Pitched to Brannon Braga July 1995 Copyright © 1997 Ethan H. Calk
The Voyager crew (Chakotay, Torres, Tuvok) is on the surface of a planet obviously devastated by war, responding to what they find to be an automated distress call. Kes is also on the away team - she's heard of this planet. Whoever the people were, they destroyed themselves a millenia ago. The crew, realizing they're a thousand years too late, move on... Continuing toward the Alpha Quadrant, the sensors detect an inhabited star system. Neelix remembers these people as very kind and generous - and technologically advanced. They might be able to supply Voyager with some much needed duterium... Janeway contacts the planet, which offers any help it can give. Janeway, Paris and Kes beam down, with Kes representing the medical staff. While on the planet, Chakotay collapses of some unknown ailment. The Doctor gets very strange readings on Chakotay - he can find nothing wrong with him whatsoever. What ever has attacked him is virtually undetectable. Kim reports to Janeway that he has been scanning the planet for Voyager's databanks, and has found a decrease in the plankton levels in the oceans over the past 24 hours. Janeway approves his request to continue monitoring. At a reception on Voyager for the leaders of the planet, Torres collapses like Chakotay did. As the story plays out, Doc and Kes realize Chakotay and Torres' illness must be being caused something they picked up on the first planet, since only the away team members are currently being affected. However, they can't seem to isolate anything, much less come up with a cure. Doc places a portable sensing device on Tuvok and Kes which might give them more information if one of them collapses, and quarantines them both. At the same time, Kim finds the plankton and other species are declining more rapidly. If this continues unchecked, Kim says, there will be no life on the planet in six months. After Tuvok collapses, Doc and Kes study the data from the sensing device, and they find the cause - a genetically engineered parasite, probably used as warfare by the inhabitants of the first planet. They now begin to work on a cure. Kes wants to monitor the rest of the crew, so Doc fits her with a new portable quarantine field, which allows her to move freely about the ship. The parasite begins to spread - there are a few more collapses on the ship. Kim also says the problem on the planet is getting worse, so Janeway calls a conference to discuss both problems. Kes arrives a few minutes late, and Kim is in the process of giving Janeway a report. Something about the data looks very familiar to Kes, and she asks Kim when he started working on her medical problem. When he informs her this is from the planet, she has a horrible realization. She was the only one on both away teams -- she is the carrier of this parasite! This hits Kes very hard. Here she's spent the last year or so learning to heal people, and now she might be responsible for thousands of deaths... Janeway reluctantly calls the leaders of the planet with this new development. They do realize it was not Voyager's fault, and Janeway offers all the help the crew can give them. The leader gets a message and invites Janeway and Kes to the surface. They beam down into a forest clearing. There are several med techs there, along with a small, furry creature. The leader informs Janeway and Kes that this is a small nocturnal herbivore that has been on the planet's endangered lists. The parasite hit them particuarly hard. This animal, to their knowledge, is the last one of its kind. Kes, in horror, takes the animal in her arms. It looks up at her with its large, helpless, pleading eyes. Then the eyes flutter closed. Kes breaks down and cries uncontrollably. Kes is absolutely devastated. She knows it wasn't her fault, but that does not console her. Nothing Neelix or Doc or anyone can say will make her feel better. Eventually, Doc finds a cure -- a specific frequency of UV light -- they can use modified photons to cure the planet, but it will take quite a few. This will seriously deplete their stock, but Janeway realizes their obligation to the planet. The crew is saved, and the parasite is eradicated on the planet, but not without a cost - decline in plankton and other aquatic life, five terrestrial species affected - one extinct. Kes doesn't think she can live with this, but in then end, Neelix and Doc help her through. She leaves with a renewed drive to learn to be a healer...
Brannon's comments: Brannon didn't think an invisible virus was a very good adversary, since there is little chance of character interaction and conflict. He also didn't think Kes would react this way. He said her intellect would prevail, and she'd keep her emotions in check and wouldn't be that deeply affected by these events.