TWISTED
Episode 29

 

SUMMARY: A powerful and mysterious anomaly leaves the Voyager crew lost on their own ship. The crew hold a surprise birthday party for Kes' second birthday in the Chez Sandrine holoprogram. Paris gives Kes a locket, arousing Neelix's jealousy. at Kes' birthday party, Neelix presents her with a cake he has baked; Paris gives her a locket he has replicated On the Bridge, acting captain Tuvok is about to grant Kim special leave of absence to attend the party when suddenly Voyager encounters a peculiar spatial distortion wave in space, which surrounds the ship. The phenomenon generates intense pulses of EM radiation and penetrates the shields, coming into direct contact with the ship. the distortion as seen on the Bridge's main viewscreen It disables the vessel's main systems, including communications, causing the birthday party to be interrupted, and collapses the warp field causing the warp engines to go offline. It also seems to change Voyager's structural layout. As a result, Janeway is unable to reach the Bridge, Torres cannot reach Engineering, and everyone in the crew is confused and frustrated. Finding a small group of crewmembers near the holodeck where the Chez Sandrine program is still running, Janeway calls an impromptu meeting in the holodeck to discuss their situation. Then Paris and Torres team up to find Engineering, while Chakotay, Neelix, and Janeway and Kim pair off to locate the Bridge. Kes and the Doctor await word in Sandrine's. Paris and Torres manage to reach their goal but the others do not. En route, Neelix confides to Chakotay that he is concerned about his (Neelix's) jealousy (over Kes and Paris) and Chakotay dispenses some wise words. Chakotay finds Tuvok, who has left the Bridge in Lieutenant Ayala's charge, but loses Neelix. In a Jefferies tube with Kim, Janeway is nearly dragged into an internal distortion by an unseen electromagnetic force. Janeway's arm is caught by an internal distortion Kim rescues Janeway and he gets her back to the holodeck where she loses consciousness. The spatial distortion continues to squeeze the ship, and Tuvok estimates that the unstoppable ring will crush the vessel in little more than an hour. the ship's new layout, as displayed on a monitor With Janeway still unconscious, Chakotay takes command. Torres attempts to trigger a warp shock pulse to save the ship, which involves raising the pressure of the warp core, but instead of dispersing the spatial ring, it pulls it in even faster, surrounding Engineering and even the sanctuary in Sandrine's. With Neelix, Kes and the senior officers now back in Sandrine's, lacking any other options, Tuvok advises the crew to do nothing and allow the anomaly to twist its way through the bar. They are all feeling vulnerable - the ship, which is very familiar to them, has become a stranger, and now a phenomenon may soon end their lives. They prepare for the worst. in the Chez Sandrine holoprogram, the crew prepare for the worst as the distortion approaches But the distortion moves through them without harming them. the distortion moves through the holodeck Afterwards, Janeway regains consciousness and explains that the distortion was trying to communicate with them. The distortion ring entity leaves the ship as it originally found it, with no damage, then moves out into space. In its wake, the crew discovers that it left an enormous quantity of new information, 20 million gigaquads' worth, in the ship's computer database. The feeling of earlier vulnerability vanishes, especially now the phenomenon is shown to have been a benevolent being. Kes asks Neelix for a picture of himself to go in her locket, and he presents her with her birthday cake. The birthday party resumes! Kes' birthday party resumes      CHAKOTAY: Nothing makes us more vulnerable than when we love someone. We can be hurt very easily, but I've always believed that what you get when you love someone is greater than what you risk.