This Will Be a Long Range Tactical Rescue.

This will be a long range tactical rescue. 

It could take days, even weeks, before we find our missing crewman. 

Lieutenant Torres is equipping the Delta Flyer with the transwarp coil. 

It'll allow us to cover more territory. 

An away team will take it into transwarp space, where Tuvok believes we can track the sphere that abducted Seven of Nine. 

Thanks to the Hansens, we'll be well prepared for an encounter with the Borg. 

Their multi-adaptive shielding will make the Flyer virtually invisible to Borg sensors, and narrow beam transporters will allow us to penetrate the Sphere. 

Mister Paris, you'll man the helm. 

Commander Tuvok, tactical. Doctor, there's no telling what condition Seven will be in when we find her. 

You'll come along.

EMH: 

Yes, Captain.

JANEWAY: 

I'll be leading the away team. 

The rest of you will remain on Voyager and maintain position at the threshold of our transwarp conduit. 

We may need tactical support when we return. 

You'll be taking your orders from Commander Chakotay. 

We'll be searching for one individual among thousands of drones. 

But she's One of Us 

and I'm not about to let her go.

 Let's get started.

Tell Me How You Got into Trouble

PARIS:

Hey, Neelix, what's up?

NEELIX: 

Oh, nothing. 

Just thought I might give you a hand with whatever it is you're doing.

PARIS: 

Oh, you may regret that. 

Chakotay and I have to pick up a supply of biomimetic gel tomorrow morning, and I am trying to find to find the container that is listed as the proper transport device. 

Starfleet standard issue L647X7.

NEELIX: 

Well, sounds like another set of eyes won't hurt. 

M34, no not that one. L647. 

No, it's Y6. 

Tom, if it's not too bold of me, I wonder if I could ask you something?

PARIS: 

Sure, anything.

NEELIX: 

I've heard you were in some trouble in the past. 

Spent time in prison.

PARIS: 

That's right.

NEELIX: 

Do you, would you, tell me how you got in Trouble?

PARIS: 

I've thought a lot about that, and it comes down to one simple fact. 

I didn't Tell The Truth. 

I made a mistake, which happens to people, but if I'd admitted that mistake it would have been a lot better. 

But I lied about it, and it nearly ruined my life. 

Why do you ask?

NEELIX: 

Oh, no reason. Just wondered.

JANEWAY: 

Would all of you excuse us, please? 

I'd like to talk to Neelix alone.

(Tuvok and Kes leave. The EMH goes to his office after receiving a Look.)

JANEWAY: 

Well, do you have anything to say for yourself?

NEELIX: 

Only that I'm terribly sorry.

JANEWAY: 

Oh. You're sorry. 

Is that supposed to make everything better?

I don't really care whether you're sorry or not, Neelix. 

At this point it doesn't matter. 

I can't imagine what made you behave the way you did, lying to us, sneaking around behind our backs, covering up criminal activity. 

Did you have some misguided reason to think this was acceptable behaviour?

NEELIX: 

No, ma'am.

JANEWAY: 

You've been one of my most trusted advisors since we began this journey. 

How can I ever trust you again?

How can I ever listen to you without wondering whether you're telling the truth or not?

NEELIX: 

I've never been dishonest to you before, I swear, Captain.

I just took one step. 

A step that seemed perfectly reasonable. 

And that step lead to another and another, and before I knew what I was involved in something I didn't know how to handle.

JANEWAY: 

What was it? 

What was so important that you were willing to throw away your principles?

NEELIX: 

I needed a map.

JANEWAY: 

A map?

NEELIX: 

Captain, my usefulness to you was at an end.

I don't know anything about space beyond this point. 

I couldn't let you go into the Nekrit Expanse without knowing what you faced.

JANEWAY: 

You've been on this ship for two years. 

I'd think by now you'd have learned that the first duty of any Starfleet officer is The Truth. 

You violated that duty, Neelix, and there will be consequences.

NEELIX: 

I'm prepared to leave the ship, Captain.

JANEWAY: 

Oh no, it's not that easy. 

You can't just walk away from your responsibilities just because you made a mistake.

 You're part of a family now.

And you have obligations.

NEELIX: 

But, I can't guide you. 

I can't advise you. 

I don't know what's coming.

JANEWAY: 

Well, that's not the point, is it? 

None of us knows what's coming. 

That's what Starfleet is all about. 

We are all in this together, Neelix, and we have to be able to count on each other no matter how hard it gets. 

Do you understand?

NEELIX: 

Yes. Yes, I do.

JANEWAY: 

Well, that's good. 

