Flesh and Blood (Star Trek: Voyager)
Encyclopedia
"Flesh and Blood" is a two part episode from the seventh season of Star Trek: Voyager
. The first half of the episode has a 4.4/5 and the second half of the episode has a 4.3/5 on the official Star Trek
website (as of December 18, 2007). Jamahl Epsicokhan in Jammer's Reviews assigns this episode 3.5 out of 4 stars and calls Flesh and Blood:
crewmen rise out of the water and kill the Hirogen.
The U.S.S. Voyager receives a distress call on a Hirogen
frequency and approaches a mysterious vessel. An away team beams over and finds themselves in a jungle, and discover the bodies of Hirogen killed with Starfleet-issue phasers. They are also surprised to find a Klingon bat'leth stained with Hirogen blood. The team detects a lifesign that appears wounded, and upon approaching a cave, they are fired upon. A panicky Hirogen civilian, Donik, warns the visitors away and continues firing his weapon. Tuvok sneaks up behind Donik and renders him unconscious with a nerve pinch. The away team finds a holodeck interface of Starfleet design, and they realize the jungle environment is simulated, and wonder why their tricorders didn't detect that fact. Seven of Nine shuts down the holodeck emitters, and they find themselves in a hologrid filled with dead Hirogen.
Back on Voyager, Chakotay tells Captain Janeway the holo-technology she gave the Hirogen three years ago so they could hunt holographic prey was apparently modified to be more dangerous. The Captain is astonished that the Hirogen obviously "missed the point" and got themselves killed. She questions Donik, and after convincing him she is not a Hologram, learns that the vessel he was on is a training facility where young Hirogen learn to hunt. He is a technician who was maintaining the system when the Holograms malfunctioned, took control and deactivated the safety protocols.
Just then, a Hirogen ship intercepts Voyager and starts firing. The Alpha-Hirogen in command demands that Voyager leave immediately, but Janeway informs him that she has the one survivor from the facility on board. The Alpha- and Beta-Hirogen beam over and confront Donik, accusing him of being a coward for hiding from the Holograms while hunters fought and died. Donik reveals that the Holograms transferred their programs to a vessel equipped with holo-emitters, and are on the loose.
The Hirogen team up with Voyager's crew to locate the renegade Holograms. Once they detect their ship, the Hirogen prepare for the "hunt" and Janeway insists on joining them, feeling partly to blame for the situation. The Hirogen vessel moves in for the kill over Janeway's objections. They discover too late the ship is a decoy, which explodes and seriously damages the Hirogen vessel. While Voyager beams over the survivors, the actual ship occupied by the Holograms drops out of warp and starts firing. The Holograms then tap into the holo-emitters in Sickbay and transfer the Doctor's program to their own ship, then immediately go to warp, masking their signature so they can't be followed.
The Doctor materializes on the Holograms' ship and finds himself surrounded by simulations of various Alpha Quadrant species. A Bajoran
hologram named Iden welcomes the Doctor aboard. He demands to be returned to Voyager, but Iden says they have "wounded." The Doctor says he's not an engineer and has limited experience in repairing holograms, but Iden insists that he try.
On Voyager, Janeway learns that the Holograms have the ability to learn and adapt, so they will be hard to disable. Donik confesses that he modified the Holograms under his Alpha's orders to make them formidable prey. Janeway approaches the Beta-Hirogen, who is in charge now, and lets him know she found out about the modifications, and points out that they created prey with skills that surpass their own. The Beta-Hirogen says he will resume the hunt, but Janeway insists they must find a way to take the Holograms offline from a safe distance, and do it with the Hirogen's help or else she'll leave them on the nearest habitable planet. The Beta-Hirogen has no choice but to agree.
