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In a vast alien metropolis on a
planet called Quarra, Kathryn Janeway enters a power
distribution plant and reports in to a shift supervisor, who
takes her to a workstation and explains her task. Janeway has
taken a job among a multi-species workforce with no recollection
of her previous life as captain of Voyager. When she has trouble
working the controls, another worker named Jaffen comes over to
help and tries to befriend her. They are chastened for
fraternizing by Seven of Nine, who knows herself as "Annika
Hansen" (her human name), the new Efficiency Monitor. Jaffen
doesn't return to his station until he invites Janeway to go out
for a meal after work, but she turns him down.
Meanwhile, Tom Paris — also
unaware of who he really is — gets himself hired in a local
tavern to wait and bus tables. That night Jaffen is in the
tavern telling an anecdote to some friends, and he gets an
uproarious laugh from Tuvok, whose behavior is very atypical.
Janeway comes in, supposedly to eat alone while she studies
manuals, but Jaffen joins her, and he ends up walking her home.
They live in the same building, and he invites her to his place;
she turns him down.
The next day, Janeway learns that all the workers must
periodically receive inoculations to protect them against
radiation. As a squeamish Tuvok is getting injected, he has a
flashback of himself in his Starfleet uniform, struggling
against a Quarren doctor giving him an injection. The strange
memory leaves him trembling and perspiring.
All this time Chakotay, Harry Kim and Neelix have been in the
Delta Flyer on a trading mission with the Nar Shaddan. When they
return, Voyager is not at the rendezvous point. The starship is
disabled inside a nebula, and the Doctor is the only crew member
on board and is trying to make repairs. When the others find the
ship and come aboard, the Doctor explains what happened: Voyager
hit a subspace mine which deluged the ship with poisonous
tetrion radiation, so Captain Janeway ordered the crew into
escape pods, leaving the Doctor in charge of the ship as the
Emergency Command Hologram. The Doctor then had to fend off
scavengers trying to claim the abandoned vessel, and hid inside
the nebula. He since discovered that the subspace mine was a
deliberate attempt to disable Voyager. And he hasn't heard a
word from the rest of the crew.
At the power plant, Tuvok has another flashback: He and Janeway
were brought into a Quarren medical facility where a Dr. Kadan
claimed to be treating Janeway for "Dysphoria Syndrome"; when
Tuvok demanded her release, Kadan had him restrained and
"inoculated." Shaken by this flashback, Tuvok approaches Janeway
and says they know each other, that perhaps they met in the
hospital, but she has no recollection of a hospital or of
knowing him prior to her job. He gives up as Jaffen steps in,
who makes dinner plans with Janeway. Meanwhile, Torres is
sitting alone in the tavern, and Paris tries to get to know her.
He asks to get together with her, but she reveals that she's
pregnant, although unmarried, and leaves. The four people aboard
Voyager complete repairs and begin searching for their crew. Kim
finds them on a class-M planet less than three days away, and
they set course. Janeway and Jaffen have their date, where
dinner is a disaster. But it doesn't matter — they fall in love
and kiss.
Voyager arrives at Quarra and Chakotay speaks with an ambassador
who will not allow him to communicate with his crewmates. The
ambassador says they are leading safe, comfortable lives there,
and any attempt to disturb them would be met with force. Neelix
learns there is a severe labor shortage in the Quarren system,
so Chakotay gets the idea of applying for jobs themselves so
they can infiltrate the plant where their people are working.
Because he has spoken with authorities and could be recognized,
Chakotay has the Doctor alter his features to look non-human,
and he and Neelix prepare to go to the planet undercover, with
subdermal transponders that will allow them to transport through
the shield grid.
At the power plant, "Annika Hansen" orders Tuvok to go get the
inoculations that he's been neglecting. Tuvok speaks her Borg
name — "Seven of Nine" — and tries to mind-meld with her to make
her remember herself. But security guards grab him and take the
desperate Vulcan away. Chakotay secures a job at the plant and
immediately approaches Janeway. She doesn't recognize him, so
Chakotay continues the ruse of being a happy new employee.
Neelix runs into Paris at the tavern, keeping up the same ruse,
unable to jar his friend's memory. After Chakotay meets up with
Neelix, they follow Torres in the streets and grab her. Kim
beams Neelix and the struggling Torres up to Sickbay, where the
Doctor tries to help her. Meanwhile Jaffen asks Janeway to move
in with him, and she agrees. Tuvok is in the Quarren hospital
where Dr. Kadan tells him he's experiencing "Dysphoria Syndrome"
and will feel better after an injection. Chakotay is being
pursued by security guards, but Kim can't beam him up because
the ship has fallen under attack. The guards chase Chakotay
through the facility up to a precipice overlooking the massive
city, and he finds himself trapped. |
