Script Segments                                          04-15-97
     Star Trek Voyager                             Episode : Coda
     Adaptation by Patti Keiper            Written by Jeri Taylor

                                Chapter Eleven

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>Chakotay sounded exhausted, "She's coming back!"

>    Green and red lights blinked near her chest. It was a bioprobe, "I'll 
>try using cordrazine along with the stimulator."
>the doctor shouted over the rising gale.

>   Kathryn felt a hypospray press against her neck.

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    She was back, locked in confrontation with her father on
Voyager.

   She shook her head to clear it, "What was that?!" Kathryn
gasped, "What happened?"

       He stared at her without moving, "What do you mean?"

       She remembered, "I saw Tuvok and Chakotay and the
doctor.."

       "Here?" He seemed surprised.

       She shook her head, "No, it was different as though,
as though I were looking up at them."

      He was quick to refute her words, "An hallucination like
the others."

      Janeway whispered, thinking, "Oh, it didn't feel like the
others. I didn't see myself.   I was looking up at them!"


          Then it all became clear. She was being misled
intentionally.

   She rounded on her father, "That's the real me, isn't it?
Lying on the ground on that planet, dying... and THIS is the
hallucination. THIS isn't real.."

   All signs of gentleness were gone. Her father's tone was flat
and coarse, "More denial. You're only making it harder on
yourself."

   Kathryn felt her guard go way up. Something wasn't right
with him, "You're trying very hard to convince me. Why is that?
If what you are saying is true, why not let me come to the
decision on my own?"

  His voice was strained, full and angry, his tone belied the
meaning of his words, "I trying to save you un-necessary pain."

  Kathryn took a step backward, "My father would never act like
this.  He always believed I had to learn my own lesson; make
my own mistakes... He would never try to shield me from life...
Why would he try to shield me from death?"
      Captain Janeway had been blind. She had been fooled
by a real pro, "You're not my father.. I could be imaging you,
but somehow, I don't think so. You have such a specific
agenda.  You're determined I go with you somewhere.......Who
are you?!"


       She then noticed his eyes were amber.  All the animation
was gone from his body. He was stiff limbed and sharp before
her, "I'm trying to help you. Stop fighting me."

       He wasn't human. Now, she saw that, "Are you an alien
being of some kind?  Is that it?"

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        Lightning ripped around her.

She was in pain but they were trying to help her.
Kathryn wished with all her might to see them again....

        Chakotay shouted, "Her eyes are open!"

        The doctor glanced at his med tricorder, "Her vital signs
        are responding, 60/30."

        Tuvok was sensing the duality in the captain, "But the
         entity is still inhabiting her cerebral cortex, impeding
         your treatment."

         Chakotay spoke to her, "Kathryn ! Hang on! We're
         bringing you back.  Just fight a little longer.."

         The doctor brought an active neural inducer down over
          her face, "Direct neural stimulation might drive out the
          alien presence."

                  The device's glow filled her eyes.

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    Kathryn glared at the man who had claimed to be her family.
Her dislike for him began to grow in leaps and bounds, "I was
right. I heard Tuvok, Chakotay and the doctor.   You're an
alien. You've created all these hallucinations, haven't you?"


       The anomaly flowered into existence behind the man.
Its mass was swollen and it bloodied the air around it. Its
color matched the malevolence of its owner, growing more
grotesque by the minute... Janeway tensed;  not knowing what
it would do to her if she got too close to it.

     The creature was only a parody of her father now. The
tendrils of the anomaly seemed to caress him as he spoke. His
voice was crass, " This is what my species does... At the
moment just before death, one of us comes to help you
understand what's happening, to make the crossing over an
occasion of joy."

    Janeway threw her head in disgust at the anomaly, "And
what is that?"

    The entity shifted his eyes over his shoulder and then back
again to fix upon Kathryn with a fierce intensity, "Our matrix,
where your consciousness will live.. I was being truthful when
I said it was a place of wonder. It can be whatever you want it
to be."

   Captain Janeway was charged with indignation, "Then why
didn't you tell me this from the beginning?  Why pretend to be
my father?"

   "Usually people are comforted to see their loved ones. It
makes the crossing over a much less fearful occasion.  I've
done this, many times...But I've never encountered one so
resistant.."


           Kathryn felt herself be drawn in by his eyes..

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      Kathryn was suffocating in her mind. Her body was leaden
and she couldn't move. She could only listen to her crewmate's
frantic words.

     The audio output on the doctor's scanner soured,
"Something's happening! The alien presence is getting
stronger!"

   Chakotay was a beacon, "Fight it, Kathryn. Fight it just a
little longer!"

   The doctor had another idea, "I'll have to try a thoron pulse."


           Kathryn felt a vibration begin deep in her brain.

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        The transition back to delusion was a longer one this
time.  Janeway used the information provided to her and
channeled all of her fury into a tight little ball, "My people are
telling me to fight!  They're trying to save me!"

        "They're trying out of desperation. It's hopeless." he
snapped.

         Kathryn advanced on him in cold measured steps, "You're
the one who sounds desperate. I don't get the feeling that
you're trying to make me comfortable. You're only interested in
my agreeing to come with you."

        "Because it is inevitable." he boasted.

         Her hate knew no bounds and she looked at him in the
eye, "You don't strike me as any kind of good samaritan. You're
more like a vulture, preying on people at the moment of their
deaths when they're most vulnerable."

        She saw the smugness wash away from his face in a
wave, "I've waited for you. I've been patient."

