Script Segments 4-15-97 Star Trek Voyager Episode: Coda Adaptation by Patti Keiper Written by Jeri Taylor Chapter Seven ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The quiet sounds of talking sensors let Commander Chakotay know that the proper calibrations to the shuttle's systems had been made. He was in a fine mood, remembering Neelix's amateur talent night from the prior evening. He got set to share with his captain, his very thoughts on the matter. Smiling, he returned to his seat beside Captain Janeway's. A spectre of recursion beat its awful cadence. "Chakotay....." she qualmed. "I know." he shivered. "We're back." A bright aura flared to life on their viewscreen. It's pure white energy made their eyes sting. "That's it." Janeway started to her feet, "That must be the anomaly. That's what's behind all this." Chakotay thought at first that the contact was a ship. But the facts stated otherwise, "It's exerting a gravitomagnetic force." he reported. Time called from the past. Janeway obeyed her instincts, "We've got to get away from it. Divert all power to the engines. Her first officer was quick to respond, "Changing course!" The helm shook at the change, "We're still being drawn toward it." Kathryn stabbed her board fiercely, "Reverse engines full power." The shuttle seemed to shrink from the twisting apparition for a long moment. A damage alarm sang out. "Structural integrity is weakening." Chakotay warned. "Reinforce the hull!" she cried. Captain Janeway shunted half her energy store into the shuttle's main frame. Stress whines steadily increased in pitch and volume. Chakotay glanced at her sideways, "Captain, maybe we should go in." His voice was filled to the brim with uncharacteristic urgency, "Listen to me.... Maybe we're doing this all wrong. Maybe the thing to do is to fly into it!" Janeway tuned him out. The danger out there was very real and very near. Her mind told her that, "No! I don't believe that. We've got to get away." Chakotay faced toward her, shouting to be heard over the increasing roar of the engines, "It's going to tear the shuttle apart! The hull is breaching!!" Janeway clung to her board fighting with every ounce when the light spat nova bright knives into her eyes... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- She was here. They had crashed and she wasn't alive anymore. The commander had managed to get free of the poisonous air of the shuttle with the captain, but not before she had died from exposure to the hydrozine fumes. Now, in shelter away from the plasma storm, he was overcome with terror that it might already be too late to save her. Chakotay was being blinded by lightning flash so he found his orientation to her head by feel. Shaking and exhausted, he sent another set of breaths deep into her lungs at the start of his ninth compression cycle. Time wrenched and suddenly, Janeway was standing over Chakotay's shoulder looking down. She wondered who he was trying to save when he straightened up. The face she looked into was her own... "Don't die on me, Kathryn!" his voice was a lance through her. Janeway watched him struggle to keep going and realized he was performing old style cardiac resusitation even with the Type III medkit nearby. There was a cortical stimulator inside of it, unused, "Chakotay, what's happening?" Chakotay seemed to answer, "Start breathing!" Until he got some sign of life, he knew he couldn't use electronic means to revive her. It would be ineffective without rudimentary impulses. He didn't know why the cordrazine had failed a second time... He didn't want to know, for not knowing gave him hope that he could still bring her back... It was hard for her to watch. Time and again, his sweaty hands would slip and the regular tempo would falter. But he kept on working, "Breathe! Damn it, breathe!!" he pleaded, keeping up a steady stream of encouragement to Kathryn's still form. Janeway was somehow riveted in place, a helpless spectator in full view of her own demise. She watched Chakotay, trying to reason how she came to be apart from him. His compressions were weakening, "Don't do this to me, Kathryn. " he gasped, "Come on, Kathryn. Breathe!!" Janeway blinked. His voice had changed. She looked at Chakotay's face and was startled to find wet tears illuminated by the lightning. She had to let him know that she was all right, "Can't you hear me?" The commander was in his own private hell, "Don't you die on me.... Come on, breathe!!" He was near the end of his own endurance. His own injuries were making themselves felt with every heartbeat he created. He forced himself to concentrate, not seeing the Janeway next to him, "Kathryn, listen to me,..... you have to breathe." He readjusted his hand placement. Janeway could see that he was tiring. She was about to speak again when she saw great despair suddenly wash over him, "Start breathing!" he screamed. Then Janeway saw what he had seen; the readouts from the open medical tricorder on the ground near him were registering ...no... brain activity. His mind told him the awful truth and his strength began to fail him. Chakotay tried harder even as he realized that he was already giving up, "Come on, " he begged, "Come on!!!" Everything they had shared together; their shoreleaves, their bridge shifts, and even their most mundane daily log ran before his eyes. Then all of it was lost and grief flooded over him.. He gave one last breath to Kathryn. Then he stopped.... He picked her up and held her close to him as hot tears burned down his skin, "Oh, Kathryn! .....You can't die...." At those words Janeway suddenly understood. She was experiencing a near death encounter. If she could somehow show Chakotay that her consciousness was still nearby, maybe he would set her down and try again, "Chakotay,...I'm here..." Subconsciously, she reached out a hand.... and it passed right through his shoulder.....Janeway was a ghost. She felt insubstantial as he gently lay her body out onto the grass and held one of its hands. "Voyager to Sacajawea. Do you read us?" It was Tuvok. Chakotay felt hope flicker, "Yes, Voyager. How far are you? I have an emergency here." Tuvok replied, "We're in orbit, commander. We've located you but transporters won't function in the storm. A shuttle is on its way to the surface now." Chakotay felt tears overflow anew as he shared his knowledge, "The captain's dead. We have to get her to back to sickbay. The doctor may still be able to revive her." Tuvok's response was immediate, "The away team should be with you in minutes." "Acknowledged." He looked down into his captain's face. Chakotay knew that if help arrived within four minutes, Kathryn would live again. He began to shiver in the cold and he began to doubt. The commander clung tight to her palm, unaware that the incorporeal Janeway was right beside him, infusing him with hope, "I know you can't see me or hear me. I don't know what's going on. But I am here, Chakotay. I'm not dead." Chakotay studied his grip on her hand. He made a promise, "Kathryn, we're going to get you back..." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The spectral Janeway watched silently. The medical team swirled around a tight center. Kathryn's body lay on a biobed beneath them. The blood had spread from the gash on her forehead. It meant that Chakotay had been partially successful in getting bloodflow to her brain for there were now some neural pathways registering. The doctor wasted no time, "Ten milligrams cordrazine. We'll use it in conjunction with the cortical stimulator." Kes handed the equipment over to him, marveling at how fast he seemed to be moving, even for a hologram. She wanted to tell Chakotay and the others that on her screen, things weren't as grim as they seemed. "Now!" the doctor commanded. Kes activated the device on Kathryn's forehead. The jolt swept through the captain's brain and her muscles jumped in response. The Ocampa quickly read the feedback flooding her computer monitor, "No pulse. No blood pressure. Minimal activity in the midbrain. No measurable response in the cerebral cortex." The doctor didn't hesitate, "Again." Another energy surge was delivered. A fluting tone started sounding on Kes' board. She could barely contain her smile, "Doctor, we're getting a thready pulse." "Quickly! Seventy five milligrams eniprovoline! I'll begin direct synaptic stimulation." The lifesign tones were music to Chakotay's ears. He stood immobile, holding his breath. Janeway moved closer to the bed, staying near. The doctor administered the injection Kes gave him. A dissonance jarred the tones, "Pulse is weakening. We're losing her again." Kes voiced, her professionalism slipping. "Cortical stimulator. Now!" the doctor ordered, opening a medical tricorder to verify Kes' findings. The diagnostic computer functioned. Kathryn jerked and was still.....