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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.
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