DIRECTED BY
AIRED ON
February 27, 1995
RUNTIME
46 minutes
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136
LAST UPDATE
2024-09-12 19:22:04
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Version 1
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SUMMARY
Stardate: Unknown. Tom Paris is accused of a murder he claims he did not commit. His sentence is to re-live the last few moments of his victim's life every 14 hours through a memory transplant.
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TRANSCRIPT
[Tolen's memory]
(In black and white.)
DOCTOR [OC]: What do you see, Mister Paris?
PARIS [OC]: Shoes. Muddy shoes. (through a door) The dog.
(There are alien symbols at the bottom. A thunderstorm rages outside.)
DOCTOR [OC]: Good. That's exactly what you should see.
(We go through in to the conservatory to see Paris passionately kissing an alien woman.)
[Room]
PARIS: But that isn't possible.
DOCTOR: I'm sure it's disorienting to see yourself through another man's eyes.
PARIS: No, I
[Tolen's memory]
LIDELL: Tolen!
TOLEN [OC]: Now I understand.
PARIS: I'd better be on my way.
LIDELL: You don't have to go, Tom. He's got no right.
TOLEN [OC]: No right? This is my home. You come into my home and steal my wife, and I have no right?
PARIS: That's not the way it happened.
[Room]
PARIS: This isn't the way it happened.
DOCTOR: The trial's over, Mister Paris. There's no point to further denials.
[Tolen's memory]
TOLEN [OC]: I know about you, Paris. I know you were in prison.
PARIS: That has nothing to do with
TOLEN [OC]: We'll see what your captain has to say about this. When I'm finished with you, you'll never wear that uniform again.
PARIS: I can't let you do that.
LIDELL: No, Tom, don't! Stop! No!
[Room]
PARIS: No, I didn't
[Tolen's memory]
(Paris sees himself attacking the person whose eyes he is looking through, then looks down at the knife handle sticking out of his chest before falling.)
LIDELL: Tom! Don't, Tom!
[Room]
DOCTOR: Let the record show that the sentence of the court has been carried out. For the rest of his natural life, once every fourteen hours, Thomas Eugene Paris will relive the last moments of his victim's life. May the fates have mercy on you, sir.
[Doctor's office]
(The EMH and Kes are seated opposite each other at his desk, using computers.)
KES: If the hydroxy-proline level is elevated this high, you'd probably call for a pancreatic scan.
EMH: That's exactly what I'd call for. All right then, let's run through the osteographic series again. Just enter the responses you're sure about.
KES: So, have you given any more thought to a name?
EMH: I asked the Captain for one.
KES: Why don't you choose one yourself?
EMH: Choose one myself? Me? Well, that just isn't. Holograms are programmed, Kes. They don't choose anything for themselves.
KES: Why not?
EMH: Because we're not capable of choosing.
KES: Well, you choose what medical treatment to give someone.
EMH: I'm programmed with over five million possible treatments, with contingency programs and adaptive programs. But it's all programs upon programs upon programs. There's no independent decision making.
KES: I don't see the difference.
EMH: The difference is
KES: I base decisions on information stored inside my brain. How's that so different from the way you access your programs?
EMH: Well, if you put it that way.
KES: Do your programs have any names in them?
EMH: Certainly. I have the names of Starfleet doctors, their patients, medical personnel in historical and literary contexts.
KES: So pick a name.
EMH: Just pick one?
KES: Pick a name you like, perhaps from someone who inspires you.
EMH: Doctor, Doctor Galen. Doctor Salk. Doctor
KES: Those are good.
EMH: Spock.
KES: Can you see yourself with any of those names?
EMH: Not exactly.
KES: Take your time. After all, you will be that name for the rest of your life.
EMH: I never even considered that I had a life.
JANEWAY [OC]: Janeway to Sickbay. Activate Emergency Medical Holographic Programme.
EMH: I'm already on, Captain.
[Bridge]
EMH [OC]: What can I do for you?
JANEWAY: We've got an incoming shuttle with an injured crewman on board.
EMH [OC]: Any details?
JANEWAY: It's either Ensign Kim or Lieutenant Paris. We haven't been able to raise them.
TUVOK: Sensors indicate damage to various subsystems.
JANEWAY: You're sure there's only one life sign aboard?
TUVOK: That is confirmed, Captain.
JANEWAY: Transport him to Sickbay. I'll be down there. Mister Tuvok.
