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Reginald Barclay and Admiral Paris
from the Pathfinder project on Earth appear on the Astrometrics
domescreen and tell Captain Janeway that the com link will only
work for only 11 minutes a day. Three people can talk to their
loved ones in the Alpha Quadrant for three minutes per day, so
Neelix has the crew draw numbered isolinear chips. The Doctor
draws number one, so he contacts a well-known Bolian publisher
on Earth — Ardon Broht of Broht & Forrester — to discuss the
holonovel which he had previously transmitted to him. Broht
raves about the piece and wants to distribute it right away, but
the Doctor insists on making revisions first. Later, the Doctor
brags to Lt. Tom Paris about his conversation with the
publisher, which raises Paris' curiosity about the hologram's
opus. He convinces the Doctor to let him experience the
holonovel, which he learns is titled "Photons Be Free."
Paris finds himself in the role
of the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) aboard the "Starship
Vortex," and he sees that the first chapter starts out almost
identically to the Doctor's own experience of being first
activated. The other characters resemble the real crew, but
altered slightly in their appearance — for instance, Chakotay is
a Bajoran. When Paris, as the Doctor, decides to treat a
critical patient ahead of a bridge officer, Captain "Jenkins" (Janeway
with black hair) enters Sickbay and kills the dying crewman, so
that the bridge officer can now be treated. Shocked at how the
crew is portrayed, Paris tells B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim
about it, and they think he's overreacting. So Paris tells his
crewmates to try it out themselves.
Torres experiences for herself how badly the "Vortex" EMH gets
treated by the holo-crew, especially her own look-alike; Neelix,
in the same role, is scolded and threatened by Captain Jenkins;
and Kim becomes part of an escape plan with help from "Three of
Eight." Finally, Janeway experiences the final chapter of the
holonovel, where the EMH is brutally decompiled. She immediately
orders the Doctor to report to her Ready Room.
 The Doctor defends the piece, claiming it's a work of fiction
with an important message. Janeway wonders if the Doctor sees
himself as oppressed, but he explains he intended to draw
attention to the plight of his "brothers" in the Alpha Quadrant,
other EMH Mark Ones like him who have been condemned to menial
tasks. Janeway asks him to consider how his writing makes his
friends feel, but he won't compromise on his self-expression.
When he returns to the holodeck to make final revisions, he
finds the program altered with a holo-Paris as the narrator, and
the story about the assistant to the Chief Medical Officer who
has to learn to tolerate his overbearing manner and obnoxious
behavior. Incensed, the Doctor confronts Paris about distorting
his work. Paris assures him he kept the original intact, but was
simply trying to make a point that someone running a program
like that would think the characters were based on the real
people. But what bothers Paris most is that the immature,
self-indulgent character that bears his likeness apparently
reveals what the Doctor really thinks of him.
Neelix talks to the Doctor and helps him realize that by
publishing his program, he may hurt the people he cares about,
and he can make adjustments so that it's not so obviously based
on Voyager without sacrificing his theme. But a rewrite will
take weeks and the publisher is expecting a final draft
tomorrow. Neelix tells the Doctor to give the publisher a call,
and hands him his numbered chip. Broht is not happy to hear that
the work will be delayed, but the crew is grateful to the Doctor
for taking their feelings into account, and Paris agrees to
assist with the revisions.
Meanwhile, members of the crew get to talk to family members
they haven't seen in years. Kim's parents wonder when he's
getting a promotion, and offer to write Captain Janeway a
letter, which Harry strongly discourages. Torres begrudgingly
agrees to talk to her father, who abandoned her when she was a
child; during their awkward conversation, John Torres expresses
regret and hopes they can get to know each other again. Even
Seven of Nine uses her com time to contact her nearest living
relative, an aunt on Earth; Irene Hansen tells Seven about how
she was as a child, and calls her Annika.
 Janeway receives an urgent message from Admiral Paris: He just
learned from Barclay that the Doctor's holo-novel has been
distributed and is being played in thousands of holosuites. The
Doctor contacts Broht demanding a recall and a public apology,
but Broht refuses. Janeway points out that authors have rights,
but Broht responds that under Federation law, holograms have no
rights.
After discussing legal options with Tuvok, Janeway decides to
request a hearing to seek the same rights for the Doctor as any
flesh-and-blood person. A Federation Arbitrator hears arguments
from Broht and from the Voyager crew, who testify that the
Doctor has demonstrated the traits of a "person" such as
creativity, ambition, friendship and fallibility. After several
days of arguments and deliberations, the Arbitrator announces he
is not prepared to rule that the Doctor is a "person" under the
law, but he is willing to extend the definition of "artist" to
include the Doctor; therefore he orders all copies of the holo-novel
recalled immediately. The Doctor apologizes to Janeway for the
damage that's been done, but the crew encourages him to continue
revising his work and to find a new publisher. Four months
later, on an asteroid in the Alpha Quadrant where hundreds of
EMH Mark Ones (all identical to the Doctor) are now mining
dilithium, word gets around among the holograms that there is a
very provocative new program in the holo-lab called "Photons Be
Free." |
