yes, but not the planet - the silver blood." Janeway: "The compound that sampled Harry's DNA and created you?" Duplicate Kim: "Yes. But it's never been conscious, never sentient, before now, before me and the other." Janeway surmises 'the other' to be: "Tom Paris." Duplicate Kim: "We're the first. Don't you see? You came here, you showed us. When the compound came in contact with Tom and Harry it experienced awareness for the first time. Before, it was only instinct - sound and light and heat - but those two showed us thought!" Janeway: "I'm beginning to understand. This silver blood experienced sentience, and now you want more. You want to duplicate the rest of this crew and populate this planet." Duplicate Kim: "You're trying so hard to reach home, but this can be home." Janeway: "Not for me and not for my people. Do you understand why we can't stay here?" Duplicate Kim: "I think so." Janeway: "Well, then, release us." Duplicate Kim, desperately: "We'd rather die than be alone. We deserve life." Janeway considers his plea. "This silver blood that created you. It duplicated Harry without killing him. So you don't need our bodies, only samples of DNA. Release Voyager. I'll speak to my crew and, if they're willing, I'll let you duplicate the rest of us." The com. signal sounds. Tuvok, via comms: "Bridge to Janeway. We've stopped, Captain. We're no longer submerging." Janeway, via comms: "Understood. We're getting out of here, Tuvok, but first assemble the crew in Cargo Bay 1, and have the Doctor meet me there." Tuvok, via comms: "Captain?" Janeway, via comms: " I'll explain later." To the duplicate Kim: "It's time to meet your new family."

On the Bridge, Kim reports: "All stations report ready for lift off." Tuvok: "Code blue status confirmed." Paris: "Aye, Captain."

Voyager takes off, and the newly-created duplicate crew see them off.