[Sickbay]
KIM: They made me leave without him.
EMH: He's severely dehydrated.
KIM: No sleep.
KES: Neodextramine solution?
EMH: Prepare an iv.
JANEWAY: Can you tell us what happened to Paris, Mister Kim?
KIM: They made me leave without him. They said he'd committed a, a murder.
JANEWAY: Do you have any idea who the victim was?
KIM: An engineering physicist we were working with. His name was Tolen Ren.
[Tolen's office]
KIM [OC]: The Banean Minister of Science introduced us to him just after we'd arrived.
TOLEN: So, from the other side of the galaxy.
KIM: Seventy thousand light years, give or take a few.
TOLEN: That's a long trip home with a damaged collimator.
KRAY: If anybody on this world can help you, Professor Ren can. He's developed four generations of navigational arrays for our ships.
TOLEN: We have to stay one step ahead of our neighbours the Numiri. Did you bring your ship's specifications with you?
KIM: It's all here.
TOLEN: Splendid. Why don't we begin to look it over at my home this evening? My wife would be delighted to have company for supper.
KIM [OC]: There was no reason to say no, but if we hadn't gone with him that night, none of this would have happened.
[The Ren's home]
(A small hairy dog is yapping.)
TOLEN: Come on now, Neeka, stop that racket. They're friends. That's better. That's better. What a good doggy. What a good doggy. Oh, dearest, are you dressed? We have guests. I should have called. I just don't think of the common courtesies. She's really wonderful about, er, tolerating my dreadful manners.
LIDELL: So, you've done it to me again.
TOLEN: Yes, dear. I apologise. Oh, Lidell, this is Ensign Harry Kim and Lieutenant Tom Paris. They're from the other side of the galaxy.
LIDELL: Hello.
PARIS: Nice to meet you.
LIDELL: You might have called.
TOLEN: You're absolutely right. Do you have enough to feed us all, or shall we go out?
LIDELL: No, it's fine. I have some leftover rolk from yesterday. I'll just throw it in the stew.
TOLEN: Wonderful. Gentlemen, make yourselves at home. I'm going to put on my slippers. Lidell will take good care of you.
(Tolen leaves the room.)
LIDELL: Would you like a drink?
KIM: Sure.
(Lidell opens a tall slim cabinet.)
LIDELL: Help yourself.
(Lidell leaves.)
PARIS: What are you looking at?
KIM: Not the same thing that you're looking at, that's for sure.
(The dog yaps.)
PARIS: What are you looking at?
(Lidell enters and throws a piece of food onto the floor. The dog pounces on it immediately.)
LIDELL: If it's spoiled, Neeka wouldn't eat it.
(Later, Tolen is serving the stew.)
TOLEN: Nothing too fancy or exotic around here. We're very simple folks.
KIM: You're very kind to include us at your supper table.
TOLEN: We enjoy an occasional guest. I think Lidell would prefer us to entertain more often than we do, yes? She's far more social than I am. I'm afraid she gets a little bored here sometimes. I'm so consumed with my work.
PARIS: And here we are bringing more of it home to take your husband's attention away for the evening.
LIDELL: Whether you are here or not makes no difference. Tolen would work anyway.
TOLEN: I'm afraid she's right. We are at war, after all. By the way, how did you get past the Numiri patrols?
KIM: Lieutenant Paris is our best pilot.
PARIS: Captain Janeway decided not to take our ship into orbit. She wanted to avoid getting involved in your conflict. So, we came in on a shuttlecraft that would avoid immediate detection by the Numiri. I hid behind the limb of the moon before I made a break for your defence perimeter. By the time their sensors picked us up, they didn't have a chance to catch us.
TOLEN: Well done! Finished already?
(Lidell leaves the table and puts her dish on the floor.)
LIDELL: The meat doesn't taste right.
(She leaves. Neeka eats the food happily.)
TOLEN: Well, we do have a lot of work to get done. Perhaps we should begin.
KIM [OC]: We went into the other room and started to work on the navigational beam specifications.
[Sickbay]
KIM: It was pretty dry stuff. You know, rewriting baseline code algorithms. Tom got bored. He left us alone for a while. I guess he was with Mrs Ren. I know they saw each other again the next day. That was the night Professor Ren was murdered.
TUVOK: Did you talk to Lieutenant Paris after he was detained?
