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STAR TREK: VOYAGER

Caretaker

Stardate: 48315.6

In the late 24th century, a renegade group known as the Maquis operate outside the law to right what they see as Federation injustices. After infiltrating a Maquis cell to apprise Starfleet of the group's activities, Lieutenant Tuvok, along with the crew of a ship commanded by the Maquis captain Chakotay, disappear in an area of space known as the Badlands. Tuvok's commanding officer, Captain Janeway, leads a mission to find the Vulcan lieutenant, enlisting the aid of Starfleet prisoner Tom Paris, a former Maquis member, to guide her ship, the Voyager, through the Badlands.

Considered a traitor by most of Voyager's crew, Paris strikes up a friendship with Ensign Harry Kim, a naive young Starfleet Academy grad. Kim learns that Paris was drummed out of Starfleet after his piloting error caused the deaths of three officers. The outcast joined the ranks of the Maquis, but was soon arrested by Federation authorities.

After reaching the Badlands, Voyager encounters an inexplicable phenomenon that sends the ship hurtling to the Delta Quadrant, located 70,000 light years from home. The catapult effect kills a number of crewmembers, including the Chief Medical Officer, who is replaced by an Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) that attends to the wounded. But the EMH has barely begun his work when the entire crew of Voyager is transported to what appears to be a pastoral farm, populated by friendly humans. But it's only an illusion; the farm is actually the interior of the Array, a huge space station, and the residents are holograms. The crew is imprisoned within a strange laboratory facility, alongside the missing Maquis.

After being subjected to a painful examination, the crews of Voyager and the Maquis vessel are returned to their respective ships, docked outside the Array. But two crewpersons are missing: Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres, the half-Klingon, half-human engineer from the Maquis vessel. Returning to the "farm," Janeway confronts the only remaining inhabitant, an old man playing a banjo. But the man cares nothing about their dilemma and offers them no information about the missing officers.

Noting that the Array is sending energy pulses toward the fifth planet of a neighboring system, Janeway sets course in that direction. Far beneath the surface of that planet, an ailing Kim and Torres regain consciousness in a medical facility. But what they're doing there -- and why -- they have yet to discover.

En route to the fifth planet of a neighboring system, Voyager's crew encounters Neelix, a Talaxian scavenger. He explains that the Array has been bringing ships into the region for many months. Neelix guesses that the "Caretaker," who controls the Array, may have sent the missing crewmembers to the Ocampa, a race that lives two miles below the surface of the fifth planet. Neelix volunteers to be their guide and they accept.

Meanwhile, Kim and Torres are being cared for in the Ocampa medical facility. Although they now live in a subterranean society, the Ocampa inhabited the planet's surface until it was struck by an environmental disaster 500 years ago. Since that time, they have lived underground, with all their needs provided by the man they refer to as the Caretaker.

Beaming down to the planet's surface, Neelix introduces Janeway to the Kazon, a savage alien species that has taken possession of the arid Ocampan world. Janeway asks Jabin, the Kazon leader, if he can help them, but he refuses.

Neelix is hoping Jabin will trade Kes, an Ocampan woman he is holding captive, for some of Voyager's precious water. But the Kazon are more interested in obtaining all of Voyager's technology -- forcibly. When Jabin tries to take the crew hostage, Neelix helps them escape and beam back to the ship, along with Kes.

Kim and Torres persuade an Ocampan nurse to show them a route that could lead to the surface. On Voyager, Kes agrees to lead Janeway and the others through the tunnels to her underground city to search for the pair.

As the Array increases the rate of the energy pulses that power the city, Kim and Torres begin their journey, narrowly missing the search party from Voyager. Tuvok theorizes that the increased activity of the Array may indicate that the Caretaker is dying; he is clearly attempting to give them a surplus of power that will sustain the Ocampa after he is gone.

The search is complicated by a new turn of events. The Array is now firing a weapon at the planet to seal up all of the energy conduits, the tunnels that provide the only access to the city. This will protect the Ocampans, but prevent the others from escaping. Splitting up, Paris, Neelix and Kes find Kim and Torres, and send them up to Voyager. Then Paris and Neelix go back for Janeway, Tuvok and Chakotay. Chakotay's skepticism towards Paris' loyalty is erased when Paris saves his life.

Returning to the Array, Janeway again encounters the old man, whom she realizes is the Caretaker. He explains that he was bringing beings from across the galaxy to the Array in the hopes of finding a compatible species with which he could procreate, thus providing the Ocampa with someone to care for them after he dies. But no species has been a match so far.

Janeway tries to convince the Caretaker to send Voyager and the Maquis ship back home, but he refuses. Apparently, the Caretaker wants to destroy the Array so that it won't fall into the invading Kazon's hands. But he dies before he can carry out his plan, and Janeway is left to decide whether to use the Array to get home -- which would leave it intact for the Kazon -- or to destroy it and save the Ocampa. She chooses what seems to be the only moral option and makes a mortal enemy of the Kazon.

With Chakotay's ship destroyed in the battle with the Kazon, Janeway asks the Maquis to become part of Voyager's crew. She also allows Neelix and Kes to stay aboard. With Chakotay her First Officer, Tom Paris reinstated as a Starfleet lieutenant, and Torres and Kim cured by the Emergency Medical Hologram, Janeway and her new crew set course for the long trip home, 70,000 light-years away.

Parallax

Stardate: 48439.7

Torres is reprimanded by Chakotay after she ends a dispute in engineering by breaking the nose of a Starfleet officer named Carey. But despite her volatile nature, Chakotay has faith in the Klingon woman's skills, and he recommends Torres to Janeway for the position of Chief Engineer. Janeway is surprised, but before she can consider the recommendation, the Voyager is jolted as it enters a region of spatial distortions. A short time later, it comes upon a ship that is trapped in the event horizon of a quantum singularity: the powerful energy field surrounding a collapsed star.

While the engineering staff tries to figure out a way to help the other ship, Janeway questions the capability of Chakotay's Maquis officers. Still, she agrees to consider Torres for the engineering slot.

Realizing that Voyager doesn't have enough power to rescue the ship on its own, the crew heads away from the singularity to get help, but before long they find themselves heading back toward the same collapsed star. Again Voyager moves away, and again the ship finds itself back where it started.

As tensions rise between Maquis and Starfleet crewmembers, Torres works with Carey to figure out what's happening. Noting the peculiar effects of the singularity on Voyager's holographic doctor, Torres comes up with an idea that may allow them to contact the crew of the trapped ship, which, in turn, may provide clues to their own predicament. Torres' plan works, but when they finally hear from the other ship, they discover that it's Voyager itself! They've been looking at a distorted reflection of themselves and it's Voyager itself that's trapped in the singularity. But how do they get out?

Before long, Torres discovers that another ship which appears to be caught in the reflective distortion is actually a mirror image of Voyager. She realizes that the ship must return to the "tear" in the singularity where they entered, and exit before the star collapses, forever trapping them inside. Using a dekyon beam fired from a shuttlecraft piloted by Janeway and Torres, they force the opening wide enough for Voyager to escape. Because of her tempered initiative and creative approach to saving the ship, Torres is given the Chief Engineer's post, and Lt. Carey is among the first to congratulate her.

Time and Again

Stardate: Unknown

During the night shift, as Paris presses Kim to join him on a double date, the ship is shaken by a huge shockwave. Investigating its origins, the crew finds a nearby planet where a cataclysmic explosion recently wiped out all life. Beaming down, the Away Team discovers that the detonation has actually fractured subspace. But before they can react to this dangerous revelation, Paris and Janeway find themselves transported back in time to the day before the explosion.

While the crew tries to figure out how to retrieve the missing officers, Janeway orders Paris not to warn the residents of the planet about the approaching disaster, since that would violate the Federation's Prime Directive. Seeking their own way back to Voyager, the pair head for a polaric ion power station, the site of the future explosion. There, they inadvertently become caught up in a clash between the authorities and a group of protesters who later accuse them of being government infiltrators. Disbelieving Janeway's claim that they are about to trigger a major accident, they continue to move forward with their plan to sabotage the power station.

In the meantime, a troubled Kes reveals that her latent Ocampan psychic abilities seem to have been sensitized by the accident. She accompanies the Away Team as they attempt to track Janeway and Chakotay's movements being made in the past.

The protesters force Janeway and Paris to accompany them to the plant, where they shoot their way in. Paris is wounded during the scuffle, but Janeway leaves him to follow the protesters, hoping to stop the devastating explosion.

On Kes' recommendation, Chakotay's crew goes to the flashpoint of the blast and uses a polaric beam to "cut through" subspace and find the missing crewmembers. When Janeway sees their polaric beam, she realizes that it wasn't the protesters who caused the accident -- it was the Away Team's attempt to rescue her! Janeway uses her phaser to blunt the impact of the beam. At the instant she succeeds in sealing the opening, time is "reset," and the crew finds itself back on Voyager, a few seconds before the shockwave first hit the ship. None the wiser for their experience, Paris urges Kim to join him on a double date, and Kes finds herself strangely relieved that a nearby planet is teeming with life.

Phage

Stardate: 48532.4

During an Away Team survey of a planetoid that seems to be rich in raw dilithium, Neelix is attacked and left for dead. The other members of the team find him and beam him up to Sickbay, where the Doctor reports that the Talaxian's lungs have been removed. With no other alternatives, the Doctor fits Neelix with a set of holographic lungs. They'll keep him alive, but require him to remain confined in an isotropic restraint in Sickbay for the rest of his life.

Janeway leads an Away Team back to the planetoid, where they discover a medical lab filled with harvested organs. Unfortunately, Neelix's lungs are not among them. Minutes later, an alien ship speeds away from the planet, with Voyager hot in pursuit.

In Sickbay, a despondent Neelix is having difficulty adjusting to his situation, but he urges Kes to still go on with her life regardless. Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram, still serving as the starship's only doctor, admits to Kes that he's having difficulty adjusting to the demands of being a full-time physician. Kes' intelligent, soothing advice makes the Doctor think that the Ocampan might make a good medical assistant.

When confronted, the aliens admit that they stole Neelix's lungs, but defend their actions by recounting the battle that their species -- the Vidiians -- have fought for years against the "Phage," a gruesome disease that destroys their genetic codes and cellular structure. Unable to defeat the Phage, they have learned to survive by scavenging organs from healthier species to replace their own diseased tissues. Unfortunately, Neelix's lungs have already been transplanted into one of the Vidiian's bodies. Unwilling to sentence the Vidiian to death to regain Neelix's chance for life, Janeway reluctantly releases the scavengers.

Grateful to the Captain for sparing them, the Vidiians offer to help Neelix with their superior medical technology. With their assistance, Kes is able to donate one of her lungs to Neelix, allowing him to live a normal life. After the successful procedure, the Doctor tells Kes that Janeway has granted permission for the Ocampan to begin training as a medical assistant.

The Cloud

Stardate: 48546.2

Eager to raise the morale of the crew, Janeway jumps at the chance to explore a nebula emitting a high level of omicron particles, which might prove useful for the ship's energy reserves. But shortly after Voyager enters the cloud-like formation, it encounters an energy barrier that brings the ship to a dead stop. Breaking through, the ship continues its penetration of the nebula's inner reaches, only to be bombarded by peculiar globules that attach themselves to the hull. With the globules beginning to drain the starship's energy reserves, Janeway orders the crew to leave the nebula, but this time they can't get past the energy barrier until they blast their way out with a photon torpedo.

The excitement over, Paris invites Kim to tag along for some rest and recreation in Sandrine's, a holodeck recreation of a French bar that Paris frequented in his Academy days. In the meantime, Torres spends her time analyzing one of the globules that attached itself to the hull. Surprised at the results, she confirms her findings with the Doctor and then notifies the Captain.

The globules are organic elements of a much larger lifeform, she explains. In other words, the nebula was actually a living entity and the phenomena they encountered were part of the entity's natural defense systems. Concerned that the encounter with Voyager may have caused the lifeform serious injury, Janeway proposes returning and repairing the harm they've done. The Doctor tells her that the organic samples seem to indicate that the lifeform has the capacity to regenerate, given the appropriate stimulation.

Returning to the "nebula," Voyager re-enters and prepares to irradiate the wound with a nucleonic beam. But they're interrupted when the lifeform's natural defense systems again attack the ship, forcing them away from the wound. Although the ship sustains damage, they are eventually able to return to the injury site. The Doctor suggests a method of "suturing" the wound, which they manage to do after distracting the entity's defense systems with a microprobe. Just before the wound seals over, Voyager escapes from the cloud and sets course for a planet where they can replenish their depleted energy reserves. En route, Janeway joins Paris and her other senior staff officers at Sandrine's, where everyone is surprised with her pool playing expertise.

Eye of the Needle

Stardate: 48579.4

When Ensign Kim finds a wormhole that might lead to the Alpha Quadrant, the crew believes they may have found a rapid route home. Although the opening to the tunnel in space proves too small for Voyager to fly through, Janeway decides to launch a microprobe into it to see what's on the other side.

To Kim's disappointment, the probe gets stuck in a gravitational eddy before it makes it all the way through, but he's surprised by readings indicating the probe is being scanned by someone on the other side. Janeway suggests they transmit a message through the probe, hoping it will be picked up by whoever is scanning it. Before long, they receive a subspace response -- from the Alpha Quadrant, 70,000 light years away!

In the meantime, Kes begins working closely with the Doctor in Sickbay. She's surprised by how rudely Voyager's staff treats him because he's "only a hologram." She asks the Captain if the Doctor can be treated with the same respect as crewmembers. Janeway agrees, and tells the Doctor he should begin thinking of himself as a member of the crew. What's more, she's giving him control over his own deactivation sequence, and his first taste of independence.

When Voyager finally succeeds in achieving voice contact with the Alpha Quadrant ship, they are surprised to find it's a Romulan vessel. The Romulan captain, a scientist named Telek, is suspicious of the communication from a Starfleet vessel, thinking at first that they must be Federation spies. But once they've established a visual link and the two captains can communicate eye-to-eye, Telek becomes more sympathetic to their plight, saying he'll consider relaying messages to the crew's families back home.

Anxious to explore every avenue that will facilitate getting home, Torres explains that she might be able to "piggyback" a transporter beam onto the visual link, which theoretically would allow the crew to beam to the Romulan ship in the Alpha Quadrant. To test the theory, the Romulan captain allows himself to be transported onto Voyager.

Regrettably, Tuvok discovers the crew has actually beamed the Romulan from 20 years in the past, due to a time rift in the wormhole. Knowing it's pointless to transport the crew back in time because it would wreak havoc with the timeline of that era, Janeway asks the Romulan to relay the crew's messages to their families in 20 years. He agrees, and returns to his ship. Later, a database check reveals that the Romulan died four years before he was able to deliver the messages. Although disappointed, the crew presses forward.

Ex Post Facto

Stardate: Unknown

Kim returns to the Voyager from the Banean homeworld with shocking news: Paris has been found guilty of murder. As his punishment, he's been sentenced to relive the crime from his victim's perspective every 14 hours, thanks to memory engrams implanted in his brain by a Banean doctor. Kim recounts how he and Paris were introduced to an engineering physicist named Tolen Ren, who they hoped could help them repair a damaged piece of equipment. Paris took an immediate interest in Ren's young, attractive wife Lidell, and when Ren turned up dead, he was arrested.

When Janeway orders Voyager to the Banean planet, Neelix warns her that they are likely to be approached by a Numiri patrol vessel, since the Numiri are at war with the Banea. They are stopped by the Numiri, who offer a warning and then allow the ship to proceed. Janeway meets with the Banean Minister, who explains that the evidence -- the murder as seen through Ren's own eyes -- undeniably proves Paris's guilt. Paris vehemently denies any wrongdoing. As Janeway and Tuvok talk to him, he enters another cycle and once again relives the murder, this time losing consciousness. The Baneans grant Janeway permission to take Paris back to Sickbay for a medical evaluation.

The Doctor reports that the neurological implant is causing serious brain damage. While Paris remains unconscious, Tuvok launches his own murder investigation. He interviews Ren's wife, who says she saw Paris kill her husband. Later, Paris tells Tuvok that he thinks she spiked his cup of tea the night of the murder. The conversation is interrupted by a Numiri attack that the Voyager crew successfully fends off. Tuvok performs a Vulcan mind meld with Paris and relives the 14-hour cycle. When he emerges from the experience, Tuvok declares that he is convinced of Paris's innocence. What's more, he knows why the Numiri chose to attack Voyager.

Eager to clear Paris, and wondering why the Numiri would assault Voyager, Tuvok gathers the key players in the murder mystery. He deduces that a Banean traitor altered Ren's memory engrams, since Paris' daily flashbacks include equations taken from Ren's weapons research. Thus, Numiri agents used Ren's brain to send secret data to the enemy. Having relived the crime from the victim's viewpoint, Tuvok also realizes that the real killer was shorter than Paris, and exposes the Banean doctor who implanted the engrams as both Lidell's secret lover and Ren's killer. A grateful Paris later thanks Tuvok for saving his life.

Emanations

Stardate: 48623.5

While exploring an uncharted asteroid, Chakotay, Kim and Torres stumble upon what appears to be an alien burial ground. Not wanting to desecrate the site, Chakotay and his team decide to make some quick anthropological observations and then return to Voyager. But before they finish their study, a subspace vacuole -- a dimensional distortion -- forms and begins to fill the cavern they're investigating. Alarmed, Chakotay orders Voyager to beam them up. But when the Away Team appears on the ship, there is only Chakotay, Torres and the body of a recently deceased woman.

In the meantime, Kim finds himself trapped inside a ceremonial burial pod on an alien planet in another dimension; he has somehow switched places with the corpse. Freed from the pod, Kim is told that he's on the homeworld of the Vhnori people. The Vhnori think that Kim has come from the "Next Emanation," or afterlife, and they are disturbed when he reveals that he has just come from a place that contained the dead bodies of many Vhnori.

On Voyager, the Doctor is able to revive the corpse -- a woman named Ptera. When Ptera realizes that she is not in the Next Emanation with her deceased family members, she becomes hysterical. Later, she reveals that her people believe that when they die, the vacuoles take their bodies to another plane of reality. To learn that the distortions merely take their bodies to a barren asteroid is difficult to accept. Not long after, another vacuole forms, and deposits a second corpse onto the ship, and still later, a third.

After hearing Kim's story about the bodies on the asteroid, a Vhnori man named Hatil -- who was about to submit to euthanasia to ease his family's burden in caring for him -- changes his mind about dying. On Voyager, Ptera wants to be sent home, even if that means dying a second time. The crew attempts to beam her into a forming vacuole, but the procedure doesn't work and when they retrieve her, Ptera is dead.

Time is running out. The vacuoles are damaging the ship's warp core. If the crew doesn't find Kim soon, they'll have to leave him behind. On the Vhnori world, Kim figures out a way to escape. He'll take Hatil's place in a burial pod, allowing Hatil to fulfill his own escape option and Kim to transfer to his universe when the next vacuole delivers the occupant of the pod into the other dimension. The plan works, and Kim's body appears on Voyager, where the Doctor is able to revive him.

Prime Factors

Stardate: 48642.5

The crew beams aboard Gath Labin, a representative from Sikaris, a planet known for its outstanding hospitality. Gath invites the weary travelers to take a break from their duties on his homeworld. Knowing shore leave would do the crew good, Janeway orders Voyager to follow Gath back to Sikaris, where residents welcome them with open arms.

The Sikarians love to hear stories of other places and travels from visitors, and following Gath and Janeway's lead, the groups begin mixing. Kim is soon telling the Voyager story to a young woman named Eudana, who suggests they go somewhere else to be alone. Little does he realize she means a planet more than 40,000 light years away, thanks to the Sikarians' spatial trajector -- technology which can "fold" space to allow long-distance travel in an instant.

The Voyager crew are overjoyed, but then learn the Sikarians have their own prime directive which prevents them from sharing their technology with less advanced races. One Sikarian, Jaret Otel, offers Kim the technology in exchange for more Voyager "stories." But Janeway feels it's unethical to accept the technology from anyone other than Gath, the Sikarian leader. She decides to ask him to send Voyager as far as he can in exchange for the "stories." He refuses but invites Janeway and the crew to stay on his planet instead. The meeting ends on a sour note, and Janeway realizes they are no longer welcome.

After that, B'Elanna, Carey and Seska conspire to ignore Janeway's orders and take Jaret's offer -- and are shocked when Tuvok shows up to make the exchange and sacrifice his career if caught. The gamble is for naught when they find the trajector is incompatible with Federation technology. Janeway finds herself reprimanding not only her new hot-headed Engineer but her old and logical friend Tuvok. The Vulcan explains he sacrificed his own career so the crew could get home without Janeway compromising her ethics, but she rejects that "logic" and asks her confidant to never let her down again.

State of Flux

Stardate: 48658.2

While routinely exploring a new planet for foodstuffs, a cloaked Kazon-Nistrim ship is detected in orbit. Therefore, the Away Team is recalled but Chakotay can't find Seska. He locates her in a nearby cave, hiding from two Kazon. She had been gathering mushrooms and wandered from the group. Chakotay is hurt in the exchange of fire but Seska gets them both beamed aboard safely.

Rejecting Neelix's choice of foods and recipes, Seska and some other Maquis later break into the food reserves and steal the mushrooms she found to make mushroom soup. She privately brings a pot to the recuperating Chakotay, but the romantic mood between the former Maquis lovers is broken when Neelix reports the break-in. Chakotay angrily reprimands everyone involved, including himself as an accessory. Seska is stunned at his reaction and leaves, teasing him that her eye is now on Kim.

Three days later, the Voyager gets a distress call from a Kazon warship. It turns out to be the one they just encountered, but with only one survivor amid devastation that was caused by Federation technology. Someone on Voyager had to have given them the technology.

Against orders, Seska beams aboard the Kazon warship to retrieve the Federation equipment and is injured. In Sickbay, a routine blood test reveals racial factors of Cardassian origin, not Bajoran, but she explains a bone marrow transplant from a Cardassian woman caused the change during a childhood case of Orkett's Disease.

Another Kazon ship responds to the distress call, and Janeway allows visitors for the ailing Kazon. But the Maje and his aide kill him and an angry Janeway sends them back, ignoring their claims to the damaged ship so it can be checked further for clues. Seska and Carey are now suspects in the espionage because the technology was sent from an Engineering station they both had access to. B'Elanna Torres retrieves the device from the wrecked vessel: a simple food replicator that rejected a Kazon interface with disastrous results.

Chakotay and Tuvok set a trap to find the guilty Engineer -- finally revealed to be Seska. She is indeed a cosmetically altered Cardassian who had rejected Janeway's nobility and instead sought allies among the powerful Kazon with the gift of technology. Before she can be arrested, though, Seska beams herself aboard the departing Kazon ship.

Somewhat shaken by the turn of events, Chakotay ruefully wonders aloud about his old Maquis crew: if Tuvok spied for Starfleet and Seska was a Cardassian, was anyone aboard working for him?

Heroes and Demons

Stardate: 48693.2

When Voyager comes across a protostar, Janeway has samples of its photonic energy beamed aboard for study and possible use in power converters. After a small glitch, B'Elanna Torres corrects a breach in the transporter's containment field and safely finishes the samples' beam-in. But in calling Kim to assist her studies, she learns that ship sensors cannot detect him in the Holodeck or anywhere else aboard.

Tuvok and Chakotay enter the Holodeck to find no sign of Kim but discover his program still running: a version of the English epic poem "Beowulf." Confronted by characters from "Beowulf," they join in to fight the creature in the story and also disappear.

Rather than lose any more organic crewmembers, Janeway sends the holographic Doctor to unravel the mystery as his first away mission. Though he puts up a brave front, Kes gets him to admit he's unsure of himself and then offers encouragement, helping him select a name from an admired role model: Schweitzer. Once inside he begins to get the rhythm of the role but is uncomfortable with romantic advances from a female character, Freya, until she dies in his arms after taking a sword blow meant for him. Although both are holograms, he is clearly moved by her last word: his newly chosen name.

Inspired to try again, the Doctor realizes that an alien lifeform was snared in the energy samples taken earlier and, escaping through the field breach, retaliated by taking form in the Holodeck as the Beowulf monster and converting any Voyager crewmembers into energy. When the "sample" beings are returned to the alien, Kim, Tuvok and Chakotay all reappear -- leading to a commendation from Janeway for the Doctor. He decides not to take the Schweitzer name because Freya died saying it.

Cathexis

Stardate: 48734.2

An assault on a shuttlecraft manned by Tuvok and Chakotay leaves both men injured and Chakotay apparently brain-dead. The Doctor explains that something has drained all the bio-neural energy from the first officer's brain. The prognosis looks grim, but Torres places a Native American medical wheel near Chakotay's bed, in the hopes that it will help her friend "find his way home" from his illness.

After Tuvok recovers, he reveals that they were attacked by an unidentified ship that emerged from a dark matter nebula. Janeway orders Voyager to head back to the nebula to investigate, but before they reach it, the ship changes course. The navigational computer implicates Paris, but he denies having made the change. A short time later, Torres initiates a warp core shutdown, but like Paris, she can't remember instigating the actions. When the Doctor examines the pair, he discovers that a strange brainwave pattern was superimposed on them during the tampering incidents -- which could mean that an alien entity momentarily seized control of their minds. As a precaution, Janeway transfers the ship's command codes to a non-organic source: the Doctor.

When Kes tells Janeway that she has been "sensing" an alien presence on the ship, Tuvok suggests that he perform a mind-meld with the Ocampan to help her focus her telepathic abilities. But a short time later, the two are found unconscious, the result of an energy discharge similar to the one that hit the shuttle, according to Tuvok. A short time later, someone disables the Doctor's program. With him out of the picture, the command codes revert to Janeway, who decides to divide them between herself and Tuvok. The unseen force tries to take over Janeway, but the crew incapacitates her. It jumps to Kim, and then Lieutenant Durst, before Tuvok finally stuns everyone on the bridge.

A series of clues turns up in quick succession, all of which imply that Tuvok has been lying to the crew. There was no ship in the nebula, and Kes' injury now appears to have been the result of a Vulcan nerve pinch. Under increasing suspicion, Tuvok takes over command of the ship and orders it into the nebula, where he says the Komar -- others of his kind -- await. But before they can get there, something makes Torres eject the ship's warp core. Since they now know that Tuvok, under the control of the Komar, has been trying to bring them all to the nebula all along, who has been acting against him, trying to keep Voyager out? All signs seem to indicate that it is Chakotay.

Realizing that the Komar want to extract their collective neural energy, the crew manages to overpower the Vulcan at last. The lifeform leaves his body to join the others of its kind in the nebula. Voyager's crew needs to leave the area, but since the possessed Tuvok plotted the course in, they are uncertain how to get out of the nebula.

Down in Sickbay, Neelix is suddenly compelled to rearrange the markers on Chakotay's medicine wheel. Janeway realizes that it is a message from her first officer, a map showing them the correct course. They escape from the nebula just in time. Later, the Doctor finds a way to reintegrate Chakotay's displaced neural energy with his body and he revives at last, pleased that he was able to help protect the crew, despite his disembodied condition.

Faces

Stardate: 48784.2

When an Away Team consisting of Paris, Torres and Lt. Durst fails to return, Chakotay, Kim and Tuvok beam down to the planet where the trio was working to investigate. Chakotay traces the missing crewmembers to some caves, but can't break through the Vidiian force field to find them.

In an underground lab, a Vidiian scientist named Sulan has extracted Torres's Klingon genetic material to create an all-Klingon version of her. He hopes to create a cure for the deadly Phage disease infecting his race by injecting a pure Klingon subject with the disease. But his interest in Torres is more than purely scientific, a fact the Klingon woman soon picks up on.

Trapped in another Vidiian cell, Paris and Durst are stunned when a new prisoner is brought in. It's an all-human version of Torres -- the other "half" of Torres that was left after Sulan removed the Klingon genetic material. The guards return and forcibly remove Durst from the cell. Although Paris tries unsuccessfully to help his friend, all the human Torres can do is cringe in fear.

The next time Sulan comes to visit the Klingon Torres, she is horrified to see him wearing Durst's face. He has killed the lieutenant and grafted the dead man's face over his own diseased features in the hopes that Torres will find him more attractive. Instead, her anger helps her to break the bonds restraining her. She attacks Sulan and escapes from the lab.

Paris and the human Torres are sent out on a labor detail, but when she can no longer work, she's sent back to the barracks. Her Klingon counterpart finds her there, and helps her to escape. In turn, the human Torres comes up with a plan to deactivate the shields for the whole facility, which would allow Voyager to beam them up. The two beings acknowledge that each has unique qualities that contribute to the whole being.

Disguised as a Vidiian, Chakotay rescues Paris and they reunite with the two Torreses. Just as they are about to beam back up to the ship, Sulan fires and the Klingon Torres takes the hit to save her human self. She dies after beaming up with the others, but the Doctor is able to use her Klingon DNA to restore Torres back to her original self.

Jetrel

Stardate: 48832.1

Neelix is aghast when a Haakonian named Ma'Bor Jetrel contacts the Voyager and asks to meet with him. The Haakonians had fought a long, destructive war against his people 15 years earlier. Jetrel is the scientist who helped them conquer Talax by developing the Metreon Cascade, a superweapon that killed over 300,000 people on Talax's moon Rinax, including Neelix's family. But now Jetrel says he has come forward to examine Talaxians like Neelix who helped evacuate survivors from Rinax, in the process exposing themselves to high concentrations of metreon isotopes. Although he considers Jetrel a monster, Neelix agrees to be examined, and is informed that he also has the fatal blood disease.

Later, Jetrel convinces Janeway to make a detour to the Talaxian system. Using the ship's transporter systems, Jetrel feels he may be able to develop a cure by retrieving samples of the Metreon cloud still surrounding Rinax. Janeway agrees, but Neelix is still bitter. He angrily condemns Jetrel for the devastation he's caused, only to learn that the scientist is also paying the price-he too has the disease and only has a few days to live.

The ship's arrival at Rinax opens old wounds for Neelix. He confesses to Kes that he's lied for years about being part of the Talaxian defense forces. He never reported for duty; instead, he spent the war hiding on Talax.

Later, Neelix seeks out Jetrel, only to find the Doctor deactivated and Jetrel covertly conducting experiments in the lab. Suspecting the worst of Jetrel, Neelix tries to notify Janeway, but the scientist renders him unconscious.

Jetrel heads for the transporter room, where he is confronted by the Captain. Jetrel pleads with Janeway to let him conclude his work and bring back the deceased Talaxian victims of Rinax. He believes that he can use the transporter to regenerate their disassociated remains, and confesses he came to Voyager as a pretext to use the ship's transporter; Neelix was falsely diagnosed and is fine.

Janeway allows Jetrel to proceed, but the improbable experiment fails. The scientist collapses, knowing that he will never be able to redeem himself. Neelix pays a last visit to Jetrel and tells him that he is forgiven, allowing the Haakonian to die with some semblance of peace.

Learning Curve

Stardate: 48846.5

When a Maquis engineer named Dalby disrupts power to the ship's energy grid by making an unauthorized repair, Janeway realizes that she can't expect Starfleet behavior from people who never went to the Academy. To bring the Maquis officers up to speed on Starfleet protocol, Janeway asks Tuvok to train a group of four recruits, including Dalby. Predictably, the Maquis recruits balk at Tuvok's by-the-book discipline until Chakotay forcefully gets the point across that this is not a voluntary exercise.

Like any good drill sergeant, Tuvok comes down hard on his Maquis charges, demanding regulation attire and behavior. Dalby complains to Torres about Tuvok's tough tactics, but Torres suggests that Dalby is afraid he can't cut it. The conversation is abruptly halted, however, when one of the ship's bio-neural gel packs malfunctions, the second time in days. Torres takes the pack to Sickbay, and the Doctor notes that the partially biological component has an infection and must be "cured" before it spreads to the rest of the ship's systems.

Tuvok's rigorous training sessions seem to work at a superficial level, but the Maquis are easily discouraged. Tuvok confesses to Neelix that he doesn't understand why his techniques, honed through years of instructing cadets at the Academy, aren't working. Neelix advises Tuvok to be more flexible in his approach.

While pondering the Talaxian's advice in the mess hall, Tuvok wonders if bacterial spores from Neelix's newly made homemade cheese is being absorbed by the ship's ventilation ducts, serving as the source of the gel pack's infection. The Doctor inspects the cheese, and Tuvok's hunch turns out to be correct.

Not long after, Tuvok and his students find themselves trapped in a Cargo Bay when another system falls victim to the virus. When the Voyager crew infuses the gel-packs with a plasma burst of heat to kill the infection, noxious vapors leak into the cargo bay where Tuvok and his recruits are stranded. Nearly overcome by the fumes, Tuvok helps three of the four cadets escape, then goes back for the incapacitated fourth. As the toxic gas ultimately overcomes him, his three black sheep finally band together to become an effective team, forcing open the door and rescuing both men. Later, Dalby notes that if Tuvok can break the rules sometimes, then maybe they could learn to follow protocol under his tutelage after all.

The 37's

Stardate: 48975.1

When a pickup truck from the 1930's inexplicably shows up in space, it's beamed aboard Voyager for closer inspection. Even more peculiar, the truck's radio is picking up an SOS distress call--but from where? Kim traces the signal to a nearby star system and Janeway orders the crew to lay in a course to the signaling planet. An unusual amount of interference in the upper atmosphere prevents them from beaming down, so Janeway tells Paris to land the ship on the planet's surface.

The Away Team follows the SOS to the cockpit of an airplane that was built during the same era as the truck. Beyond the plane, the crew finds a chamber containing eight humans in cryo-stasis units. All are dressed in 1930's attire, and one unit holds famed aviator Amelia Earhart, who disappeared with her navigator Fred Noonan on July 2, 1937. The eight humans are revived from suspended animation.

Once awake, the humans demand to know where they are and how they got there. After Janeway explains that they were probably abducted by aliens 400 years earlier, a suspicious Noonan and some of the others take the crew hostage. Hoping to convince them of the truth, Janeway gets Earhart to venture outside the chamber to see Voyager, but as soon as they do, they come under fire by two snipers on a hill.

Janeway quells the attack and learns the snipers are two humans who have mistaken the crew for the Briori: an alien race that kidnapped more than 300 people from Earth in 1937 and brought them to the planet as slaves. After a successful slave revolt chased the Briori off, the humans created a colony. However, they believed that the eight "37's" in Earhart's group were dead, and they left them in their cryo-stasis units for centuries.

The colonists offer the 37's and Voyager's crew the opportunity to remain on the Earth-like planet, and Janeway allows each member of her flock to choose for his or herself. Although Neelix and Chakotay are sure they want to go with Janeway, she can't be so sure about the other crewmembers, who debate the merits of settling on the planet. Ultimately, Amelia Earhart and the other 37's decide to stay with their "descendants," but to Janeway's relief, the entire Voyager crew opts to leave with her.

Initiations

Stardate: 49005.3

Janeway gives Chakotay permission to borrow a shuttlecraft so he can perform a solitary ritual commemorating his father's death. His vessel inadvertently drifts into Kazon-Ogla space and Chakotay is targeted by Kar, a Kazon youth attempting to earn his warrior name by killing the Federation trespasser. Instead, Chakotay destroys Kar's ship, but beams the boy aboard before it explodes. When Chakotay tries to return Kar to his people, he's taken hostage.

The Kazon view Kar with contempt, and Kar blames Chakotay for his fate. Dying in battle would have been more honorable and far preferable to his dismal future. Now, Kar may never win his warrior name. The Kazon leader, Razik, ominously informs Chakotay that "the execution is tonight." But later Razik tells Chakotay that he will free him, but only if he agrees to kill Kar. Chakotay refuses, overpowers Razik and demands the return of his shuttlecraft. Facing certain death himself, Kar leaves with Chakotay. Damaged by Kazon fire, they're forced to beam down to a nearby moon, which Kar says serves as a training base for the Kazon-Ogla. Back on Voyager, the crew, which has been looking for its missing first officer, finds traces of Chakotay's shuttlecraft and continues their search.

Kar helps Chakotay negotiate safely around the surface of the moon, which is riddled with booby traps as part of the Ogla training. Taking shelter in a cave, Kar waits until Chakotay falls asleep and then raises his weapon. But he finds himself unable to murder him.

Arriving at the moon, the Away Team runs into Razik and his henchmen, who offer to lead them to Chakotay and Kar. Razik hopes to trap the crew, but he isn't successful. Chakotay comes up with a plan to help Kar win his name, but Kar comes up with an alternative. Chakotay is not his enemy, Razik is. He kills the Ogla leader, and then Razik's second in command -- now the First Maje -- pronounces Kar a warrior. Before the crew beams back to Voyager, Kar warns Chakotay that the next time they meet, he won't hesitate to kill him.

Projections

Stardate: 48892.1

The program for the Emergency Medical Hologram is activated due to what the computer describes as a ship-wide emergency. When the Doctor asks the computer to scan for the crew, he learns that they were all forced to abandon ship. Later, he encounters Torres, who says that she and the Captain stayed behind to stop a warp core breach caused by a Kazon attack; the remaining crew escaped in lifepods. Informed that the injured captain needs his assistance, the Doctor is sent to the Bridge, courtesy of new holo-emitters installed throughout the ship.

After reviving Janeway, the Doctor is summoned to the mess hall to assist Neelix, who is engaged in battle with a Kazon soldier. After the scuffle, the holographic doctor is astonished to learn that he himself is bleeding. When queried, the computer insists that the Doctor is actually Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, the human who created Voyager's EMH. Stranger still, when the Captain tells the computer to shut down all of the ship's holographic systems, Janeway, Neelix, Torres and the Kazon soldier vanish -- but the Doctor remains intact.

Just then, Reg Barclay appears and introduces himself as Zimmerman's assistant. Barclay tells the Doctor that he is at Jupiter Station running a holodeck program, but something has gone wrong due to a radiation surge. He claims there's no Voyager lost in the Delta Quadrant; it's simply a program that Zimmerman created. He tells the Doctor that he must end the simulation before radiation from the accident kills him, and the only way to do so is by destroying Voyager.

At first, the Doctor flatly refuses. Yet Reg's arguments are persuasive, and soon the Doctor is prepared to fire his phaser at Voyager's warp core. Suddenly, Chakotay appears and orders the Doctor to lower his weapon, claiming that Barclay is lying.

Chakotay explains that there's been an accident on Voyager that affected the imaging system while the Doctor was in the holodeck. Chakotay says that Barclay himself is a simulation, and that if the Doctor listens to him, he'll wind up destroying his own program. The Doctor isn't sure whom to believe but delays acting on Barclay's advice long enough to prove that Chakotay's story is true. The problem is finally solved, and the Doctor is returned to Sickbay where he reflects on his unusual day.

Elogium

Stardate: 48921.3

When the ship encounters a swarm of space-dwelling lifeforms, the crew first opts to study them from a distance. But after the creatures draw Voyager into their midst, their unusual energy patterns create problems for many of the ship's systems and cause some very strange symptoms in Kes. First the Ocampan begins eating everything in sight. Later she becomes delirious, and her body goes through peculiar changes.

As the crew tries to figure out a way to move away from the lifeforms without harming them, the Doctor examines Kes and discovers that they are wreaking havoc with her metabolism. They are pushing her prematurely into the "elogium" -- the phase in which Ocampan women become fertile. The process occurs only once in an Ocampan's life, so if Kes ever wants to have a child, she must do so immediately.

Janeway and Chakotay discuss the implications of having babies on board Voyager, while Kes asks Neelix to father her child. Neelix's initial hesitation causes Kes to question whether he really wants a baby. Later, Neelix consults with Tuvok about the pros and cons of parenthood. Finally, he returns to Kes and tells her he's ready, only to discover that now she is having second thoughts.

Anxious to escape the swarm, the crew attempts to move away, but the swarm follows. Suddenly, an even larger version of the creatures appears and blocks Voyager's way. Bewildered at first, the crew realizes that it is a "suitor" for the swarm and that it thinks Voyager is a rival. Every aggressive move they make is met by a stronger countermove from the creature.

Finally, Chakotay suggests the ship act submissively by "rolling over." Happily, the plan works and the swarm moves away with the big creature. Later, Kes ultimately decides against having a baby, but is relieved by the Doctor's belief that her elogium may have been a false alarm brought on by the electrophoretic field created by the swarm; it could recur later. Ironically, Janeway learns that an ensign named Wildman is pregnant, so the crew will soon welcome a new arrival after all.

Non Sequitur

Stardate: 49011

Harry Kim wakes up in 24th-century San Francisco and no one seems surprised to see him there -- not his girlfriend Libby, nor a local coffee shop owner named Cosimo, nor his friend Lieutenant Lasca, a fellow design specialist at Starfleet Headquarters. As the strange morning continues, Kim finds himself in an important meeting with high-ranking officers who want to hear Kim and Lasca's proposal for a new runabout.

Feigning illness, Kim leaves the meeting and tries to figure out how he got to Earth. A check of Starfleet records reveals that he never served on Voyager, which, as Kim well knows, has been reported missing in the Badlands. He also finds out that Paris isn't on the crew manifest; he's been paroled from the penal settlement that Janeway found him at and now lives in Marseilles. Kim heads to France, seeking answers only Paris can provide.

He locates his friend at the real Sandrine's, but to Kim's chagrin, Paris doesn't know him. Still, Paris is intrigued by Kim's story. His last recollection is being in a shuttlecraft heading back to Voyager, and Kim begs Paris to accompany him to Starfleet Headquarters where they can run a computer simulation and learn what happened to him; Paris refuses. When Kim arrives home, he is apprehended by Lasca who suspects he may be a Maquis spy. Until the matter can be settled, an electronic anklet is place on Kim to monitor his whereabouts.

Later, Cosimo tells a distraught Kim that he was sent to keep watch over him after Kim's shuttlecraft intersected one of his species' "time-streams." The incident scrambled Kim's time-line and sent him back to the life he would have known if he hadn't joined Voyager's crew. In an effort to help Kim, Cosimo tells him where to find the time-stream that could take him back. Kim says goodbye to Libby and makes a run for it, only to be apprehended by a Starfleet security guard. Thankfully, Paris arrives on the scene and helps Kim out. The pair then flee.

Needing a ship to recreate his shuttle accident and ride the time-stream back to Voyager, Kim boards a runabout at Starfleet Headquarters. With Paris at the helm, he recreates the conditions of the incident that sent him to Earth. Suddenly, he finds himself back on his original shuttlecraft. Kim is beamed onto Voyager, where he resumes his normal life.

Twisted

Stardate: Unknown

During a surprise birthday party for Kes at Sandrine's Bar in the holodeck, the Voyager encounters a peculiar spatial distortion wave in space, which surrounds the ship. The phenomenon disables the vessel's main systems, including communications and the warp drive, and also seems to change Voyager's structural layout. As a result, Janeway can't find her way to the Bridge, Torres can't locate Engineering, and everyone in the crew is confused and frustrated.

Finding a small group of her staff near Sandrine's, Janeway calls an impromptu meeting to discuss their situation. Then Paris and Torres team up to find Engineering; Chakotay, Neelix, Janeway and Kim pair off to locate the Bridge; and Kes and the Doctor await word in Sandrine's. Paris and Torres manage to reach their goal but the others aren't as lucky. Chakotay finds Tuvok but loses Neelix, and Janeway is nearly dragged into an internal distortion by an unseen electromagnetic force.

Kim rescues Janeway and he gets her back to Sandrine's, where she loses consciousness. The spatial distortion continues to squeeze the ship, and Tuvok estimates that the unstoppable ring will crush the vessel in little more than an hour.

With Janeway still unconscious, Chakotay takes command. Torres attempts to trigger a warp shock pulse to save the ship, but instead of dispersing the spatial ring, it pulls it in even faster, surrounding Engineering and even the sanctuary in Sandrine's Bar.

Lacking any other options, Tuvok advises the crew to do nothing and allow the anomaly to twist its way through the bar. After it does, Janeway regains consciousness and explains that the distortion was trying to communicate with them. The ring leaves the ship as it originally found it, with no damage, then moves out into space. In its wake, the crew discovers that it left 20 million gigaquads of new information in the ship's computer.

Parturition

Stardate: 49068.5

After Kes asks Paris to be her flight instructor, he finds himself falling for her. A jealous Neelix picks up on the Lieutenant's crush, and instigates a messy fight with Paris in the mess hall. Despite -- or because of -- the friction between them, Janeway decides to send the sparring pair on a shuttlecraft mission to replenish food supplies. The most likely source is a planet surrounded by trigemic vapors, which can cause severe skin irritation.

As they approach the planet, electromagnetic disturbances in the atmosphere cause the shuttlecraft to lose power, and they're forced to make an emergency landing on the planet. Tracking the shuttle, Voyager's crew notes their problems and launches a search-and-rescue mission.

In order to lessen their exposure to the dangerous vapors on the planet's surface, Neelix and Paris seek refuge in a cave and seal themselves in. Back on Voyager, search efforts are hampered by an attack from an alien vessel that places itself between Voyager and the planet. The crew is ultimately able to disable the alien ship's weapons systems and proceed to the planet.

In the cave, Paris and Neelix cautiously explore their environment. They find footprints leading to a clutch of eggs. As they watch, a reptohumanoid creature hatches from one of them. With the baby's mother nowhere in sight, Neelix decides that it's their responsibility to care for it. But when the baby's heartbeat begins to weaken, Paris realizes that by sealing the cave, they've cut off the supply of vapors the newborn needs to survive. Opening it up, they manage to get some of the nutrients from the air into the baby's system and it gets stronger.

Bonded by their concern for the creature, Paris and Neelix resolve their differences as they wait for the crew to find them. There is only a limited window of opportunity for Voyager to beam them aboard, but when, at last, the "window" opens and Voyager is able to contact the pair, Paris and Neelix delay beaming up for the sake of the baby. Soon, one of the aliens shows up on the scene; it seems to be the baby's mother. As Paris and Neelix watch, she retrieves the newborn. Satisfied, the Away Team returns to Voyager, where the two new friends go off to have a celebratory drink.

Persistence of Vision

Stardate: Unknown

As the Voyager readies for a potentially dangerous encounter with the Botha, the Doctor orders an exhausted Captain Janeway to take some "R&R" in the holodeck. Janeway tries to get into her favorite holonovel, but before long, she is called back to the Bridge for first contact with the Botha. The Bothan representative gives the crew a chilly reception, but sets up a rendezvous to determine whether or not they will allow Voyager to pass through their space.

Later, Janeway thinks she sees Beatrice, the little girl from her holonovel, in one of the ship's corridors. Unable to attribute Beatrice's appearance to experiments the crew is performing on Voyager's imaging systems, Janeway wonders if she's seeing things. But then Kes sees Beatrice, too. Later, after Janeway hears the voice of her fiance Mark, she's attacked with a knife by Mrs. Templeton, another holonovel character. Again, Kes confirms the event.

Janeway puts Chakotay in charge of meeting with the Botha while she undergoes medical testing. Once again, the alien representative is hostile and this time, his ship engages the crew in a battle, leaving Voyager damaged. Leaving Sickbay, Janeway races to the Bridge, where the Bothan is on the viewscreen. She's stunned to see it's Mark.

At least, that's how it looks to her. But on the same viewscreen, Paris sees his disparaging father, Admiral Paris; Kim sees his girlfriend Libby; and Tuvok sees his wife T'Pel. Torres contacts Janeway from Engineering and reports that the crew seems to have fallen under some kind of psychoactive trance, the result of a bio-electric field emanating from the Bothan ship. But even as she begins working on a way to block the field, she falls prey to its spell.

It's up to Kes, whose telepathic abilities allow her to resist the field, and the Doctor to block the mysterious force that's disabling the ship. Kes manages to complete Torres' work and restore the crew to normal. A telepathic Bothan confesses to having caused the disturbance, but he disappears before they can learn any more from him. As they continue on their way, the crew reflects uneasily about what's lurking in the subconscious corridors of their minds.

Tattoo

Stardate: Unknown

While Kes chides the Doctor for his lack of compassion towards the discomforts experienced by pregnant Ensign Wildman, Chakotay is surprised to discover symbols on an alien moon that are strikingly similar to ones he observed as a teen in the Central American rainforest. At that time, he'd been accompanying his father, Kolopak, on a journey to find the truth about their ancient ancestors. Intrigued, Chakotay is permitted to lead an Away Team to the site. It might provide some answers -- or, failing that, some of the minerals that the ship badly needs for repairs.

The Away Team beams down to what appears to be the uninhabited planet. As they prepare to land their shuttlecraft, Chakotay remembers back to the age of 15 when he disappointed his father by not embracing the traditions of his tribe. The memories are strong as the team explores the planet's terrain. But before he can absorb any comparative implications, Neelix is injured by a native hawk, and later Tuvok finds what appears to be an abandoned village.

Thinking the Away Team may have frightened off the natives, Chakotay advises Tuvok and Torres to lay down their weapons in a gesture of trust. Instead, the gesture seems to inspire a violent storm. Tuvok and Torres beam back up, but Chakotay is left behind, knocked unconscious by a falling tree.

Later, Janeway is frustrated by several unsuccessful attempts to find Chakotay -- it's almost as if something on the planet is trying to prevent them from beaming down. As they try to enter the planet's atmosphere, they're engulfed in a cyclone which Tuvok suspects is generated by residents to ward off intruders.

When Chakotay recovers, he finds the inhabitants of this strange world, and is surprised to learn that they speak the language of his ancestors. They recognize the symbol tattooed on Chakotay's forehead, which he wears to honor his father, who wore it to honor his ancestors. The inhabitants say they knew those ancestors -- "the Inheritors" -- when they visited Earth some 45,000 years earlier.

Chakotay realizes that these are the "Sky Spirits" which his people's lore is based upon. The aliens visited Earth again much later, and discovered that nearly all traces of the Inheritors had vanished, presumably destroyed by other humans. The aliens tell Chakotay that they attacked Voyager and its crew with storms because they feared they were enemies who would try to destroy them just as the human ancestors did to the Inheritors. Chakotay assures them that humans have come a long way since those ancient days and mean them no harm. The storms vanish and the ship is saved just in time. After the aliens give Chakotay some of the minerals that Voyager needs, they bid him farewell, leaving Chakotay with the feeling that he's recovered his connection to his people -- and his father.

Cold Fire

Stardate: 49164.8

Kes and the Doctor notice a peculiar change in the remains of the Caretaker, the alien who trapped Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. They seem to be resonating in response to an unusual energy source. Remembering that the dying Caretaker had mentioned a female of its kind, Janeway wonders if she could be nearby. If so, a meeting with her could be their ticket home. As a precaution, Tuvok develops a toxin that could debilitate the female lifeform if she poses a threat. Following the energy trail, the crew comes upon a space station inhabited by Ocampa, who fire on the ship.

Kes agrees to act as the crew's liaison to her people, and when the Ocampa leader, Tanis, boards Voyager, she assures him that the crew comes in peace. In a private meeting, Tanis tells Kes that the female caretaker, Suspiria, is nearby. She has taken care of this group of Ocampa for 300 years, and has taught them to develop their psychokinetic skills. He shows Kes a sample of the powerful abilities she has yet to tap. Later, Tanis communicates with Suspiria, who demands that he deliver Voyager to her.

As Tanis leads the crew to Suspiria, he tutors Kes on her telepathic skills. The lessons nearly end in disaster when Kes tries to boil water with her mind and, to her horror, inadvertently boils Tuvok's blood instead. He collapses, writhing in agony.

Fortunately, Tuvok recovers from the near-fatal incident. Kes realizes the full potential of her mental powers when her mind causes the plants in the airponics bay to burn up. Tanis urges Kes to leave Voyager and live on the Ocampa space station, where he says she will be embraced by Suspiria and surrounded by her own people.

Suspiria comes aboard the ship and tells Janeway that she will destroy Voyager in retaliation for the crew's part in the Caretaker's death. Suspiria attacks several officers and is ready to complete her mission of revenge when Kes becomes aware of the monstrous plot. Kes attacks Tanis with her expanded psychic abilities, and Tanis' pain temporarily incapacitates Suspiria. Janeway is then able to fire the toxin, subduing her. Janeway allows Suspiria and Tanis to leave the ship, while Kes remains with her friends on Voyager.

Maneuvers

Stardate: 48423

Voyager's crew is surprised when sensors pick up a transmission from someone using a Federation signal. Janeway lays in a course toward the signal, but when they arrive, they're attacked by a Kazon vessel, which seems to know how to penetrate Voyager's shields. Intruders manage to gain access to the starship, steal a transporter module and beam away to their own ship. Janeway informs the Kazon leader, Culluh, that the module is useless without Federation know-how, but Culluh reveals his trump card: he's joined forces with Seska, a former crewmember and Cardassian spy.

The implications of Seska's alliance with Culluh are clear -- the Kazon now have an adviser with Starfleet, Maquis and Cardassian tactical experience. Culluh plans to use the stolen module to persuade rival sects to help him conquer the Federation ship. Chakotay tells Torres he feels responsible for Seska's actions because he recruited her into the Maquis, and later he decides to leave Voyager to go after the device on his own.

Chakotay is able to beam undetected from the cockpit of his shuttlecraft to the Kazon bridge. There, he destroys the stolen module but is quickly captured and tortured for Voyager's command codes, which he refuses to reveal.

When Voyager arrives on the scene, the Kazon Majes he's gathered order Culluh to use the command codes to obliterate the starship, but it soon becomes obvious that he doesn't have them. Seska's quick thinking prevents Voyager from beaming Chakotay off the Kazon ship, so Janeway transports the Kazon Majes instead. They agree to release Chakotay and his shuttlecraft in return for their freedom. Later Chakotay is stunned when Seska informs him that while he was unconscious, she extracted some of his DNA and impregnated herself with his child.

Resistance

Stardate: Unknown

In search of tellerium to power the Voyager, Janeway, Tuvok, Neelix and Torres transport to an Alsaurian city that is occupied by the hostile Mokra. Tipped off to the crew's presence, Mokra soldiers capture Tuvok and Torres. Neelix manages to beam back to Voyager with the tellerium and the Captain is secreted away by Caylem, an eccentric man who believes Janeway is his long-lost daughter.

On the ship, Chakotay contacts Augris, the Mokra magistrate, to obtain the missing crewmembers, but when the effort fails to produce results, he begins formulating a rescue plan. In Caylem's home, Janeway learns that Torres and Tuvok have been taken to the Mokra's impenetrable prison. Hoping to find his missing wife, Caylem asks the Captain if he can accompany her there. Janeway refuses, but the point becomes moot when Mokra soldiers arrive, looking for her. The pair slip out of Caylem's hideout seconds before the soldiers burst in.

Janeway and Caylem approach the resistance leader who provided the tellerium, who agrees to help them get weapons so they can break the crew out of the prison. But when Janeway realizes that the weapons exchange is a trap, she must resort to using her feminine wiles to overtake two guards protecting the prison's access tunnels. After she and Caylem subdue the guards and steal their weapons, the pair sneak into the prison. Meanwhile, Voyager comes under hostile fire by the Mokra and the ship is ordered to leave the area immediately.

Janeway is able to help free Tuvok and Torres, but she goes back to help Caylem look for his wife. Unfortunately, they run right into Augris, who reveals that Caylem's wife and daughter -- both members of the resistance -- are dead. Caylem fatally stabs the magistrate and takes a phaser shot meant for Janeway. As Caylem dies, Janeway plays the role of his daughter and assures him that both she and her mother forgive him for having been too fearful to join the resistance years earlier. Seconds later, Paris arrives and the entire Away Team beams back to the ship.

