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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. |