KIM: No. They never let me see him. They interrogated me for almost two days straight. They asked me a lot of questions about the Numiri. At first, they must've thought we were Numiri agents or something. Professor Ren was the inventor of Banean warship technology.
EMH: He's completely exhausted. Can some of this wait until he's had a chance to rest?
JANEWAY: We'll find out about Paris, Mister Kim. Janeway to Chakotay.
CHAKOTAY [OC]: Go ahead.
JANEWAY: Set a course for the Banean homeworld, Commander.
CHAKOTAY [OC]: Aye, Captain.
[Ready room]
JANEWAY: Come in.
NEELIX: You sent for me, Captain.
JANEWAY: Lieutenant Paris has gotten himself into trouble. I'm taking the ship into orbit while we try to sort things out.
NEELIX: Be prepared to be intercepted by Numiri patrols. They always try to intimidate travellers to the Banean planet.
JANEWAY: The stakes are too high to send a shuttlecraft this time. I want to show our flag to make it clear we mean business.
NEELIX: I understand.
JANEWAY: Based on your experience, what can we expect the Numiri to do to intimidate us?
NEELIX: To be honest, whenever I saw the Numiri coming, I always left before the intimidation began. (laughs) However, I know from knowledgeable sources that they have directed energy weapons comparable to your own. Our own, that is. Plus regenerative shields that may even give them a certain advantage over us in a firefight.
JANEWAY: Tell me about them as a people. Are they aggressive, technical, intellectual, emotional? Anything that might help me deal with them.
NEELIX: The Numiri and the Banea are quite different from one another, even though they once coexisted on the same planet. That's why I recommended the Banea to you in the first place. The Numiri have a remarkably covert society.
CHAKOTAY [OC]: Captain to the Bridge.
JANEWAY: On my way.
[Bridge]
CHAKOTAY: We're scanning a Numiri vessel approaching. They're at combat readiness, Captain.
JANEWAY: Shields up. On screen. Mister Neelix.
NEELIX: A standard patrol vessel. Curious.
JANEWAY: Why?
NEELIX: I would've expected them to send out more than one tiny patrol to meet a ship like this.
JANEWAY: Let's hope it's a positive sign. Hail them.
TUVOK: They're responding.
JANEWAY: Open a channel. I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager.
(The Numiri are reptilian, while the Banea just have some feathers growing amongst their hair.)
CAPTAIN [on viewscreen]: What is your business in this system?
JANEWAY: One of my crewmen is being held on the Banean planet. We're on our way to investigate.
CAPTAIN [on viewscreen]: Consider this official notice that you are entering a war zone. You do so at your own risk.
JANEWAY: Understood.
CAPTAIN [on viewscreen]: Any attempt to provide aid or supplies to the Banea will be considered an act of war against the Numiri.
JANEWAY: You have my word that we intend to remain neutral in your conflict. Our only interest is in our own crewman.
CAPTAIN [on viewscreen]: Proceed. Your activities will be monitored.
(Transmission ends.)
NEELIX: Very, very curious. In Numiri terms, that greeting was downright friendly.
JANEWAY: Have all security stations remain at full alert. Continue long range scans for Numiri patrols around the clock.
TUVOK: Aye, Captain.
JANEWAY: Take us into orbit.
[Minister Kray's office]
(Kray enters.)
KRAY: Captain. It's unfortunate we must meet under these circumstances.
JANEWAY: My chief of security, Lieutenant Tuvok.
KRAY: Please.
(They sit around his desk.)
JANEWAY: Exactly what are these circumstances, Minister? All we know is that a member of our crew has been accused of murder.
KRAY: Oh, I'm afraid he's been more than just accused. He's been convicted and punished according to our law.
JANEWAY: What form of punishment?
KRAY: The perpetrator of a murder is forced to relive the crime through his victim's eyes.
TUVOK: How is this achieved?
KRAY: I can have our Chief Medical officer describe the procedure in detail if you wish. We have the capability of isolating memory engrams in the brain. We take them from the final moments of life. After they're used in the trial, they're transplanted into the perpetrator's brain.
JANEWAY: These memories are used in the trial as evidence?
KRAY: An artificial life form serves as host to the engrams and testifies to their content. In this case, the victim's last memories clearly show Mister Paris caught in an embarrassing episode with Mrs Ren. An argument ensues. Paris is then seen by the victim's own eyes, killing him. The evidence of his guilt is incontrovertible.
