Trouble. Father . Ahh. Have you been waiting long . Not long. You shouldve come into the shrine. No, i dont think so. So, where would you like to have dinner . Forget about dinner. Go back to your quarters and pack your things. Theres a ship leaving for cardassia in the morning. I want you on it. sighs ive just learned theres a dominion fleet headed for the wormhole. This place is not safe any longer. But, father, im not sure that i. Ziyal. Theres nothing to discuss. Im not going to let any harm come to you. Now, i think youd better get ready to leave. Hm . They have been scanned. They have no weapons and their identities have been confirmed. Very well. You will be sheltered in barracks six. You are free to move about the compound but remember, beyond the atmospheric dome there is nothing but airless vacuum and barren rock. Or an instant and you die. Well keep that in mind. Ive been waiting for another. Klingon. General martok. groaning enough its over. But for you its just beginning. General. Huh . groans do i know you . I am worf, son of mogh. Yes, ive heard of you. How long have you been here . Two years. Arent you klingons supposed to kill yourselves when youre taken prisoner . Or hope of escape. If you. Are worf. Then you must be garak. He said you would come. Tain. Worf what is wrong with him . Really . There are many people whod say he doesnt have one. He was convinced that you would come. He knew i had no choice. Tain. Tain, im here. My message. It got through . It did. Where are the others . Just commander worf and me. You allowed yourselves to be taken prisoner . I taught you better than that. Living on that station has dulled your wits. And thats it . After ive come all this way after all ive been through . Thats all you have to say to me . What do you want me to say . I want you to say thank you, elim. Your loyalty is most gratifying. But i couldnt count on you, could i . All youve done is to doom us. Both. sighing sorry im late. Whats he doing here . The dominion invasion of the alpha quadrant will affect cardassia every bit as much as its going to affect us. Besides, we need all the help we can get. The dominion picked a perfect time to invade. The cardassian and romulan fleets are in shambles and between the klingon war and the recent borg attack starfleets spread pretty thin. Then were going to have our hands full. There are at least 50 dominion ships headed our way. They could just be the first wave. How soon can we expect reinforcements . At maximum warp, two days. Dax not soon enough. What help can we expect from cardassia . My ship and my crew are at your disposal. One ship. Things are looking brighter. Right now theres no way we can beat the dominion. Our only hope is to prevent their fleet from entering the alpha quadrant. Youre going to destroy the wormhole . Its always been a final option. Id hoped to never use it. Professor lenara of the trill Science Ministry has come up with a way to seal the wormhole without damaging it or harming the prophets. But bajor will be cut off from the celestial temple. History has shown whenever the prophets want to communicate with bajor they find a way. But. Its either that or bajor becomes the first dominion target. Well have to remodulate the deflector grid frequencies and rig a phaseconjugate graviton beam. You and dax start working immediately. What about worf . Odo if we close the wormhole he and garak will be trapped in the gamma quadrant. Casualties. Of war. We have 36 hours to find their way home. Lets hope they can make it. The dominion used to mine ultritium here. There was no dome. Each one of these barracks had its own lifesupport system embedded in the walls. And tain was able to modify that lifesupport system and create a subspace transmitter. Yeah. Theres a crawlspace just behind those panels. He spent hours in there working every day for months on end. Cardassians chuckles theyre clever people. Especially that one. But in just a few days, at best hell be dead. Then it is up to us theyre releasing him from isolation. Good. Who . Bnegative, in case you were wondering. Well, it appears we are who we seem to be. If the blood screenings can be trusted. Its all weve got. At about the others . Have they been tested . Everyone except that breen. No blood. When were you brought here . Over a month ago. I was attending a burntreatment conference on meezan four. I went to bed one night and woke up here. The same thing happened to me except i was hunting sabre bear out on kangs summit. Little did i know i was being stalked as well. And now im told the changeling that replaced me it is a grave dishonor. You are not to blame. I can only imagine what my replacement is up to. We must escape and warn captain sisko before that changeling carries out his mission. Creating a precisely modulated graviton field to seal the