Investigations
StarDate: 49485.2
Original Airdate: March 13, 1996
By Christina Luckings
The Story
There is a horrifying sight on the sickbay monitor – Neelix,
Voyager’s self appointed Morale Officer, has created a
daily programme called ‘Briefing With Neelix’. He
promises that it will always give a positive, upbeat view to
life on board, with previews of up-coming meals, crew commendations
and so on. Today’s star is Ensign Pablo Baytart with his
juggling act. The EMH is not impressed, and not keen on doing
a health segment until the word ‘celebrity’ is used.
Neelix leaves him to think about it.
In the corridor, Ensign Kim is just parting from (the then)
Crown Prince Abdullah of Jordan, when Neelix asks if he saw the ‘Briefing’ that
morning. In the turbolift, the former editor of the Starfleet
Academy newspaper says that he thought it was too light, and
that pretty soon people would be wanting real news not just entertainment.
Harry tells how his editorial broke the news of the first Maquis/Cardassian
skirmishes and polarised opinion on the issue. ‘It is the
job of a journalist to be independent,’ he explains to
Neelix, which is why his tutors weren’t forewarned of his
actions. As Harry leaves on deck 4, Neelix is advised of an incoming
transmission. He goes to take it in his quarters.
It is an old friend, Laxeth, currently communications master
of a Talaxian convoy. After some pleasantries, Laxeth tells him
that they will be rendezvousing in a few days to pick up a passenger.
Someone wants to leave Voyager and go work for them instead.
Captain Janeway is not pleased to discover that Neelix has acquired
this piece of information, and summons Tuvok to join them in
her ready room. When he comes in, she asks him if there are any
security issues here, and Tuvok replies that the information
does not need to be withheld any longer. The person who is leaving
Voyager is Tom Paris, and it is at his own request. Neelix is
astounded at this news, and goes to visit Tom in his quarters.
The former Lieutenant is packing a bag ready for his departure,
and explains that he thought there was more scope for advancement
on a Talaxian convoy than the only Starfleet ship in the quadrant.
A few more months in the rehab colony in New Zealand would have
been better than trying to fit in here. Neelix is concerned that
something he might have said or done has contributed to Tom’s
decision, but he is reassured that this is all down to Paris’s
innate ability to wreck his own life, and nothing else.
Back in the mess hall, the EMH is waiting on a monitor to discuss
the details of his part in ‘A Briefing with Neelix’.
He has prepared the topic already – How to Keep Your Nostrils
Happy’, but Neelix puts him off, assuring him that when
he sees the broadcast he will understand. So the EMH insists
on having two topics for tomorrow. Fame beckons and he will not
be denied. Settling down at a table in front of the recorder,
Neelix begins a fond farewell speech to Thomas Eugene Paris.
Chakotay watches it with mixed emotions, Janeway and Tuvok exchange
looks in her ready room, and the engineering team look on with
concern. Kes hugs Tom goodbye in the transporter room, followed
by Harry, who then takes custody of his comm. badge. Touched
by these shows of affection, Paris beams off Voyager without
a word.
At the daily briefing, Torres reports that she has a team working
on the problem with the magnetic constrictors, then the Captain
congratulates Neelix on his programme, especially his tribute
to Tom Paris. Chakotay wants to know who will replace him at
helm, and she has several people in mind but Kim thinks that
they shouldn’t rush this. Tom might change his mind and
want to come back. Janeway is quite clear that she doesn’t
think this is going to happen. The briefing is interrupted by
Jonas in engineering calling Torres to tell her the problem with
the constrictors is getting worse. Janeway dismisses the meeting,
and ace reporter Neelix asks if he can accompany Torres. This
engineering problem sounds like a news item to him.
Down in engineering things are going from bad to worse as the
core temperature rockets and they face either an unsafe plasma
venting or a core breach. The console Jonas is working on explodes
as the venting begins. Neelix moves into Starfleet mode, arranging
emergency medical treatment for the various injured engineers.
Voyager streams super-hot plasma behind it and the core temperature
drops back below safety levels.
The three injured crew are treated for their burns and then
Neelix returns to reporter mode, wanting to interview one of
them. The EMH cannot understand this, believing that his narrative
of the triage procedure is the only thing anyone can possibly
be interested in, but Neelix manages to get to Jonas – the
man who risked his life to save the ship – for a few words.
Jonas suggests he talks to Torres, then Janeway calls Neelix
to the bridge. The plasma venting has wrecked the warp coils.
They need to rebuild the nacelles and to do that they need a
source of verterium cortenide, a composite made up of polysilicate
verterium and monocrystal cortenum. Neelix knows of a planet
call Hemikek nearby which is a good source of all sorts of minerals.
The consortium which run it are non-aggressive and should be
willing to sell them what they need. Kim announces a message
from the Talaxian convoy. On the viewscreen Laxeth informs the
officers that they have been attacked by the Kazon Nistrim, but
they have taken no casualties and their cargo is intact. However,
their newest crewmember is now aboard a Kazon vessel.