[Room]
(At the detention centre, Paris is brought in by the doctor.)
PARIS: Captain.
JANEWAY: Are you all right, Tom?
PARIS: I've been better.
TUVOK: May we speak to him alone?
KRAY: Of course.
(Kray and the doctor leave.)
PARIS: The rehab colony back in New Zealand doesn't seem so bad right now.
TUVOK: Lieutenant, did you murder Professor Ren?
PARIS: No!
JANEWAY: But the victim's own eyes identified
PARIS: You don't have to tell me what the victim's own eyes saw, Captain. I don't understand it either, but I did not kill him.
TUVOK: Were you having improper relations with his wife?
PARIS: Their marriage was over. She told Ren they were finished the same day he was killed.
TUVOK: That does not answer my question.
PARIS: Nothing happened between us. Almost nothing.
JANEWAY: Tom, it's very important you tell us everything. Harry said you spent some time with Mrs Ren while he and the professor were working.
PARIS: I was bored. You know how it is when two science guys get together.
[The Ren's home]
PARIS [OC]: I came out of the other room, looked over and saw her in the atrium. Her eyes were a million kilometres away, staring at stars I'd just flown by the day before.
PARIS: Smoking is a bad habit. My species gave it up centuries ago when we finally got it into our heads it was killing us.
LIDELL: You must be a very superior species.
PARIS: That's not what I meant.
LIDELL: Maybe I kill myself slowly because I don't have the courage to do it quickly.
PARIS: Now why would you go and say a thing like that?
LIDELL: Don't.
PARIS: What?
LIDELL: Don't get involved, Lieutenant.
PARIS: I was just trying to
LIDELL: You'll be sorry.
PARIS: Look, I was just bored to tears in the other room and I thought you might like to talk.
LIDELL: Why don't you go ahead and ask me?
PARIS: Ask you what?
LIDELL: What you've been wanting to ask me all night. What they all want to ask me. Why I'd marry a man old enough to be my father.
PARIS: I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been wondering.
LIDELL: He was good to me. A lot of other men weren't.
PARIS: That sounds like a good enough reason to me.
LIDELL: He's a good man. I would never do anything to hurt him.
PARIS: I guess that makes you a good woman.
LIDELL: Good can get very boring.
[Tolen's memory]
LIDELL: No, Tom! Don't!
[Room]
PARIS: No, I
[Tolen's memory]
LIDELL: Stop! No!
[Room]
JANEWAY: What's going on?
PARIS: No! No!
TUVOK: Apparently, he's entering another cycle.
(Paris seems himself stab Tolen, and collapses. Janeway fetches Kray and the doctor.)
JANEWAY: Is this normal?
DOCTOR: We had some problems integrating the Banean engrams into his alien neurology. This is the first time he's lost consciousness since the implant.
JANEWAY: I'd like to take him back with us to our medical facility.
KRAY: I'm sorry, but I can't authorise that.
DOCTOR: Perhaps we should consider her request, Minister. We don't want to risk general synaptic failure. Their doctors might be better suited to stabilise his condition.
KRAY: All right, but you're not to leave orbit with him.
JANEWAY: Minister, we don't intend to leave orbit until we prove his innocence.
TUVOK: Away team to Voyager. Three to beam up.
[Sickbay]
EMH: It's medicine clearly beyond anything we've ever encountered before. What bothers me the most is the neural pathway damage it seems to be causing. It appears to be progressive.
JANEWAY: Then this punishment could actually be causing serious brain damage.
EMH: How long it might be before he's seriously affected, I really have no idea.
TUVOK: I would appreciate receiving a copy of your neurological analysis, Doctor.
EMH: It's extremely technical. To the layman, it would be virtually indecipherable.
TUVOK: Nevertheless, I will want to examine it in detail.
JANEWAY: This might be the basis for an appeal of the sentence, don't you think?
TUVOK: Perhaps. However, before the neural implants were developed, the Banean punishment for murder was lethal injection. It is possible they would view that as the only alternative sentence in this case.
KES: Will he regain consciousness?
EMH: I believe so. But each time the cycle repeats, I'm afraid his brain will take another damaging blow.
TUVOK: When he wakes up, I will require an autonomic response analysis while I question him again, Doctor.
KES: Do you really think Tom would lie to us?