wormhole wont be as easy as lenara thought. She was always a lot stronger on theory than execution. But well get it. Julian what are you doing up this early . Youve been working for 16 hours straight. I thought you could do with some sandwiches. Thats very thoughtful. Youre a gentlemen and a scholar. Truer words were never spoken. Ah its about time. You almost missed your transport. Wheres your baggage . Never mind ill have it sent to you. That wont be necessary, father. Im not leaving. Ziyal. I know we havent spent much time together but i think you know me well enough to realize that when i give an order, i expect to be obeyed. Im not one of your soldiers. Im tora naprems daughter, too. I am half bajoran. I dont belong on cardassia. You know i will never be accepted there. Ziyal, you have to trust me. Things are going to change on cardassia. What things . I dont have time to explain. Youre leaving now. I cant go. Its him, isnt it . that despicable tailor. You wont leave because youre waiting for him . Listen to me, ziyal. Hes never coming back. Hes probably dead already and even if he isnt the federation is going to seal the wormhole. Garak will be trapped on the other side. He made a promise. And so did i. I said i would wait for him and i will. Is a promise. To an enemy of your family more important than obeying your father . So be it. Stay here if thats what you want. I should have let that monster die forgotten and alone. Frankly, im glad you came. Misery loves company. All my life ive done nothing but try to please that man. I let him mold me. Let him turn me into a mirror image of himself. And how did he repay me . With exile. But i forgave him. And here, in the end, i thought maybe just maybe, he could forgive me. From what ive seen of him doesnt come across as the forgiving type. Ive been a fool. Let this be a lesson to you, doctor. Perhaps the most valuable one i can ever teach you. Sentiment is the greatest weakness of all. If thats true its a lesson id rather not learn. I thought you might want to know if you wish to speak to tain. Do it now elim. Elim, is that you . Its me. Everythings gone dark. Are you alone . Yes. Theres no one else but you and me. Surjak, memad, brun. They cant be trusted. They must be dealt with. Ive already taken care of it. Were you able to contact him . Years ago. The romulan ambassador . Hes gone. All your enemies are dead. Good. A man shouldnt allow his enemies to outlive him. Then you can die happy. Unless you still consider me your enemy. Elim. Promise me one thing. Im listening. Escape. Live. Let me guess. So that i can make the dominion pay for what theyve done to you. You wouldnt deny an old man his revenge, would you . Ill do as you ask. On one condition that you dont ask me this favor as a mentor youre not my son. Father. Father, youre dying. For once in your life speak the truth. I should have killed your mother before you were born. You have always been a weakness i cant afford. So youve told me. Many times. Abran. All i ask is that for this moment let me be your son. Elim. Remember that day in the country you must have been almost five. How can i forget it . On the back of that riding hound. You mustve fallen off a dozen times. But you never gave up. I remember limping home. You held my hand. I was very proud of you. That day. Gentlemen, i dont know about you. But my business here is done. A fullscale dominion invasion appears imminent. Still, i remain confident in my crews ability to face this crisis as they have so many others with dedication and with courage. Our last listening post in the gamma quadrant went dead. That one was on the other side of the wormhole. Which means the fleet is close. Chief nearly ready. Worf. Is a klingon warrior. Hell understand. Ready. Here goes nothing. Activate graviton emitters. May the prophets forgive us. Were losing it. What happened . Someone sabotaged sisko battle stations and paramount television playing light jazz version of heart and soul isnt supposed to be cooked . Steamed, fried . The idea is to shower the couple with a symbol of good fortune, not garnish them like a roast chicken. Smile. Rice, anyone . Red alert. Ready . This is it, tom. Your bachelor days are over. Not a moment too soon. Second thoughts . Second, third, fourth. I never thought id see the day. Given the volatile nature of their relationship, one might have when it comes to affairs of the human heart it is wise to look beyond logic. Were gathered here today not as starfleet officers, but as friends and family to celebrate the marriage of two of voyagers finest. Belanna has asked me to forego the rigors of klingon painsticks in favor of a more traditional ceremony. guests chuckling as captain the honor of joining these two people has fallen to me but before i declare them husband and wife tom and belanna have prepared