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B'Elanna Torres starts the morning
in an uncommonly good mood, but then in Engineering her mood
changes and she scolds Icheb for being there without her
permission. Suddenly she gets dizzy and drops to the floor.
Seven of Nine goes to help as Icheb scans her with a tricorder.
Icheb says he detects a lifesign inside Torres, perhaps a
parasite. But Seven contacts the Doctor and tells him Torres may
be pregnant. In Sickbay the Doctor confirms to Torres and her
husband Tom Paris that they are indeed having a baby, and the
reason Torres fainted could be that Klingon and human metabolism
sometimes clash. The fetus is healthy, but the Doctor warns
Torres that she can expect to experience some behavioral
volatility.
Despite Tom and B'Elanna's wish
to keep the news to themselves for awhile, the rest of the crew
quickly finds out about Torres' pregnancy, and both Neelix and
Chakotay vie to be the child's godfather. Captain Janeway offers
Torres time off, but Torres insists that she can handle her
duties. Meanwhile an increasingly anxious Paris faces the
prospect of being of father, and even solicits advice from Tuvok.
Later Paris has a candlelight dinner set out when Torres returns
to their quarters, but she's upset about the Captain practically
relieving her of duty and annoyed by crewmembers' unsolicited
advice. She gets further upset when Tom makes a comment about
her being a Klingon mother. B'Elanna catches herself in
"behavioral volatility" and calms down, but then the Doctor
summons them to Sickbay.
 Tom and B'Elanna learn their child's spine will be deviated, but
that a genetic modification will correct it. The Doctor also
accidentally reveals that it's a girl. At Tom's request, the
Doctor projects an holographic image of the baby. Tom thinks
she's beautiful, but B'Elanna wonders why the girl has forehead
ridges when she's only one-quarter Klingon. The Doctor says
Klingon traits remain dominant for several generations. B'Elanna
has a flashback to a time when she was a young girl on a campout
with her human father, and recalls that he told her how much she
was like her Klingon mother. Later, Paris and Torres turn in for
the night, and Torres continues to recall the campout experience
from when she was 12-years old. Young B'Elanna didn't want to go
hiking with her human cousins because she thought they didn't
like her.
The next morning Torres reports to Sickbay to undergo the
Doctor's recommended genetic treatment. While lying on the
bio-bed she has another flashback from the campout: one of her
cousins, an 11-year-old boy, put a worm in her food and teased
her about being Klingon, causing young B'Elanna to storm off.
After the Doctor completes the treatment successfully, Torres
goes to a holodeck and projects a computer-generated image of
her daughter when she will be 12 years old. Seeing her forehead
ridges, Torres examines the child's genetic makeup, and deletes
certain gene sequences in the computer display. Asking the
computer to extrapolate the genetic changes to the projection,
she eventually causes the girl to look completely human. Torres
saves the changes and restricts access to the file for herself.
Torres returns to Sickbay and tries to convince the Doctor to
make further genetic changes in her baby, claiming it will
prevent potential health problems. The Doctor is against the
idea and suggests that she talk this over with Paris. When she
does, Paris is totally against the idea. He comes to realize the
issue is not about the child's health, but the fact that the
child is part Klingon. He tries to assure her that their
daughter will not be treated like an outcast. But they fail to
come to an agreement, and turn to Captain Janeway. Torres argues
that she wants to make physiological changes for her child's
best interest, just as Janeway did for Seven of Nine. Janeway
points out their problem is not ethical, but marital, and she
would not overrule the Doctor. Torres is not happy that Paris
has gotten his way, and before he knows it he's at Harry Kim's
doorstep needing a place to sleep.
 Torres sits in bed alone, recalling more of the campout
experience. Young B'Elanna finally returned to the campsite
after having run off, and told her father, John Torres, that she
wished she wasn't Klingon because everyone made fun of her and
her schoolmates hated her. Despite her father's assurances that
the other kids didn't hate her, young B'Elanna chose to sit
alone and read rather than join the rest of her family around
the campfire. In the present moment, Torres re-experiences the
isolation she felt back then.
While working in Engineering the next day, Torres recalls when
she overheard her father talking to Uncle Carl about how moody
and argumentative young B'Elanna had become, just like her
mother. John reminded his brother about their parents'
reservations about him marrying a Klingon, and noted that now,
ironically, he was living with two of them. Later Torres meets
up with Paris in the corridor, and they reconcile. They are then
summoned to Sickbay.
The Doctor tells Torres and Paris that he reviewed the data and
has concluded the genetic alterations she wanted are necessary
because the "clash" between Klingon and human metabolism is more
extensive than he realized. The child risks complete metabolic
failure, and to prevent it he must eliminate most of her Klingon
genetic material. The Doctor schedules a procedure for the next
morning. Meanwhile a disturbed Paris takes the Doctor's findings
and runs it by Icheb, who spots a computational error. Seven
runs a diagnostic on the Doctor and discovers that his program
has been tampered with. Paris tries to contact Torres, but she
doesn't respond. The computer reveals she's in Sickbay. Torres
has already arranged to undergo the procedure to alter the baby.
Torres has blocked communications to Sickbay and access to the
Doctor's program, so Paris, realizing that Torres manipulated
the Doctor to "change his mind," summons Tuvok to meet him at
Sickbay. They have to manually open the door, and then encounter
a forcefield. Paris orders the Doctor to stop the procedure, but
Torres tells the Doctor to ignore him. Eventually the forcefield
is cut off and Tuvok informs the Doctor he's been altered, so he
agrees to deactivate himself. Tuvok leaves Paris and Torres
alone. The couple argue over Torres' actions, and in the heat of
the moment Torres reveals her issue is with her father. She
tells Tom about how she and her father grew apart, and during
the campout when she was 12, she blurted out to her father that
if he can't stand living with two Klingons, why doesn't he just
leave. And several days later, he did. Tom realizes she has
blamed herself all this time for her father leaving, and she
fears the same thing will happen again. He assures B'Elanna he
will never leave her, and he hopes to have even more Klingon
children and that every one of them is just like her. Later,
Torres reverses the alterations to the Doctor, and while
apologizing to him she feels the baby kick. Now she's happy
about having a feisty Klingon in her womb. She asks the Doctor
to be the child's godfather, and he elatedly accepts. |