Prototype

Stardate: Unknown

When the crew beams aboard a deactivated robot, Torres works night and day to revive the mysterious mechanical being. After exploring many dead ends, the Chief Engineer finally finds an appropriate power source and is delighted when the sentient artificial lifeform is reactivated.

The robot introduces itself as Automated Personnel Unit 3947, one of a nearly extinct line of workers created by the Pralor, a species of humanoids who no longer exist. It asks Torres to build a prototype power module for the construction of additional units, but Janeway points out that this would be a violation of the Prime Directive. However, the unit won't take no for an answer; when they return 3947 to its vessel, it renders Torres unconscious and takes her to the Pralor ship, where others of its kind are waiting.

To Janeway's dismay, the crew is unable to penetrate a subspace defense shield that goes up around the Pralor vessel, and Torres' combadge is deactivated by the robots. When Voyager fires on the alien ship, the robots respond by launching a violent attack that threatens to destroy the starship. To halt the assault, Torres finally agrees to build the desired prototype.

While the Voyager crew plots to rescue her, Torres learns that the robots have been unable to produce their own prototype because each power module has an individual energy code. She sets out to design a standardized module that can power any unit.

Another ship approaches, manned by similar robots. The second alien vessel begins firing on the first. Completing her work, Torres finds out that the builders of these robots, the Cravics, used the machines to fight their war against the Pralor builders. All of the warring robots were programmed for victory, and when the Pralor and Cravic humanoids decided to call a truce, the robots terminated them and continued their battle. The new prototype that Torres has created will allow the Pralor robots to win their war against the Cravic robots. Horrified, Torres destroys the prototype, and the crew is able to beam her away from the Pralor ship, leaving the robots to continue their war.

Alliances

Stardate: 49337.4

After a series of Kazon assaults on the Voyager that badly damage the ship, Chakotay urges Janeway to start thinking more like a Maquis. He suggests forming an alliance with several factions of the Kazon -- an option the Captain rejects until Tuvok convinces her that such an arrangement could bring stability to the quadrant.

While Neelix visits a Kazon-Pommar contact on the planet Sobras to feel the faction out about the viability of such an alliance, Janeway and Chakotay meet with Seska and Culluh, the Maje of the Kazon-Nistrim. Culluh stubbornly refuses to allow a woman to dictate the terms of an alliance, so Janeway walks out. On Sobras, Neelix also fares poorly, as he's thrown into a cell with other non-Kazon prisoners.

There, Neelix meets Mabus, a Trabe leader who assures Neelix that help is on the way, thanks to a signal he sent to Trabe vessels in the area. As predicted, Trabe supporters liberate the prisoners.

In the meantime, the crew sets a course for Sobras to retrieve Neelix, but en route, they spot an armada of Kazon ships closing in on their position. Apprehension turns to relief when the crew realizes these are actually Trabe ships, and Neelix is aboard one of them. Mabus explains that the Trabe once held the Kazon as slaves, until the Kazon rose up against them. Since then, the Trabe have been in exile. Despite the bad blood between Trabe and Kazon forces, Janeway and Mabus form an alliance, and call for a conference to unite the warring factions in the quadrant. Seska persuades Culluh to attend the meeting as his first step toward destroying the Trabe and seizing Voyager.

Having been tipped off by Neelix's sources that someone may try to sabotage the conference, Janeway and Tuvok proceed with caution to the meeting, which brings the First Majes of all the Kazon sects together. Suddenly, a Trabe ship appears and opens fire on the gathering. Voyager drives off the Trabe vessel and Janeway, stunned by the ambush, orders Mabus off her ship. But the damage has been done. The Kazon are furious and the crew is more vulnerable than ever.

Threshold

Stardate: 49373.4

Following a series of holodeck simulations to reach Warp 10, Paris and the engineering team iron out the technical glitches and prepare to send Paris out on a real flight. The next day, the crew watches as Paris takes the Shuttlecraft Cochrane to Warp 10, crosses the transwarp threshold, and abruptly vanishes.

Moments later, the Cochrane emerges from subspace, and they beam Paris to Sickbay. He appears no worse for wear, weakened but exhilarated by the experience, which he likens to "being everywhere at once." As Torres and Janeway discuss the potential of the data obtained in Paris' brief flight, a crewmember named Jonas eavesdrops on the conversation. Later, the duplicitous Jonas sends information on Paris' Warp 10 flight to the Kazon.

Not long after his trip, Paris collapses in the mess hall. Rushed to Sickbay, the Doctor tracks dramatic changes in Paris' biochemistry. His organs are mutating and his cell membranes are deteriorating rapidly. Despite the Doctor's best efforts, Paris dies. However, hours later, Paris begins breathing again. When the Doctor examines him, he is amazed to find that the Lieutenant now has two hearts!

Paris is by no means out of danger. A series of accelerated mutations leave him radically transformed and subject to bouts of paranoia and violence. The Doctor figures out a medical procedure to destroy Paris' mutant DNA, but it's interrupted when Paris breaks out of confinement.

Paris kidnaps Janeway and takes her to the Cochrane, launching them both on another Warp 10 journey. Voyager locates the vessel three days later on an uninhabited jungle planet. Paris and Janeway have mutated into amphibians and mated, producing two offspring, which the crew leaves behind on the planet. Once Paris and Janeway are brought back to Voyager, the Doctor is able to perform the procedure to eliminate the mutant DNA from their bodies and they return to normal, albeit rather embarrassed about recent events.

Meld

Stardate: Unknown

When the body of a crewperson named Darwin is found in Engineering, everyone assumes his death was accidental -- until the Doctor determines that Darwin was, in fact, murdered. Tuvok launches an immediate investigation. A check of engineering logs places a Maquis named Suder at the scene of the crime. At first, Suder denies being involved. But when DNA evidence implicates him, Suder confesses, telling Tuvok he killed Darwin because "I didn't like the way he looked at me."

Unwilling to accept such a senseless motive for such a serious crime, Tuvok interrogates Suder in greater detail. To Tuvok's dismay, Suder can't articulate what drives his violent outbursts, so Tuvok secures his permission to perform a Vulcan mind-meld. Tuvok hopes it will help him understand Suder's motivations, and that some of his own Vulcan self-discipline will rub off on the confessed killer, allowing him to better control his violent nature.

Tuvok briefs Janeway on his mind-meld with Suder, and they discuss punishment options. Tuvok admits that although Suder seems calmer since the meld, he finds himself feeling disconcerted. Later, an encounter with the playful Neelix so enrages Tuvok that he strangles him; fortunately, the event occurs only in Tuvok's holodeck program.

Tuvok meets with Suder, who unsettles Tuvok with his comments about the seductive lure of violence, which Tuvok now fully understands. Fearful of his own impulses, Tuvok seals himself in his room and tells Janeway he's no longer fit for duty.

Janeway sends Tuvok to Sickbay, where he starts undergoing treatments to control his violent tendencies. That evening, Tuvok breaks out of Sickbay and confronts Suder, saying he's come to execute him. Yet Tuvok's rational instincts prevent him from completing the act of murder, and he collapses. Suder summons help and Tuvok returns to Sickbay where he successfully completes his rehabilitation.

Dreadnought

Stardate: 49447

The crew tracks a Cardassian-designed weapon packing a warhead capable of wreaking mass destruction. While serving in the Maquis, Chakotay and Torres encountered the missile, dubbed "Dreadnought," in the Alpha Quadrant. Back then, Torres had reprogrammed it to assault its own makers, but the weapon went astray and was thought to have been destroyed. Now Voyager's scanners report that Dreadnought is inexplicably headed straight for a heavily populated planet in the Delta Quadrant.

As Jonas, a traitor in Voyager's crew, informs the Kazon about this superweapon, Janeway warns an official on the planet Rakosa about the approaching missile. Torres beams onto Dreadnought, where she gets the device's sophisticated computer system to stand down from its attack plans. But a short time later, Torres learns that Dreadnought has inexplicably resumed its deadly course for Rakosa.

The crew learns that Dreadnought's computer does not "believe" it's in the Delta Quadrant. It thinks Rakosa is actually a Cardassian target in the Alpha Quadrant, and that Torres has been coerced by the Cardassians into logging false information into its navigational sensor array. Attempts to disable the missile from Voyager backfire when Dreadnought blows out many of the starship's main systems.

With two million lives at stake on Rakosa, Torres manages to beam back on Dreadnought as the Rakosan fleet approaches to intercept the missile. Under fierce fire from Dreadnought, however, the Rakosan ships retreat. As a last-ditch effort, Janeway orders her crew to abandon ship; she plans to use Voyager to ram the missile and detonate the warhead before it hits Rakosa.

Not a moment too soon, Torres manages to initiate an old Cardassian program in Dreadnought's systems. The two programs immediately begin to "quarrel" about the missile's target, distracting it from her attempts to breach Dreadnought's containment field and detonate the warhead. When Voyager's sensors convey Torres' success, Tuvok beams Torres back to the starship just as Dreadnought explodes.

Death Wish

Stardate: 49301.2

During an attempt to beam up a comet sample, the crew inadvertently brings aboard a member of the Q Continuum, who was imprisoned inside the comet. The escaped Q expresses his gratitude at being rescued, then bids the crew farewell. Unfortunately, his attempt to disappear has made all the male members of Voyager disappear instead. Janeway orders him to return her crew. Instead, the well-known Q, who has bedeviled the officers of the Enterprise NCC-1701-D for years, appears.

Q tells Janeway that the escaped Q ("Q2") has been locked up for the past 300 years due to his repeated suicide attempts. The freed Q2 demands asylum and attempts to press the point by haphazardly tossing the ship around the universe in an attempt to lose the other Q. Janeway calls a halt to the dangerous game of hide-and-seek and agrees to hold a hearing to consider the request for asylum. The terms are set: if the Captain rules in the Continuum's favor, the escaped prisoner must return to confinement. If she doesn't, Q2 will be granted mortality so he can fulfill his death wish.

Q2 asks Tuvok to represent him at the hearing, where he explains he wants to end the tedium of immortality. Q counters by explaining that Q2's suicide could have unpredictable consequences for the Continuum, which has never known anything but immortality. A courtroom drama ensues when Q2 calls himself to the stand along with other witnesses, including the Enterprise's William Riker, whose lives were profoundly changed by Q2's influence.

Q tries to sway Janeway's ruling by promising to send the crew back to Earth if the decision is in his favor. Determined to render a just verdict, Janeway, Tuvok and the two Qs visit a manifestation of the Q Continuum to see what life is like there. Afterwards, the Captain announces that she'll reveal her decision the next day. In the morning, she grants Q2's request for asylum, and urges him to explore the mysteries of mortal life. But within hours, the now-human Q2 has committed suicide, using a rare poison that the other Q confesses he secured for his friend.

Lifesigns

Stardate: 49504.3

The crew answers a distress call from a small spacecraft and beams its occupant into Sickbay. The severely ill Vidiian female is dying from the Phage, which has ravaged her people. The Doctor puts her decaying body into stasis and transfers her synaptic patterns into Sickbay's holobuffer. He then creates a holographic body that reflects the way the female would look if she were not afflicted with the Phage.

The astonished patient revives and introduces herself as Dr. Danara Pel, a hematologist. She's grateful for what the Doctor has done for her, but he admits it is just a temporary fix. She can't survive in this form; he still has hopes of treating her ravaged physical body.

Embittered by her own harrowing experience as a prisoner of the Vidiians, Torres balks at the Doctor's request that she donate some of her brain tissue to help Pel, since Klingon DNA is resistant to the Phage. But after advising her that it's Pel's only chance, she relents, and he grafts the tissue onto the Vidiian's brain. It'll be several days before they know if the graft will take, so the Doctor and Pel begin spending a lot of time together.

The Doctor is confused by his affection for Pel, but Kes urges him to tell the woman how he feels. Yet when the Doctor blurts out his interest in Pel, she says she'd prefer to keep their relationship strictly professional. While the disappointed Doctor seeks Paris' dating advice, Kes gets Pel to admit she really does like the Doctor. Later, Paris tells the Doctor he knows the perfect romantic getaway to impress Pel, and using Paris' holodeck program, the Doctor has a lovely date with Pel in a 1957 Chevy.

Not long after, the Doctor is shocked to discover that Pel's brain is rejecting the graft. He doesn't understand what could have gone wrong. Pel admits she sabotaged her medical treatment because she doesn't want to return to her diseased body, despite the fact that the alternative is death. The Doctor convinces her that he will love her no matter what she looks like, and convinces her to survive and go on caring for her sick compatriots. As Voyager heads for her home, she and the Doctor share a tender dance in Sandrine's bar.

Investigations

Stardate: 49485.2

As part of his "duties" as Voyager's morale officer, Neelix begins transmitting daily news briefings to the crew. When he hears a rumor that someone is leaving the ship to join a Talaxian convoy, he passes the news along to Janeway and Tuvok. Unsurprised, the pair admit to Neelix that Tom Paris has requested the transfer. To the dismay of his friends, Paris leaves the ship.

While Janeway ponders Paris' replacement, Neelix busies himself by covering a minor accident in Engineering that leaves three crewmembers, including Jonas, nursing minor wounds. A short time later, the Talaxian vessel notifies Janeway that it has been attacked by the Kazon-Nistrim, who have taken Paris hostage.

Seska welcomes Paris aboard the Kazon vessel and tries convincing him to join forces with the Nistrim sect. Back on Voyager, Neelix wonders how the Kazon knew that Paris was aboard the Talaxian ship. Following his new career as an investigative journalist, Neelix pokes around engineering, where he finds suspicious gaps in the subspace communications logs. Fearful of exposure, Jonas prepares to kill the Talaxian with a plasma torch, but Neelix leaves before he can do it.

Neelix tells Tuvok his suspicions that a crewmember has been making covert transmissions to the Kazon. Exploring further, Neelix finds evidence that Paris is the traitor, and transmits his findings on his daily briefing. Janeway confides in Neelix that Paris' recent departure was a ruse to flush out a suspected spy on board. She asks the Talaxian for assistance in exposing the traitor.

On the Kazon ship, Paris finds evidence that proves Jonas is the turncoat, but he is discovered by Seska. He manages to escape in a stolen Kazon shuttlecraft. Back on Voyager, Neelix realizes that Jonas is the guilty party and when the two men come to blows in Engineering, Jonas plunges to his death. The Kazon retreat and Paris returns to the ship a hero.

Deadlock

Stardate: 49548.7

As Voyager enters a plasma cloud to evade approaching Vidiian ships, Ensign Wildman goes into labor and delivers a baby girl. But as the crew emerges from the cloud, a series of astounding events occur: the warp engines stall, the antimatter supplies drain, and proton bursts cause a hull breach. What's more, Kim is sucked out into space, Kes vanishes in a mysterious void, and Wildman's baby dies.

As the hull breach widens, the ship is forced to run on emergency power. Another proton burst hits and Chakotay orders everyone off the bridge. To her surprise, Janeway sees herself walk across the bridge, which she assumes is a spatial fluctuation caused by their passage through the plasma cloud. Janeway visits Wildman in Sickbay and admires her newborn baby, who appears to be fine. The crew also beams aboard an unconscious patient who's identical to Kes.

This Kes "double" reports the same series of astounding occurrences, which leads Janeway to speculate that there's another Voyager nearby. Apparently, a divergence field has caused all sensor readings to double and every particle on the ship to duplicate. Unfortunately, there isn't enough antimatter to sustain both vessels. Janeway alerts the other Voyager crew, led by a duplicate Janeway. After a merger of the ships fails, Janeway decides to go over to the other ship through the void Kes disappeared into.

The two Janeways meet and strategize their options. The captain of the more heavily damaged Voyager proposes to self-destruct her ship and crew to save the other Voyager. With the Vidiians closing in, the two captains know they must act quickly or both ships and crews will be destroyed. Meanwhile, the Vidiians board one of the Voyagers.

Desperate to steal healthy organs to help battle a plague known as the Phage, the Vidiians begin attacking crewmembers. One of the Janeway captains decides to act. She sets her ship on self-destruct and orders the duplicate Kim to take Wildman's baby through the void. The Vidiians are destroyed when the duplicate Voyager explodes, while Kim, the baby and the other Voyager crew are saved.

Innocence

Stardate: 49578.2

While entering the atmosphere of an uninhabited moon, the shuttle piloted by Tuvok and Ensign Bennet is rocked by electrodynamic turbulence, causing it to crash. Bennet dies, but Tuvok realizes he is not alone as three frightened children venture out from hiding. The children tell him that their ship crashed too, killing the people who were looking after them. In the meantime, Voyager welcomes Alcia, the Prelate of Drayan II, with whom Janeway hopes to negotiate for minerals they need. The visit is interrupted when Alcia receives an emergency message, calling her away. Before she goes, she asks the crew to leave the area.

As Tuvok tries to repair his damaged shuttlecraft, the children -- Tressa, Elani and Corin -- express their fears of being killed by a creature they call the "morrok." They are even more frightened when a Drayan search party arrives to look for them. The children tell Tuvok that the Drayans sent them to the moon to die, and ask him to help them hide.

With Tuvok's help, the children elude the search team. Later, Alcia informs Janeway that they have found Tuvok's crashed shuttle on the moon, which they consider sacred ground. She orders Janeway to remove her surviving crewmember immediately.

The next morning, Tuvok discovers that Elani and Corin have vanished. In a nearby cave, he finds their clothes, but not the children. During a break in the atmospheric turbulence, Tuvok manages to send a brief message to Voyager. Janeway and Paris take a shuttlecraft to rescue the Vulcan, but they're pursued by a Drayan vehicle whose occupants don't want the shuttle to sully the sacred site.

As the Drayan search party surrounds Tuvok and Tressa, Janeway and Paris arrive. Tuvok refuses to let the Drayans take the child, but he is stunned when Alcia reveals that Tressa is actually 96 years old. Among the Drayan, the aging process is reversed, and Tressa wasn't brought there to be killed, but to die a natural death. With Alcia's permission, Tuvok stays with Tressa to comfort her in her final moments.

The Thaw

Stardate: Unknown

Voyager picks up an automated message from the Kohl settlement, whose members survived an environmental catastrophe by going into artificial hibernation. The crew beams their hibernation pods on board and finds two humanoids dead and three in deep stasis, their minds connected to a sensory system controlled by a computer. The Doctor reveals that the two victims died from heart failure, brought on by mental stress -- or extreme fear.

Hoping to learn how to revive the survivors, Kim and Torres enter two pods and are attached to the computer, which allows them to enter the colonists' dream state. They're thrown into an environment that resembles a bizarre carnival run by a malevolent Clown, whose followers quickly drag Kim to a guillotine.

Although the Clown spares Kim, the pair suddenly understand how the Kohl could literally be frightened to death. Because the Clown's survival depends on the colonists' minds remaining linked to the sensory system, the Kohl -- and now Kim and Torres -- can't awaken because the Clown won't allow it. The computer has manifested the worst fears of their subconscious minds into the persona of the Clown; they are now prisoners to that fear.

The Clown allows Torres to leave so she can warn the Captain that if the hibernation pods are deactivated, everyone will die. While Janeway contemplates how to negotiate, the Clown torments Kim mercilessly. The Doctor is sent to discuss the release of the hostages but the Clown refuses to cooperate, so Janeway decides to mount a rescue mission to free Kim and the Kohl settlers.

Her first plan fails when the Clown catches on to Torres' attempts to disable his program. Infuriated, he puts a colonist in the guillotine, where the frightened man succumbs to heart failure. To prevent more deaths, Janeway orders Torres to stop.

The Captain comes up with a final offer for the Clown: trade the current captives for Janeway herself. The Clown agrees, only to discover that his prize is only a holographic image. With no one alive left to torment, "Fear" is conquered and he disappears forever.

Tuvix

Stardate: 49655.2

On an away mission to locate nutritional supplements, Tuvok and Neelix find a promising native orchid. Later, when the crew beams them back to Voyager with samples of the flowers, the pair never arrive. Instead, a single entity appears on the transporter platform. The Doctor confirms that this strange but oddly familiar alien is actually a fusion of Tuvok and Neelix. With all the memories and abilities of the pair, the new crewmember decides to name himself "Tuvix."

The senior officers meet and conclude that the symbiogenetic properties of the orchids the pair carried during transport caused the "merger" that created Tuvix. After the meeting, Tuvix attempts to adjust to his new identity, and Kes tries to adjust to Tuvix. Although she's drawn to him, she is unsettled by the amalgam's affection for her.

After Paris and Torres gather more samples of the alien orchid, they manage to confirm the method of Tuvix's creation by beaming together new plant hybrids, but are unsuccessful in their attempts to reverse the process. The Doctor admits he's not optimistic about bringing Tuvok and Neelix back as separate individuals. On hearing this, Kes mourns the loss of two men: her lover and her mentor.

Kes tells Janeway that despite Tuvix's wonderful qualities, she's not ready to let go of Neelix. Several weeks pass, and Tuvix settles into life aboard the ship. In time, Kes reaches out to him and apologizes for being distant. Just as it looks as if everyone has adjusted to Voyager's new crewmember, the Doctor announces that he's devised a way to restore him to his two original components. There's just one problem: Tuvix doesn't want to die, even if it means allowing the other two men to live.

Tuvix argues that he has a right to survive, and that restoring Tuvok and Neelix's lives amounts to his execution. The Doctor refuses to take Tuvix's life against his will, so in the end, Janeway is forced to take responsibility for performing the procedure. Tuvok and Neelix are fully restored, but Janeway's relief is tempered by the weight of her decision to end Tuvix's life.

Resolutions

Stardate: 49690.1

During an away mission, Janeway and Chakotay are bitten by an insect that infects them with an incurable virus. When the Doctor can't treat them, the two officers resign themselves to remaining on the planet, which has an environment that blocks the progression of the terminal disease. After supplies are beamed to them from Voyager, Janeway gives the crew orders to proceed to the Alpha Quadrant and puts Tuvok in command of the ship.

The decision to leave the Captain and First Officer behind weighs heavily on the crew, and they urge Tuvok to rendezvous with a Vidiian convoy, knowing that the aliens' advanced medical knowledge might include a cure for the virus. Tuvok refuses; Janeway has forbidden the crew to contact the untrustworthy Vidiians, renowned for their willingness to murder involuntary organ donors in their ongoing battle against the Phage.

On the planet, Janeway works to develop a cure for the virus while Chakotay tries to make their lives comfortable. After a violent plasma storm strikes the planet and her research equipment is destroyed, she must come to grips with the fact that they are unlikely to ever leave this world. On Voyager, Tuvok realizes that sometimes a Captain must disobey an order for the welfare of his crew. He contacts the Vidiians and asks them to put Voyager in touch with the Vidiian physician Denara Pel, a close friend of the Doctor's. Pel quickly responds and offers to share the cure to the mysterious virus. They arrange a rendezvous for the next day.

As Janeway and Chakotay draw closer to each other, responding to the intimacy of their situation, Voyager goes to meet the Vidiians. But it's a trap, and the ship comes under a punishing assault. In the midst of the attack, Dr. Pel contacts the Doctor and offers the serum. Tuvok is able to drop the shields long enough for them to retrieve it and to eject an antimatter container from the ship. Then they fire a torpedo at the container and the resulting explosion incapacitates the Vidiian ships long enough for Voyager to escape. Tuvok retrieves the Captain and Chakotay, who resume command of Voyager and return to their traditional relationship.

Basics

Stardate: 50023.4

While Tuvok works to rehabilitate Ensign Suder, an unstable killer confined to his quarters, Chakotay receives a desperate subspace message from Seska. She's given birth to the child that was fathered with the DNA stolen from the First Officer, and she claims that her Kazon lover, Maje Culluh, is going to take her son away.

Chakotay is torn. Seska is untrustworthy and could be trying to lead Voyager into a trap. But if it is truly his child, he owes it his help. They set out to find Seska, and en route, Voyager receives a distress call from a Kazon shuttle manned by Tierna, one of Seska's aides. The injured Kazon reports that Culluh has killed Seska. Tierna managed to survive by bribing a guard and stealing a shuttle.

Voyager heads for the colony world where Culluh has sent Chakotay's son. The starship sustains several minor Kazon attacks, although none cause serious damage. Still, the fact that each of the attacks has focused on a certain section of the ship makes them suspicious. When Janeway tells Paris to alter their course, the ship is suddenly confronted with eight large Kazon vessels, clearly attempting to coerce them into a different direction. Unwilling to be manipulated, Janeway decides to intercept the lead Kazon vessel.

Using some deception of its own, Voyager manages to send most of the vessels at different targets, leaving only the lead vessel to fight. But as the battle intensifies, Tierna deliberately triggers a massive explosion in his own body, sacrificing his life to damage the ship. The tactic also serves to destroy Voyager's decoy, and three of the previously distracted Kazon vessels return to attack. Paris quickly boards a shuttlecraft to seek help from a neighboring Talaxian colony, but the little ship is hit by Kazon fire, and Voyager loses contact.

As Kazon intruders board the crippled starship, Janeway is forced to surrender. A victorious Culluh and Seska, who is still very much alive, take command while the Doctor secretly deactivates himself for twelve hours. The Kazon then strand the crew on a primitive planet and depart, unaware that there is still one crewmember aboard: Ensign Suder.

Stranded by the Kazon on a desolate planet ravaged by earthquakes and vicious cave creatures, the crew seeks food and shelter. At the same time, Paris, who managed to flee Voyager in a shuttle before the Kazon seized the ship, solicits help from the Talaxians.

On Voyager, the Doctor surprises Seska when he reveals that her newborn baby isn't Chakotay's child after all -- he's Culluh's. After she leaves, the Doctor discovers that he's not the only member of the crew left on the ship; Ensign Suder, the violent sociopath whom Tuvok has been attempting to rehabilitate, is still aboard. They join forces against the Kazon, but as they plot strategy, Suder expresses regret over the fact that he will probably need to kill Kazon to wrest control of Voyager.

On the planet, Kes and Neelix are kidnapped by the primitive humanoid natives. Chakotay and a rescue party free them, but during their getaway, they're all forced to take cover in one of the dangerous caves. They manage to elude the enormous eel-like creature that lives inside, and seal off the opening as they exit.

As Paris heads back to Voyager with reinforcements, he sends a message to the Doctor, asking him to disable the secondary phaser couplings. Suder has been sabotaging Voyager's systems from within, using an old Maquis trick to avoid detection. But former Maquis Seska figures out that there's a saboteur aboard and confronts the Doctor. He claims that he's the only saboteur and Seska disables his program before he can disable the back-up couplings. That leaves Suder as the crew's last hope, and he heroically disables the phasers before being killed by a Kazon.

Paris knocks out Voyager's main phasers, and when Culluh tries to use the back-up system, Seska and many of the others on the Bridge are mortally wounded. She dies as Paris and the Talaxians board Voyager, and Culluh takes the baby with him when he abandons the ship. Paris takes control of the starship and goes back for the crew. Later, Tuvok offers a Vulcan prayer of peace over Suder's body as Janeway sets a course for home.

Flashback

Stardate: 50126.4

As the Voyager approaches a nebula rich in sirillium, Tuvok is plagued by flashbacks of himself as a boy, trying to rescue a girl who's falling from a cliff. The Doctor suspects Tuvok is experiencing a repressed memory, which can cause permanent brain damage in a Vulcan. Vulcan healing techniques call for the patient to mind-meld with someone he trusts, so that together, the two can bring the memory into the Vulcan's conscious mind. Because of their long-standing friendship, Janeway agrees to meld with Tuvok.

The meld takes Tuvok and Janeway back 80 years to the Vulcan's first assignment on the starship Excelsior, commanded by Hikaru Sulu. Sulu served under the legendary Captain James T. Kirk for many years, so his crew isn't surprised when he disobeys Starfleet orders to try and help Kirk and another old shipmate, Dr. McCoy, who are being held for the murder of the Klingon Chancellor. On the way, the Excelsior passes through a nebula that is similar to the one Voyager spotted prior to Tuvok's first flashback. Once again, Tuvok experiences the memory of the little girl falling, but this time he goes into convulsions.

On Voyager, the Doctor revives Tuvok, and Janeway wonders what the little girl had to do with this period on the Excelsior. All Tuvok can recall is that the Klingons ambushed the starship in the nebula, forcing Sulu to abort the rescue mission.

Reforming the mind-meld, Tuvok relives the Klingon attack. He recalls that during the battle, he aided an injured crewman named Valtane, who died in Tuvok's arms. As he goes through this again, the Doctor notices that the Vulcan is again experiencing erratic brain patterns. Unable to break the mind-meld between Tuvok and Janeway, the Doctor exposes Tuvok's brain to bursts of thoron radiation and in doing so, inadvertently discovers the truth. When Valtane died, a strange alien virus that he'd been carrying in his brain migrated to Tuvok's brain, camouflaging itself as a repressed memory. The Doctor increases the intensity of the radiation and is at last able to destroy the peculiar virus, leaving the mind of Tuvok healthy and Janeway nostalgic for the "old days" when space was still a wild frontier.

The Chute

Stardate: 50156.2

During shore leave on Akritiri, Paris and Kim are falsely accused of a terrorist bombing and sent to prison. Paris is already in the nightmarish alien jail when Kim arrives via a long metal chute. As if confinement in the brutal hellhole weren't bad enough, Paris shows Kim the "clamp" that every prisoner wears; it seems to affect the wearer's nervous system and it can't be removed.

On Voyager, Janeway is informed by Liria, the Akritirian Ambassador, that Paris and Kim have been imprisoned for a bombing that killed 47 people. The "proof" is traces of trilithium found on their clothes. Although trilithium can be made from the dilithium Voyager uses to power its engines, Janeway emphatically denies that her people were involved. She leaves, determined to find the real bombers.

Back in the prison, Paris and Kim plot how to escape through the chute, which is protected by a deadly forcefield. But before they can, Paris is stabbed by a brutal inmate. With no medical assistance available, Kim makes a deal with another inmate, Zio; he'll take Zio with him when he disables the forcefield in exchange for some supplies to clean up Paris's wound.

Back at the prison, Kim and Zio climb to the top of the chute, where they find that the opening is actually a docking port leading into space; what they'd thought was an underground jail is actually a large isolated satellite. With Paris getting closer to death, Kim tries to talk some of the inmates into cooperating in a prison break, but the idea seems so outlandish, they jeer at him. Later, when a delirious Paris disables the tool that Kim had used to neutralize the forcefield, Kim comes close to killing his friend. He regains his senses just in time.

Janeway tracks down and captures the real bombers, a young brother and sister, but she is shocked when Liria refuses to trade them for her people; he never reverses a conviction. Now the Captain is willing to deal with the bombers. In exchange for their freedom, the pair lead Tuvok and Janeway to the prison, where they extricate their officers and escape.

The Swarm

Stardate: 50252.3

Paris and Torres are confronted by aliens who materialize on their shuttle, fire a weapon at the pair and disappear as quickly as they'd appeared. Although Paris sustains serious injuries from the charge, Torres recovers sufficiently to get them back to Voyager. Neelix tells Janeway that he doesn't know these aliens by name, only by reputation. They attack any outsider who dares to enter their territory, swarming in mass like angry insects. Unfortunately, charting a route around their huge territory isn't feasible, so Janeway opts to stay on course.

In Sickbay, the Doctor can't remember how to complete an operation; the Emergency Medical Hologram's memory circuits seem to be degrading. The only way to help him is to reinitialize his program, but Torres reveals that if she does that, all of the memories the Doctor has acquired in the past two years would be lost, along with much of his personality. Torres transfers the Doctor's program to a holodeck recreation of Jupiter Station, where his database originally had been written. There, they meet a holographic recreation of Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, creator of the EMH. "Zimmerman" explains the Doctor's "meltdown" is understandable, since his program was designed to run for only 1,500 hours.

The crew adjusts Voyager's shields so that the ship can slip through the aliens' sensor net without being spotted. But as Voyager proceeds, one of the tiny alien ships fires a polaron burst that makes the starship once again visible on their sensors. The "swarm" begins to pursue Voyager and the crew assumes battle stations. The small ships attach themselves to the ship and begin draining its energy. Realizing that every vessel in the swarm is connected at some quantum level, the crew is able to create an explosive chain reaction that drives them off long enough for the ship to get through their territory.

With the Doctor's memory degradation becoming worse every minute, Kes convinces the Zimmerman program to graft his matrix onto the Doctor's. The procedure works, although it will be a matter of time before they know if the Doctor retained all of his memories.

False Profits

Stardate: 50074.3

After detecting evidence of an unstable wormhole in a nearby solar system, Voyager's sensors find something even more unusual: evidence that a replicator from the Alpha Quadrant is in use on one of the planets. Janeway sends Paris and Chakotay down to the planet Takar to investigate, and they find a pair of Ferengi being worshiped as gods by the locals because of their advanced technology.

When they return to the ship, Paris and Chakotay learn that the Ferengi con artists, Kol and Arridor, arrived in the Delta Quadrant seven years earlier, victims of an attempt to lay claim to an unreliable wormhole. With no way to return home, they settled on the primitive planet and took advantage of a local myth predicting the arrival of "holy sages." Unhappy about the exploitation of the unsophisticated people, Janeway beams the Ferengi aboard Voyager. However, she reluctantly releases the pair after they persuade her that the sudden disappearance of Takar's "gods" would cause turmoil on the planet.

Resorting to trickery, Janeway sends Neelix to the planet disguised as a Ferengi to inform the pair that they're being recalled by their leader, the Grand Nagus. The plan backfires when the Ferengi decide they'd rather kill Neelix than give up their profits. To save himself, Neelix confesses his true identity. Once again, it appears the Ferengi have triumphed.

The crew has one more card up its sleeve. Drawing from mythic prophecies that the gods will leave on "wings of fire" following the arrival of a holy pilgrim, Neelix proclaims himself to be that pilgrim. The crew fires off three photon bursts to fulfill a line in the prophecy that says the gods will depart when three new stars appear in the sky.

Just as the crew's efforts to "attract" the wandering wormhole pay off, Voyager beams Kol and Arridor aboard. But before the ship can pass through it into the Alpha Quadrant, the Ferengi steal a shuttle and are pulled into the tunnel in space, destabilizing the phenomenon before Voyager can follow. Janeway and her crew saved the Takarians, but lost another chance to get home quickly.

Remember

Stardate: 50203.1

As Voyager transports a group of Enarans to their homeworld, Torres begins having intense dreams. Every night, she envisions herself as Korenna, an Enaran woman who's in love with a man named Dathan, much to the chagrin of "Korenna's" father Jareth, a military leader.

Torres shares her unsettling visions with Chakotay, noting that each new dream seems to advance Korenna's story. Chakotay wonders if there might be a connection between the dreams and the presence of the telepathic Enarans. Later, Torres passes out after having a waking vision of Korenna's life.

When she awakens in Sickbay, the Doctor tells Torres that she isn't dreaming; she's experiencing memories that have been specifically implanted in her mind. In her next vision, Korenna realizes that her father is forcibly "resettling" people like Dathan, who are known as Regressives because they reject modern technology. Korenna's face is accidentally scarred by a Regressive attempting to flee Jareth's soldiers. When Torres awakens, she goes to the quarters of an old Enaran woman named Mirell, who has a scar like the one Torres saw in the dream. Mirell admits she is Korenna, and that she planted her memories in Torres's mind so the truth about the fate of the Regressives won't be forgotten when she dies.

Mirell telepathically gives Torres the last part of the story: the night Dathan told Korenna that Jareth was killing the Regressives, not relocating them. Dathan urges Korenna to run away with him, but Jareth tells Korenna that Dathan's lying to her. Convinced that Dathan doesn't really love her, Korenna betrays her lover, and Jareth has him executed as Korenna joins the cheering Enaran mob. When Torres wakes up, Korenna Mirell is dead.

As the Enarans prepare a farewell toast to the crew, Torres bursts in and calls the group murderers. She accuses the Enarans of whitewashing their past, but none of them are willing to listen to her. Finally, a young Enaran woman that Torres had befriended during the trip offers to telepathically link with Torres to receive Korenna's memories. Torres gratefully accepts, knowing that what happened to the Regressives will live on in the Enarans' memories.

Sacred Ground

Stardate: 50063.2

While visiting the Nechani homeworld, Kes ventures into a shrine of the Nechisti Order and is struck by a mysterious energy burst, rendering her comatose. Unfortunately, when back on the ship, the Doctor can't help Kes because he doesn't understand her condition. The local magistrate tells Janeway that Kes violated a holy place that only monks may enter -- and only after they have undergone a purification ritual to protect them from the energy field. Later, Neelix uncovers an ancient story of a king who went through the ritual to save his comatose son's life. Janeway requests permission to do the same.

The Nechisti Council approves Janeway's petition and the Doctor implants a subdermal bioprobe to monitor her physical condition during the ritual. A guide meets Janeway at the sanctuary and leads her to a room where three old people claim they are also waiting for the ritual to start, and have been there for as long as they can remember.

With Kes' life in the balance, Janeway impatiently demands that the ritual begin. The Guide hands the Captain a rock, and asks her what she sees. Janeway says she sees a stone, and is told to keep looking. The Guide takes her through a series of challenges, and hours later, an exhausted Janeway is told to put her hand in a basket, and an unseen creature called a "nesset" bites her. Janeway collapses, and the Guide puts her in an underground chamber.

On Voyager, the Doctor tracks the toxins from the bite as they course through Janeway's bloodstream, theorizing it might be the key to treating Kes. In a vision, Janeway asks the spirits to restore Kes' health, and her Guide cryptically tells the Captain that she already has what she needs to save Kes, and ends the ritual. Janeway returns to Voyager, where the Doctor prepares a cure from the toxins in Janeway's system. Yet when he applies it to Kes, she actually gets worse. Baffled, Janeway confronts the Guide, who sends her back to the waiting room.

The Council Members -- the three old people Janeway encountered earlier -- chide Janeway for having no faith in the spirits just because she can't scan them with her technology. Janeway realizes that if she's going to save Kes, she has to believe -- if not in the spirits, then in her own faith that she can help Kes. Her only option is to take Kes back through the energy field, even though scans show it's deadly. Against Chakotay's and Neelix's advice, Janeway carries Kes into the shrine, and this time -- whether it's due to the Captain's altered biochemistry or her newfound irrational faith -- the energy field doesn't harm them, and Kes recovers.

Future's End

Stardate: 50312.5

The Voyager is fired upon by the 29th-century Federation "Timeship" Aeon commanded by Captain Braxton, who has time-traveled through a spatial rift to destroy Janeway's ship. Braxton claims that Voyager is responsible for a temporal explosion that will obliterate Earth's solar system in his era. Although equipped with only 24th-century technology, the crew manages to deflect Braxton's blasts and damage his ship, but then both the timeship and Voyager get sucked through the rift. The starship winds up in orbit around Earth in 1996.

Knowing Braxton's ship holds the key to returning to their own era, the crew begins searching for it, and an Away Team beams down to Los Angeles to investigate subspace readings that seem out of place in the 20th century. Meanwhile, at Griffith Observatory in the Hollywood Hills, astronomer Rain Robinson picks up Voyager's warp emission on her instruments and reports the finding to computer mogul Henry Starling, who funds her lab. Against Starling's instructions, Rain transmits a greeting to Voyager, and the crew tracks her to the Observatory. While Paris and Tuvok head for the site, Chakotay and Janeway identify a homeless man as Captain Braxton. He explains that he emerged from the time rift in 1967 and crash-landed in the desert, where a young Henry Starling found the timeship and utilized its technology to start a high-tech empire. Starling is now planning to use Braxton's vessel to time travel, and, according to Braxton, that will cause the explosion in the future.

Fearing that Rain is a security risk, Starling sends a henchman to kill her. But Paris and Tuvok spirit her away before she can be harmed. When Rain questions what they're up to, Paris tells her that they're secret agents tracking a Soviet KGB spy operation. She sees through his story, though, because the Soviet Union and the KGB no longer exist.

Chakotay and Janeway sneak into Starling's office, where they discover Braxton's timeship just as Starling walks in and confronts them. Janeway warns Starling not to launch the ship, explaining it will unleash disaster. Undaunted, Starling tries to kill Chakotay and Janeway, but they're transported to Voyager in the nick of time. They try to beam up the timeship, but Starling uses their transporter beam to access Voyager's computer and study its systems. Minutes later, the wily Starling steals the Doctor's program from Sickbay. To complicate things even further, Voyager's presence is disclosed on the evening news!

Janeway's attempts to beam up 20th-century computer mogul Henry Starling and the timeship in his possession are stymied because Voyager's long-range transporters aren't working. As a result, brilliant astronomer Rain Robinson lures Starling to a meeting where the crew hopes to hijack him. Starling shows up with the Doctor, whom he's supplied with a 29th-century portable holo-emitter that allows him to exist in environments without standard holographic emitters.

Having reconfigured the shields on a shuttlecraft to disguise it from 20th-century radar, Chakotay and Torres try to beam up Starling from the rendezvous. Starling has a device that interferes with the attempt, but Voyager is able to redirect the transporter signal to beam him directly to the starship. Unfortunately, Starling's attempt to disrupt the beam-out damages the shuttle's controls. It goes down in the desert, where Chakotay and Torres are taken hostage by a paramilitary group. Voyager traces the crash site to Arizona, and the Doctor and Tuvok travel there to find them.

On Voyager, Starling admits to Janeway that he wants to travel into the future to steal more advanced technology. Although Janeway thinks she's put an end to those plans, one of Starling's henchmen uses his scavenged 29th-century technology to transport Starling back to his office. Outside Starling's headquarters, Paris spots a truck that appears to be moving the timeship to another location. In Arizona, Tuvok and the Doctor manage to free Chakotay and Torres. Torres repairs the damaged shuttle, which they use to track the truck and destroy it. However, they discover the truck was a ruse; the timeship is back in Starling's office, and he's just launched it.

Retrieving Paris and Tuvok, the shuttle returns to Voyager, where Janeway hails Starling, who refuses to abort his mission. She has no choice but to destroy the timeship. Seconds later, a time rift opens and Braxton appears in his timeship. With his previous timeline altered by the destruction of Starling, this Braxton has come from the future to lead Voyager back to the 24th century, where it belongs. Janeway implores Braxton to place them at Earth, but Braxton cites the Temporal Prime Directive, which Janeway cannot argue with. Back in the Delta Quadrant, the crew finds that they've gained one particular advantage from their journey: the Doctor has retained the 29th-century mobile holo-emitter, freeing him from the confines of Sickbay.

Warlord

Stardate: 50348.1

The Voyager beams aboard three people just before their damaged ship explodes: an Ilari female named Nori, her injured spouse Tieran and an Ilari male named Adin. Although the Doctor and Kes try to save him, Tieran dies. Not long after, Neelix is shocked when Kes announces she'd like to spend some time apart from him. When Voyager arrives at Ilari, the local leader, known as "the Autarch," sends a representative to the ship instead of coming himself. Inexplicably, Kes pulls out a phaser, kills the representative and a crewmember, and escapes in a stolen shuttlecraft with Adin and Nori.

Kes takes the shuttle to a military encampment and takes command of the waiting troops. In the meantime, Janeway meets with Demmas, the Autarch's oldest son, who explains that Kes' body is now inhabited by Tieran, a former Ilarian ruler who was overthrown by Demmas' ancestor 200 years ago. Since then, Tieran has lived on by transferring his mind to a series of host bodies. Janeway agrees to help Demmas stop Kes/Tieran, but before she can, the tyrant has killed the Autarch in front of Demmas' younger brother, Ameron, and appointed himself the new Autarch.

Kes/Tieran tries to poison Ameron's thoughts against Demmas and urges him to cooperate with the new regime. In the meantime, the Doctor designs a synaptic stimulator that will remove Tieran's neural pattern from Kes -- if they can get close enough to use it. Tuvok beams into the Autarch's palace, but is caught and imprisoned before he can succeed in the attempt. When Kes/Tieran interrogates Tuvok, the Vulcan is able to initiate a mind-meld and speak directly to Kes, who tells Tuvok she is fighting Tieran for control.

Kes/Tieran orders Voyager to leave orbit, but the stress of the mental battle between Kes and Tieran results in a paranoid Kes/Tieran killing Adin. To Nori's chagrin, Kes/Tieran announces she's marrying Ameron. Moments later, a coalition of Voyager's crew and Demmas' forces bursts into the palace. Paris releases Tuvok, while Neelix places the synaptic stimulator on Kes/Tieran. Tieran jumps to a new host body -- Ameron -- but Kes places the device on him and Tieran is finally destroyed. Demmas, the rightful heir, becomes Autarch.

The Q and the Grey

Stardate: 50384.2

After the Voyager crew is treated to the rare sight of a supernova, Q shows up in Janeway's quarters with a proposition: he'd like the Captain to bear his baby. Janeway flatly refuses, but Q is persistent. He reappears several more times, and although Janeway admits she'd like to have a child someday, she's not going to mate with Q -- much to the relief of a jealous female Q who shows up on the ship.

After the crew witnesses the third supernova in as many days, they suspect that Q may be behind the explosions. The shockwaves from the cosmic phenomena could damage Voyager, so Janeway urges Q to do something. In response, Q transports Janeway to the Q Continuum, which now resembles Earth's old antebellum South -- an apropos setting, because the Q are in the middle of a civil war.

It all started with the death of Quinn, the Q that Voyager had assisted a year earlier. His suicide caused chaos in the Continuum. Now the status quo among the Q are fighting a violent battle against those Q who, like Quinn, believe in individualism. One of the repercussions of the conflict is the unusual frequency of supernovas, caused by spatial disruptions within the Continuum. To end the war, Q has decided to create a new breed of Q, with qualities that are "the best humanity has to offer" -- hence, Q's proposition.

Back on Voyager, Chakotay questions the female Q about the war and they agree to join forces. She helps Voyager enter the Continuum, where Janeway encourages Q to mate with the female Q. While he considers the idea, Janeway visits the enemy camp to discuss a cease-fire. She offers a truce on Q's behalf, but the opposing Colonel decides to end the war by executing Q -- and by sentencing Janeway to death for collaborating with the enemy.

Facing a firing squad, Q proclaims Janeway's innocence and asks the Colonel to set her free. The Colonel disregards the plea, but the "calvary," in the form of the Voyager crew and the female Q, comes to the rescue. Q decides Janeway is right and asks the female Q to conceive a child with him. They touch their fingertips together and peace again reigns in the Continuum. Later, Q visits Janeway with his son, and asks the Captain to be the boy's godmother.

Macrocosm

Stardate: 50425.1

Returning from a trade mission with the Tak Tak, Janeway and Neelix are perplexed to find Voyager adrift in space. After landing their craft in the Shuttlebay, the pair notes there are no crewmembers in sight and that many of the ship's systems are off-line. While investigating the seemingly empty ship, their turbolift is halted by several lifeforms, one of which pokes a hole in the door with a large stinger. The stinger sprays Neelix with slime, but the pair is able to escape. Not long after, Neelix falls ill and Janeway goes to find an emergency kit. When she returns, he's gone.

Now on her own, Janeway arms herself with weapons and goes to the Bridge, where she is stung by one of the bizarre lifeforms. In the Mess Hall, she discovers unresponsive, ailing crewmembers and a giant flying creature, which tries to attack Janeway.

Fleeing to Sickbay, Janeway finds the Doctor holed up with a phaser. He reports that the ship is infected by a strange alien macrovirus. He explains that while Janeway and Neelix were away from the ship, Voyager responded to a medical distress call from a mining colony stricken by a virus. A few of the "bugs" migrated back to the ship when the Doctor returned, and since then, they've spread throughout the ship's systems, and ultimately to the crew. The Doctor has come up with an antigen but he hasn't had the chance to test it, since the huge, mature versions of the virus -- such as the one that came after Janeway -- have prevented him from leaving Sickbay. Now infected herself, Janeway volunteers to test the antigen and is cured. But there's still the problem of distributing the antigen to the ailing crew.

Janeway comes up with the idea of distributing the cure in gaseous form through the ship's environmental system. Using her arsenal, she blasts her way through the ship until she reaches the controls. But before she can disperse the antigen, Voyager is fired upon by the Tak Tak, who want to exterminate the virus by destroying the ship. Janeway tells them about the cure and asks them to stop shooting long enough for her to treat the crew. They give her an hour. Unfortunately, the environmental controls have been damaged, but Janeway figures out how to put together an antigen bomb, which destroys the virulent invaders.

Fair Trade

Stardate: Unknown

Neelix thinks he may be at the end of his usefulness to the crew when the Voyager comes upon the Nekrit Expanse, a vast region of space that he knows little about. Since he is their supposed expert on the Delta Quadrant, Neelix is determined to find a detailed map of the area. He suggests they stop at a space station located near the edge of the Expanse, where Janeway, Chakotay and Paris negotiate for supplies. At the same time, Neelix reunites with Wixiban, an old Talaxian friend who went to prison for a crime that he and Neelix participated in years earlier.

Wix offers to help Neelix secure a map and pergium, a rare commodity required by Engineering. The items can be attained by trading some supplies that Wix has access to. Neelix borrows one of Voyager's shuttles to deliver Wix's supplies, but when they arrive at the exchange site, a fight breaks out, and Wix kills his contact, Sutok, with a Starfleet phaser from the shuttle.

Fleeing, Neelix realizes that Wix used him to carry out a narcotics deal. But because he feels he "owes" Wix for the prison time his friend did, Neelix agrees to keep quiet about the murder. When Bahrat, the station manager, tells Janeway that a Federation weapon was involved in the slaying, an investigation is launched. Neelix's troubles deepen when Wix insists Neelix must steal warp plasma from Voyager to pay off the drug dealers, whose narcotics were stolen by Sutok's gang during the fight.

Later, Neelix meets with Wix and admits that he couldn't bring himself to steal from Voyager. At the same time, Bahrat arrests Paris and Chakotay for Sutok's murder. Unwilling to see his friends pay the price for a crime they didn't commit, Neelix convinces Wix to come clean with Bahrat. After hearing the confession, Bahrat allows Wix and Neelix to set a trap for the top narcotics dealer, Tosin. The ploy works and Tosin is arrested. Although Janeway is furious with Neelix for getting the crew involved in illicit activities, she understands that he was motivated by a misguided attempt to help them. Rather than putting him off the ship, she sentences him to two weeks scrubbing the exhaust manifolds.

Alter Ego

Stardate: 50460.3

The crew is mystified by the atypical behavior of an inversion nebula. While they study it, Kim asks for Tuvok's help in suppressing his emotions. The ensign confesses he's fallen in love with a holodeck character named Marayna. Tuvok advises Kim to avoid further contact with her, since it is impossible to have a relationship with a computer subroutine. Kim agrees.

On the Bridge, the crew watches as a plasma strand ignites, but fails to create the expected chain reaction throughout the nebula. Sensors show an unknown dampening effect between the strands. That night, despite his vow to avoid Marayna, Kim accompanies Paris to the holodeck. There he sees Marayna in conversation with Tuvok. Troubled, Kim leaves, while Tuvok continues to talk to Marayna. The Vulcan is surprised at the depth of her insight into his nature, and he admits that he understands why Kim finds her so compelling.

When Voyager attempts to resume its course, the propulsion system inexplicably goes off-line. While the engineering group explores the problem, Kim goes to the holodeck and finds Tuvok again visiting Marayna. He accuses the Vulcan of betraying his trust, and Tuvok opts to delete Marayna's program rather than jeopardize his relationship with Kim. He's surprised, therefore, when he finds Marayna in his quarters.

To Marayna's annoyance, Tuvok calls security, but she disappears when they arrive. The crew investigates the holodeck and discovers that someone outside the ship has created an uplink and tapped into its programs. Suddenly, activity in the nebula increases, threatening the safety of the ship.

Tracing the uplink back to its source, Tuvok beams over to a space station located inside the nebula. There he meets the real Marayna, a lonely humanoid alien who controls the plasma activity for the benefit of her home world's inhabitants. She threatens to destroy Voyager if Tuvok doesn't stay with her, but he explains that their relationship would not be what she desires if he stayed only to save his ship. Accepting the logic of the situation, she allows him and Voyager to leave.

Coda

Stardate: 50518.6

After Chakotay and Janeway crash-land their shuttlecraft on a planet, Chakotay guesses they may have been shot down by Vidiians. Sure enough, a group of Vidiians arrives and attacks the pair, killing them. Suddenly, they're back on the shuttlecraft, under attack by Vidiian warships. The shuttle explodes before it can land. Seconds later, they are once again sitting in their shuttle.

Believing they're trapped in a time loop, the two officers contact Voyager and elude the Vidiians. However, back on the ship, Chakotay refutes Janeway's claims about the time loop. The Doctor diagnoses Janeway as suffering from the Vidiian phage disease and euthanizes her against her will, after which Janeway finds herself back on the shuttle with Chakotay. As they near a strange phenomenon in space, the shuttle explodes, and the next thing Janeway knows, she's back on the planet, watching Chakotay grieve over her dead body.

Returning to Voyager with Chakotay, Janeway discovers she cannot be seen. In Sickbay, the Doctor's attempts to revive her "corpse" are unsuccessful, but Janeway is able to get Kes to telepathically sense her presence. As the crew wonders if the Captain is lost in an alternate dimension, Janeway is shocked to come face to face with her deceased father. Admiral Janeway tells her that she really did die in the shuttle crash, and tries to convince her she should give in to death. Meanwhile, after days of unsuccessfully trying to reach Janeway, the crew holds a memorial service.

Janeway tells her father that she's not ready to leave the crew yet. Suddenly, she senses that she's still in her corporeal body, and that the Doctor is trying to save her. Her father tells her it's a hallucination and urges her to give up. Janeway knows her real father wouldn't push her in this way, and realizes that an alien has assumed his image to lure her to her death. Indeed, an alien presence has invaded her cerebral cortex, but now that she's aware of it, Janeway regains consciousness on the planet's surface, where she's recovering from injuries sustained during the crash-landing with Chakotay.

Blood Fever

Stardate: 50537.2

Preparing for an Away Team mission to a planet with a large reserve of gallicite, Torres is taken aback when a Vulcan ensign named Vorik asks her to be his mate. She declines, but Vorik grabs hold of her face and she dislocates his jaw. The Doctor explains that Vorik is going through a Vulcan mating ritual known as the pon farr. If he doesn't mate, he may die. Vorik attempts to get through the difficult period by engaging in intensive meditation.

The Away Team begins the search for the gallicite, but Torres is strangely aggressive, at one point viciously biting Paris. Tuvok finds out that Vorik touched Torres' face, which initiated a telepathic mating bond between them. Now Torres is also experiencing pon farr. Vorik is half-mad with his desire to mate with Torres, but he's forced to remain on Voyager, where the Doctor tries to help him by programming a holographic Vulcan female.

Back on the planet, Paris, Tuvok and Chakotay locate Torres and explain to her what she's experiencing. As they try to convince her to leave the planet, a group of subterranean aliens surround the Away Team. A scuffle breaks out and the aliens disappear with Chakotay and Tuvok, leaving Paris and Torres alone. While searching for their missing crewmembers, Torres alludes to the idea of Paris mating with her, but he refuses to take advantage of her.

Chakotay and Tuvok convince their alien captors, the Sakari, that they've come in peace. The Sakari explain that they moved underground after their ancestors were attacked by unknown invaders. Chakotay offers to help them protect themselves from future attacks in exchange for some gallicite. Elsewhere, Torres tries to seduce Paris, but he again rejects her advances. Not long after, Tuvok and Chakotay locate the pair.

Suddenly, they're joined by Vorik, who can no longer resist his instincts. He challenges Paris for Torres, but Torres takes up the challenge herself and engages in the ritual battle, overcoming Vorik. The blood fever purged, the Away Team returns to the ship -- but not before Chakotay finds evidence of who the invaders were that attacked the Sakari: the Borg!

