Script Segments                                         4-15-97
   Star Trek Voyager                              Episode: Coda
   Adaptation by Patti Keiper            Written by Jeri Taylor

                                Chapter Six

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    Sickbay was empty except for the doctor and Captain Janeway.

She couldn't help nervously clenching and unclenching her
hands as she listened to his recollection of events. Then his
manner changed. The crisp hologram exuded compassion, "I ran a
microcellular scan after you returned to the ship. I have just
analyzed the results."  The doctor hesitated.

       Janeway did not look away, "What did you find?"

       "You have contracted the Vidiian Phage."

       "The Phage?" Her eyes widened in disbelief.

    Kathryn's world was rocked. She no longer seemed to feel
the doctor's supporting hand on her arm. The phage was fatal.
It would slowly eat every organ of her body unless she was
prepared to harvest replacements for them from other sources.
Of course, that wasn't an option open to her. She would never
kill any of her crew to save herself. Then she suffered an even
more horrifying thought,
    "What about Chakotay? Is he infected, too?"

     The doctor was a mix of gentleness and frustration, "No.
     Commander Chakotay shows no signs of the disease."

     "How did I get it?" she whispered.

     "You said one of the Vidiians grabbed you. It may be that
      the virus was transferred in that way."

      Kathryn was resolute, "But we've encountered Vidiians like
      that before and had physical contact with them... No one
      has ever gotten sick that way."  Despair threatened to
      take her over.

The doctor set down his computer padd, "I can't offer an
explanation at this point. It may be that the phage virus has
mutated to become more infectious. I believe, however, that
this explains the hallucinations you've described."

     Kathryn felt a growing shell of disbelief around her. How
had everything in her life come to this moment?  Was it all
going to end like this ?  She was going to die a crippled
invalid and leave her crew alone in the Delta Quadrant
without her.. They had come so far. It was all so pointless.

She barely heard the doctor's next words,
     "There is often concomitent stress to the thalamus in the
early stages of the disease.  It is known to cause a ..kind
of dementia that produces hallucinations."  The doctor paused,
seeing that she was far away.

    Kathryn blinked, suddenly aware that he had stopped
speaking, "What is the prognosis?" she heard herself ask
automatically.

    "I wish I could tell you, captain.  For the moment, it would
be best if you remain in sickbay under quarantine." he
suggested. He indicated that they should return to the
patient care area of sickbay.

   The captain felt like a lamb, being herded, "Of course."

    There was little in his database that could deal with
this particular circumstance, the doctor knew.  The
Vidiian phage was engineered. It had "smart"
retroviral characteristics which defyed conventional counter
measures.  And the peculiar flags on the captain's
hematological scans indicated something more ominous
to him.
    The doctor was unable to offer the captain hope,  "The
fact that the virus has ...acted so quickly raises the
possibility that others on the crew may be infected."

   That last part was pure ice water to Kathryn. They
were all in danger and Janeway felt responsible for that
fact. She must have missed something.   A selfish part in
her flared to the foreground, "But you studied the phage in
great detail. Have you made any progress in finding a cure?"

   The doctor looked pained, "I hadn't pursued the matter since
we seemed to have moved beyond Vidiian space."

   Rules and protocols be damned, Janeway thought. If she
hadn't been so carried away with all the day to day concerns of
herself and her crew, and had spared more time to explore the
doctor's interests and research, this apparent lack of
knowledge wouldn't have happened.

   Kathryn faced away from him.

   The doctor didn't know how to handle her response and had
to use a standard reassurance sub-routine to compensate, "But
I'll now redouble my efforts.." he promised and moved to a
pharmaceutical tray. "In the mean time,.. I'd like to give you a
sedative."  He frowned. The captain didn't appear that she had
heard him, "Captain?" he called.

  Woodenly, she obeyed him and sat down on a biobed.

   The doctor programmed a hypospray and showed it to her.
He felt the need to explain why he was taking her
consciousness away while she was still fairly healthy, "I'll be
running a series of deep level tissue scans."

  "I understand."  she murmured as she stretched out onto the
pillow.

   He injected the medication into her bloodstream, "There.
That should give you a good night's sleep. I'll erect a bioforce
field and I promise you, captain, I won't deactivate myself until
I have some answers for you."  He started to move away.

   Captain Janeway shook off induced numbness long enough
to reach out and grab his arm, "Doctor, I know I'm in good
hands."
   He returned a faint smile.

      When he had gone, unreality came down in force. It wasn't
fair.  After two years in command of two hundred or so lives
and countless victories incurred in spite of the stacked odds
against their continued survival, Janeway found herself dying
from a germ contracted in a nonexistent time loop..  She tried
to laugh and almost began to cry. She had fought so hard.
And now the control she so prized was in someone else's
hands.  Sighing, her head spun in a thick fog and she closed
her eyes.