On the Hologram ship, the Doctor finds a way to perform a "subroutine transplant" in order to repair a Klingon
hologram, with the help of Kejal, a highly intelligent Cardassian
hologram. The Doctor is shocked to find Holograms bleeding and experiencing pain, and Kejal explains that the Hirogen programmed them to suffer when they are killed. The Doctor finds Iden praying at a Bajoran altar, and wonders how someone programmed with spiritual beliefs could perform such a massacre. Iden explains that his Alpha-Hirogen would hunt him and kill him over and over, causing him to live in fear and pain. With the ability to adapt, he became cunning enough to escape, and joined other photonic beings who were being oppressed by various races in the sector and who had chosen to fight back. The training facility they just left was actually the third one where Iden "liberated" the holograms. Iden tells the Doctor his life will never be his own as long as he is controlled by organics, and asks him to stay and make a new life with his own kind. The Doctor refuses.
Soon after, the Doctor finds himself running through a jungle, being hunted by Hirogen. The confused and terrified Doctor gets wounded and starts bleeding, then is stabbed to death. The Doctor wakes up in shock on the Hologram ship. Iden explains that they transferred memory files from one of their Holograms into his program so he can come to understand what they've been through. Enraged, the Doctor accuses them of being thugs looking for a fight. But Iden says what they're looking for is a home where the Hirogen can't hurt them anymore. His sympathy growing, the Doctor asks to hear more about this "home." Iden and Kejal show the Doctor a photonic field generator, which they plan to deploy on a planet's surface to create a holographic environment they can live in. The Doctor suggests that the Voyager crew could help, especially Lt. Torres, an expert on holo-emitters. Iden does not trust organics, but is interested in knowing more about Torres.
On Voyager, Donik discusses strategy with Janeway, Seven of Nine and Torres on how to shut down the Holograms, and Torres embarks on a plan to reconfigure the ship's deflector to emit an anti-photon pulse. Soon afterward, the Hologram ship intercepts Voyager and hails them. The Doctor appears on the viewscreen and says the Holograms have come to make peace. He comes back aboard and tells Janeway that the Holograms want to create a new life for themselves. Janeway is hesitant to share technology again, because that's how the problem got started. The Doctor gets frustrated and tells her the Holograms are a new species, one that she helped create, and she can't turn her back on them. Janeway and the Doctor argue contentiously over "holographic rights" when they get word that a fight has broken out in the Mess Hall where the Hirogen are being confined.
The Hirogen are creating chaos so that the Beta-Hirogen can get to a control panel and access the com system. Tuvok arrives and stops him, but he has already summoned two Hirogen vessels. With less than an hour to intercept, Janeway orders Torres and Donik to prepare the deflector to take the Holograms off-line so there will be no more bloodshed. The Doctor objects to having them deactivated, but Janeway proceeds and contacts Iden, telling him to prepare his people to be transferred to Voyager 's database. Iden doesn't trust that Janeway, an organic, will ever reactivate them. He ends the transmission, fires on Voyager and begins moving away. The Doctor pleads for Janeway's reconsideration, but she orders him to help Paris treat the wounded in the Mess Hall. The Doctor leaves the Bridge, but in a crisis of conscience, goes to Sickbay instead. He contacts Iden and transmits data on the pulse about to be used to deactivate the Holograms, along with Voyager 's shield frequencies so they can beam him off the ship. The Doctor transports over while Voyager and the Hologram ship exchange fire. Iden had given his word he wouldn't use the shield frequencies to attack Voyager, and he keeps that promise, but when Voyager emits the deflector pulse, he sends a feedback surge through the beam that overloads the ship's deflector and causes an imminent warp core breach. As Torres puts up a forcefield to reinforce the core, an energy tendril knocks her out. Iden beams Torres over to his ship, then escapes to warp as Voyager is left adrift.
On Voyager, the crew has no luck locating the Holograms. Donik thinks he can modify the ship's sensors to detect them, and asks to stay aboard rather than go back with the other Hirogen. Two much larger Hirogen vessels arrive and retrieve all their people except for Donik, and the new Alpha-Hirogen threatens to turn the Voyager crew into prey if they interfere with their hunt. The Hirogen vessels go to warp, and Janeway decides to follow using a plan by Donik to hide Voyager in the ion wake of one of the Hirogen vessels — a "blind spot."