Report to deuterium maintenance at oh four hundred tomorrow morning. 

You're going to spend the next two weeks scrubbing the exhaust manifolds. 

That should give you time to think about what I've said. 

Dismissed.

ORCHIDS

“Hybrids! A Crime against Nature!”

[Tuvok's quarters]

(Tuvok is tending his orchids when the doorbell rings.)

TUVOK: 

Come in. Captain, this is unexpected.

JANEWAY: 

I've been in your quarters before.

TUVOK: 

Indeed, but so rarely that I can 

remember each instance. 

Vulcan spice tea, hot. 

And it was always at a time when 

you were particularly troubled.

JANEWAY: 

Right as usual. Thank you. 

Commander Chakotay has proposed that we make an alliance with one of the Kazon factions. 

We wouldn't give them weapons or technology, but we would pledge to support and defend them if they're attacked.

TUVOK: 

I am sure that made you uncomfortable.

JANEWAY: 

How can I consider it? 

I can't just walk away from the precepts Starfleet has laid our for us. 

You don't deal with Outlaws. 

You don't involve yourself in the political machinations of other cultures. 

It goes against everything I believe, everything I trained for, everything experience has taught me.

TUVOK: 

Quite right.

JANEWAY: 

Do I hear a ‘however’ coming?

TUVOK: 

You are perceptive, Captain. 

I believe Commander Chakotay's suggestion does have merit.

JANEWAY: 

Help me understand that.

TUVOK: 

When I was a Young Man, 

A Great Visionary named Spock recommended an alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. 

This produced a major dispute. 

The Klingons, after all, were Outlaws, employing violence and brutality in order to build their Empire. 

I myself spoke out against such a coalition. 

But the alliance was forged and it brought a stability to the quadrant that had not been there for two hundred years. 

Spock's suggestion, so controversial at first, 

proved to be the cornerstone of peace.

JANEWAY: 

There are some differences here. 

By allying ourselves to one faction, we'd be giving that faction more power than the others. 

That would clearly affect the internal politics of all the Kazon.

TUVOK: 

I understand your concern, but remember, it would only be a temporary arrangement since we are on our way out of this quadrant. 

In the meantime, it might bring stability to the region and security for us.

JANEWAY: 

Once we're gone they'll probably go back to their in-fighting.

TUVOK: 

Perhaps. But even temporary stability can bring an appreciation for peace. 

This flower is a rare hybrid. 

As far as I know it exists nowhere else in the galaxy. 

I created it by grafting a cutting from a South American orchid onto a Vulcan favinit plant. 

I doubted the graft would take, 

and indeed the plant was sickly at first. 

However, after a few weeks both plants adapted to their new condition and in fact became stronger than either had been alone.

MORALE

I am the Mister Neelix of Pandemics

‘His function on this crew is diverse.’ 

That's what Seven of Nine said about you. 

Even our Borg understands how important you are on this ship. 

It's not just the duties you perform, it's the way you make people feel when you're around. 

“Well, you know, as men we’re taught not to not to feel pain and grief, as children. 

I remember seeing one of my boys, he was maybe about nine. 

He was hit in a basketball [game], maybe hit by the ball, and I saw him turn around and bend down and get control of his pain and his grief before he stood up again. 

That same boy would be so wonderful in being open to wounds and crying and so on when he was very small. 

But, you know, The Culture had said to him, “You cannot give way to that, you must turn around and when you must turn around; you must have a face without pain or grief in it,” right?

So therefore, as a son of an alcoholic, I received that. 

I mean, when you’re in an alcoholic family, you’re hired to be cheerful. 

That’s one of your jobs. 

You’re appointed that way. 

One is hired to be  Trickster, another I was hired to be cheerful, so that when anyone asked me about the family. 

I’d have to lie in a cheerful way and say, “Oh, it’s wonderful, yes, indeed, we have sheep, you know, and we have chickens, and everything’s wonderful.”

Well, then if you can deny something so fundamental as the deep grief in the whole family, you can deny anything. 

So then how can you write poetry, then, if you’re involved in that much denial? 

So the word denial was very helpful to me.

MOYERS: Did you resent your father? Did you feel -

BLY: No, I think that what happened was that as far as the grief goes, being appointed to be the cheerful one in the family, I would tend to follow a movement upward like this, hmm? 

More and more achievement, more and more and so on, hmm? 

That’s what you’d do. And finally you’d redeem the family’s name by doing this.

(Neelix enters with a tray.) 

NEELIX:

Time for refreshment. 

Ailis paté, Felada onion crisps, stuffed Cardaway leaves. Yum.