TUVOK: As an investigator, I do not have the freedom to ignore any possibility. Mister Paris maintains his innocence, yet the victim has identified him from the grave, and the victim's wife has testified against him at the trial. Someone is obviously lying. An ARA will tell us if it is Mister Paris.
EMH: I'll have it ready for you.
TUVOK: In the meantime, Captain, I request permission to return to the surface.
JANEWAY: What do you have in mind, Tuvok?
TUVOK: I would like to examine the murder scene and speak with Mrs Ren.
[The Ren's home]
(Lidell opens the front door, carrying Neeka, who growls.)
TUVOK: Mrs Ren?
LIDELL: Yes?
TUVOK: I'm Lieutenant Tuvok of the Starship Voyager. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?
LIDELL: Are you a friend of Tom's?
TUVOK: I am the Starfleet Chief of Security investigating his alleged participation in your husband's murder.
LIDELL: Stop it, Neeka! She just doesn't like strangers.
(Tuvok enters.)
TUVOK: Based on your testimony, I assume this is where the murder occurred.
LIDELL: Yes, right there. I had to have a professional cleaning crew come in to remove the bloodstain.
TUVOK: You chose to remain in the house after an act of such violence occurred?
LIDELL: This has been my home for over ten years, Mister Tuvok. Do you really find that so hard to believe?
TUVOK: I am a Vulcan, Mrs Ren. By nature, we are a dispassionate people. It is rare to encounter someone as dispassionate as we are.
LIDELL: Dispassionate? Is that how I seem to you? I think you'd get an argument from Tom Paris. Can I get you a drink?
TUVOK: Thank you, no.
LIDELL: Mind if I have one?
TUVOK: Please. You testified at the trial that you and your husband had an argument the afternoon before he was killed.
LIDELL: I never said there was an argument, Lieutenant. Have you ever had to end a marriage?
TUVOK: No.
LIDELL: Are you married?
TUVOK: My wife and I have been married for sixty seven years.
LIDELL: I'm sure she's a fine, dispassionate woman. I hope you never have to find out for yourself, but I can tell you, ending a marriage, it's a quiet thing. The arguments are long over and there's really nothing much left to say at all.
TUVOK: May I ask why you decided at this time to end your marriage to Professor Ren?
LIDELL: Because I was attracted to another man. I didn't want to deceive my husband.
TUVOK: That other man was Lieutenant Paris. Lieutenant Paris would have been departing this planet in a few days, and yet you left your husband of ten years for him.
LIDELL: Meeting Tom gave me the push I needed. I already knew in my heart that it was time to start over.
TUVOK: Exactly when did you see Mister Paris on the day of the murder?
LIDELL: I went to see him at the Engineering Institute after I talked with my husband. Once I was free, I knew he wanted to be with me.
TUVOK: How did you know?
LIDELL: A woman knows, Lieutenant.
(Lidell's memory.)
LIDELL [OC]: He left his friend Harry to finish the technical research and walk me home. We were caught in a cloudburst on the way.
LIDELL: I'm completely soaked!
PARIS: There must be a centimetre of water in my boots.
LIDELL: Here, let me help you.
(Laughing, Lidell pulls of Paris' boots. Then she pulls him down to her and they kiss.)
PARIS: We shouldn't.
LIDELL: It's okay. He knows it's over.
PARIS: But you're still a married woman.
LIDELL: I haven't been married for years, Tom. To him, I'm a friend, a companion. He hasn't treated me like a woman since, it must've been the day of the eclipse four years ago.
PARIS: Eclipse?
LIDELL: He was very excited by the eclipse. Don't ask me why.
PARIS: Our timing's just a little off.
LIDELL: You'll be gone in a few days. This is the only time we've got. Let me make you something to warm you up. I love to drink Marob root tea on rainy afternoons.
(Back to now.)
LIDELL: I made some tea, we talked for a while, then we went out to the atrium to watch the storm and the rest you know.
TUVOK: Did you leave the room at any time during the fight between your husband and Lieutenant Paris?
LIDELL: I saw Tom murder my husband, Mister Tuvok. I tried to stop him. I couldn't.
CHAKOTAY [OC]: Voyager to Tuvok.
TUVOK: This is Lieutenant Tuvok.
CHAKOTAY [OC]: Mister Paris has regained consciousness. I thought you'd want to know.
TUVOK: Thank you. I'll be returning shortly. Tuvok out. Thank you for your help, Mrs Ren.