Torres looks at the photonic field generator with Kejal, suspicious of the Holograms' motivations. When she comes to realize she's prejudged these beings, Torres proceeds to help enhance their technology. Meanwhile, Iden approaches the Doctor, who is having doubts about being with the Holograms. Iden shows him their destination: a Class-Y planet he calls "Ha'Dara," which is Bajoran for "Home of Light." He plans to install the generators on that planet because its environment is toxic to organic life, so they will be left alone there. Just then, the Holograms realize that two Hirogen vessels have detected them, so they proceed to hide in a nebula. The Hirogen ships also fly into the nebula, unaware that Voyager is trailing one of them from within its ion wake.
The Holograms try to evade the Hirogen while Torres works a little faster to get the field generator on line. She successfully tests the generator by running Kejal through it, and lets the hologram know that as the closest thing they have to an engineer, she is the most important member of her crew. Meanwhile, the Doctor tells Iden that in their new society on Ha'Dara, he hopes to expose the others to music and art from various worlds. Iden responds that the Holograms will develop a culture of their own without emulating organics. In fact, he plans to establish a new religion with himself being worshipped as the "Man of Light" who delivered his people to freedom. The Doctor's doubts grow stronger.
A Nuu'bari mining ship is detected, and Iden orders an intercept course, planning to liberate the holograms on board. The Doctor expresses his concerns to Torres, revealing that Iden is showing signs of megalomania
. Meanwhile, the Hirogen detect the Hologram ship on the other side of the nebula and move to intercept, with Voyager surreptitiously tagging along. On the Hologram ship, Iden contacts the Nuu'bari miners and tries to coerce them to turn over their holograms. They refuse, so Iden fires upon them and has Kejal steal the hologram programs. The Nuu'bari threaten to retaliate, so Iden targets torpedoes upon their warp core and destroys them - to the Doctor's and Torres' horror. Iden then sets a course for Ha'Dara as Torres accuses him of murder. He has her confined and then asks Kejal to bring their new "friends" on-line. Because the Nuu'bari programs are incompatible with the holograms' emitters, she needs Torres' help, who agrees because she thinks she can get through to Kejal. As they work, Torres lets Kejal know that Iden doesn't have to be the one to make all the decisions, and she has the power to deactivate him. Finally the Nuu'bari holograms come on-line, but they are incapable of any interactions — they are only programmed with very rudimentary work subroutines. Torres points out that Iden killed an innocent Nuu'bari crew just to "liberate" mindless machines, but Iden fervently declares that they are "children of light" and he will deliver them to freedom. Just then the bridge announces they are approaching Ha'Dara. Iden orders the generator to be deployed immediately, and refuses the Doctor's request to release Torres.
The Hirogen follow the Holograms to the planet, and when they drop out of warp, Voyager immediately fires weapons and disables both hunting vessels. Voyager then turns on the Hologram ship. Iden has the Hirogen hunters transported to the planet's surface so that the Holograms can hunt them in retaliation. The Doctor objects to his actions, so Iden deactivates his program, but not before assuring him that he will be remembered in their prayers. He takes the Doctor's mobile emitter and transfers his own program to it, and orders the field generator transported to the surface. He rallies the other Holograms, declaring that this time, the hunt is theirs.
On the surface, the unarmed Hirogen have trouble breathing. The Holograms materialize around them and begin pursuing them with weapons. Meanwhile on the ship, Torres convinces Kejal to stop the massacre, but their transporters and communication system were damaged by Voyager. Torres tells Kejal to shut down the Holograms, which she does, and the Holograms on the surface dematerialize before they can kill more Hirogen. However, Iden is using the mobile emitter, so she can't deactivate him. Torres suggests sending the Doctor to the surface through the generator.
The Doctor materializes on the planet with a Hirogen hunting rifle, and he begins pursuit. Just as Iden is about to kill the Beta-Hirogen, the Doctor catches up with him and demands he lower his weapon. Iden refuses, so the Doctor fires and obliterates his fellow Hologram.