Unity

Stardate: 50614.2

Returning from a scouting mission, the shuttle manned by Chakotay and Ensign Kaplan picks up a Federation distress call from a planet. Launching a buoy to let Voyager know where they are, they land the craft, but are quickly attacked by a hostile group of humanoids. Kaplan is killed, and Chakotay injured before help arrives in the form of another group, led by a woman named Riley, who gets Chakotay to safety. Riley explains she's part of a cooperative of different species who were kidnapped by aliens and left to fend for themselves. However, not all of them are friendly.

Back on Voyager, the crew finds a Borg vessel floating in space. When they board it, they find 1,100 dead Borg. An investigation reveals the ship ceased operation five years earlier.

On the planet, Chakotay is shocked to discover that Riley and the others are all Borg -- or, at least, they were. They weren't kidnapped; they were assimilated by the Borg. But five years ago, their ship was damaged by an electro-kinetic storm that severed their link to the Borg Collective. Those who survived settled on the planet, but they quickly began fighting each other for food and supplies. Riley is hoping Chakotay can help them. However, right now it is Chakotay who needs help. His only option is to temporarily join his mind with Riley and the rest of her small "Collective" in a healing link. Afterwards, his injuries are much improved, and he feels far closer to the group, particularly Riley.

Tracking Chakotay's buoy, Voyager locates him and beams the First Officer and Riley up to the ship. Riley asks Janeway to help her use the generator on the dead Borg vessel to re-establish a neural link among all the former Borg on the planet. She believes this will stop the fighting and allow them to work together to build a true community. Janeway refuses, fearing that activating the Borg ship and creating a new Collective could be dangerous to all. Riley returns to the planet, but she and her group use their former link with Chakotay to solicit his help. Chakotay takes a shuttle to the cube and does as they ask. As soon as the link is re-established, the new Collective destroys the Borg cube and releases Chakotay from their link, thanking him and the ship for their coerced help.

Darkling

Stardate: 50693.2

When the Voyager visits an outpost of the Mikhal Travellers, they meet a gypsy-like band of space explorers who are willing to share their knowledge of the territory the starship is about to enter. As Kes oversees the transfer of medical supplies to the group, she becomes infatuated with Zahir, a Mikhal pilot.

In the meantime, the Doctor is engaged in a new project: adding personality routines of famous historical figures, like Gandhi and Lord Byron, to his own program in order to enhance his performance. Torres expresses concern that the subroutines may interact unpredictably and offers to review his program.

As Kes grows increasingly fond of Zahir, the Doctor points out that she is neglecting her duties in Sickbay. Later, the Ocampan confides in Janeway that Zahir wants Kes to leave Voyager and travel with him. As she ponders her decision, Zahir is seriously injured by a mysterious cloaked figure.

The next day, a distraught Kes recounts Zahir's injuries to the Doctor. They're interrupted by Torres, who has found a potential problem with his program. Later, Tuvok and Janeway find Torres collapsed on the floor of Sickbay. The Doctor blames her condition on something she ate, but after Tuvok and Janeway leave, it becomes clear that he's the one who caused Torres' condition. The Doctor unsuccessfully tries to coerce her into removing his original "bland" personality from his blend of subroutines, which are rapidly destabilizing.

As Tuvok investigates the attack on Zahir, the Doctor kidnaps Kes. The discovery of residual holographic signatures near the attack site alerts the crew that the Doctor is the culprit. As the Doctor drags Kes along the mountain path where he assaulted Zahir, he's apprehended by Tuvok and Chakotay. Refusing to give up, he throws himself and Kes over a cliff. Voyager's transporter beams them up before they hit bottom, and Torres is able to delete the dangerous subroutines, which restores the Doctor to normal. Kes decides to remain on Voyager with her friends.

Rise

Stardate: Unknown

As Voyager makes a less-than-successful attempt to vaporize asteroids that are assaulting the Nezu homeworld, a message comes from Dr. Vatm, an astrophysicist who has been analyzing the asteroid fragments on the surface below. Vatm wants to talk to the Nezu ambassador, who is currently aboard Voyager.

Neelix, Tuvok and a Nezu named Sklar head for the surface, but their shuttle crashes. They find Vatm but have no way to contact Voyager. Neelix suggests they reactivate a carriage that is tethered to an orbital space station. If they can rise above Nezu's atmospheric turbulence, they'll be able to communicate with the ship. But as soon as they make the tether system operational, Vatm tries to leave by himself. He's stopped by Tuvok, and the group begins its ascent.

The upward journey is uncomfortable and dangerous. Vatm refuses to say why he attempted to leave without them and sips at water to ease his discomfort. Later, he becomes delirious and says that something is on the roof of the carriage. Then he has a seizure and dies, the result, Tuvok says, of murder; his water was poisoned.

Neelix insists they find out what's on the roof, and Tuvok reluctantly climbs up. He finds a data storage device that contains information about an alien vessel. Sklar pushes Tuvok off the roof, but the Vulcan survives by clinging to an induction coil on the bottom of the carriage. Neelix helps Tuvok back inside and in the ensuing struggle, Sklar plunges to his death.

Finally, the group is able to contact Voyager and is beamed aboard. The crew has been confronted by a ship from the Etanian Order, which wishes to claim Nezu for itself. The Etanians create "natural" disasters -- like meteor showers -- on the planets they covet, then take over when the residents evacuate. With the tactical information from the device Tuvok found, Janeway is able to disable the Etanian vessel, which departs. After the fact, the crew figures out that Vatm knew there was a traitor among the Nezu, which turned out to be Sklar. However, he hadn't known whom he could trust. His silence ultimately killed him.

Favorite Son

Stardate: 50732.4

During an encounter between the Voyager and a Nasari ship, Kim announces that the alien ship is going to fire, and he unleashes Voyager's phasers at it, triggering an unwanted battle. As both ships limp away from the confrontation, Janeway grills Kim, who says he just "knew" the Nasari posed a threat, despite their non-aggressive behavior. The Captain suspends Kim from duty until she can investigate his "hunch." That evening, Kim is stunned by the appearance of alien markings on his face.

The Doctor can't find a reason for Kim's facial markings or the alteration in his blood chemistry. Tuvok is able to confirm that the Nasari were about to fire on Voyager, and the Captain questions how Kim knew. He isn't sure, but he notes that this area of space seems oddly familiar. Kim leads the crew to the planet Taresia, which has a largely female populace. An official of that planet welcomes Kim "home."

The Taresians explain that Kim was conceived on their world, but his embryo was implanted in an Earth woman, to bring an infusion of new genetic material back to their race. As an adult, Taresians like Kim are instinctively drawn back home. The women say the Nasari fired on Voyager because they detected Kim's presence. The Nasari hate Taresians and were trying to stop Kim from going home. Later, Janeway meets with the Nasari, who say they have no quarrel with Voyager -- but they'll attack the ship if Kim returns to it.

As Kim attends the wedding of Taymon, another returned male, the Doctor informs Janeway that Kim wasn't born with Taresian DNA; he was deliberately infused with it during an Away Mission. Apparently, the Taresians want to make him feel like he belongs on their world. But Kim has decided he wants to return to his ship. When he tries to leave, the Taresian women try to stop him. He races to Taymon's room, where he's stunned to find the young man's dead body. Kim realizes that Taresian men don't voluntarily leave; they're killed after the women extract enough genetic material to conceive children. The crew is able to beam up Kim and leave the area while the Nasari are busy trading shots with the Taresians.

Before and After

Stardate: 50973

Kes finds herself in Sickbay, on the verge of death. The Doctor activates something he calls a bio-temporal chamber and Kes experiences a shift in perception. She finds herself with a boy -- apparently her grandson Andrew -- who gives her a belated birthday gift. The Doctor tells her he's going to put her into the bio-temporal chamber to prolong her life. She's in the Morilogium, the final phase of the Ocampan lifespan. Suddenly Kes . . .

. . . awakens in her quarters, where Andrew is still working on the present that he already gave her. Kes meets Linnis, her daughter, who is married to Harry Kim. Linnis' father is Tom Paris, who is also Kes' husband. As Kes tries to take all this in . . .

. . . she finds herself celebrating her ninth birthday with her family and friends. Andrew tells her he hasn't had a chance to begin working on her present. Bewildered, Kes tells the Doctor that she seems to be experiencing life in reverse. Consulting her medical records, Kes learns she suffered from chronoton radiation poisoning when Voyager was under attack by the Krenim. As Kes reasons that the radiation exposure may explain her condition . . .

. . . she experiences another jump. This time she goes immediately to the Doctor, who confirms that the chronoton particles, reactivated in the future by the bio-temporal chamber, are moving her backwards in time. To stop the jumps, they must purge her of the radiation -- and the only way to do that is to find out the temporal variance of the Krenim torpedo that contaminated her.

Kes continues jumping back in time . . . to the birth of Linnis . . . and to the Krenim attack, when she was exposed to the radiation. Finding the torpedo, she notes the temporal variance, then jumps again . . . to a year earlier, where she warns Janeway to avoid Krenim space and gives the Doctor the information to program a bio-temporal chamber that will purge her system. As the chronoton count begins to drop, Kes experiences several more jumps . . . eventually arriving at her moment of conception. Just as she ceases to exist, her body is purged and she awakens back in the period in which they were using the chamber to eliminate the chronoton particles, where she happily notes there's no time like the present.

Real Life

Stardate: 50863.2

When Voyager comes across a large debris field, the crew concludes that it's all that's left of the alien space station they were approaching. Finding a strange trail of plasma particles at the site, they set course to solve the mystery of what happened to the alien vessel.

In the meantime, in an effort to expand the horizons of his program, the Doctor creates a "perfect" holodeck family: a wife named Charlene, teenage son Jeffrey, and a 10-year-old daughter named Belle. After he invites Kes and Torres to dine with his "family," Torres offers to tweak the program to make it more realistic.

As Voyager follows the particle wake, a tornado-like phenomenon rips out of subspace and bears down on them. The ship comes through the anomaly relatively unscathed and Chakotay suggests that the next time an astral eddy appears, they capture some of its highly charged plasma particles. Back in the holodeck, the Doctor is not pleased with Torres' changes; his wife works, his daughter whines and his son hangs out with tough Klingon teens.

Paris suggests that taking a shuttle into the wake of an eddy might offer the best opportunity to capture the valuable plasma particles. When another one forms, Paris attempts the maneuver, only to be caught up in yet another eddy. The crew watches in horror as Paris disappears with the eye of the astral phenomenon.

The Doctor tries to talk things out with his rebellious son. The conversation turns into an argument that's interrupted when word arrives that Belle has been seriously injured in an accident. Realizing she's going to die, he abruptly ends the holodeck program.

Paris learns that he's trapped between space and subspace, in the spawning area of the eddies. The only way out is the way he came in, inside a space tornado. As a huge storm appears in regular space, Voyager manages to beam Paris aboard. In Sickbay, Paris convinces the Doctor to return to his program and face the pain that life sometimes delivers. The Doctor reactivates the program and allows himself to grieve and draw comfort from the new closeness the tragedy brings to the remaining members of his family.

Distant Origin

Stardate: Unknown

Professor Gegen and his assistant Veer find the remains of a Starfleet officer in a cave on an alien world. Gegen feels the evidence holds the key to the real origins of his race, the Voth, a saurian species that he suspects got its start in a distant part of the galaxy. The "Distant Origin" theory contradicts the doctrine of Chief Minister Odala and the powerful Voth elders, who believe the Voth were the first intelligent beings to evolve in the quadrant. The elders are unreceptive to his claims, but Gegen finds a clue on the deceased's uniform: the name of a ship called "Voyager."

Gegen and Veer trace Voyager's path across the Delta Quadrant and finally find the ship itself. Thanks to their sophisticated cloaking technology, the Voth are able to transport onto the ship and observe the crew undetected. Eventually, Voyager's sensors detect the use of cloaking technology on board the ship, and the crew uncloaks Gegen and Veer. Frightened, Veer fires a tranquilizer dart at Chakotay, but is himself incapacitated by a phaser blast. Gegen transports back to his vessel with the unconscious Chakotay.

In Sickbay, Veer goes into protective hibernation. The Doctor discovers that Veer has evolved from Earth's dinosaurs. On the Voth ship, after Chakotay regains consciousness, he and Gegen come to similar conclusions, reasoning that the Voth's ancestors survived extinction, developed space-faring technology and left Earth. Charged with heresy by the Voth elders, Chakotay is the best proof of Gegen's theories. But before he can take Chakotay to his supporters, the Voyager is transported inside a massive Voth city-ship.

The crew is held captive by the Ministry of Elders, who vow to kill them all unless Gegen returns to face them. Gegen agrees to confront his accusers and Chakotay promises to help him. Since their fate is tied to Gegen's, the Voyager crew eagerly awaits the results of his hearing. Odala accuses Gegen of being a destructive influence on Voth society and orders him to disavow his claims. But Gegen refuses to back down until Odala threatens to send the crew to a detention colony. To save them, Gegen retracts his theory, resigning himself to the fact that the Voth's true heritage will remain a secret -- for now.

Displaced

Stardate: 50912.4

A Nyrian named Dammar suddenly appears on Voyager, asking why he's been abducted. The crew isn't responsible for beaming him aboard, and they soon discover that Kes mysteriously vanished from the ship at the same instant Dammar arrived. Not long after, Kim disappears as another Nyrian turns up. Soon, Tuvok also vanishes. After 22 Nyrians take the place of crewmembers, Janeway realizes that they are replacing her entire staff at nine-minute intervals.

Twelve hours later, the bizarre exchange has claimed half the crew. Rislan, a Nyrian astrophysicist, works with Torres to find the cause of the problem. But when Torres catches on to the fact that the Nyrians are responsible, Rislan sends her to an idyllic prison colony, where she finds her fellow crewmembers.

On Voyager, Chakotay comes to the conclusion, too late, that the Nyrians are trying to take control of the ship, and he's transported to the colony. Taleen, a Nyrian spokeswoman, explains that her people steal ships and space stations by gradually replacing their crews; it's less violent than war. The prisoners are then relocated to surroundings that approximate their native environment.

As they try to find a way out, they meet Jarlath, another prisoner, who reveals that different areas of the colony are connected by disguised portals. Torres reconfigures the Doctor's optical sensors so that he can detect the passages. He locates a portal that leads to a network of access tunnels, each, in turn, leading to a different biosphere. Janeway finds a control panel that provides access to the translocation system that brought them to the colony.

The Nyrians detect the crew in the passages and send guards to capture them. Torres and Paris slip into an arctic environment and when the Nyrians, who are highly sensitive to cold, follow them, they're easily incapacitated. Meanwhile, Janeway takes control of the translocation system and beams Dammar and Rislan into the cold environment. Overwhelmed by the freezing temperatures, the Nyrians surrender Voyager. With the ship back in her control, Janeway leaves the Nyrians in a section of their own prison while she helps the other prisoners get back to their own homes.

Worst Case Scenario

Stardate: 50953.4

After Janeway and Paris leave on an away mission, Chakotay leads a Maquis takeover of Voyager. With Torres' help, he seizes control of the ship and vows that Federation principles will no longer stand in the way of getting the crew home. Just then, Paris walks in and asks Torres what's going on. Annoyed, Torres freezes the holodeck program she's been running -- the whole mutiny scenario was part of a holo-novel she's just discovered.

The identity of the holo-novel's author is unknown, but Paris is fascinated by the subject matter. He resets the program and replays the mutiny with slightly different plot twists. Just as the holo-novel appears headed for an explosive climax, the program abruptly stops and Paris learns that the writer never completed the story.

The program is soon the talk of the ship, and Tuvok finally admits he's the author. He wrote it as a tactical training exercise when the Maquis and Federation crews first merged. Since the union went smoothly, Tuvok didn't bother finishing the program. After Paris volunteers to complete the tale, Tuvok decides to collaborate with him. But when they re-open the narrative parameters file to write the final chapter, a holographic version of Seska appears; the real Seska discovered Tuvok's program before she left the ship and decided to finish it the way she thought it should play out. She tells Tuvok that she's sealed the holodeck and deactivated the safety protocols; if she shoots them, they'll die.

Although she gives them a brief head start, Tuvok and Paris find that Seska's scenario is deadly. What's more, Seska has laid booby-trapped subroutines, which means that one wrong move could destroy the ship. Outside the holodeck, the crew discovers Seska's schemes and tries to find a way to help Paris and Tuvok.

As Seska prepares to execute Tuvok and Paris, the real Janeway works furiously to rewrite the program. Her efforts throw Seska off just enough that Tuvok is able to rig a phaser malfunction, which kills Seska, ending the program. Safely back from their ordeal, Tuvok and Paris congratulate Janeway on her literary skills and the crew begins planning a new holo-adventure.

Scorpion

Stardate: 50984.3/51003.7

Realizing they have entered Borg space, the crew attempts to plot a course through a corridor that seems devoid of Borg activity, which they dub "the Northwest Passage." As the Doctor and Kes research methods of fighting off Borg assimilation, Kes is troubled by recurring visions of dead Borg and the destruction of Voyager.

Suddenly, the ship is surrounded by an armada of the cube-like Borg vessels. But then the armada mysteriously retreats, leaving Janeway to wonder, what would make the Borg run? Not long after, Tuvok and Kim discover that the power signatures of the Borg cubes, which they've been tracking, have terminated. Tuvok finds an unknown weapons signature in the Borg debris, which raises another question: what could do this to the invincible Borg?

Sensors pick up odd bio-readings from the outer hull of one of the cubes, and Janeway sends an away team to investigate. On the defunct vessel, the team finds a pile of Borg bodies that look the way Kes saw them in a premonition. When Kim senses an alien presence on the ship, Kes "sees" him screaming in agony. Janeway orders them back and the team is transported just as a fierce lifeform attacks Kim. As Voyager races away, Kes informs Janeway that the alien, communicating telepathically, told her "the weak will perish."

In Sickbay, Kim's body is infested with alien cells that entered his body in the attack. The Doctor reprograms Borg nanoprobes in the hope of negating the damage. Meanwhile, Torres discovers the alien lifeform, known to the Borg as "Species 8472," has taken over the Northwest Passage, and Kes senses an invasion is planned. With their former plan no longer an option, Janeway faces a terrible choice: retreat into the Delta Quadrant and forget about getting home, or confront the Borg and risk assimilation.

After considerable thought, Janeway comes up with a third alternative. She will offer the Borg a way to defeat Species 8472 in exchange for safe passage through Borg space. Janeway is beamed aboard one of the cubes, where she presents her proposal. Suddenly, Species 8472's bio-ships begin firing at the Borg cubes, and at Voyager, which is locked in the grip of a Borg tractor beam . . .

Janeway comes to an agreement with the Collective. She will stay aboard the Borg cube to develop the weapon against Species 8472 while Voyager is escorted safely through Borg territory. After Tuvok beams over to assist her, the Borg try to install temporary neuro-transceivers on both of them, but Janeway insists they be assigned a Borg representative to communicate with verbally instead. The Borg select a human female drone, designated as "Seven of Nine."

The crew discovers that Species 8472 and their bio-ships are made of the same organic material; both will be vulnerable to the nanoprobes. They plan a large-scale delivery system using Voyager's photon torpedoes. Back in Sickbay, the Doctor cures Kim with the modified nanoprobes. Not long after, a bio-ship attacks, and the Borg protect Voyager. With the Borg cube damaged, Janeway and Tuvok are beamed to Voyager, along with Seven of Nine.

Janeway is injured in the attack, so Chakotay takes charge of Voyager. Despite the Captain's plea to maintain their alliance with the Borg, he balks when Seven of Nine tells him he must travel deeper into Borg space to link up with their nearest ship. Unwilling to travel in the wrong direction, Chakotay decides to drop off the Borg and the nanoprobes at the nearest uninhabited planet and continue through the Delta Quadrant on their own.

Seven of Nine and the other drones seize control of Voyager and send it through an interdimensional rift into fluidic space, the domain of Species 8472. The Borg have been there before; they started the war with 8472 but didn't bargain on their resistance to assimilation. Janeway orders Chakotay to cooperate with Seven of Nine to engage the aliens in fluidic space.

Voyager launches the nanoprobe torpedoes, forcing 8472 to retreat. With their victory complete, Seven of Nine says the Voyager crew will be assimilated. But Janeway and Chakotay had anticipated this. He distracts her long enough for Torres to create a power surge that severs Seven of Nine's connection to the Borg. Feeling responsible for her fate, Janeway opts to keep her onboard in the hope that they can restore her humanity.

The Gift

Stardate: 51008

When Seven of Nine learns that her link to the Borg Collective has been severed, her demands that she be returned fall on deaf ears. Investigating the former drone's past, Janeway learns that she was assimilated as a young girl named Annika Hansen. With her human physiology already reasserting itself, Seven of Nine's immune system begins rejecting her Borg implants, leaving the Doctor no choice but to remove them. Meanwhile, Kes begins to experience a startling increase in her telepathic abilities.

Janeway orders Seven of Nine to assist the crew in removing the Borg modifications she made to the ship. However, while working, Seven accesses the subspace transmitter, trying to communicate with the Collective. But Kes senses her actions, and with her new enhanced abilities, she prevents Seven of Nine from completing the transmission.

Seven of Nine is held in the brig to prevent any further attempts to contact the Borg. Over the drone's objections, Janeway says she will make her fully human again, believing that the end will justify the means. Meanwhile, Tuvok becomes alarmed when he finds that Kes' new abilities are endangering the ship.

The ship's sensors reveal that Kes is periodically going into a state of cellular flux, with her atoms destabilizing at the subatomic level. Janeway is concerned but her attention is split by her efforts to help Seven of Nine, who is fighting against her assimilation into human culture every step of the way.

With the ship's defenses compromised by her transformation, Kes decides it will be best for everyone if she leaves Voyager to further explore her new state. Janeway barely gets her to a shuttle before Kes' molecules completely destabilize and she dissolves into pure energy. Kes uses her transformation to bestow a final gift on her Voyager family, hurling the ship safely beyond Borg space and ten years closer to home. The Doctor finishes extracting most of the Borg technology from Seven of Nine, leaving her with a human appearance and, Janeway hopes, the instincts to complete her own difficult transformation.

Day of Honor

Stardate: Unknown

Torres is having a bad day. She's overslept, had a malfunction in her sonic shower and she's been asked to work with Seven of Nine to create a Borg-style transwarp conduit. She's hardly in the mood to go through the Klingon Day of Honor, an annual ritual of self-examination. Paris tries to help, but she pushes him away, afraid to accept the comfort of his friendship.

In the meantime, Voyager encounters a ship of Caatati refugees seeking supplies. The Caatati explain that most of their species were assimilated by the Borg. They have nothing left. Janeway offers them some rations. Later, Voyager runs into more Caatati ships. Their leader is outraged when he sees the crew includes an ex-Borg. In Engineering, Seven of Nine continues working to open a transwarp conduit, but during the first test of the modifications, an accident occurs and Torres is forced to eject the warp core.

Torres and Paris take a shuttle to retrieve the core, but they find a Caatati ship trying to salvage it. They warn the Caatati off, but the aliens fire at the shuttle and collapse its structural integrity field. Torres and Paris beam into space just before their shuttle explodes. By linking the communication systems in both of their space suits, they create a carrier wave that they hope will reach Voyager before they run out of air. On Voyager, Janeway questions Seven of Nine about the accident in Engineering and is satisfied that she didn't cause it.

The ship picks up the carrier wave from Torres and Paris, but before they can retrieve them, the Caatati ships arrive with the warp core. They threaten to destroy Voyager unless Janeway gives them more supplies -- and turns over Seven of Nine. Seven volunteers to go, but the Captain refuses. Seven then offers to build an energy matrix for the Caatati, which will produce all the thorium they need for their systems. The Caatati accept, and return the warp core. The crisis over, Voyager is able to rescue Paris and Torres. The Klingon finds that in facing death, she has found the courage to admit her love for Paris -- and with that courage, she realizes she has found her honor.

Nemesis

Stardate: 51082.4

During a survey mission, Chakotay comes under fire and makes an emergency beam-out from his shuttle. He arrives on a planet whose inhabitants are locked in war, and is taken in by the Vori, a humanoid group that is fighting against the vicious Kradin. While searching for the remains of his vessel, Chakotay and a young Vori soldier battle two Kradin, and the Vori is killed.

After rejoining the Vori soldiers, Chakotay and the others set out to meet a larger group of soldiers, but on the way, learn their fellow Vori contingent has been massacred. Suddenly, the Kradin are upon them, and several soldiers are killed in the barrage of gunfire. Chakotay is wounded, but he gets away, fleeing into the night. At last, he comes upon a settlement of Vori and collapses.

Back on Voyager, the crew learns pieces of Chakotay's shuttle were found in the middle of a war zone. They are unable to contact him, but are promised by one of the planet's ambassadors that their friend will be located and returned. When Chakotay revives in the settlement, the residents tell him he can find communications equipment at the "Re-Stock Unit," which is some distance away. The next morning, he sets out to find it, but the sight of enemy aircraft brings him back. He returns to find the Kradin taking the people by force. Learning that the Vori elders will be exterminated, Chakotay tries to fight the enemy, but is outnumbered. Meanwhile, Janeway meets with the Kradin ambassador, who sends down a commando unit to accompany Tuvok in searching for Chakotay.

Left to die by the Kradin, Chakotay is grateful when a Vori leader comes back to free him. The two join in battle against the Kradin but Chakotay is shocked when one of the enemy calls him by name. Although he looks like a Kradin to Chakotay, the alien assures him that he is actually Tuvok! Tuvok explains that the Vori have been using mind-control techniques to get Chakotay to help fight their war. His encounters with the soldiers and the civilians in the settlement were Vori simulations training him to hate the Kradin. Although faced with the probability that the Vori are no better than the Kradin, Chakotay realizes that it will be harder to stop hating than it was to start.

Revulsion

Stardate: 51186.2

In the midst of a ceremony celebrating Tuvok's promotion to Lieutenant Commander, Voyager receives an automated distress call sent by Dejaren, an alien hologram, who says that his crew is dead and he needs help. The Doctor, anxious to meet a fellow hologram, tracks the source of the transmission and is assigned to the rescue mission along with Torres. Upon their arrival on the disabled Serosian ship, they meet Dejaren, who is pleased to see another "lifeform" like himself.

The hologram says that his crew became infected with a deadly virus, which killed them all. Dejaren is awed by the Doctor's freedom and abilities; his crew never let him out of his chamber or treated him as anything other than machinery. Later, as Torres works to repair Dejaren's systems, Dejaren lashes out at her verbally, castigating her organic body and way of life. Torres shares her concerns about the hologram with the Doctor and informs him that Dejaren lied about the lower deck being filled with harmful radiation. Perhaps there's something down there that he doesn't want them to see. Although the Doctor empathizes with his fellow hologram, he agrees to keep Dejaren occupied while she investigates.

As he talks to Dejaren, the Doctor begins to realize that Torres was right. The hologram is pathologically bitter toward "organics." On the lower deck, Torres finds the bloody bodies of the crew and it's clear they didn't die from a virus. As she hurriedly tries to deactivate Dejaren's program, the homicidal hologram appears and nearly kills her before she manages to shut him off.

Meanwhile, aboard Voyager, Harry Kim is assigned to work with Seven of Nine on the new Astrometrics lab. Kim is uneasy working with the Borg, but their detail provides them with the basis of a friendship. However, Kim is rattled when Seven of Nine interprets his pleasantries as romantic seduction and she decides to further explore her resurgent humanity.

On the Serosian ship, the Doctor and Torres find that the hologram has disabled their communication link to the shuttle. As they work to restore it, Dejaren reactivates himself and knocks out Torres. He disconnects the Doctor's mobile emitter, causing the Emergency Medical Hologram to disappear. Torres awakens and flees, but a murderous Dejaren pursues her. Finally, she manages to destabilize his matrix with an isomagnetic conduit, deactivating him for good, and brings the Doctor back on-line. Both return to Voyager with a new appreciation for the Doctor's unique -- and stable -- personality.

The Raven

Stardate: Unknown

When Seven of Nine begins experiencing flashbacks involving pursuit by Borg and a large black bird, the Doctor attributes it to post-traumatic stress disorder. He advises her to begin eating real food, something she'll need to get used to now that she's human. But after a few bites, Seven has another vision, and a piece of Borg hardware pops through her skin. Reverting to Borg behavior, she threatens Neelix with assimilation.

Meanwhile, Janeway faces tough negotiations with representatives of the B'omar race for passage through their region. Although the crew is immediately alerted to Seven's odd behavior, they are unable to stop her from leaving the ship. After transporting to a shuttle, she takes the craft into B'omar space.

The Doctor concludes that Seven's dormant Borg nanoprobes have somehow become reactivated. The B'omar refuse to allow Voyager to enter their territory to pursue Seven, but Tuvok and Paris sneak a shuttle past their perimeter grid and track her. When they catch up, Tuvok beams over to her shuttle and a struggle ensues. Seven easily wins and traps the Vulcan behind a force field. From there, he questions her reasons for leaving Voyager. Seven explains that she is responding to a Borg homing beacon. Tuvok points out that there are no Borg ships in the region, but Seven insists he's wrong.

Seven tracks the signal to an alien moon and prepares to beam to the surface. Tuvok asks to accompany her, but Seven expresses concern that he'll be assimilated. Tuvok believes he has no reason to fear that possibility. On the surface, they find an old Federation vessel that was partially assimilated by the Borg almost 20 years ago. It is the Raven, a vessel that belonged to the Hansens -- Seven's parents. Some of the Borg-modified equipment was left active, including the beacon that triggered her return. Seven confronts the haunting memories of her assimilation by the Borg at the age of six, but is snapped out of the reverie by an attack from B'omar ships. She and Tuvok barely manage to escape the vessel before the Raven is destroyed. They're beamed up by Paris and safely returned to Voyager.

Scientific Method

Stardate: 51244.3

Janeway has a miserable headache. The pain affects her normal scientific curiosity; Chakotay's enthusiasm over some binary pulsars goes unshared. And neither of them notices that something is aboard the ship, carefully scanning each member of the crew.

When Chakotay begins aging rapidly, the Doctor's scan detects that segments of his DNA have been hyperstimulated. Neelix has a different ailment, but the Doctor finds segments of his DNA are also hyperstimulated. Soon, others are coming in with obscure genetic problems. Torres and the Doctor find microscopic tags on the crewmembers' DNA, but before they can investigate further, the Doctor's program is deactivated and Torres collapses.

Later, the Doctor taps into Seven of Nine's audio implants to ask her to meet him in the holodeck. He adjusts her Borg sensory nodes so she can scan Voyager for anything unusual. Suddenly, Seven can see aliens everywhere, invisibly prodding crewmembers with instruments. She goes to the Captain and finds Janeway flanked by aliens sticking needles into her head -- the source of her headaches.

Seven tells the Doctor that the aliens are performing medical experiments on the crew. She could make them visible with a modulated phaser beam, but the Doctor believes they might retaliate. He suggests that delivering a simultaneous neuroleptic shock to each member of the crew will undo the experiments. But when Seven tries to implement the plan, Tuvok stops her, misunderstanding her intentions. The aliens realize she can see them, and Seven is forced to use her phaser to make one visible. She brings it to Janeway, who is outraged when the alien -- a Srivani -- explains they are using the data to cure disorders within their race. The Srivani threatens to kill everyone if the experiments are not allowed to continue.

The Captain feels it's time for desperate measures. She steers Voyager into the binary pulsar, knowing it means almost certain destruction. The Srivani evacuate the ship as Voyager plunges through at full throttle. The ship comes out relatively unscathed and the Doctor is able to neutralize the effects of the experiments, allowing them to continue the tedious voyage toward home.

Year of Hell

Stardate: 51268.4/51425.4

Voyager christens its new Astrometrics Lab, which has mapping technology far more accurate than their old system. It projects a course that will cut years off their trip, taking them through Zahl territory, which a species called the Krenim also lay claim to. The Zahl tell Voyager not to worry about the Krenim, who once dominated the region with deadly temporal weapons; the Zahl defeated them years ago. Suddenly, Voyager's sensors detect a build-up of temporal energy, and the ship is hit by a space-time shockwave. The Zahl disappear, along with the crew's memory of them, and they find themselves facing the powerful Krenim. Chronoton-based Krenim torpedoes, which exist in a state of temporal flux, penetrate Voyager's shields, badly damaging the ship.

In another part of the region, Annorax, the Krenim captain of the ship that annihilated the Zahl, evaluates his efforts and learns he has almost completely restored the Krenim Imperium. But Annorax will not rest until every colony is back. On Voyager, Janeway manages to destroy the Krenim ship attacking her, but the damage is done. The ship is incapable of continuing its journey. Seven of Nine finds an active warhead lodged in the hull. Tuvok surmises it will explode in minutes, but Seven is intent on learning its temporal variance and using that knowledge to perfect shielding against it. She makes a determination just before the torpedo blows up.

Seven's new temporal shields hold against Krenim torpedoes. In another part of space, Annorax fires his temporal weapon, and the space-time continuum is again altered. This time, Voyager's shields protect it from time disruption. Suddenly, they find that the big Krenim warship they were battling has become a much smaller ship. Annorax's weapon has caused the Krenim Imperium to revert to a pre-warp state. Annorax realizes that Voyager's temporal shields were responsible for throwing off his calculations. He approaches Voyager and transports Chakotay and Paris to his ship for study. He then unleashes a chronoton energy beam to erase Voyager from history, but the starship is able to escape, albeit with major structural damage. Janeway is forced to evacuate the crew, but she and the senior staff stay with the ship to rescue Chakotay and Paris, and hopefully reunite with the escape pods ...

Badly damaged, the Voyager takes refuge in a nebula as a skeleton crew attempts to repair the ship. On Annorax's ship, Chakotay and Paris are summoned to meet with him. He has a proposal for them. He'll send Voyager back in time, restoring it to its original state, if they fill him in on the extent of Voyager's presence in Krenim space so he can complete calculations that will allow him to restore the Krenim Imperium. Paris balks at helping Annorax, but Chakotay believes the chance to continue their voyage home may be worth the risk of trusting Annorax.

As Chakotay helps Annorax chart Voyager's journey, Annorax shares a story about a mistake he made after he first created his time-weapon ship. He destroyed the Krenim's greatest enemy, but in the process, he also destroyed an important antibody in the Krenim genetic structure, and 50 million Krenim died of disease as a result. He has been trying to undo his mistake ever since.

Paris finds a weakness in the Krenim ship that could be exploited, but Chakotay refuses to go against Annorax. However, when Annorax eradicates another species in order to partially restore the Krenim timeline, Chakotay is dismayed to see him turn once again to destruction as an answer to his problems. Chakotay takes Annorax to task for the destruction of innocent lives and Annorax reveals the driving force behind his actions. His wife died as a result of his time incursions, and he hopes to undo her death.

Chakotay and Paris secretly contact Voyager, giving Janeway their coordinates. She arranges a coalition with other species, which will attack when Paris takes the temporal core off-line. The remaining members of Voyager's crew disperse to prepare the other ships for battle, but Janeway stays with Voyager.

Chakotay and Paris take the temporal core off-line, making the ship vulnerable to traditional weapons. Annorax orders his men to fire at the approaching vessels and soon the coalition is almost destroyed. Janeway does a kamikaze run at the Krenim ship and the impact destabilizes the core, causing a temporal incursion within Annorax's ship. With the destruction of the Krenim vessel, the timeline is restored, Voyager never makes its fateful entry into Krenim space, and Annorax is at last reunited with his beloved wife.

Random Thoughts

Stardate: 51367.2

While visiting the world of the Mari, a telepathic race, a Mari man named Frane collides with Torres in the marketplace. Soon after, Frane viciously attacks another man. During questioning, Torres admits to Chief Examiner Nimira that she had thoughts of hurting Frane when he bumped into her. To her surprise, Torres is arrested for "aggravated violent thought resulting in grave bodily harm."

Torres is told she must undergo an engramatic purge, a medical procedure to identify and remove the offending images from her mind. Frane will go through the same purge. Janeway protests when she hears there's a risk of neurological damage, and she sets out with Tuvok to review the evidence. They find that Frane has a record of previous arrests for harboring violent thoughts, but Nimira claims he has been cured through previous purging. In the marketplace, a Mari woman experiences Torres' violent thought against Frane and attacks a young merchant, killing her.

Puzzled by the two related attacks among these normally non-violent people, Tuvok mind-melds with Torres to learn more of her brush with Frane. He learns that a Mari named Guill approached her after the incident and probed her mind. When Tuvok questions him, Guill telepathically senses the Vulcan's dark impulses and offers to help Tuvok control them. After witnessing Guill secretly accept money from another Mari, Tuvok realizes Guill may have a business interest in violent thoughts. He approaches Guill again, offering to telepathically exchange his disturbing images.

Questioning him further, Tuvok learns Guill buys violent thoughts from people or sometimes takes them, as he did with Torres. Guill denies he's responsible for the marketplace attack or for the circulation of Torres' thoughts, but Tuvok wants to take him to Nimira for questioning. Just then, two of Guill's conspirators intercept them. Meanwhile, Torres begins the engramatic purging.

Tuvok lures Guill into a mind-meld with the promise of transferring his violent thoughts, but instead he inflicts mental pain on Guill and brings him to Voyager. Janeway gets Nimira to stop the purging procedure after Tuvok explains that Guill and Frane conspired to provoke the thought in Torres.

Concerning Flight

Stardate: 51386.4

As Voyager comes under attack by unknown vessels, equipment and weapons begin disappearing from the ship. The enemy is using a high-energy transporter beam to locate items of technological value and remove them. Janeway and the crew track their stolen goods to an alien world that appears to be an active center of commerce. As Tuvok and Janeway beam down to search, the Vulcan immediately locates an item with a Starfleet signature: it's Leonardo da Vinci, from Janeway's holodeck program. Somehow, the crooks got his program when they took the ship's computer processor, and the program was downloaded into the Doctor's stolen mobile emitter.

Da Vinci leads them to a room filled with other stolen goods and speaks of his "patron," a "prince" who provides him with everything he needs. Back on Voyager, Chakotay learns that a man named Tau sells weapons and technology he confiscates from passing ships. As it turns out, Tau is da Vinci's patron and Janeway gets the inventor to bring her to one of Tau's parties. She poses as a buyer and asks about computers. Tau reveals that he has Voyager's missing computer for sale.

Armed with topographical maps of the region, Tuvok returns to Voyager and reviews the information. He and Seven of Nine locate the storage facility where the processor is kept, but a forcefield around it makes transport impossible. Janeway will have to get inside the facility and initiate a power surge that will produce a signal strong enough for the transporter beam to lock on to. Unfortunately, Tau overhears Janeway talking to the ship and trains a weapon on her. Da Vinci comes to her defense and knocks out Tau, then he and Janeway head for the facility.

Once they find the processor, Janeway follows through on Tuvok's plan. The arrival of an armed guard prevents the two of them from beaming up along with the computer, and Janeway and da Vinci are forced to take escape into their own hands. They board a glider constructed by da Vinci and take off just as Tau's men begin shooting at them. Finally, Voyager is able to get close enough to the planet to beam aboard the Captain and her mentor, along with the glider that saved their lives.

Mortal Coil

Stardate: 51449.2

Neelix is assigned to collect a sample of proto-matter from a nearby nebula. However, he is struck by an energy discharge from the nebula and killed. As Janeway prepares to conduct a Talaxian burial ceremony, Seven of Nine announces that her Borg nanoprobes can be used to revive Neelix. Although skeptical, Janeway allows her to try the procedure, and Neelix is brought back to life.

Neelix is very distraught over his experience. As he explains to Chakotay, his people believe in an afterlife that centers on "The Great Forest." When a Talaxian dies, his ancestors supposedly meet him by the "guiding tree." Neelix has always taken comfort in believing that all of his family would one day be together again, but now he realizes he did not experience anything like that in death.

As the crew gathers for the annual celebration of Prixin, the Talaxian observance of familial allegiance, Neelix visits Ensign Wildman's daughter, Naomi. He goes through their nightly ritual of putting her to bed, but he is troubled by her request to hear his usual story of the Great Forest. Later, Neelix unleashes his frustration on Seven, arguing that his life is no longer worth living now that his deepest beliefs have been shattered. Suddenly, Neelix cries out in pain; his cells are reverting to a necrotic state. Neelix's tissue is rejecting the Borg nanoprobes, but Seven makes the necessary modification to compensate. Still troubled, Neelix asks Chakotay to help him take a vision quest so he can look inside himself and come to some sort of resolution. As the quest begins, Neelix encounters his beloved sister and members of the crew, who all tell him that the afterlife is a lie, and that he has no reason to live. Neelix comes out of the vision determined to end his life.

After recording his goodbyes to the crew, Neelix tries to beam into the nebula. Chakotay rushes to stop him, but Neelix protests that the vision quest convinced him he'll be better off dead. Chakotay explains that the imagery is not easily interpreted and that it was probably just an expression of his anxiety over his beliefs. Neelix is unconvinced until Ensign Wildman summons him to help put Naomi to bed. He realizes that the crew -- who have become his family -- needs him, and that is his reason to live.

Waking Moments

Stardate: 51471.3

After a fitful night's sleep, the crew realizes they all had nightmares involving the same alien. They become concerned when several crewmembers cannot be awakened. Hoping to find out more about the alien, Chakotay attempts a technique called lucid dreaming, which will allow him to control the events of his dream. If he needs to awaken, he can tap his hand three times.

After falling asleep, Chakotay encounters the alien and demands to know what's happening to the crew. The alien explains that for his species, the dream state is their reality. For centuries they've been harmed by "waking species," and now they are retaliating. He tells Chakotay that if Voyager leaves their space, the crew will awaken. Chakotay comes out of the dream and orders a course for the alien border. But once there, a ship begins firing at Voyager. It's the dream aliens.

The aliens beam aboard, taking the ship. As the crew looks for ways to regain control, Chakotay sees a visual cue that lets him know he's still dreaming. After tapping his hand, Chakotay wakes up in Sickbay, this time for real. The Doctor informs him that the entire crew is asleep, and their brain patterns show they are all experiencing the same dream. Chakotay realizes that they're involved in a communal dream. The aliens have the advantage in dreams, but if Chakotay can locate the sleeping aliens while he's awake, he'll have the upper hand. In the dream, Janeway and the others are being held hostage but they begin to suspect that they are dreaming. When the Captain is unharmed by a warp core explosion, they know it's true.

The closer Chakotay gets to the sleeping aliens, the harder it is to stay awake. At last he finds them in a cavern, clustered around a large transmitter that is responsible for maintaining the dream state. He uses a stimulant the Doctor gave him to wake one of the aliens and commands it to deactivate the device. Before Chakotay falls asleep and enters the communal dream, he tells the Doctor to deploy a torpedo at the cavern if he doesn't hear from him in five minutes. Under threat of total destruction, the alien leader is forced to neutralize the transmitter, and the crew awakens, freed from alien control.

Message in a Bottle

Stardate: 51462

When Seven of Nine locates an alien relay station, she establishes a sensor link and detects a Starfleet vessel in the Alpha Quadrant. Janeway uses the relay network to send a message to the ship, but the transmission degrades before it gets through. Their only other option is to send a holographic datastream. The Doctor is recruited, and he finds himself aboard the Prometheus, only to find that the Starfleet crew is dead and the ship is in Romulan hands. Prometheus is a prototype with advanced tactical abilities that the Romulans are eager to test. They access the ship's multi-vector assault mode and the vessel splits into three separate ships. Moving into attack formation, they easily destroy a Starfleet vessel, then reintegrate.

The Doctor activates the Prometheus' Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH-2), and the two agree to work together to stop the Romulans. They plan to use the ventilation system to distribute an anesthetic gas, but the Doctor must first reach the environmental controls on the Bridge. He concocts a story about a virus to gain access to the controls, but the Romulans are suspicious.

Meanwhile, Voyager's link to the relay station is severed by the Hirogen, the species claiming ownership of the communications network. Seven sends a mild shock to the Hirogen, giving them a bit more time.

As the Doctor is grilled by the Romulans, gas suddenly pours from the vents, incapacitating the enemy. EMH-2 explains that he simulated a bio-hazard, and the computer opened the ventilation system automatically. Now the doctors are faced with flying the ship, which is headed into Romulan space. The Prometheus is fired upon by enemy warbirds, but the doctors can't figure out the controls. Then they're fired upon by Starfleet ships, who think Romulans are still in command. At last EMH-2 accidentally initiates the decoupling sequence, and the doctors score a direct hit against a Romulan ship, causing the other warbirds to retreat. Starfleet personnel beam aboard, and after speaking directly with Headquarters, the Doctor is transmitted back to Voyager, where he conveys a message: Starfleet Headquarters is now aware of their predicament, and will do everything it can to bring Voyager safely home.

Hunters

Stardate: 51501.4

When Starfleet Command sends a transmission to the Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, the bulk of it gets lodged in one of the Hirogen relay stations. Janeway immediately sets a course for it, and the Hirogens prepare to intercept them. Along the way, Voyager finds a ship adrift in space with one dead humanoid aboard. They beam the body to Sickbay and discover that it's been gutted. As they near the relay station, sensors begin to pick up increasing gravimetric forces. Apparently, the Hirogen station is using a quantum singularity -- a black hole -- as its power source!

Downloading more of the Starfleet transmission, Janeway realizes it contains letters from home. The letters bring both good and bad news: Tuvok finds he has become a grandfather, but Chakotay learns that all of Maquis back home have either been killed or imprisoned. When the transmission begins degrading, Tuvok and Seven of Nine try to stabilize the signal by taking a shuttle closer to the relay station. But after they carry out their assignment, they are captured by the Hirogen and taken to their ship.

Back on Voyager, Janeway struggles to accept the news that her fianc? has married another woman. Suddenly, Kim receives an automated distress signal from the shuttle, and sensors reveal that no one is on board. The Hirogen leader plans to remove Tuvok and Seven's skeletons and keep them as relics. Kim locates the enemy ship on Voyager's sensors. Janeway refuses to heed the Hirogen leader's warning to disconnect her link to the module and leave without Tuvok and Seven, despite the fact that more Hirogen ships are on the way. Instead, her crew prepares for battle.

Janeway realizes if they boost the effect of the singularity, they can increase its gravitational pull and trap the enemy ships. When the aliens begin firing on Voyager, the containment field around the station is destabilized. Once the singularity is exposed, everything around it is sucked into the black hole. Kim manages to beam Tuvok and Seven safely aboard just before Janeway orders a dangerous maneuver to free Voyager from the grip of the singularity. Unfortunately, the entire network of relay stations is disabled, leaving the crew once again without a link to home.

Prey

Stardate: 51652.3

When a Hirogen ship containing one erratic life sign is found adrift, Janeway sends an away team to investigate. They bring back a wounded Hirogen to sickbay and report that the species is obviously comprised of hunters. Skeletal remains found on the ship show that their entire existence is based on the hunt of prey as both food and prized possessions. Now, however, something is hunting them.

Insistent that he be returned to his ship, the Hirogen explains that he had just captured an alien when it broke free and attacked him. He is anxious to continue the hunt, and Janeway assures him that she beamed him to sickbay to treat his wounds. When Tuvok and Kim investigate structural damage to Voyager's hull, they find an intruder has entered the ship. A blood sample left at the scene shows it is a member of the highly dangerous Species 8472. The crew is put on intruder alert, but the alien has already entered engineering and attacks Torres.

The Hirogen informs Janeway that if he is not allowed to continue hunting the alien, he will tell his approaching ships to destroy Voyager. Knowing from their previous encounter that Species 8472 is susceptible to Borg nanoprobes, Tuvok and Seven of Nine load phasers with them and track the alien. They soon corner the wounded intruder and plan to stun him. When the Hirogen begins firing his weapon against orders, Tuvok turns his phaser on him.

Paris and Seven discover that Species 8472 boarded Voyager to attempt to open a singularity. Through telepathic contact with Tuvok, the alien explains that his ship was damaged during conflict with the Borg. He has been trapped alone, wounded and hunted by the Hirogen, and he just wants to get home. Although the Hirogen threatens that the crew will be slaughtered if the alien isn't surrendered to him, Janeway asks Seven to open a singularity. Seven refuses to help the alien escape and is confined to the cargo bay until the mission is over.

As the approaching ships fire on Voyager, forcefields go off-line and the Hirogen escapes from sickbay. When the alien becomes agitated, Janeway tells Seven to give it more Borg nanoprobes. As she complies, the Hirogen approaches and orders Seven to step aside, allowing him to continue his hunt of the prey. Just then, the alien breaks through the forcefield. As it struggles with the Hirogen, Seven taps into transport controls and beams them to one of the ships. The Hirogen immediately cease firing and leave the area at warp speed. As a consequence for her actions against the Captain's command, Seven's duties on Voyager are restricted.

Retrospect

Stardate: 51658.2

The Captain acquires a new weapons system from an Entharan trader named Kovin, and Seven of Nine is asked to help with the integration. When Kovin criticizes her work and pushes her aside to do it himself, she hits him. After Seven exhibits newfound anxiety in sickbay, the Doctor believes it is caused by blocked memories trying to surface. He has added a psychiatric subroutine to his program and leads Seven through hypnotic regression therapy. During their session, Seven recalls that Kovin performed a medical procedure on her and extracted Borg technology.

While probing her memories, Seven remembers the procedure took place while she and Kovin were testing weapons. They entered his laboratory, and he fired a thoron beam at her. Then, he activated the assimilation tubules in her arm and extracted some nanoprobes. Another Entharan was lying on the next table, and he was successfully assimilated with the nanoprobes. Janeway questions Kovin, who denies everything and claims the thoron weapon was fired accidentally. Faced with contradicting stories, Janeway proceeds with an investigation.

Kovin pleads with Tuvok to drop the charges against him. Since his people depend on trade, just an accusation of violating their protocols concerning diplomatic relations is a serious offense. Kovin knows he will be ruined. With the Entharan magistrate's help, the Doctor inspects Kovin's lab and finds a sample of Borg nanoprobes on his table. Informed that this is sufficient evidence to detain him, Kovin immediately transports to his ship and escapes.

In pursuit of Kovin, Janeway and Tuvok continue to inspect his confiscated weapons. When they simulate a thoron blast to Seven's arm and study a tissue sample, they find that her nanoprobes regenerate just as they did in Kovin's lab. It appears to be a spontaneous response to the thoron blast. They suddenly realize that Seven's repressed memories are most likely images from her experiences as a Borg that she confused as Kovin.

When Janeway hails Kovin and explains they made a mistake in accusing him, he thinks it is a trap. He begins firing at Voyager, but Janeway refuses to return fire and tries to beam him aboard instead. As Kovin overloads power on his ship, it destabilizes and explodes, killing him. Seven experiences remorse, as does the Doctor. Believing that his overzealous enthusiasm for expanding his program resulted in the tragedy, he requests permission to delete everything except his original activation program, but he is denied.

The Killing Game

Stardate: 51715.2

The Hirogen have taken over the Voyager and implanted devices in the crew to make them believe they are characters within the holodecks. Interacting in a World War II simulation, Janeway is the leader of a secret movement gathering information from the Nazis to help the Allies. She runs a nightclub in a small province of France, and Seven of Nine is her munitions expert posing as a piano singer. Tuvok, the bartender, suspects Seven may be a Nazi infiltrator.

When Allied Command sends a coded message that they will soon be invading St. Clare, they ask Janeway's resistance group to disable the Germans' communication system. Meanwhile, two of the Hirogen soldiers are getting restless and want to proceed with the hunt, although their leader believes the simulations will help them learn more about their prey. After wounding Seven and Neelix in the holodeck, they bring them to sickbay for repair.

The Doctor is forced to repeatedly tend to the crew's injuries and then send them back to the simulations. He and Kim, who has been kept on the Bridge working to expand the holodecks, secretly work together to find a way to disable the crew's neural interfacers so they will remember who they are. The Hirogen leader plans to use Voyager's holodecks to create an endless supply of prey.

While Seven is in the sickbay, the Doctor uses one of her Borg implants to create a jamming signal. She doesn't remember anything after the Hirogen invaded Voyager, but he explains that the crew is being forced to play out their roles in the holodecks. The Doctor sends her back to the World War II simulation with instructions to find the control panel and access the Bridge relay. Then, he and Kim can deactivate the rest of the neural interfacers and the crew can mount a resistance against the Hirogen.

After Seven accesses the holodeck controls, the Doctor disables Janeway's implant just before her character tries to shoot Seven. The two women escape from Nazi headquarters as American soldiers, including Chakotay and Paris, arrive and begin firing. When a simulated explosion blows out some of the hologrid, the soldiers see into Voyager's decks and mistake them for a Nazi compound. As American and Nazi soldiers swarm into the ship, the Hirogen have a real war on their hands...

Even though World War II is being waged throughout the ship, the Hirogen leader is unwilling to destroy the holodeck technology. He insists that Janeway be found and brought to him. Meanwhile, she and Seven of Nine continue to pretend to be part of the simulation and gather with the rest of the French Resistance -- Tuvok, Torres and two American soldiers, Chakotay and Paris. They concoct a plan that will allow Janeway access to the neural interfacers in the ship, which the rest of the crew still thinks is an advanced munitions laboratory.

After she and Chakotay access a Klingon simulation, Janeway summons the Doctor. The neural interfacers are controlled from sickbay, so she plans to set charges that will blow out the console. Since Voyager's safety shields are off-line, the holographic charges will work. Once Chakotay sets the explosive, Janeway overtakes the Hirogen guard. She accesses the interfacers, but a Hirogen suddenly breaks in. As she escapes, sickbay explodes, deactivating the crew's devices.

When Janeway is brought to the Hirogen leader, he explains to her his desire for the holodecks. If his species can hunt holographic prey, they will not be scattered across the quadrant and can work on rebuilding. Janeway offers to give him the technology to build holodecks if he agrees to evacuate his troops and restore Voyager. The leader orders his hunters to call a cease-fire in the simulation, but one of the Nazi soldiers talks a bloodthirsty Hirogen into ignoring his superior.

As the battle still rages on, Neelix and the Doctor recruit Klingons from their holodeck to help in the fighting. Meanwhile, Janeway works with Kim to overload the holo-emitter network, which will shut down the simulations. Suddenly, the Hirogen officer storms in and kills his leader. Instead of shooting Janeway right there, he tells her to run so he can hunt her.

With German troops surrounding them, Seven works to modify an explosive, which will give off a photonic burst that disrupts holographic activity in a small area. Just as the Nazis overtake the simulated battle, Klingons attack. Waging her own war against the Hirogen chasing her, Janeway comes across the damage caused by Seven's explosive. She lures him into the area, and his holographic gun disappears. Janeway then becomes the hunter, killing him as the holo-emitters overload and the simulation ends. A truce is negotiated with the remaining Hirogen, and they leave with their own holodeck technology.

Vis a Vis

Stardate: 51762.4

An alien vessel in need of rescue suddenly appears in Voyager's space. It is attempting to use an experimental propulsion system powered by a coaxial warp drive, but it is destabilizing. Janeway transports the pilot, Steth, and his prototype to Voyager. Paris, who has been restless and irritable lately and in need of a change in duty, volunteers to help him repair his ship. What they don't know is that there is really a woman inside Steth's body.

While Paris uses his knowledge of 20th-century cars to repair the ship, Steth breaks into Voyager's computer and downloads Paris' DNA information. Once Steth's ship is operational again, he suddenly overtakes Paris and switches bodies with him. Seth sends Paris away on his ship, and he stays on Voyager to live out Paris' life.