    A curtain of sparkles erected itself around her.

Surrendering, Captain Janeway relinquished herself to the
drug's artificial night.

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  Kathryn awoke to semidarkness. A thin fever was making
her shiver and she was aware of areas of numbness on her
face.  She touched plastifoam sealant on her cheek and
forehead, covering wounds.. She was up and out of bed
without thinking,  "Doctor..."

  The hologram left the office alcove and hurried to her side,
"Ah, you're awake."

  Kathryn then realized that her duty uniform was gone and
replaced by a sterile gown.  Her hair was tangled, smelling of
sweat, and loose behind her.  She attempted to get her
bearings, asking, "How long have I been asleep?"

  "Almost forty hours." he answered, adjusting controls on his
computer near her.

  "Forty?" she exclaimed.
She put a hand up to her face to wipe away moisture and
stopped when she saw the lesions on her skin.

  The doctor had a time bomb to impart, "I'm afraid this strain
of the phage is particularly virulent. It's spreading rapidly."

    It was all happening a little too fast. There was so much to
do.  Where was Commander Chakotay and Tuvok?  she
thought. Surely, they'd want to know how she was doing. But
the doctor had made no mention of that at all. Then she shook
her head. This was a ridiculous line of thought and a little
paranoid of her. Of course they had been apprised of her
situation. It was in the EMH's program directives.
   Kathryn paced the floor restlessly but was forced to slow
when weakness made her out of breath, "Have you?....Is there
any hope of a cure?"

  The doctor's face was a mask, "I regret to inform you that I
have been unsucessful."

   Janeway tried to fold her arms and straighten her stance, but
at the movement, pain flared.  She hunched over and began to
walk nervously back and forth, "Then what's the next step?"

   The expression on the doctor's face was most peculiar. One
that Kathryn had never seen before, "I've given that a great deal
of thought. The prospects are unpleasant, captain. You face a
lingering, painful death...marked by increasing periods of
dementia and eventual insanity."

   A sick stab of morbid humor coursed through Kathryn briefly
as she silently wished the original programmers of the EMH
to hell for the parody of the bedside manner she was currently
hearing, "I see..."

   The doctor appeared resolved and he regarded her with
bland professionalism, "I've come to the conclusion that there
is only one humane course of action."

   Janeway forced herself to focus on him, "And what's that?"
she whispered.

   The doctor's face was stone, "Euthanasia."

   Kathryn froze in place, ice in her chest, "What?!"

   The hologram was matter of fact, "It would be wrong
to subject you to such a prolonged and painful death. The
crew would also be adversely effected if that were to happen."
He calmly operated computer keys while he completely
destroyed Kathryn's personal reality.

   This was like a terrible nightmare, perverse and gross. She
paced as a caged animal, with an intense gaze locked onto the
doctor. She groped for straws, "Surely there are other options
to explore, doctor. B'Elanna's DNA for instance. It's coded to
produce antibodies against the phage."

    Fear began to gnaw her.

    "Klingon DNA might provide a vaccine for the disease but
not a cure. I'm sorry, captain,..."    The doctor looked away
from her to the back wall, "The space within the force field is
filling with a neural toxin. It is fast acting and restful."

   Janeway's fear heightened to a shocked desperation, "Turn
it off.. That's an order, doctor!!"

    He didn't appear to have heard her at all. His voice delivered
a quiet account, "Please relax and take deep breaths. It will be
over more quickly that way."

        Janeway stifled her breathing reflex as the first tendrils
of antiseptic musk suffocated her. She used the air that was
left, "Computer, delete emergency medical hologram." She
fought the urge to inhale, making her way around the bed,
searching for a gap in the field.

   But its tingle was everywhere...

   The overhead monitor issued the computer's voice, "A
security code is required for that command."

    Kathryn risked a small intake and gasped when numbness
seared her lungs, "Security code.. Janeway Lambda Three."

    The computer chimed, "That code is not recognized."

    Her mind panicked. The EMH had compromised the
mortality failsafe mechanism, "I'm the captain. Delete the
EMH--!..."  An uncontrolled reflex seized her lungs, making
Kathryn breath fire.

   The computer repeated its mode, "A security code is
required for that command."

    She staggered against an equipment cart, spilling surgical
tools onto the floor, her limbs turning to jelly. Her momentum
carried her beyond the bed to sprawl onto the lush carpeting.
Captain Janeway looked up at the doctor who was watching her
with a clinical detachment mixed with a mild fascination at her
struggle to prolong what he thought was a kind and easy death.

Then air hunger clamped down and Kathryn drew in a huge,
shuddering gasp of cloying mist.

Her eyes blurred, "Don't do this!" she implored, "It isn't right..."


      She slipped into an uncontrolled convulsion as she tried to
breathe in nothing. Then the wings of oblivion carried her into
an endless sleep and the world was shut out forever.