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Personal Log entry, Cadet Icheb, Star date 54266.9
Lieutenant Paris told Seven the whole story of the "Reg" hologram, and she shared it with me. We were right that something had gone wrong with the transmission from the Pathfinder Project. Lieutenant Barclay did try to send a holographic representation of himself to Voyager, but the transmission failed. That was why the datastream never arrived here that first month. Lieutenant Barclay thought his program was too large, so he reduced it in size and sent it again the following month. That never arrived here, either. The "Reg" who came to us had been the original holographic program. It had been stolen and tampered with by Ferengi "businsessmen" who planned to steal Seven's nanoprobes and sell them to the "highest bidder."
Starfleet never did have a plan for Voyager to travel through a geodesic fold inside a red giant star. We were right to question "Reg" about how the changes he told us to make could protect us. If we had tried going through the red giant, the ship would probably arrive in the Alpha Quadrant intact, but every living thing inside the ship would be dead. The Ferengi plan didn't require any of us to be alive. In fact, it would be easier for them if all of us were dead. They could collect Seven's nanoprobes from her corpse. That's why, after the plan fell apart, "Reg" kidnapped Seven and tried to take her through the star in the escape pod. Perhaps it's a good thing "Reg" didn't realize Aimee and I had nanoprobes just like Seven's in our bodies. He might have tried to kidnap both of us, too.
Lieutenant Barclay helped us out again, but this time, Tom Paris's father, Admiral Owen Paris, and an officer from the USS Enterprise named Commander Deanna Troi, worked with him. The Doctor met them both when he made his "house call" to Dr. Lewis Zimmerman on Jupiter Station several months ago. When they interrogated an accessory to the crime, she revealed enough for Starfleet to figure out what was happening. The real Lieutenant Barclay impersonated his own hologram, sending the Ferengi a warning that Captain Janeway was going to "get them" if they went through with their plan. They tried to run away, but Starfleet officers caught up with them and arrested them.
So an imitation Lieutenant Barclay was imitated by the real Lieutenant Barclay to save everyone on Voyager from death. I haven't been able to assimilate what all of that means yet. Fortunately, Seven told me she's having trouble understanding it all herself.
I'm not clear on why the real Barclay hologram was coming to Voyager in the first place. I heard he has a history of something called holographic program addiction, but maybe he just wanted to have a chance to visit with us. A rumor went around the ship he has a pet feline he's named after Neelix. The first time I heard it I thought it was a joke, but Neelix told me it's true. He has a picture of the cat in his quarters. Lieutenant Barclay sent it to him. Neelix showed it to me. Before the datastream started, Lieutenant Barclay had no idea what a Talaxian would look like, but Neelix thinks the cat does have "a Talaxian look to his whiskers." Neelix doesn't mind having a cat for a "namesake." That's the way Neelix is.
According to Tom, this is the same Lieutenant Barclay who made the technological breakthrough that led to the development of the datastream, which allows Voyager to maintain contact with the Alpha Quadrant. I guess we owe him the chance to visit us, even if he can't do it in person yet. I hope I'll get the chance to meet him when we arrive in the Alpha Quadrant, whenever that may be. We still expect it to take years for us to get there.
End personal log entry.
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