A Kobali ship...
	...targets and fires on its pursuer and hails Voyager.
	Mezoti receives the hail in Astrometrics but accidentally cuts it off as she stands on tip-toe to try and connect the caller to the Bridge. (We learn during the exhange that Mezoti is eight years old.) Seven rebukes Mezoti for wandering off and not complying with instructions to stay put. Seven tells Tuvok that she is finding it difficult to maintain order amongst the ex-Borg children.
	The caller makes contact with the Bridge. She claims she is Ensign Lindsay Ballard. But Ballard died three years ago. The stranger exhibits knowledge of the ship and crew e.g. that Ballard died on stardate 51563 and that when she arrives in Sickbay she will be behind a level 10 forcefield. She says she is not offended by the latter: "I'm just glad to be home." Janeway: "She seems to have intimate knowledge of this ship and its crew. I think we should find out who she is." Kim: "Captain, I'd like to come with you. I was very close to Lindsay and if somehow it's her I'll know it."

Ballard: "Harry and I were on our way to a class M planet in the Ventali Expanse, to recover dilithium ore we'd detected a few days earlier. When we landed we realised it was a trap, set by a Hirogen hunting party. They'd reconfigured a power cell to give off false dilithium readings." Kim: "That's exactly what happened." Ballard: "Harry and I headed back to the shuttle. We were ten feet away when I was hit by a neural disrupter. Harry said my injury wasn't that bad - he always was a terrible liar." Kim: "I tried to get Lindsay back to Voyager, but she was already dead - we buried her in space."

Janeway: "Go on with your story."
Ballard: "I woke up on a ship in a stasis chamber surrounded by aliens. They told me they'd used their technology to re-animate me. I didn't believe them when they said I'd died but they showed me visual scans of my corpse torpedo case. The Kobali said I'd been buried in been drifting for weeks."
Janeway: "Kobali?"
Ballard: "If you ever met them, you'd remember - they look just like this. After the re-animation process they spent months altering my DNA. They were constantly scanning me, injecting me-"
Kim: "Just to make you look like one of them?"
Ballard: "That's how they procreate. They salvage the dead of other races. I was given a Kobali name and placed with a family to help me acclimate."
Janeway: "You were a prisoner."
Ballard: "At first. I wanted to contact you, to tell you I was safe, but the Kobali wouldn't let me. They said you were part of my 'kintsdiker' - my past life - and that I needed to forget you, all of you. So I spent two years letting my new family think I'd accepted them. When I finally earned their trust I stole a shuttle and started looking for Voyager. That was 6 months ago. They've been chasing me ever since."
Doctor: "In spite of her appearance, I'm detecting traces of human DNA. I've compared them with the genetic sample from Ensign Ballard's file."

Janeway: "Until we find evidence to the contrary, welcome home." Janeway leaves Kim and Ballard alone together. They are very pleased to see each other again as they were best friends, and they hug warmly.

In the Briefing Room Janeway formally welcomes Ballard back. Neelix reports that he has retrieved Ballard's personal belongings. Torres tells Ballard that her old post in Engineering awaits her. Janeway says they can assume the Kobali want Ballard back as much as they, Voyager, want to keep her. Janeway orders Tuvok to look at ways of defending against a Kobali attack - later Janeway tells Ballard that Tuvok, after examining Ballard's shuttle, presented her, Janeway, with 37 different ways of repelling a Kobali attack. Ballard: "Thank you for saying those nice things about me." Janeway: "You seem surprised." Ballard: "To be honest I never thought you'd noticed me." Janeway: "My mistake."

	Ballard tells Kim that while she was away from Voyager she made up a list of things she wanted to do or improve on. The following transpire during the story: 6 Eat a Jibalian berry salad. 16 Dazzle Lieutenant Torres. 26 Hearing Kim play music again. 27 Show up on time for duty. 32 Make Tuvok laugh.
	In the Messhall Neelix sets up the game board.
	The other children arrive. Neelix tries to get Seven to have a cup of tea with him while the children play. Seven thanks him but insists her supervisory presence is required. Seven interrupts the start of a conversation between Naomi and Mezoti - Naomi says she likes Mezoti's braid - because, as Seven informs Neelix: "I've allotted one hour for recreational activity. There's no time for irrelevant conversation."
	Seven: "Fun will now commence."
	Azan and Rebi exchange thoughts.
	Naomi tells Neelix Azan and Rebi are cheating. Mezoti explains Azan is using his neural interface to share information. Seven tells the twins: "You will exercise punishment protocol 9-alpha." Dutifully they go and stand by the window, away from everyone.

Indignant, Icheb says: "If they cannot participate, neither will I." Seven: "You are encouraging disorder." Icheb: "And you never let us do what we want!" Seven: "You will exercise punishment protocol 9-alpha." Icheb: "No, I won't!" He leaves.