JANEWAY: 

I appreciate the thought, Neelix, 

but this is hardly the time.

NEELIX: 

As the morale officer on this ship, 

I insist that a break in the workload 

is both healthy and necessary. 

Go on, Mister Vulcan. It might even help you loosen up. Or not.

TUVOK: 

May I ask when you became morale officer?

NEELIX: 

Oh, just a few minutes ago when I sensed crew morale might be especially low.

Mine certainly was. 

We were in a free fall at the time.

KES: 

Cooking always helps Neelix to unwind.

NEELIX: 

Yes, and after we stabilised, I certainly needed to unwind.

So, it seemed to me, I had a choice to either come up here and say I told you so -

PARIS: 

No.

NEELIX: 

Or to try to do something constructive to help out in my own humble manner. 

Try the stuffed Cardaway leaves. 

They're irresistible. 

(Janeway takes one.) 

NEELIX: 

Now, as your new morale officer, I thought it might be fun for us all to sing a few songs together.

JANEWAY: 

Don't push it, Neelix.

Tuvok’s Cave

Thanks, Tuvok.

[Delta Flyer]

PARIS: 

Ready, Tuvok? 

TUVOK: 

Ready. 

PARIS: 

Cross your fingers. 

(Paris presses a control in a panel, and a console explodes.)

TUVOK: 

The magnetic relays have overloaded. 

PARIS: 

Well, we'd better find another way to polarise this hull, or their sensors won't be able to pick us up. 

WILDMAN: 

We're never getting out of here. 

TUVOK: 

Do not give up hope. 

The probability of our being rescued is low, but not statistically impossible. 

PARIS: 

Comforting. 

WILDMAN: 

Who's going to look after Naomi? 

TUVOK: 

You should not concern yourself with that now. 

WILDMAN: 

How can you say that? 

TUVOK: 

My youngest child has been without a father for four years, yet I am certain of her well-being, that I conveyed my values to her before leaving. 

And I have confidence in the integrity of those around her. 

You have been an exemplary mother to Naomi, and she is in the hands of people you trust. 

She will survive and prosper, no matter what becomes of us. 

WILDMAN: 

Thanks, Tuvok.

TREATMENT

The Guide for the first part of your Inward Journey is your Intellect, the Masculine Traits of Intelligence, Proportion and Good Sense.

The Lowest Level of Hell is the worst. It is FROZEN. 

To reach The Coldness of Life — Loneliness and Meaninglessness — is The worst experience a human being goes through, worse than the fiery aspects of Hell. Under the guidance of Virgil, Dante gets to the bottom of Hell and just keeps going. You don’t come out of Hell through the door you entered. You go through it and out the other side. On the other side of Hell lies Heaven.

Dante and Virgil are in the middle of the world, which is where the Devil lives. And Dante gets through that nodal point, the point of zero gravity at the center of the world, by shimmying down the hairy leg of the Devil, and finds himself in Purgatory. 

Hell lays out what’s Wrong — the hellish dimensions of life — and Purgatory begins The Repair, what you need in order to be restored. 

You need to be treated.

The verb ‘to treat’ comes from the Latin tractare “ to pull or drag.” 

The earliest therapists had a series of stones with increasingly smaller holes in them, and you were literally pulled through —the biggest one first, a smaller one next, until you couldn’t be pulled through any more. 

You came out of this experience minus a bit of skin, but you were treated. 

Dante is pulled through A hole from the center of the world and begins his ascent through Purgatory, its many levels and teachings.

At this point, Virgil approaches Dante and says, “I cannot take you any further. One Greater Than I will be your guide from here.” 

Dante is shaken, because he has depended entirely on Virgil. Virgil continues, 

“Beatrice will guide you from Here,” 

the same Beatrice who had opened the vision of Heaven for him on the Ponte Vecchio.

Excerpt from: 

"Inner Gold: Understanding Psychological Projection" 

by Arnie Kotler

[Hangar One]

COMMANDER: 

...Regula I, Tracy, USS Farragut... USS Enterprise, McGrath, USS ... Vader, USS Hood. 

Welcome to Starfleet, godspeed. 

KIRK: 

He didn't call my name. Commander! 

Sir, you didn't call my name. 

Kirk, James T.? 

COMMANDER: 

Kirk, you're on academic suspension. 

That means you're grounded, until the Academy board rules. 

MCCOY: 

Jim, the board'll rule in your favor. 

Most likely. Look, Jim, I got to go. 

KIRK: 

Yeah, get going. 

Be safe. 

OFFICER: 

Excuse me. 

KIRK: 

Yeah, yeah, sorry. 