Steth slides right into Paris' daily routine, and the crew is none the wiser. He uses flattery with the Doctor to get out of sickbay duty, and he charms his way back into Torres' good graces to smooth over a recent fight she had with Paris. Meanwhile, Paris wakes up on Steth's ship to find that the Benthan, who have tracked down Steth for theft, are taking him into custody.

The Benthan ships are suddenly run off, and an angry woman, Daelen, beams aboard Paris' vessel. She says she is Steth, and she wants her body back. On Voyager, Steth begins to lose control and exhibit erratic behavior. He fights with Torres and Seven of Nine, and he becomes intoxicated while on duty. When Janeway expresses her concern, Steth attacks her and is taken to sickbay after Tuvok stuns him with a phaser.

Daelen explains that the alien has perfected selective DNA exchange. It put Steth into its body, and Paris into Steth's. They finally activate the coaxial warp drive and manage to catch up with Voyager, but when they tell Janeway what has happened, they realize the alien has switched bodies again. Janeway is lying in sickbay in Paris' body, and the alien in her body takes off from Voyager in a shuttle it has outfitted with the advanced propulsion system. Paris and Steth race after her, and Paris applies the principles he used in repairing the warp drive to disable it. With the alien in custody, everyone is returned to the proper bodies, and Paris has gained a new appreciation for the monotony of his life.

The Omega Directive

Stardate: 51781.2

When a strange symbol appears on Voyager's computer screens, Janeway begins giving orders without explanation. She is carrying out a highly classified mission called the Omega Directive, and Seven of Nine is the only other person who knows what it means. Voyager's sensors have detected the Omega molecule, which is a highly unstable phenomenon. Janeway's orders as a Starfleet Captain are to destroy it, but Seven believes its power should be harnessed. The Borg believe it represents perfection. She agrees to help Janeway carry out the Directive so she can study the molecule more closely.

When Chakotay convinces the Captain she needs the resources of her crew, Janeway briefs the senior staff on the Directive. The Omega molecule is the most powerful substance known to exist and could create a subspace rupture that would make warp travel impossible. The crew sets a course for the molecules, knowing that this mission must succeed, or they will never make it out of the Delta Quadrant.

Seven begins working on a harmonic resonance chamber, which should stabilize the Omega molecule, while Janeway leads a rescue mission. She has found a planet where researchers were working to create a molecule when an explosion left them exposed to radiation. Before being beamed to sickbay, the senior researcher tells Janeway one of the Omega molecules survived in the primary test chamber. When Seven questions him later, he pleads with her not to destroy Omega, saying that the discovery of the phenomenon is the lifeblood of his people.

Once she breaks into the test chamber, Janeway finds enough Omega to wipe out half of the Delta Quadrant. To destroy it with Seven's harmonic resonance technology, the molecules must be transported to Voyager. Yearning to understand Omega's perfection, Seven no longer believes it should be destroyed. After the molecules are safely beamed into containment, the crew takes off with several alien ships in pursuit.

In an open area of space, Janeway prepares to jettison the chamber containing the molecules and then destroy it with a torpedo. Seven manages to neutralize almost half of the molecules, and just before the chamber launches, she witnesses them stabilize spontaneously. Once the torpedo is fired, Voyager escapes at maximum warp, leaving behind no trace of Omega. Janeway has successfully carried out her Directive, and Seven has had her first spiritual experience.

Unforgettable

Stardate: 51813.4

A cloaked ship suddenly appears with an injured female onboard hailing Chakotay. Once Kellin, the injured woman, is beamed to sickbay, she asks the Captain for asylum from her people. When Chakotay asks how she knows him, she explains that she was recently on Voyager for several weeks. No one remembers her because memories of her people cannot be held in the minds of others for more than a few hours. Her body produces a pheromone that blocks their long-term memory engrams. She confesses that she has returned to Voyager because she fell in love with Chakotay.

Chakotay informs the rest of the senior staff that Kellin is from Ramura, a closed society that tracks down people who leave their world. She was on Voyager about a month ago when her bounty hunting brought her to a stowaway on the ship. Although Kellin says a computer virus was planted to erase all evidence of her presence, the crew is still ordered to look through navigation logs and other outlets that would corroborate her story. While Kellin recounts to Chakotay how they fell in love, the Ramura begin firing at Voyager.

Janeway gives Kellin permission to modify the ship's sensors so they can see the cloaked ships. Once Voyager returns fire, the Ramurans leave and Kellin says she would like to stay on the ship permanently. Although Chakotay doesn't remember loving her, he can't stop thinking about what she has said about their relationship. When Kellin realizes that her people will come back and that she is putting the crew in danger, she tells Chakotay that she will leave if he doesn't have any feelings for her. However, he tells Kellin to stay.

Reminiscing about their last night together, Kellin explains how Chakotay helped her find the stowaway. They used a magneton sweep to disrupt his cloak, and then Kellin wiped out his memories of the outside world with a neurolytic emitter. Working with Seven of Nine and Kim on a defense strategy against her people, Kellin soon senses that a tracer is onboard. He suddenly materializes, and despite her protest, the Ramuran shoots her with the neurolytic emitter.

As Kellin's memories begin to fade, she begs Chakotay to remind her of the love they shared, once she no longer remembers. Soon, she does not recognize him, and Chakotay tells her about their relationship. He asks her to stay and see if her feelings can be rekindled, but she refuses to violate her people's edict again. Once she and the tracer are gone, Chakotay writes about her in his personal log so he will never fully forget her.

Living Witness

Stardate: Unknown

The Voyager and its crew are on display in a Kyrian museum 700 years in the future, and they are being blamed for a horrible civil war that nearly wiped out the Kyrian race. Through inaccurate simulations, the crew is shown as violent people who did not hesitate to destroy anything or anyone standing in their way of getting home. Approached by the Vaskan Ambassador for help in his fight against the Kyrian, Janeway supposedly slaughtered millions of innocent people in exchange for wormhole travel to the Alpha Quadrant.

The museum curator, Quarren, works within the engineering simulation to access a data storage device recently uncovered at one of the Kyrian ruins. When he realizes it is a hologram, he activates the Doctor's program and explains what has happened. The Doctor is distraught and refuses to believe that 700 years have passed, but he soon sees the Voyager artifacts in the museum and knows it must be true.

Appalled by the depiction of Janeway and the crew as cold, heartless thugs, the Doctor tries desperately to describe Voyager's side of the story. Although he explains that Janeway had just negotiated a trade agreement with the Vaskan Ambassador when they were attacked by the Kyrian, Quarren balks at the idea that his people were the aggressors. When the Doctor describes how Janeway and the crew only wanted to extricate themselves from the war, his program is silenced.

After some time to think about what the Doctor has said, Quarren allows him to create a simulation of his own. It shows that the Kyrian leader, Tedran, invaded Voyager. Janeway explained that they were trading with the Vaskans and nothing more, but Tedran wouldn't stand down. It was the Vaskan Ambassador who killed him, and the last thing the Doctor remembers is Kyrian ships attacking Voyager. As he works to reactivate his medical tricorder and offer proof of his re-creation, a group of angered Vaskans breaks into the museum and begins destroying it.

When war between the two groups threatens to erupt again, the Doctor believes it would be best if his program is decompiled. Although he wanted to clear Voyager's name in history, it's not worth causing more fighting. Years into the future, watching another simulation, people see Quarren talk the Doctor into giving his testimony of events. Because of that, the great war was finally portrayed accurately, and harmony was restored. After setting the record straight, the Doctor eventually boarded a shuttle for the Alpha Quadrant to trace Voyager's path home.

Demon

Stardate: Unknown

As Voyager runs dangerously low on fuel, Seven of Nine discovers a Class-Y planet containing a high concentration of deuterium. Unfortunately, it is also called a demon planet because of its toxic atmosphere. When an attempt to transport deuterium to the ship results in an explosion, Kim and Paris volunteer to mine the fuel on the surface. They wear environmental suits, but Kim's protection is compromised when he falls into a pool of metallic compound. As Kim's oxygen rapidly depletes, Paris' suit also fails, and both men collapse before they can reach their shuttle.

With no communication from Kim and Paris, Janeway decides to land Voyager on the planet and send an away team to look for them. Chakotay and Seven don environmental suits and begin their search, quickly finding the shuttle with no one onboard. Suddenly, the ground gives way underneath Chakotay, and he barely hangs on to a ledge. As he struggles to keep from falling into the pool below, Paris appears -- minus his environmental suit -- and helps Seven pull Chakotay to safety.

Paris explains that he and Kim have apparently adapted to the environment, and he tells Chakotay and Seven to take off their suits as well. They refuse to take that risk and beam back to Voyager instead. As soon as they are back on the ship, Kim and Paris begin suffocating. The Doctor quickly erects a forcefield around them containing the planet's gases so they can breathe, and he surmises that fluid has entered their bloodstream that altered their physiology at the cellular level. Unless the effect can be reversed, Kim and Paris will have to be left behind in order to live.

Janeway and Torres watch in awe as the metallic compound from the fluid sample replicates Torres' thumb. Back on the surface, the away team discovers Paris and Kim's bodies. Barely alive, they are quickly beamed to sickbay, but the duplicate Kim refuses to leave, saying he feels a connection to the planet. With a large pool of the compound forming under Voyager, Janeway tries to ascend into orbit. However, the ship is restrained by an electromagnetic force.

After transporting the duplicate Kim onto Voyager, Janeway demands her ship be allowed to leave. Since he has the silver blood running through him, he tries to explain its motive for holding them there. The compound is alive, but it has never been conscious. When it entered the bodies of Paris and Kim, it experienced awareness and actually had thoughts for the first time -- and now it craves more. The crew agrees to donate samples of its DNA so the planet can duplicate them and populate itself, and Voyager is allowed to resume its journey.

One

Stardate: 51929.3

The Voyager crew comes across a vast new nebula, and everyone except the Doctor and Seven of Nine are severely affected by its radiation. Since it will take a year to go around it, and a month to go through it, Janeway decides the best course of action will be to put the crew in stasis chambers, which will provide independent life support as they sleep. Seven of Nine and the Doctor will check on their vital signs and take care of the ship until it reaches the other side.

After several days, the lack of social interaction and activity onboard is beginning to put a strain on the Doctor and Seven. Suddenly, the computer alerts them that the anti-matter storage tanks are failing and plasma is leaking. Seven rushes to engineering to eject the tanks, but when she gets there, everything is fine.

The computer is malfunctioning, and false readings were sent to the sensors. While he and Seven are making repairs, the Doctor's program begins degrading. He makes it back to sickbay, but his mobile emitter is no longer working, and he will have to stay there for the remainder of the trip. Now that Seven is even more isolated, she begins having disturbing dreams and visions. When an alien hails her, she beams him aboard and agrees to trade some equipment. His inappropriate comments make Seven feel threatened, and she decides to escort him off the ship. When she turns her head for an instant, he runs away down the corridor.

Although sensors show no evidence of an alien or another ship, Seven searches Voyager for him. She hears voices of the crew calling for her, and the alien begins controlling the ship's functions and playing on her fears. When the Doctor finally gets his mobile emitter to work, he rushes to Seven and discovers that she is hallucinating. The radiation is starting to degrade her Borg implants, and as the EPS conduits overload, the Doctor's program goes off-line. Seven is now truly alone with the fate of the crew entirely in her hands, and she begins to panic.

With 17 hours to go before Voyager clears the nebula, the propulsion system begins to fail. Fighting against more hallucinations, Seven struggles to find a way to reroute power. At every turn she is met by her fears -- Borg telling her that she can never survive as an individual, and the crew taunting her about her past deeds in the Collective. With minutes to go, Seven reroutes power from life support to the propulsion system and slips into unconsciousness. When she comes to in sickbay, the crew is awake, Voyager has cleared the nebula, and she has managed to save everyone on board.

Hope and Fear

Stardate: 51978.2

Paris and Neelix return from a trading colony with a passenger named Arturis. He knows over 4,000 languages, and Janeway agrees to give him passage to the next system. When Arturis studies the encoded message Voyager received from Starfleet before the relay stations were destroyed, he instantly decodes it. Part of the data is a spatial grid with marked coordinates, and Voyager arrives at the designated spot to find a Starfleet vessel waiting there.

Finding no lifesigns on the ship, an away team is sent to secure the Dauntless. On board they find the helm is set for auto-navigation, and it's equipped with a new engine configuration called a quantum slipstream drive. The rest of Starfleet's message says the Dauntless has been sent to bring the crew home. Janeway orders the crew to modify Voyager with the slipstream technology so they can bring it along, but she also senses something isn't right and asks Tuvok to keep an eye on Arturis.

When the Captain reconstructs the last segment of the data block from Starfleet, she finds that they did not send Dauntless. Their efforts only turned up some information about the Delta Quadrant, which Starfleet hopes Voyager can use to find a wormhole. In engineering, Kim discovers alien technology behind one of the bulkheads, confirming that Arturis manufactured the ship. Janeway, Seven of Nine, and Tuvok gather weapons and head to the Dauntless bridge to confront Arturis.

When the security team tries to take Arturis to the brig, he activates the ship's slipstream drive. Kim is able to transport Tuvok and the rest of the team to Voyager, but Janeway and Seven are taken hostage. An angry Arturis explains that his people were fighting against assimilation when Janeway gave the Borg the nanoprobes to fight Species 8472. Those aliens were his homeworld's last hope to defeat the Borg, and he has held a grudge against the Voyager crew ever since. Now, he is taking Janeway and Seven to Borg space to be assimilated.

Seven adapts her Borg technology to break through the forcefield Arturis has erected and turns it off. She and Janeway then attempt to take control of the ship, but their commands are blocked. At the last minute, Voyager arrives and disables the ship's shields. Janeway and Seven are beamed back, and Arturis enters Borg space alone. Unfortunately, the damage caused by using Voyager's warp core modifications to go into slipstream drive was too great, so the crew won't be able to use that technology to get home faster.

Night

Stardate: 52081.2

The Voyager has entered a desolate region of space with no star systems in sight for two years, and the crew is slowly going crazy. The only activity in this vast expanse is some high levels of theta radiation. With nothing to distract her mind from its deepest thoughts, Janeway has retreated to her quarters and is agonizing over her past decisions that brought the crew to the Delta Quadrant. Suddenly, the ship loses power and is left in total darkness.

Once Kim and Tuvok get back partial power, they determine that a dampening field caused the power drain. Meanwhile, Paris is attacked by an alien in the holodeck, and Chakotay encounters one in the corridor. When emergency power is activated, three alien ships can be seen surrounding Voyager. They don't answer hails and begin firing until a larger ship forces them to retreat.

The pilot of the friendly ship, Emck, informs Janeway that thousands of the alien ships are ahead, but he can lead Voyager through a spatial vortex that will take them to the other side of the expanse unharmed. In return, he wants the alien they have in sickbay. Janeway questions the wounded "night being," who is dying of theta radiation poisoning. He explains that his people were living a peaceful existence in the void when the Malon began poisoning them. A course is set to take him home, and soon Voyager is surrounded by his vessels. As he is beamed back, the night alien pleads with Janeway to help them close the vortex and protect their space.

The crew observes the Malon ships are using the void as a dumping ground for their antimatter waste. Janeway offers Emck the technology to purify their reactant, but he refuses to cooperate because such innovations would put him out of business. A decision is reached to close the vortex, but it has to be done from inside the void. Janeway announces that the crew will proceed through the vortex while she stays behind in a shuttle and closes it, but her senior staff refuses to carry out orders to sacrifice her. Instead, they will close the vortex just after entering it. It will cause a major shockwave, but they are confident Voyager can make it to the other side.

As Malon ships begin firing, both of Voyager's engines are taken off-line. They continue toward the vortex to find a Malon freighter attempting to block their path, but night alien ships attack and distract it. Voyager scores a direct hit against the freighter then enters the vortex, deploying torpedoes to seal the entrance. The shockwave carries them to the other side, and the vortex is destroyed. Finally, Voyager emerges from the darkness into a star field full of light and life.

Drone

Stardate: Unknown

As his away team is beamed back to Voyager, some parts of the Doctor's mobile emitter fuse together, so Torres takes it to the science lab. Unseen, the emitter sprouts Borg implants. When Ensign Mulcahey enters the lab the next morning, he is attacked by extraction tubules. Meanwhile, Seven of Nine's proximity transceiver is activated, alerting her to a Borg presence on the ship. She finds Mulcahey in the lab, along with a Borg maturation chamber containing a fetal drone.

Seven determines that when she and the Doctor were transported, some of her nanoprobes infected his emitter. It was assimilated, and the Borg used Mulcahey's genetic code to create a lifeform. As it continues to mature at a rapid rate, the drone is observed to be mostly human, with many implants. The emitter is part of his central nervous system and gives him 29th-century technology. His connection with the Collective is dampened, and Seven attempts a neural interface to give him instructions. Instead, he tries to assimilate her knowledge.

Because a neural link is too dangerous, the drone, who chooses "One" as his designation, uses Borg data nodes to assimilate information. He quickly absorbs knowledge of the ship's systems and begins expressing curiosity about the Borg. Seven fears he will be tempted to seek out the Collective and refuses to answer his questions. As she and One regenerate in their alcoves, the Borg pick up One's signal and set a course to intercept Voyager.

When Voyager detects the approaching Borg, Seven discovers that One's cranial implants created a secondary transceiver to signal them. Janeway and Seven have no choice but to describe to One the Collective's destructive mentality and explain that with his technology, the Borg would be even more dangerous. The Captain asks him to help strengthen Voyager's defenses, but One is confused. He is intrigued by the Collective, yet he senses its evil. There is no time left to discuss the matter, however, as a Borg ship approaches.

One hears the voice of the Collective, but he chooses to save Voyager from destruction. He beams to the sphere to interface directly and disrupt it from within. When his superior technology accesses the navigation system, he steers the sphere into a nebula, destroying it. One survives and is beamed to sickbay, where he refuses to let the Doctor operate to save him because he knows the Borg will keep pursuing him. He doesn't want to put the crew in danger, so he allows himself to die.

Extreme Risk

Stardate: Unknown

When one of Voyager's probes is pursued by a Malon ship, Janeway orders that it be steered into a gas giant. After the Malon ship follows and implodes, it is obvious Voyager cannot go in to retrieve the probe. Paris has conceived a new technologically advanced shuttle -- the Delta Flyer -- that could withstand the giant planet's atmosphere, and Janeway gives him permission to work with the rest of the crew on building it. Meanwhile, Torres begins pulling away from the others. She activates a holodeck simulation of battle with Cardassians but disengages the safety protocols.

Another Malon ship approaches Voyager, and Janeway is hailed by an alien named Vrelk. He tells the Captain his ship is going to retrieve the probe, and she should stand down. She ignores his threats until Seven of Nine, using neutrino beams to spy on the Malon vessel, discovers they are building a shuttle of their own. It can also withstand the giant's atmosphere, and it's scheduled to be operational before the Voyager crew finishes their shuttle.

The crew steps up the pace of construction, and Seven's intelligence shows they are in a dead heat with the Malon to finish the vessels. When Torres runs a shuttle simulation in the holodeck to check for a fatal flaw, she once again disengages the safety protocol. The atmosphere of the gas giant begins to cause microfractures in the shuttle, and Torres is knocked unconscious. Just before the hull breaches, Chakotay arrives and freezes the program.

Once Torres is taken to sickbay, the Doctor finds old wounds that went untreated. Chakotay learns she has been running very dangerous holo-simulations without the safety protocols. When confronted, she admits she has been testing herself, trying to experience an emotion or feel pain. Ever since she and Chakotay received the Starfleet message telling them their Maquis friends had been slaughtered, Torres has felt numb. Suddenly, Voyager is attacked by the Malon, who are firing to create a distraction as they launch their new shuttle.

Janeway is forced to launch the Delta Flyer ahead of schedule and attempt to retrieve the probe first. Torres persuades Chakotay to let her accompany the away team. When the Malon begin firing charges at them, Seven's torpedo scores a direct hit, forcing them to retreat. Once Kim locks a tractor beam onto the probe, the shuttle begins losing structural integrity. Just as the hull breaches, Torres creates an ingenious device to trap the incoming gas in a containment field. The Delta Flyer returns to Voyager safely, and Torres is on her way to feeling whole again.

In the Flesh

Stardate: 52136.4

Conducting a surveillance mission of an alien structure, Chakotay finds himself on Earth at Starfleet Headquarters. He is surrounded by aliens posing as humans, and strikes up a conversation with one of the women, Commander Valerie Archer. Later, when Chakotay and Tuvok are on their way back to the Delta Flyer, an alien Ensign tries to detain them for being in a restricted area. Unwilling to risk their cover being blown, they beam him back to Voyager.

When Janeway questions him, the Ensign kills himself by releasing a toxin into his bloodstream. The Doctor triggers a genetic reversion, and the body on the biobed turns into a Species 8472 alien. Analysis of their ship's structure shows the aliens are using a combination of holographic projection and particle synthesis to recreate Earth and Starfleet Headquarters. The crew surmises it is being used as a training ground for invasion of the Alpha Quadrant.

Seven of Nine discovers Species 8472 has adapted to Borg nanoprobes. As she works to modify them, Chakotay, Paris and Kim take the Delta Flyer back to the Earth simulation so Chakotay can keep a date planned with Archer. He plans to use her to find out more about the mission against the Federation. After Chakotay leaves her quarters, Archer analyzes a DNA sample and discovers that he is human. Once security is alerted, Chakotay is taken into custody.

Paris and Kim notify Janeway of what has happened and pilot their shuttle back to Voyager. The Captain sets a course for the alien ship, and is armed with modified nanoprobes but is unwilling to use them unless provoked. When she threatens the habitat leader -- who is in the body of Starfleet groundskeeper Boothby -- with the Borg nanoprobes, he agrees to a meeting.

With both sides gathered to discuss their differences, Janeway and Boothby find there is room for negotiation. Judging from Voyager's collaboration with the Borg against them, Species 8472 believed humans were a hostile force planning an invasion. Janeway explains that her crew did not know at the time that the Borg had started the war with their species; Archer then reveals that their Earth simulation is only a reconnaissance mission. They feared humans as much as the Voyager crew feared them. After agreeing to share technology as a first step toward peace between their species, the 8472 beings return to fluidic space, and Voyager continues on its journey home.

Once Upon a Time

Stardate: Unknown

While Paris, Tuvok and Ensign Wildman are on an away mission, their shuttle runs into an ion storm and suffers severe damage. Voyager tracks their distress call to a nearby planetary system, but another storm is blocking their path. As the crew prepares to go after the Delta Flyer, Neelix is in charge of keeping Ensign Wildman's daughter Naomi occupied and unaware of her mother's predicament. When Paris finally crash-lands the shuttle onto a planetoid, Wildman is seriously hurt.

Buried three kilometers under the rock surface, Wildman is bleeding internally and needs surgery. Back on Voyager, Kim tracks the Delta Flyer's coordinates on the planetoid. There are no lifesigns, but rescue teams are dispatched to the crater in search of the lost crew. Naomi is worried when her mother doesn't call, but Neelix tries to distract her with a holodeck fairytale called "The Adventures of Flotter."

The prospect of telling Naomi that her mother is lost brings back sad memories for Neelix of losing his own family. Although Janeway urges him to be honest with the little girl, he wants to wait until the away teams find the shuttle. When Naomi wakes up in the middle of the night and goes to the bridge in search of Neelix, she overhears talk of the crash and the lost crew.

Neelix finds Naomi in the holodeck with Flotter and Trevis, characters in the interactive fairytale, and tries to comfort her about her mother's situation. He also tells her about losing his own parents and sisters when he was very young. As their life support system begins to fail, Paris, Tuvok and Wildman record goodbye messages to their loved ones. Above them, Chakotay and Seven of Nine locate the shuttle buried underneath the rock. A massive digging effort begins, but an ion storm is approaching, and they don't have much time before it hits.

With two minutes to go until their oxygen is depleted, the Delta Flyer crew hears the rescue team digging above them. Kim is able to get a transporter lock on the shuttle, and it is transported to Voyager just before the storm hits. Once Wildman's injuries are treated in sickbay, she and Naomi are reunited, and mother and daughter pay a visit to the "Forest of Forever" together.

Timeless

Stardate: 52143.6

Chakotay and Kim are on an ice planet investigating the crash site of Voyager. It is the future, and the entire ship and crew are frozen inside a glacier. Once they are beamed inside, Chakotay finds the long-dead Seven of Nine and summons the pilot of his shuttle, Tessa, to transport her aboard. Kim uses Starfleet technology to access Voyager's computer and activate the Doctor's program. When he demands to know what has happened, Chakotay tells him they are there to change history.

Flashback to the crew celebrating the completion of Voyager's quantum slipstream drive. The next day they will set a course for the Alpha Quadrant at a speed never before imagined. However, Paris finds a phase variance in the threshold that causes the slipstream to become unstable. Kim volunteers to take the Delta Flyer a few seconds ahead of Voyager in the slipstream. He can map it and send the phase variations back to the ship in time to make corrections. Janeway agrees to take the risk and assigns Chakotay to fly with Kim.

Fifteen years later, Chakotay and Kim explain to the Doctor what happened. Kim transmitted the wrong variance, forcing Janeway to make an emergency landing that killed the crew on impact. Kim and Chakotay made it back to Earth, but when Starfleet gave up their search for Voyager, they decided they had to find a way to correct their mistake. They stole a Borg temporal transmitter and the Delta Flyer from Starfleet, and now they can use Seven's Borg interplexing beacon to send a new set of phase corrections back in time to the crew. Just as Chakotay downloads Voyager's sensor logs, a Galaxy-class starship arrives in search of the thieves.

Captain Geordi La Forge of the Challenger hails Chakotay and tries to talk him out of altering the timeline, but Kim and the Doctor continue to work feverishly on Seven's Borg implant. Once the Doctor pinpoints her time of death, they use the temporal transmitter to send the phase corrections four minutes prior to Voyager's crash. In the past, Seven receives and inputs them, but the slipstream continues to collapse. Just outside of the Alpha Quadrant, Voyager crashes onto the ice planet.

When Kim realizes his phase corrections still didn't work, he doesn't have time to find his mistake. Tessa disengages the Delta Flyer from the Challenger's tractor beam, but the shuttle's warp core begins to breach. With only seconds to spare, Kim transmits a phase correction to Seven that will disperse the slipstream entirely, just as the Delta Flyer explodes. On Voyager, both the ship and shuttle are thrown out of the slipstream, effectively erasing the future. Later, Janeway informs Ensign Kim that a log entry was found encoded in the transmission to Seven: a message "from Harry Kim ... to Harry Kim."

Infinite Regress

Stardate: 52188.7

When the Voyager encounters a Borg vessel's debris field, sensors also detect a Borg neural interlink frequency. Meanwhile, Seven of Nine hears voices in her head that cause her to change personalities. One minute she is a Klingon hunting for food, and the next she is a little girl wanting to play a game. No one realizes what is happening until Seven, acting as a Klingon, attacks Torres. She is contained in a forcefield but becomes a little girl again. When she suddenly begins speaking Klingon and turns on Tuvok, the Vulcan is forced to stun her with a phaser.

Once in sickbay, Seven's cortical inhibitor is suppressed so she will not react to the voices. The Doctor discovers that Seven's implants are storing new neural patterns of species the Borg assimilated. After arriving at the debris field, the crew finds the source of the interlink frequency -- a vinculum. A processing device that interconnects the minds of drones, it is sending a damaged signal to Seven and must be taken off-line. After Janeway agrees to beam it aboard so it can be disabled, Seven finds an alien organism inside that attacks technology by creating a virus.

Seven determines that Species 6339 carried the virus in their bodies and spread it to the Borg cube when assimilated. After her inhibitor begins failing, Seven experiences even more new personalities and must be sedated. Torres and Tuvok target the vinculum's transneural matrix with a dampening field, but it only adapts to the technology and returns to full power. At that point, Seven's own neural pattern is erased.

When Janeway locates a Species 6339 vessel, their leader demands she return the vinculum. They unleashed the virus to spread to all cubes, and they want to return it to the debris field so the Borg will retrieve it. Janeway refuses to do so until Seven has been cured, so Voyager comes under fire from the alien vessel. Meanwhile, Seven's cerebral cortex is under incredible strain, and the Doctor fears that he may never be able to retrieve her neural pattern. Tuvok decides to engage in a Vulcan mind-meld to isolate her true self and guide it to the surface.

As Tuvok enters Seven's chaotic mind, he struggles to find her among the sea of screaming people. He glimpses her being restrained by Klingons and other aliens, but he can't reach her. In Engineering, Torres remodulates the dampening field and finally manages to disable the vinculum. Once it is beamed out to space, the alien vessel ceases its attack. All of the other neural patterns in Seven's mind become dormant, and she and Tuvok return safely from their mind-meld.

Nothing Human

Stardate: Unknown

When Voyager encounters a massive energy wave, the ship receives a download of information. The crew tracks the wave's ion trail and finds a stranded vessel with a wounded alien on board. Once the creature is beamed to sickbay, Torres finds that it uses biochemical secretions to give commands. Suddenly, the alien attacks Torres, puncturing her neck and secreting fluids into her bloodstream. Unaware of how to extract the creature without harming Torres, the Doctor and Kim create a hologram of a leading exobiologist named Crell Moset -- a Cardassian.

In order to crack the coded message downloaded to Voyager, the databanks from the alien's ship must be accessed. However, the vessel destabilizes and explodes before Seven of Nine can retrieve them. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Crell determine the alien is using Torres as a life preserver by co-opting her vital systems. They re-create Crell's laboratory in a holodeck so he can use his more advanced tools to help Torres, but she objects to putting her life in the hands of a Cardassian.

Unable to decipher the alien's message, Janeway retransmits the signal on all subspace bands hoping more of its species will answer the call. In Crell's laboratory, he and the Doctor operate on a hologram of the alien and find nodes suggesting the creature is a highly intelligent being. Crell decides the nodes are the best place to administer a neurostatic shock, which will incapacitate the alien and probably kill it. Later, the Doctor is shocked when a crewmember, Tabor, reacts violently to Crell's presence on Voyager and calls the Cardassian a mass murderer.

Tabor reveals that during the Bajoran War, Crell used live subjects for his medical experiments and killed hundreds of Bajorans. Although barely hanging on to life, Torres refuses to let Crell treat her. She believes if she benefits from his research, she will be validating his atrocious methods. However, the Doctor cannot remove the alien without Crell's help, and Torres will die otherwise. Against many moral objections, Janeway authorizes Crell to perform the procedure.

As the Doctor and Crell work to extract the creature, Voyager is hailed by one of the alien vessels. They lock the ship in a tractor beam, but Janeway senses they only want their friend back and mean no harm. In surgery, the Doctor overrides Crell's decision to kill the alien and instead administers a neural shock that weakens its motor control without permanent damage. As its tendrils withdraw from Torres, its metabolism is restored and it is beamed to the waiting ship. Left to make a tough decision, the Doctor decides to delete Crell's program from Voyager's database.

Thirty Days

Stardate: 52179.4

Confined to 30 days in the brig, Paris composes a letter to his father explaining how he got there. He flashes back to the day Voyager's sensors detected an ocean in the shape of a planet. After Janeway communicates to the Monean leader, Burkus, that her ship means no harm to his people, he and Riga are beamed onboard. They explain that their people live underwater, farming sea vegetation and extracting oxygen for their ships, but now it is losing containment, and they don't know how to stop it. Paris requests permission to take the Delta Flyer to the center of the ocean, where the gravitational currents are located, and investigate.

After researching the Moneans' predicament, Janeway tells Burkus the ocean will suffer a complete loss of containment in less than five years. Meanwhile, deep beneath the ocean's surface, the shuttle crew encounters an ancient field reactor controlled by a core computer. As they upload information from it, the Delta Flyer is attacked by an enormous marine creature discharging an electrical current. It retreats when hit by a phaser, but the shuttle has already been breached, and water begins pouring into the cabin.

Once the leak is repaired, the shuttle crew determines the reactor core is unstable, so Paris initiates a power transfer as a temporary solution. Reviewing the uploaded information, he finds the ocean was once part of a landmass inhabited by a very advanced civilization. They used a kinetic transfer system to draw the water around the reactor, but it is not responsible for the containment loss. Instead, Paris determines it is the Moneans' mining operation that is destroying the ocean.

Janeway offers Burkus several solutions that would make the refineries obsolete, but he only plans to include them in a subcommittee report. Paris is distraught over the ocean's destruction and feels Burkus doesn't understand the magnitude of the crisis. Forbidden to disrupt the internal affairs of an alien race, Paris instead convinces Riga to take the oxygen refineries off-line, and the two commandeer the Delta Flyer.

Janeway immediately orders Paris to cease his mission. When he refuses, she prepares to modify a photon torpedo as a "depth charge" to stop him. Once they reach the reactor, Paris and Riga launch their missile at the same time Voyager fires. Paris' missile is deflected, and he is brought back to the ship and reduced to the rank of ensign. Once he finishes the letter to his father, he files it in his personal log to be sent when Voyager is within Earth's range.

Counterpoint

Stardate: Unknown

Passing through Devore space, Voyager is stopped for inspection. The Devore Imperium considers all "gaharay," or strangers, to be suspect, and vessels in their space must be searched. They are looking for telepaths, who they believe break the cardinal rule of trust by reading minds. Janeway has rescued Brenari refugees bound for a detention center and is hiding them in transporter suspension.

A transport vessel is waiting in a nebula to rendezvous with Voyager and take the refugees to a wormhole leading out of hostile territory. Suddenly, the Devore inspector, Kashyk, hails Janeway. Seeking asylum on her ship, he reveals he is aware of the refugees she is hiding and that the wormhole is a trap to catch ships smuggling telepaths. Voyager will be intercepted by a squadron unless Janeway allows Kashyk to stay onboard and help her evade the Devore.

Although Kashyk provides the crew with valuable information to use against his people, Janeway keeps him under tight security in case the Devore are using him to find the wormhole. They track down Torat, an expert on wormholes, who tells them the one they are looking for is a random occurrence. He provides coordinates of the last four appearances, and by applying an algorithm of subspace harmonics, Janeway and Kashyk find the counterpoint -- the site of the next wormhole. Although the Devore use a scanning pulse array to track ships, Voyager's power output will be lowered beneath the detection threshold and drift by the sensors.

When the pulse triggers a variance in Voyager's antimatter stream, the ship is detected. Two warships approach, but Janeway plans to fight all the way to the wormhole. Then, Kashyk announces that in order to guarantee the safety of the crew and refugees, he is going back to his ship. The Brenari will hide once more, and then he will lead an inspection team through Voyager before the wormhole appears. Before Kashyk leaves, he and Janeway kiss.

Once Kashyk and his inspection team board Voyager, Janeway secretly tells him they have located the wormhole off the port bow and the refugees are in transporter suspension. Kashyk immediately reveals that he has double-crossed her, and he orders a proton torpedo fired at the wormhole to destroy it. However, after it is fired, Kashyk realizes he is the one who has been betrayed. The real wormhole is in another location, and the refugees have snuck away in shuttles and traveled through it. Kashyk, not wanting the failure on his record, refuses to report the incident and allows Voyager to resume its course.

Latent Image

Stardate: Unknown

As the Doctor takes holo-images of the crew, he finds evidence of neurosurgery he performed 18 months ago on Kim. However, he doesn't remember it. The Doctor asks Seven of Nine to help him run a self-diagnostic, but later he doesn't recall their conversation. Someone has ordered a deletion in his short-term memory buffer, and holo-images he took around the time of the surgery have been deleted. When Seven restores them, a female ensign they don't recognize is pictured with others in the crew, and one picture is of an alien on their shuttle.

Once Seven restores some of his memories, the Doctor recalls pieces of events from the pictures. When he remembers the alien boarded their shuttle and shot Kim and Ensign Jetal, he immediately tells Janeway. She agrees to investigate but tells the Doctor to deactivate his program for the time being. Before he does, he orders the computer to take holo-images of anyone who accesses his files while he is off-line and then reactivate him. Shortly, someone comes into sickbay to delete more files. When the Doctor develops the holo-images taken, it is Janeway.

The Doctor confronts Janeway, who tells him that he was damaged during the incident with the alien. It caused a conflict in his program, so she was forced to restrict his access to memories of that period. The Captain refuses to tell him what happened, and now that he is starting to remember, she plans to rewrite his program. After Seven challenges her decision and she has had some time to think about it, Janeway agrees to restore his memories.

Scenes from the pictures come to life. The Doctor, Kim and Jetal were on a shuttle mission when an alien ship attacked. Their shuttle was boarded, and the alien shot Kim and Jetal. Once Voyager beamed them to sickbay, the Doctor discovered the alien's energy pulse had remained in their neural membranes, and the only way to save them was to isolate the spinal cord from the brain. There was only time to perform one procedure, and the Doctor chose Kim.

After Jetal's funeral, the Doctor began having a breakdown. Now that he has remembered everything, he begins agonizing over the same question of how he could choose one life over another. There is a battle going on between his original programming and what he has become. The crew keeps vigil with him, hoping that eventually he will forgive himself and learn to accept his decision.

Bride of Chaotica!

Stardate: Unknown

In the midst of Paris' latest holodeck installment of "The Adventures of Captain Proton," Voyager runs into a gravimetric force and stops. A layer of subspace is acting as a sandbar and disrupting the ship's warp field. When distortions appear in the holodeck, the crew believes they are random fluctuations. However, while the program runs unattended, two men claiming to be from the Fifth Dimension beam down and are questioned by Doctor Chaotica. After one of them transports back to the distortion, Chaotica vows to destroy their dimension.

When weapons fire from the holodeck creates power surges on Voyager, Paris and Tuvok investigate the Captain Proton simulation. A battle has taken place, and the scenario's robot tells them invaders from the Fifth Dimension have entered through a portal. Suddenly, photonic charges begin emanating from the distortions, and Chaotica fires back with his death ray. As Paris and Tuvok gather information from Proton's ship, they encounter one of the men from the alternate universe.

Although they explain that Planet X is only a photonic simulation with which he has intersected, Paris and Tuvok can't convince the trans-dimensional alien that Chaotica's army of evil is not reality. Paris suggests to Janeway that they help the aliens defeat Chaotica so they will leave and Voyager can resume course. Janeway will play the role of Arachnia, Queen of the Spiderpeople, and charm her way into the villain's Fortress of Doom. Once inside, she will deactivate the controls of the death ray and his lightning shields, leaving Chaotica vulnerable to Proton's "destructo beam."

Posing as the President of Earth, the Doctor convinces the alien that Captain Proton needs his help. The alien agrees to cease firing and return to his realm once Proton has defeated Chaotica. Meanwhile, Janeway's Arachnia almost has Chaotica convinced to lower his shields when he becomes suspicious, and she is forced to pull a ray-gun on him. He confines her to a containment ring and fires his death ray on Proton's approaching ship. On the bridge, Torres realizes the power surges from the holodeck are pulling Voyager deeper into subspace.

Arachnia has one weapon left -- her irresistible pheromones. She uses them to lure a guard into setting her free and then kills all of Chaotica's men. Defenseless, the evil doctor must deactivate his shields, allowing Proton to score a direct hit with his destructo beam against the death ray and Chaotica. Then, the distortions close, and Voyager is realigned with normal space. Another chapter of "The Adventures of Captain Proton" comes to an end ... or does it?

Gravity

Stardate: 52438.9

When Tuvok and Paris crash their shuttle, their signal to Voyager is bounced back by the distortion field that drew them into the gravity well. Stranded on a planet stuck in a pocket of deep space, they meet a female named Noss. She is attacked by an alien species of scavengers, but Tuvok overpowers them and befriends her. Once she brings them to the wreckage of her ship, Paris reactivates the Doctor's mobile emitter and brings him on-line to translate Noss' language. She tells them she has seen many ships fall from the sky, but none have gone back up.

As Noss learns their language and begins communicating with them, Paris shares stories of Voyager with her. When he notices that she likes Tuvok, he encourages his friend to pursue his mutual feelings for her. However, Tuvok remembers his schooling with the Vulcan master. He was taught that love is the most dangerous emotion, and that all emotions should be suppressed.

Back on Voyager, the ship is almost pulled into the sinkhole. When Janeway realizes the shuttle must have succumbed to it, she prepares to send in a multispatial probe to investigate. Suddenly, a vessel approaches, and they are hailed by Yost. He informs them that eleven of his ships have been lost in the distortion, and it will be sealed the next day. Chakotay locates the shuttle's distress signal, but he also finds that Tuvok and Paris are experiencing a temporal differential. A day to Voyager could mean weeks or months to them. In addition, the planet's gravitational distress is increasing, and the sinkhole is on the verge of collapsing.

After Tuvok and Paris are ambushed by the scavenger aliens, Noss lovingly tends to Tuvok's wounds. When she kisses him, he stoically rebukes her advances and hurts her feelings. Later, Tuvok tries to explain to Paris that his time with the Vulcan master trained him to ignore his illogical emotions. Meanwhile, Torres modifies the probe into a transporter relay and manages to send a communication signal to Paris and Tuvok's distress beacon. They receive the transmission telling them a transporter beam will be sent in 30 minutes, which is a little over two days in the differential. As they wait for their rescue, aliens surround them.

Tuvok and Paris are barely able to fend off the photon grenades of the aliens before Voyager's transporter relay beams them to the ship. Noss is taken to her homeworld, but before saying good-bye, Tuvok employs a Vulcan mind-meld to show her the feelings buried deep inside him.

Bliss

Stardate: 52542.3

Seven of Nine returns from a survey to find the crew has discovered what they think is a wormhole leading to Earth. A probe detects Starfleet signals containing letters full of good news to the crew. Although sensors detect erratic neutrino levels in the wormhole, Starfleet says the flux is unimportant. Suspicious of everyone's unfettered optimism despite signs the anomaly may not be all it appears to be, Seven accesses Janeway's logs. At first the captain reports that scans determined the wormhole was a deception, but in supplemental logs, Janeway suddenly believes it is real.

When Seven locates an alien vessel in the wormhole not detected by Voyager's sensors, she hails it. The alien, Qatai, warns her that her ship is being deceived, but they are cut off when Janeway routes power from the lab to another system. When Naomi Wildman tells her everyone is acting strangely, Seven realizes they are the only two unaffected by whatever is manipulating the crew. Soon, the crew is ordered by Starfleet to take the Doctor off-line to avoid system interference, and to put Seven in stasis to avoid attracting Borg attention while Voyager passes through the wormhole.

As Chakotay escorts Seven to her alcove, she tricks him and erects a forcefield to contain him. With Naomi's help, she keeps security at bay while she transports to Engineering and stuns Torres with a phaser. After erecting another forcefield, Seven attempts to shut down the impulse drive to keep Voyager from entering the wormhole. However, Janeway transmits a surge to the engineering console that knocks Seven out.

Once they enter the anomaly, the crew is unconscious. When Naomi wakes Seven, the two hail Qatai and convince him to beam aboard. He explains the crew has been a victim of psychogenic manipulation. They are inside a bio-plasmic organism, a beast that consumes starships by telepathically preying on their crews' desires. Qatai has been trying for years to destroy the creature, not always successful at evading its deceptions.

After activating the Doctor's program, Seven informs him that Voyager is being devoured in the digestive chamber of the organism. Realizing that bodies are designed to expel foreign objects, they plan to fire one of Qatai's tetryon-based weapons at a pocket of antimatter released from Voyager's warp core. It creates an unpleasant reaction that causes the beast to expel the two ships through its esophagus. Once Janeway and the others regain consciousness, Voyager resumes its course to the Alpha Quadrant, but Qatai returns to the beast, obsessed with defeating it.

Dark Frontier

Stardate: 52619.2

After Voyager manages to destroy a Borg probe, Seven of Nine finds data nodes filled with tactical information among the debris. With it they locate a heavily damaged scout ship nearby, and Janeway decides to plan a "heist" -- invade the Borg vessel while its defenses are down and take its transwarp coil, which will shave 20 years off Voyager's journey. The crew will create a diversion, then send an away team in to steal the technology. Hoping to find information that will give them a tactical edge, Janeway assigns Seven to study her parents' field notes that Voyager recovered from the Raven.

Once she begins studying her parents' logs, Seven remembers their encounters with the Borg. She was only a small girl at the time, but she vividly recalls their fascination with the mysterious Collective. Meanwhile, Voyager catches up with the scout ship. The sphere's shields and transwarp drive will be off-line for the next 72 hours, allowing the crew only a short time to plan the mission.

During a holographic simulation, Janeway and the others practice their mission down to the second. They have only two minutes to disable the sensor grid and transport the coil to Voyager before being detected. After leaving the holodeck, Seven is unsettled by her close proximity to the Borg, even if it wasn't real. When Naomi Wildman begins asking her questions about the Collective, Seven hallucinates that the Borg have accessed her neural transceiver and know about Janeway's plan.

Further memories of her parents' mission reminds Seven of their arrogance in underestimating the Borg, which eventually led to their assimilation. Based on the Hansens' description of a bio-dampener in their notes, the team replicates the technology in order to go undetected on the sphere. Asserting that she is willing to risk her own well-being for the sake of the crew, Seven persuades Janeway to assign her to the away team despite the Captain's reservations.

The mission goes as planned until Seven once again hears the voice of the Collective luring her back to the hive. In a sudden change of heart, she refuses to transport back to Voyager with the others, and Janeway is forced to leave her before she is assimilated herself. The sphere returns to Borg space with Seven onboard, and the Borg Queen welcomes her back to the Collective ...

After being lured back to the hive during Voyager's mission to steal a transwarp coil, Seven of Nine is trapped on a Borg vessel. The Borg Queen informs her that the Borg "allowed" Voyager to liberate her from the Collective, but she won't be turned back into a drone because they want to study her memories. With her individuality intact, the Borg can look through her eyes to help them assimilate humanity. Meanwhile, Janeway discovers that Borg signals were being sent to Seven in her cargo bay alcove.

Determined to rescue Seven, Janeway leads an away team in the Delta Flyer to find the Borg sphere that took Seven away. They use the stolen coil to take the shuttle into transwarp space, and incorporate multi-adaptive shielding based on the Hansens' field notes from the Raven to go undetected by the Borg.

As Seven is given her first assignment to assist in the assimilation of a species, she secretly helps four of the individuals escape. The Borg Queen scolds her, saying that her human emotions of compassion and guilt are weaknesses that are causing her pain. However, when Seven pleads with her to let the getaway ship escape, the Queen grants her request.

After the away team follows the sphere into Borg space, Janeway prepares to send a message to Seven through her Borg interplexing beacon. The Queen gives Seven a new assignment -- to assist in the programming of nanoprobes that will assimilate humans. The Borg plan is to detonate a biogenic charge in Earth's atmosphere, and Seven will be turned into a drone if she does not comply. Taunting her, the Queen reveals that one of the drones standing next to her is Seven's father. Suddenly, Janeway's signal comes through, and the Queen discovers it.

As the Borg adapt to Voyager's shielding, Janeway is forced to beam to the vessel and disable the shield matrix around the Queen's chamber. While Paris eludes the other ships, Janeway confronts the Queen and orders Seven to leave with her. A dispersal field is formed around the chamber to block the Delta Flyer's transporter beam, but Seven tells the Captain to target the power node above the chamber. This disrupts the Queen's command interface, and Janeway and Seven are beamed to the shuttle. They quickly enter a transwarp conduit, but not before a Borg vessel sneaks in behind them. On Voyager, Chakotay and Torres fire a full spread of photon torpedoes at the conduit threshold, collapsing it just as the shuttle bursts through. The Borg ship is destroyed, and Seven is home again.

The Disease

Stardate: Unknown

As Voyager helps a generational ship of Varro repair their warp drive, Kim and a female Varro, Tal, become attracted to each other. Knowing that Kim is violating several rules of protocol, they sneak away to Tal's quarters to be together. While they are making love, light flickers just below the surface of their skin. Later, the luminescence returns to Kim's skin, and Seven of Nine insists he go to sickbay.

When the Doctor thinks he has contracted a virus, Kim confesses to his intimate relations. Janeway is notified, and she orders him to stop seeing Tal. The Captain believes that Kim has put the crew's relationship with the Varro at risk. After Kim tells Tal the luminescence returned, she explains it is what they call olan'vora, or the shared heart. The more time they spend together, the harder it will be to part. He tries to leave, but they kiss instead. Meanwhile, Tuvok and Neelix discover a Varro male hiding in one of the Jefferies tubes. When questioned, he reveals he is seeking asylum on Voyager. He says many Varro feel imprisoned on their ship and there are rumors of a violent movement to leave it.

After finding microfractures in Voyager's hull, Seven and Torres discover silicone-based parasites are present. They are synthetic and believed to be an act of sabotage. First planted on the Varro ship, now the parasites have migrated to Voyager. On the shuttle, Kim and Tal secretly rendezvous and fly to a nearby nebula. When Tuvok tracks them down, he informs them both to report to Voyager.

A schematic for the parasite was found on Tal's personal database, and she reveals the dissident group is dismantling the Varro ship. The parasites are targeting the linkage between segments, which will break off into separate ships and allow people to choose whether to stay or go. When Janeway explains the decay will cause decompressive explosions, Tal agrees to slow down the parasites long enough for the ship to be evacuated. Janeway orders Kim to sickbay to treat the bio-chemical bond he has developed with Tal, but he refuses. As they argue, the Varro ship experiences structural breaches, and Voyager is unable to separate from it.

With only minutes before collapse, Janeway agrees to Kim's suggestion to extend Voyager's integrity field around the Varro ship and buy them more time for evacuation. Once completed, Voyager detaches, and the Varro vessel breaks off into several separate ships. Their leader, Jippeq, is forced to let the dissidents seek out their own path. After he and Tal say good-bye, Kim refuses to take medicine for his lovesick condition, preferring to let the pain remind him of the happiness he felt.

Course: Oblivion

Stardate: 52586.3

Just after B'Elanna and Tom Paris say their wedding vows and prepare for a holodeck honeymoon, Torres discovers a problem in engineering. After further investigation, she finds one of the Jefferies tubes is losing molecular cohesion due to subspace radiation from the warp drive. Suddenly, Torres becomes violently ill. When Paris brings her to sickbay, they find several more crewmembers in the same condition.

The Doctor diagnoses Torres with acute cellular degradation and explains that her chromosomes are breaking down at the molecular level. Meanwhile, Chakotay and Tuvok pinpoint an event that could have caused their problems. They encountered a bio-memetic compound -- the "silver blood" -- on the Class-Y "demon planet" they visited about a year earlier. When they left that planet, the crew's DNA was copied, and duplicates of themselves stayed on the planet to begin a new population. However, after the Doctor injects a dichromate catalyst into her deceased body, Torres disintegrates into the metallic compound. Chakotay and Tuvok realize they are all the duplicates, and not the "real" Voyager crew.

Unwilling to travel thousands of light-years back to the demon planet, Janeway plans to forge ahead toward the Alpha Quadrant and hopes to find a solution to the rapid degradation. When sensors detect a Class-Y planet, the crew readies the ship to land, knowing that the planet's atmosphere is the only thing that may keep them alive. However, a vessel suddenly appears that warns them to leave and begins firing.

Voyager is unable to sustain the hits from the firing ship and must retreat. When Janeway orders the crew to search for another demon planet, Chakotay tells her they are questioning her command. The crew is beginning to remember their existence before Voyager, and to them, Earth isn't home. After Chakotay's neural pathways start to destabilize, he dies in sickbay. Close to death herself, Janeway decides to turn the ship around and set a course for the demon planet.

A few weeks away from the planet, Janeway dies. As acting captain, Kim tries his best to hold the ship together with the help of Seven of Nine -- one of the only other remaining crewmembers -- and to fulfill Janeway's request to store the ship's database in a signal beacon so at least the crew's accomplishments won't be forgotten. Failing to accomplish that, Kim and Seven detect an approaching vessel. Kim orders Seven to eject the core so they can drop out of warp and hail it. But the force of doing so causes the ship to disintegrate, and the approaching vessel -- the real Voyager -- comes across the mysterious debris. Curious about the distress signal they were receiving, the real crew can only make a note of the event in their log.

The Fight

Stardate: Unknown

As Chakotay lies in sickbay, struggling to communicate with aliens with whom he is linked, he flashes back to the events that brought him there. He is in a boxing holodeck simulation when he is knocked out. Shortly after, Voyager is pulled into chaotic space, where the laws of physics are in flux. Shear forces may destroy the ship unless they redesign their sensors to work inside the disturbance. Suddenly, Chakotay begins hallucinating and hearing voices from the boxing ring calling to him. When he swings at Tuvok, he is subdued and taken to sickbay.

Voyager locates a ship adrift with no lifesigns aboard. Its last distress call reveals the captain began hallucinating just like Chakotay. The Doctor surmises Chakotay has a genetic marker for a cognitive disorder, and the dead captain had a similar experience when the protein insulation in his neural pathways was stripped. All of it is apparently caused by chaotic space, and Chakotay insists on taking a vision quest to learn more. Attached to a cortical monitor, he suddenly finds the aliens communicating through him. They tell him Voyager entered chaotic space through a trimetric fracture, and they must alter their warp field to escape.

When he can no longer hear the aliens, Chakotay re-enters his vision quest at the suggestion of the Doctor. He sees his grandfather, who suffered from the same auditory and visual hallucinations to which Chakotay is predisposed. Scared of becoming a crazy old man, he is continually pulled back to the holodeck boxing ring and an unseen opponent named Kid Chaos. Stuck in the vision quest, Chakotay is suddenly interrupted by the Doctor, who takes him back to sickbay.

In the Astrometrics Lab, Seven of Nine finds a pattern in the form of an isolinear frequency. Janeway realizes it is a nucleotide resonance frequency designed to activate DNA. She believes the aliens may be on a perceptual wavelength unknown to the crew, and their senses must be altered in order to communicate. Given this chance to make first contact, Janeway allows Chakotay to go back to the boxing ring, where he thinks the aliens are trying to tell him something.

Back in the ring against Kid Chaos, Chakotay begins piecing together the instructions he is receiving. His fear of losing control almost causes him to block out the voices, but the Doctor convinces him he must give in to it. Once the aliens tell him how to modify the deflector, Chakotay carries out the directions on the Bridge as the graviton shear quickly increases. Suddenly, Voyager's sensors set the correct course, and the ship is returned to normal space.

Think Tank

Stardate: Unknown

As Voyager approaches a strange planetoid, the ship is rocked by its explosion and enveloped in a cloud of methion gas. Suddenly, a Hazari vessel is upon them, and Seven of Nine explains they are bounty hunters hired to capture alien crafts. When Janeway eludes the ship and it doesn't follow, she soon learns why -- there are many reinforcements throughout the sector waiting to overtake Voyager. Late at night, a strange alien pays a visit to Janeway and introduces himself as the answer to her problem.

Kurros explains he is part of a small group that seeks out problems to be solved. His "think tank" believes Voyager's challenge with the Hazari can be handled without weapons. When Janeway and Seven visit Kurros on his ship, they see his incredibly advanced technology and meet the other strange lifeforms, each with an intellectual specialty. Once Janeway agrees to do business with him, Kurros reveals Seven is one of the items from Voyager that he wants as payment.

When Seven hears the offer from the think tank, she talks to Kurros herself. He appeals to her quest for perfection, but she declines to join his group. Soon, the Hazari attack Voyager again, but Kurros gives Janeway some tactical advice that forces them to retreat. When he tries to use that favor as leverage to convince Seven to change her mind, Janeway realizes she now has two enemies on her hands.