        "But your patience is wearing thin." she hissed, "What's
the real reason you want me in that matrix?  Some how I don't
think it has anything to do with everlasting joy!"


                The attack came quickly. The entity's arms shot
out and Kathry's shoulders were pinned.  They were face to
face.  Janeway stiffened but then felt his fingers go through her
like putty. He was weakening!  She suddenly knew that his talk
was louder than his bite...

     She fairly laughed at him as he spoke, "You must go with
me."

     "If you could force me to go, you would've done it already.
You need me to agree, don't you? I have to go voluntarily.."

    "Wouldn't that be better than standing here in this endless
debate?"  The color of the alien's eyes shifted, flickering from
amber to blue, to gray..

    Kathryn saw her moment and she took it; she called his
bluff, "Let me tell you this.......We could stand here for all
eternity and I will never chose to go with you!!" she snarled.


          The anomaly flared crimson and boiled as he flung her
away from him. "You're in a dangerous profession, captain. You
face death every day. There will be another time and I'll be
waiting..."   The alien bloated and his form writhed as he
sifted away, "Eventually, you'll come into my matrix and you will
nourish me for a long, long time...."

      Janeway watched him leave down a long, flaming tunnel
that receded into the wall, "Go back to hell, coward..." she
cursed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

                 She was on her back.

Kathryn gasped, suddenly able to breathe.  She made a noise.

    "Kathryn?"  It was Chakotay, blessedly near.

     The doctor's smile was tangible, "I'm no longer detecting
the alien presence. Vital signs are responding. Blood pressure
110/65."

    Kathryn Janeway moaned and consciousness came flooding
back. She became fully aware of Tubok, Chakotay and the
doctor crouched above her and the absence of the alien's
oppression, "Doctor?... What happened?"

    The hologram removed the cortical stimulator from her
head and smiled, "Perhaps you can explain, commander."

   Chakotay came into her line of sight, "You and I were caught in
a magnetic atorm and crashed here. You were badly injured.
The doctor just arrived on the shuttle with Tuvok and began
treating you."

  Tuvok raised an eyebrow, "As he was doing so, we detected an
alien presence within your cerebral cortex. It appeared to be
preventing our attempts to heal you."

   The doctor helped her to sit, "Eventually, it was dislodged.
But there were a number of times I thought we'd lost you."

  Chakotay steadied her until she was upright, "But each time,
you seemed to fight back..."

   "He kept teling me to let go, " she said, feeling the tingle of
a healed gash on her forehead, "But I wouldn't."

   Tuvok was curious, "He?"

   Kathryn told him, "My fa--   the alien.  He wanted to take me
into.....another place."

   "Another place?" Chakotay asked, "Some kind of afterlife?"

   Captain Janeway saw it coming... At the next available
opportunity, her executive officer would be discussing that bit
of news with his animal guide.  Kathryn's smile hurt, a little,
"Maybe.  But I can tell you this,... from what I saw, it's certainly
not where I'd like to spend eternity."


       Chakotay and Tuvok helped Janeway to her feet while the
doctor retrieved the two medical kits from the ground.  The
three of them made their way out of the crevasse, walking
slowly to accomodate Kathryn's aches. She leaned on her
first officer,  feeling awfully glad to be alive....

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Voyager sailed serenely on course while Kathryn dictated her
log, "Captain's log, Stardate 50518.6.  The doctor has
examined me thoroughly and pronounced me physically fit. But
I'll admit that it will take a little longer to work through the
emotional impace of my experience."

   She took a sip of decaffeinated tea and proof-read her log entry.
Her door chimed when she was about halfway through, "Come
in."

  Chakotay entered, his hands respectfully behind his back. He
frowned when he saw her, "I could've sworn I heard the doctor
tell you to take it easy for a few days..." he chided.

  Janeway didn't look up, "Taking it easy always makes me feel
worse."

  "You shouldn't push yourself." He paused,  as he handed her
the long stemmed apricot rose he had concealed from her sight.
"You've been trhough a lot."


      Kathryn put down her computer padd and accepted the
gift graciously.  She inhaled its delicate fragrance before the
expression on her face clouded, "To tell you the truth, I'd
rather stay busy than dwell on what happened."

    Chakotay was supportive, "I can understand that."
He watched she went over to the table in the middle
of the room to pour herself another cup of tea, "I can't help
thinking about it.  That alien; his matrix.. He was like the
spider that had to lure a fly into his web."

  Kathryn sighed, mulling over a concept, "Do you think it's
possible...that the near death experiences we've heard about
are the result of an alien inhabitation?"

Chakotay shrugged, "That's a little hard to believe."

The captain didn't finish another sip of tea which suddenly
appeared unappetizing, "I hope so. I prefer to think his species
was unique to the Delta Quadrant and that I've seen the last
of him."

Chakotay put on his best smirk, "I'm sure that's the case.
After going head to head with Kathryn Janeway, he must have
realized that he'd met his match."


     She couldn't help smiling... Once again Commander
Chakotay had dragged her out of the muck. Then she recalled
the promise she had made to herself one or two hallucinations
ago,  "Come on,  Chakotay,.." she invited.  She abandoned
her rose and her teacup.  At his puzzled glance she replied,
"I cheated death. That's worth a little celebration, don't you
think?   A bottle of champagne... a moonlight sail on Lake
George?  How does that sound?"

  His quiet chuckle was genuine, "Like something worth living
for.."


    Chakotay invited her to proceed him out the door of the
ready room with a sweep of his hand but Kathryn got in her
no-after-you gesture first.


        They left her unfinished log behind in high spirits....



                                END