EXTREME RISK
Episode 97
Part E

 

USS Voyager, orbiting above the gas giant.

Torres is awake, brooding, on her bed in her quarters. The door signal sounds. When she does not respond it sounds again twice.

Torres: "I'm sleeping!" Chakotay enters. "Oh." Chakotay: "Hi." Torres: "Hi. I, I thought you were the Doctor making a house call."

Chakotay: "He let you out of the cell block, huh?" Torres: "He thinks familiar surroundings will help speed my recovery."

Chakotay: "Recovery from what?" Torres: "That's what I said. He thinks I'm suffering from clinical depression."

Chakotay: "Are you depressed?" Torres: "What are you, the new Ship's Counsellor?"

Chakotay sighs and moves closer. "No. Just a friend." Torres: "This whole thing is so ridiculous. I don't report a few scrapes and suddenly Janeway thinks there's something wrong with me. Typical Starfleet, huh?" Chakotay: "You have been running Holodeck programs without safety protocols." Torres: "A few, but I haven't put anybody else at risk and it's nothing that I can't handle." Chakotay: "Tell you what. What do you say you and I pay a little visit to the Holodeck? You can show me some of the programs you've been running." Torres: "Right now?" Chakotay: "Sure. Maybe if I see what you've been up to, I can convince the Captain there's nothing to worry about." Torres: "She's taken away my holodeck privileges." Chakotay: "Consider them restored."

He stands in the doorway and waits for her.

Torres and Chakotay arrive at the Holodeck. But before she can access the controls, Chakotay grabs her elbow. Chakotay: "Computer, activate holo-program Torres zeta-one." Computer: "Program activated."

Torres, horrified: "What are you doing?"

She tries to back away but he seizes her and drags her into the Holodeck.

She shrieks in protest as he hauls her along through the cavern entrance. They heard rapid volleys of weapons fire right in front of them and screaming - the sound of people dying!

They enter the cavern and see the slaughter.

Torres: "Computer, freeze program!" Chakotay: "Computer, belay that command." Torres: "Turn it off!!!" Chakotay: "Not until you tell me what it is!" Torres: "You know what it is!"

Chakotay, rolling a dead body over so that the terrible burned face stares sightlessly up at them: "Who's this?" Torres: "Li-Paz." Vehemently: "Don't you recognise him?"

Chakotay: "Oh, I recognise them all - Meyer, Nelson, Sahreen. You created a Holodeck program to watch all our Maquis friends get slaughtered! What I want to know is, WHY?!"

Torres: "I thought we came down here to talk about safety protocols. This has nothing to do with that." Chakotay: "I'm not so sure. The logs show you ran this program for only 47 seconds, the day after I gave you the news about the massacre, then you shut it down and started running the most dangerous programs you could find with the safeties off. WHY?!"

Torres: "This is ridiculous. I'm leaving." Chakotay: "Computer, seal the doors." Torres: "You can't do this!" Chakotay: "The hell I can't! You're not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on. B'Elanna, why are you intentionally trying to hurt yourself?"

Torres: "I don't know." Chakotay: "Are you trying to commit suicide?" Torres, surprised at the thought: "No." Chakotay: "Then why?" Torres: "Because, because if I sprain my ankle at least I feel something."

Chakotay: "What do you mean?" Torres: "I'm not trying to kill myself. I'm trying to see if I'm still alive!" Chakotay: "I don't understand."

Torres: "When you look at those corpses, how do you feel?" Chakotay: "Sad, angry, maybe a little guilty that I wasn't there to die with them."

Torres: "Not me, I don't feel anything at all." Chakotay: "B'Elanna, the Maquis were like our adopted family. I can understand you trying to block out that kind of pain." Torres speaks over his last words: "You don't understand. It's not just the pain. I don't feel anything, not about my dead friends, not about Tom, you, my job." Chakotay: "Maybe you're afraid if you let yourself start to feel something, you might not be able to stop. You can't just shut off your emotions, B'Elanna. Sooner or later you're going to have to let yourself grieve." Torres: "Why? Just so I can go through it all over again?" Chakotay: "What are you talking about?"

Torres: "When I was six my father walked out on me. When I was nineteen I got kicked out of Starfleet. A few years later I got separated from the Maquis. And just when I start to feel safe you tell me that all of our old friends have been slaughtered. The way I figure it, I've lost the only family I ever had." Chakotay: "B'Elanna, you have a new family now, here on Voyager. You're not going to lose us. You're stuck with us." Torres: "You can't promise me that." Chakotay: "No, I suppose I can't. Losing people's inevitable, and sometimes it happens sooner than we expect, but I can promise you that the people on this ship aren't about to let you stop living your life or break your neck on the Holodeck. You're going to have to find another way to deal with this." Torres: "I don't know how." Chakotay: "We'll figure it out, together."

The com. signal sounds. Janeway, via comms: "Commander Chakotay, we're under attack. Report to the Bridge immediately." Torres: "You'd better go."

He gives her a look and satisfies himself she will be alright, so he gets up and heads off. She is calm as she watches him depart, and she herself, earlier so desperate to escape, now makes no move to leave. She hears the Holodeck doors open as Chakotay leaves.

Chakotay arrives on Voyager's Bridge, and has to keep his balance as the starship is rocked by a barrage of spatial charges fires by the Malon freighter.

The Malon freighter firing a spatial charge.

Voyager, pounded by the barrage.

Chakotay: "Why are they suddenly picking a fight?" Tuvok: "I believe they're attempting to distract us, Commander, while they launch their new shuttlecraft. The Malon vessel is 42,000 kilometres from the probe and closing." spatial charges explode around Voyager, dialogue, and dramatic music as the Malon's new shuttlecraft launches before Voyager's

On the main viewscreen, they can see the Malon shuttle heading toward the gas giant on its mission to salvage Voyager's multi-spatial probe.

Chakotay analyses the read-outs. To Janeway: "We can still catch them." Janeway, via comms: "Bridge to Lieutenant Paris."

Paris, with Kim, working in the Delta Flyer, via comms: "Paris here."

Janeway, via comms: "We've got to launch now if we're going to get to the probe first." Kim and Paris exchange a look. "Are you ready?" Paris, via comms: "Yes, ma'am." He starts to head for the helm. "I'll begin the prelaunch sequence." Janeway, via comms: "What about the micro-fracture problem?"

Paris, via comms: "We're keeping an eye on it, but we sure could use an extra hand."

Janeway, via comms: "Chakotay's on his way." At this, Chakotay rapidly heads for the turbolift.