LIDELL: Lieutenant, when you see Tom, would you tell him that I forgive him?
[Sickbay]
PARIS: Everything she told you is true, except I don't remember going into the atrium or anything else after that.
TUVOK: The last thing you remember is?
PARIS: Sitting with her, drinking tea, talking about the sensual effects of eclipses. After that, I must've fallen asleep. When I woke up, I was in a cell.
EMH: He's telling you the truth.
TUVOK: Was there any evidence of a sedative in his system when he returned here?
EMH: The Banean medical authorities checked him. They didn't find any drugs in his blood. Most narcotics would've been gone from his system by the time he got to me.
(Boom!)
CHAKOTAY [OC]: Chakotay to Tuvok. You're needed on the Bridge. We're under attack by Numiri patrols.
TUVOK: On my way, Commander.
[Bridge]
(Two ships are attacking Voyager. Chakotay is at the helm.)
JANEWAY: Evasive pattern, beta one four zero. Dual attack mode.
CHAKOTAY: Evasive pattern confirmed.
KIM: They're attempting to lock a tractor beam on us.
NEELIX: That is a standard tactic for the Numiri when they intend to board your vessel. Well, at least now you know I was telling the truth about them, Captain. Although I take no pleasure in being right, mind you.
JANEWAY: But why now? Why an unprovoked attack? What are they after?
NEELIX: The Numiri have never needed an excuse to attack anyone.
KIM: Shields at ninety percent and holding.
JANEWAY: Commander, prepare to initiate attack manoeuvre kappa zero one zero.
CHAKOTAY: Captain, if you don't mind, there's a Maquis trick we sometimes used to get out of situations like this.
JANEWAY: Be my guest.
CHAKOTAY: B'Elanna. Remember Teluridian Four? The two Starfleet runabouts?
TORRES: I'm with you. Blowing out the dorsal phase emitters. Torres to Engineering.
CREWMAN [OC]: Go ahead.
TORRES: Vent a couple of LN2 exhaust conduits along the dorsal emitters. Make it look like we're in serious trouble.
CREWMAN [OC]: Understood.
CHAKOTAY: Cut all engines.
TORRES: Engines off-line.
CHAKOTAY: Tuvok, lock phasers on their navigational deflectors.
TUVOK: Acknowledged. Numiri ships are closing. Four thousand kilometres.
JANEWAY: Not to belittle Maquis tactics, Commander, but this is a very old trick.
CHAKOTAY: It worked against those Starfleet runabouts.
JANEWAY: You're lucky I wasn't commanding one of them.
TUVOK: Two thousand kilometres.
CHAKOTAY: Besides, out here in the Delta quadrant, every old trick is new again.
TUVOK: One thousand five hundred kilometres.
KIM: They're sending out tractor beams again.
CHAKOTAY: That's our cue. Fire phasers. Engage impulse engines.
TUVOK: Both Numiri vessels are disabled, Captain.
JANEWAY: That's one trick you won't be able to use again when we get back.
CHAKOTAY: I have more.
JANEWAY: Cancel red alert. Take us into high orbit.
NEELIX: Captain. More Numiri will be coming, I promise you.
JANEWAY: Mister Tuvok. Any progress with your investigation?
TUVOK: Based on the ARA, I am convinced Lieutenant Paris believes what he is saying. However, I can offer no tangible evidence on his behalf. Considering the urgency of the situation, I believe the only logical alternative at this time is to witness the crime myself.
CHAKOTAY: Yourself?
TUVOK: I propose a mind meld with Lieutenant Paris.
NEELIX: A, a what? What, what did he say? A mind what?
[Sickbay]
EMH: Let me tell you something, Lieutenant. Believe it or not, I know more about mind melds than you do. I know what every Vulcan doctor has said in every study of mind melds, and I still cannot tell you what will happen if you do this. If these cycles cause damage to a human brain, there's no telling what the risk might be to a Vulcan.
TUVOK: I've examined your neurological reports, Doctor, and I believe the risk is acceptable.
JANEWAY: Tuvok
TUVOK: Captain, the answers I seek can only be found in the eyes of the murdered man. It may be our only chance to prove Lieutenant Paris innocent.
KES: Tom?
(Paris is suffering. Janeway nods. Tuvok carefully lines up his fingers on Paris' face.)
[Tolen's memory]
LIDELL: Tolen!