their own vows. I still dont know what ive done to deserve you. But whatever it is, ill try to keep doing it and i promise to stand by you to honor you. Till death do us part. Ensign. Hmm . whispers the ring. Oh. May this ring be a symbol of our eternal love. You stood by me. You were willing to see past my shortcomings. And to take all the bumps and bruises that came along with it. You made me a better person. Even though i put up one hell of a fight. I look forward to our journey together. Commander. May this ring be the symbol of our eternal love. Not so fast. Lieutenant Thomas Eugene paris. Lieutenant Belanna Torres with the power vested in me by starfleet command and the United Federation of planets now, tom. applause bravo. Congratulations. For what . You may not want to know. [captioning sponsored by paramount television United Paramount Network captains log, stardate 52586. 3 weve had a lot to celebrate lately tom and belannas wedding, ensign harpers new baby and the continued health of our enhanced warp drive which has taken us within striking distance of home. In this case the shortest path is a straight line. Well pass right through the center of the milky way. And be in sector 001 within two years. More or less. Ions . Two years, 11 days, six hours provided we continue to operate at peak efficiency. Naturally. Of course, if we operate at peak efficiency well be missing some interesting phenomena along the way an anomalous gradient to the curvature of space unusual bioharmonic readings from a binary system well reach in six months. The scientist in you cant resist stopping to look. It would only add two or three months. Do you think the crew would mutiny . On the contrary. Everyonell jump at the chance everyone. Except seven. Let your first officer deal with the personnel problems. Heres a Lovely Program modeled after a Mountain Resort on the fifth moon of cytrax just you, belanna and the crickets. Crickets . Cytraxian crickets. Their song is reputed to be an auditory aphrodisiac. Aha. Well, between you and me belanna and i dont need aphrodisiacs. Theres always the beaches of ahmedeen windsurfing on a sea of liquid argon. I was hoping for someplace a little more downtoearth. Well, its your honeymoon. How downtoearth did you mean . Earth. I was thinking chicago in the roaring 20s speakeasies, flappers, the charleston. If thats what you want. Why . Is there a problem . No, of course not, but were so close to earth i thought you might want to try something a little more exotic. Earth has the best vacation spots in the galaxy. Its got the cultures, the climates the history, the people. It has everything you ever want in a planet. You sound like a travel brochure. laughs no. No. Just a native. Oh, and make sure the deuterium manifolds are never opened wider than 600 microns. I am familiar with the specifications. Are you familiar with how temperamental the isolitic converter can be . Yes. With the dilithium matrix running hot all the time you have to watch it like a hawk. There is no point in providing me with knowledge i already possess. I guess i am being a little overcautious. Ive just, uh, never been away from engineering for more than a couple of days. Certainly never a week. My engineering abilities are more than sufficient. Enjoy your honeymoon. You may understand the isodynamics of this engine but i dont think you understand its personality. Ality. It is a propulsion device. Thats my point. Its not just a device. Itit has its own quirks, its own. Its own moods. alarm blaring thats just a minor fluctuation in a subsidiary injector port. I will take care of it. Im going with you. Lieutenant, you are on leave. Not for another 20 minutes. So, whos the lucky guy . Yes, the doctor informed me of that archaic human superstition. How about harry kim . I fail to see the benefit of monogamous relationships. So you want to stay single . If you mean remain open to social situations with a wide variety of individuals then yes. Im married im not going into stasis for the rest of my life. No, i plan to have. I do not wish to be dependent on anyone. By marrying, one limits ones romantic interactions to a single individual a circumstance which implies extreme monotony. Im glad we had this little talk. sighs try the manual release. I thought you said it was a minor fluctuation. This entire jefferies tube is losing molecular cohesion. I guess the honeymoons off. Its our warp field. The enhanced drive is emitting its beginning to break down the molecular bonds in all surrounding sections. Were seeing early stages of the effect in the warp core. Reaction chamber, injector ports theyre all showing signs of decohesion. It doesnt make any sense. We knew about the subspace radiation and ran dozens of simulations before we brought the new drive online. Have you tried taking the core offline . Its not stopping the problem. Try to isolate the cause of this and stabilize the sections dismissed. Computer. Begin chief engineers log, supplemental. Ive spent the last four hours. gasps computer, did it just get colder in here . Computer negative. Raise the temperature by five degrees. Hungry . Ah, cant join you tonight dinner with belanna. Married one day and youre already domesticated. chuckling jealous . Good night, harry. Belanna . If were going to live together were going to have to compromise on the temperature. Computer, reset environmental controls to standard. Belanna . Shh. Bring her in, quickly. It looks like weve got acute cellular degradation . Their chromosomes are breaking down at the molecular level. Proximity to the warp field. I believe so. Belanna and my other three patients all work in engineering. Theyve been subjected to the heaviest exposure including the captain. Its only a matter of time before you begin showing the same symptoms. Weve shut down the warp drive but the ship is still deteriorating and so are we. Why . Every bulkhead and conduit from deck one to 15 show signs of molecular decohesion. Even food from the replicator ecay. As soon as anything comes into contact with voyagers atmosphere, its affected. Thats what we thought at first but take a look at this. These vegetables are completely free of decay. I thought you said the replicators. They werent replicated. I harvested them on an away mission last week. The same goes for these particle accelerators the trilithium ore samples, the keg of hazari ale. All of them were brought aboard over the last few months and none of them is disintegrating. We havent been able to narrow the time frame precisely but it appears that anything something happened to the ship months ago thats causing this decay. A logical conclusion. Eight months, 17 days ago First Contact with the kmada. They tried to sabotage our lifesupport systems with lowfrequency theta radiation. Any chance that could have caused the phenomenon . Unlikely. Lets keep looking. The next event of note took place nine months, two days ago when the nkree tried to conscript voyager into their battle fleet. Next . Hey. Hows my old lady . Well enough. To break your nose if you call me that again. chuckles there it is. What . Our honeymoon. Tell me. Six days and seven nights. In the historic Graystone Hotel in beautiful downtown chicago, circa 1928. Uh, wait till you see it crystal chandeliers rive up Michigan Avenue in a vintage duesenberg hobnob with the stars of the Silver Screen dance the charleston at a genuine speakeasy called the green mill. What do i wear . Thats already taken care of. Our bags are packed and waiting for us at the hotel. sighs champagne . Its on ice. In a silver bucket. Right next to our canopy bed. Belanna . alarm blaring doctor . Cortical stimulator. Initiate an isosynaptic pulse. Increase the electrolytic level to 75 millijoules. Weve lost her. Increasing electrolytic levels to 90 millijoules. Theres nothing more we can do. Uh, maybe we can try a direct neural resequencing. Lieutenant. Her die return to your quarters. No sighs i dont want to leave her. I understand but i need to perform an analysis before her cells have completely degraded. Nine months, 28 days. We collected silicate from a comet in the podaris sector. According to neelixs manifest those samples are stored in the geology lab. Theyre showing no signs of molecular degradation. Take us further back. Ten months, 11 days ago. Voyager was forced to land on a classy planetoid in the vaskan sector. One of our more interesting missions. We set down looking for deuterium and ended up helping a new form of life to be born. The planet possessed a biomimetic compound. The silver blood. It sampled our dna and created duplicates of the entire crew. Ive often wondered what happened to them. Are they flourishing . Have they continued to evolve . Is she. . Im afraid so. Scan for traces of Deuterium Hydrogen sulfate and dichromates. Dichromates . Just do it. Whats this about . We have a disturbing theory. Im detecting all of those compounds. I want you to inject her with a dichromate catalyst. Commander . I dont understand. That wasnt belanna. It was a duplicate. A biomimetic copy. Uplicates. Behold the primordial soup. Thats what created us. Not just us. The entire ship is composed of the same material. Its a biomimetic compound that duplicated the crews molecular structure so precisely that i would never have detected it if i hadnt known what to look for. I was born on earth. In indiana. I remember growing up there. I remember graduating from the academy. I have no memory of being a copy. Were duplicated as well. Somehow, after the real voyager left we began to forget we were duplicates. Eventually, we assumed their lives and set a course for earth. And now the warp core