6.05 alice

A dodgy trader makes a few deals with Voyager for various parts, and one very intriguing – but damaged – ship that Tom Paris takes on as his pet project. With multiphasic shielding and a special (neocortical?) interface, Tom begins spending all of his time working on ‘Alice’. He even begins to imagine, not only that she is a machine with the soul of a woman, but that there is an actual woman there as well. Alice has plans of her own; to convince Tom to leave Voyager and take them ‘home’. When B’Elanna tries to investigate the ship, Alice seals her in and turns off life support, almost killing her. Tom realizes she is taking over, and tries to break away, but she implants additional neural controls in his special suit, and soon he is stealing the necessary parts to complete the project from various areas of the ship. When B’Elanna discovers this, she confronts him, only to have him scream at her in an uncharacteristic manner to leave him alone. While B’Elanna is warning the captain, Tom and Alice depart. Voyager tracks and beats Alice to the destination, a particle fountain, and B’Elanna is sent ‘in’ through a com link to try to convince Tom to come back before facing death. It’s enough of a distraction for Tuvok to beam Tom out just before Alice explodes. Back in sick bay, Tom thanks B’Elanna for being his ‘alarm clock’, and promises that he and the Delta Flyer are ‘just friends.’