| In Kim's quarters, Kim is performing a clarinet piece for Paris. Suddenly his next door neighbour bangs three times on the wall.
Kim calls out: "Sorry!" Paris: "Obviously Ensign Baytart doesn't appreciate music." Kim: "It's the darn fluid conduits running through the walls. They conduct sound. You'd think when they designed this thing, they would have-" Paris: "The ship was built for combat performance, Harry, not musical performance. Nobody figured we'd be taking any long trips." Kim: "Where am I supposed to practice?" Paris: "How about the cargo bay?" Kim: "Bad acoustics." Paris: "We could get Baytart transferred to the night shift." Kim: "We couldn't do that. Could we?" Paris: "So now you have an excuse to give your mother why you didn't practice while you were gone." Kim: "Look, I'm trying to prepare for an important performance." Paris: "Oh, really? Are we scheduled to rendezvous with the Delta Quadrant Symphony Orchestra?" Kim: "No. Susan Nicoletti and I have been working on a new orchestral program for the Holodeck." Paris: "Lieutenant Nicoletti, the one I've been chasing for six months, cold hands, cold heart?" Kim: "Not when she plays the oboe." Chakotay makes a shipwide broadcast via comms: "Chakotay to all senior officers: please report to the Bridge." Paris: "You know, Harry, I've always wanted to learn how to play the drums." Kim chuckles. They leave and head for the Bridge. |
 | The planet, shown on the main viewscreen of Voyager's bridge. |
| Tuvok: "I am picking up communication satellites in orbit. They're non-functional."
Janeway: "Mr Paris, take us in a little closer. Mr Kim, scan the surface." Neelix: "Captain, this used to be a major trading spot." Janeway: "How long ago?" Neelix: "I'm not sure exactly. If I had to guess-" Kim: "The EM signature indicates that a major solar flare occurred here nineteen years ago." Neelix continues: "-I'd say about nineteen years, more or less." Chakotay: "Looks like a glacial freeze." Janeway: "Caused by a solar flare that radically changed the weather patterns." Kim: "It did a lot more than that. They were hit by magnetic storms and extreme levels of radiation." Chakotay: "Those glaciers are receding." Kim: "The biosphere seems to be recovering." Paris: "Did anyone survive?" Kim: "Scanning the settlement. There's evidence of advanced technology, warp reactors, subspace transmitters, but no lifesigns." Paris: "Maybe they saw it coming and evacuated the planet." Tuvok: "Indications are that any attempt at an evacuation would have been prevented by the atmospheric disturbances." Janeway: "What was the estimated population?" Tuvok: "Approximately four hundred thousand." Kim: "Captain, I'm picking up something from the surface. I think we're being hailed." Chakotay: "I thought you said there weren't any lifesigns?" Kim: "There aren't. I scanned the entire surface. Must be an automated signal." Janeway: "Let's hear it." The image of an alien man appears on the viewscreen: "I am Viorsa, planner for the Kohl settlement. Your sensors have activated this message. By now you must be aware of the catastrophic disaster that has destroyed our home. A few of us have managed to survive in a state of artificial hibernation, programmed to end in fifteen years from the date this was recorded. At that time, when the eco-recovery has begun, we will attempt to rebuild our settlement. Please, do nothing to interrupt our timetable."  viewscreen (with bridge background sound)
Chakotay: "Their timetable was supposed to end four years ago." Paris: "Looks like they didn't make it." Janeway: "Mr Kim, wouldn't your scans have picked up suppressed metabolic activity?" Kim: "I would think so, Captain, unless....." He checks the scanners. "Checking below the surface. Nothing one kilometre down. Two kilometres. Wait a minute. I think I've got something 2.3 kilometres down - extremely faint bio-signatures. Three humanoids." Janeway: "Can you detect a malfunction in their systems, something to explain why they didn't wake up on schedule?" Kim: "Not at this distance, but I am picking up two more humanoids at the same location who are dead." Janeway: "Are there any automated security systems? We triggered a 'do not disturb' sign. I don't want to set off anything worse." Tuvok: "No weapons of any kind, Captain. It is safe to transport the hibernation pods to Voyager, if that is your intent." Janeway: "It is. Prepare to beam them to Cargo Bay 1. Mr Kim, you're with me." Via comms: "Janeway to Kes. Report to Cargo Bay 1. Bring your medical gear." Kes, via comms: "Aye, Captain." |
 | The hibernation pods are beamed into Cargo Bay 1. Kes scans them with a tricorder. |
 | The materialised hibernation pods. |
 | Kes reports: "Two humanoids dead, three humanoids in deep stasis, lifesigns apparently stable." |
 | Janeway wipes one of the windows and sees Viorsa. "Our messenger." |
 | She wipes another - the occupant is dead. Wondering why the body is decomposed, she asks: "Did the system break down?" |
 | Kim: "Not that I can see. I'm not reading any pathway failures in the hibernation pods. The circuitry all seems to be functioning. Looks like their brains are interconnected in a complex sensory system controlled by this computer. According to these indicators, Captain, their minds are active." |
 | Janeway: "Active? What do you mean?"