is breaking down our cellular structure. We didnt think the radiation would hurt us because it isnt harmful to humanoids. Doctor each and every one of you will disintegrate just as belanna did. Im not immune, either. The holoemitters, like everything else, are copies. What can we do to stop the process . Chakotay there is one option. Go back. To the demonclass planet . We were created to survive there. Hes correct. Its reasonable to assume that if we return to our native environment the degradation will cease. Even if we survived the trip wed be traveling thousands of lightyears in the wrong direction. Duplicate or not im still the same person i was yesterday and so are all of you. And that means were going to do Everything Possible to complete our mission, which is to reach earth. Is that clear . Janeway i want you yes, maam. To adjust the environmental controls to simulate a classy planet. That should slow the rate of degradation. Its only a matter of time before the environmental controls themselves are affected. I realize that. Thats why were going to try and find a safe harbor till we can figure out a way to stop the degradation. Classy planet and set a course. In the meantime. Ill explain our situation to the crew. Theres still a great deal we dont know about this phenomenon and i have every confidence well find a way to reverse it. So youre saying all our experiences before we were duplicated none of its real . If everything about us was duplicated that includes our memory engrams the emotional centers of our brain. So, if you feel something. Remember something. Believe something. Im not about to tell you its not real. But there is another crew out there, right . The real voyager. I suppose there is, but i dont want that thought what mission is that . The same as its always been, tom to reach the alpha quadrant safe and sound but to do that were going to have to beat this problem. And for now, that means conserving Energy Running the ship in grey mode, cutting crew shifts in half. Duplicates or not. Youre still my crew. Dismissed. Tom. Theres no one here by that name. I just wanted to say. Im sorry about belanna. Sorry . What for . She was your wife. She was a duplicate. St like you are, harry. You heard the captain. If were going to survive this weve got to believe in ourselves. scoffs chuckling you can drop the good soldier routine. You dont have to do everything the captain says anymore. Hell, shes not even the captain. She is to me. Okay. Well, lets suppose she does get us back to earth. What then . You really think your family. For all you know, the real harry kim is having sunday dinner with them right now. And you come strolling through the door theyre going to see you for exactly what you are an impostor. So what are we going to do, huh . Wait around till we all disintegrate . door beeping chicken paprikas my grandmothers recipe. Well, maybe not my grandmother but its still delicious. Its our weekly dinner together. Dont tell me you forgot. Weve lost three more people. Weve got to head back. Ive spent the past five years trying to get this crew home. Im not about to quit now. Listen to yourself. Home is a classy planet in the delta quadrant. We dont belong on earth. How do you know where we belong . For all we know the real voyagers been destroyed and were all thats left. For all we know were supposed to be living their lives. Thats a pretty big assumption. And its putting this crew in danger. Theres only one thing i know how to be, chakotay and thats kathryn janeway. Id like to think and as much as shed like to get her crew home i dont think shed be willing to kill them in the process. Maybe this dinner wasnt such a good idea after all. Ive tried everything i can think of with replicated dna and im no closer to finding a cure. But i do have an idea. Im listening. Find the original voyager. If the real captain janeway were here we could sample her dna and imprint it onto your mimetic pattern. But, doctor, we have no way of knowing where they are. They could be behind us, ahead of us back on earth. Destroyed. Besides, even if we could find the real janeway how do we know shed help . Shes you. My emitters starting to degrade. Tuvok to the captain. Sensors have detected a classy planet. On my way. Kim it may not be home, it checks out. Thermionic radiation. Surface temperatures in excess of 500 kelvins. Just what the doctor ordered. Safe harbor . Theres no guarantee this is going to work. Harry, vent all plasma from the nacelles. G sequence. Yes, maam. Red alert. Landing struts online. Inertial dampers at maximum. Take us down, mr. Paris. Captain, a vessel is approaching from the planet surface. On screen. Kim theyre hailing. Open a channel. Alien voice youre in direct violation of the ordmirit mining treaty. Leave orbit or youll be destroyed. They are firing weapons