Once the crew lures a Hazari vessel into Voyager's tractor beam, they download information from the database and discover Kurros hired the bounty hunters. Janeway explains to the Hazari alien that they are both being manipulated by Kurros and convinces him to work with her in tricking the think tank. The crew devises a plan to lure Kurros out of hiding by pretending Seven has decided to join his group. She will then link with their internal communications array, disrupting their systems and preventing them from functioning. After the ruse is in place, the Hazari contact Kurros and persuade him to increase their bounty to bring in Voyager.

Janeway tricks him into believing Seven has left Voyager to join his think tank, but Kurros soon senses a trap has been laid. When he forces Seven to link with his telepathic technology so he can read her mind and discover Janeway's plan, a carrier wave is transmitted via her cortical implant. This creates interference and blocks his entire communications system. Once the think tank is decloaked, the Hazari converge on it as Seven is beamed back and Voyager leaves at warp speed.

Juggernaut

Stardate: Unknown

When the Voyager picks up a distress call, Janeway finds escape pods contaminated with radiation. Two survivors, Fesek and Pelk, are beamed to sickbay as the crew discovers the source of the radiation is a disabled Malon freighter. During a mission to export their toxic waste, a leak forced them to evacuate. Fesek explains that when the ship explodes, the waste will ignite and destroy everything within three light-years. Before Voyager can travel to a safe distance, its warp drive collapses. Now, the crew must board the Malon ship and disable it.

With only six hours to go before the storage tanks explode, Fesek, Pelk, Chakotay, Torres and Neelix beam to the freighter. They plan to start in the least affected chamber and clear a path to the control room by opening airlocks and decompressing the ship. An inoculation created by the Doctor affords them a few hours of protection from the radiation. While checking on a jammed airlock, Pelk is attacked by a creature superstitiously believed to be created by radiogenic waste.

Pelk tries to convince the team that the creature exists, but they think he is hallucinating. When he dies, Pelk is beamed to sickbay to determine his cause of death. Meanwhile, Janeway prepares a contingency plan based on a nearby star. She concludes the corona would absorb the radiation from the blast if the freighter could be nudged close enough to it. On the freighter, as the team races through the decks to the control room, an airlock opens and creates a sudden vacuum. Everyone escapes but Chakotay, who is struck by flying debris and beamed to sickbay.

As Torres works to reinitialize the power matrix in the control room, the Doctor finds tissue samples on Pelk that suggest a being is aboard the freighter that has adapted to the radiation. From Astrometrics, Seven of Nine scans for a lifeform blended in with the ambient toxins on the ship, and the creature is then revealed. Suddenly, it closes in on the team in the control room as gas envelops everything. Neelix and Fesek are attacked, but Torres keeps the creature at bay and realizes it is a Malon core laborer.

The laborer insists sabotaging the ship is the only way to make the Malon understand how horrifying the radiation poisoning is to the men who sacrifice their lives working on the core. As Voyager emits a series of tractor pulses to steer the freighter into the star, the laborer uses maneuvering thrusters to disrupt its course. Torres tries to reason with him, but ultimately she has to resort to violence to stop him. At the last second, Torres, Neelix and Fesek are beamed to Voyager before the freighter explodes into the star's atmosphere.

Someone to Watch Over Me

Stardate: 52647

As Janeway and Tuvok leave for a diplomatic mission aboard a Kadi vessel, Neelix is left in charge of the Kadi ambassador on Voyager. Meanwhile, the Doctor determines that Seven of Nine needs the experience of dating in her socialization training. When he takes her to a holodeck bar for some practice making small talk with men, Seven buys a prospective suitor a drink in her usual dry manner. Once Paris learns what is going on, he makes a bet with the Doctor that Seven can't find a date for the Kadi ambassador's reception, and keep him for the entire night.

Knowing he has his work cut out for him, the Doctor tries to show Seven the importance of shared interests with a potential date. When he discovers Seven has a beautiful singing voice, the two engage in a duet of "You Are My Sunshine." Once her interests are determined, Seven peruses the ship's manifest for a suitable male and chooses a lieutenant whom she has worked with before in Engineering. Startled by her directness, the crewmate agrees to meet her in the holodeck for dinner.

When the Doctor tells Paris about Seven's progress, he realizes the Doctor is infatuated with her. The Doctor denies it, but he helps Seven fix her hair and pick out a dress to wear. In the holodeck simulation, he plays the piano as Seven and her date awkwardly navigate through a lobster dinner and a turn on the dance floor. When Seven takes the lead and tears a ligament in the man's arm, the evening is cut short, and she is ready to give up on dating altogether. However, the Doctor persuades her to keep trying and takes her onto the dance floor for a lesson.

Seven and the Doctor decide to attend the Kadi ambassador's reception together, and Seven displays all of her newly learned social skills. This prompts Paris to admit the Doctor has won the bet, which angers Seven. She accuses the Doctor of not having a sincere interest in her development and storms out of the party. Meanwhile, Neelix is losing control of the ambassador, who has had too much to drink and makes a scene before passing out.

The ambassador has a mighty hangover when his superior returns the next day, but he and Neelix manage to cover up what has really happened. The Doctor prepares to tell Seven about his feelings for her, but she comes to him first to thank him for his guidance. She announces that she will no longer require his lessons because there is not a suitable mate on board. Crushed, the Doctor hides his true emotions and returns to the holodeck bar for a lonely piano tune.

11:59

Stardate: Unknown

As Neelix presses Janeway for information about Earth's history, she reminisces about one of her ancestors, Shannon O'Donnell. Shannon was in Indiana in December of 2000 when she discovered a quaint downtown area about to be destroyed and replaced by the Millennium Gate. The world's first self-sustaining civic environment, the Gate had developers offering Henry Janeway a lot of money for his bookstore, but he wouldn't sell. Through a chance encounter when her car broke down, Shannon and Henry began working together to prevent the destruction of downtown Portage Creek.

A database search uncovers a picture of Shannon and her children, which Janeway wants to frame. She explains that she grew up admiring Shannon and her bravery in building the Millennium Gate, which became the model for the first habitat on Mars. Back in 2000, Shannon is approached by Gerald Moss, one of the developers who knows her from her days of astronaut training at NASA. Knowing that Shannon recently lost her job, Moss tries to lure her to his team as consulting engineer in return for Shannon convincing Henry to give up his shop to the project.

Intrigued by the experimental biosphere, Shannon tries to talk Henry into seeing the benefits of the Gate. He will hear nothing of it, however, and Shannon leaves when the two of them begin fighting. On Voyager, the crew trades stories of their family history. When Janeway asserts that Shannon did work on all the early Mars projects, Paris contradicts her. He is an expert on that subject, and he is positive there was no O'Donnell working on those projects.

Further research shows Shannon did not overcome any great obstacles to build the Millennium Gate, as Janeway had believed. She was only a consulting engineer, and the sole opposition she faced was Henry, who became her husband. As Shannon prepares to leave town, and the Gate developers are about to move their plans to another city, she suddenly returns to Portage Creek to talk to Henry.

Shannon reveals she has come back to be with Henry. She wants to explore the future, but he must be willing to leave the past behind. With only a minute to spare until midnight of New Year's Eve and the deadline for the Millennium Gate project, Henry agrees to rebuild his shop in the new biosphere. Janeway is disappointed Shannon was not the courageous explorer she always believed her to be, but she has no idea what her ancestor did for the town of Portage Creek, and a man scared to face the inevitable future.

Relativity

Stardate: 52861.274

It is Janeway's first day aboard the Voyager. Seven of Nine, disguised as an ensign, investigates a weapon on the ship and reports back to Captain Braxton, who now knows where the weapon was placed but still needs to know when. After Janeway is alerted to a chronoton flux, she almost discovers Seven of Nine, which would contaminate the timeline. Braxton beams Seven from Voyager just in time, but she is dead by the time she gets to his ship.

Braxton orders his men to go back in time and retrieve Seven before Voyager explodes. This is the third time they have tried to help Seven save her crew. On Voyager, temporal distortions are fracturing space-time throughout the ship, making people space-sick and causing bizarre paradoxes to occur. When Seven and Torres investigate, Seven's ocular implant detects a device emitting the distortions. Before they can take action, the hull begins to demolecularize. Janeway orders the crew to abandon ship as two men materialize and beam away Seven.

Seven is once again welcomed to the Federation timeship Relativity. It is 500 years in the future, and Braxton wants to solve the mystery of who planted the weapon. His crew has recruited Seven because of her ocular implant's ability to detect irregularities in space-time. Once they persuade her to help them, Seven is beamed to Voyager two years before she became part of the crew. The ship is under attack from the Kazon, and Braxton believes this is the time a saboteur boarded the vessel and planted the device. Seven is to find him and stop him at all costs.

Seven checks the ship and finds no sign of the weapon or the intruder. When Janeway detects a chronoton flux and remembers the same thing happening two years ago, she investigates and finds Seven, whom she recognizes from that first day on the ship. Over Braxton's objections, Seven explains her presence on Voyager and persuades Janeway to trust her seemingly implausible story. When they are suddenly alerted to an intruder, they find Braxton himself planting the weapon.

Suffering from temporal psychosis, this version of Braxton claims Janeway is responsible for his exile stemming from his time travel. He suddenly jumps to two years earlier, and Seven follows him. When he is trapped in a forcefield, Braxton jumps five years ahead. By this time, Seven is suffering from having made too many time jumps, and recruits herself in that time period to apprehend Braxton. Once Seven and Janeway catch him, Janeway must go back to an earlier period of Voyager's history to capture Braxton before he has a chance to place the weapon. Meanwhile, the original Braxton is arrested for "crimes he will commit" by his first officer, who takes command of the timeship and vows to clean up the contamination in the timeline to prevent any of it from happening in the first place. Seven is "reintegrated" and Janeway is urged to avoid time travel as the two are returned to Voyager and back to normal.

Warhead

Stardate: Unknown

Answering a distress call, the away team finds a device embedded in a rock that proves to be a form of artificial intelligence. It has bio-neural circuitry and, with the help of the Doctor's translating, reveals it is suffering from a technical form of amnesia. The machine thinks it is an organic being, but once it is beamed to Voyager, the Doctor explains what has happened. Scanning the planet's surface, Janeway finds a crater filled with radiogenic decay and realizes they have beamed aboard a weapon of mass destruction.

In sickbay, Torres attempts to separate its bio-neural circuitry from the explosive, and download its synaptic patterns into a holographic matrix. Suddenly, the weapon arms itself, and Torres is forced to use an EM pulse to short it out. She and Kim soon discover the machine has commandeered the Doctor's program. It now recalls it is a long-range tactical armor unit, which was deployed at a target it never reached. The machine, speaking through the Doctor's body, tells Janeway that she will help him find his target, or her ship and crew will be destroyed.

After Janeway is given new coordinates to follow, Neelix locates a merchant who may be familiar with the weapon. He offers to disarm it with his transporter's dampening field in exchange for full access to salvaging its parts for sale. Wary of handing the weapon over to a stranger, Janeway refuses. When the merchant's ship tries to get a transporter lock on the machine, it sends an antimatter surge back through the beam and blows up the ship. Meanwhile, Seven realizes her nanoprobes can be adapted to disable the weapon's circuitry.

Paris plans to make the machine believe they are navigating a minefield. When Seven of Nine is brought into sickbay pretending to suffer from burns, Tuvok will disrupt the Doctor's program. This will give Seven enough time to inject her nanoprobes into the weapon and disable it. Meanwhile, Kim and Torres retrieve lost data from the weapon's memory files, which reveal its launch was a mistake. He thinks they are deceiving him and refuses to abort. The plan fails, and Voyager is suddenly surrounded by 32 self-guided weapons.

The machine is ordered to transport off Voyager to the target, but Kim persuades him to look for his people's confirmation code in the rest of his memory files. When he confirms the order to cease his mission was valid, he tells the other weapons to stand down. They cannot be diverted, so the weapon reconfigures his bio-neural matrix and joins the others. Once he leads them to a safe distance, he detonates and destroys them all.

Equinox

Stardate: Unknown

Answering a distress call, the Voyager crew finds the Federation Starship Equinox, a vessel made for planetary research. Captain Ransom pleads with Janeway to extend Voyager's shields over his ship, which is under attack. As the shields are put in place, interspatial fissures erupt on several decks. Once a rescue team boards Equinox, they find many crewmembers dead of a thermolitic reaction. A few people are still alive, including Ransom, who explains that his ship was also pulled into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker.

Hostile aliens -- flying nucleogenic lifeforms from another realm -- are trying to enter the two ships at every fissure point. At the current rate, Voyager will be under full attack in less than two days. However, the aliens cannot survive inside the ship's atmosphere, so the crew sets out to create a multiphasic forcefield to trap the nucleogenic lifeforms and show them they cannot afford to continue their assault. Meanwhile, Ransom and Burke secretly discuss that they must hide their research lab and warp core from the Voyager crew.

Once Seven of Nine determines how to create a security grid that will protect the ships, Janeway decides it will be in everyone's best interest to abandon the Equinox and concentrate all efforts on preserving Voyager. Ransom and his crew prepare to steal Voyager's field generator and leave them behind. When Seven and Tuvok discover the research lab aboard Equinox has been deliberately contaminated with radiation to keep them away from it, Janeway sends in the Doctor to investigate.

The Doctor finds organic matter -- from the nucleogenic lifeforms -- which has been converted into a crystalline compound. The compound can be used to enhance the Equinox's propulsion systems. When Janeway learns that Ransom and his crew were planning to kill as many of the creatures as it took to get home, she confines them to their quarters and sets out to make contact with the aliens. Meanwhile, the Doctor goes back to the Equinox research lab and summons their EMH, which looks exactly like him. The Equinox Doctor explains that he created the conversion technology after his ethical subroutines were deleted. Then, he disables Voyager's Doctor and steals his holo-emitter.

Once the evil Doctor frees his crew from confinement, they beam back to the Equinox. Seven, who was onboard trying to disable their converters, is knocked unconscious. Before the security grid can be put on-line, Ransom and his crew steal Voyager's field generator. As the Equinox is set on course for the Alpha Quadrant at warp speed, Voyager's shields go completely off-line, and the aliens attack Janeway and the crew through fissures on all decks ...

As nucleogenic lifeforms attack Voyager, Captain Janeway discovers that she can use a deflector pulse to reinforce the shields and force the creatures off her ship. These attacks are occurring because the aliens are angry with Captain Ransom and the crew of the Equinox, another Starfleet vessel stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Ransom and his crew have killed dozens of the lifeforms for their organic matter in order to enhance the Equinox's propulsion systems and get back to the Alpha Quadrant. Now the aliens are trying to destroy both Starfleet ships.

Ransom and his renegade crew have escaped from Voyager's brig and taken back the Equinox, leaving Voyager behind and effectively kidnapping Seven of Nine and the Doctor, who were on board. When Ransom attempts to engage the enhanced warp drive, the ship stalls. They learn that Seven has locked out the power relays with codes that only she knows. Ransom tries to coerce the codes out of her, but when she refuses to talk, Ransom deletes the Doctor's ethical subroutines in order to solicit his help. The hologram then sets out to extract the information from Seven's cortical implants, which will severely damage her brain.

While the Voyager doctor is on the Equinox, the Equinox doctor in on Voyager. When Voyager gets away from the aliens and catches up with Equinox, the Equinox doctor manages to send Ransom a coded message to warn him. Janeway fires several photon torpedoes, badly damaging the Equinox. Ransom knows he cannot win, so he retreats into warp, temporarily escaping from Voyager. During the battle, Janeway managed to beam three of Ransom's crew aboard her ship.

Janeway has one of Ransom's captured crewmembers tied up and put in the cargo bay, ordering him to reveal Ransom's tactical status. She's prepared to drop the shields around the room and allow the alien lifeforms to come in and kill him. He refuses to talk, so Janeway and Chakotay wait outside the cargo bay as a fissure begins forming in the cargo bay. When Chakotay realizes that Janeway isn't bluffing, he breaks into the room and fires his phaser at the fissure, collapsing it before an alien can pass through. Janeway is shocked at Chakotay's disobedience and relieves him of duty.

Voyager manages to contact the Ankari, the race who innocently introduced the nucleogenic creatures to the Equinox crew. When the Ankari come aboard and summon the aliens, Janeway tells them that she will lead them to Equinox. When Voyager catches up with Equinox again, Ransom's conscience gets the better of him and he tells his crew that he is willing to cooperate with Janeway. Ransom's crew is not prepared to surrender, and his first officer, Lt. Burke, has Ransom arrested and takes control of the ship. Voyager begins firing on Equinox again, giving Ransom time to escape to the transporter room. Ransom then contacts Janeway, telling her that he is surrendering and will help her beam the Equinox crew aboard her ship.

The nucleogenic lifeforms also begin to attack Equinox. They manage to kill Burke before Janeway can beam him to Voyager. The only person left on board Equinox is Captain Ransom. With the warp core about to breach, Ransom tells Janeway to get as far away as possible, then he navigates his ship to a safe distance, sacrificing himself as the Equinox explodes.

Janeway reinstates Chakotay and strips the remaining Equinox crew of rank. She orders them to serve as Voyager crewman and tells them that they will have to earn her trust.

Survival Instinct

Stardate: 53049.2

Voyager is docked at the Markonian Outpost Space Station. Captain Janeway announces to the crew that the doors have been opened for anyone to visit. Seven of Nine and Naomi Wildman go to lunch together in the Mess Hall where they are surrounded by numerous alien visitors.

A man approaches Seven of Nine and puts his briefcase-sized container on a table. When Seven of Nine notices the Borg equipment, she bolts up. Suddenly, Seven of Nine begins to experience memory flashbacks from her past as a Borg.

The items turn out to be Borg relays from Seven of Nine's original unimatrix. The man offers them to Seven of Nine, but when he speaks it seems that his words are not his own and are instead chosen for him. Seven of Nine accepts the Borg relays and she tells the man that Captain Janeway will compensate him. As the man walks away, he communicates telepathically with two others, telling them to prepare to penetrate Voyager's security systems.

Seven of Nine brings the Borg relays to Torres for her evaluation. Seven of Nine tells her how the items triggered visual images, sense memories, sounds and smells. Torres suggests that Seven of Nine was experiencing nostalgia when she first saw the relays. However, Seven of Nine insists that she isn't having any feelings whatsoever about the past. Seven of Nine leaves the relays for computer analysis. Just as she returns to her alcove to regenerate, the Borg relays begin to emit a soft beeping.

Next, three Borg (the first is the man who brought Seven of Nine the Borg relays) enter Seven of Nine's alcove. Two assimilation tubes appear from one of the Borg's arms and begin to penetrate Seven's neck. Seven of Nine unconsciously becomes aware of their presence and when she opens her eyes she begins to fight them. Suddenly, Tuvok and the Security team's phaser fire hits the three Borg and they crumple to the deck.

Seven identifies the three as Two of Nine, Three of Nine, and Four of Nine. They were all once members of the same unimatrix, but Seven of Nine has no idea why they were trying to access her memories. The three Borg tell Captain Janeway that their goal was to break their telepathic link and become individuals.

Apparently, Seven of Nine and the other three Borg were the only survivors of a vessel crash eight years earlier. However, when they were reassimilated into the Collective, the three were somehow linked together permanently. When the three finally escaped, they had their implants removed but they couldn't break the telepathic link between them. They were hoping that Seven of Nine remembered what happened to them.

Seven of Nine suggests linking her neurally to the three Borgs, in order for them to find the truth. Unfortunately, there is the possibility that she becomes trapped in the neural link. Despite the risks involved, Seven of Nine decides to go ahead. When Seven of Nine's neural link is connected to the Borgs, they discover that Seven of Nine was the one who reassimilated them.

The Doctor then breaks the neural link between Seven of Nine and the other three Borg. As a result of the process, the three Borg damage their brains which sends them into a comatose state. The Borg will only survive for a month unless they are reassimilated into the Collective.

Initially, Seven of Nine decides that their survival is the most important. However, after she talks with Chakotay, she decides that by removing their neural implants, they will be able to live as individuals for a short time. When the three wake up, they begin to make separate plans for their brief, yet individual futures.

Barge of the Dead

Stardate: Unknown

B'Elanna's shuttle runs into an ion storm upon her return to Voyager. As the shuttle hits the deck, she is thrown forward and hits her head. She is diagnosed with a mild concussion and she retreats to her quarters to rest. Chakotay brings her a metal slat with a Klingon insignia that was found attached to the rear of the shuttle.

B'Elanna puts the object down on her table and she notices that blood begins to pool out of it. She also hears haunting screams and otherworldly cries of pain radiating from the artifact. Tuvok suggests that she was experiencing a subconscious manifestation of her hatred of her Klingon heritage.

Neelix decides to throw a party to celebrate the discovery of an object from Voyager's Alpha Quadrant. Just as B'Elanna is to say a few words, a group of Klingons appear and kill Captain Janeway. No one else sees what is happening and as B'Elanna tries to escape, she too is attacked.

B'Elanna finds herself lying on the deck of a Klingon ship. A Klingon approaches her and holds a branding iron to her cheek. However, it doesn't embed the Klingon emblem since she is only half Klingon. A Klingon male named Brok'tan tells her that she is on the Barge of the Dead traveling to Gre'thor, or Klingon Hell, where dishonored souls are taken.

Next, it is announced that another dishonored soul has been delivered. B'Elanna is completely shocked to find that it is her mother, Miral. Suddenly, B'Elanna wakes up in the Sickbay. Apparently, she was in a coma after her shuttle was caught in the vicious ion storm.

B'Elanna tells Chakotay that she thinks she died and was on the Barge of the Dead. Later, after reading old Klingon scrolls, she tells Paris that she sent her mother to the Barge because of her dishonor. B'Elanna believes that she can save her mother before she passes through the gates of hell by restoring the honor that was lost.

B'Elanna has a difficult time convincing Captain Janeway to alter her vital signs. Janeway only gives her one hour to accomplish this task. B'Elanna loses consciousness and finds herself back on the Barge of the Dead. Brok'tan will help B'Elanna get to her mother by distracting the guards.

Initially, Miral believes that her daughter is only an illusion. B'Elanna finally convinces her mother that she can save her from Klingon hell and send her to Sto-Vo-Kor. After performing the ancient Klingon ritual, B'Elanna and Miral and disappointed with the failed results.

B'Elanna's only other option is to die for Miral and take her place in hell. B'Elanna agrees and Miral is taken up towards the sky to Sto-Vo-Kor. The gates of Gre'thor open ahead of the Barge and B'Elanna is lead to her own hell aboard Voyager.

Suddenly, Miral appears to B'Elanna and tells her daughter that she can be saved by freeing herself. All B'Elanna has to do is live with honor and discipline, like a true Klingon. Suddenly, The Doctor begins to bring B'Elanna out of her comatose state. Miral tells B'Elanna that they will be reunited forever in Sto-Vo-Kor.

Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy

Stardate: Unknown

The Doctor is disappointed because he wanted to travel with the Away Team to an unknown planet. He therefore files a formal complaint with Captain Janeway regarding poor treatment by the crew. He also requests to be made Emergency Command Hologram, or the new Captain, in the event of a catastrophic emergency. However, Janeway tells him that it just isn't possible.

In one of his daydreams, the Voyager crew is sitting in a meeting when Torres begins to rub her foot up the Doctor's leg. In the next daydream sequence, the Doctor walks into a party celebrating his promotion as Emergency Command Hologram.

In the meantime, an alien vessel tries to access Voyager's internal sensors. However, they are unable to get past its security encryption. One of the aliens named Phlox discovers that the Doctor is a computer program and he is able to watch everything that the Doctor is experiencing on Voyager, including his daydreams. Phlox discovers that Voyager is a lost vessel that is not from the Delta Quadrant.

In the Doctor's next dream, Voyager is attacked by Borg. Tuvok and Chakotay begin to sprout Borg implants and Captain Janeway is killed by the attack. The Doctor immediately takes control and tells the computer to activate the Emergency Command Hologram. The Doctor's uniform magically changes to a command style. The new Captain orders the release of his imaginary "photonic cannon," which destroys the Borg sphere.

Phlox still doesn't know that what he is witnessing is only taking place in the Doctor's imagination. The aliens think that Captain Janeway was killed in the attack and that the hologram is now in command of the vessel. They begin to plan their attack.

The Doctor tells Kim, Seven of Nine and Torres that he is having cognitive projections or daydreams. However, because his algorithms are malfunctioning, he is daydreaming whether he wants to or not. As a result, he is randomly jumping from one daydream to the next.

The crew is able to watch what the Doctor is experiencing. Captain Janeway is amazed when she sees the Doctor take command of Voyager. Meanwhile, Phlox realizes that he was only watching the Doctor's daydreams. He is afraid to tell his superiors because they don't tolerate mistakes very easily. Because Phlox feels that he has gotten to know the Doctor, he decides to transmit a simulacrum of himself into the Doctor's program and warn Voyager of the alien attack.

In return for warning Voyager of the attack, Phlox asks the Doctor to pose as the Captain in order to trick his commanders. When Voyager is hailed by the alien vessel, Captain Janeway tells the Doctor what to say by remote. Just as the alien vessel orders a type-four assault, the Doctor instructs Chakotay to activate Voyager's phony "photonic cannon." Phlox reminds his commanders how the "photonic cannon" easily destroyed the Borg. As a result, the alien vessel retreats.

Alice

Stardate: Unknown

When Voyager happens upon a junkyard of old ships, the crew stops to purchase some parts from Abaddon, the salesman. Tom Paris falls in love with a small shuttle he finds among the junked vessels, and convinces Chakotay to let him restore it. He discovers the shuttle has a neurogenic interface, allowing it to interact directly with the pilot's thoughts. Tom gets to work immediately, naming his new toy "Alice." After a brief trial of the interfacing technology, Tom calls it a night. When he leaves, Alice powers on by herself, scanning Tom's brain imprint. In his quarters, Tom hears a female voice calling for him.

Driven by Alice's seductive power, Tom works nonstop on the shuttle. He and B'Elanna Torres try to celebrate its christening together, but Tom is obsessed to the point of excluding everyone. Tapping into Alice's database, he has found the flight suit design of her last pilot and is now wearing it instead of his Starfleet uniform. When Chakotay orders him to put his test flight on hold and attend to his official duties, Tom complains to Alice, whom he is now imagining as a flesh-and-blood woman. She eggs him on, convincing him to use the neurogenic interface again.

Alice goads Tom into stealing power cells from Voyager. When Alice traps B'Elanna, sealing a hatch and shutting off life support systems, Tom realizes the neurogenic interface is out of control. He rescues B'Elanna and tries to alert sickbay, but Alice won't let him. She forces him to launch the shuttle and complete the interface, making him one with the machine. As Captain Janeway and the crew realize what is happening, Tom fires on Voyager and escapes into warp.

The Voyager crew turns to Abaddon for answers. He explains that the shuttle Tom acquired is "haunted." Before he can say more, he begins hallucinating himself and suffers a cerebral hemorrhage. After receiving a cortical suppressant, Abaddon reveals that he too was once linked with Alice. She was looking for a top biological entity with which to work together in tandem, to guide her to an unknown point in space. After reconstructing data Tom left behind, Seven of Nine discovers where he and Alice are heading. They are going to an anomaly called a particle fountain.

Because Tom's synaptic functions are linked to the shuttle, Janeway cannot fire on him. Instead, Tuvok works to access the main computer and transmit a shutdown sequence. B'Elanna taps into his interface using a communication signal. With both B'Elanna's and Alice's voices in his head, Tom cannot think straight. Just as he is about to suffer a cerebral hemorrhage, Tuvok succeeds in shutting down Alice. Tom is beamed safely to sickbay, and Alice is destroyed in the particle fountain.

Riddles

Stardate: 53263.2

Returning from a diplomatic mission with Neelix, Tuvok picks up readings of a cloaked being within their shuttle, but while scanning it with a tricorder he is attacked. Once back on Voyager, Tuvok is rushed to sickbay suffering from neuroleptic shock. The Doctor treats the officer but cannot reverse the damage until he understands the nature of the weapon used against him. Captain Janeway questions Naroq of the Kesat species with which Neelix was negotiating, and the visitor feels certain the mythical Ba'Neth -- or "shadow people" -- were the ones who attacked Tuvok. Legend has it the Ba'Neth attempt to assess foreigners' technology, but stay cloaked because of an obsession with hiding their identity.

After gathering particles from the cloaking field, Naroq uses a photolitic converter to illuminate the isotopes and reveal what the alien looks like. Using the same idea with Voyager's deflector array, they are able to uncloak nearby Ba'Neth ships. In fact, there is an entire fleet surrounding Voyager and they begin to fire when hailed. Unfortunately, they are soon out of range and disappear again. Meanwhile, Tuvok's Vulcan brain has begun to rewire itself. When Neelix leads him on a tour of the ship to jog his memory, he speaks for the first time.

Although Tuvok is speaking and recognizing people again, his cognitive functions are still very simple. Experiencing volatile emotions, he tries to come to grips with the damage he sustained. When Naroq questions him about the cloaking frequency, Tuvok has a flashback but cannot remember any details. Soon, he becomes angry. After studying his personnel file and realizing how different he is from the Vulcan he used to be, Tuvok lashes out at Neelix.

Neelix realizes that instead of pushing Tuvok to be who he was, he should encourage him to discover who he can become. With this in mind, the two begin to have fun together. Tuvok discovers the joy of smiling and even tries his hand at baking desserts. When Janeway questions him again about the cloaking frequency, Tuvok cannot find the words to express what he saw. Instead, he draws it out in icing on his latest cake creation. Using that pattern, the Voyager crew begins scanning for the cloaking frequency.

Voyager discovers the hidden spacefaring civilization of the Ba'Neth, and Janeway demands information about their weapon. Once she threatens to transmit their coordinates to the Kesat, the Ba'Neth captain is willing to negotiate. However, he learns that Naroq is on board and prepares to fire. In a show of generosity, Naroq offers to give the Ba'Neth his photolitic converter in exchange for the information Voyager wants. After analyzing the weapon, the Doctor is able to devise a procedure that will restore Tuvok's Vulcan personality. Although he is quite fond of his crewmate's new demeanor, Neelix knows they need Tuvok at his post on the bridge more than they need a playmate. After the procedure, Tuvok resumes his logical and subdued manner, but he has learned to appreciate the word play of Neelix's riddles.

Dragon's Teeth

Stardate: 53167.9

The alien from the Turei vessel tells Voyager that they are travelling in their under-space. Captain Janeway insists that they stumbled there by accident and she asks the Turei to help them get out of it. The Turei ship is able to push them out of the subspace. According to Voyager's calculations, it traveled 200 light years in just 2 minutes. Captain Janeway asks the Turei if they could negotiate passage through their under-space, in hopes of returning home to the Alpha Quadrant.

The Turei are not pleased with Captain Janeway's request and they tell Voyager to prepare to be boarded. Captain Janeway refuses and the Turei ships begin to power their weapons. Voyager is rocked by a round of weapons fire. Their warp drive is down and shields are only operating at 60 percent.

Captain Janeway leads Voyager to a hot planet with a dark, swirling atmosphere. As it begins its descent, the Turei back off. Voyager must land in order to repair its damage. As the ship moves closer to the planet, the crew notices a decimated and burnt-out megalopolis. Scans indicate that the civilization was destroyed from a bombardment of plasma-based weapons, 500 years earlier.

Faint lifesigns are also detected in a chamber beneath the surface. Janeway, Seven of Nine and Chakotay head into the chamber and discover stasis pods which each contain some kind of lifeform. Apparently, each pod was programmed for only five years. However, since 500 years have passed, some kind of failure must have occurred.

Without receiving Captain Janeway's permission, Seven of Nine activates one of the pod's reanimation sequence. The humanoid inside opens his eyes and is startled by the presence of the Voyager crew. His primary concern is to open up the other pod that is covered with dirt and debris. Unfortunately, he discovers that his wife didn't survive and he passes out.

The humanoid wakes up in Sickbay and he identifies himself as Gedrin of Vaadwaur. He tells Janeway that the subspace corridors belonged to the Vaadwaurs. It took them centuries to map out and they used the tunnels for exploration. As a result, their enemies combined forces and launched an attack. The Vaadwaur designed the stasis network out of desperation in hopes of saving their culture.

Again, the Turei begin to fire plasma charges from up above. Gedrin then remembers that the Vaadwaur have a satellite directly above the city. Voyager uses the satellite to get a lock on one of the Turei vessels and launches a torpedo. It is a direct hit and the remaining Turei ships move off.

In exchange for subspace corridor passage, Voyager decides that it will help Gedrin and his people fight their way off the planet against the Turei. They wake up the rest of the Vaadwaur and reactivate their ships. Captain Janeway and Gedrin decide that while the Turei try to anticipate when Voyager will break for orbit, the Vaadwaur ships will head in the opposite direction. Then, Voyager will fire at the Turei and follow the Vaadwaur into the subspace corridor.

However, the Vaadwaur decide that they will take over Voyager since they could survive comfortably aboard. In the meantime, Neelix is suspicious of the Vaadwaur and their true intentions. Captain Janeway also doesn't completely trust the Vaadwaur. Her skepticism is confirmed when the Vaadwaur vessels begin heading for Voyager instead of orbit. Voyager lifts off in hopes of escaping the Vaadwaur attacks.

Gedrin tells Captain Janeway that he can stop the rest of the Vaadwaur by taking the remaining ships off-line. The Vaadwaur now have no choice except to retreat into a subspace corridor.

One Small Step

Stardate: 53292.7

An unidentified object closely follows Voyager. Seven of Nine identifies the phenomenon as a huge mass of subspace energy that is attracted to objects that emit electromagnetic energy. In order to avert the graviton ellipse, which travels through subspace, Voyager must cut power and reverse their shield polarity.

After a successful aversion, Chakotay and Paris remind Captain Janeway of a similar phenomenon back in 2032, in which a command module from one of the early Mars missions was consumed by a rolling ball of deadly energy.

Captain Janeway decides to launch a search for the missing U.S. spacecraft trapped inside the energy field. She instructs Seven to join both Chakotay and Paris, as they hunt for the legendary Ares IV, the command module from the first manned mission to Mars. Janeway hopes that Seven will develop an appreciation for studying the past.

Before they leave on the Delta Flyer, Chakotay and Paris view NASA's footage, which recorded the last seconds of Lieutenant John Kelly's life within Ares IV. The Delta Flyer finally enters the mass of energy, but not before encountering excessive turbulence. Once inside, asteroid fragments and pieces of captured vessels come into its view.

The exploratory crew has approximately five hours before the energy ball heads to another subspace. However, back on Voyager, Torres discovers that a dark matter asteroid is heading straight for the mass of energy. With only minutes to spare, Captain Janeway immediately instructs the Delta Flyer to break out. Chakotay goes against the Captain's orders and decides to try to bring the module back with them. Unfortunately, the weight of the Ares IV inhibits their swift escape, and the Delta Flyer is unable to make it out in time without being affected by the meteroid's impact.

Chakotay has been knocked unconscious and the Delta Flyer is badly damaged. With their engines down and their shields off-line, Chakotay, Seven, and Paris now only have two hours before the mass of energy returns to subspace.

Finally, Voyager is able to re-establish contact with the Delta Flyer. Seven is clearly dissatisfied with Chakotay and his decision to disobey the Captain's orders. After discussion with the Voyager crew, their only hope is to beam Seven over to the Ares IV to obtain its ion distributor in order to supply power for the Delta Flyer. Before Seven is beamed over to Ares IV, Chakotay asks her to download whatever she can from the module's database.

Once inside the Ares IV, Seven enters the cockpit where she sees the body of John Kelly still strapped in his chair. Seven brings the main computer online, and a monitor immediately comes on which contains an active datafile. Chakotay asks Seven if she could playback the video log entries for them.

The video entries reveal that John Kelly was not killed on impact with the mass of energy. Instead, he lived for many more days until his life support system ran out. Due to power failure, the module was unable to escape. John Kelly saw other spacecraft within the mass and discovered before his death that the human race was not alone.

Seven is successfully able to obtain the distributor. She also decides that she will beam John Kelly's body with her back to the Delta Flyer. With only minutes to spare, the power conversion is activated. Voyager gets as close as it can to the mass to help rescue the Delta Flyer as the ball begins to retreat into subspace.

Luckily, the Delta Flyer makes it out just in time. Back on Voyager, Captain Janeway and the rest of the crew pay their respects to Lt. John Kelly and they release his body into space. Seven is able to acknowledge that John Kelly's contribution helped secure humanity's future.

The Voyager Conspiracy

Stardate: Unknown

After encountering gravitation fluctuations, Captain Janeway hails an approaching ship and meets its captain, Tash. He is working on a catapult vessel, hoping to launch himself hundreds of light-years away. If Tash's plan succeeds, it may shave years off the Voyager's journey. Meanwhile, Seven of Nine has installed a cortical processing subunit in her regeneration alcove, allowing her to assimilate the ships status reports. Upon downloading data on Tash's work, she informs Janeway that his catapult is the same technology that was used to trap them in the Delta Quadrant.

Five years ago, when Voyager was caught in the displacement wave that sent it 70,000 light years off course, a tetryon beam was responsible. Now, Seven has discovered that a tetryon reactor is powering the catapult. Although the Voyager crew believes they destroyed the reactor, Seven finds out otherwise. Data shows a charge Tuvok fired tore an opening in subspace, and a tractor beam from a cloaked ship pushed the reactor into it. Seven alerts Chakotay to her startling conclusion that Voyager was stranded in the Delta Quadrant on purpose and Janeway is behind it.

Seven believes the captain is part of a Federation conspiracy to establish a military presence in the Delta Quadrant. Suddenly, Janeway's diplomacy begins to look suspiciously like establishing tactical infrastructure. Seven believes the captain intends to use the catapult to bring more ships from the Alpha Quadrant, creating a Federation/Cardassian invasion force. When Tash makes a successful journey of 100 light years using the apparatus, Chakotay secretly delays Voyager's shield modification to give him more time to consider Seven's theories.

Seven returns to her alcove to assimilate for more information. After her latest download, she summons Janeway and alerts her that Chakotay is part of a Maquis rebellion. She believes he intends to use the catapult to launch attacks against the Federation and Cardassian ships. Janeway is doubtful, but Seven presents compelling theories, using some of the same evidence she used to cast aspersions on Janeway, but drawing different conclusions.

When Janeway and Chakotay compare notes, they realize Seven has been filling both of their minds with paranoid theories. Once the Doctor runs a diagnostic on her alcove, he finds that Seven has downloaded more information than she can process. Janeway beams to the Delta Flyer, which Seven is using to make a paranoid escape, and uses her own version of past events to convince Seven that her synaptic patterns are in chaos. They return to Voyager, and Seven is treated in sickbay.

Pathfinder

Stardate: Unknown

Back on Earth, Lieutenant Barclay becomes obsessed with making contact with Voyager. During his project to contact Voyager, Barclay becomes consumed with the holographic recreations of the Voyager crew. Barclay seeks advice from his old friend from the Enterprise-D, Counselor Troi, who helps him deal with his growing problem.

Barclay is standing alone on the re-creation of the Voyager bridge, until he is interrupted on the viewscreen by his boss, Commander Peter Harkins. Harkins reminds Barclay of his duty to finish the transmitter diagnostics, so Barclay immediately ends the program as the bridge disappears.

Barclay then suggests that the team try to use an approaching itinerant pulsar in order to make contact with Voyager. By directing a tachyon beam at the pulsar, Barclay believes that it will produce a surge powerful enough to create an artificial wormhole, thus establishing two-way communication with Voyager. However, Harkins tells Barclay that they need to instead be focusing their time on Admiral Paris' visit and briefing.

Later that night when everyone has gone home, Barclay decides to once again activate the hologrid. He enters the holo-mess hall and sits down to play cards with holo-Paris, holo-Chakotay and holo-Kim. Barclay is confident and relaxed among the holographic crew and he tells them that they are his best friends. The next day, Barclay finds himself in the holo-Sickbay where the holo-Doctor tells him that he is an invaluable member of the crew. Then in the holo-mess hall, Kim and Paris both want to hang out with him. Barclay responds by telling his holo-friends that there is plenty of him to go around.

Back in the research lab, Harkins is briefing Admiral Paris and the other Starfleet Officials on the last known position of Voyager. Against Harkins' wishes, Barclay interrupts and begins telling Admiral Paris about his wormhole theory. Harkins is so upset with Barclay that he sends him home for the rest of the day. However, instead of following orders, Barclay enters the holo-briefing room and asks his holo-friends for technological advice. Janeway offers Barclay a team to help him work out the details.

Then, Harkins enters the lab and discovers that Barclay has created holograms of the Voyager crew. Harkins suggests that Barclay needs counseling because he has struggled with holo-addiction in the past. In the meantime, Harkins decides to take Barclay off of the Voyager rescue project.

Defying orders, Barclay goes to Admiral Paris' office where he asks him for access to the lab for one more day. If he is wrong about his theory, Barclay promises to resign from his position. Admiral Paris only agrees to order an independent review of Barclay's findings. If others agree that his idea is valid, then he'll order Commander Harkins to pursue his claim.

Back at Barclay's apartment, Troi expresses concern for Barclay's anxiousness and paranoia. Barclay begs Troi to tell the Admiral that he is psychologically fit to return to work. Barclay admits that he has created a new family since he left the Enterprise, however, the family he has created is not real. Troi tells Barclay that she has requested a temporary leave of absence from the Enterprise so she can stay a while longer.

That night, Barclay once again defies order and heads to the research lab. His code is de-authorized, so he manipulates the computer to get inside. Once in the lab, Barclay accesses the MIDAS Array, directs a tachyon beam toward the pulsar to open a micro-wormhole, and sends a message to Voyager in hopes of getting a response. Suddenly, Harkins enters the lab and instructs Barclay to step away from the controls. Instead of following orders, Barclay tells the computer to transfer control to the hologrid.

Barclay tells holo-Tuvok that there are two security guards after him, and he orders the computer to trap them with a forcefield. While Harkins works on shutting down the program by simulating a warp core breach, Barclay continues to work on making contact with the real Voyager through the wormhole. Harkins and two other guards catch up with Barclay on the holo-Bridge, where holo-Janeway alerts the crew to the presence of intruders. Barclay immediately commands a forcefield, which prevents Harkins and the guards from reaching him, while he begs for more time. However, the holo-Voyager is about to self-destruct, so Barclay voluntarily ends the program and gives himself up.

Meanwhile on the real Voyager, Seven of Nine has detected an artificial micro-wormhole whose origin is in the Alpha Quadrant. Janeway immediately instructs Paris to lay in a course toward the range.

Back in the Pathfinder lab, just as Harkins asks Admiral Paris what he should do with Barclay, they receive a response from Voyager. Janeway and Admiral Paris are able to converse briefly and he tells her that they are doing everything in their power to bring Voyager back.

Harkins apologizes to Barclay for ever doubting him, and Admiral Paris announces the beginning of "Project Voyager." Meanwhile in the Delta Quadrant, the Voyager crew toasts Barclay, even though they don't personally know him, for his extraordinary efforts. Back on Earth, Troi congratulates Barclay, and he tells her about the woman he's started dating.

Fair Haven

Stardate: Unknown

Harry Kim and Tom Paris create a new holodeck program, which is set in the Irish village of Fair Haven. However, the crew of the Voyager soon learns that the vessel is headed on a collision course with an interstellar hurricane. While the crew prepares for the approaching impact, Captain Janeway grants permission for the new holodeck program to have a 24-hour open door policy to keep the crew's mind off of the looming threat.

Janeway also visits Fair Haven, where she spends an evening with Michael Sullivan, a local bartender. Because she is so drawn to him, she decides to make a few modifications to his subroutine. She also tells him that her name is Katie.

The hurricane arrives, but thankfully the vessel is able to clear its heaviest portion. However, Voyager must spend at least three days inside the storm. During much of that time, many of the crewmembers return to the holographic creation. While spending more time with Michael, Janeway discovers that her amendments were almost too good to be true, because she finds herself falling in love with him. Instead of meeting him the next day as promised, Janeway doesn't show up. Michael is confused and upset and he demands that Paris tell him where she is.

The storm causes problems for the ship's systems and all power is diverted to the tractor beam. Thankfully, Voyager successfully makes it out of the hurricane. However, the holodeck program has been damaged and it must be shut down temporarily while it is repaired.

Before the program is momentarily put to rest, Janeway tells Michael that she is leaving Fair Haven for a while. Even though she cannot give him a definitive reason why, Michael still reveals his love for her. She ends the holodeck program and instructs the computer to deny Captain Janeway any future access to Michael's behavioral subroutines.

Blink of an Eye

Stardate: Unknown

As the Voyager approaches a planet with extremely high revolutions, the ship enters a gravometric gradient, pulling it into orbit. A tachyon core has created a space-time differential, meaning that a second on Voyager is a day on the planet. On the planet, much time has already passed since the initial sighting of the "star" which was believed to be a deity.

When Seven of Nine receives a transmission from the planet, the message, now centuries old, tells the crew they have insinuated themselves into the planet's mythology. For centuries, this pre-warp society has endured ground shaking brought about by this "sky ship." Unwilling to throw their civilization's belief system into chaos by making first contact, Captain Janeway sends the Doctor on an undercover mission to gather clues that may help Voyager break orbit. His holomatrix will be unaffected by the differential. As Janeway prepares to beam him back, she loses his signal.

Once they recover the Doctor, three years have passed on the planet. He alerts Janeway that Voyager has encouraged much invention through the centuries. The inhabitants are in a space race to make contact. Using the Doctor's data to realign thrusters, the crew attempts to break orbit, but stops when it increases seismic activity. A shuttle from the planet docks on Voyager, and the visitors find the crew in what appears to be a metabolic stasis. Because of the time differential, they are seeing less than a second on board the ship, causing them to think the crew is not moving. When Janeway resumes motion, the visitors have collapsed on the bridge.

The surviving pilot explains that he has grown up in awe of the "sky ship," even praying to it as a child. Although any time he spends on Voyager means losing years of his life at home, he agrees to help them interpret the Doctor's data and find a way to break out of orbit. As Seven scans the planet's surface, she detects that they are now experimenting with warp technology. Soon, Voyager is under attack from antimatter torpedoes.

Janeway sends the pilot back to his planet with Voyager's specifications, hoping that he can convince his people to find a way to help them break orbit. After several more attacks, but more than a year since the pilot returned to his planet, two ships materialize next to Voyager and use a tractor beam to pull it out of orbit. Using a temporal compensator his planet has devised, the pilot returns to Voyager one more time to say goodbye before the "sky ship" is gone forever.

Virtuoso

Stardate: 53556.4

While the crew of the Voyager helps a Qomari ship make repairs, the Qomar on board thumb their noses at the crew's inferiority. They live in a closed system and are not well-versed in social interaction. Nor are they familiar with singing, which the Doctor does as he tends to their medical needs. The visitors are quickly enthralled with the Doctor's voice and invite the Voyager crew to visit their nearby planetary alliance. As a goodwill gesture, Captain Janeway arranges a musical concert starring the Doctor, of whom the Qomar cannot seem to get enough.

After a recital, the Doctor is invited to perform on the Qomar planet and introduce the concept of music to all of its inhabitants. He excitedly agrees and plans a dazzling operatic performance complete with costumes and an elaborate set. Tincoo assures him she will make any arrangements he may need and is baffled by his crew's seeming lack of appreciation of his talents. As he steps onto the stage, he receives a standing ovation from the packed stadium.

Following the Doctor's latest concert, Voyager's communication system is inundated with transmissions to the maestro. Seven of Nine mistakes it for attempted sabotage, but Janeway explains that the correspondence is just fan mail. Qomari visitors flood the ship for a chance to see him, and the Doctor is pleased with the attention. Janeway is eventually annoyed by his neglect of his duties and admonishes him to get back to work. Tincoo urges the Doctor to stay on Qomar with her after Voyager leaves.

Believing he can realize his life dreams and enjoy the love of a woman, the Doctor turns in his resignation. Despite Janeway's protests, the Doctor insists he should have the right to self-determination. His life on Voyager becomes routine and he believes that the Qomar really appreciate him for who he is and his ability to bring music to their lives. As the Doctor says goodbye to the crew, Tincoo summons him. She has created a superior holomatrix that can hit the high notes the Doctor cannot reach and explains that he is no longer needed on their planet.

Although the Doctor protests that a superior holomatrix cannot replace the passion and artistry that he brings to the music, Tincoo only sees the situation from a mathematical angle. She is more concerned with hitting the scales than understanding their beauty. Heartbroken, the Doctor fills his final show with the melancholy of lost love. Afterwards, the holomatrix steps in with a purely technical performance, which the Qomar applaud wildly. Back on Voyager, the Doctor realizes he has friends there who do truly appreciate him as an individual with unique abilities.

Memorial

Stardate: Unknown

Having returned from a two-week away mission of scanning planets and gathering dilithium ore, Chakotay, Tom Paris, Harry Kim and Neelix begin experiencing strange visions. While Tom dreams he is engaged in an alien battle, Harry has an anxiety attack during a routine check of a plasma leak. Meanwhile, Chakotay suffers from violent dreams that put him in the middle of an offensive, and Neelix, reacting to the weapons fire he is hearing in his head, takes Naomi hostage in the mess hall.

Once the Doctor runs some tests, he discovers the increased engrammatic activity of Chakotay and the others suggests they are reacting to memories, not delusions. As Janeway asks them to retrace their mission, they begin having flashbacks of their roles in an attack force against the Nikon. Commander Saavedra ordered them to evacuate the Nikon from their remote colony, but a small group of the colonists began firing weapons. Chakotay and the others on the force panicked in the ensuing chaos and shot back, murdering 82 civilians in the process.

Trying to piece together the puzzle, Janeway orders Voyager into the system the away team was scanning and joins Seven of Nine in reviewing the Delta Flyer's sensor logs. As soon as the Captain sees Tarakis, the second planet encountered by the away team, she also begins having flashbacks of the massacre. She remembers pleading with Saavedra to admit their mistake, but he continues to vaporize the evidence of the colonists' bodies. When she wakes up later in sickbay, Janeway learns that other crewmembers have also begun experiencing the battle memories.

The Captain sets a course for Tarakis. Once Voyager is in its orbit, Harry picks up a weak power signature from the planet. Janeway, Chakotay, Tom, Tuvok and Harry beam to the surface, but there seems to be no trace of a massacre. Soon, however, Harry locates a familiar rock formation, and he and Tuvok descend into the tunnels where he remembers killing two of the innocent colonists. After Tuvok scans their remains, he determines that they died 300 years ago. Meanwhile, Janeway and Chakotay find a large structure erected in the middle of a grassy field.

Seven identifies the structure as a synaptic transmitter sending neurogenic pulses throughout the system. Anyone who enters will experience the memories of the battle -- a memorial to the victims and a vivid reminder to never let such a tragic mistake happen again. Because the power cells are deteriorating, the memories are fragmented. The crew, still shaken by the disturbing realism of the visions they were forced to endure, wants to shut down the transmitter, but Janeway orders them to recharge the power cells. The memorial will continue to spread its hauntingly effective message.

Tsunkatse

Stardate: 53447.2

While on shoreleave, Chakotay and Torres attend a Tsunkatse match in a nearby alien world. In the meantime, Captain Janeway is off touring a planet in a neighboring system. However, before Chakotay can attend another match, he first must get another crewmember to cover his duties.

Meanwhile, Seven of Nine and Tuvok ask Chakotay if they can study a micro-nebula on an away mission. Chakotay grants them permission, telling them that they can spend their shoreleave in whatever manner they choose.

While in the shuttle, Seven of Nine and Tuvok are captured by an alien vessel. An alien named Penk welcomes Seven of Nine to Tsunkatse, telling her that she is going to be a very popular attraction. Seven demands to see Tuvok, who was injured when their shuttle was hit.

While attending to Tuvok, Seven of Nine tells Penk that she has no intention of participating in his game. However, Seven agrees to fight for Tuvok in exchange for his medical care.

Back on Voyager, Chakotay, Kim, Paris and Torres engage in a conversation about boxing and fighting matches. And the Doctor tries to get Neelix to go with him to the Norcadian Museum of Entomology instead of attending the Tsunkatse matches with Chakotay.

At the match, Chakotay, Kim, Paris and Neelix are shocked to discover that Seven of Nine, dressed in an alien fight suit, is the challenger of the Tsunkatse match. Seven tells her opponent in the ring that she doesn't want to fight. Meanwhile, Chakotay leads the others through the crowd, struggling to get closer to the pit.

From Voyager, Torres calls Chakotay looking for an update on the match. Chakotay tells her what's going on and instructs her to beam Seven out. However, Torres is unsuccessful because she thinks that Seven's lifesigns are masked somehow.

Torres tells Chakotay that the figures in the pit are photonic, or holographic projections that are being transmitted from a different location. Drawing back his arm, the Champion swings at Seven who falls to the ground.

In the meantime from the Delta Flyer, Captain Janeway asks Chakotay and Torres for an update. And while Seven of Nine is nursing her injuries, Penk tells her that he is entering her in the Red Match, where only one of the opponents leaves the ring alive. Penk's sidekick The Hunter promises to train Seven for the match. He reminds her that there are no individuals in Tsunkatse, only prey.

Continuing the effort to rescue Seven of Nine, the Norcadian Ambassador tells Neelix that he will begin an immediate investigation. However, Neelix is not convinced that the Ambassador has nothing to do with the fact that friendly aliens are being forced to compete in Tsunkatse matches against their will.

Torres tells Chakotay that they were having trouble isolating the source of the transmissions because they never seemed to be coming from the same place. They realized that the transmissions are emanating from a ship that is protected from neutronic weaponry.

Back on the alien ship, Seven is instructed to rest before her match. Just as the match is about to begin, Seven is shocked when The Hunter enters the ring. The Hunter tells Seven that he was training her so that she could kill him and give him an honorable death.

Meanwhile, Voyager finally tracks down the Tsunkatse Vessel. Chakotay tells Penk that they only have 30 seconds to return Seven and Tuvok before Voyager begins firing. Back in the ring, Seven tries to convince The Hunter that they both should refuse to fight. Voyager and the Tsunkatse Vessel begin to exchange fire, allowing the crew to beam Tuvok over. However, they are unable to get a lock on Seven's individual positioning, and instead beam both Seven and The Hunter onto Voyager.

Back on Voyager, Paris instructs The Hunter to step away from Seven. Chakotay tells The Hunter that a Hirogen hunting party has agreed to meet with them. The Hunter discloses his gratefulness to the crew and tells them that he plans to look for his son.

Collective

Stardate: Unknown

Chakotay, Kim, Paris and Neelix are taken hostage when the Delta Flyer is captured by a Borg Cube. However, it is inhabited by a small group of Borg children who were left behind, unworthy of assimilation. The underdeveloped Drones attempt to assimilate their captives, while Captain Janeway sends Seven of Nine to negotiate.

After the Delta Flyer is intercepted by a Borg Cube, Chakotay, Paris and Neelix find themselves placed in what appears to be an assimilation chamber. However, Kim is not with them. A dead body lies on a table in the center of the room. It's partly Borgified and its face and arm are covered with implants that appear crudely inserted.

Meanwhile, Voyager discovers that the Borg Cube's propulsion system is off-line. The Cube first targets Voyager's warp core and then moves to its impulse engines. While the Cube's attack strategy is erratic and inefficient, Voyager capably disables the Cube's weapons. Seven discovers that there are only five signatures, instead of thousands of Borg, manning the vessel.

The Borg will return the crewmembers in exchange for Voyager's navigational deflector. However, Voyager will be unable to go to warp without it. Seven tells Janeway that the Borg most likely want Voyager's deflector in order to contact the Collective because their own is damaged.