The surviving Hirogen are rescued by Voyager, and after recovering, the Beta-Hirogen intends to reclaim the Hologram vessel along with everything in its database. But Neelix convinces him that the stories that are told about this hunt will reflect more favorably upon him if the Hologram ship is thought to have been destroyed. The Hirogen agrees, and leaves Voyager empty-handed. Janeway transports to the Hologram vessel and learns from Torres that Iden is unrecoverable, but the other Holograms are intact in the database. Janeway offers Kejal refuge on Voyager, but she insists that this ship is her home, and Donik volunteers to stay with her and reprogram the Holograms to undo some of the damage he caused. Torres vouches for them, and Janeway urges them to always consider the consequences of their actions, which she's saying just as much to herself as the others. Back on board Voyager, the Doctor offers to let Janeway take his mobile emitter away and revoke his freedom, but she won't punish him for becoming as fallible as those who are made of flesh and blood.
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while...
. The first half of the episode has a 4.4/5 and the second half of the episode has a 4.3/5 on the official Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
website (as of December 18, 2007). Jamahl Epsicokhan in Jammer's Reviews assigns this episode 3.5 out of 4 stars and calls Flesh and Blood:
- 'a well-crafted Voyager outing. As an "epic two-hour telefilm!" it's by far the best of the series' three (excluding the pilot), the other two being the dumb and bloated "The Killing Game" and the entertaining but relatively thin "Dark FrontierDark Frontier"Dark Frontier" is a feature length episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the 15th and 16th episodes of the fifth season. This episode originally aired as a feature-length episode that was later broken up into two parts for reruns in syndication...
."'
Part One
Two Hirogen move through a jungle hunting prey. Suddenly phaser shots are fired at them from a small lake. Four armed StarfleetStarfleet
In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Starfleet or the Federation Starfleet is the deep-space exploratory, peacekeeping and military service maintained by the United Federation of Planets . It is the principal means by which the Federation conducts its exploration, defense, diplomacy and research...
crewmen rise out of the water and kill the Hirogen.
The U.S.S. Voyager receives a distress call on a Hirogen
Hirogen
The Hirogen are a fictional race in the Star Trek universe, a long-running plot device in the Star Trek: Voyager television series, appearing nine times in Seasons 4-7....
frequency and approaches a mysterious vessel. An away team beams over and finds themselves in a jungle, and discover the bodies of Hirogen killed with Starfleet-issue phasers. They are also surprised to find a Klingon bat'leth stained with Hirogen blood. The team detects a lifesign that appears wounded, and upon approaching a cave, they are fired upon. A panicky Hirogen civilian, Donik, warns the visitors away and continues firing his weapon. Tuvok sneaks up behind Donik and renders him unconscious with a nerve pinch. The away team finds a holodeck interface of Starfleet design, and they realize the jungle environment is simulated, and wonder why their tricorders didn't detect that fact. Seven of Nine shuts down the holodeck emitters, and they find themselves in a hologrid filled with dead Hirogen.
Back on Voyager, Chakotay tells Captain Janeway the holo-technology she gave the Hirogen three years ago so they could hunt holographic prey was apparently modified to be more dangerous. The Captain is astonished that the Hirogen obviously "missed the point" and got themselves killed. She questions Donik, and after convincing him she is not a Hologram, learns that the vessel he was on is a training facility where young Hirogen learn to hunt. He is a technician who was maintaining the system when the Holograms malfunctioned, took control and deactivated the safety protocols.
Just then, a Hirogen ship intercepts Voyager and starts firing. The Alpha-Hirogen in command demands that Voyager leave immediately, but Janeway informs him that she has the one survivor from the facility on board. The Alpha- and Beta-Hirogen beam over and confront Donik, accusing him of being a coward for hiding from the Holograms while hunters fought and died. Donik reveals that the Holograms transferred their programs to a vessel equipped with holo-emitters, and are on the loose.
