Author, Author

A new communications link gives Voyager's crew a few minutes a day to speak with family on Earth, and the Doctor uses it to send his holonovel, “Photons Be Free”, to a publisher. Set on the USS Vortex, it follows a holographic doctor abused by a crew who look a lot like Voyager's, including a cruel captain and an adulterous helmsman. The real crew is hurt, and Tom answers with a parody of his own. The Doctor agrees to revise the story, but the publisher, Broht, releases the original anyway. The Doctor fights for control of his work, and a Federation arbitrator hears the case. He stops short of declaring the Doctor a person, but rules that he is an artist with the right to control his creation. In the final scene, a group of Mark I holograms on a distant asteroid discuss the novel.