3.25 worst case scenario

Chakotay tells Torres that he cannot tolerate the decisions of Janeway and the attitude of Tuvok, and that he, Seska, and some of the Maquis and Starfleet crew are planning a mutiny. When it starts to happen, she agrees to go along. Suddenly, Tom Paris appears and asks her what she is doing. Of course, she is on the holodeck, taking part in an interactive novel she found in the ‘Recycle Bin’. Tom also wants to take part; he chooses not to join the mutiny, and ends up in the brig. Soon, 33 crew members have accessed the popular holo-novel 47 times, and, when Janeway finds out and wants to find the author (whose name is encrypted), Tuvok surprisingly admits that it was him. He wrote the piece not as a novel but as a training scenario, then dropped it when he realized that the Maquis crew was not a threat to mutiny. He wants to delete it, but Janeway wants it to be continued. When Tuvok balks about continuing, Paris volunteers, but Tuvok then insists on collaborating with him. When they enter the holodeck and Tuvok reopens the novel parameters, the holodeck locks out all others, and the Seska character appears and informs them that she has already found and completed the holo-novel – with safeties off – and if they do not run immediately she will shoot them. They run, barely staying a step ahead of her and also an evil Chakotay character. The crew outside the holodeck surmise that Seska found the original holonovel and added on to it about a month before she left the ship. They can’t get in or beam Tom and Tuvok out, but Janeway writes little additions to the program to help them (like adding a plasma fire extinguisher, and having an alien race attack the ship just as Tom and Tuvok are about to be shot). Tuvok ends the scenario himself by rigging a phaser rifle to overload, which destroys the holo-Seska and ends the program.

Nit: If Seska was really bent on destroying Tuvok, wouldn’t she have just rigged the holo-novel to kill him – without the game – immediately, or wouldn’t she have rigged her character to be indestructible? It seemed too easy to kill her.