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SUMMARY: A sentient artificial intelligence brought aboard Voyager turns out to be a warhead determined to reach its target and detonate.
As Paris leaves the Messhall with romantic gifts for Torres as it the anniversary of their first date, he briefly meets Kim on his way to the Bridge to command the night shift for the fourth time in a row.
Kim answers a distress call, and commands his first away mission to a planet to locate the source. He and the Doctor find a artificial intelligence lifeform that has been damaged after crashing onto the planet. The machine has bio-neural circuitry and speaks in duotronic algorithms which the Doctor is able to translate. The machine reveals it is suffering from a technical form of amnesia. The Doctor is enthusiastic about helping the machine and he overcomes Kim's reservations. Kim is persuaded to agree recommending to Janeway that the machine be transported aboard Voyager, though within a containment field.
Kim in the captain's chair |
Kim in command of the away mission |
finding the artificial intelligence machine on the planet surface |
the Doctor is keen to help the machine |
scanning the planet surface in the Astrometrics Lab |
The machine thinks it is an organic being, but once it is beamed to Voyager the Doctor explains the truth. As they search for the machine's lost "partner", Voyager scans the planet's surface and finds a crater filled with radiogenic decay, leading the crew to realise they have beamed aboard a weapon of mass destruction similar to the "partner". |
In Sickbay, Torres attempts to separate the bio-neural circuitry from the explosive and download its synaptic patterns into a holographic matrix. Suddenly, the warhead arms itself, and Torres is obliged to employ an EM pulse to short it out. She and Kim soon discover the machine has commandeered the Doctor's program and now it recalls that it is a long-range tactical armour unit deployed at a target it never reached. The machine, now "embodied" in the Doctor's program, orders Janeway to set course for its target so that it can complete its mission or else it will detonate and destroy her ship and crew. Janeway realises she has no choice but to co-operate.
trying to disarm the warhead, with the last resort in mind of beaming it into space if necessary |
the warhead commandeers the Doctor's program, experiences holographic corporeality and looks at its old body |
Kim, filled with remorse at having brought the warhead on board, recalls the Officer's Manual: "When taken captive by a hostile alien force, seek an opportunity to engage the assailant." But the warhead dismisses Kim's attempts to engage it in conversation and build a rapport with it.
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| Kim fails to persuade the warhead to accept a holographic life to replace its mission or to feel sympathy for the people it would kill at its target |
While Voyager follows the new course, Neelix locates a merchant named Onquanii who is familiar with the weapon. He explains that the warp-capable high-intelligence armoured unit was created by the Druoda, and he offers to disarm it in exchange for full access to salvaging its parts. Wary of handing such a powerful weapon over to a stranger, Janeway refuses. When Onquanii returns to his ship, he tries to get a transporter lock on the machine in order to steal it. But the warhead sends an antimatter surge back through the beam and blows up Onquanii and his ship.
Onquanii tries to negotiate possession of the warhead |
the warhead destroys Onquanii and his ship |
Meanwhile, Seven proposes that her Borg nanoprobes be adapted to disable the weapon's circuitry. The crew plans to make the warhead believe they are navigating a minefield, and to get Seven into Sickbay near to it by pretending she has suffered severe burns. At that point Tuvok will disrupt the Doctor's program, giving Seven enough time to inject her nanoprobes into the weapon and disable it.
Meanwhile, Kim and Torres retrieve lost data from the weapon's memory files. This reveals its launch was a mistake. But because there is no confirmation code, which is possibly in one of the lost files, the warhead refuses to believe this new information and suspects a trick by the Druoda's enemies.
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| Kim and Torres show the warhead information in its files |
The crew activate their plan and successfully infiltrate Seven into Sickbay. However, the warhead soon realises the crew's plan to deactivate it and incapacitates Seven.
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| Seven is infiltrated into Sickbay and injects her tubules into the warhead |
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| the warhead sends feedback giving her an electric shock, and she collapses suffering from neural damage |
Janeway refuses to resume course for the target, and challenges the warhead to detonate, for if it does so only Voyager will be destroyed.
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| Janeway calls the warhead's bluff |
the warhead receives instructions from its fellows to transport and join them, while in the background Neelix and Torres do their best to help the injured Seven |
Shortly afterwards, the crew learns that 32 additional warheads have tracked and joined them. They have detected the warhead's presence on Voyager and order it to transport off Voyager and continue onto the target with them. Janeway refuses to comply with the order to transport, pointing out that if it detonates, which is its only sanction if she refuses, it will destroy all the warheads which would then never reach the target. |
Kim appeals to the warhead, pointing out that it is sentient and can make decisions of its own. What if the Druoda deliberately diverted the warhead to crash on the planet because they changed their minds about destroying the target? Kim persuades the warhead to look for the Druoda's confirmation code in the rest of his memory files. When the warhead finds it and confirms the order to cease its mission was valid, it tells the others to stand down. However, they cannot do so nor be diverted as they have passed the geographical threshold of no return.
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| The confirmation code is found, and reveals that the war is over. The warhead realises that its fellows are about to re-start the war. |
Accordingly, the warhead instructs Kim to re-integrate with its armoured body and beam it into space to join its fellows. Once they travel to a safe distance from Voyager, the warhead detonates, destroying the others and itself in the process and thereby preventing another war.
the warhead, re-integrated |
the warhead in the process of being beamed off Voyager |
the warhead, being tractored towards the target by another warhead |
the warhead self-destructs, destroying itself and its fellows, and preventing another war |
 | | KIM TO WARHEAD: You've been programmed with intelligence so you could make decisions on your own. Well, it's time to make one! Countless lives are at stake! Ever since you took the Doctor's form you've been learning what it's like to be one of us. Now, try to imagine what it's like to be one of your victims. |
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