The Hirogen team up with Voyager's crew to locate the renegade Holograms. Once they detect their ship, the Hirogen prepare for the "hunt" and Janeway insists on joining them, feeling partly to blame for the situation. The Hirogen vessel moves in for the kill over Janeway's objections. They discover too late the ship is a decoy, which explodes and seriously damages the Hirogen vessel. While Voyager beams over the survivors, the actual ship occupied by the Holograms drops out of warp and starts firing. The Holograms then tap into the holo-emitters in Sickbay and transfer the Doctor's program to their own ship, then immediately go to warp, masking their signature so they can't be followed.
The Doctor materializes on the Holograms' ship and finds himself surrounded by simulations of various Alpha Quadrant species. A Bajoran
Bajoran
In the Star Trek science-fiction franchise, the Bajorans are a humanoid extraterrestrial species native to the planet Bajor. They were first introduced in the 1991 episode "Ensign Ro" of Star Trek: The Next Generation and subsequently also featured in episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and...
hologram named Iden welcomes the Doctor aboard. He demands to be returned to Voyager, but Iden says they have "wounded." The Doctor says he's not an engineer and has limited experience in repairing holograms, but Iden insists that he try.
On Voyager, Janeway learns that the Holograms have the ability to learn and adapt, so they will be hard to disable. Donik confesses that he modified the Holograms under his Alpha's orders to make them formidable prey. Janeway approaches the Beta-Hirogen, who is in charge now, and lets him know she found out about the modifications, and points out that they created prey with skills that surpass their own. The Beta-Hirogen says he will resume the hunt, but Janeway insists they must find a way to take the Holograms offline from a safe distance, and do it with the Hirogen's help or else she'll leave them on the nearest habitable planet. The Beta-Hirogen has no choice but to agree.
On the Hologram ship, the Doctor finds a way to perform a "subroutine transplant" in order to repair a Klingon
Klingon
Klingons are a fictional warrior race in the Star Trek universe.Klingons are recurring villains in the 1960s television show Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series and eight feature films...
hologram, with the help of Kejal, a highly intelligent Cardassian
Cardassian
The Cardassians are an extraterrestrial species in the Star Trek science fiction franchise. First introduced in the 1991 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Wounded", the species originating on the fictional Alpha Quadrant planet Cardassia Prime...
hologram. The Doctor is shocked to find Holograms bleeding and experiencing pain, and Kejal explains that the Hirogen programmed them to suffer when they are killed. The Doctor finds Iden praying at a Bajoran altar, and wonders how someone programmed with spiritual beliefs could perform such a massacre. Iden explains that his Alpha-Hirogen would hunt him and kill him over and over, causing him to live in fear and pain. With the ability to adapt, he became cunning enough to escape, and joined other photonic beings who were being oppressed by various races in the sector and who had chosen to fight back. The training facility they just left was actually the third one where Iden "liberated" the holograms. Iden tells the Doctor his life will never be his own as long as he is controlled by organics, and asks him to stay and make a new life with his own kind. The Doctor refuses.
Soon after, the Doctor finds himself running through a jungle, being hunted by Hirogen. The confused and terrified Doctor gets wounded and starts bleeding, then is stabbed to death. The Doctor wakes up in shock on the Hologram ship. Iden explains that they transferred memory files from one of their Holograms into his program so he can come to understand what they've been through. Enraged, the Doctor accuses them of being thugs looking for a fight. But Iden says what they're looking for is a home where the Hirogen can't hurt them anymore. His sympathy growing, the Doctor asks to hear more about this "home." Iden and Kejal show the Doctor a photonic field generator, which they plan to deploy on a planet's surface to create a holographic environment they can live in. The Doctor suggests that the Voyager crew could help, especially Lt. Torres, an expert on holo-emitters. Iden does not trust organics, but is interested in knowing more about Torres.
On Voyager, Donik discusses strategy with Janeway, Seven of Nine and Torres on how to shut down the Holograms, and Torres embarks on a plan to reconfigure the ship's deflector to emit an anti-photon pulse. Soon afterward, the Hologram ship intercepts Voyager and hails them. The Doctor appears on the viewscreen and says the Holograms have come to make peace. He comes back aboard and tells Janeway that the Holograms want to create a new life for themselves. Janeway is hesitant to share technology again, because that's how the problem got started. The Doctor gets frustrated and tells her the Holograms are a new species, one that she helped create, and she can't turn her back on them. Janeway and the Doctor argue contentiously over "holographic rights" when they get word that a fight has broken out in the Mess Hall where the Hirogen are being confined.
