Voyager -  A Play for Voices
 

FIRST VOICE (speaking softly)

Space is vast and empty, spread across distances too thin to imagine. Only you can encompass it. Drift forward, past worlds and stars and civilisations, and pause only a moment to watch nations rise and fall.

Look. You see a sliver of flashing photons, lights that glance off a beacon of life in the void that is far from its belonging. Pay it close attention, and drift a little closer.

Look. There are people aboard, alive with life and interest, and each little form is a universe of thought and feeling and meaning and expression and remembering and thinking and wondering and loving all its own.

Listen. They are a-buzz with rumour. One of their number, very special to them all, is to go on a date tonight.

Captain Janeway stands in a corridor, waiting. She feels very self-conscious.

FIRST CREWMEMBER

Can I help you, Captain?

FIRST VOICE

- says a voice of nearby. Captain Janeway shakes her head and forces an easygoing smile.

CAPTAIN JANEWAY

That's all right, Ensign.

FIRST VOICE

- she answers. She blushes white-hot but doesn't let it show. The ensign flutters in confusion and walks away. Captain Janeway waits. Inside -

B'ELANNA TORRES

You look great, Seven. Are you ready?

SECOND VOICE

Of course not, B'Elanna. I am nervous and frightened, and in love, which is much worse. What a strange question you ask. I will never be ready.

SEVEN OF NINE

I believe so.

FIRST VOICE

Captain Janeway is admitted to the room, with some embarrassment. B'Elanna does not leave yet, ready to correct a malfunction in this system she has helped to create.

CAPTAIN JANEWAY

(softly) You look very beautiful, Seven.

THIRD VOICE

- too beautiful. Does Plato miss you? Please, don't let me touch you. Don't let me learn you're too perfect to be real.

SEVEN OF NINE

Thank you, Kathryn.

SECOND VOICE

I am malfunctioning. Can I continue with this feeling so strange? I must be damaged.

FIRST VOICE

B'Elanna smiles slightly. Though cockyunsure Seven had asked for her help in preparing, she considers her task complete. With a few words that neither hears -

B'ELANNA TORRES

- and have fun.

FIRST VOICE

- she leaves.

THIRD VOICE

What happens now?

SECOND VOICE

I'm alone with you. I love you. How do I tell you?

SEVEN OF NINE

Perhaps we should consume dinner.

CAPTAIN JANEWAY

Yes. Let's.

FIRST VOICE

They leave the Cargo Bay. Greatly shy daring, Captain Janeway takes Seven's hand as they walk towards the holodecks. She has chosen a small restaurant she remembers from her Earth days as their setting.

SECOND VOICE

Your hand in mine. It feels good, but strange. No-one touches me but you. Does it always feel like this?

CAPTAIN JANEWAY

Computer, activate program janeway-epsilon-six.

FIRST VOICE

They enter the holodeck. The restaurant has a cozy, intimate atmosphere. Soft music plays.

THIRD VOICE

I hope you like it. I wrote this program for you. Do you know how much I love you? I want to show you. I want to share my life with you.

SEVEN OF NINE

I like it.

FIRST VOICE

She is so human in her alien sweetness. Janeway feels her heart skip loudly. She almost slips as she soaks in the deep blue frozen fire of Seven's eyes.

CAPTAIN JANEWAY

We should sit.

FIRST VOICE

A holographic human leads them to a table in a dim-lit sultry corner. Janeway sits as her knees give way as Seven smiles so sweet shy pretty, blinding her with beauty.

THIRD VOICE

Can I keep you?

FIRST VOICE

They are given menus. Janeway takes hers with a shaking hand. Seven reads hers, hesitates.

SEVEN OF NINE

What should - what do you recommend, Kathryn?

SECOND VOICE

I don't understand this social setting. Help me. I need to be correct for you.

FIRST VOICE

Captain Janeway smiles and helps her build her choice. In no more than the time it takes an oak to sprout and grow and wither, the repast is past and they return to Captain Janeway's quarters.

SEVEN OF NINE

I should go, Kathryn.

THIRD VOICE

Stay.

SECOND VOICE

I want to stay.

CAPTAIN JANEWAY

Stay. For at least a little.

FIRST VOICE

Captain Janeway takes a deep breath and lets her love and needing show.

CAPTAIN JANEWAY

Please?

FIRST VOICE

Seven of Nine glows smilish, and says, soft and tender -

SEVEN OF NINE

I believe that would be acceptable.

FIRST VOICE

- and for the first time she's known, the words seem far from adequate. They smile at each other.

SECOND VOICE/THIRD VOICE/SEVEN OF NINE/CAPTAIN JANEWAY

I love you.

FIRST VOICE

Those words are adequate. Both sense that three short syllabs contain a universe of feeling.