TOLEN: Now I understand.
PARIS: I'd better be on my way.
LIDELL: You don't have to go, Tom. He's got no right.
TOLEN: No right? This is my home. You come into my home and steal my wife, and I have no right?
PARIS: That's not the way it happened.
TOLEN: We'll see what your captain has to say about this. When I'm finished with you, you'll never wear that uniform again.
PARIS: I can't let you do that.
LIDELL: No, Tom, don't! Stop! No!
[Sickbay]
(Tuvok nearly collapses.)
EMH: The cycle's ended. No neural damage that I can detect.
TUVOK: Captain, I must consult with Ensign Kim immediately.
JANEWAY: With Kim? Why?
TUVOK: I assume he has access to Professor Ren's research. I believe it will explain not only why Lieutenant Paris has been accused of a murder he did not commit, but also why the Numiri chose to attack us.
[Ready room]
JANEWAY: His condition has continued to deteriorate. He'll have serious brain damage if the implants are not removed.
KRAY [on monitor]: We are not a barbaric people, Captain. This was meant as punishment, not torture. I see no alternative but to remove the implants, do you?
DOCTOR [on monitor]: There is no legal precedent, of course, but we can petition the courts immediately.
KRAY [on monitor]: I cannot assure you'll find an alternative sentence more to your liking.
JANEWAY: We're still committed to proving his innocence, Minister.
KRAY [on monitor]: When do you intend to return him to our custody?
JANEWAY: Due to the nature of his condition, we're concerned that our transporting device might cause further medical complications, so we're sending him back by shuttlecraft. They'll leave this ship in one hour.
DOCTOR [on monitor]: I'll make the necessary preparations.
(Transmission ends. Janeway nods to Tuvok, who has been listening out of shot.)
[Shuttlecraft]
PARIS: This is all your fault, you know.
KIM: My fault?
PARIS: Yeah. I consider you the conscience I never had. You're supposed to keep me on the straight and narrow.
KIM: I tried to warn you.
PARIS: Funny, so did she.
KIM: If it had been me, I would've stayed as far away from her as possible.
PARIS: Someday it will be you, Harry. You'll meet her, and you'll know it's wrong from the first moment you see her, and you'll know there's nothing you can do about it.
KIM: Here they come.
[Bridge]
TUVOK: Numiri patrol approaching, bearing zero six seven, mark two four.
JANEWAY: Red alert. On screen.
TUVOK: Range, one hundred thousand kilometres and closing. They're changing course, Captain.
CHAKOTAY: They're going straight for the shuttle, just as you said they would, Lieutenant.
[Shuttlecraft]
KIM: Shuttle to Voyager. They've locked a tractor beam on us.
JANEWAY [OC]: Offer
[Bridge]
JANEWAY: No resistance, Harry.
KIM [OC]: Acknowledged.
(They watch the shuttlecraft being dragged towards the stern of the Numiri patrol ship.)
PARIS [OC]: Hey, Tuvok, I know it's a little late to ask, but you're sure you've got the logic of this thing worked out?
TUVOK: If I am incorrect, we will know it shortly.
[Shuttlecraft]
PARIS: Ah. That makes me feel a whole lot better.
KIM: We're being boarded.
(Three Numiri walk up from the rear section. One has a picture of Paris on his PADD.)
CAPTAIN: He's the one.
(Kim and Paris are beamed away.)
[Bridge]
JANEWAY: This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. You have illegally seized one of our shuttlecraft.
CAPTAIN [on viewscreen]: I warned you that you were entering a war zone at your own risk.
JANEWAY: Yes, we appreciated that warning and took appropriate precautions. If you read the sensor readouts in front of you, you will see that the shuttle is carrying forty tons of thalmerite explosives. Enough to destroy your ship. I'm prepared to detonate those explosives in thirty seconds if you do not release our vessel. End transmission.
(Transmission ends. Paris and Kim enter.)
CHAKOTAY: The shuttle's being released. The Numiri ship is withdrawing.
JANEWAY: Tractor the shuttle and take us into low orbit. Cancel red alert. Mister Paris, how soon before your next cycle?
PARIS: Seven hours.
JANEWAY: That should be enough time to clear this up. Mister Tuvok, this is your show now.
TUVOK: With your permission, I would like to invite all interested parties to meet at the scene of the murder in two hours.
JANEWAY: I'll invite the Minister myself.