The Hirogen are creating chaos so that the Beta-Hirogen can get to a control panel and access the com system. Tuvok arrives and stops him, but he has already summoned two Hirogen vessels. With less than an hour to intercept, Janeway orders Torres and Donik to prepare the deflector to take the Holograms off-line so there will be no more bloodshed. The Doctor objects to having them deactivated, but Janeway proceeds and contacts Iden, telling him to prepare his people to be transferred to Voyager 's database. Iden doesn't trust that Janeway, an organic, will ever reactivate them. He ends the transmission, fires on Voyager and begins moving away. The Doctor pleads for Janeway's reconsideration, but she orders him to help Paris treat the wounded in the Mess Hall. The Doctor leaves the Bridge, but in a crisis of conscience, goes to Sickbay instead. He contacts Iden and transmits data on the pulse about to be used to deactivate the Holograms, along with Voyager 's shield frequencies so they can beam him off the ship. The Doctor transports over while Voyager and the Hologram ship exchange fire. Iden had given his word he wouldn't use the shield frequencies to attack Voyager, and he keeps that promise, but when Voyager emits the deflector pulse, he sends a feedback surge through the beam that overloads the ship's deflector and causes an imminent warp core breach. As Torres puts up a forcefield to reinforce the core, an energy tendril knocks her out. Iden beams Torres over to his ship, then escapes to warp as Voyager is left adrift.
Part Two
The Doctor, who voluntarily joined the renegades, is furious with the group's leader, Iden, but Iden promises to let Torres go once she has a chance to decide for herself whether to help the Holograms. Meanwhile, the Voyager crew struggles to repair the ship in Torres' absence, and Janeway learns that the Doctor betrayed and abandoned the ship, and wonders if his matrix may have been altered by the other Holograms. When Torres wakes up on the Hologram ship, she intends to leave immediately, and rebukes the Doctor for switching allegiances. The Doctor points out she did the same thing as a Maquis, and tries to convince her that by providing her technical expertise, she can help stop the violence. He takes her to meet Iden, and she agrees to look at the photonic field generator, but makes no promises.On Voyager, the crew has no luck locating the Holograms. Donik thinks he can modify the ship's sensors to detect them, and asks to stay aboard rather than go back with the other Hirogen. Two much larger Hirogen vessels arrive and retrieve all their people except for Donik, and the new Alpha-Hirogen threatens to turn the Voyager crew into prey if they interfere with their hunt. The Hirogen vessels go to warp, and Janeway decides to follow using a plan by Donik to hide Voyager in the ion wake of one of the Hirogen vessels — a "blind spot."
Torres looks at the photonic field generator with Kejal, suspicious of the Holograms' motivations. When she comes to realize she's prejudged these beings, Torres proceeds to help enhance their technology. Meanwhile, Iden approaches the Doctor, who is having doubts about being with the Holograms. Iden shows him their destination: a Class-Y planet he calls "Ha'Dara," which is Bajoran for "Home of Light." He plans to install the generators on that planet because its environment is toxic to organic life, so they will be left alone there. Just then, the Holograms realize that two Hirogen vessels have detected them, so they proceed to hide in a nebula. The Hirogen ships also fly into the nebula, unaware that Voyager is trailing one of them from within its ion wake.
The Holograms try to evade the Hirogen while Torres works a little faster to get the field generator on line. She successfully tests the generator by running Kejal through it, and lets the hologram know that as the closest thing they have to an engineer, she is the most important member of her crew. Meanwhile, the Doctor tells Iden that in their new society on Ha'Dara, he hopes to expose the others to music and art from various worlds. Iden responds that the Holograms will develop a culture of their own without emulating organics. In fact, he plans to establish a new religion with himself being worshipped as the "Man of Light" who delivered his people to freedom. The Doctor's doubts grow stronger.