Tom is pacing around when Seska comes in, one month away from
giving birth, and looking radiant. She knows all about Tom’s
problems on Voyager, and considers them rather sudden. She does
not trust him, not when she first knew him, and not now. The
feeling is mutual, he promises her. Seska goes on to suggest
that he co-operate with her, or discover just how excessive the
Kazon use of force can be. His piloting skills could be useful,
as could his in-depth knowledge of Voyager. Tom retorts that
she’s getting a lot of information about Voyager already
without him. She leaves him to think about where he wants to
be when the Nistrim take Voyager and then the whole Quadrant,
sector by sector. Tom doesn’t need to think, he goes straight
to a console in the corner and begins tapping at it, then gets
a gizmo out of his rolled up sleeve and places it on the computer
interface.
‘Captain's Log, Stardate 49485.2. In spite of the fact
that Tom Paris has been abducted by the Kazon, we must continue
on course for the Hemikek system.’
In the mess hall, Neelix confides his concern about Tom’s
kidnapping to Kes. He hadn’t been gone a day, yet the Kazon
knew he was there. No on one the convoy would have told them,
that would be like committing suicide for a Talaxian, so the
information must have come from somewhere else. It couldn’t
have been chance, because they never touched the cargo and it
was a quick strike. It must have been someone on Voyager. Kes
cannot believe it, but Neelix the investigative journalist is
determined to find out the truth.
Neelix finds Torres working the night shift in engineering,
and asks her to show him how to access the sub-space communications
logs. She gets him into the record for the last month, then takes
the other female engineer with her to check the constrictors,
leaving Jonas in charge. He goes over to Neelix to try and find
out what he is up to. The Talaxian asks him how someone would
make a secret subspace transmission and Jonas plays ignorant,
saying that there are just so many security routines in place.
Neelix spots a gap in the record, but Jonas dismisses is as a
data fragmentation caused by the plasma overload. There’ll
be glitches like that all over the system, he assures him. But
Neelix won’t leave it alone. Jonas picks up a laser torch
from a console and is sneaking up behind him when the EMH comes
on the monitor to complain about not appearing on ‘Briefing’ again
today. He has a new idea about a feature on the Klingon glottis – friend
or foe. Wishing that he had never asked the EMH to take part,
Neelix fobs him off again and leaves engineering.
He reports his discovery of gaps in the transmissions logs to
Tuvok, who also mentions that the plasma overload could be the
cause. Neelix is ready for this, and informs him that only the
communications logs have gaps in them. All other ship’s
logs – sensors, environmental controls et al – are
gap-free. Then he makes his accusation that someone on Voyager
has been contacting the Kazon and then erasing the evidence.
Tuvok agrees to investigate further and tells Neelix that he
must stop his investigative journalism at once in the interests
of his own safety. Neelix agrees and leaves the security chief’s
office, but once out in the corridor resolves to continue digging
and get to the answer before Tuvok does.
Back in engineering, Torres ask Hogan to help Neelix in his
quest to try and recover deleted logs. He sees something strange
in the file and gets the computer to run a signal modulation
analysis (engineering authorisation omega 4-7). It turns out
that the messages were sent without using any of the antenna
arrays but the power grid instead, and are therefore unrecoverable.
Jonas overhears all this as Hogan traces a comm. link signal
to the power grid from deck four section three-c. As Neelix dashes
out, Hogan suggests he looks for deletions and runs a recovery
programme. The search goes room by room until he comes across
one that is dark, unoccupied. The computer monitor is locked
for use by Tom Paris only, so Neelix uses the engineering authorisation
to override it and view the files. What he sees is unbelievable.
Yet not so unbelievable that he cannot make it the topic of
the next ‘Briefing With Neelix’. He announces to
the entire ship that he has discovered secret communications
with the Kazon on Paris’s console, whereupon Janeway immediately
orders Tuvok to pull the plug on the broadcast. Neelix is hauled
into the Captain’s ready room to explain his sources. It
appears that the signal correlation traces that Hogan found were
placed there after Tuvok had searched for them in his initial
investigation. What initial investigation, asks Chakotay. Janeway
drops the bombshell on him. They had known there was a spy on
board for some time, but it was not Tom Paris. When Tuvok detected
the transmissions some weeks ago, Janeway and Tuvok thought up
a plan to find the spy and recruited Tom while he was in sickbay
recovering from fathering Janeway’s alien offspring. As
Tuvok suspected the spy to be a Maquis, he recommended that Chakotay
was not told. Janeway admits that they needed a ‘good performance’ from
him and Tom made sure they got it. ‘You didn’t trust
me’ summarises the aggrieved first officer. Neelix’s
investigation has made the real spy nervous enough to start planting
fake evidence. Now Janeway wants to keep him nervous, and asks
Neelix to carry on digging while letting people know that he
has doubts about Pans’ guilt. Tuvok promises that his security
team will monitor an open comm. link to him at all times. Neelix
agrees.
