 | Around them is a brightly dressed carnival troupe - everyone is dancing or doing mimes and moving randomly to fairground music - but there seems to be no audience.
Kim: "These must be characters generated by the computer, but I don't see our people." Torres: "Neither do I." |
 | Kim asks a clown: "Er, excuse me. We're trying to find some friends."
The Clown removes his mask. "Well, that shouldn't be difficult. We're all friends here." |  |
 | Kim and Torres in the artificial environment. |
 | With people constantly moving around him, Kim accidentally bumps into one, a little woman.
Kim: "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bump into you." Little Woman: "You're new." Kim: "Yes, we are." Little Woman: "Where are you from?" Torres: "Another town." Little Woman: "There aren't any other towns." |
 | Kim to Torres: "We're not getting very far."
Spectre: "Perhaps I can help you. You are looking for friends?" Kim: "That's right: three of them." Spectre: "And when you find these friends?" Torres: "We want to talk to them." |
 | Clown: "Why talk when we can dance?!" |
 | Torres and Kim are swept up by those around who want them to join in the frivolous merriment. But the Starfleet officers do not wish to join in.
Torres: "Let's get out of here." |
 | Kim: "You've got it."
Suddenly the Spectre shouts: "Take him!" |
 | The carnival people push Torres and Kim towards the daise where there is a guillotine, painted bright pink. |
 | The executioner tries out the blade: he puts a log in the head hole, then drops the blade, and the log is split clean in two. |
 | Torres cannot believe what she is seeing. |
 | She turns, looking for help, and realises that the Clown is the one in charge. It is really he who has ordered the execution. |
 | The troupe seize Kim. He struggles as they propel him towards a grotesquely pink guillotine. He is about to executed!
"Harry! Harry! Harry!" Torres screams and tries to reach him but a clown seizes her and stops her. "Harry! Harry! Harry!" |  |
 | The carnival folk jeer and clap. Kim's head is put in the guillotine. The Little Woman dusts it. The Clown looks on, delighted. |  |
 | Suddenly a voice shouts out: "Stop!" Viorsa and the other two Kohl rush in. The other two Kohl are a physician (male) and a programmer (female). "They're aliens, and they won't be alone. Kill them, and their shipmates will shut down the program." |
| The Clown orders: "Let him go."
The troupers are disappointed. Harry is released from the guillotine. He feels his throat gingerly. Viorsa: "We knew this would happen someday, that a ship would find us. It was only a matter of time." Clown: "Only a matter of time, yes." Viorsa: "Who knows what kind of people they are? Who knows what will happen to this world if you hurt them?" Clown: "I do. I know." He orders: "Bring them here, bring them here, bring them here, bring them here." To Torres: "You're like me, a little of this and a little of that. Ooh, my, what a temper. That's from your mother's side, isn't it? Yes, you see, I know everything!" He produces a bunch of artificial flowers for her. She is not amused. "This is my world, my festival, and you're here without an invitation." Torres: "What is going on? Who is he?" Clown: "You will talk to me! I speak for them, and I speak for you now. You don't understand that yet. You don't accept it, but you will." Kim: "Are you a lifeform or some kind of computer virus that penetrated this system?" The Clown and his hangers-on, the carnival folk, burst out laughing. |
 | Clown : "A virus, a virus, he thinks I am a virus, a virus, a virus. Well, perhaps, I'll be a virus today." He sneezes. The carnival people play along with him - when he laughs, they laugh, when he is sad, they are sad. He is mercurial, frivolously minded but dangerous and unpredictable; he sounds harmless, the next moment menacing. Referring to Kim: "Oh, this one's got a mind full of technical and operational thoughts and ideas. Harry knows viruses." |
| Viorsa begs the Clown: "Stop this." The Clown ignores him.
Clown to Kim and Torres: "I know you came here to get them and take them away. But if you do that, we'll all disappear." Kim: "Disappear?" He works it out: "Because you're character's created by this program, and once their minds stop interacting with the system, you won't exist any more." Clown: "Ah, see the technical mind at work. It seeks diagnostics, data analysis. Well, here's some more data for your mind to analyse and diagnose, Harry. Yes, I am merely what has been created and is being created by his brain," he points at the individuals, "his brain, her brain, and now yours, and yours." The computer interface suddenly appears. "What? What's this doing here now?" He turns on Torres and Kim: "This is your work!" Torres: "That's our wake-up call. It's been a real pleasure, but we're leaving." To Kim: "Come on!" Clown calls out: "If you leave, one of them will die. One of them will die. Try it and see. If you leave," he points a finger at the male physician, who looks terrified, "he dies." A scared Viorsa tells Torres and Kim: "He can do it. He's already killed two of our colleagues." Torres: "How is that possible?" Clown: "I cut off their heads." Torres: "But none of this is real." Clown: "Of course it's real, as real as a nightmare." Kim realises: "The two we found dead - both suffered from massive heart attacks." Clown: "Heart attack. Now, what might cause a heart attack? Hmm. Unmanageable stress, perhaps? Unmanageable fear? The fear of losing a head, perhaps?!" Kim realises: "You scared them to death." The Clown takes a bow. |
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