MCCOY: 

....Dammit. Come with me. 

FEMALE ASSIGNER: 

...USS Neutral, 

Uhura, USS Farragut, 

Petroski, USS Antares. 

Go to your stations and good luck. 

(Gaila smiles wide past Uhura, who has a dour expression) 

KIRK: 

Bones, where are we going? 

MCCOY: 

You'll see. 

(they pass Uhura) 

[Medical Bay]

KIRK: 

What are you doing? 

MCCOY: 

I'm doing you a favor. 

I couldn't just leave you there looking all pathetic. 

Take a seat. I'm going to give you a vaccine against viral infection from Melvaran mud fleas. 

KIRK: 

Oww! What for? 

MCCOY: 

To give you the symptoms. 

KIRK: 

What are you talking about? 

MCCOY: 

You're going to start to lose vision in your left eye. 

KIRK: 

Yeah, I already have. 

MCCOY: 

Oh, and you're going to get a really bad headache and a flop sweat. 

KIRK: 

You call this a FAVOUR? 

MCCOY: 

Yeah, you owe me one.

[Hangar One]

MALE ASSIGNER: 

Kirk, James T. 

He's not cleared for duty aboard the Enterprise. 

MCCOY: 

Medical Code states the treatment and transport of a patient to be determined at the discretion of his attending physician, which is me. 

So, I'm taking Mister Kirk aboard. 

Or would you like to explain to Captain Pike why the Enterprise warped into a crisis without one of its senior medical officers? 

MALE ASSIGNER: 

As you were. 

KIRK: 

As you were. 

MCCOY: 

C'mon.

[Shuttlecraft Gilliam]

(as the shuttlecrafts head to their various ships, including the Enterprise) 

KIRK: 

I might throw up on you. 

MCCOY: 

Oh Jim, you got to look at this. 

Jim, look! 

KIRK: What? 

(they look out at Earth Spacedock and the massive Enterprise)

[Enterprise Shuttlebay]

MCCOY: 

We need to get you changed. 

KIRK: 

I don't feel right. 

I feel like I'm leaking. 

MCCOY:

Hell, it's that pointy-eared bastard. 

(Kirk and McCoy swerve to narrowly avoid being spotted by Spock. Spock enters a turbolift and arrives on the bridge)

[Sickbay]

KIRK: 

Where are we? 

MCCOY: 

Medical bay. 

KIRK: 

This is worth it. 

MCCOY: 

A little suffering's good for the soul. 

KIRK: (to a nurse) 

Hi, how are you. 

MCCOY: 

Over here. 

KIRK: 

My mouth is itchy, is that normal? 

MCCOY: 

Well, those symptoms won't last long. 

I'm going to give you a mild sedative. 

KIRK: 

Agh, I wish I didn't know you. 

MCCOY: 

Don't be such an infant. 

(he applies the sedative to Kirk) 

KIRK: 

Aggh... how long is it supposed to... 

(he falls unconscious) 

MCCOY: 

Unbelievable.

(Kirk awakes in front of the monitor) 

Kirk: 

Lightning storm! 

MCCOY: 

Uh, Jim, you're awake. 

How do you feel? 

KIRK: 

ah.. uh... 

MCCOY: 

Good god, man! 

KIRK: 

What? Ah! 

(His hands come into view, extremely swollen) 

KIRK: 

What the hell's this?! 

MCCOY: 

Reaction to the vaccine. 

Dammit! 

Nurse Chapel, I need fifty cc's of cortazone. 

CHAPEL: (offscreen) 

Yes, sir. 

(Kirk replays Chekov's message as McCoy scans Kirk) 

KIRK: 

Nice. We got to stop the ship!

[Corridor]

(Kirk and McCoy are frantically running through the corridors) 

MCCOY: 

Jim! I'm not kidding, we need to keep your heart rate down! 

KIRK: 

Computer, locate crew member Uhura! 

MCCOY: 

I haven't seen a reaction this severe since med school. 

KIRK: 

We're flying into a trap! 

MCCOY: 

Dammit Jim, stand still. 

(McCoy hypos Kirk in the neck) 

KIRK: 

Ow! Stop it! 

(Kirk runs and finds Uhura) 

KIRK: 

Uhura, Uhura. 

UHURA: 

Kirk, what are you doing here? 

KIRK: 

The transmission from the Klingon prison planet, what exactly was... 

UHURA: 

Oh my god, what's wrong with your hands?! 

(McCoy begins scanning Kirk again) 

KIRK:

It-it-it... look, who is responsible for the Klingon attack? 

Was the ship Romul... 