While stalling the Borg, Janeway tells them that she is sending Seven over to make sure that her crewmembers are unharmed. Aboard the Borg Cube, Seven discovers that it is manned by neonatal Drones, or children, who have not matured long enough. The children insist that the Borg will come for them once their link is re-established.

Seven returns to Voyager along with a dead body of an adult Drone. She tells the Borg children that it must be examined in order to establish what went wrong aboard the ship. The Doctor discovers that a spaceborne virus attacked the Drones and is responsible for their deaths. The virus never reached the developing drones because they were protected within the maturation chambers. Malfunctions caused by the deaths of the adults led several chambers to open prematurely. The Doctor also discovers that if the pathogen is revived, it could be used to neutralize the Drone children.

Because Voyager cannot give up its deflector, Janeway offers Seven's services in repairing the Cube's technology. One of the Borg children tells Janeway that she has exactly two hours before one of the hostages dies. Meanwhile, Kim wakes up after lying unconscious within the Delta Flyer and attempts to contact Voyager. And while speaking with the Borg children, Seven tries to jostle their memories in hopes that they will turn away from the Collective and come aboard Voyager.

While working on the Cube's repairs, Seven discovers that the Collective did receive the Drones' initial distress call and that they never dispatched a vessel to rescue them. The Collective declared the neonatal Drones irrelevant and damaged, severing their link to the Hive permanently. However, the Drone children were unable to decrypt this message, which stated that they are unworthy of re-assimilation. Meanwhile, Kim is captured and he awakes to raw-looking implants on his face.

By this point, one of the boy Drones becomes so frustrated that he insists that Voyager turn over their deflector immediately. Seven tells the Drone children that the Hive will never come back for them and that their call for help was ignored.

Meanwhile, Voyager works to beam the hostages back by emittiing an energy pulse over the Borg Cube. Tuvok successfully beams Chakotay, Paris and Neelix onto Voyager. However, Seven and Kim are being held in a shielded area of the Cube.

Angered, one of the boy Drones shoves tubules into Seven's neck. However, another boy Drone pulls him away from Seven. As the Cube's transwarp core begins to destabilize, Seven instructs evacuation. However, the first Drone boy refuses to leave and he is shocked and is knocked to his feet. Seven comforts him while he dies.

Back on Voyager, The Doctor successfully removes the children's implants. Seven was able to salvage part of the Cube's database, which includes the children's original assimilation profiles. Thus, the children discover that their names are Icheb, Mezoti, Azan, and Rebi.

Spirit Folk

Stardate: Unknown

The city of Fair Haven is set within 19th-century Ireland. While driving along a road, Tom Paris crashes his vintage automobile. Seamus Driscol, one of the townsfolk, cannot believe his eyes when he sees Paris' tire magically repair itself. He immediately heads to Sullivan's Pub, and tells its inhabitants that he believes Tom is from the spirit world.

Back in town, Kim and Maggie are walking together and holding hands. Meanwhile, they are unaware that Seamus and Milo are watching their every move. Just as the two are about to kiss, Paris plays a trick on Kim by morphing Maggie into a cow in a holographic effect. Kim can hear Paris laughing, just as they are instructed through a com call to return to the bridge.

Seamus tells his priest exactly what he saw. Acting as his priest, the Doctor tells Seamus that Tom Paris is a known prankster and that he is not to worry. Later that day, Seamus and Milo run into Maggie who tells them that she feels like she woke up from the strangest dream where she was walking around town with a bell around her neck.

Soon, the townsfolk gather and exchange similar stories. Michael Sullivan tells Katie that the townsfolk think that she and her friends are not from this earth. Because he believes that Katie is lying to him, Janeway decides to end the program. Back on Voyager, Janeway doesn't know how the holodeck characters could possibly be asking so many questions about their origin.

Back on Voyager, Paris instructs the computer to display all of Fair Haven's characters. Michael Sullivan appears and is suprisingly aware of his surroundings. Kim discovers that each characters' perceptual filters are off-line. The Voyager crew decides that they will repair the malfunction by accessing each of the characters' controls from Sullivan's Pub.

Back at Sullivan's Pub, Michael remembers being "spirited" away to an unknown place where there was talk of changing the people of Fair Haven. At the church, several of the townfolk begin to assemble and warrant their concerns. They storm into Sullivan's Pub, where Kim and Paris are working on the Starfleet control panel. Before the two can react, a net of red twine is thrown over them, knocking them to the ground. Milo suddenly fires his gun at the panel which causes sparks to fly. Paris instructs the computer to freeze the program, but since it is damaged only some of the animated townsfolk are frozen.

Paris and Kim are soon on the run with the mob of townsfolk following close behind. They instruct the computer to exit the program, but unfortunately their commands are unrecognized. Meanwhile on Voyager, Torres suggests cutting power to the hologrid. Although the inhabitants of Fair Haven are not real people, but rather holograms, Janeway possesses genuine feelings towards them.

Paris and Kim find themselves tied to chairs near the altar of the church. Reading from a thick, old book, Seamus demands the return of the prisoners to the otherworld. Nothing happens and Seamus instructs the others to tie the Doctor up as well.

Seamus hypnotizes the Doctor, asking him questions about banishing the spirit-folk to the "otherworld." The Doctor begins to tell them about Voyager, and Michael demands that he instruct him on how to be transported to Katie's location.

Janeway tries to explain to Michael that they are simply explorers that like to spend time in Fair Haven. Janeway and Michael both return to the holodeck, and Michael tries to calm the townsfolk down, insisting that the Voyager crew means no harm.

While the damaged holodeck is being repaired, the Voyager crew decides to have one last night at Sullivan's Pub before Fair Haven is temporarily put to rest. It is clear that Janeway and Michael have formed a special bond with one another, as Michael reaches and takes her hand.

Ashes to Ashes

Stardate: 53679.4

As a tiny Delta Quadrant shuttle outruns a larger vessel, the shuttle's pilot tries to radio the Voyager. When she does contact Voyager, she claims she is Lyndsay Ballard, a former shipmate who has been dead for three years. Nobody on Voyager believes her story because she no longer looks human. She tells Captain Janeway and the crew that a Delta Quadrant race known as the Kobali had found her body drifting in space and reanimated it. The Kobali procreate by altering the DNA of the dead they salvage from other races. Her former best friend Harry Kim was with her when she died and believes her story based on the facts she gives about her death. The Doctor finds traces of human DNA in her, which convinces Janeway she is telling the truth.

Seven of Nine has been placed in charge of four Borg children that are onboard Voyager. She plans every hour of their day, including an hour for fun, and does not understand why the children are so rowdy. When the children do not play games according to the rules she makes them stand in a corner.

The Doctor creates a hypospray that can make Ballard look human again. She does begin to look more human, but the hypospray makes her feel sick. When she eats her former favorite meal, she claims that it tastes funny. As she returns to her post in engineering she begins to speak in Kobali.

Seven asks Chakotay if she can be relieved of her duty as guardian of the Borg children. Chakotay tells her that she is treating the children like they are on a Borg cube, while she should be treating each child as an individual. He denies her request.

The Kobali vessel that had been chasing Ballard makes contact with Voyager. The vessel's commander, Q'ret, asks to speak with Ballard. Q'ret asks Ballard to return to their planet. He tries to confuse her emotions by accusing the Voyager crew of setting her adrift like trash and telling her that her Kobali sister misses her. She refuses to go back.

As Kim talks with Ballard later, she admits that she does feel more at home with the Kobali now. Q'ret begins to fire on Voyager and insists he will not stop until Ballard comes back. When Kim attempts to return fire, Ballard tells him that she wants to go. Kim is sad, but lets her go.

Child's Play

Stardate: Unknown

Captain Janeway tells Seven of Nine that one of the children Seven has been taking care of, Icheb, is going to have to leave the Voyager. Icheb is one of the four children that were liberated from the Borg collective. Voyager's crew managed to locate Icheb's parents and are planning to take him back to them. Seven is upset at this because she has come to think of Icheb as a son.

When they near Icheb's home planet, readings indicate there is a Borg transwarp conduit very nearby and the planet has been attacked by the Borg several times. When Janeway, Seven, Icheb and Tuvok beam to the surface, they meet the planet's inhabitants, the Brunali. They notice that most of the buildings are small huts and the Brunali tell them that have to keep things very low-tech or the Borg will detect them and attack the planet again. The only time the Borg attack is when they think they can get new technology.

When the away team is greeted by Icheb's parents, Luecon and Yifay, Icheb asks to go back to the ship. The away team and Icheb's parents all go back to Voyager and discuss how to make the transition easier but Seven begins to argue with the boy's parents. While onboard, Yifay makes Icheb's favorite meal, which he really enjoys. Leucon explains to Seven that the Borg took Icheb four years ago when he wandered off to see a new fertilization array. Leucon explains how sad he was when he lost the boy.

After spending time with his parents, Icheb decides to stay with the Brunali. He knows that his knowledge of technology can help them rebuild their villages. Seven is sad to see him go.

As Voyager leaves orbit from the planet, one of the three remaining Borg children, Mezoti, cannot sleep because she misses Icheb. As she talks about it with Seven, she mentions that Icheb told her he was taken from a ship, not from the planet's surface. Seven is curious why Leucon had lied to her and begins to research the planet. Her research reveals that the Borg did not attack the planet four years ago, so Icheb could not have been taken at that time. When Seven gives this information to Janeway, the Captain turns the ship around and heads back to the Brunali planet.

On the Brunali world, Icheb's parents grab him and inject him with an alien medical device. The device renders Icheb unconscious and his parents put him on a shuttle heading for the Borg transwarp conduit.

When Voyager returns to the planet, Leucon is defensive and tells them to leave. Harry Kim scans the planet for Icheb's life sign but does not find him. Seven discovers the shuttle heading for Borg space, and Voyager pursues. Seven manages to transport Icheb onto Voyager just as a Borg Sphere emerges from the conduit and traps both the Brunali shuttle and Voyager in a tractor beam. The crew transports a photon torpedo to the shuttle, which detonates inside the Sphere and damages it, allowing Voyager to escape.

The Doctor determines that Icheb had been genetically engineered at birth with anti-Borg pathogens. His parents had raised him specifically to infect the Borg and stop the attacks on their planet. The Doctor is able to suppress the anti-Borg virus, but Seven is not sure she will be able to help Icheb come to terms with what has happened. Seven trusts her maternal instincts and begins to help Icheb understand that on Voyager he has a family that loves him and will never let him go.

Good Shepherd

Stardate: 53753.2

Upon completing a routine shipwide efficiency analysis, Seven of Nine determines that three of Voyager's young crewmembers are unable to perform at acceptable levels. Normally after six months or a year, a crewmember that has been assigned to a starship will simply be reassigned to a less challenging Federation vessel if their limitations cannot be corrected. However, this is not an option since the three crewmembers are stranded in the Delta Quadrant on Voyager.

When Captain Janeway becomes aware of the situation, she decides to take the three young crewmembers on an away mission with her aboard the Delta Flyer. The first of the trio is Celes, an Astrometrics assistant who constantly has to have all of her work double-checked. Crewman Mortimer Harren has five advanced degrees in Theoretical Cosmology, but would rather spend his time down on Deck 15 and figure out the origin of the universe. Finally there is William Telfer, a Security Officer and hypochondriac who visits Sickbay weekly and is afraid of medication.

First and foremost, Janeway briefs the trio on their duties. Celes will be running an on-going sensor analysis and Harren will be looking for subspace particle decay which may offer new information about star formation. Meanwhile, Telfer will be on the lookout for any signs of life. Before they leave, Seven of Nine warns Janeway that an experienced crew would better serve the mission.

Not long into the mission, an invisible force suddenly strikes the Delta Flyer. Its propulsion has been knocked off-line and 90 percent of its antimatter has been neutralized. Harren suggests to Janeway that a comet-like assemblage of dark matter is responsible for the neutralization. Furthermore, he proposes that they eject their remaining antimatter in order to avoid another impact. However, according to Janeway, his theory is still an unproven hypothesis and she needs more convincing evidence.

Returning once again, Janeway decides to fire a photon torpedo at the force. Suddenly, the three crewmembers hear a humming sound and look on as Telfer begins to unexpectedly dematerialize and then disappear. Suddenly, he reappears and collapses to the floor and it appears as if something is writhing beneath his skin.

Janeway has no choice except to fire a phaser at Telfer when he reveals that the phenomenon is activating his motor neurons. As he struggles to stay on his feet, a stick-like, segmented entity extends out of an incision wound on his neck. The entity flings itself onto a console and attaches itself to the surface. Harren immediately aims the phaser, but Janeway instructs him to hold his fire. Ignoring the Captain's order, Harren fires and vaporizes the entity. Frustrated with Harren, Janeway suggests that the entity was simply trying to communicate with the crew.

Janeway decides to lead the Delta Flyer to a nearby planet where she hopes to reinitialize its warp core. Suddenly, a slow-moving swath begins to open up in the glowing particles of the planet's radiogenic ring. An unknown force is heading toward the vessel.

Janeway instructs her crew to get into the escape pods and to plot a course away from the planet. However, Celes tells Janeway that a crew never abandons its captain. Suddenly, Harren releases one of the escape pods and heads toward the swath while inside. Over the com, he tells Janeway that it will allow the Delta Flyer some extra time to make an escape. Janeway decides to go after the pod instead. Just a split second before it collides with the swath, the Delta Flyer's transporters lock onto the pod. The Delta Flyer then begins to fire phaser volleys at the glowing ring behind it, igniting a chain reaction of blazing, exploding light.

Suddenly, the Flyer begins to shake as bright light pours in the windows. The vessel is rocked hard and a blinding white light flashes outside the windows.

Next, a confused Janeway wakes up in Sickbay. Chakotay reports that Voyager received her initial distress call and found the Flyer drifting above a gas giant with everyone unconscious inside. Janeway tells Chakotay that the Good Shepherd went looking for a few lost members of her flock and ended up running into a wolf. However, in the end, the Good Shepherd did find them.

Live Fast and Prosper

Stardate: 53849.2

Two aliens are part of a band of "con artists" who believe that they've stumbled upon the greatest scam of their careers: Impersonating Janeway and her senior officers. Using their new Starfleet identities, they move from system to system engaging in a series of lucrative deceptions. Eventually, the real Janeway and her crew are blamed for these deceptions when the con artists do not deliver the goods as promised. Ultimately, the Voyager crew must bring the imposters to justice.

Neelix and Paris remember that they met two clerics named Dala and Mobar three weeks earlier while on shore leave. Apparently while Neelix and Paris weren't paying attention, Voyager's entire database was downloaded from the Delta Flyer. As a result, Dala and Mobar were able to obtain the information they wanted in order to pose as Federation officers.

In an attempt to track down the con artists, Janeway asks Orek, a Telsian who has been cheated by Dala and Mobar, for access to the scans of the imposters' vessel in order to derive their warp signature. Meanwhile, Paris and Neelix are frustrated with themselves for being duped so easily.

Back on the bridge, Tuvok detects a vessel whose warp signature matches the imposter's ship they are looking for. There's a larger vessel alongside the imposters which belongs to Varn, another angry alien who also was duped by the two con artists. Dala tells Varn that their "mothership" Voyager has arrived to defend them. Varn's ship begins firing at Voyager. The starship is successfully able to strike Varn's ships with its phasers, and knock out the tractor beam holding Dala's vessel.

Janeway instruct Seven of Nine to transport everyone on Dala's vessel to Voyager. However, because Voyager's transporters are damaged, Seven is only able to beam Dala onto the ship. Aboard Voyager, Dala refuses to reveal a detailed account of everyone they cheated, as well as the location of the stolen property. Janeway instructs Tuvok to hail Telsian Security and tell them that they have a prisoner to turn over (pulling a scam on Dala herself by relating how barbaric Telsian prisons are). In actuality, Janeway doesn't want Tuvok to call the Telsians just yet because she wants Dala to sit and think for awhile first.

Neelix visits Dala in the brig and engages in a heart-to-heart conversation with her regarding her options. However, when Neelix turns the other way, Dala knocks him to the ground and grabs the phaser from his belt. She takes off running down a corridor and stuns Tuvok with the phaser. She climbs inside the Delta Flyer and immediately escapes at warp speed.

Dala catches up with Mobar and Zar, a third con artist posing as Chakotay, and asks them to beam her aboard. In the meantime, Paris has been hiding in the Delta Flyer. He activates the mobile emitter and the Doctor shimmers in. Paris and the Doctor successfully capture Dala and the Doctor then turns into Dala in holographic disguise. He beams himself to the bridge of the imposters' vessel and cleverly manipulates Mobar and Zar into revealing the location of their stolen loot. Meanwhile, Voyager is waiting in the wings, and the two remaining con artists are apprehended.

Muse

Stardate: 53896

Torres is slumped in the pilot's chair of the Delta Flyer. She has a wound on her forehead and she is unconscious. She had ordered Kim into the escape pod before the crash, but he is nowhere to be found. As Torres is coming to, she notices someone standing over her. It is Kelis, an actor and playwright on the L-Class planet, who is trying to heal her wounds. Torres, startled, jumps to her feet and questions his intentions. Kelis replies saying that he is her servant and she is his muse.

Kelis' intentions are to keep Torres on the planet as his inspiration. Kelis feels that Torres can inspire him to put together a play that will promote peace between the Warlord, his clan, and the rival clan.

Kelis further explains that the Warlord became insulted over a dowry offered by a patron from Kelis' clan. Kelis feels that the play may help the Warlord and the patron forget their anger.

Meanwhile back on Voyager, the crew is busy searching for Kim and Torres. Tuvok is very upset about the loss of his comrades. He has not slept in the eight days and exhaustion is starting to take its toll on him. Chakotay tells him that he can take over the search, but Tuvok sternly refuses.

Back on the L-Class planet Torres is trying to repair the ship, however the propulsion has died and the ship will not start. Kelis offers to help her in return for stories about the Voyager and its crew. He feels the stories will promote enough interest among the patrons that they will forget why they are fighting. He offers her food and supplies that she desperately needs. She reluctantly agrees to help Kelis.

It has been almost two weeks and Torres and Kelis have been rehearsing the play non-stop. They still do not have an ending to the show that is opening the following day. Layna, an alien actress portraying Torres in the play, has grown jealous of Torres' relationship with Kelis.

The night before the performance, Layna follows Torres back to the ship and confronts her. She threatens to expose Torres' real identity to the Warlord if Torres does not leave at once.

After Layna leaves, Kim appears through the window of the ship. Kim ran into turbulence and decided to turn around and follow Torres' signature. He tracked Torres' position with a tricorder. Kim has a Starfleet satchel that contains emergency rations such as a phaser and the escape pods emergency transmitter.

All the while, Kelis is preparing for the big night. He is waiting for Torres, but the patrons are growing impatient and he must start the show.

On Voyager, Tuvok is caught sleeping by Paris who decides it is time for him to take a break. As Chakotay enters to relieve Tuvok, they hear the messages sent by Kim and Torres.

While waiting for word from Voyager, Torres receives a note from Kelis implying that there will be a war if she does not help him come up with an ending to the play. He needs her for inspiration. Torres, feeling obligated to help Kelis, tells Kim she will be back and leaves for the play.

Torres enters the stage and begins performing an ending that she has come up with. She came up with a scene in which she and Kelis say good-bye because it is time for her to leave. Layna tries to sabotage everything by telling the Warlord that Torres is really an Eternal, but Kelis pretends that it is part of the play and that Layna is just playing the part of the jealous girlfriend. The Warlord loves the plot twist. The show is a success and there will be no war. Kim then beams Torres up and they return back to Voyager.

Fury

Stardate: Unknown

Voyager receives a distress call from a small vessel, piloted by a much older and weathered Kes. Captain Janeway grants her permission to come aboard, but she comes in much too fast and the vessel collides with Deck 9. However, Kes beams herself aboard Voyager just before impact.

A cold and angry Kes uses her psychokinetic abilities to disable the ship's systems, giving off high levels of neurogenic energy that destroy everything in her path. Even a forcefield and a phaser shot from a security guard cannot stop her as she carves a path of destruction toward Engineering. Torres and Seven of Nine, shocked to see that the invader is Kes, train weapons on her, but the phasers ripple and distort in their hands. Kes steps up to the warp core and places her hands upon it. Just as Torres goes to shut down the core, she is struck by a tendril of energy. Seven rushes over to Torres' dead body, while Kes vanishes in a flash of light.

When Kes disappears, she travels backward in time to Voyager as it was five years earlier, only a few weeks since being pulled into the Delta Quadrant. Sneaking up behind the original Kes, the undetected Kes from the future injects her with a hypospray, rendering her unconscious.

The Janeway of this time period is concerned that another conflict may soon ensue with the Vidiians since two more ships have been detected on long-range sensors. On a secure channel, Kes from the future makes contact with the Vidiian captain. She tells him she will provide him with information necessary to capture Voyager, in return for her safe passage home to Ocampa.

Meanwhile, Tuvok seems to be experiencing premonitions. Stepping into a turbolift, he encounters a young girl who identifies herself as Naomi Wildman. Tuvok follows the girl into the Cargo Bay, and when the doors open he sees Seven of Nine and the Borg children from the future regenerating in Borg alcoves.

The Doctor confirms for Captain Janeway that Ensign Wildman is expecting a baby girl. Back in Engineering, Tuvok is once again having visions of the future. This time he experiences a fragmented replay of events when Torres is struck in the back with an energy tendril as a much older Kes looks on. Tuvok is brought to Sickbay where he begins to convulse upon the surgical bed. Janeway views the proximity scan of Tuvok at the time he collapsed in Engineering, and discovers there was a surge of tachyon particles. Since tachyons are normally generated by temporal distortions, Janeway concludes there's some form of time travel involved.

When Janeway orders the bridge crew to scan for tachyon particles, Voyager suddenly finds itself under attack by the Vidiians. The crew realizes the Vidiians know more than they should about Voyager, including when they would be coming out of warp, their shield frequencies and which systems to target. Chakotay detects a transmission originating in the Airponics Bay, where he picks up two bio-readings that both read as Kes. Janeway heads to Airponics with a Security team as the bridge crew tries to break off the grappling hook that the Vidiian ship has attached to Voyager's hull. Meanwhile the Vidiians have started boarding Voyager, and Janeway must evade them in order to enter the Airponics Bay.

She makes it, and confronts the Kes from the future. Kes tells Janeway she wants to rescue her past self, that she was taken from her home and made a prisoner on the ship, corrupted with ideas of exploration and discovery. She accuses the Captain of encouraging her to develop her mental abilities before she was ready, and now she would not be able to return home to Ocampa because her people would be frightened of her. Kes attacks Janeway telekinetically, but meanwhile Voyager breaks free of the Vidiian ship, and the resulting jolt leaves Kes off balance. Eventually Janeway is able to blast the future Kes with a phaser and kill her. When the Kes of the past recovers, Janeway asks her help to prevent something terrible from happening in the future.

When an older Kes hails Voyager again in the future, the crew is already prepared. This time Captain Janeway orders the warp core shut down completely. When Kes enters Engineering, the Kes from the past appears in a message that she recorded to herself five years earlier. She reminds the older Kes that she made her own choices, and that the people she came back to harm care about her. Janeway approaches and reminds her why she made that recording. She urges her to stay on Voyager, but Kes says she needs to be with her own people. Finally she remembers making the holo-recording, and her anger dissipates. Realizing she can go home after all, she transports back to her vessel after a brief and awkward reunion with Neelix.

Life Line

Stardate: Unknown

When Earth's "Pathfinder Project" transmits its first block of data to Voyager, the Doctor receives disturbing news -- Lewis Zimmerman, the creator of modern holography and the Doctor's program, is dying.

Hoping to save this "father" he never met, whose likeness he shares, the Doctor's program is transmitted back to the Alpha Quadrant.

Instead of being pleased with the Doctor's attempts to help, Doc Zimmerman is completely standoffish. Zimmerman tells the Doctor that he is simply a Mark One hologram. He has been examined by the Mark Two, Mark Three and Mark Four, in addition to the finest "real" doctors in Starfleet, and none of them have been able to help him. Barclay points out that the Doctor has been running almost continuously for six years and that he has seen things that most doctors couldn't even imagine. Zimmerman eventually becomes frustrated with all of the Doctor's questioning and he abruptly instructs the computer to transmit the Doctor to the living quarters.

Meanwhile, Barclay pleads with Counselor Troi to return from the Enterprise in order to counsel Doc Zimmerman. However, when she does show up, things seem to be worse between the two doctors. Troi tries to convince Zimmerman that the Doctor has developed a promising treatment.

While the arguing continues between the Doctor and Zimmerman, Barclay discovers a problem with the Doctor's program. His program is unraveling and there is nothing that Barclay can do because the damage is too severe. Zimmerman is the only one who can save the Doctor, but of course he refuses to help a "replaceable" computer program.

In an attempt to convince him to help the Doctor, Zimmerman's right-hand hologram Haley tells him that she will ask to be installed elsewhere unless he does something to save the Doctor.

Zimmerman successfully identifies an error within the Doctor's pattern buffer. Thankfully, the Doctor is able to stop him from changing his personality subroutine as well. In the process, the two seem to make peace with each other and Doc Zimmerman finally agrees to treatment.

The Haunting of Deck Twelve

Stardate: Unknown

Various crewmembers are making sure the power at their stations is shut down. The ship is sent into darkness as even the holographic doctor is turned off. As the power to the regeneration alcoves is removed, the four Borg children are awakened and confused.

The children find Neelix waiting for them with a plasma lantern, and inquire what is wrong with the ship. He does his best to encourage the kids to relax; telling them the shut down is only temporary.

As Captain Janeway instructs the last of the ship to be shut down, the Borg children gather around Neelix's lantern. As they try to guess what is wrong with the ship, they decide it must have something to do with the "ghost" that is said to haunt a sealed off section of Deck 12. Neelix wants to make sure their imagination does not get the best of them and proceeds to tell them the story of the last nebula Voyager traveled through.

As Neelix's story opens, Voyager is cruising into a nebula similar to the one that is responsible for the power shut down. Neelix is explaining his own over-active imagination to Tuvok while Voyager collects deuterium outside.

Kim notices the collection was destabilizing the nebula and Chakotay convinces Janeway to stop the extraction. A second before Voyager leaves the nebula, an electric bolt rocks the ship! The captain immediately begins scanning the ship for damage and injuries, gradually finding that most of the electrical systems are failing.

Various functions on board begin to malfunction when Janeway notices they are off course and returning to the nebula they just left. Down in the cargo bay, where Seven of Nine is working, the air begins to fill with colorful gas, similar to that of the nebula. When Seven attempts to escape the room, she is surrounded by a forcefield and knocked unconscious by an energy beam moving through the gas.

In another part of the ship, Kim orders Neelix to remain in the mess hall while the other officers go to their posts. As the others leave, the lights in the mess hall go out, leaving Neelix alone in the dark.

While trying to bring the engines back on line, Paris is attacked by the same energy surge that got Seven. When Janeway and Tuvok take him to see the Doctor, they find a now conscious Seven of Nine, having been rescued by Chakotay. When the captain learns what happened to Seven, she begins to figure out what the problem with the ship really is.

Still in the dark, Neelix hears a thumping noise and moves to investigate. He is frightened when he sees a monster in the hallway, but is relieved to find it's only Tuvok in a gas mask. Tuvok has Neelix follow him through a Jefferies Tube, heading to engineering where the others are waiting.

Captain Janeway realizes that she can talk to this new electric life form through the ship's computer as it instructs her to go to the Astrometrics Lab. The lab reveals that the nebula the alien came from is no longer there. Out of anger, the computerized voice commands the Voyager crew to abandon ship.

In the Jefferies Tube, Tuvok is attacked by the electricity and wounded. Facing his fears, Neelix gains the courage to drag Tuvok through the dark all the way to engineering.

Reluctantly, Janeway complies with the abandon ship order, evacuating the entire crew except herself, who remains, trapped by the electric being. Reasoning with the new life, she convinces it that she can take it to a new nebula if it gives her back control of the ship. The creature agrees and releases Janeway.

When Janeway gets her crew back on board, they seal the alien off on Deck 12. This ends the story Neelix is telling the Borg children. When a loud thud is heard, Neelix explains to the kids that it's the alien being released into the new nebula.

The kids are excited about his story, but some of them are afraid that the creature did not leave and will attack them in the regeneration alcoves. Neelix then tells the children that he made the whole thing up. On the bridge, Captain Janeway confirms that the electric life form is now safely outside, happy in its new home.

Unimatrix Zero

Stardate: 54014.4

Seven of Nine awakens from a "nap" in an uneasy state. She dreamed of a beautiful forest with trees and flowers. In this place people knew her as Annika and she was almost human. Seven is not used to "dreaming" so she is unsettled by the experience.

Paris, thinking he is being reprimanded by the crew for being late, is surprised by being awarded an Officer's Pip. He is then reinstated to Lieutenant by Captain Janeway.

Seven retires again to her alcove wearing the cortical monitor the Doctor gave her and closes her eyes. She finds herself back in the beautiful forest. She tells herself that this is "not real" when suddenly a voice is heard assuring her that it is. It is the voice of Axum, someone she has seen before in this environment. He calls this place Unimatrix Zero.

Axum explains to Seven that Unimatrix Zero is a place where the Borg Drones go during regeneration so they can exist as individuals. The Collective knows about this place but cannot find it. The Drones who visit Unimatrix Zero have the recessive mutation that the Borg Queen is trying to find and destroy.

Axum informs Seven that she used to visit Unimatrix Zero before she escaped the Collective. She too has the recessive mutation that only one in a million Drones has. Axum tells her that the Collective has found a way to detect them, so it is only a matter of time before they find enough of the Drones to isolate the interlink frequency and demolish Unimatrix Zero.

Axum begs Seven for her help, even though she is no longer a part of the Collective. Seven is their only hope because unlike her, after the Drones complete their regeneration they have no memory of Unimatrix Zero.

When Seven awakens she informs the crew of what she encountered. The Doctor confirms that she was not just having a dream, she never reached REM, therefore what she is telling the crew is real. Seven asks the Voyager crew for their help to save Unimatrix Zero.

Meanwhile, the Borg Queen is coming closer and closer to finding Unimatrix Zero. She has continued to dismantle other Drones in order to observe their parts and find a way into Unimatrix Zero.

Janeway feels that the crew should help, because it is a new aspect of the Collective and a potential weakness. They begin coming up with a plan to help the Drones.

Tuvok suggest a Vulcan technique known as the "Bridging of Minds," Janeway agrees. Janeway, Seven, and Tuvok will be hooked up to monitors. Tuvok will oversee their thoughts and Janeway will go with Seven back to Unimatrix Zero.

Upon their arrival they find Drones, sent by the Borg Queen, trying to destroy Unimatrix Zero. A battle ensues and Janeway defeats the last of the Drones. The Borg Queen has seen the fight through the eyes of a regenerating Drone and does not like what she sees. Janeway assures Axum that they will help defeat the infiltration of the Borg Queen's Drones into Unimatrix Zero.

Janeway and Seven begin working on a plan to help Axum and the others. The crew is trying to find a way to deploy a highly experimental "nanovirus" designed to target all the Drones with the recessive mutation and reprogram their memory centers. That way, when they leave their alcoves they will retain their memories. Janeway tells Seven to go back and reassure Axum that they are working on a plan and will be there as soon as they can.

Seven arrives at Unimatrix Zero and things have gotten worse, however the Klingons have banded together and are fighting off the Borg Queen's Drones. Axum confesses to Seven that they were involved before she escaped the Borg. They had promised not to leave one another, but as things got worse Axum insisted that she leave him behind and save herself. Although Seven feels familiar with Axum and Unimatrix Zero, she still does not remember what he is talking about.

Back on Voyager, Janeway is preparing to transform herself into a Drone in order to implement the nanovirus, Chakotay does not think it is a good idea. While they are arguing, the power beings to flicker and the command center becomes dark and foggy. The Borg Queen appears on the screen and threatens Janeway and her crew by informing them that she knows they have been in contact with Starfleet. The Queen informs Janeway that if she becomes involved with helping Unimatrix Zero, Voyager will have a difficult time making it home. Janeway does not back down, frustrated, the Borg Queen disappears and the crew knows they are going to have a fight on their hands.

Unimatrix Zero is a secluded place within the Borg collective where drones can be themselves while they regenerate, but only certain Borg have the ability to visit. The Borg Queen considers Unimatrix Zero a threat because she does not want her Borg to ever have traces of individuality, but Captain Janeway thinks it could give the Federation allies within the Collective. Janeway, Tuvok and B'Elanna Torres put Borg implants in their bodies and infiltrate the Borg Cube to try and free the select few that are able to go to Unimatrix Zero, giving them the ability to maintain their individuality outside of Unimatrix Zero. The away team has been injected with a neural suppressant to keep their Borg implants from really connecting them to the Collective.

While the away team is on the Borg Cube, Seven of Nine goes to Unimatrix Zero herself to tell the Borg within what the team is doing. Seven had been able to go there when she was part of the Collective and she still maintains that ability. In the past, she had a romantic relationship there with her fellow Borg, Axum, and when she meets him there again, she notices those feelings returning.

While the away team is headed for the Central Plexus of the Borg Cube, Tuvok notices that his neural suppressant is wearing off and the Borg Queen begins communicating with him telepathically. The Queen finally convinces Tuvok to stop Janeway and Torres as they download a virus to free the select group of drones. They manage to get the virus into the system, but Tuvok prevents them from leaving. More Borg drones appear and capture Captain Janeway, but Torres is able to get away. Tuvok restrains Janeway and puts her in contact with the queen.

The Borg Queen makes Janeway watch on a viewscreen as she blows up a different Borg Cube, destroying the thousands of lives on board, because she lost contact with three of the drones due to Janeway's virus. The Queen uses the virus Janeway used to free the drones and alters it to actually kill the drones. She tells Janeway that unless the captain tells the free drones to rejoin the collective, she will go to Unimatrix Zero and kill all of the drones inside. Janeway is put into contact with Chakotay on Voyager to tell him the free drones have to go back to the collective, but instead of telling him that directly, she secretly tells him to destroy Unimatrix Zero. Without Unimatrix Zero, the Queen will not be able to find all of the free drones, and if she destroys all of the Borg vessels they are on, she will destroy her entire fleet.

After Seven tells everybody in Unimatrix Zero of the plan, they all agree that it is the best way to handle the situation and they offer to help get the away team back to the Voyager. While Voyager is preparing to attack the Borg Cube, a smaller Borg Sphere appears through a transwarp conduit and hails them. Korok, a Klingon that has been assimilated into the Collective, has taken over the Sphere and offers to help them destroy the Cube. Chakotay accepts his offer and both ships begin attacking the Cube. Just as the Borg Cube explodes, Harry Kim manages to beam Janeway, Tuvok and Torres back to Voyager where they can be relieved of their Borg implants.

Seven, meanwhile, has gone back to Unimatrix Zero one last time to say goodbye to Axum. Axum and Seven are the only people left as Unimatrix Zero falls apart around them. Axum tells Seven that he is on a Borg Cube in a totally different part of the galaxy and though it seem like they will never see each other again, he will find her. They both leave Unimatrix Zero as it completely fritzes out of existence.

Imperfection

Stardate: 54129.4

Seven of Nine watches as Rebi and Azan, two of the Borg children she had been taking care of since they were separated from the Collective, are reunited with their people, who agree to also give Mezoti a home. The only one of the Borg children staying aboard the Voyager with Seven is Icheb, the eldest of the four. After the children leave, Icheb notices that Seven is crying. Seven claims that her ocular implant is simply malfunctioning.

When Seven goes to see the Doctor, he confirms that there's a glitch in her cortical node, and he gets her to admit that she has been having headaches. Later, when Seven attempts to regenerate, she discovers she cannot interface with her alcove because her cortical node is malfunctioning. She stays up all night in the mess hall until Neelix arrives and offers to make her breakfast. Seven then falls to the floor convulsing, and Borg implants start bursting through her skin.

In sickbay, the Doctor realizes Seven's problem is more serious than he previously thought. Her cortical node, which regulates her vital functions, is destablizing, which means she will die unless it can be replaced. Captain Janeway gets an idea: She orders Ensign Kim to scan a nearby Borg debris field and transfer the coordinates to the Delta Flyer -- she plans to salvage a replacement cortical node. Janeway, Lt. Paris and Tuvok depart for the debris field where they find several dead Borg drones and manage to remove the cortical node from one of them. Back on Voyager, Janeway and the Doctor practice the cortical node replacement operation several times in a holodeck simulation, failing miserably each time. They eventually decide that they cannot use a cortical node from a dead drone, but only from a living one.

Icheb also comes to realize that only the cortical node from a living Borg can save Seven, so he volunteers to have his own node removed and transplanted to her. Icheb devises a plan to have himself genetically altered to survive without his node, but the procedure is risky. When Icheb cannot get Janeway, Seven or the Doctor to listen to him, he programs the computer in his regeneration alcove to disengage his cortical node. Now dying, Icheb eventually convinces them to give his node to Seven and perform the genetic procedure on him. The operation is successful and both Seven and Icheb fully recover. Seven offers to help him study for the Starfleet Academy entrance exam, promising him a rigorous schedule. But then Icheb notices another tear in her eye ... only this time it isn't a malfunction.

Drive

Stardate: 54058.6

As Tom Paris and Harry Kim are taking the Delta Flyer for a test run, another small alien ship pulls alongside them. The alien pilot, Irina, challenges them to a race. As the two ships race through an asteroid field, Irina's ship begins filling up with nyocene gas. They beam Irina to their shuttle and bring her and her ship back to the Voyager. While making repairs, she explains to them that she is entering a race in a couple of days. This prompts Paris and Kim to convince Captain Janeway to let them enter the race too.

Meanwhile, B'Elanna Torres has been frantically trading favors with crewmates so she can borrow enough holodeck time for her and Paris, her boyfriend, to have an entire weekend to themselves. When Paris explains to her that he forgot about the getaway weekend and entered the race, she tells him that she does not mind. Later, she confesses to Neelix that she was very hurt that Paris forgot about something that took her so much time to set up. She tells Neelix that she thinks things might be ending between Paris and her.

When Janeway registers the Delta Flyer in the race, she learns from O'Zaal, the race coordinator, that the race is the first step towards peace for the four different cultures living in the area. Each of the different species has been at war to control the area for nearly a century. This race marks the first time the four of them have ever competed peacefully.

Seven of Nine tells Torres that she has embraced some of Paris' interests and it has made him easier to work with. Taking Seven's comment as good advice, Torres convinces Kim to let her fly with Paris as co-pilot of the Delta Flyer. Paris is bewildered when Torres shows up in Kim's place wearing a flight suit, but he welcomes her as long as she remembers that they're there to win. The two ride in fourth place for much of the race, but they eventually manage to take the lead. Just as they get into first place, O'Zaal calls a temporary stop, saying that one of the racers has had an accident.

Irina's control panel had malfunctioned and electrocuted her co-pilot, which was later determined to be intentional sabotage. O'Zaal decides to continue the race the next day. Kim offers to help Irina fix her ship and also fly as her new co-pilot, which she is hesitant about, but lets him do. Paris and Torres notice that Kim and Irina seem to be forming a relationship, which causes Torres to wonder how good of a match she and Paris are.

When the race continues the next day, Torres is distracted by her thoughts and Paris can sense something is wrong, but the Delta Flyer manages to maintain its lead. Irina and Kim have successfully fixed Irina's ship and begin to catch up with the others almost immediately, keeping track of the Delta Flyer the whole time on their computer.

When Paris finally asks Torres what is bothering her, they get into a heated discussion. Paris is determined to work things out, but Torres sounds like she is ready to give up. Paris stops the Delta Flyer and tells her they are not going to move again until they work it out.

Meanwhile on Irina's ship, her control panel malfunctions again, almost electrocuting Kim. Kim suspects that Irina sabotaged her own ship and has his suspicions confirmed when she points a phaser at him. He manages to wrestle the phaser away from her and finds she has disabled the com system, so he just stops the ship and holds her at gunpoint. When Irina seems strangely interested in the Delta Flyer's progress, Kims realizes that she has sabotaged that ship as well. She admits to him that the fuel converter on the Delta Flyer is rigged to explode at about the time it crosses the finish line, killing all of the spectators and officials in the area.

As Paris and Torres are beginning to work out their problems, Kim sends them a message about the fuel converter. They check their computer and discover that it will explode in a matter of minutes. They pilot the Delta Flyer to a nearby nebula and eject the warp core. The nebula contains the explosion and the Delta Flyer gets safely away.

After the race is over, Paris and Torres take the Delta Flyer out again on a more personal mission -- the back of the ship now reads "Just Married."

Repression

Stardate: 54090.4

A mysterious Bajoran man named Teero sits in a musty room with Bajoran tapestries and drawings of Maquis vessels, reciting a mysterious chant while staring at a monitor displaying crewmembers from the Voyager.

On board Voyager, Tom Paris surprises B'Elanna Torres by taking her to his new holoprogram -- a classic 20th century-style movie theater. In the theater, they discover that Crewman Tabor is sitting nearby completely unconscious. When the Doctor examines Tabor, he concludes that his injuries are the result of an attack, as evidenced by the microfractures on his cranium and contusions along his shoulder. Janeway then appoints Tuvok to investigate the case. Tuvok's initial belief is that a member of the crew is responsible.

Later, crewmen Yosa and Jor are working in engineering when Yosa reports that pressure is fluctuating. Jor then orders him to check the seals in the Jefferies Tube hatch. As Yosa crawls through the hatch, the lights suddenly go out. Then, a bright light shines in Yosa's face as someone approaches. Yosa, feeling threatened, crawls through another hatch but is unable to get the computer to seal the hatch shut. Again, the bright light shines on Yosa and he's knocked unconscious. Jor soon discovers Yosa and takes him to Sickbay. The Doctor examines Yosa and concludes that Yosa was attacked, having the same microfractures and contusions as Tabor. Janeway and Chakotay come to realize that all the victims are former Maquis.

Meanwhile, Paris and Kim are conducting an investigation in the holodeck Movie Theater, trying to capture a negative image that the intruder left behind. Their efforts show two humanoid figures -- one is Tabor and the other is not recognizable. Tuvok requests that they work on increasing the resolution of the images. Later, Tuvok tells Kim that for security reasons he read all crew mail in the last data stream from Starfleet, which includes a letter from Kim's cousin. Tuvok implies that Kim is a suspect, by pointing out that the letter mentions the Maquis killed Kim's friend years ago. As Kim defends his innocence, Tuvok becomes strangely perturbed. Later, Chakotay finds Torres unconscious in a cargo bay, and finds Tuvok heading towards him. To Chakotay's surprise, Tuvok grabs him by the throat and mind melds with him until he becomes unconscious. While Chakotay and Torres are treated in Sickbay, the other victims have woken up out of unconsciousness with no memory of what happened to them.

Tuvok continues the investigation sleeplessly, with no memory of attacking Chakotay. At Janeway's urging, he returns to his quarters to meditate. Suddenly, he gets flashbacks of victims in Sickbay, Yosa in the Jefferies Tube and Chakotay in the cargo bay. Then Tuvok enters the bathroom and sees Teero's reflection in the mirror. Frightened, Tuvok rushes to the holodeck where Janeway and Kim are investigating, and learns from the computer that he was in the Movie Theater during Tabor's attack and that the height and weight of the negative-image figure matches his own description. Tuvok then hears Teero's voice telling him to ignore his doubts -- and pulls a phaser. Tuvok soon gives up the weapon and admits to being the attacker, telling Janeway that he should be detained.

When Janeway visits Tuvok in the brig, he explains there is a voice trying to control his mind with Bajoran incantations. Tuvok also says that it was he who attacked Maquis crewmembers and performed mind melds on them, but without knowing why. Tuvok recounts that the attacks started after he received a letter from his son. Janeway, Chakotay, Seven and Paris then view the letter from Tuvok's son and discover that it contains a subliminal message, one of Teero chanting. Chakotay recognizes Teero and says that the Bajoran worked with the Maquis performing mind control experiments.

Janeway meets with Tuvok again in his cell to discuss Teero. Tuvok recalls meeting Teero seven years ago at a Bajoran temple. Then Tuvok gets a flashback of wearing Maquis attire and sitting in a surgical chair with devices attached to his head as Teero is performing a mind meld on him. Janeway urges Tuvok to tell her more, but Teero appears to Tuvok and tells him to complete his mission. Tuvok struggles to stay in control of his mind, but cannot. Instead, Tuvok sends Chakotay a command in the Bajoran language, and his behavior changes. Chakotay goes to Sickbay, fires his phaser at Paris and gives Torres the same Bajoran command. Together they gather the other former Maquis members who were also victims of Tuvok's attacks. They obey Chakotay's commands and fire at the Voyager crewmembers.

Meanwhile, the ship goes to red alert and Janeway tries to contact the Bridge, but there is no response. Chakotay finds her and announces that he is in charge. Chakotay tells Janeway that Teero helped them remember that they are Maquis members and that the rebellion on Voyager is not yet over. He releases Tuvok and detains Janeway in the brig. While the Maquis make plans to abandon the Starfleet crew on an M-class planet, Chakotay tests Tuvok's loyalty by commanding him to fire a phaser at Janeway. Tuvok fires the phaser, but nothing happens because the weapon is defective. Then, when Chakotay's back is turned to Tuvok, the Vulcan grabs Chakotay by the neck and performs a mind meld that brings Chakotay back to normal. After that, Chakotay hands control of the ship back to Janeway.

Eventually, the rest of the Voyager crewmembers become normal again, and Tuvok joins Janeway and the others at the movies.

Critical Care

Stardate: Unknown

Gar, a Dralian trader, enters an overcrowded, airborne hospital ship and looks for Chellick, the facility's administrator. Gar shows Chellick the Doctor's mobile emitter that he obtained from the Voyager. Gar fiddles with the controls on the device and the Doctor appears, but he immediately demands to be returned to his ship. The Allocator, the computer that prioritizes all patients on board the ship, announces that a generator has exploded and many patients are arriving. The Doctor witnesses the chaos surrounding him and decides his only option is to help. Chellick, Gar and Voje, another doctor, observe how the Doctor handles patients and are pleased with his work.

Back aboard Voyager, Kim is injured from a holodeck hockey match and visits the Doctor. When Paris and Kim talk to the Doctor, they notice something isn't quite right. Paris and Kim gather the others to examine the Doctor's mobile emitter; Torres announces it is a replicated fake. Neelix points out that Gar did spend a night in Sickbay and had ample access to the Doctor. Janeway then gives the order to search for Gar by scanning his ion trail.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is on Level Red of the hospital ship, scanning a young patient named Tebbis. The Doctor finds out that Tebbis has a deadly infection and has not received the proper treatment -- cytoglobin -- for it. Voje tells the Doctor that the patient's "T.C." level is not high enough to receive the necessary cytoglobin. Just as the Doctor asks what T.C. stands for, Chellick interrupts and says that he has acquired the Doctor's program from Gar. Chellick also says everyone on the ship must obey the Allocator's rules and that the Doctor must now provide his services on Level Blue. Then Voje explains that the patients on Level Blue receive the best treatment because their T.C. level is high. T.C., as the Doctor finds out, stands for "Treatment Coefficient," in which the Allocator assesses which patient has access to the best care depending on the importance of his or her profession, skills and accomplishments.

In the meantime, the Voyager crew is lead astray by Gar's trail. Then Tuvok recalls that Gar traded iridium with them and suggests they go to the location where Gar acquired the substance. They locate a mining operation on an asteroid and contact a resident. The man tells them that Gar sold them induction units, which came from a planetoid called Velos.

At the hospital ship, the Doctor finds the Allocator approving cytoglobin injections to all Level Blue patients. Another doctor named Dysek tells the Doctor that the injections increase the patients' life expectancy. The Doctor is concerned because he knows that Tebbis needs this medication to be cured. The Doctor sneaks to Level Red and tries to manipulate Tebbis' T.C. level by raising it higher, but the Allocator still denies medication. Then, the Doctor returns to Level Blue and takes a cytoglobin device from a nurse, whom he then dismisses. The Doctor returns to Tebbis with the smuggled cytoglobin injector and administers it to him. Later, the Doctor steals even more medication from Level Blue to treat the patients on Level Red.

Meanwhile, the Voyager crew enters the orbit of the planetoid Velos. They speak with an alien and find out that Gar is on Selek IV. The Voyager crew then locates Gar's ship and engages it in a tractor beam. They ask Gar where the Doctor is, but Gar refuses to tell them. After Gar is beamed aboard Voyager and questioned in the Brig, Neelix offers Gar a meal, which the prisoner quickly consumes. Suddenly, Gar experiences severe stomach pains. Neelix reveals that he poisoned Gar's meal and the Doctor is the only one authorized to administer the proper medication. Gar is then forced to tell them where the Doctor is.

Back on the hospital ship, the Doctor finds out that Tebbis was transferred to Level White -- the morgue. The Doctor is angry and confronts Chellick, but Chellick reveals his knowledge of the Doctor's unauthorized injections and restricts the Doctor to Level Blue. Chellick also says that he interfaced the Doctor's holomatrix with the Allocator. Now, the Allocator will automatically monitor and delegate the Doctor's every move. Later, Chellick catches the Doctor on Level Red, but the Doctor injects Chellick with the same virus that inflicted Tebbis. The Allocator identifies Chellick as Tebbis and denies Chellick medication. The Doctor says that he will only help Chellick if Level Red is equipped with an adequate supply of medication. Chellick begs Dysek for help, but Dysek refuses his request, following the Allocator's rules -- rules which Chellick established. The Doctor then proposes that Level Red patients, including Chellick, should be transferred to Level Blue to receive care. Chellick finally agrees.

The Voyager crew locates the hospital ship and retrieves the Doctor. Later, the Doctor asks Seven of Nine to check his ethical subroutines for any failures or changes, admitting that he had deliberately poisoned a man. Seven informs him that, unfortunately, he has "a clean bill of health."

Inside Man

Stardate: 54208.3

After going without mail from home for over a month, the Voyager crew is looking forward to seeing the next datastream which is jammed in the ship's transceiver. Harry Kim and Seven of Nine determine that instead of letters, the datastream contains a hologram of Reginald Barclay, the Starfleet officer from the Pathfinder project on Earth who has taken a personal interest in getting Voyager home. Holo-Barclay tells Captain Janeway of the project's plan: Voyager will be passing through a sector of space occupied by a red giant star and at the same time, Federation scientists will target the magnetic field of another red giant in the Alpha Quadrant with a verteron beam to create a geodesic fold. As a result, space will be punctured at two points, creating a gateway between the quadrants. Janeway says the plan won't work because Voyager's shields are useless against geodesic radiation, but Holo-Barclay responds that he brought shield upgrades and medical technology to protect the crew.

The Doctor agrees to transfer his mobile emitter to Holo-Barclay so that the visitor can move freely about the ship while he makes preparations. In the briefing room, Holo-Barclay shows the crew where the geodesic fold will occur and passes out assignments to everyone.

In the Pathfinder research lab, the real Reginald Barclay investigates why the datastream transmission did not reach its target. Commander Pete Harkins, his supervisor, believes the hologram was lost because it was too complex and therefore it degraded, but Barclay insists something interfered. He comes to find that a spacecraft passed within 20 meters of the Midas Array just hours before Starfleet sent the first hologram, and conjectures that ship was either Borg or Romulan. Harkins refuses to listen, and orders Barclay to take a vacation.

Meanwhile in the Delta Quadrant, the Doctor tells Holo-Barclay that the medical inoculations are not strong enough to protect the crew from the geodesic fold's radiation, but Holo-Barclay assures the Doctor that in combination with the shield modifications, they will be enough. When the Doctor invites him to a game of golf, the hologram is evasive. Later, Torres and Kim prepare to transmit a "thank you note" back to the Alpha Quadrant, and Holo-Barclay asks to include his own "progress report." The datastream is transmitted to the Midas Array, but an alien device attached to the array diverts the transmission to a Ferengi ship near a red giant star. Three Ferengi on board huddle around a monitor to receive Holo-Barclay's report which includes information on Seven of Nine and her Borg nanoprobes. They intend to acquire those nanoprobes and sell them for a huge profit.

On Earth, Barclay catches up with his therapist and former crewmate Deanna Troi on vacation at the beach, and tells her about his distress. Troi recalls that Barclay was doing fine not long ago when he was dating a teacher named Leosa. Barclay reveals that Leosa expressed great interest in Pathfinder's plan, but then left him the same day that his hologram was lost. After prodding from Troi, Barclay admits that he suspects Leosa had something to do with the missing transmission.

On Voyager, Holo-Barclay proves to be the "life of the party" as he does impressions of the captain and Tuvok, to the delight of crewmembers. The Doctor calls Holo-Barclay to the holodeck and reminds him that they had an appointment to play golf. Holo-Barclay is strangely contemptuous toward his fellow hologram.

The real Barclay informs his superiors that Leosa is suspected of breaching Pathfinder security, and she is brought in for questioning by Admiral Paris. Leosa admits that she is not a teacher, but rather a dabo girl who works on a Ferengi casino ship. But she denies sharing her knowledge of the Pathfinder project with anyone. Troi knows she's lying, and coerces the truth from her, including the identity of the Ferengi ship involved in the theft. Scans find that ship near the red giant star, and Admiral Paris sends a starship to intercept it. Meanwhile, Leosa reveals to the broken-hearted Barclay that the Ferengi are after Seven of Nine's Borg nanoprobes, and that she would get a cut of the profit.

After his strange encounter with Holo-Barclay, Voyager's Doctor urges Janeway to run a diagnostic of the hologram since the crew is putting their lives in his hands. Janeway agrees, and the diagnostic shows Holo-Barclay is working perfectly.

While Admiral Paris and Commander Harkins are waiting for the Carolina to arrive at the red giant, Barclay tells Troi that he figured out what the Ferengi have done: They stole the first Barclay hologram that was sent a month ago, reprogrammed it to steal Seven's nanoprobes, and then smuggled it to Voyager in the next transmission. Meanwhile the Ferengi initiate a pulse in the red giant star to open a geodesic fold. This is seen back at Pathfinder, and the officers realize the Ferengi plan is to bring Voyager through the fold, which will kill the entire crew. On Voyager, Seven of Nine also realizes the crew will not survive the trip, so Holo-Barclay phases his holographic hand into Seven's cranial implant, causing her to fall unconscious. Since the Carolina won't arrive in time to stop the Ferengi, Barclay comes up with another plan.

The Ferengi ship receives a message from what they think is Holo-Barclay, who says that Captain Janeway found out about their plan, has developed a way to protect the ship as it comes through the fold, and will hunt down and kill the parties responsible. The three Ferengi believe him, and start closing the fold. They don't realize the message came from the real Barclay from a holodeck re-creation of Voyager at the Pathfinder lab.

Meanwhile, Holo-Barclay beams himself and Seven to an escape pod and heads toward the geodesic fold. Kim manages to beam them back aboard while the pod goes through the fold and rams into the Ferengi ship. The Ferengi are disappointed they didn't get their profit, and the Voyager crew are disappointed that yet another shortcut home failed. Meanwhile, Barclay is programming a new hologram with security precautions when Troi arrives to invite him to dinner, where she plans to set him up with a friend who's a real teacher.