A Nuu'bari mining ship is detected, and Iden orders an intercept course, planning to liberate the holograms on board. The Doctor expresses his concerns to Torres, revealing that Iden is showing signs of megalomania
Megalomania
Megalomania is a psycho-pathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of power, relevance, or omnipotence. 'Megalomania is characterized by an inflated sense of self-esteem and overestimation by persons of their powers and beliefs'...
. Meanwhile, the Hirogen detect the Hologram ship on the other side of the nebula and move to intercept, with Voyager surreptitiously tagging along. On the Hologram ship, Iden contacts the Nuu'bari miners and tries to coerce them to turn over their holograms. They refuse, so Iden fires upon them and has Kejal steal the hologram programs. The Nuu'bari threaten to retaliate, so Iden targets torpedoes upon their warp core and destroys them - to the Doctor's and Torres' horror. Iden then sets a course for Ha'Dara as Torres accuses him of murder. He has her confined and then asks Kejal to bring their new "friends" on-line. Because the Nuu'bari programs are incompatible with the holograms' emitters, she needs Torres' help, who agrees because she thinks she can get through to Kejal. As they work, Torres lets Kejal know that Iden doesn't have to be the one to make all the decisions, and she has the power to deactivate him. Finally the Nuu'bari holograms come on-line, but they are incapable of any interactions — they are only programmed with very rudimentary work subroutines. Torres points out that Iden killed an innocent Nuu'bari crew just to "liberate" mindless machines, but Iden fervently declares that they are "children of light" and he will deliver them to freedom. Just then the bridge announces they are approaching Ha'Dara. Iden orders the generator to be deployed immediately, and refuses the Doctor's request to release Torres.
The Hirogen follow the Holograms to the planet, and when they drop out of warp, Voyager immediately fires weapons and disables both hunting vessels. Voyager then turns on the Hologram ship. Iden has the Hirogen hunters transported to the planet's surface so that the Holograms can hunt them in retaliation. The Doctor objects to his actions, so Iden deactivates his program, but not before assuring him that he will be remembered in their prayers. He takes the Doctor's mobile emitter and transfers his own program to it, and orders the field generator transported to the surface. He rallies the other Holograms, declaring that this time, the hunt is theirs.
On the surface, the unarmed Hirogen have trouble breathing. The Holograms materialize around them and begin pursuing them with weapons. Meanwhile on the ship, Torres convinces Kejal to stop the massacre, but their transporters and communication system were damaged by Voyager. Torres tells Kejal to shut down the Holograms, which she does, and the Holograms on the surface dematerialize before they can kill more Hirogen. However, Iden is using the mobile emitter, so she can't deactivate him. Torres suggests sending the Doctor to the surface through the generator.
The Doctor materializes on the planet with a Hirogen hunting rifle, and he begins pursuit. Just as Iden is about to kill the Beta-Hirogen, the Doctor catches up with him and demands he lower his weapon. Iden refuses, so the Doctor fires and obliterates his fellow Hologram.
The surviving Hirogen are rescued by Voyager, and after recovering, the Beta-Hirogen intends to reclaim the Hologram vessel along with everything in its database. But Neelix convinces him that the stories that are told about this hunt will reflect more favorably upon him if the Hologram ship is thought to have been destroyed. The Hirogen agrees, and leaves Voyager empty-handed. Janeway transports to the Hologram vessel and learns from Torres that Iden is unrecoverable, but the other Holograms are intact in the database. Janeway offers Kejal refuge on Voyager, but she insists that this ship is her home, and Donik volunteers to stay with her and reprogram the Holograms to undo some of the damage he caused. Torres vouches for them, and Janeway urges them to always consider the consequences of their actions, which she's saying just as much to herself as the others. Back on board Voyager, the Doctor offers to let Janeway take his mobile emitter away and revoke his freedom, but she won't punish him for becoming as fallible as those who are made of flesh and blood.