UHURA: 

Was the ship what? 

KIRK: (to McCoy) 

What's happening to my mouth? 

MCCOY: 

You got numb tongue? 

KIRK: (mumbled) 

Numb tongue! 

MCCOY: 

I can fix that! 

(McCoy briefly leaves) 

UHURA: 

Was the ship what? 

KIRK: (mumbled) Romulan! 

UHURA: What? 

KIRK: (mumbled, but clearer) Romulan 

UHURA:

Romulan? 

KIRK: (mumbled) 

Yeah 

UHURA: 

Yes. 

KIRK: (mumbled) 

Yes! 

(Kirk is hypoed again by McCoy) 

KIRK: (mumbled) 

Ahh... dammit! 

[Vulcan] 

(a massive drill platform is in the atmosphere, from the Narada. Amanda sees it from her home, just beyond the Vasquez Rocks)

[Narada Bridge]

AYEL: 

Lord Nero, seven Federation ships are on their way. 

[Enterprise Corridor] 

(Kirk, McCoy, and Uhura are now running through the corridors) 

MCCOY: 

Jim! 

UHURA: 

What's going on?! 

MCCOY: 

Jim, come back! 

UHURA: 

Kirk!

[Bridge]

KIRK: 

Captain! 

MCCOY: 

Jim, no! 

KIRK: 

Captain Pike, we have to stop the ship! 

PIKE:

Kirk, how the hell did you get on board the Enterprise! 

MCCOY: 

Captain, this man's under the influence of a severe reaction of a Melvaran flea vaccine, completely...

 

KIRK: 

Bones, Bones... 

MCCOY:

...delusional. 

I take full responsibility. 

KIRK: 

Vulcan is not experiencing a natural disaster. 

It's being attacked by Romulans.

 

PIKE: Romulans? Cadet Kirk, I think you've had enough attention for one day. McCoy take him back to medical, we'll have words later. 

MCCOY: Aye Captain. 

KIRK: Look, sir, that same anomaly... 

PIKE: Mister Kirk... 

SPOCK: Mister Kirk is not cleared to be aboard this vessel. 

KIRK: Look, I get it, you're a great orator. I'd love to do it again with you to. 

SPOCK: I can remove the Cadet... 

KIRK: Try it! This Cadet is trying to save the bridge. 

SPOCK: By recommending a full stop mid-warp during a rescue mission? 

KIRK: It's not a rescue mission, listen, it's an attack. 

SPOCK: Based on what facts? 

KIRK: That same anomaly, a lightning storm in space that we saw today, also occurred on the day of my birth. Before a Romulan ship attacked the USS Kelvin. (to Pike) You know that, sir, I read your dissertation. That ship which had formidable and advanced weaponry was never seen or heard from again. The Kelvin attack to place on the edge of Klingon space and at twenty-three hundred hours last night, there was an attack. Forty-seven Klingon warbirds destroyed by a Romulan, sir. It was reported that the Romulans were in one ship, one massive ship. 

PIKE: And you know of this Klingon attack how? 

UHURA: Sir, I intercepted and translated the message myself. Kirk's report is accurate. 

KIRK: We're warping into a trap, sir. The Romulans are waiting for us, I promise you that. 

SPOCK: The Cadet's logic is sound. And Lieutenant Uhura is unmatched in xenolinguistics, we would be wise to accept her conclusion. 

PIKE: Scan Vulcan space, check for any transmissions in Romulan. 

MALE LIEUTENANT: Sir, I'm not sure I can distinguish the Romulan language from Vulcan. 

PIKE: (to Uhura) What about you? Do you speak Romulan, Cadet? 

UHURA: Uhura. All three dialects, sir. 

PIKE: Uhura, relieve the lieutenant. 

UHURA: Yes sir. 

PIKE: Hannity, hail the USS Truman. 

HANNITY: All the other ships are out of warp, sir, and have arrived at Vulcan, but we seemed to have lost all contact. 

UHURA: Sir, I pick up no Romulan transmission, or transmission of any kind in the area. 

KIRK: It's because they're being attacked. 

PIKE: Shields up, red alert. 

SULU: Arrival in Vulcan in five seconds... four... three... two... 

(the arrive into a huge space battle) 

PIKE: Emergency evasive. 

OFFICER: Running sir. 

(bridge officers begin their reporting) 

PIKE: Damage report. 

OFFICER: Deflector shields are holding. 

PIKE: All stations. Engineer Olson, report. 

PIKE: Full reverse, come about starboard ninety degrees, drop us underneath and... 

(everyone is amazed at the massive Narada)

Tuvok and security arrive.)

