Holo-Leonardo and Janeway
in [79 Concerning Flight]
Page 2 : The "New World" of Tau's planet.

Holo-Leonardo: "Tell me, Catarina, what do you think of the New World?" Janeway: "How did you get here?" Holo-Leonardo: "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."

Map of Renaissance Italy

Holo-Leonardo, noticing Tuvok's ears: "Curious ears." Janeway: "My travelling companion, Tuvok."

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

Holo-Leonardo: "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."

Holo-Leonardo: "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?" Holo-Leonardo: "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?"

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

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

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

They enter Holo-Leonardo's new Workshop. Holo-Leonardo: "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?"

Holo-Leonardo: "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?"

Holo-Leonardo: "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.

Holo-Leonardo: "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."

Holo-Leonardo, sketching Tuvok's ear.

The drawing progresses.

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

Holo-Leonardo seizes the device. "Be careful! They have found a way to harness the energy of a thunderstorm and to expel it with great force."

Tuvok and Janeway exchange a look, as they listen to Holo-Leonardo tell them about a phaser, whose workings they know about better than he does. Holo-Leonardo: "A pistole that shoots not a lead ball but a bolt of lightning."

He demonstrates on an object on the other side of the Workshop.....

He fires at it........

.......and it dematerialises.

Janeway: "I'd like to meet this patron of yours."

Holo-Leonardo: "And so you shall, this very evening, but I caution you. He is as ruthless as a Borgia."

Leonardo da Vinci worked for Cesare Borgia, natural son of Pope Alexander VI, for 10 months in 1502-03, as a military engineer. Cesare Borgia owed his numerous titles to his father, including the rank of Captain-General of the Papal Armies.

Tuvok takes the phaser but Holo-Leonardo takes it from his hand.

That evening, Tuvok reports that the computer processor is not in the city and that they may have to do business with Tau, the thief. She decides to make Tau's acquaintance, hiding her true identity and pretending to be interested in buying a computer to run a colony.

When Holo-Leonardo calls out across the market place: "Catarina! Here are some friends I want you to meet." Janeway tells Tuvok: "Try to keep our hologram occupied."
Tuvok: "But Captain-"
Janeway: "Make small talk."
Tuvok: "Vulcans do not make small talk."

Janeway: "Improvise."

As Holo-Leonardo heads after the departing Janeway, Tuvok deftly intercepts him and takes the glass Holo-Leonardo intended for her. Tuvok: "Thank you. That is very considerate." His words are stiff, but he is making an effort at socialising. Holo-Leonardo: "Er Catarina, wait a minute!" Tuvok: "Mr da Vinci, how have you been?" Holo-Leonardo: "Benissimo. Now if you'll pardon me-"

Tuvok: "I wish to speak with you." Holo-Leonardo: "What about?" Tuvok, managing to get Holo-Leonardo to walk with him in the opposite direction from Janeway: "About you. You are most intriguing."

Holo-Leonardo: "Ah, grazie. You, signore Tuvok, are equally provocative. Where, exactly, are you from?" Tuvok, thinking quickly: "Scandinavia." naming somewhere Holo-Leonardo has probably never been and does not know.

Holo-Leonardo: "So, what do the Scandinavians think of this New World?"
Tuvok: "It is fascinating, and you are obviously enjoying it."
Holo-Leonardo: "Beyond words. Yes, Italy is already a fading memory. This city is full of mechanical marvels, the countryside alive with creatures strange and wonderful."

Tuvok: "I'm curious. How have you spent your time here?"
Holo-Leonardo: "I work on my inventions and my art, and I accompany the Prince when he goes to visit his great fortresses."

Holo-Leonardo continues: "Well, this er, fascinating conversation," taking a drink, "has left me as dry as Vulcan."
Tuvok, from the planet Vulcan, is most interested: "Vulcan?"
Holo-Leonardo: "An island off Sicily. Have you been there?"
Tuvok: "No."
Holo-Leonardo: "Pity." He moves away.

Meanwhile Janeway has got Tau to demonstrate the main computer processor via a voice interlink, so that she knows Tau does indeed have the stolen processor.

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