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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.
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