NEELIX: 

Something's wrong with him. 

EMH:

Don't you know it's rude to refer to somebody in the third person. 

You had a choice, Mister Neelix. Should I do something rude or not do something rude? 

TUVOK: Doctor, we must return to Sickbay. 

EMH: Why should I? What if I don't want to return to Sickbay? What if I decide not to return to Sickbay? No, I don't choose this. Leave me alone! Let me go! Why did she have to die? Why did I kill her? Why did I decide to kill her? Why? Somebody tell me why!

[Computer control room]

JANEWAY: It was downhill from there. You developed a feedback loop between your ethical and cognitive subroutines. You were having the same thoughts over and over again. We couldn't stop it.     

TORRES: Our only option was to erase your memories of those events. 

EMH: You were right. I didn't deserve to keep those memories, not after what I did. 

JANEWAY: You were performing your duty. 

EMH: Two patients, which do I kill? 

JANEWAY: Doctor.     

EMH: Doctor? Hardly! A doctor retains his objectivity. I didn't do that, did I? Two patients, equal chances of survival and I chose the one I was closer to? I chose my friend? That's not in my programming! That's not what I was designed to do! Go ahead! Reprogramme me! I'll lend you a hand! Let's start with this very day, this hour, this second! 

JANEWAY: Computer, deactivate the EMH. 

TORRES: Here we go again. Captain? 

JANEWAY: It's as though there's a battle being fought inside him, between his original programming and what he's become. Our solution was to end that battle. What if we were wrong? 

TORRES: We've seen what happens to him. In fact, we've seen it twice. 

JANEWAY: Still, we allowed him to evolve, and at the first sign of trouble? We gave him a soul, B'Elanna. Do we have the right to take it away now? 

TORRES: We gave him personality subroutines. I'd hardly call that a soul.

[Cargo Bay two]

(Janeway brings Seven out of regeneration.)

SEVEN: Captain. 

JANEWAY: I'm having trouble with the nature of individuality. 

SEVEN: You require a philosophical discussion? 

JANEWAY: There's a time and a place for it. This is one of them. After I freed you from the Collective, you were transformed. It's been a difficult process. Was it worth it? 

SEVEN: I had no choice. 

JANEWAY; That's not what I asked you. 

SEVEN: If I could change what happened, erase what you did to me, would I? No.

Captain's log, supplemental. Our Doctor is now our patient. It's been two weeks since I've ordered a round the clock vigil. A crew member has stayed with him at all times, offering a sounding board and a familiar presence while he struggles to understand his memories and thoughts. The chance of recovery? Uncertain.

[Holodeck]

EMH: The more I think about it, the more I realise there's nothing I could've done differently. 

JANEWAY: What do you mean? 

EMH: The primordial atom burst, sending out its radiation, setting everything in motion. One particle collides with another, gases expand, planets contract, and before you know it we've got starships and holodecks and chicken soup. In fact, you can't help but have starships and holodecks and chicken soup, because it was all determined twenty billion years ago!  

(Tuvok enters during this outburst.)

TUVOK: There is a certain logic to your logic. Progress? 

JANEWAY: I'm not sure if he's making any sense of this experience, or if his programme's just running in circles. 

TUVOK: You've been here for sixteen hours. Let me continue while you rest. 

JANEWAY: I'll be all right. Go back to the bridge.  

(Tuvok leaves. Janeway returns to her book.)

EMH: How can you read at a time like this? 

JANEWAY: It helps me think. 

EMH: Think? What do you need to think about? 

JANEWAY: You. This book is relevant to your situation. 

EMH: Oh? What is it? 

JANEWAY: Poetry, written on Earth a thousand years ago. La Vita Nuova. 

EMH: La Vita Nuova. The New Life? Ha! Tell that to Ensign Jetal. Actually, I killed her countless times. 

JANEWAY: What do you mean? 

EMH: Causality, probability. For every action, there's an infinite number of reactions and in each one of them, I killed her. Or did I? Too many possibilities. Too many pathways for my programme to follow. Impossible to choose. Still, I can't live with the knowledge of what I've done. I can't. 

(Janeway has fallen asleep.)

EMH: Captain? Captain? 

JANEWAY: Oh, sorry. 

EMH: How could you sleep at a time like this? 

JANEWAY: It's been a long day. You were saying? 

EMH: What's wrong? 

JANEWAY: Nothing. 

EMH: You're ill! 

JANEWAY: I have a headache. 

EMH: Fever, you have a fever. 

JANEWAY: I'll live. 

EMH: Medical emergency! 

JANEWAY: Doctor. 

