|
As the U.S.S. Voyager approaches a
planet with extremely high revolutions, the ship enters a
gravometric gradient, pulling it into orbit. A tachyon core has
created a space-time differential, meaning that a second on
Voyager is a day on the planet. On the planet, much time has
already passed since the initial sighting of the "star" which
was believed to be a deity.
When Seven of Nine receives a
transmission from the planet, the message, now centuries old,
tells the crew they have insinuated themselves into the planet's
mythology. For centuries, this pre-warp society has endured
ground shaking brought about by this "sky ship." Unwilling to
throw their civilization's belief system into chaos by making
first contact, Captain Janeway sends the Doctor on an undercover
mission to gather clues that may help Voyager break orbit. His
holomatrix will be unaffected by the differential. As Janeway
prepares to beam him back, she loses his signal.
Once they recover the Doctor, three years have passed on the
planet. He alerts Janeway that Voyager has encouraged much
invention through the centuries. The inhabitants are in a space
race to make contact. Using the Doctor's data to realign
thrusters, the crew attempts to break orbit, but stops when it
increases seismic activity. A shuttle from the planet docks on
Voyager, and the visitors find the crew in what appears to be a
metabolic stasis. Because of the time differential, they are
seeing less than a second on board the ship, causing them to
think the crew is not moving. When Janeway resumes motion, the
visitors have collapsed on the bridge.
The surviving pilot explains that he has grown up in awe of the
"sky ship," even praying to it as a child. Although any time he
spends on Voyager means losing years of his life at home, he
agrees to help them interpret the Doctor's data and find a way
to break out of orbit. As Seven scans the planet's surface, she
detects that they are now experimenting with warp technology.
Soon, Voyager is under attack from antimatter torpedoes.
Janeway sends the pilot back to his planet with Voyager's
specifications, hoping that he can convince his people to find a
way to help them break orbit. After several more attacks, but
more than a year since the pilot returned to his planet, two
ships materialize next to Voyager and use a tractor beam to pull
it out of orbit. Using a temporal compensator his planet has
devised, the pilot returns to Voyager one more time to say
goodbye before the "sky ship" is gone forever. |