Body and Soul

Stardate: 54238.3

The Doctor, Seven of Nine and Harry Kim are on a mission in the Delta Flyer to study preanimate biomatter from a comet. The ship jolts a few times and they realize they are under attack. The captain of the attacking vessel, Ranek, claims the Delta Flyer is transporting a "photonic insurgent" through Lokirrim space, which is forbidden. Kim explains that the "photonic," or hologram, is their Doctor. The patrol vessel grabs the Delta Flyer in a tractor beam and fires a disruption field that begins to decompile the Doctor's matrix. Kim then tells Seven that she must somehow hide the Doctor's program. The Lokirrim beam aboard with weapons demanding the photonic, but Seven announces that they "murdered" him. The boarding party inspects the vessel, and Ranek finds the Doctor's mobile emitter, which Seven claims is her "portable regeneration unit." Ranek confiscates the device regardless. He then orders the Delta Flyer to be secured in the Lokirrim docking bay, and locks Kim and Seven in a holding cell. It is here that Kim finds out that Seven downloaded the Doctor's program into her cybernetic implants, and the Doctor is now in control of her body. For the first time, the Doctor is able to have sensory experiences, including touch and smell.

On the Voyager, unaware of the Delta Flyer crew's predicament, Captain Janeway sets out to rendezvous with them in 48 hours. In the Doctor's absence, Tom Paris is examining Tuvok for a neurochemical imbalance, which turns out to be his Pon Farr, the mating instinct that inflicts Vulcan adults every seven years. Paris promises to provide a special medication from the Doctor's database, and to keep his condition secret.

On board the Lokirrim patrol ship, the Doctor in Seven's body is enjoying the sensation of eating, even though their prison rations taste terrible, according to Kim. Ranek has Seven released and sent to the Delta Flyer for questioning. He asks her about the food replicator and whether it is used to create bio-weapons. Exasperated by his suspicious nature, Seven/Doctor replicates a slice of New York cheesecake to prove it's harmless, and experiences rapture upon tasting it. Before long, Seven/Doctor and Ranek have devoured plates of food and downed several glasses of wine. Despite being inebriated, the Doctor maintains the ruse of being Seven, and tells Ranek that she/he needs the "regeneration device" back. Ranek agrees to hand over the mobile emitter in exchange for medical services, then returns Seven/Doctor to the holding cell.

As Kim holds the mobile emitter, Seven/Doctor injects it with Borg tubules to restore the Doctor's matrix. The disoriented Seven then scolds the Doctor for abusing her body. The Doctor apologizes for his overindulgence, and thanks her for saving his life. The three then make a plan to get a message to Voyager, but it'll involve downloading the Doctor back into Seven's implants.

The patrol ship's tactical officer, Jaryn, takes Seven/Doctor to their medical bay and explains that the patients are suffering from synaptic failure caused by a viral weapon from their photonic enemies. As Seven/Doctor synthesizes a treatment, she/he gets to know Jaryn better and learns about the photonic servant who was part of her own family before the uprising. She/he suggests that Voyager's own "photonic," the Doctor, would have taken a liking to her.

On Voyager, the medication Paris applies to Tuvok isn't working to stabilize his condition. Paris suggests creating a replica of the Vulcan's wife in the holodeck in order to satisfy his longing, and Tuvok hesitantly agrees. While Tuvok participates in the holodeck simulation, the ship comes under attack by a Lokirrim vessel because of "photonic activity" aboard. Janeway agrees to shut down the holodecks and allow the Lokirrim ship to escort Voyager through their territory.

While Seven/Doctor is working with Jaryn in the patrol ship's medical bay, Ranek calls for Seven of Nine to meet him on the bridge. Ranek redirects the ship to a pulsar cluster called the "Window of Dreams," the most beautiful sight in the quadrant, and lets the pulsars' EM vibrations fill the bridge with natural music. Seven/Doctor doesn't realize he's trying to set a romantic mood, until Ranek can't help himself and plants a kiss on her/his lips. Seven/Doctor pushes him away and storms off. Seven/Doctor returns to the medical bay and tells Jaryn about Ranek's behavior, and learns that she has feelings for her captain. Since the Doctor has been developing feelings for Jaryn, he makes an impassioned plea for her to find someone more like him, when Seven/Doctor pulls a neck muscle. Jaryn starts massaging her/his neck, until she/he has certain feelings and pulls away nervously.

Seven/Doctor then gets called to the holding cell to treat Kim, who has been faking a seizure in order to get her/him back there. The Doctor separates himself from Seven into the mobile emitter, and Seven chastises him for kissing Ranek and for getting aroused by Jaryn. After the two argue about living life with or without indulgences, Kim presses them for what they've learned about the ship's com system. Seven now knows Ranek's command codes, and they need to get to the Delta Flyer to transmit them to Voyager. The Doctor conjures up a plan.

Seven/Doctor approaches Ranek and asks for a private meeting on the Delta Flyer, with an apology for her harsh reaction before, and a suggestion that they "start over." She/he offers him champagne, turns on music and starts dancing with him. When Ranek is called to the bridge, Seven/Doctor injects him with a hypospray and knocks him out.

Voyager gets a message from Seven that the away team is being held prisoner, and she provides their precise location and the command codes to disable the patrol ship's shields. Her personality and her comments cause Janeway and the others to realize that the Doctor is occupying her body, which means they're in more trouble than they thought. Janeway orders a phaser shot to the Lokirrim escort vessel, and Voyager makes a quick getaway.

At the patrol ship, Seven/Doctor has brought Ranek to the medical bay, telling Jaryn that he has an especially low tolerance for synthehol. Over Seven/Doctor's objection, Jaryn revives Ranek, who orders Seven back to detention, separate from the other prisoner, suspecting her of trying to aid the insurgents. They then receive word that an alien vessel is approaching, and Ranek takes Seven with him back to the bridge where he can keep an eye on her.

Janeway opens a channel to the patrol ship and demands the return of her people. When they refuse, Chakotay uses Ranek's command codes to disable their shields. Ranek ties the shields directly into their warp matrix, and announces that if Voyager fires, it'll trigger a core breach and their crewmates will die. Janeway sends a message directly to Seven's cortical node asking for her help to disable the patrol ship's shields. The Doctor materializes himself into the mobile emitter, and takes up a weapon while Seven works the shield controls. Ranek fires a weapon at the console Seven is working at, but she has already destabilized the shield grid. When he goes to the console to undo her work, it explodes, throwing Ranek across the bridge and seriously injuring him. Although the Lokirrim order him to stay back, the Doctor insists on treating Ranek, and he refuses to beam back to Voyager until he does, or else Ranek will die. Playing on Jaryn's feelings for Ranek, the Doctor gets her to let him operate.

Ranek is saved, and he and Jaryn both express their gratitude to the Doctor, even though their opinion toward "photonics" in general may not have changed. Back on Voyager, the Doctor is paid a visit in Sickbay by Seven, who brings delicacies and wine that she previously would have considered "indulgent." Since the Doctor can no longer share the experience of eating and drinking, Seven promises to describe the meal to him so he can enjoy it vicariously.

Nightingale

Stardate: 54274.7

Voyager sets down on a planet for a major maintenance overhaul while away teams in shuttles are sent in search of supplies. As Torres informs Captain Janeway that repairs will take days longer than originally expected, suddenly several consoles black out. Moments later the consoles flicker back on, and Icheb steps forward to explain the repair he made. Impressed, Janeway assigns Icheb to work with Torres, hoping he can help get the job done a little faster.

Harry Kim, Seven of Nine and Neelix are on the Delta Flyer searching for dilithium when they are caught in the crossfire between two alien ships. They receive a distress call from a Kraylor captain begging for help with casualties and claiming that his ship is on a humanitarian mission. Hesitant to get involved, Kim contacts the opposing ship, but the Annari commander there is very arrogant and charges weapons. Kim uses the Flyer's deflector to damage the Annari ship, forcing them to retreat. He and Neelix then beam over to the damaged Kraylor ship with medical kits and learn that the captain was killed along with all the ship's other officers. Kim sets out to repair the ship's engines and cloaking device, and impresses the Kraylor with his skills. When the ship is ready to fly again, Loken, the doctor in charge of the research team aboard, asks Kim to command the ship to their destination, since no one left alive among them is trained. Kim declines, but Loken insists that they can't afford to fail in their mission to deliver vaccines to their homeworld that will save thousands of lives. Since their flight plan will take them close to Voyager's location, Kim agrees to fly the ship that far.

When the cloaked Kraylor ship approaches the planet where Voyager is grounded, they discover three Annari warships in orbit. It turns out the Annari are attempting to befriend the Voyager crew and become trading partners. Once the Annari leave the planet, Kim brings Loken to Voyager, where he appeals to Captain Janeway for help getting home. In private, Janeway tells Kim that he has put her in a difficult position, but Kim presses the case on behalf of the Kraylor, and offers to take charge of the mission himself. He notes that after seven years on Voyager he's still an ensign, and wants a chance to prove himself as a commander. Janeway agrees, but orders him to take Seven along.

After getting a lesson in decisiveness from Neelix, Kim enters the bridge of the Kraylor ship with authority and lays in a course. He renames the ship "Nightingale" after the famous wartime nurse from his homeworld. He then prepares the ship for departure and gives the command to engage. During the flight, Seven informs Kim that she asked the acting helmsman, Terek, to make a course correction. Over Seven's objection, Kim goes to check up on the crewman and ends up doing the job himself.

Meanwhile on Voyager, Icheb has been working with Torres, who invited him to go rock climbing with her on the holodeck. After he gets advice from the Doctor on how to tell if someone has romantic feelings for another, Icheb thinks he's getting "signals" from Torres while working very closely with her in a Jefferies Tube, and even scans her for the physiological responses the Doctor described.

On the Nightingale, an alarm sounds and the cloak destabilizes. Kim orders all stop and works in Engineering with Seven and crewman Dayla, making the repairs himself and rejecting the suggestions of the others. Seven criticizes Kim's overly hands-on and dismissive approach to commanding the crew, but Kim proceeds to order the ship to resume course. The cloak soon fails again, and six Annari vessels swoop in and fire upon them. While Seven tries to get the cloak back on-line, an explosion in Engineering knocks her unconscious. Kim tries to leave the bridge, but the crew insists he stay, so he lets Dayla go down to Engineering while he gives her instructions over the com. As he's doing that Loken suddenly interrupts and gives Dayla different orders, which succeeds in re-engaging the cloak. Kim eyes Loken suspiciously as he orders the ship to escape at full impulse.

Later, Loken reports that Dayla is dead while Kim tries to treat the still-unconscious Seven. Kim tests Loken by asking his advice as a doctor, having realized that he knows a lot more about cloaking systems than he does biology, as did Dayla. He presses Loken for the truth, and the Kraylor admits that he and his colleagues have not been developing vaccines, but rather cloaking devices for his people's fleet. The so-called medical transport is actually a prototype ship, and the Annari don't want it to reach the Kraylor homeworld. He reveals that his planet has been under an Annari blockade for three years which has been choking off supplies of food and medicine, therefore their mission is still a humanitarian one. Nevertheless, the angered Kim orders the ship to reverse course back to Voyager. But the crew refuses to obey, and Kim realizes he's lost command.

Back on Voyager, Icheb gets flustered when Paris jokes that he's been spending a lot of time with his wife lately. Icheb approaches Torres and tells her outright that they should not be romantically involved. Torres is dismayed, but she plays along and agrees that they should stop "seeing each other."

When Seven of Nine comes to, Kim tells her about the situation and that they should take an escape pod back to Voyager. Seven asks if he's abandoning ship because the mission isn't what he expected, or that being a captain isn't what he expected. In spite of his remorse over Dayla's death, she exhorts him to fulfill his commitment to get the Kraylor home, because they won't survive without him.

As the Nightingale approaches the Kraylor homeworld, the crew sees Annari ships in orbit emitting pulses of energy designed to illuminate cloaked ships. Unsure how they will get through that barrage, Kim comes back to the bridge and promises to find a way.

Voyager receives a hail from the Annari captain who befriended them earlier, ordering Janeway to leave Annari space immediately because they've discovered her people are supporting their enemy. The warp engines are not repaired yet, but Janeway has no choice but to let Voyager be escorted away at impulse speed.

Meanwhile, the Nightingale is detected and gets fired upon by Annari ships. Kim opens a channel to the lead Annari vessel and offers to discuss terms for surrender. He tells his crew to trust him as he proposes to the Annari that they be allowed to evacuate to the surface in exchange for turning over the ship with its cloaking technology, otherwise he'll self-destruct the ship. The Annari commander agrees, but Kim has a plan. Kim, Seven and Terek stay aboard while Loken and the others leave in escape pods. Kim tells Seven to get the exact polarity of the Annari's tractor beam in order to use their own weapons against them. At just the right moment, the Nightingale reverses shield polarity and snaps free, heading for the Kraylor defense perimeter. They outrun the Annari and get through the planet's shield grid, and the Annari break off pursuit. Kim orders Terek to take them to the surface, completing his mission. Back on Voyager, Kim notes in his log that although the mission was a success, he doesn't feel entirely good about it, and he confesses to Neelix that he's not a captain ... not yet, anyway.

Flesh and Blood

Stardate: 54337.5

Two Hirogen move through a jungle hunting prey. Suddenly phaser shots are fired at them from a small lake. Four armed Starfleet crewmen rise out of the water and continue firing, destroying their predators with vengeance.

The Voyager receives a distress call on a Hirogen frequency and approaches a mysterious vessel. An away team beams over and finds themselves in a jungle, and upon surveying the area, they discover the bodies of Hirogen killed with Starfleet-issue phasers. They are also surprised to find a Klingon bat'leth stained with Hirogen blood. The team detects a lifesign that appears wounded, and upon approaching a cave, they are fired upon. A panicky Hirogen civilian, Donik, warns the visitors away and continues firing his weapon. Tuvok sneaks up behind Donik and renders him unconscious with a nerve pinch. The Hirogen has lost a lot of blood, so Paris beams him to Voyager's Sickbay. Meanwhile the away team finds a holodeck interface of Starfleet design, and they realize the jungle environment is simulated, and wonder why their tricorders didn't detect that fact. Seven of Nine shuts down the holodeck emitters, and they find themselves in a hologrid filled with dead Hirogen.

Back on Voyager, Chakotay tells Captain Janeway the holo-technology she gave the Hirogen three years ago so they could hunt holographic prey was apparently modified to be more dangerous. The Captain is astonished that the Hirogen obviously "missed the point" and got themselves killed. She approaches the terrified Donik in Sickbay, and after convincing him she is not a Hologram, learns that the vessel he was on is a training facility where young Hirogen learn to hunt. He is a technician who was maintaining the system when the Holograms malfunctioned, took control and deactivated the safety protocols.

Just then, a Hirogen ship intercepts Voyager and starts firing. The Alpha-Hirogen in command demands that Voyager leave immediately, but Janeway informs him that she has the one survivor from the facility on board. The Alpha- and Beta-Hirogen beam over and confront Donik, accusing him of being a coward for hiding from the Holograms while hunters fought and died. Donik reveals that the Holograms transferred their programs to a vessel equipped with holo-emitters, and are on the loose.

The Hirogen team up with Voyager's crew to locate the renegade Holograms. Once they detect their ship, the Hirogen prepare for the "hunt" and Janeway insists on joining them, feeling partly to blame for the situation. The Hirogen vessel moves in for the kill over Janeway's objections, and after it's too late they realize the ship they see is a decoy -- it's really a bomb, which explodes and seriously damages the Hirogen vessel. While Voyager beams over the survivors, the actual ship occupied by the Holograms drops out of warp and starts firing. The Holograms then tap into the holo-emitters in Sickbay and transfer the Doctor's program to their own ship, then immediately go to warp, masking their signature so they can't be followed.

The Doctor materializes on the Holograms' ship and finds himself surrounded by simulations of various Alpha Quadrant species. A Bajoran hologram named Iden welcomes the Doctor aboard. He demands to be returned to Voyager, but Iden says they have "wounded." The Doctor says he's not an engineer and has limited experience in repairing holograms, but Iden insists that he try.

At Voyager, Janeway learns that the Holograms are very sophisticated and have the ability to learn and adapt, so they will be hard to disable. Donik confesses that he modified the Holograms under his Alpha's orders to make them formidable prey. Janeway approaches the Beta-Hirogen, who is in charge now, and lets him know she found out about the modifications, and points out that they created prey with skills that surpass their own. The Beta-Hirogen says he will resume the hunt, but Janeway insists they must find a way to take the Holograms offline from a safe distance, and do it with the Hirogen's help or else she'll leave them on the nearest habitable planet. The Beta-Hirogen has no choice but to agree.

At the Hologram ship, the Doctor finds a way to perform a "subroutine transplant" in order to repair a Klingon hologram, and succeeds with the help of Kejal, a highly intelligent Cardassian hologram. The Doctor is shocked to find Holograms bleeding and experiencing pain, and Kejal explains that the Hirogen programmed them to suffer when they are killed. Once he's done treating the injured, the Doctor finds Iden praying at a Bajoran altar, and wonders how someone who's programmed with spiritual beliefs could perform such a massacre. Iden explains that his Alpha-Hirogen would hunt him and kill him over and over, causing him to live in fear and pain. With the ability to adapt, he became cunning enough to escape, and joined other photonic beings who were being oppressed by various races in the sector and who had chosen to fight back. The training facility they just left was actually the third one where Iden "liberated" the holograms. Iden tells the Doctor his life will never be his own as long as he is controlled by organics, and asks him to stay and make a new life with his own kind. The Doctor refuses.

Soon after, the Doctor finds himself running through a jungle, being hunted by Hirogen. The confused and terrified Doctor gets wounded and starts bleeding, then he's stabbed to death. The Doctor wakes up in shock on the Hologram ship. Iden explains that they transferred memory files from one of their Holograms into his program so he can come to understand what they've been through. Enraged, the Doctor accuses them of being thugs looking for a fight. But Iden says what they're looking for is a home where the Hirogen can't hurt them anymore. His sympathy growing, the Doctor asks to hear more about this "home." Iden and Kejal show the Doctor a photonic field generator, which they plan to deploy on a planet's surface to create a holographic environment they can live in. The Doctor suggests that the Voyager crew could help, especially Lt. Torres, who's an expert on holo-emitters. Iden does not trust organics, but is interested in knowing more about Torres.

At Voyager, Donik discusses strategy with Janeway, Seven of Nine and Torres on how to shut down the Holograms, and Torres embarks on a plan to reconfigure the ship's deflector to emit an anti-photon pulse. Soon afterward, the Hologram ship intercepts Voyager and hails them. The Doctor appears on the viewscreen and says the Holograms have come to make peace. He comes back aboard and tells Janeway that the Holograms want to create a new life for themselves and need Voyager's assistance. Janeway is hesitant to share technology again, because that's how the problem got started. The Doctor gets frustrated and tells her the Holograms are a new species, one that she helped create, and she can't turn her back on them. Janeway and the Doctor argue contentiously over "holographic rights" when they get word that a fight has broken out in the Mess Hall where the Hirogen are being confined.

The Hirogen are creating chaos so that the Beta-Hirogen can get to a control panel and access the com system. Tuvok arrives and stops him, but he has already summoned two Hirogen vessels. With less than an hour to intercept, Janeway orders Torres and Donik to prepare the deflector to take the Holograms off-line so there will be no more bloodshed. The Doctor objects to having them deactivated, but Janeway proceeds and contacts Iden, telling him to prepare his people to be transferred to Voyager's database. Iden doesn't trust that Janeway, an organic, will ever reactivate them. He ends the transmission, fires on Voyager and begins moving away. The Doctor pleads for Janeway's reconsideration, but she orders him to go help Paris treat the wounded in the Mess Hall. The Doctor leaves the Bridge, but in a crisis of conscience, goes to Sickbay instead. He contacts Iden and transmits data on the pulse about to be used to deactivate the Holograms, along with Voyager's shield frequencies so they can beam him off the ship. The Doctor transports over while Voyager and the Hologram ship exchange fire. Iden had given his word he wouldn't use the shield frequencies to attack Voyager, and he keeps that promise, but when Voyager emits the deflector pulse, he sends a feedback surge through the beam that overloads the ship's deflector and causes an imminent warp core breach. As Torres puts up a forcefield to reinforce the core, an energy tendril knocks her out. Iden beams Torres over to his ship, then escapes to warp as Voyager is left adrift.

The Doctor, who voluntarily joined the renegades, is furious with the group's leader, Iden, but Iden promises to let Torres go once she has a chance to decide for herself whether to help the Holograms. Meanwhile, the Voyager crew struggles to repair the ship in Torres' absence, and Janeway learns that the Doctor betrayed and abandoned the ship, and wonders if his matrix may have been altered by the other Holograms. When Torres wakes up on the Hologram ship, she intends to leave immediately, and rebukes the Doctor for switching allegiances. The Doctor points out she did the same thing as a Maquis, and tries to convince her that by providing her technical expertise, she can help stop the violence. He takes her to meet Iden, and she agrees to look at the photonic field generator, but makes no promises.

On Voyager, the crew has no luck locating the Holograms. Donik thinks he can modify the ship's sensors to detect them, and asks to stay aboard rather than go back with the other Hirogen. Two much larger Hirogen vessels arrive and retrieve all their people except for Donik, and the new Alpha-Hirogen threatens to turn the Voyager crew into prey if they interfere with their hunt. The Hirogen vessels go to warp, and Janeway decides to follow using a plan by Donik to hide Voyager in the ion wake of one of the Hirogen vessels -- a "blind spot."

Torres looks at the photonic field generator with Kejal, suspicious of the Holograms' motivations. When she comes to realize she's prejudged these beings, Torres proceeds to help enhance their technology. Meanwhile, Iden approaches the Doctor, who is having doubts about being with the Holograms. Iden shows him their destination: a Class-Y planet he calls "Ha'Dara," which is Bajoran for "Home of Light." He plans to install the generators on that planet because its environment is toxic to organic life, so they'll be left alone there. Just then, the Holograms realize that two Hirogen vessels have detected them, so they proceed to hide in a nebula. The Hirogen ships also fly into the nebula, unaware that Voyager is trailing one of them from within its ion wake.

The Holograms try to evade the Hirogen while Torres works a little faster to get the field generator on line. She successfully tests the generator by running Kejal through it, and lets the hologram know that as the closest thing they have to an engineer, she's the most important member of her crew. Meanwhile, the Doctor tells Iden that in their new society on Ha'Dara, he hopes to expose the others to music and art from various worlds. Iden responds that the Holograms will develop a culture of their own without emulating organics. In fact, he plans to establish a new religion with himself being worshipped as the "Man of Light" who delivered his people to freedom. The Doctor's doubts grow stronger.

A Nuu'bari mining ship is detected, and Iden orders an intercept course, planning to liberate the holograms on board. The Doctor expresses his concerns to Torres, revealing that Iden is showing signs of megalomania. Meanwhile, the Hirogen detect the Hologram ship on the other side of the nebula and move to intercept, with Voyager surreptitiously tagging along. On the Hologram ship, Iden contacts the Nuu'bari miners and tries to coerce them to turn over their holograms. They refuse, so Iden fires upon them and has Kejal steal the hologram programs. The Nuu'bari threaten to retaliate, so Iden targets torpedoes upon their warp core and destroys them, to the Doctor's and Torres' horror. He then sets a course for Ha'Dara as Torres accuses him of murder. He has her confined and then asks Kejal to bring their new "friends" on-line. Because their programs are incompatible with their emitters, she needs Torres' help, who agrees because she thinks she can get through to Kejal. As they work, Torres lets Kejal know that Iden doesn't have to be the one to make all the decisions, and she has the power to deactivate him. Finally the Nuu'bari holograms come on-line, but they are incapable of any interactions -- they are only programmed with very rudimentary subroutines. Torres points out that Iden killed two living beings to "liberate" mindless machines, but Iden fervently declares that they are "children of light" and he will deliver them to freedom. Just then the bridge announces they are approaching Ha'Dara. Iden orders the generator to be deployed immediately, and refuses the Doctor's request to release Torres.

The Hirogen follow the Holograms to the planet, and when they drop out of warp, Voyager immediately fires weapons and disables both hunting vessels. Voyager then turns on the Hologram ship. Iden has the Hirogen hunters transported to the planet's surface so that the Holograms can hunt them in retaliation. The Doctor objects to his actions, so Iden deactivates his program, but not before assuring him that he'll be remembered in their prayers. He takes the Doctor's mobile emitter and transfers his own program to it, and orders the field generator transported to the surface. He rallies the other Holograms, declaring that this time, the hunt is theirs.

On the surface, the unarmed Hirogen have trouble breathing. The Holograms materialize around them and begin pursuing them with weapons. Meanwhile on the ship, Torres convinces Kejal to stop the massacre, but their transporters and communication system were damaged by Voyager. Torres tells Kejal to shut down the Holograms, which she does, and the Holograms on the surface dematerialize before they can kill more Hirogen. However, Iden is using the mobile emitter, so she can't deactivate him. Torres suggests sending the Doctor to the surface through the generator.

The Doctor materializes on the planet with a Hirogen hunting rifle, and he begins pursuit. Just as Iden is about to kill the Beta-Hirogen, the Doctor catches up with him and demands he lower his weapon. Iden refuses, so the Doctor fires and obliterates his fellow Hologram.

The surviving Hirogen are rescued by Voyager, and after recovering, the Beta-Hirogen intends to reclaim the Hologram vessel along with everything in its database. But Neelix convinces him that the stories that are told about this hunt will reflect more favorably upon him if the Hologram ship is thought to have been destroyed. The Hirogen agrees, and leaves Voyager empty-handed. Janeway transports to the Hologram vessel and learns from Torres that Iden is unrecoverable, but the other Holograms are intact in the database. Janeway offers Kejal refuge on Voyager, but she insists that this ship is her home, and Donik volunteers to stay with her and reprogram the Holograms to undo some of the damage he caused. Torres vouches for them, and Janeway urges them to always consider the consequences of their actions, which she's saying just as much to herself as the others. Back on board Voyager, the Doctor offers to let Janeway take his mobile emitter away and revoke his freedom, but she won't punish him for becoming as fallible as those who are made of flesh and blood.

Shattered

Stardate: Unknown

While Icheb tutors Naomi Wildman in genetics and Chakotay joins Janeway for dinner, Voyager gets rocked by the gravimetric force of a spatial rift. Chakotay heads to Engineering when the ship's warp core begins to destabilize, and as he tries to maintain containment, an energy blast strikes him and knocks him out. Chakotay and the ship both shimmer in a strange patchwork effect. Torres checks Chakotay and sees that half his face is aged and the other half is youthful, and has him beamed to Sickbay. Chakotay wakes up in Sickbay and learns that his body was in a state of temporal flux, but the Doctor created a chronoton-infused serum that brought him back to normal. Chakotay asks the Doctor to come with him to check for other injured crewmen, but the hologram says he can't leave Sickbay. Chakotay asks about his mobile emitter, but the Doctor doesn't know what he's talking about. Chakotay can tell something is wrong and leaves.

Chakotay ascends in the turbolift and a distortion wave passes through it, causing the medkit he was holding to disappear. Chakotay enters the Bridge and asks Kim what's going on. Kim doesn't recognize him, but Janeway does, and orders guards to take him into custody, accusing him of sabotage on behalf of the Maquis. Chakotay realizes he's somehow been thrown seven years into Voyager's past. As he rides the turbolift with the guards, another distortion wave causes the guards to disappear. Chakotay then proceeds to Engineering and he finds it occupied by Kazon warriors and his old lover-turned-nemesis Seska. After they knock him out and revive him, Chakotay realizes he's in a time period five years ago when Seska (restored to Cardassian form) and the Kazon took control of Voyager. He tries to tell Seska what's going on, but she won't listen, so he has to bluff his way out of captivity. He manages to climb to an upper level in Engineering and passes through a distortion, and disappears from Seska's point of view.

Chakotay returns to Sickbay and tells the Doctor that the ship has somehow been fractured into different time periods, and that the serum injections seem to allow him to pass through the barriers between them. Chakotay asks the Doctor to give him the same serum in a hyospray that can also pass through the temporal barriers, so that he can put the ship "back together" again. He goes back to the bridge and approaches the Janeway of seven years past, telling her personal things about herself that he couldn't know. She starts to listen to his story and his plan, but still suspects him of nefarious intent, so he forces the serum injection upon her and takes her through a time barrier. Starting to gain her trust, Chakotay takes Janeway to the Astrometrics Lab which has temporal sensors that can help them map the time distortions. On the way they encounter injured crewmen in a corridor, in a time during one of Voyager's many predicaments, and Janeway gets increasingly perplexed. In Astrometrics, Chakotay and Janeway find a grown-up Icheb and Naomi 17 years into the future. They reveal that Chakotay and Janeway both died in the accident that shattered the space-time continuum aboard the ship. Janeway theorizes that if they can get to a section of the ship that still exists in the time period where the chronokinetic surge occurred, maybe they can counteract it. They could use the help of Seven of Nine -- a name Janeway doesn't recognize -- so Chakotay suggests finding her in another time frame.

Chakotay takes Janeway to the Cargo Bay where the Borg have entrenched themselves during Voyager's temporary alliance with them. Seven of Nine, who is still fully a drone, says a chronoton field generated by the warp core and projected throughout the vessel would force it back into temporal sync, and Chakotay would have a few seconds to counteract the energy surge that caused the problem. Janeway gets the idea of injecting the ship's bio-neural circuitry with the Doctor's serum in order to transmit the chronoton field. Chakotay and Janeway get the Doctor to replicate more serum, at which time the Doctor accidentally reveals to Janeway that the crew will get stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Janeway and Chakotay begin going throughout the ship to inject the neural gel packs with the serum. In a corridor, they are chased by a macrovirus from another incident in Voyager's history in the Delta Quadrant, leaving Janeway further bewildered. They then enter a monochromatic environment in the ship's holodeck, which is Paris' "Captain Proton" program. Just when they find the panel they need, Doctor Chaotica and his henchmen appear and restrain them. Unable to deactivate the program, Chakotay tells Janeway to play along in the role of Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People. Rolling her eyes the whole time, she convinces Chaotica that she is loyal to him, and gets him to inject the gel pack himself.

In a transporter room, Janeway and Chakotay encounter several Maquis members, including Torres before she joined the Voyager crew. Torres accuses Chakotay of collaborating with the enemy, but he gains her trust and injects the gel pack. They next go to the Mess Hall, where Paris has set up triage for several crewmen injured in the original incident. Janeway finds her friend Tuvok, who is afflicted with radiation burns and dies while holding her hand. After leaving that location, Janeway tells Chakotay that she can't let all this happen again, and wants to put Voyager into temporal sync with her own time frame. She intends to change the future, the Temporal Prime Directive be damned. Chakotay sets her straight by pointing out that she's seen bits and pieces of the future, but not the whole picture. Despite the problems that Voyager has encountered, much has been gained through the crew's experiences, such as Seven of Nine recovering her humanity and Paris and Torres getting married, and the Maquis and Starfleet crews coming together under a captain who would never stop believing they would get home.

Their final stop is Engineering, where Chakotay has to deal with Seska. His story is so preposterous that she believes him, so she lets him inject the gel pack, but realizing that his presence means the Starfleet crew will regain control of Voyager, she demands that he modify the plan by bringing the ship into temporal sync with her time frame. He refuses, so she threatens to kill him. However, Janeway is waiting in the upper level, along with Paris and Kim who have been injected with the serum. They storm the Kazon contingent, and on that cue, the adult Icheb and Naomi rush in from one side of the room while Torres and another Maquis come in from the other side to surprise the Kazon and wrestle away their weapons. But Seska manages to grab Janeway and hold her hostage with a phaser. She demands inoculation for herself and her people, or Janeway will die, but at that moment Seven of Nine appears through a temporal barrier. Seska fires at the drone, but Seven's Borg forcefield repels the phaser shot and she overtakes the Cardassian, saving a thankful Janeway.

Janeway has everyone return to their section of the ship, pointing out that once the timeline is restored that will have no memory of what happened. Chakotay works the warp core as Janeway returns to the bridge. The chronoton pulse is initiated, and the ship is restored to the original time frame but a few seconds earlier. Chakotay immediately orders Torres to reroute main power to the ship's deflector so it can serve as a "lightning rod." The energy discharge from the spatial rift hits the deflector dish and burns it out, but the warp core is unaffected and the ship is saved. Chakotay refuses to tell the present-day Janeway why he made that order, invoking the Temporal Prime Directive, but that doesn't keep them from finishing their dinner together.

Lineage

Stardate: 54452.6

B'Elanna Torres starts the morning in an uncommonly good mood, but then in Engineering her mood changes and she scolds Icheb for being there without her permission. Suddenly she gets dizzy and drops to the floor. Seven of Nine goes to help as Icheb scans her with a tricorder. Icheb says he detects a lifesign inside Torres, perhaps a parasite. But Seven contacts the Doctor and tells him Torres may be pregnant. In Sickbay the Doctor confirms to Torres and her husband Tom Paris that they are indeed having a baby, and the reason Torres fainted could be that Klingon and human metabolism sometimes clash. The fetus is healthy, but the Doctor warns Torres that she can expect to experience some behavioral volatility.

Despite Tom and B'Elanna's wish to keep the news to themselves for awhile, the rest of the crew quickly finds out about Torres' pregnancy, and both Neelix and Chakotay vie to be the child's godfather. Captain Janeway offers Torres time off, but Torres insists that she can handle her duties. Meanwhile an increasingly anxious Paris faces the prospect of being of father, and even solicits advice from Tuvok. Later Paris has a candlelight dinner set out when Torres returns to their quarters, but she's upset about the Captain practically relieving her of duty and annoyed by crewmembers' unsolicited advice. She gets further upset when Tom makes a comment about her being a Klingon mother. B'Elanna catches herself in "behavioral volatility" and calms down, but then the Doctor summons them to Sickbay.

Tom and B'Elanna learn their child's spine will be deviated, but that a genetic modification will correct it. The Doctor also accidentally reveals that it's a girl. At Tom's request, the Doctor projects an holographic image of the baby. Tom thinks she's beautiful, but B'Elanna wonders why the girl has forehead ridges when she's only one-quarter Klingon. The Doctor says Klingon traits remain dominant for several generations. B'Elanna has a flashback to a time when she was a young girl on a campout with her human father, and recalls that he told her how much she was like her Klingon mother. Later, Paris and Torres turn in for the night, and Torres continues to recall the campout experience from when she was 12-years old. Young B'Elanna didn't want to go hiking with her human cousins because she thought they didn't like her.

The next morning Torres reports to Sickbay to undergo the Doctor's recommended genetic treatment. While lying on the bio-bed she has another flashback from the campout: one of her cousins, an 11-year-old boy, put a worm in her food and teased her about being Klingon, causing young B'Elanna to storm off. After the Doctor completes the treatment successfully, Torres goes to a holodeck and projects a computer-generated image of her daughter when she will be 12 years old. Seeing her forehead ridges, Torres examines the child's genetic makeup, and deletes certain gene sequences in the computer display. Asking the computer to extrapolate the genetic changes to the projection, she eventually causes the girl to look completely human. Torres saves the changes and restricts access to the file for herself.

Torres returns to Sickbay and tries to convince the Doctor to make further genetic changes in her baby, claiming it will prevent potential health problems. The Doctor is against the idea and suggests that she talk this over with Paris. When she does, Paris is totally against the idea. He comes to realize the issue is not about the child's health, but the fact that the child is part Klingon. He tries to assure her that their daughter will not be treated like an outcast. But they fail to come to an agreement, and turn to Captain Janeway. Torres argues that she wants to make physiological changes for her child's best interest, just as Janeway did for Seven of Nine. Janeway points out their problem is not ethical, but marital, and she would not overrule the Doctor. Torres is not happy that Paris has gotten his way, and before he knows it he's at Harry Kim's doorstep needing a place to sleep.

Torres sits in bed alone, recalling more of the campout experience. Young B'Elanna finally returned to the campsite after having run off, and told her father, John Torres, that she wished she wasn't Klingon because everyone made fun of her and her schoolmates hated her. Despite her father's assurances that the other kids didn't hate her, young B'Elanna chose to sit alone and read rather than join the rest of her family around the campfire. In the present moment, Torres re-experiences the isolation she felt back then.

While working in Engineering the next day, Torres recalls when she overheard her father talking to Uncle Carl about how moody and argumentative young B'Elanna had become, just like her mother. John reminded his brother about their parents' reservations about him marrying a Klingon, and noted that now, ironically, he was living with two of them. Later Torres meets up with Paris in the corridor, and they reconcile. They are then summoned to Sickbay.

The Doctor tells Torres and Paris that he reviewed the data and has concluded the genetic alterations she wanted are necessary because the "clash" between Klingon and human metabolism is more extensive than he realized. The child risks complete metabolic failure, and to prevent it he must eliminate most of her Klingon genetic material. The Doctor schedules a procedure for the next morning. Meanwhile a disturbed Paris takes the Doctor's findings and runs it by Icheb, who spots a computational error. Seven runs a diagnostic on the Doctor and discovers that his program has been tampered with. Paris tries to contact Torres, but she doesn't respond. The computer reveals she's in Sickbay. Torres has already arranged to undergo the procedure to alter the baby.

Torres has blocked communications to Sickbay and access to the Doctor's program, so Paris, realizing that Torres manipulated the Doctor to "change his mind," summons Tuvok to meet him at Sickbay. They have to manually open the door, and then encounter a forcefield. Paris orders the Doctor to stop the procedure, but Torres tells the Doctor to ignore him. Eventually the forcefield is cut off and Tuvok informs the Doctor he's been altered, so he agrees to deactivate himself. Tuvok leaves Paris and Torres alone. The couple argue over Torres' actions, and in the heat of the moment Torres reveals her issue is with her father. She tells Tom about how she and her father grew apart, and during the campout when she was 12, she blurted out to her father that if he can't stand living with two Klingons, why doesn't he just leave. And several days later, he did. Tom realizes she has blamed herself all this time for her father leaving, and she fears the same thing will happen again. He assures B'Elanna he will never leave her, and he hopes to have even more Klingon children and that every one of them is just like her. Later, Torres reverses the alterations to the Doctor, and while apologizing to him she feels the baby kick. Now she's happy about having a feisty Klingon in her womb. She asks the Doctor to be the child's godfather, and he elatedly accepts.

Repentance

Stardate: Unknown

Responding to a distress call, the Voyager approaches a damaged alien vessel and transports two injured passengers to Sickbay and nine others to a Cargo Bay. In the Cargo Bay, three of the rescued aliens are Nygean guards holding the others prisoner, and they are concerned that their weapons didn't beam over because the other men are dangerous criminals. In Sickbay, another prisoner named Iko takes Seven of Nine hostage and demands a ship and some food. Tuvok arrives with the Nygean warden, Yediq, who says he won't negotiate with criminals. Iko is distracted and Seven breaks free from his grasp. He then grabs the Doctor, but Tuvok fires his phaser through the holographic Doctor and strikes Iko to the floor.

Later, Yediq thanks Captain Janeway for saving them, and he tells her, Chakotay and Tuvok that the prisoners are being transported back to the Nygean homeworld for execution, because they have all been convicted of murder. The officers are uncomfortable that their ship will help deliver eight men to their deaths, but they are bound by the Prime Directive, so Janeway agrees to keep the prisoners detained for several days until a Nygean ship can make a rendezvous. Tuvok outfits the Cargo Bay with prison cells secured by forcefields and tritanium bulkheads, and the prisoners are held there, including Iko, who is beamed over from Sickbay after threatening to kill the entire crew unless he is released.

While Tuvok lays down the ground rules to Yediq, Neelix arrives with a dinner cart. Yediq tells him to take it back because the prisoners don't deserve such an elaborate meal, but Neelix and Tuvok cite Federation protocols regarding the treatment of prisoners, and Yediq relents. Meanwhile, the Doctor expresses to Seven how troubled he is by the captain's arrangements with the Nygeans, because he believes their death penalty is barbaric.

In the Cargo Bay, a prisoner named Joleg provokes Iko into causing a disturbance, and when Yediq checks on him, Iko threatens the warden's children. The Nygean guards enter Iko's cell and beat him severely, but then Voyager security officers jump in and stop the violence. Afterwards Janeway is infuriated with Yediq and bans him and his men from the Cargo Bay, putting Tuvok in charge of the prisoners. The Doctor treats Iko in Sickbay, and asks Seven to provide nanoprobes so he can program them to repair the neurological damage done to the prisoner's brain.

Meanwhile Neelix delivers food again to the prisoners, and Joleg tells him that he ended up among the condemned because he was found in the vicinity of a murder, and was arrested and convicted simply because he is Benkaran -- a species "known" by the Nygeans to always be criminal. Later, Neelix contacts the Nygean government under the pretense of a "cultural exchange" and acquires data on their criminal justice system. He tells Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres that Benkarans occupy a disproportionate amount of space in Nygean prisons, and are ten times more likely to be executed for their crimes than Nygeans. In particular, Joleg was convicted on circumstantial evidence. Paris tells Neelix from personal experience that in prison, "everyone has a story," and to not put too much stock into what Joleg says. But Neelix reminds him that Joleg is sentenced to die.

In Sickbay the Doctor has applied the nanoprobes to Iko, who has woken up in pain, but much calmer than before. The Doctor observes that Iko is now acting grateful and considerate, a stark reversal of his earlier behavior. Iko complains to the Doctor that he is suffering nausea and that he can't stop thinking about the man he killed. Seven believes his discomfort is a manifestation of guilt. Iko's never felt guilt before, and blames the Doctor for making him feel so horrible. Looking at scans of Iko's brain, the Doctor finds that the nanoprobes have established new neural pathways in his brain. While the Doctor gathers more information about Nygean physiology, Iko tries to make conversation with Seven. She is intrigued when he regains his childhood fascination with stars and constellations.

Meanwhile in the Cargo Bay Neelix teaches Joleg how to play Kadis-Kot. In their conversation Neelix learns that the Nygean legal system is based on a principle called "Vekto Valek K'Vadim" -- ancient Nygean for "Favor the Victims" -- by which the victim's family dictates the convict's sentence. He also learns that if a defendant is wealthy enough, he can negotiate a monetary settlement with the family rather than serve a sentence. Neelix is appalled and wants to help Joleg, but the prisoner doesn't want to do anything that would imply he's guilty. Instead he asks Neelix simply to transmit a letter to his brother.

The Doctor determines that Iko was born with a congenital brain defect that made him prone to violence and sociopathic behavior, and the nanoprobes have inadvertently repaired it. He informs Janeway of this, and she realizes that Iko's "conscience" has been activated. The Doctor believes Iko is no longer a threat, and Seven notes that by some definitions he is not the same man who committed the murder. They tell a skeptical Yediq that Iko has undergone a fundamental change, and killing him won't accomplish anything. They persuade him to work with Tuvok to draft an appeal and submit it to the authorities on behalf of Iko. Iko doesn't want the appeal though, and tells Seven that he deserves to die. He demands to be returned to his cell, where he asks Neelix to give his meal to another prisoner, Egrid, whom he used to always steal food from.

Later, Janeway and Yediq inform Seven that Iko's appeal was rejected. Seven passionately insists on doing more to help him. Janeway realizes that Seven has an issue with atonement, that perhaps if Iko is found not guilty that she herself will somehow be not guilty for the violent acts she committed as a Borg. Just then the ship is jolted by alien fire. The attack causes a power loss in the Cargo Bay holding the prisoners. Joleg and the other inmates, except for Iko, overpower the guards and escape with weapons. The alien vessel tries to beam over the five Benkaran prisoners, but Voyager fires upon the vessel's transporter array and it retreats.

Meanwhile Tuvok tries to neutralize the prisoners in the ship's corridors, but Joleg takes Yediq hostage and demands a shuttle. Joleg backs into the Cargo Bay and has another prisoner seal the door with a phaser rifle. Joleg pushes Yediq to the floor and prepares to kill him, but Iko stops him, saying, "He's mine." Iko takes the phaser and points it at Yediq while Joleg laughs. But then he hands the phaser to Yediq, who immediately shoots down Joleg and the other prisoner. Yediq realizes that Iko really has changed.

Yediq subsequently uses his influence to convince the family of Iko's victim to hear his appeal. Iko speaks to them on Voyager's viewscreen, saying that he will accept death if it helps them find peace but if they let him live, he'll never hurt anyone again. Meanwhile Neelix tells the re-incarcerated Joleg that he found out the "note" sent to his brother was really meant to help him track down Voyager and attack. Joleg tries again to manipulate Neelix, and the Talaxian leaves disgusted. While Iko and Seven look at constellations in Astrometrics, Janeway arrives and announces that Iko's appeal has been denied. Iko must now be detained again and taken home for execution. Seven is devastated, and for at least a day cannot regenerate. Janeway learns that Seven feels remorseful for having murdered thousands without punishment, but Janeway reminds her that she lost 20 years of her life to the Borg, and that's punishment enough.

Prophecy

Stardate: 54518.2

The Voyager finds itself under attack by a cloaked vessel. The bridge crew discovers it's an antiquated Klingon battle cruiser, which they can detect with a metaphasic scan. Captain Janeway orders return fire, disabling the vessel's cloak. Janeway hails the damaged ship, telling them to stand down, but Captain Kohlar declares they will not surrender to sworn enemies of the Klingon Empire. Janeway says there's been a misunderstanding since the Klingons and the Federation signed a peace treaty more than 80 years ago. Kohlar does not trust her, so Janeway tells him her Chief Engineer is a Klingon. He wants to meet that Klingon.

Kohlar boards Voyager and meets B'Elanna Torres. He sees that she is pregnant, and asks if the child was conceived during a holy month, which she confirms. Kohlar returns to his ship and tells the other Klingon leaders that the prophecies of the "Scrolls" have come true, and that the "Day of Separation" has arrived.

The Voyager bridge crew realizes the Klingon ship is having a warp core breach. Kohlar requests emergency transport, and all 204 Klingons from the vessel are beamed over into the shuttlebay. Voyager jumps to warp as the Klingon ship explodes. Janeway and Tuvok confront Kohlar with information that he made his ship self-destruct. Kohlar says it was the only way to get them aboard Voyager. He explains that they were following a sacred text that told them to embark on a long journey to find their "Kuvah'Magh" or "Savior." Kohlar believes that savior is the unborn child of B'Elanna Torres.

Janeway briefs the senior staff about the situation and asks them to respect the Klingons and make room for them by having the crew double up on quarters. The Klingons fill the Mess Hall as Neelix provides them meals of gagh, and when a fight breaks out between two of the visitors Harry Kim breaks it up, attracting the attention of a large, lustful Klingon woman. Meanwhile, Torres avoids contact with the Klingons for fear of being ambushed. Some of them start a hunger strike and won't eat until Torres meets with their Council of Elders, so Janeway asks her to cooperate. Torres reluctantly complies, and in the meeting a skeptical elder, T'Greth, realizes she is only half-Klingon and that the baby, with a human father, is also a "mongrel child." Captain Kohlar counters that the signs of the prophecy are there, but T'Greth believes he led them to a false savior.

Later, Kohlar tells Torres that whether or not her baby is the true savior, they must convince his people that she is. He explains that they have been searching for more than a hundred years, and have found nothing but hardship and isolation. He sees Torres and her child as an opportunity to end the wasteful journey. If the Klingons accept her child as their savior, Torres will hold great influence over them and point them toward a home. Torres and Janeway both tell him that they will not deceive his people. So Kohlar suggests that Torres study their scrolls and interpret them in a way that appears consistent with the events of her life, and then they will bring those consistencies to the attention of the council. Otherwise violence could break out.

Torres agrees to help out Kohlar, who makes her realize that the Scrolls can mean anything one wants them to. For example, a "glorious victory against an army of 10,000 warriors" could be interpreted as destroying a Borg vessel, which Torres has helped to do. After spending two days reviewing the Sacred Scrolls, she appears before the Klingon council and tells a spirited story about a heroic encounter with the Hirogen, exaggerating her role in the fight, to the pleasure of the Klingons. She also tells them that Voyager has set course for a planet very much like their homeworld. But T'Greth is still unconvinced, accusing her of saying what Kohlar tells her to. When Torres' husband Tom Paris comes to her defense, T'Greth tests his role in the prophecy by challenging him to a death match. Paris accepts, to Torres' dismay. Janeway refuses to allow such a death match, but at Paris' and Kohlar's urging agrees to a compromise bout where blunted bat'leths would be used and no one would be killed.

Meanwhile, Kim is trying to avoid Ch'Rega, the Klingon woman he restrained earlier and who now wants to mate with him. Neelix helps out by treating Kim with Klingon-style harshness, which causes Ch'Rega to get aroused over the Talaxian instead.

The match between Paris and T'Greth commences in the holodeck. Paris holds his own against his bigger opponent, but he is surprised that T'Greth seems to wear out so quickly. T'Greth collapses, and Kohlar realizes he's come down with the "Nehret," a fatal disease. The Doctor learns that all the Klingons aboard carry the Nehret virus, and have passed it to Torres and her child. Refusing to stay in Sickbay, T'Greth approaches his comrades and declares that since the child has the disease, she cannot be the Kuvah'Magh. They must resume their search, and to do so, they must seize control of Voyager.

The ship arrives at the planet that will serve as the Klingons' new home. Pretending to cooperate with Kohlar, T'Greth asks to beam down as part of the survey mission, rather than to die on Voyager. Kohlar agrees, but T'Greth takes the opportunity, with help from his supporters, to take over the Transporter Room and beam most of the Voyager crewmembers to the surface. Unable to beam out the Bridge crew, the Klingons transport themselves to the Bridge and do battle there with phasers, but T'Greth and his accomplices are eventually knocked out.

T'Greth wakes up in Sickbay and is informed that his illness has been cured -- the Doctor has synthesized an antivirus using hybrid stem cells from the unborn mixed-breed baby. T'Greth realizes the child has cured him, and Kohlar declares that she is truly their savior. The Klingons begin to settle on their new homeworld, and Torres accepts a bat'leth from Kohlar, given to him by his great-grandfather, as a gift for the baby. Later, Paris wonders if the child isn't truly the prophesized savior, given the coincidence of the two ships running into each other. Torres doesn't buy it, but she agrees to consider "Kuvah'Magh" as a name for their daughter.

The Void

Stardate: 54553.4

The Voyager is pulled into a void with no apparent way out. Neelix presents an exotic dinner to Janeway, Chakotay, Paris and Torres, a meal prepared by Seven of Nine who is trying her hand at being a gourmet chef. Suddenly the ship jolts and a graviton surge pulls them toward a swirling funnel, and they wind up in a realm of complete blackness. Then, an alien ship begins firing upon them. As Voyager fires back, a larger ship swoops by and fires at the other ship. Then the second ship fires at Voyager, penetrating their shields, and transports several cargo containers, food, deuterium and other supplies from Voyager to their ship.

Another ship approaches Voyager and an Annarian named General Valen appears on Voyager's viewscreen, welcoming Captain Janeway to "the Void." Coming aboard, Valen tells Janeway that Voyager was sucked into an inert layer of subspace, nine light-years wide, through one of its "funnels." Valen and his ship have been in the Void for five years, and no one has ever found a way to escape from it. In order to survive, the trapped ships compete for resources from new ships that are drawn in.

Torres reports that the anomaly's graviton forces are draining the warp core, and they will run out of power in 10 days. Seven, Tuvok, Paris and Janeway come up with a plan to enter a funnel and jump to warp at exactly the right moment to escape. Implementing their plan, they peer through the eye of a funnel and prepare to jump warp. However, the eye suddenly closes and the funnel shoots Voyager back into the Void. Torres reports that the warp core is now off-line.

Torres thinks she can fix the warp core, but they need the deuterium that was stolen from them or basic systems won't last more than a week. Janeway gives orders to track down the ship that raided them and get back their supplies. They find that ship, but detect no lifesigns on it -- apparently it was raided as well. However, one piece left behind -- the ship's warp core casing -- is composed of tricesium, which can be converted into a power source. Voyager beams the casing over, and when Seven and Torres scan it they find a small alien inside. The timid creature does not speak, and has a leg injury. In Sickbay, the alien won't let the Doctor close enough to treat him, and he eats voraciously. Janeway and Seven wonder why they didn't detect the mysterious being, but decide to make him comfortable until they can find a safe place for him.

Meanwhile, Tuvok and Harry Kim discover that General Valen raided the lifeless ship and now has Voyager's supplies. Janeway contacts Valen and demands the supplies back, but he refuses and the two ships exchange fire. Voyager manages to transport back about half of their stolen resources, and an opportunity presents itself to raid Valen's ship for additional food, but Janeway declines to do that. Later, Tuvok and Chakotay approach Janeway and suggest that the crew may need to be more opportunistic in order to survive in the Void. Janeway points to the Federation Charter as a statement of principles that they should not abandon. Using the Federation model of mutual cooperation, Janeway proposes forming an alliance with other ships to pool resources and devise a way to escape, on the condition that members of the alliance not resort to killing or stealing.

Janeway's first prospective ally is a Jelinian survey ship with a captain named Garon. Skeptical, Garon says he will consider her proposal. Janeway continues to make overtures to a ship of Nygeans and other potential alliance members. Meanwhile, the Doctor realizes the mute creature in his Sickbay loves music, and has named him "Fantome" after "The Phantom of the Opera." Seven gets the idea of trying to communicate with the alien by way of computer-generated tones, and Fantome responds enthusiastically.

A funnel opens in the Void and another ship is pulled in. Two warships approach, including Valen's, and try to attack, but Voyager defends the newcomer. About to lose the battle, Voyager is joined by Garon's ship and forces the raiding vessels to retreat. Garon hails Janeway to accept her offer of an alliance.

With Garon on board, finding new allies becomes easier. Janeway hosts a visit by Commander Bosaal whose ship has technology that could aid in an escape. But he reacts adversely upon seeing Fantome in the Mess Hall, accusing his species of being vermin. Janeway tells Bosaal that they've figured out how to detect the creature's lifesigns and can transport those of his kind off his ship. With that, Bosaal agrees to be an ally.

Torres works with Garon to build a polaron modulator that will help the alliance ships escape the Void, but so far they have failed. Janeway hopes to trade with another ship for a polaron modulator. Meanwhile, Fantome joins others of his kind in learning how to communicate through tones generated by PADDs, creating a musical "conversation" that amazes Janeway. Later, Janeway learns that Bosaal has provided a fully compatible polaron modulator, but pressing him on how he got it, she realizes he stole it from another ship and killed its crew. Enraged, Janeway orders Bosaal off the ship along with the modulator -- although the technology would help them escape, she refuses to be accessory to murder. As a result, some of the other ships drop out of the alliance, and Torres has to continue trying to build a modulator from scratch.

Later, one of the remaining allies spies on Bosaal and discovers that he is attempting to form an alliance of his own with Valen and other adversaries, with a plan to attack Voyager. Without the resources to defend themselves, Janeway realizes they need to make an escape attempt right away, even though Torres hasn't had time to test her new modulator. The ship readies its plan with its allies, and Fantome's people -- who are native to the Void and live as nomads on ships -- want to help out. When a funnel is detected, the alliance ships prepare to go in. Bosaal and his fleet approach and begin firing. Firing back, Voyager manages to penetrate shields on two of the ships and transports Fantome and his friends over. Seconds later Fantome hails Voyager that they have sabotaged Valen's ship; Bosaal's vessel has also been disabled. That gives the four alliances ships time to enter the funnel in a "shield bubble" and jump to warp to enter normal space. The successful allies then wish each other well and go their separate ways.

Workforce

Stardate: 54584.3/54622.4

In a vast alien metropolis on a planet called Quarra, Kathryn Janeway enters a power distribution plant and reports in to a shift supervisor, who takes her to a workstation and explains her task. Janeway has taken a job among a multi-species workforce with no recollection of her previous life as captain of Voyager. When she has trouble working the controls, another worker named Jaffen comes over to help and tries to befriend her. They are chastened for fraternizing by Seven of Nine, who knows herself as "Annika Hansen" (her human name), the new Efficiency Monitor. Jaffen doesn't return to his station until he invites Janeway to go out for a meal after work, but she turns him down.