EMH: Someone's got to treat you immediately. Call Mister Paris. You've got to get to Sickbay. 

JANEWAY: Doctor, I'm a little busy right now, helping a friend. 

EMH: I, I'll be all right. Go, sleep, please. I'll still be here in the morning. 

JANEWAY: Are you sure? 

EMH: Yes. Please, I don't want to be responsible for any more suffering. 

(Janeway leave her book open at the first page.)

JANEWAY: Good night. If you need anything. 

EMH: I'll call. Thank you, Captain. (Janeway leaves. The EMH picks up the book and reads aloud.)

EMH: In that book which is my memory, on the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you, appear the words - Here begins a new life.

HELD

JANEWAY: 

What's The Emergency? 

EMH: 

I thought you should see for yourself. 

Somebody left a bundle on our doorstep. 

I turned around and there she was, lying on a bio-bed. 

JANEWAY: 

Seven must have beamed her here. 

EMH: 

Good thing, too. 

A few more minutes and I wouldn't have been able to do anything for her. 

It's hard to believe she could grow up to be a drone. 

(The baby starts to cry and the EMH picks her up.)

EMH: 

Hold her for a moment while I take some readings. 

(He hands he The Infant — She stops crying.)

Oh, I guess she just wanted to be held. 

Oh. The pathogen. 

I finished synthesizing it. 

JANEWAY: 

Start working with Tuvok on 

a way to deploy The Virus. 

EMH: 

Captain, you don't seriously plan to use it?

JANEWAY: 

If I have to. 

(To the Baby Borg)

Let's just hope your brothers and sisters don't force my hand. 

Us and Them

“Homo sapiens spent most of their short time on Earth waging war against each other.

For their first few thousand years on the planet they did little else, and they discovered two things that were rather curious: the first was that when they were at war, they agreed more. Whole nations agreed that other nations were insane, and they agreed that the mutually beneficial solution was to band together to eliminate the loonies. 

For many people, it was the most agreeable period of their lives, because, apart from a brief period on New Year's Eve (which, incidentally, no one could agree the date of), the only time human beings lived happily side by side was when they were trying to kill each other.

Then, in the middle of the twentieth century, the human race hit a major problem.

It got so GOOD at War, it couldn't have one anymore.

It had spent so much time practising and perfecting the art of genocide, developing more and more lethal devices for mass destruction, that conducting a war without totally obliterating the planet and everything on it becamean impossibility .

This didn't make human beings happy at all. They talked about how maybe it was still possible to have a small, contained war. A little war. If you like, a warette.

They spoke of conventional wars, limited wars, and this insane option might even have worked, if only people could have agreed on a new set of rules. But, people being people, they couldn't.

War was out. War was a no-no.

And like a small child suddenly deprived of its very favourite toy, the human race mourned and sulked and twiddled its collective thumbs, wondering what to do next.

Towards the conclusion of the twenty-first century, a solution was found. 

The solution was Sport.”

PARIS: 

Captain, this race is more than just a sporting event. 

Until recently this region was a war zone. 

Four different species fought for nearly a century to control it. 

KIM: 

Now, for the first time, they're competing peacefully to commemorate the new treaty that ended the war. 

PARIS: 

This race embodies everything the Federation values. 

Peaceful coexistence, free exchange of ideas —

JANEWAY: 

I think it's a great idea. 

PARIS: 

You do? 

TUVOK: 

You do? 

JANEWAY: 

Absolutely. 

This competition is just the sort of break we need. It would give us the chance to make some friends, and allow the crew a little R and R. 

Request granted. 

PARIS: 

Thank you, Captain. 

JANEWAY: 

One thing, gentleman. 

Now that we're in this race, we're in it to win. 

After all, Starfleet's honour is at stake.

PARIS: 

Don't worry, it's in good hands.

Nietzsche understood—and this is something I’m going to try to make clear—that there’s a very large amount that we don’t know about the structure of experience—that we don’t know about reality—and we have our articulated representations of the world. Outside of that, there are things we know absolutely nothing about. There’s a buffer between them, and those are things we sort of know something about. But we don’t know them in an articulated way. 

Here's an example: You’re arguing with someone close to you, and they’re in a bad mood. They’re being touchy and unreasonable. You keep the conversation up, and maybe, all of a sudden, they get angry, or maybe they cry. When they cry, they figure out what they’re angry about. It has nothing to do with you, even though you might have been what precipitated the argument. That’s an interesting phenomena, as far as I’m concerned, because it means that people can know things at one level, without being able to speak what they know at another. In some sense, the thoughts rise up from the body. They do that in moods, images, and actions. We have all sorts of ways that we understand, before we understand in a fully articulated manner. 

