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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. |