[The Ren's home]
TUVOK: Lieutenant Paris was not the man Professor Ren saw before he was murdered.
KRAY: Not the man? But it was clearly established at the trial.
TUVOK: It is true, Paris's image was seen in the memories examined during the trial. However, that is because someone altered the engrams from Professor Ren's brain.
DOCTOR: But that simply isn't possible for this procedure.
TUVOK: I would suggest, sir, that there is no such thing as a technology that is entirely safe from tampering.
LIDELL: You're forgetting one thing. I was here and I saw him do it.
TUVOK: On the contrary. I have not forgotten your statement, Mrs Ren. However, I now know it is clearly false.
PARIS: Just what was in that tea you gave me, Lidell?
KRAY: Is this just idle speculation, or do you have some evidence?
TUVOK: Mister Paris, would you please stand next to Mrs Ren?
LIDELL: What for?
TUVOK: If you wouldn't mind. The man Professor Ren observed with his wife was virtually equal in height to her. Clearly, Lieutenant Paris is several centimetres taller.
LIDELL: How do you know what my husband saw?
TUVOK: Vulcans have the ability to meld telepathically with another's mind. I observed your husband's memories as Lieutenant Paris went through a cycle. I watched as the killer stabbed Professor Ren right here, through the intercostal space between the eighth and ninth right ribs, the exact location of the Banean heart. The killer clearly knew Banean anatomy. Lieutenant Paris did not.
DOCTOR: Are we supposed to take your word for all of this?
TUVOK: There is additional evidence. For example, we can now say for certain that Professor Ren was murdered by a Numiri agent.
KRAY: What?
TUVOK: Lieutenant, did you notice the stream of symbols and numbers that were superimposed on the images?
PARIS: Symbols? Well, yeah, I guess I did. I didn't know what they meant. I thought they were part of the procedure.
TUVOK: In researching this procedure, I found no other reference to this phenomenon. I have now confirmed that these symbols and numbers were equations taken from Professor Ren's weapons research. Someone intended them to be delivered to the Numiri.
KRAY: You're saying somebody used his brain to send secret data to our enemy?
TUVOK: He was a logical courier. The Numiri agents knew he could leave the planet's surface without raising suspicion. The Numiri made two attempts to gain access to Mister Paris. They attacked just after he returned to Voyager, and then again when he was in the shuttle.
JANEWAY: Someone on the surface had to be informing the Numiri of Lieutenant Paris's movements.
KRAY: Do you know who did this?
TUVOK: You knew when Mister Paris would be in transit, Minister. The doctor is the one who encouraged you to release him to our custody. He is also the one who performed the implant procedure. I know of no one else who had the opportunity and knowledge to carry out this plan.
DOCTOR: I'm not going to listen to any of this.
KRAY: I really would like you to listen, doctor.
TUVOK: Would you please stand again, Mrs Ren?
DOCTOR: So we're the same height. It proves nothing. I never saw this woman prior to the death of her husband. I was never even in this house before today.
TUVOK: You forget the other witness who was here on the night of the murder, Doctor. Would you mind asking her to come in?
(The doctor opens the door indicated by Tuvok, and Neeka enters, jumping on her hind legs around him.)
TUVOK: It appears that you are no stranger to Neeka, doctor.
LIDELL: He lied to me, Tom. No one was supposed to get hurt. You know I could never do anything to hurt you.
PARIS: Yeah, you could.
(Guards take the doctor and Lidell away.)
[Mess Hall]
(Paris enters and goes to where Tuvok is sitting alone eating his meal whilst reading a PADD.)
PARIS: Tuvok.
TUVOK: Mister Paris.
PARIS: There are some who'd say you risked my future on the eyewitness identification of a dog.
TUVOK: It seemed a necessary step to ensure a truthful resolution.
PARIS: Well, I appreciate you sticking up for me. I owe you one.
TUVOK: I conducted a criminal investigation. If you had been guilty, I assure you I would have pursued the truth just as vigilantly. You have no debt to me, Mister Paris.
PARIS: How come I always see you down here eating alone, Lieutenant?
TUVOK: I prefer to read rather than engage in, what do humans call it? Short talk?
PARIS: Close enough. You don't make many friends that way.
TUVOK: Perhaps.
PARIS: Well, like it or not, you've made one today, Mister Tuvok.
2024-09-12 19:22:04 -
Pike:
Added the transcript.
