THE PRIME DIRECTIVE

STORIES INVOLVING THE PRIME DIRECTIVE

[Season 4: #92 Demon]

Episode Index - part of Ship's Logs which includes illustrated transcripts and synopses

A mysterious metallic compound on a Class-Y planet, nicknamed Demon-class, experiences awareness for the first time when it comes into physical contact with Kim and Paris during an away mission there, and it creates duplicates of them with the only difference being that the duplicates are perfectly adapted to live in the extreme environmental conditions normal to a Class-Y world. . The 'silver blood' Kim explains to Janeway. She offers to ask the crew if they would be prepared to donate DNA samples so that the 'silver blood' need not be alone and can populate the planet. She and the crew agree to do so, and the duplicates are created. Like the duplicate Kim, the duplicate crewmembers are adapted to live in Demon-class environmental conditions.

the compounds threatens to submerge Voyager for a moment Janeway can see the silver blood rippling inside the duplicate Kim the compound retreats, leaving the ground dry and cracked Voyager takes off, and the newly-created duplicate crew see them off 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." [Season 4: #92 Demon]

Janeway's decision, and the crew's willingness to donate DNA, comprises a violation of the Prime Directive, for it interferes with a civilisation or lifeform which lacks warp capabilities but has not yet, at the time that the decision is made, evolved to sentience (the duplicates of Paris and Kim can be said to have done, however). Moreover, the newly created 'silver blood' population of the planet possess all the memories of the Voyager crew, which could have repercussions for this region of space and the original crew, being intelligent, must have realised that.

Janeway makes the offer to ask her crew if they would be willing to donate DNA, Voyager is about to be submerged by the compound. Her decision is thus understandable as she has the survival of her crew uppermost in her mind. But it is still a violation of her oath (and presumably of the Starfleet crew) to uphold the Prime Directive even if it involves sacrificing her life and the lives of her crew. It is not clear that there was no other solution that Janeway could offer, and it seems plausible that she was reacting not only to the submerging threat but to that most moving of appeals for help namely an appeal for life: "We'd rather die than be alone. We deserve life."

Janeway could not have predicted that the duplicate crew would set off in a duplicate USS Voyager in an attempt to reach what they, due to possessing the original crew's memories, believe to be home in the Alpha Quadrant. (She might have predicted it if she had mulled over the situation long enough, but that is speculation and unfair to expect it of her.) Her "I could not have known", the same excuse cited to Arturis in [#94 Hope And Fear], is both mitigation but simultaneously also an argument in support of the Prime Directive, for one of the reasons for the existence of the Prime Directive is to eliminate or at least minimise the unforeseen consequences of interference as well as any predictable consequences. Janeway is perhaps fortunate in that she does not have to say "I could not have known" because she and the original Voyager crew never learn the fate of the 'silver blood' population - only the television viewer finds out, in the later story [Season 5: #112 Course Oblivion].

For the consequences of the decision to allow the duplication of the Voyager crew, see under the episode heading [#112 Course Oblivion].

 

 

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