Script segments 4-15-97 Star Trek Voyager Episode: Coda Adaptation by Patti Keiper Written by Jeri Taylor Chapter Four -------------------------------------------------------------- --Kathryn closed her eyes, catching her breath for a moment. --Chakotay cradled her face in one hand to see if she was --recovered enough to be alone for a short time. She met his --gaze evenly to show that she was ready to help out. -- Convinced, the first officer let her go, "At least the storm --seems to be dying.." he noticed. --Janeway nodded, agreeing with him, "Hmmm." He trotted off for the shuttle, carrying his tricorder before him. Captain Jnaeway waited for its lights to fade before she attempted to sit up. She didn't bother to suppress the cry that slipped out when she did. Every joint throbbed only slighty less than her head. She had probably got into trouble by being too close to the bulkhead leak after she had been thrown to the floor. Hydrozine gas interrupted autonomic nerve function and was most likely responsible for why her heart had stopped beating. It was working perfectly now, hammering so loudly that she could hear it in her ears. Chakotay probably needed to use a double dose of stimulant to get her going again. She leaned backward against the cool stone cliff delicately adjusting the components inside the combadge. She now had a better understanding of how close she had come to dying if it hadn't been for Chakotay's timely intervention. She shuddered. She'd find something more than just a letter of commendation with which to thank him when they both got home to Voyager. Chakotay reentered the shuttle only after noticing the breach suppression systems had come back on line. He quickly gathered up the food and blankets they would need and hurried outside. A peculiar glint caught his eye on the hull just to the side of the door. A numbing realization struck him just then; the marks were man-made and not naturally inflicted ones. He scanned them long enough to confirm his worst nightmare. He returned to the copse at a run. Janeway had noticed his scanning sweep, "What were you looking at?" she asked. Chakotay laid his bundle down beside her, "There are phaser burns on the hull. I don't think it was lightning strikes that hit us. I think we were shot down." The captain was surprised, "By whom?" "I don't know. I'm going back to see if I can get an energy signature from the burns. " he offered. An icy thought entered Kathryn's mind, "Chakotay. The homing signal....We might be telling someone just where to find us." "Disconnect it while I scan the shuttle." He ran back the way he had come. Captain Janeway's mind raced as she attempted to stand. She managed, ..just. The shooting pain in her head was more than just a little ache. She would be glad for the doctor's ministrations when all this was over, she thought. Trailing moans, she weaved unsteadily to Chakotay's side, "Can you tell anything?" "The signatures are Vidian." he replied. Kathryn immediately drew her phaser, "Vidian? I thought we had moved beyond their space." "If they shot us down, you can be sure they'll be coming for us. " He moved away from the lit interior of the shuttle, scanning in a circle around them, "We need to find a hiding place." An anomolous reading sounded a proximity alert. "What is it?" she asked. "Lifeforms. Fifty meters from here. They're coming this way." Chakotay, too, drew out his phaser. Janeway wasn't about to be easy prey, "Let's go." They headed for the plains. A second proximity warning halted them in their tracks. Chakotay fine-tuned his tricorder, "There's another group in this direction." The two ragged officers turned towards the cliffs once more. Chakotay shook his head in frustration, "We're surrounded!" Janeway didn't hesitate as she made her way into the shadows, "Let's take cover. We'll have to fight." At the last moment, she and Chakotay found a cave system nestled a short distance away. They flanked each other shoulder to shoulder, their phasers before them as they made their way deeper into the caves. The ambush could come at any time, Chakotay thought grimly. A crunch of stone ended all doubt. Several Vidiian soldiers appeared on the left, the green glow of their paralyzers illuminating their patchwork faces. Janeway made a stand, "Back off now! We'll fire if we have to." Her voice lied to her ears. It wasn't commanding. Fear had taken its sting. Her first officer waited, breathing hard. Another rockfall trickled and Chakotay found himself face to face with a second hostile group. For a moment, everyone was silent. He shifted his phaser's line of sight onto the new group. Janeway's shout was pure acid, "Back off!!" A verdant beam lanced out of the dark slicing across Chakotay's shoulder. She saw him fall. She suffered a moment's hesistation, turning to him, "Chakotay!" she cried out. A fierce weight slammed into her back, knocking the phaser out of Kathryn's grip. A band of steel cut off her breathing. She struggled, rollling the two of them against a rocky shelf. Red haze glittered within her sight as her mind began to starve for lack of air. An animal panic made her fight. Her numb hands bounced uselessly off of the Vidiian's skull. Then a blood vessel strained beyond tolerance burst in her head and Kathryn's consciousness melted away.... -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Sacajawea hummed softly between the stars carrying its two occupants in Starfleet red toward the gas world full of nucleotides. Commander Chakotay only half saw the planet on his viewscreen. He was too engrossed in his own conversation to pay it any mind, "Harry's clarinet solo was o.k.....I could have done without Tuvok's reading of Vulcan poetry,...." Chakotay admitted. Kathryn chortled in her seat. Her first officer grinned, "But, the highlight of the evening was definitely Kathryn Janeway portraying the dying swan." "I learned that dance when I was six years old. I assure y--" The captain broke off, an unsettling deja vu permeated the air. Her mouth went dry, "Wait a minute. What's happening here?" Chakotay was also shaken, "You're right. We have been here before." An odd thought totally unrelated to their current discussion wormed its way into Kathryn's head, "Do you remember Vidiians?" Chakotay's eyes widened as he, too, seemed to skip a track, "Yes, they shot us down and attacked us." The strange shared memory brought the analyst in Janeway to the foreground, "We may have wandered into some kind of repeating time loop. I'm going to scan for temporal anomolies." Chakotay offered sound advice, "Whatever's going on, let's change tactics. This time, let's try not to land on that planet." Deep inside, he didn't know why he had just said what he did. He knew only that when he had glanced at Janeway just then, he had felt a sick apprehension of foreboding that was very real however unjustified it seemed to be. Janeway saw a twist of emotion that was unreadable on Chakotay's face. Focusing inward, she caught a glimmer of... blackness in her mind when she thought of the planet at all. Something very bad was going to happen to her. That much was certain. She set course away from the gray world, "Agreed." she nodded. "I don't see any evidence of temporal flux or any kind of anomaly for that matter." Chakotay's long distance sweep concluded, "Or Vidiian ships." Janeway grinned tightly, "So far so good." The time to remain alone was over. Chakotay opened up a standard hail, "Chakotay to Voyager." No welcoming crackle greeted them. He repeated himself, "Do you read us?"