03/09/1997        Scorpion (Part 2)

Stardate: 51003.7

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.

10/09/1997        The Gift

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.

17/09/1997        Day Of Honour

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.

The EMH does not appear in this episode

24/09/1997        Nemesis

Stardate: 51082.4 - 51096.5

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.

Seven doesn't appear in this episode

01/10/1997        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.

08/10/1997        The Raven

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.

29/10/1997        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.

05/11/1997        Year Of Hell (Part 1)

Stardate: 51251.3

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…

12/11/1997        Year Of Hell (Part 2)

Stardate: 51682.2

Badly damaged, the U.S.S. 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.

19/11/1997        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.

26/11/1997        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.

17/12/1997        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.

14/01/1998        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.

21/01/1998        Message In A Bottle

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 U.S.S. 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.

11/02/1998        Hunters

Stardate: 51501.4

When Starfleet Command sends a transmission to the U.S.S. 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 fiancé 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.

18/02/1998        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.

25/02/1998        Retrospect

Stardate: 51679.4 - 51688.2

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.

Neelix does not appear in this episode

04/03/1998        The Killing Game (TV Movie)

Stardate: 51715.2

The Hirogen have taken over the U.S.S. 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.

08/04/1998        Vis À 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.

15/04/1998        The Omega Directive

Stardate: 51781.2 - 51793.4

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.

22/04/1998        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.

Torres does not appear in this episode

29/04/1998        Living Witness

The U.S.S. 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.

B'Elanna

06/05/1998        Demon

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.

13/05/1998        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.

20/05/1998        Hope And Fear

Stardate: 51978.2 - 51981.6

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 U.S.S. 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.