Meanwhile, Tom Paris -- also unaware of who he really is -- gets himself hired in a local tavern to wait and bus tables. That night Jaffen is in the tavern telling an anecdote to some friends, and he gets an uproarious laugh from Tuvok, whose behavior is very atypical. Janeway comes in, supposedly to eat alone while she studies manuals, but Jaffen joins her, and he ends up walking her home. They live in the same building, and he invites her to his place; she turns him down.

The next day, Janeway learns that all the workers must periodically receive inoculations to protect them against radiation. As a squeamish Tuvok is getting injected, he has a flashback of himself in his Starfleet uniform, struggling against a Quarren doctor giving him an injection. The strange memory leaves him trembling and perspiring.

All this time Chakotay, Harry Kim and Neelix have been in the Delta Flyer on a trading mission with the Nar Shaddan. When they return, Voyager is not at the rendezvous point. The starship is disabled inside a nebula, and the Doctor is the only crew member on board and is trying to make repairs. When the others find the ship and come aboard, the Doctor explains what happened: Voyager hit a subspace mine which deluged the ship with poisonous tetrion radiation, so Captain Janeway ordered the crew into escape pods, leaving the Doctor in charge of the ship as the Emergency Command Hologram. The Doctor then had to fend off scavengers trying to claim the abandoned vessel, and hid inside the nebula. He since discovered that the subspace mine was a deliberate attempt to disable Voyager. And he hasn't heard a word from the rest of the crew.

At the power plant, Tuvok has another flashback: He and Janeway were brought into a Quarren medical facility where a Dr. Kadan claimed to be treating Janeway for "Dysphoria Syndrome"; when Tuvok demanded her release, Kadan had him restrained and "inoculated." Shaken by this flashback, Tuvok approaches Janeway and says they know each other, that perhaps they met in the hospital, but she has no recollection of a hospital or of knowing him prior to her job. He gives up as Jaffen steps in, who makes dinner plans with Janeway. Meanwhile, Torres is sitting alone in the tavern, and Paris tries to get to know her. He asks to get together with her, but she reveals that she's pregnant, although unmarried, and leaves. The four people aboard Voyager complete repairs and begin searching for their crew. Kim finds them on a class-M planet less than three days away, and they set course. Janeway and Jaffen have their date, where dinner is a disaster. But it doesn't matter -- they fall in love and kiss.

Voyager arrives at Quarra and Chakotay speaks with an ambassador who will not allow him to communicate with his crewmates. The ambassador says they are leading safe, comfortable lives there, and any attempt to disturb them would be met with force. Neelix learns there is a severe labor shortage in the Quarren system, so Chakotay gets the idea of applying for jobs themselves so they can infiltrate the plant where their people are working. Because he has spoken with authorities and could be recognized, Chakotay has the Doctor alter his features to look non-human, and he and Neelix prepare to go to the planet undercover, with subdermal transponders that will allow them to transport through the shield grid.

At the power plant, "Annika Hansen" orders Tuvok to go get the inoculations that he's been neglecting. Tuvok speaks her Borg name -- "Seven of Nine" -- and tries to mind-meld with her to make her remember herself. But security guards grab him and take the desperate Vulcan away. Chakotay secures a job at the plant and immediately approaches Janeway. She doesn't recognize him, so Chakotay continues the ruse of being a happy new employee. Neelix runs into Paris at the tavern, keeping up the same ruse, unable to jar his friend's memory. After Chakotay meets up with Neelix, they follow Torres in the streets and grab her. Kim beams Neelix and the struggling Torres up to Sickbay, where the Doctor tries to help her. Meanwhile Jaffen asks Janeway to move in with him, and she agrees. Tuvok is in the Quarren hospital where Dr. Kadan tells him he's experiencing "Dysphoria Syndrome" and will feel better after an injection. Chakotay is being pursued by security guards, but Kim can't beam him up because the ship has fallen under attack. The guards chase Chakotay through the facility up to a precipice overlooking the massive city, and he finds himself trapped.

A disguised Chakotay is being pursued by Quarren security officers and is trapped at a forcefield. He smashes a control panel to disable the forcefield, then overpowers the guards and escapes, but not before getting a phaser shot in the arm. Meanwhile, Harry Kim and the Doctor are in command of Voyager as it is being fired upon by Quarren patrol ships. They disable the first two ships, but five more approach and they are forced to retreat. The injured Chakotay enters the tavern where a brainwashed Janeway has just decided to move in with her new boyfriend, Jaffen.

A Quarren investigator named Yerid enters the tavern inquiring about two people who disappeared earlier that evening -- named B'Elanna and Neelix. The waiter, Tom Paris, points him to Chakotay, but he's already disappeared. In the Quarren hospital, Dr. Kadan orders a skeptical Dr. Ravoc to do a memory sequencing treatment on Tuvok. Meanwhile in the power plant, Seven of Nine is on the job and has a flashback of life on a Borg cube. Connecting the flashback to her encounter with Tuvok earlier, she goes to her Supervisor's office and asks about him. Yerid arrives to inquire about the two missing employees, saying he believes that Amal Kotay -- Chakotay's assumed identity -- is responsible for their disappearance.

Janeway moves her things to Jaffen's apartment, but when she returns to her old place she finds Chakotay hiding out there. He tells her that B'Elanna and other people in the city were brought to the planet against their will and made to forget their real lives, and he's trying to help them. Janeway reluctantly lets him stay, and decides to do something about his injury. Voyager, meanwhile, has hidden in a moon's crater to make repairs and to treat Torres for her altered memory. Neelix takes Torres to her quarters to re-introduce her to her real life, and she is surprised to learn that the waiter from the tavern is her husband. At the plant, Seven catches Janeway taking a dermal regenerator, but she promises to return it. Seven is sidetracked when she has an opportunity to enter the Supervisor's office and use his console; she learns that Tuvok has accessed numerous employee files including Janeway's, B'Elanna's, and her own. Janeway returns to Chakotay to heal his injury, and he reveals that he's from a ship called Voyager. Chakotay observes that she seems happy in her job and her life, but she seems capable of so much more. Janeway responds that she wouldn't want more responsibility. Chakotay is contacted by Voyager through his subdermal transponder, and they inform him that the ship is two days away but need the planet's shield grid disabled so they can transport the crew members back. Chakotay tells Janeway that she's the captain of that ship, but she has a hard time believing him. To prove himself, he takes the dermal regenerator and undoes the alterations made to his face, revealing that he is the same race as she. He tells her they are also friends.

Janeway tells Jaffen the story she just heard, but he thinks Chakotay is trying to manipulate her with promises of a better life. Meanwhile Chakotay is found by Yerid and is taken in for questioning. Chakotay tells him they are both investigating disappearances, and has questions of his own. Just then Dr. Ravok enters with orders to transfer Chakotay to Neuropathology to be treated for mental illness. As he's taken away, Chakotay tells Yerid the truth about himself and his abducted crewmates.

On Voyager, Kim and the Doctor are discussing tactics and arguing over whether the Doctor should remain a Command hologram, when they are hailed by Chakotay. He says he's almost ready to shut down the shield grid, and gives instructions on where and when the ship should enter orbit. They don't know that Chakotay is being subjected to a mind control device and is sending them into a trap.

At the tavern, Seven meets discreetly with Yerid to share her findings that more than a hundred employees -- most of the same species -- began work on the same day, which is unusual during a labor shortage. Also, they were all processed through the Neuropathology division, including herself, which she doesn't remember. Seven wants Yerid to interview Tuvok in the hospital, but Yerid reveals he was relieved of duty that morning. So Seven goes to the hospital herself and visits with Dr. Ravoc, reporting that she's been having "disturbing thoughts." Ravoc looks up her file and sees she was previously treated for Dysphoria Syndrome. She asks to speak to an expert on the condition, so Ravoc steps out to get Dr. Kadan. She takes that opportunity to use his computer. Meanwhile, Yerid contacts Janeway and asks to know everything Chakotay told her.

At the hospital, Kadan is enraged that Ravoc allowed Seven to access restricted files and leave. Ravoc is suspicious that an apparent "outbreak" of Dysphoria Syndrome occurred under Kadan's watch, and realizes that he had made false diagnoses on patients, altered their memories and sent them to work at the power plant. Kadan admits it's true, but claims it was to cure the labor shortage and improve the patients' lives. Ravoc threatens to report him, but Kadan says the authorities are behind him. Meanwhile, Paris harbors Seven, Janeway, Jaffen and Yerid at the tavern, who are collaborating about Chakotay's story and how to prove it. Janeway and Jaffen go to the power plant to use a subspace transponder to contact Voyager, while Seven and Yerid return to the hospital to help Chakotay and Tuvok.

With Jaffen's help, Janeway succeeds in hailing Voyager, where she sees B'Elanna in uniform and hears Kim call her "captain." B'Elanna asks her to find a way to shut down main power so the shield grid will be disabled. Just then Voyager comes under attack by three ships, and Janeway is surrounded by security guards. Jaffen helps her evade them, then she works the computer to make it think the reactor core is overloading so it'll automatically shut down main power. Meanwhile in the hospital, Seven and Yerid point a weapon at Kadan to force him to release Chakotay and Tuvok from the mind control devices. On Voyager, Kim gets the idea to use three escape pods as armed decoys to disable the attacking ships. They succeed, and B'Elanna gets the transporters back on line. Janeway's own plan works, and power goes out all over the city. With the shield grid down, Voyager beams up all of its crew members. The Doctor treats them and they recover, but in the meantime he, Kim and Neelix confer with Yerid and the Quarren Ambassador about undoing the conspiracy, with a promise that all of Kadan's "patients" will be treated and repatriated. Janeway says a final good-bye to Jaffen, then resumes her role as captain and takes Voyager on its way.

Human Error

Stardate: Unknown

Seven of Nine programs Holodeck 2 to be a rustic cabin where she practices the piano to the steady beat of a metronome, with her hair down and her Borg implants gone. Later, she attends a simulation of B'Elanna Torres' baby shower, where she again appears fully human and interacts with holo-crewmembers more freely than usual. She even makes a toast to the new baby. Just then the real crew on the Bridge detects mysterious energy discharges ahead, and Seven gets called to Astrometrics. Captain Janeway, Tuvok and Tom Paris meet her there, but Seven cannot find the source of the discharges. Opting not to alter course, Janeway turns her attention to the actual baby shower the crew will surprise Torres with later that day. Janeway asks Seven to be there, but she makes an excuse not to.

Instead, Seven returns to the holodeck where she creates new quarters for herself, and a holo-Neelix gives her advice on how to decorate the empty space. A holo-Chakotay arrives with a housewarming gift, a Native American dreamcatcher. Seven invites him back the following night for dinner.

At Seven's weekly physical in Sickbay, the Doctor tells her that Tom and B'Elanna missed her at the baby shower. Noting that her shoulder implant is out of alignment and her electrolyte levels are down, the Doctor learns that Seven missed her regeneration cycle. She claims it was because she was conducting "research" that had something to do with her personal life, which surprises the Doctor. Just then Voyager is rocked by another energy discharge, which produces a shockwave that then hits the ship violently and damages its warp drive. In Astrometrics, Seven discovers the explosion came from a subspace warhead that destroyed an unmanned probe. Since warp drive is down until repairs are complete, Janeway asks Seven to find a way to detect the warheads before they emerge from subspace, to give the crew a few seconds' warning.

Later, Icheb comes to Astrometrics to relieve Seven, because the Doctor wants her to spend more time regenerating. But instead of going into her alcove, she takes a belated baby shower gift to Torres in Engineering, and tries awkwardly to engage in small-talk. Then she modifies her holodeck program to fully decorate her quarters and put herself in an alluring dress for her date with holo-Chakotay. They prepare dinner together, and the mood gets increasingly romantic until they kiss. Suddenly Seven is distracted by a shrill noise, but she ignores it as she embraces her new simulated boyfriend.

The next morning Seven has disturbing dreams where she sees herself as a drone and her metronome appears as Borg technology. She wakes up when the real Chakotay summons her, which is odd because she's next to the holo-Chakotay. She arrives in Astrometrics where Icheb has picked up a warning beacon revealing that Voyager has entered a munitions testing ground. Chakotay is concerned that Seven was late for her duty shift, but she denies being distracted.

Later Seven is back in Holodeck 2 playing the piano for holo-Chakotay to the beat of the metronome. He's impressed by her flawless technique, but then he stops the metronome and tells her to play with more feeling. She's frustrated and anxious at first, but gradually she's able to play more from the heart, without needing to be perfect. Just then three alien missiles emerge from subspace and destroy a target probe, sending out shockwaves that rock Voyager. The real Chakotay calls on Seven for her sensor calibrations, but she needs a moment to return to her station. While the ship shakes hard, Seven gives Paris coordinates for other warheads about to emerge, but they turn out to be wrong. She corrects herself, and Paris is able to re-orient the ship to withstand the next shockwave.

In her Ready Room, Janeway chides Seven for being late with her sensor calibrations and for being away from her post, and asks why she's logged so much time in Holodeck 2. Seven tells a direct lie -- that she's been running a simulation to improve ship systems -- and apologizes for dividing her time while the ship is on alert. Janeway accepts her story and her apology, and looks forward to seeing her simulations. Seven returns to Astrometrics, where Icheb detects a strange attitude from her. Admitting she's been negligent, Seven leaves again to go "correct an error."

In the holodeck, Seven activates the Chakotay simulation again to end her relationship with him. Holo-Chakotay argues that every time she moves closer to her emotions, she backs away again, afraid that embracing her humanity will make her weak. She argues back that the ship needs her, but then she hears the mysterious high-pitched noise again, this time piercing through her head. She summons Sickbay and faints. The Doctor arrives and finds her going into neural shock. Seven wakes up in Sickbay, where the Doctor reveals that her cortical node began to shut down, but he managed to stabilize it. He asks what she was doing before she collapsed. She admits that she's been conducting simulations to explore different aspects of her humanity, such as social activities and intimate relations. She reveals that since Unimatrix Zero was destroyed, she's been trying to re-create some of the experiences she had there and feel some of those emotions again. But she plans to delete her holodeck programs because her "personal life" has distracted her from performing her duties efficiently.

Torres succeeds in getting engines back on-line, and Voyager jumps to warp. But then a subspace warhead locks onto the warp signature and targets the ship. The missile neutralizes a spread of photon torpedoes and continues closing in. Seven scans the warhead's detonator in an attempt to disarm it, but is unable to. Then she believes she can extract the detonator by transporting it out, but only at very close range. With no time to spare, she accomplishes the transport and the missile breaks apart harmlessly.

Later, the Doctor approaches Seven with bad news: Her cortical node did not malfunction, but in fact was designed to shut down her higher brain functions when she achieves a certain level of emotional stimulation -- not surprising for a Borg implant. The Doctor believes he can reconfigure the node so she can continue her simulations, but it would be a difficult and lengthy process. Seven declines the procedure, saying that she's experienced enough "humanity" for the time being and the "failsafe" device will ensure that she's no longer distracted. The next day Chakotay invites Seven to a get-together in the Mess Hall, but she turns him down. He suggests that a little more socializing might do her good.

Q2

Stardate: 54704.5

Captain Janeway is caught by surprise when she is paid a visit by Q and his son, Q ("Q2"). She last saw the young Q as an infant four years ago, but he already looks and acts like an adolescent, and his father wants to leave him on Voyager to learn about humanity. The crew quickly learns that the boy is trouble, being as bored and out-of-control as any teenager but with omnipotent powers. Q2 throws a party around the warp core, he makes Seven of Nine's clothes disappear, and he gives the computer a rebellious personality. Neelix is shocked to find him initiating a war between two cultures, and when he tries to talk him into using his powers more constructively, Q2 takes his vocal chords away. Then Q2 lures three Borg Cubes to attack Voyager, putting the crew in danger.

The father Q then shows up, sets things back to normal and speaks privately with Janeway. He tells her that his son was supposed to inspire peace and compassion, but instead has brought chaos to the universe, so the Continuum is hounding him to straighten the boy out. He was hoping that Janeway's "Starfleet ideals" would rub off on him, but she tells Q to act more like a parent and spend time with him. Q loves the idea, kisses her on the lips and disappears. Minutes later, Q appears again in Janeway's bubble bath, telling her he just spent years with his son smothering him with attention, and things have only gotten worse. Janeway tells Q that he needs to make his son understand that there are consequences to his actions. In response, Q turns his son into an Oprelian amoeba, and when he restores him, tells the boy he will be sentenced by the Continuum to an eternity as an amoeba unless he becomes an upstanding citizen of the cosmos. He gives Q2 one week to change his ways, and strips him of his powers.

Forced into playing "mommy" to the now-mortal boy, Janeway assigns Q2 quarters and devises a strict curriculum for him with crewmates as his instructors. For instance, Chakotay runs a diplomacy scenario on the holodeck where Q2 is instructed to settle a mining dispute among several races. But when Chakotay leaves the room, Q2 alters the aliens' personalities to assure speedy success. He is also assigned to write a historical essay on the Q Continuum, but Q2 manipulates Icheb into writing it for him. Janeway tells Q2 that she knows he's been cheating, and orders him to his room to wait for his father to return. Not wanting to live as an amoeba, Q2 explains that it's not easy to live up to his father's expectations and tells her she's his only hope. Janeway agrees to give him one more chance.

Janeway and the Voyager crew become impressed with Q2's determination to improve himself. Janeway is also pleased with Q2's new essay on the Q Continuum. She rewards Q2 by allowing him to go with Icheb on his piloting lesson with Lt. Paris. After helping Icheb navigate the Delta Flyer through an asteroid field, Paris lets Q2 take a "turn at the wheel." Q2's nervousness gives way to a sense of adventure, and he and Icheb become friends. Meanwhile, Q returns to Voyager to check up on his son's progress. Janeway has Q2 read his essay to his father, but Q is not at all impressed, hurting his son's feelings. When Q2 leaves the room, Q tells Janeway that the boy needs to demonstrate nothing less than exemplary "Q-ness." Janeway prods him to explain what that is, but he just says he knows it when he sees it, and an essay is not it, and disappears. Janeway visits Q2 to console him, telling him that if the Continuum won't take him back, she'll ask them to let him stay on Voyager as a human. But Q2 doesn't want to be human -- he wants to be a Q, like his father.

Later, Q2 convinces Icheb to help him repair an ion imbalance on the Delta Flyer to surprise Paris. After making the repair, Q2 launches the Flyer without permission, telling Icheb he knows how to open a spatial flexure to another system. Icheb strongly objects, but Q2 wants to hide from his father. He breaks free of Voyager and jumps through the rift to the Clevari system. The Flyer is met by a Chokuzan ship, whose commander accuses them of trespassing and demands their surrender. Q2 fires on the ship and tries to escape into another flexure, but the Chokuzans fire back, and a bolt of energy knocks Icheb out. Q2 returns to Voyager to bring Icheb to Sickbay, but the Doctor can't treat him unless he knows more about the weapon that struck him. Q shows up again, and Q2 pleads with him to save his friend's life, but Q refuses, telling the boy he has to face the consequences of his actions.

To save Icheb, Q2 agrees to return with Janeway to the ship that he attacked. Q2 apologizes to the ship's commander and asks for his help, but when the commander threatens to hold Janeway accountable for the boy's actions, Q2 objects and insists on accepting punishment, even if it's torture or execution. The Chokuzan commander laughs and reveals himself to be Q in disguise. All along the Chokuzan incident was a test, which Q2 passed with flying colors. After Q assures Janeway that Icheb will make a miraculous recovery, the two Q's and Janeway appear before a tribunal of Q-Judges. Although Q argues that his son was willing to sacrifice himself to save another, the judges rule that Q2 has not made sufficient progress and must suffer the fate of staying human. Q is outraged, and disappears with the judges. Q2 dejectedly returns to Voyager, where he asks if he can stay and continue his training, feeling he still has a lot to prove to Janeway. But Q comes back and explains that he told the judges he wouldn't stay in the Continuum without his son, and claims they "begged" him not to leave. In fact, Q2's powers have already been restored. Q2 fills Janeway's ready room with flowers to thank her, and leaves on Q's promise to be a better father. Q reveals to Janeway that he had to agree to one minor condition--eternal custody of the child. In thanks, Q gives Janeway data on a shortcut home, but he won't take Voyager all the way because it would be a bad example for his son.

Author, Author

Stardate: 54732.3

Reginald Barclay and Admiral Paris from the Pathfinder project on Earth appear on the Astrometrics domescreen and tell Captain Janeway that the com link will only work for only 11 minutes a day. Three people can talk to their loved ones in the Alpha Quadrant for three minutes per day, so Neelix has the crew draw numbered isolinear chips. The Doctor draws number one, so he contacts a well-known Bolian publisher on Earth -- Ardon Broht of Broht & Forrester -- to discuss the holonovel which he had previously transmitted to him. Broht raves about the piece and wants to distribute it right away, but the Doctor insists on making revisions first. Later, the Doctor brags to Lt. Tom Paris about his conversation with the publisher, which raises Paris' curiosity about the hologram's opus. He convinces the Doctor to let him experience the holonovel, which he learns is titled "Photons Be Free."

Paris finds himself in the role of the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) aboard the "Starship Vortex," and he sees that the first chapter starts out almost identically to the Doctor's own experience of being first activated. The other characters resemble the real crew, but altered slightly in their appearance -- for instance, Chakotay is a Bajoran. When Paris, as the Doctor, decides to treat a critical patient ahead of a bridge officer, Captain "Jenkins" (Janeway with black hair) enters Sickbay and kills the dying crewman, so that the bridge officer can now be treated. Shocked at how the crew is portrayed, Paris tells B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim about it, and they think he's overreacting. So Paris tells his crewmates to try it out themselves.

Torres experiences for herself how badly the "Vortex" EMH gets treated by the holo-crew, especially her own look-alike; Neelix, in the same role, is scolded and threatened by Captain Jenkins; and Kim becomes part of an escape plan with help from "Three of Eight." Finally, Janeway experiences the final chapter of the holonovel, where the EMH is brutally decompiled. She immediately orders the Doctor to report to her Ready Room.

The Doctor defends the piece, claiming it's a work of fiction with an important message. Janeway wonders if the Doctor sees himself as oppressed, but he explains he intended to draw attention to the plight of his "brothers" in the Alpha Quadrant, other EMH Mark Ones like him who have been condemned to menial tasks. Janeway asks him to consider how his writing makes his friends feel, but he won't compromise on his self-expression. When he returns to the holodeck to make final revisions, he finds the program altered with a holo-Paris as the narrator, and the story about the assistant to the Chief Medical Officer who has to learn to tolerate his overbearing manner and obnoxious behavior. Incensed, the Doctor confronts Paris about distorting his work. Paris assures him he kept the original intact, but was simply trying to make a point that someone running a program like that would think the characters were based on the real people. But what bothers Paris most is that the immature, self-indulgent character that bears his likeness apparently reveals what the Doctor really thinks of him.

Neelix talks to the Doctor and helps him realize that by publishing his program, he may hurt the people he cares about, and he can make adjustments so that it's not so obviously based on Voyager without sacrificing his theme. But a rewrite will take weeks and the publisher is expecting a final draft tomorrow. Neelix tells the Doctor to give the publisher a call, and hands him his numbered chip. Broht is not happy to hear that the work will be delayed, but the crew is grateful to the Doctor for taking their feelings into account, and Paris agrees to assist with the revisions.

Meanwhile, members of the crew get to talk to family members they haven't seen in years. Kim's parents wonder when he's getting a promotion, and offer to write Captain Janeway a letter, which Harry strongly discourages. Torres begrudgingly agrees to talk to her father, who abandoned her when she was a child; during their awkward conversation, John Torres expresses regret and hopes they can get to know each other again. Even Seven of Nine uses her com time to contact her nearest living relative, an aunt on Earth; Irene Hansen tells Seven about how she was as a child, and calls her Annika.

Janeway receives an urgent message from Admiral Paris: He just learned from Barclay that the Doctor's holo-novel has been distributed and is being played in thousands of holosuites. The Doctor contacts Broht demanding a recall and a public apology, but Broht refuses. Janeway points out that authors have rights, but Broht responds that under Federation law, holograms have no rights.

After discussing legal options with Tuvok, Janeway decides to request a hearing to seek the same rights for the Doctor as any flesh-and-blood person. A Federation Arbitrator hears arguments from Broht and from the Voyager crew, who testify that the Doctor has demonstrated the traits of a "person" such as creativity, ambition, friendship and fallibility. After several days of arguments and deliberations, the Arbitrator announces he is not prepared to rule that the Doctor is a "person" under the law, but he is willing to extend the definition of "artist" to include the Doctor; therefore he orders all copies of the holo-novel recalled immediately. The Doctor apologizes to Janeway for the damage that's been done, but the crew encourages him to continue revising his work and to find a new publisher. Four months later, on an asteroid in the Alpha Quadrant where hundreds of EMH Mark Ones (all identical to the Doctor) are now mining dilithium, word gets around among the holograms that there is a very provocative new program in the holo-lab called "Photons Be Free."

Friendship One

Stardate: 54775.4

Now that the Voyager has established two-way communications with Starfleet, Captain Janeway receives her first official assignment in seven years: Locate and retrieve the Friendship 1, a probe launched from Earth in 2067 with a message of peace to other worlds. Contact was lost 130 years ago, but its known trajectory would place it in the Delta Quadrant near Voyager's current position. After five days of searching, the probe is detected on a planet darkened by a nuclear winter caused by antimatter radiation.

An away team consisting of Tom Paris, Harry Kim, Chakotay, Neelix and Lt. Joe Carey take the Delta Flyer to the planet, who go searching for the probe wearing environmental suits. While Paris, Neelix and Carey follow their tricorder readings into a cavern, Chakotay and Kim are surprised to find a field of missile silos containing active warheads. Paris, Neelix and Carey see evidence that the cavern is inhabited, but sensors have detected no lifesigns. They find a piece of debris labelled "Friendship 1" and prepare to transport it to the Flyer, but then are suddenly surrounded by armed aliens who are cloaked in heavy robes and breathing equipment. Meanwhile Chakotay and Kim discover the Flyer has been invaded by one of the planet's inhabitants, who attacks them but then gets knocked out by Chakotay's phaser. Then antimatter weapons start rocking the Flyer, so Chakotay is forced to fly it back to Voyager, leaving the others behind. In the cavern, the native people show themselves to be highly malformed and mottled from radiation exposure, and their leader, Verin, is very hostile to the away team. When Verin learns they're here to retrieve their probe, he accuses them of causing his people's suffering.

Verin contacts Voyager and tells Janeway he's taken her crewmen hostage, demanding the relocation of his people to another planet starting in three hours. Janeway confers with the Doctor, who has examined the unconscious alien Chakotay brought back, and learns that his tissues are saturated with antimatter radiation, explaining why no lifesigns were detected on the planet. The Doctor wakes the alien, named Otrin, who reveals that his planet's devastation was caused by an antimatter containment failure. And he blames the human race for it because until the Friendship 1 arrived and introduced that technology, his people had never conceived of anything like antimatter. After decades of suffering, they came to the conclusion that humans intended to contaminate their world so they could eventually come and conquer it.

Tuvok locates a class-M planet 132 light-years away, and determines it would take almost three years to completely relocate all 5500 of the aliens. Meanwhile Seven of Nine extracts nanoprobes from her bloodstream so the Doctor can reprogram them to cure Otrin of his radiation sickness, and Janeway asks Otrin to elaborate on his efforts to neutralize the planet's radiation. On the surface, Neelix tries to tell Verin that humans are not so bad and never meant to harm his people, but he remains unconvinced. Janeway later contacts Verin and tells him that relocation is impractical, offering an alternative: help Otrin carry out his theories on how to counteract the radiation. Verin won't budge on his demands, so Janeway asks to exchange a supply of food and medicine for one of the hostages. Verin picks out Carey and tells him to set up the transport enhancers. Just before Carey is beamed out, Verin shoots him in the heart and he arrives in Sickbay dead.

Janeway tells Verin she will start evacuating his people in an hour, but then she calls Tuvok and Chakotay into a meeting. In Sickbay, Otrin is getting much better after his nanoprobe treatment, and hopes that Voyager can heal all his people. But Seven points out that Verin has refused their help, and suggests to Otrin that he would be a better leader than Verin. Meanwhile Paris helps a woman on the surface deliver a baby, which arrives stillborn, but Paris is able to bring it to life. Just then a patrol captures another Voyager crewmember, Tuvok, making Verin believe he has another hostage. But it turns out one of the alien guards is the Doctor in disguise, and he helps Tuvok overpower the captors. The hostages can now beam out, but before leaving, Paris tells the new mother the baby won't survive without further treatment, so she lets him take her son to Voyager.

Once the baby is stabilized, Janeway plans to send him back along with some food and medical supplies, but then leave. Paris and Neelix appeal to the Captain to help these people in spite of their refusal to cooperate. So Janeway and Seven work with Otrin to develop a plan to neutralize the planet's radiation with an isolitic chain reaction, using photon torpedoes to deliver the catalytic agent. Otrin brings the now-healthy baby back to the surface and confronts Verin to accept Voyager's help and begin trusting them. Meanwhile the ship enters the planet's atmosphere to detonate the charges that will counteract the radiation. When the ground begins to shake, Verin arms an antimatter missile and prepares to launch it at Voyager. But his own lieutenants -- and the grateful mother -- aim weapons at him to prevent him from ruining their only chance for survival. Verin realizes Otrin is in command now. Just then a child runs in and urges everyone to come outside. They see that sunlight is starting to break through the dark clouds, for the first time in decades. Voyager retrieves the Friendship 1 and resumes course for the Alpha Quadrant, but the success of their mission cost them the life of a crew member.

Natural Law

Stardate: 54827.7

While travelling in a shuttle to the planet Ledos for a conference on Warp Field Dynamics, Chakotay and Seven of Nine take a detour to admire the natural landscape of one of the planet's subcontinents, and in doing so they scrape a mysterious energy barrier that starts to break the shuttle apart. Seven uses phasers to open a rift in the barrier, and they beam to the surface before the shuttle explodes. They find themselves stranded in a lush jungle, and in spite of Chakotay's leg injury, set out to find the shuttle debris in hopes of constructing a beacon to send a distress signal.

Meanwhile Tom Paris flies the Delta Flyer somewhat recklessly through the bustling Ledosian spaceport, and learns from the Port Authority that he has committed a piloting violation. Captain Janeway later informs Paris that his penalty, under local law, is to take a three-day course in flight safety, and since she has decided to grant the crew shore leave on the planet, he'll have time to complete it -- much to his chagrin.

On the surface, Chakotay and Seven discover a tribe of primitive humanoids living in the jungle. Agreeing they should avoid contact with them, Chakotay -- who is developing an infection -- rests while Seven continues searching for debris. While she's away, three native men sneak up on Chakotay. Just then Seven finds a working piece of the shuttle and summons Chakotay, and the natives, startled by her disembodied voice, grab his combadge and destroy it. Seven returns and finds that Chakotay has been taken into a cave. It turns out the natives are friendly, and they are treating his wound. Chakotay talks Seven into staying the night, but she is uncomfortable with the degree of fascination the unspeaking natives have for them, especially an adolescent girl who is intrigued by her Borg implants.

As Harry Kim, Neelix and B'Elanna Torres prepare to beam down to the planet for shore leave, they tease Paris for having to attend "pilot school." Paris is confident he can skip right to the test and join them in a couple of hours, but then the flying instructor, Mr. Kleg, beams aboard and makes it clear he intends to take as much time with Paris as he deems necessary.

The next morning, Chakotay begins to learn the natives' sign language as he draws a map in the ground to get his bearings. Seven tells him she can construct a beacon by connecting the components she found with the shuttle's deflector, which she has detected six kilometers away. Since he's still injured, Chakotay suggests letting one of the locals guide her, but she won't because she's still trying to limit contact with them. As she makes her way through the dense jungle brush, she takes a fall and loses her tricorders into a crevice, and has to proceed without it. Meanwhile, Chakotay makes a startling discovery: the native men have started painting tattoos on their foreheads that look like his.

That night, Seven has to endure cold and rain, but then the adolescent girl shows up and brings her a blanket. The girl builds a fire and offers Seven food, which she turns down. The next morning Seven finally accepts the food, and allows the girl to guide her through the jungle. Along the way, though, the girl insists they stop and admire the view of spectacular triple waterfall. Back at the encampment, Chakotay is worried about Seven, and when he tries to communicate that he needs help to find his friend, a native man misunderstands him and brings out a woman who has strapped a small piece of shuttle debris to her forehead, to emulate Seven. Chakotay finds out they have retrieved several pieces of technology from the shuttle, and gets them to lead him to where they found it. Meanwhile, Seven and the girl find the shuttle deflector.

On Voyager, Tuvok reports to Janeway that Chakotay and Seven have failed to report in, and they never showed up at the conference. Tuvok and Kim have located a wing from their shuttle resting on top of the energy barrier surrounding the southern subcontinent, which means the missing crewmen are probably there, but they cannot be sure because the barrier is deflecting all their scans. Janeway contacts the Ledosian Ambassador, who informs her that the barrier shields the territory of the indigenous Ventu, and it was erected centuries ago by aliens to protect the Ventu from having their culture destroyed by the Ledosians' own unenlightened ancestors. But the technology is a mystery to them, so they can't lower the barrier, and since it's generated from the inside, the Ambassador holds no hope that the crewman, if alive, can ever get out.

On the surface, Chakotay meets up with Seven, and they recruit help from the Ventu men to move the deflector to a spot where Seven believes she can generate a deflector beam to temporarily neutralize the barrier, thus allowing them to escape and Voyager to beam away all their technology. Meanwhile Voyager is attempting to penetrate the energy barrier with phasers, but feedback from the barrier is interfering with the ship's systems, forcing them to cease. A short time later, though, the crew learns the barrier is being deactivated from the inside. Seven has successfully generated a dampening field, but the Ventu girl gets too close to the deflector and receives a serious shock. When Janeway's voice comes through telling the crewmen to stand by for transport, Seven reports that she needs to remain behind to treat an injury.

After the Ventu girl recovers, Seven says goodbye and accepts the girl's blanket as a gift. Just then she hears voices approaching -- a Ledosian expedition has arrived to conduct scans and evaluate the habitat for development. Barus, the expedition leader, tells Seven she did the Ventu a great favor by lowering the barrier, because now they can benefit from education and technology. On board Voyager, Seven, Chakotay and Janeway debate whether or not the Ventu would be better off losing their isolation, but decide their unique way of life is worth preserving. When Janeway announces to the Ledosian Ambassador her intention to restore the barrier, he protests, but says he will remove his people from the territory. However, when Voyager tries to beam up the deflector assembly, a Ledosian vessel fires and knocks out their transporters. Janeway then contacts Paris, who is still in the Delta Flyer maneuvering through a training course with Mr. Kleg, and gives him encrypted orders. Over Kleg's objections, Paris suddenly peels away from the course and rushes to the planet. He beams up the expedition team, then finds the deflector and vaporizes it with phaser fire, and zooms away a split second before the energy barrier goes back up. Mr. Kleg tells Paris he has failed the course.

Back on board, Seven tells Chakotay she's concerned that the Ledosians may have scanned her deflector modifications and could find a way to remove the barrier themselves. She realizes if she hadn't made those modifications, the Ventu would be safe, but they would still be stranded. All she and Chakotay are sure of is that they're glad to be back on Voyager.

Homestead

Stardate: 54868.6

Neelix is hosting a party to celebrate First Contact Day, the anniversary of the Vulcans' arrival on Earth, when Chakotay interrupts with news that sensors have detected Talaxian lifesigns a few light-years away. The Voyager follows the readings to an asteroid field, so Tom Paris, Tuvok and Neelix take the Delta Flyer to track down the Talaxians. They discover their lifesigns inside a large asteroid, but then an explosion forces the Flyer to crash-land on that asteroid.

Neelix regains consciousness to find a pretty, widowed Talaxian woman named Dexa treating his injuries. She tells him his friends are safe, and that the explosion came from miners who are using charges to break apart asteroids for their mineral resources. Dexa wonders why Neelix is living with aliens, and keeps him locked behind a forcefield. Meanwhile on Voyager, the crew is preparing a rescue mission when Commander Nocona, the leader of the miners, hails them and explains that a mining operation is in progress. He warns Captain Janeway to stay out of the field and says his people will search for the missing crewmembers.

Neelix is visited again by Dexa, this time with Talaxian council regent Oxilon, who tells him he's free to go. While they're willing to let Neelix stay awhile, they want his alien friends to leave as soon as possible, prompting Neelix to take his leave as well. As Dexa escorts him back to the Delta Flyer, Neelix learns that 500 Talaxians live inside the asteroid, which they excavated and developed using technology from their disassembled ships. Neelix rejoins Paris and Tuvok in the Delta Flyer, feeling let down that the encounter with his people fell short of his expectations. As repairs are being completed, an intruder alert reveals that Brax, Dexa's young son, has snuck on board. When Neelix takes the boy back to his mother, he finds her and Oxilon in a confrontation with the miners. Nocona is ordering the Talaxians to evacuate the asteroid so it can be demolished. Dexa stands up to him in defense of her home, and he pushes her aside. In response Brax throws a rock at Nocona, and when the miners attempt to grab the boy Neelix defends him and gets into an altercation with the miners. They reach a standoff, so the miners give the Talaxians three days and leave.

Oxilon is worried that the fight may have made things worse, but Dexa suggests it's time to defend themselves rather than run away. Neelix offers to help out by asking Captain Janeway to negotiate with the miners, and asks Dexa, Oxilon and Brax to visit Voyager. Neelix gives Dexa and Brax a tour of the ship, and while Naomi takes Brax on a holodeck adventure, Neelix and Dexa have dinner together. He learns that her people -- refugees from the Haakonian takeover of Talax -- first settled on a planet called Phanos where they were restricted to a very small area. When her husband attempted to farm outside their allowed zone, he was killed by a government patrol. Then they came to the asteroid, where they thought they wouldn't be bothered. Neelix reassures her there's still hope, and the attraction between them grows.

The next day Janeway leads discussions between Nocona and Oxilon, but the miners won't compromise except to extend their deadline for evacuation. After the failed negotiation, Janeway agrees to ferry the homesteaders and their supplies to the nearest M-class planet. Concerned for their safety, Neelix asks Tuvok for advice on how to devise a defense strategy for the Talaxians' new home. Tuvok proposes that their current home could be defended by a shield perimeter, but with the miners monitoring the asteroid they would need competent leadership to defend against a pre-emptive attack. Tuvok suggests to Neelix that he could be that leader.

With Janeway's blessing, Neelix takes his own ship to the asteroid and proposes to the homesteaders a plan to establish a shield grid, by using their one remaining ship to implant 16 forcefield emitters into the asteroid's surface. The miners will attack, so Neelix will provide cover from his own ship. Oxilon protests that people will get hurt, but Neelix counters that their home is worth defending, and Dexa agrees. As the Talaxians prepare for the operation, Neelix and Dexa share a passionate kiss.

Oxilon pilots the ship that fires the emitters into the asteroid, and as he gets into position to plant the last one, the miners intercept and attack. After Neelix retaliates, the miners start dropping charges to demolish the asteroid. He manages to neutralize one of their charges, but then the miners knock out his weapons, so when the next charge is dropped Neelix attempts to collide with it. But then the Delta Flyer arrives and obliterates the explosive, saving Neelix's life. Janeway contacts him and says they just came to help a friend in distress. The final emitter is planted and Dexa activates the shield, successfully repelling the miners' attacks.

As Neelix says goodbye to his new friends, Brax asks him to stay. After returning to Voyager, and especially after realizing that Naomi is growing up, Neelix finds himself in a dilemma. When he tries to talk to Janeway about it, she offers him a chance to serve as Starfleet's permanent ambassador in the Delta Quadrant. He accepts, and after a touching send-off by the crew, leaves Voyager for good to join his people, and become a family with Dexa and Brax.

Renaissance Man

Stardate: 54890.7

Captain Janeway and the Doctor run into a problem as they travel back from a medical symposium on the Delta Flyer. When Janeway returns to the Voyager, she tells Chakotay that they encountered a race called the R'Kaal who have outlawed conventional warp travel through their territory, and insist on punishing Voyager by dismantling the ship. Janeway says she agreed to surrender their warp core in exchange for letting the crew settle on an M-Class planet. Chakotay is concerned that the captain is giving in so easily, but Janeway insists she's tired of continually risking her people on a slim chance of making it home, and orders Chakotay to set a course for the planet.

Janeway then asks Torres to modify the Flyer's tractor beam so that if the warp core is ejected, it can be safely towed at warp speed. Chakotay learns of this order, and tries to find out from Janeway what's really going on. Janeway acts strangely distant, and retires to her quarters with a "headache." Chakotay visits Sickbay and calls for the Doctor, who beams in from elsewhere on the ship. Chakotay asks him to re-examine Janeway to see what the aliens may have done to her. Later, Chakotay gets a message from Supreme Archon Loth of the R'Kaal Imperium, warning that if Voyager does not surrender its warp core in ten hours, his armada will destroy the ship. Chakotay asks Seven of Nine and Harry Kim to pinpoint the source of that transmission. After finding out from the Doctor that the captain is normal, Chakotay confronts Janeway in her quarters about her decision. He makes up a story about Janeway's past that she pretends to remember, thus exposing her as an imposter. The imposter then overpowers Chakotay and knocks him out with a hypospray injection.

The imposter places the unconscious Chakotay in the ship's morgue and keeps his combadge, then returns to Sickbay and uses the mobile emitter to restore his identity -- the imposter is the Doctor. The Doctor has been hearing the voices of two "Overlooker" aliens -- the species that learned how to tap into the Doctor's perceptual subroutines over a year ago -- and forced to do their bidding because they are holding the real Janeway hostage on their ship. On top of procuring the warp core, Zet, the leader, orders the Doctor to also acquire a series of gel packs. When Tuvok summons Chakotay, the Doctor downloads the commander's holographic template and takes on his identity. Tuvok informs him that the Flyer's com system is not damaged as the captain had reported. Meanwhile Janeway, being held behind a forcefield by the Overlookers, tries to bluff her captors into thinking the Doctor is fooling them, but Zet refuses to abandon his plan because the warp core is worth too much money.

On Voyager, the Doctor, using Janeway's voice, summons B'Elanna Torres to the captain's quarters so he can draw her out of Engineering in order to impersonate her there. While loading up gel packs in a case, the Doctor is approached by Tom Paris, Torres' husband, for a romantic interlude. After that awkward encounter, the Doctor goes to Astrometrics as Chakotay where Seven and Kim reveal that the R'Kaal transmission originated from inside Voyager, specifically Holodeck 2. The disguised Doctor goes there with Kim, who uses residual photonic displacement to find out who was last there. He realizes the R'Kaal was actually a hologram, and the underlying template was that of the Doctor's. Exposed, the Doctor injects Kim with a hypospray, and hides him also in the morgue.

Back in Sickbay, the Doctor talks to the Overlookers while listening to "The Blue Danube" waltz. Tuvok arrives and reveals that he's learned the Doctor downloaded the captain's holographic template while on the Flyer. When the Doctor tries to inject him with a hypospray, Tuvok is ready for the attack. The Doctor leaps through solid objects and grabs his mobile emitter to escape from Sickbay. Tuvok pursues him to a holodeck, where he's faced with a roomful of holographic copies of the Doctor. While Tuvok tries to disable the decoys, the Doctor takes a Jefferies Tube to Engineering and becomes Chakotay again, ordering an evacuation due to an imminent core breach. Paris informs Torres that he's detected the Doctor's emitter in her section, so the Doctor traps Torres behind a forcefield, activates his Emergency Command Hologram protocols and uses his command codes to eject the warp core. The Doctor then makes his way to the Delta Flyer and, using its modified tractor beam, tows the core away at warp speed.

Meanwhile Janeway helps the second Overlooker, Nar, repair a salvaged component, realizing she may be able to take advantage of his friendliness. Zet puts a stop to their interaction, just as the Doctor arrives in the Delta Flyer with the warp core. Zet says he will release the captain in exchange for the core, but instead he beams the Doctor over to their ship and imprisons him with Janeway. Janeway chews out the Doctor for not following her orders to refuse cooperation, but he insists he wouldn't let her be killed.

Back on the stranded Voyager, the crew finds Chakotay and Kim in the morgue and revives them. As they try to figure out how to track down the Flyer, the ship's com system starts playing "The Blue Danube" and won't stop. But the music contains several incorrect notes, so the crew realizes it was altered intentionally. Seven analyzes the harmonics and finds a pattern that appears to be a warp signature. She scans for that signature and finds it 6.7 light-years away. Since Voyager doesn't have warp, Tuvok and Paris take a shuttle to that location.

The Overlookers, meanwhile, decide to use the Doctor to infiltrate their Hierarchy's Surveillance Complex to steal valuable information, and start uploading new data and holographic templates into his matrix. When the Doctor takes on the form of an Overlooker, he starts to destabilize and has a hard time staying in one form. At that point Tuvok and Paris arrive in the shuttle to take back the Delta Flyer, and they get into a phaser fight with the Overlookers. Zet decides to jettison Voyager's warp core and detonate it, and Nar realizes that would kill the people in the other ships. Janeway and the Doctor escape from behind the forcefield and, while the Doctor struggles with Zet, Janeway works the controls to transport the warp core back out into space, allowing Paris to reclaim it with the Flyer. Zet asks Nar to help him overpower the hologram, but Nar chooses to knock out Zet instead, putting an end to the struggle.

In danger of permanently decompiling because of the excess subroutines, the Doctor is rushed back to Voyager where Torres and Seven try to stabilize his matrix. Certain he won't survive, the Doctor starts making several "deathbed confessions" to the crew, include the revelation that he's in love with Seven. But then Torres succeeds in saving his program, ensuring a long life for the highly embarrassed Doctor.

Endgame

Stardate: 54973.4

It is the 10th anniversary of the Voyager's triumphant return to Earth after 23 years in the Delta Quadrant. Kathryn Janeway is an admiral, Harry Kim is a starship captain, Tom Paris is a full-time holonovelist, and the Doctor is married to a human woman and has named himself "Joe." At a reunion party, Admiral Janeway talks with B'Elanna Torres, who is now Federation Liaison to the Klingon High Council, about arranging a political favor for a Klingon named Korath. Later, the admiral serves as guest lecturer in Commander Reginald Barclay's Starfleet Academy class about the Borg, but when a cadet asks a question about Seven of Nine, Janeway evades the subject. She's pulled away from class to receive a message from Ensign Miral Paris, the daughter of Torres and Paris, who is on a secret mission to arrange some sort of exchange between the admiral and Korath.

Admiral Janeway stops to say goodbye to Tuvok at his hospital room where he is suffering a neurological disorder that has destroyed his mind, telling him she may never come back. She then has the Doctor over to her apartment and asks him to procure for her a supply of Chronexaline, an experimental drug that can protect biomatter from tachyon radiation, for "classified" reasons. She arranges to get some downloaded information and a shuttle from Commander Barclay, and finally she visits Chakotay's gravesite, promising that when she's through things will be better for everyone.

Twenty-six years earlier, when Voyager is still in the Delta Quadrant, the pregnant Torres is having repeated occurrences of false labor, and Seven of Nine is developing a serious romance with Chakotay. Tuvok is concerned when he is defeated by Icheb in Kal-toh, so he visits the Doctor and learns his neurological condition is slowly deteriorating. Seven is playing Kadis-Kot with Neelix by remote when she is interrupted by the detection of high neutrino emissions indicative of a wormhole. Seven later tells the crew that the center of a nearby nebula may contain hundreds of wormholes, any of which could lead to the Alpha Quadrant.

Back in the future, the Doctor visits Tuvok, who has become increasingly agitated about the "disappearance" of Admiral Janeway, and blurts out that she's never coming back. Curious, the Doctor visits Commander Barclay to get in touch with Janeway, and Barclay says simply that she's out of town. But when Barclay starts stammering, which he hasn't done in years, the Doctor knows he's hiding something. Meanwhile Admiral Janeway has taken the shuttle to a moon where she meets up with Miral Paris, who introduces her to the House of Koroth. After dismissing the Ensign, Janeway meets with Korath, who has something for her but demands information on her shuttle's shield modifications. The admiral won't go beyond the original terms of their agreement, so she is shown out.

In the present time, Voyager enters the murky nebula and barely misses colliding with a Borg Cube. Captain Janeway orders the ship out of the nebula, refusing to go back despite Ensign Kim's appeal to not give up on those wormholes. Later, Seven asks the Doctor to perform a procedure he devised to remove a failsafe device in her cortical node, so she can pursue more intimate relationships -- specifically, with Chakotay.

Admiral Janeway tells Korath she's "reconsidered" his offer -- she'll give him the shield emitter, but first she has to inspect the device he's offering. Korath allows her to scan the device, whereupon Janeway attaches a transport enhancer to the device and beams it and herself to the shuttle. The enraged Klingons send one of their futuristic ships to fire upon her, but Janeway deploys a new armor technology around the shuttle that absorbs the phaser blasts. She jumps to warp and escapes, but when she arrives at her destination, she is met with the Federation starship Rhode Island, commanded by Captain Kim, who orders her to stand down. Kim has learned of her plan from the Doctor, who coaxed it out of Barclay, but Janeway insists the consequences are too great if she doesn't follow through, and asks him to trust her judgment one last time. Kim helps her prepare Korath's device -- a chrono-deflector which is now affixed on top of the shuttle -- and realizes it will burn itself out with one use. Janeway already assumed this would be a one-way trip. Unable to talk her out of the scheme, Kim beams back to his ship, and Janeway activates the chrono-deflector. Two Klingon ships decloak and begin firing, and Janeway is unable to deploy the ablative armor. The Rhode Island comes back and distracts the Klingons while Janeway activates a tachyon pulse.

Meanwhile on the present-day Voyager, Seven of Nine and Chakotay are having their first kiss when they are summoned to the Bridge. Some sort of temporal rift is forming in front of the ship, and Klingon weapons fire is being detected. But then a Federation vessel comes through the rift and hails Voyager. Captain Janeway sees the older version of herself on the viewscreen, ordering her to emit an anti-tachyon pulse from the deflector to close the rift before the Klingons come through. Startled, the Captain hesitantly fulfills that order and seals the rift, then asks what the hell is going on. Admiral Janeway says she's come to bring Voyager home. What she doesn't realize is that the Borg Queen is monitoring her transmission. Admiral Janeway beams aboard Voyager and meets her younger self, and is moved to see a healthy Tuvok and Chakotay again. In Janeway's Ready Room, the Admiral reveals to the Captain that Voyager did eventually make it back to Earth after another 16 years, and the ship became a museum on the grounds of the Presidio. But the Admiral came to tell Captain Janeway to take Voyager back to the nebula as a shortcut home, using technology she brought to get past the Borg. The Captain wonders why she would want to tamper with the time-line, but the Admiral asks for her trust. In Sickbay, the Doctor confirms that the Admiral is genetically identical to the Captain, but 26 years older. He has also detected an implant in her brain, which the Admiral reveals the Doctor himself invented in the future to allow her to pilot a vessel with a neural interface. Seven of Nine enters -- to an emotional greeting from the Admiral -- reporting that the armor and weapons technology on the shuttle can be adapted for Voyager, and the Captain orders it done.

The crew busily upgrades the ship with the futuristic technology, and feels optimistic they might actually make it home this time. When Seven takes a break to regenerate, she is visited in her mind by the Borg Queen, who warns her not to let Voyager return to the nebula or it will be destroyed. Seven wakes up violently in her sparking alcove, and upon being cared for by the Doctor, reports the Queen's warning to the two Janeways. The Admiral insists the Borg are 30 years behind compared to the technology and tactics she's brought, so the Captain maintains course for the nebula.

When Voyager approaches the murky nebula, Captain Janeway orders the armor deployed, and the ship's hull is completely covered. Three Borg Cubes engage the starship, but their weapons fire is repelled. They scan the ship, then focus their fire on a specific section of the armor which weakens it. Voyager responds with the launch of transphasic torpedoes, which completely obliterate the Cubes with one or two shots each. Voyager then finds the center of the nebula, where the crew sees a massive Borg structure. Admiral Janeway orders Paris to enter an aperture in the structure, but Captain Janeway belays that order until she gets an explanation. Seven of Nine reveals the structure is a transwarp hub, one of only six in the galaxy. Angered that the Admiral didn't tell her about this, she orders the ship out of the nebula.

The crew learns the hub connects thousands of transwarp conduits to endpoints in every quadrant of the galaxy, perhaps the most significant tactical advantage the Borg have. Captain Janeway wants to know how to destroy it. But Admiral Janeway strongly objects to any such attempt, and insists on taking the ship home before the Collective can counteract the armor and weapons. The Captain pulls the Admiral aside and wonders how she got so cynical, arguing that they have a chance to save millions of lives. The Admiral reminds her of the decision that got her ship stranded in the first place, putting the lives of strangers ahead of her own crew. The Captain is willing to make the same kind of decision, but then the Admiral tells her that Seven of Nine is going to die. And her husband, Chakotay, will never be the same, and neither will Janeway. Along with 22 other casualties, Tuvok will succumb to a degenerative neurological condition that he hasn't told her about. She can prevent all that and get home today safe and sound.

Captain Janeway approaches Tuvok about his condition, and learns he can only be cured by mind-melding with members of his own family. But she also learns that Tuvok would rather destroy the hub than save himself. Even Seven of Nine refuses to listen to the Admiral's argument. In fact, the entire crew agrees that they'll allow their journey to take longer if they can accomplish something they believe in. The Admiral had forgotten how much the crew loved being together, and admits she was wrong to talk the Captain out of something she had set her mind to. But then the Captain proposes that there might be a way to "have their cake and eat it too."

The Admiral boards the shuttle, and the Captain injects her with a hypospray. The Admiral takes the shuttle through one of the hub's apertures and enters the Unicomplex where the Borg Queen resides. Using her neural interface, she enters the mind of the Borg Queen and tries to make a deal with her, in order to save the Voyager crew from themselves. She wants the Queen to send a Cube to tractor Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant, in exchange for telling her how to adapt to the transphasic torpedoes. But the Queen detects the Admiral's shuttle, beams her over and injects her with assimilation tubules. Meanwhile Voyager deploys its armor and enters one of the transwarp hub's apertures. While the Admiral is being assimilated, the Queen orders vessels to intercept Voyager. But she realizes she no longer has control over the Collective. She realizes that when Admiral Janeway was assimilated, she released a neurolytic pathogen into the Collective, designed to bring "chaos to order." While in a transwarp corridor, Voyager launches its transphasic weapons and begins to collapse the transwarp hub. The Borg Queen, meanwhile, begins to literally lose parts of her own body as her Unicomplex begins to crumble in an array of explosions.

In the Alpha Quadrant, Admiral Paris and the present-day Barclay detect a transwarp aperture opening up less than a light-year from Earth, and every ship in range is ordered to converge there. In the collapsing transwarp corridor, a Borg Sphere bears down on Voyager as its armor begins to fail. Captain Janeway orders Lt. Paris to adjust course. The Borg Sphere emerges into the Alpha Quadrant and Starfleet vessels begin firing upon it. But then it explodes in a spectacular fireball, and Voyager emerges from within the debris intact. Admiral Paris welcomes Janeway back home, and she promises him a full report. Meanwhile, a baby is being born in Sickbay -- Tom and B'Elanna's daughter. Paris is dismissed from his duties so that he can meet his new child and Captain Janeway orders Chakotay to take the helm and set a course for home. The Starfleet armada then escorts the long-lost Voyager back to Earth.