We have this articulated space that we can all discuss. Outside of that, we have something that’s more akin to a dream, that we’re embedded in. It’s an emotional dream, that we’re embedded in, and that’s based, at least in part, on our actions. I’ll describe that later. What’s outside of that is what we don’t know anything about, at all. The dream is where the mystics and artists live. They’re the mediators between the absolutely unknown and the things we know for sure. What that means is that what we know is established on a form of knowledge that we don’t really understand. If those two things are out of sync—if our articulated knowledge is out of sync with our dream—then we become dissociated internally. We think things we don’t act out, and we act out things we don’t dream. That produces a kind of sickness of the spirit. Its cure is something like an integrated system of belief and representation. 

People turn to things like ideologies—which I regard as parasites on an underlying religious substructure—to try to organize their thinking. That’s a catastrophe, and what Nietzsche foresaw. He knew that, when we knocked the slats out of the base of Western civilization by destroying this representation—this God ideal—we would destabilize, and move back and forth violently between nihilism and the extremes of ideology. He was particularly concerned about radical left ideology, and believed—and predicted this in the late 1800s, which is really an absolute intellectual tour de force of staggering magnitude—that in the 20th century hundreds of millions of people would die because of the replacement of these underlying dream-like structures with this rational but deeply incorrect representation of the world. We’ve been oscillating back and forth between left and right ever since, with some good sprinkling of nihilism and despair. In some sense, that’s the situation of the modern Western person, and increasingly of people in general. 

I think part of the reason that Islam has its back up with regards to the West, to such a degree—there’s many reasons, and not all of them are valid—is that, being still grounded in a dream, they can see that the rootless, questioning mind of the West poses a tremendous danger to the integrity of their culture, and it does. Westerners, us—we undermine ourselves all the time with our searching intellect. I’m not complaining about that. There isn’t anything easy that can be done about it. But it’s still a sort of fruitful catastrophe, and it has real effects on people’s lives. It’s not some abstract thing. Lots of times when I’ve been treating people with depression, for example, or anxiety, they have existential issues. It’s not just some psychiatric condition. It’s not just that they’re tapped off of normal because their brain chemistry is faulty—although, sometimes that happens to be the case. It’s that they are overwhelmed by the suffering and complexity of their life, and they’re not sure why it’s reasonable to continue with it. They can feel the terrible, negative meanings of life, but they are sceptical beyond belief about any of the positive meanings of it. 

I had one client who’s a very brilliant artist. As long as he didn’t think, he was fine. He’d go and create, and he was really good at being an artist. He had that personality that was continually creating, and quite brilliant, although he was self-denigrating. But he sawed the branch off that he was sitting on, as soon as he started to think about what he was doing. He’d start to criticize what he was doing—the utility of it—even though it was self-evidently useful. Then it would be very, very hard for him to even motivate himself to create. He always struck me as a good example of the consequences of having your rational intellect divorced, in some way, from your Being—divorced enough so that it actually questions the utility of your Being. It’s not a good thing. 

It’s really not a good thing, because it manifests itself not only in individual psychopathologies, but also in social psychopathologies. That’s this proclivity of people to get tangled up in ideologies, and I really do think of them as crippled religions. That’s the right way to think about them. They’re like religion that’s missing an arm and a leg, but can still hobble along. It provides a certain amount of security and group identity, but it’s warped and twisted and demented and bent, and it’s a parasite on something underlying that’s rich and true. That’s how it looks to me, anyways. I think it’s very important that we sort out this problem. I think that there isn’t anything more important that needs to be done than that. I’ve thought that for a long, long time—probably since the early ‘80s, when I started looking at the role that belief systems played in regulating psychological and social health. You can tell that they do that because of how upset people get if you challenge their belief systems. Why the hell do they care, exactly? What difference does it make if all of your ideological axioms are 100 percent correct? 

People get unbelievable upset when you poke them in the axioms, so to speak, and it is not by any stretch of the imagination obvious why. There’s a fundamental truth that they’re standing on. It’s like they’re on a raft in the middle of the ocean. You’re starting to pull out the logs, and they’re afraid they’re going to fall in and drown. Drown in what? What are the logs protecting them from? Why are they so afraid to move beyond the confines of the ideological system? These are not obvious things. I’ve been trying to puzzle that out for a very long time. I’ve done some lectures about that that are on YouTube. Most of you know that. Some of what I’m going to talk about in this series you’ll have heard, if you’ve listened to the YouTube videos, but I’m trying to hit it from different angles.