On the Kazon ship, Tom taps into their communications logs to
discover evidence of Jonas’ treachery in arranging Voyagers
trip to Hemikek. Seska walks in with two armed guards, pleased
that her instincts were right again, and tells him that there
are already ground troops waiting for Voyager with more ships
on the way. As she gloats, Tom’s gizmo makes the console
explode. He grabs a weapon and makes his escape from the room,
has a bit of a fight then steals a small ship and makes a run
for Voyager with Seska’s ship in hot pursuit, firing it’s
weapons.
Jonas is sending a couple of crew on an errand to find Torres
when Neelix comes in asking for help again. He wants to know
how signal correlation traces could be added to a file later.
The implication startles Hogan, who found them in the first place.
Jonas explains that they are very busy preparing to rebuild the
engines, so Neelix asks if he can use a diagnostic terminal on
his own. Then Torres calls through for another PADD of specifications,
and Jonas orders Hogan to take them to her. Next, Janeway calls
down ordering all available power to transporter room 2. They
need extra range to save the human occupant of an incoming shuttle.
Tom’s little ship is still under constant weapons barrage
from Seska’s vessel as he frantically tries to get in touch
with his Captain. Finally they have voice contact and he warns
Janeway about the ambush at Hemikek. The Captain refuses to change
course until he is safely on board. A big jolt finally knocks
Tom out, and Janeway demands the extra transporter power now.
Jonas tells her he is having trouble with resetting some systems,
but Neelix is watching him and he doesn’t believe he is
working on the transporters at all. Then a forcefield is set
up by the main bridge doors and Neelix becomes very suspicious
indeed. Paris wakes up and tells Janeway that the spy and saboteur
is Michael Jonas. She relays the information to Tuvok. Meanwhile,
Paris’s shuttle hull begins to breach while he is less
than a minute from normal transporter range.
Jonas is into the weapons systems, and when Neelix challenges
him, he is knocked down and Jonas takes both their comm. badges
off before going to the upper engineering level. Neelix gives
chase, armed with a large spanner. Voyager beams an unconscious
Tom aboard as they come within weapons range of the main Kazon
ship. Tuvok is not in engineering yet, and all the transporter
chief can get is Jonas’s comm. badge. Then Kim announces
that they have lost weapons - the phasers have been disabled
from engineering. Neelix grabs Jonas and they have a hard fight.
Neelix’s spanner gets dropped into the plasma stream, and
then, as he makes a desperate lunge to finish the job, Neelix
jinks to one side and Jonas follows it to oblivion. Quickly,
Neelix puts the phasers back on line then dashes down the stairs
to lower the forcefield and inform Tuvok of the fate of the spy.
The next morning’s ‘Briefing with Neelix’ features
Tom Paris giving his version of events and apologising for his
behaviour over the past couple of months, especially towards
Chakotay. Not that it wasn’t fun, he adds. Neelix closes
the broadcast with a promise that tomorrow’s show will
include the EMH and lots of information about the Bolian digestive
system.
Review:
Now it is Neelix’s turn to show us what he is made of,
and there is a lot to admire about the annoying little Talaxian.
He’s a survivor, resourceful, adaptable, and always manages
to do the right thing in a crisis. After all, before he came
on board Voyager he was a one-man salvage operation on a vessel
with no transporters or replicators. His talents might not always
be needed on a Federation ship, but when they are he comes through
with flying colours. Of course he has his flaws. When he gets
an idea in his head he is an unstoppable juggernaut, obsessed
and determined. And that permanent display of public cheerfulness
is a tad grating at times, but at least here is a character with
extremes of temperament to offset the reasonableness of the rest
of the crew.
This story wraps up the Kazon-spy-on-Voyager theme which has
been running for a few shows now, and frees up a crew cabin,
saving a little energy on life support. It also leaves Voyager
with no warp drive, something they will have to resolve shortly
if the journey is to continue. I’m glad that not everything
is resolved and back to normal by the close of the show. It makes
it feel right, more believable and encourages one to return next
week to see how they get on.
Just one little niggle – if they could beam Jonas’s
comm. badge out of engineering, why couldn’t the security
team beam in? Is it because Tuvok is not the brightest example
of famed Vulcan intellect or, and this is the real reason, because
Neelix was the star and no one was going to stop his moment of
glory, saving the ship single-handed.
Speaking of Tuvok – once again the Janeway/Tuvok axis
is working against their first officer, keeping him out of their
plot to catch the spy with the help of Paris, someone else who
has bad history with the former Maquis Captain. It may have helped
their little subterfuge to work all the better but it did nothing
for the first officer’s standing in the upper echelons
of the ship. He’s not completely trusted by the Federation
establishment on board and they have proved it to his face once
again. Will the quiet, private man just simmer over this insult
and then forget it, or will he explode at some future point?
We’ll just have to wait and see.
Grade: 8/10
Cast:
Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran as Chakotay
Roxanne Biggs-Dawson as B'Elanna Torres
Jennifer Lien as Kes
Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris
Ethan Phillips as Neelix
Robert Picardo as The Doctor
Tim Russ as Tuvok
Garrett Wang as Harry Kim
Guest Cast:
Jerry Sroka as Laxeth
Creative Staff:
Director: Les Landau
Teleplay By: Jeri Taylor
Story By: Jeff Schnaufer and Ed Bond