THIRD VOICE

If I touch you, does this fairy tale end?

FIRST VOICE

They kiss, loving gentle, for a very short eternity. Seven is hesitant but sure, certain in her intentions but not in execution. Janeway has kissed before but still so scarely, for Seven tastes of sugar and steel and all things real, and she knows swing low she is home here and too ease will never want to leave. After moments or hours they part and Seven smiles.

SECOND VOICE

I understand...

SEVEN OF NINE

I believe I have come to an understanding of the nature of individuality.

THIRD VOICE

You were thinking about that? Then?

FIRST VOICE

Janeway's surprise doesn't last tall. The joyous in Seven's smile contages her, and she smiles with love and has to take a moment to realise what is the strange sound Seven is making. Seven is laughing, and crying too.

CAPTAIN JANEWAY

Seven?

SEVEN OF NINE

Humanity, Kathryn! What the Collective lacked and never taught me. What the Borg cannot understand. Humanity is love, Kathryn, and this joy. It is... perfect.

FIRST VOICE

She smiles with rich perfection and they kiss again.

Whiling, the people of the ship are talking.

FIRST CREWMEMBER

Saw the captain outside B'Elanna's.

SECOND CREWMEMBER

Saw them go to dinner.

THIRD CREWMEMBER

In the captain's quarters now.

FOURTH CREWMEMBER

But what about the Commander?

FIRST CREWMEMBER

Heard he's in love with her.

SECOND CREWMEMBER

On that planet, didn't they?

THIRD CREWMEMBER

Heard they didn't.

FOURTH CREWMEMBER

Heard they did. Poor Commander.

CHAKOTAY

Commander Chakotay. First Officer. Gave up, boys, it was dead.

FIRST VOICE

Commander Chakotay is eating his dinner, and overhears some crewmen talking. They speak of Paris, and he does not think of the city.

FIFTH CREWMEMBER

Heard he got busted.

SIXTH CREWMEMBER

Rightly, did. Ensign Tom.

FIFTH CREWMEMBER

He a nogood boyo.

SIXTH CREWMEMBER

Up to no good in the Delta Flyer.

FIRST VOICE

It is midnight now. Captain Kathryn has lost a pip, although she hasn't realised. She will find it three days from now between the cushions.

THIRD VOICE

I love you, Seven. No, don't stop. Oh - you weren't. Oh. Where did you learn that?

SECOND VOICE

I love you, Kathryn. You touch my soul - and tonight, I know I have one. Kathryn.

CAPTAIN JANEWAY

(softly) Seven.

THIRD VOICE

There are no words left to tell you this. Feel my love, this fire.

SEVEN OF NINE

(questioning) Kathryn?

CAPTAIN JANEWAY

I love you, Seven.

SECOND VOICE

Kathryn. I have no words for this.

THIRD VOICE

Did I burn you?

FIRST VOICE

Nothing is immutable, time most of all. And even that callous force must falter for true love, and can but wait at the door for Seven and Kathryn. So on this night we must leave them again, or else the night will never end, and day shall have no dominion.

Commander Chakotay enters the bridge. Tuvok commanding shows his surprise.

CHAKOTAY

I couldn't sleep.

TUVOK

You had three years.

FIRST VOICE

They both know what he means.

(A clarinet plays softly in the background, rising in volume. "Lilli Marlene".)

TOM PARIS

(singing)

Underneath the lamplight, by the barracks gate
Darling I remember...

B'ELANNA TORRES

More old music, Tom?

(Clarinet and singing stop.)

Tom, Tom, the piper's friend. Play for me.

FIRST VOICE

As we noted former, space is vast and lonely. The night eternal presses ominous against the window-panes so thick and firm. The silence is louder than a storm. More hours pass in this dark whiling.

CAPTAIN JANEWAY

Seven, are you awake?

SEVEN OF NINE

Barely, Kathryn.

THIRD VOICE

I dare not sleep for fear of waking from this dream.

CAPTAIN JANEWAY

Sleep, then. Dream sweetly, my love.

SEVEN OF NINE

And you, also.

FIRST VOICE

They sleep.

Though Time held back within those rooms, outside it wastes no effort. Chakotay has years since left the bridge, and stalks the lower decks like the ghostly Death of forlorn Commanders, love lost. He searches for something he knows not what, and only finds himself in Cargo Bay 2.

CHAKOTAY

Computer, locate Seven of Nine.

COMPUTER

Seven of Nine is in Captain Janeway's quarters.

FIRST VOICE

Chakotay crumbles to the inevitable, saddish.

With the long night's ending comes a change in the lights, a dawn as artificial as the smile Chakotay wears. Morning is here. The captain yawns as she takes her place on the bridge, and Chakotay says no wording.

finis

16/07/99