Kim: "The encephalographic readings suggest they're dreaming, but there's some kind of interactivity with the computer. It's not just scanning their brain functions, it's sending a data stream back to them as well." |
 | Janeway: "Could it be generating an artificial environment of some sort?"
Kes: "Artificial environment?" Janeway: "Years ago, Starfleet used a technology to assist deep space travel that kept the body in stasis, but provided a mental landscape to keep the mind active and alert." Kes: "That sounds like a pretty good way to wait out a planetary disaster." Kim: "For the moment, it's as good a theory as any." Janeway: "So what went wrong? Why are they still in there?" |
 | The senior staff are meeting in the Briefing Room. They examine the technical data they have about the Kohl computer system, which is displayed on the wall monitor. |
| Kim: "The system was supposed to bring these people out of hibernation four years ago. However, it wasn't left entirely to the computer. The programmers obviously wanted the people in the system to decide for themselves when it would be safe to come out. This was accomplished by a subroutine that periodically displayed atmospheric conditions to them."
Janeway: "So they should have known years ago that the biosphere had recovered." Kim: "Exactly. This subroutine has remained available to these people since it was activated four years ago. It's literally an escape hatch." Tuvok: "Perhaps it has malfunctioned." Kim: "No. That's what's so odd about this. As far as I can tell, it's working perfectly." Torres: "Then why don't they get themselves out?" Kim: "I don't know." Paris: "Maybe they like it in there." The Doctor appears on the wall monitor. "I don't think so." Janeway: "Doctor." Doctor: "The two victims died from massive heart failure, and there was evidence of prior neural trauma." Neelix: "I'm sorry. What does that mean?" Doctor: "It could be evidence of extreme fear." Neelix: "Maybe it was caused by the panic that accompanies a heart attack." Kes: "The readings suggest an extended period of mental stress." Chakotay: "Sounds like we ought to get them out right away." Doctor: "Surely, Commander, you're not suggesting we simply unplug them?" Chakotay: "Why not?" Doctor: "Because you have three brains whose survival has depended upon careful monitoring by a sophisticated computer system for nineteen years." Kim: "The Doc is right. I have no idea how to disconnect them without causing neural damage. I just don't know the system well enough." Tuvok: "They know the system. Why don't we ask them how to proceed?" Paris: "How can we do that - implant a com-link into their brains?" Tuvok: "We already have a means of communication: the two unoccupied pods." Kim: "We could add a backup life support system, using our own computer and medical stasis technology." Chakotay: "If the only way to help those people is to go in and find out from them what's wrong, I don't see any alternative." Janeway: "Neither do I." |
In the cargo bay, Kim and Torres are in two of the hibernation pods, the dead bodies having been removed.
 | Kes: "I'll be monitoring your mental and physical functions. If we detect any unusual activity, you'll be transferred onto our life support system and resuscitated." |  |
 | Janeway: "We've tapped into the system's recall subroutine program. I'll give you five minutes to look around, then I'm bringing you back. Consider this a test run."
Torres: "Understood." |
 | Kes: "Inducing primary stasis. Autonomic nervous system link is secure." |
 | Janeway: "They're connecting to the system." |  |
 | Kim and Torres 'awaken'.
Torres: "Looks like we made it." Kim: "How do you feel?" Torres: "Normal." They are startled to find themselves in a brightly hued surrealistic fantasy land. |
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