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 At the end of their duty shift on the Bridge, Paris puts jovial pressure on Kim to join him on a double date with the Delaney sisters who work in Stellar Cartography. Kim tells him that he has a girl back home; Paris counters by saying he has five. Suddenly, Voyager is shaken by a huge shockwave which causes minor damage to the hull on deck 3. In her quarters, Kes is startled awake as she senses some kind of enormous catastrophe somewhere.  The crew investigates the origins of the shockwave, arriving at a nearby M-class planet in a red dwarf system. A cataclysmic polaric explosion has very recently extinguished all life on the planet. It is explained that polaric energy is not used because of its inherent dangers - the Chalok IV incident, in which a Romulan research colony was destroyed during the tests of a polaric device, led to the Polaric Test Ban Treaty of 2268. Kes is drawn to the Bridge by her disturbing vision.
part of the away team among ruins on the devastated planet | An away team beams down to the planet to investigate in depth. There they find the remains of what appeared to be a pre-warp civilisation destroyed by a chain reaction of polaric ion explosions. On Voyager, Kes is distressed, for she sensed the moment the whole planet's populace died. For a brief moment, as he finds a timepiece giving the exact time and date of the explosion, Paris suddenly glimpses some people of the planet - alive and well, when the planet had not been devastated. They determine that the explosions also fractured subspace and he had seen into the past. Before the full away team can safely beam back to the ship, Paris and Janeway are caught in a subspace fracture and transported back in time to the day before the explosion. |
Paris glimpses the past - a thriving population. |
Janeway and Paris end up in the past. |
A young boy is frightened by their sudden appearance and tries to persuade a nearby security officer that Janeway and Paris are not the innocuous tourists from Kalto Province that they pretend to be.
The young boy points out Janeway and
Paris to a security officer. |
Janeway and Paris persuade the officer they
are harmless tourists from Kalto Province. |
native time-piece | Paris sees a timepiece, which indicates that they have gone back in time to a day before the destructive explosion. Paris feels they should warn the populace that they are on the eve of destruction, but Janeway orders him not to, citing Starfleet's Prime Directive which stipulates non-interference. At a shop the two exchange their Starfleet uniforms for native garb to avoid being conspicuous. They are challenged by the young boy again, who is now very curious about them, and Paris manages to scare him away for the time being. |
Janeway and Paris in native outfits, with their
Starfleet uniforms on sale in the shop
in the background |
the young boy fearlessly challenges Janeway and
Paris, having checked up on their claim to have arrived
on the Continental Transport from Kalto Province |
 Janeway and Paris decide that polaric ion energy conduits, which run under every street and into every home on the planet, might help them in their bid to be located by and returned to Voyager and the correct timeline. Accordingly, they head for a polaric ion power station while the inquisitive boy secretly follows them. At the power station, Janeway and Paris become caught up in a clash between the authority's security personnel guarding the power station and a group of protesters who rightly believe the power station is a danger to the environment.  The protest deteriorates from a peaceful one as the protesters surge forward, and the guards fire into the air and beat back the protestors with batons. One guard mistakes Janeway for a protester and knocks her to the ground. The leader of the protesters, Makull, helps Janeway from the area. She is suffering from a head wound.
Meanwhile, Kes visits the Doctor for a medical examination. He tells her she is physically and probably mentally fit. When he explains that Kes' brain is not on file, it is at this rather belated point in the voyage that the learns for the first time about a Maquis crew joining Voyager. This is something he should have been informed of because it is the Chief Medical Officer's responsibility to update the crew medical records. The Doctor helps Kes realise that her latent Ocampan psychic abilities seem to have been sensitised by the explosion.
 Kim and Torres demonstrate for Tuvok and Chakotay a polaric generator which uses the same polaric energy that destroyed the planet. When directed at intense levels, it can open a subspace fracture, with the intention of locking onto a subspace signal they feel certain Janeway and Paris would set up and thereby bring the pair forward into the correct timeline. However, the device burns itself out in thirty seconds, and the damage to subspace renders it useless for more than one attempt in any given location. Torres has put together devices, to be worn on the arm, that will protect the wearer from slipping through other subspace fractures. Chakotay gives the go-ahead for the polaric generator and the arm-band devices to be used on the planet, and agrees to Kes' request that she accompany the away team in order to try and help them track Janeway and Paris' movements in the past.
Makull | The away team tracks a combadge signal to a private house, and Kes' psychic sense confirms that Janeway was there. They set up the polaric generator and lock onto the trace. In the past, Makull and his associate Terla are suspicious of Janeway and Paris, catching them out in their lie that they come from Kalto Province. A radiation measuring device indicates that Janeway and Paris have actually recently been in an area of massive polaric radiation, such as the power plant. Janeway fails to convince Makull and Terla that they are not spies from the government which is intent on stopping the protests. |
Terla's discovery that Janeway and Paris have exposed to high levels of polaric radiation turns Janeway and Paris into prisoners, suspected of being government spies sent to infiltrate the protest group.
 The young boy, who has followed them, is found and brought in. He has checked Janeway's and Paris' cover story about Kalto Province and proven it to be false, which confirms Makull's growing suspicions. While Makull ponders developments, Paris starts befriending the young boy, whose name is Latika. Since it appears that their presence on the planet may have resulted in the explosion, Janeway thinks they may have inadvertently broken the Prime Directive, making them responsible for setting things right. She therefore tries to tell the full truth to Makull, but he refuses to believe such an implausible story. The protestors' refusal to believe her is only strengthened when the away team is able to get a garbled communication to Janeway's combadge. Terla takes away her combadge and that of Paris, leaving them on the table. Makull brings forward the protesters' plan to sabotage the power station. He packs a bag with specialist sabotage equipment including a particle injector, and orders Paris, Janeway and Latika brought along as he has a use for them. In the future, the polaric generator succeeds in cutting through subspace, almost reaching the now non-operational combadges, but miss Janeway and Paris by seconds.
The away team operate the polaric generator. |
The polaric generator's beam reaches toward the
combadges but Janeway and Paris are not there. |
 Unable to track Janeway and Paris, Chakotay acts on the hunch that Janeway would have tried to reach the flashpoint of the polaric explosion. In the past, Makull orders Janeway to get his group past the security at the gate of the power station, telling her that Terla will shoot Latika is she does not co-operate. Janeway gambles and tells the guard that she is a hostage and that the others are there to break into the plant. Makull and his group open fire on the guards. Latika flees. When Terla aims his gun to shoot him, Paris leaps to defend him and takes the bullet meant for the boy.
Terla fires at Latika... |
...but Paris, leaping to defend him, takes the bullet instead. |
 Makull hurries his group inside the plant, leaving Janeway and Latika with a wounded Paris. Janeway promises to return and, leaving Paris in the company of his new friend Latika, pursues the saboteurs.
Janeway manages to creep up close to the saboteurs without being detected, and notices that they are absorbed in work behind maintenance access panels, with the bag on the floor behind them.  When Makull goes to fetch vital equipment from it, Janeway steps forward, points a gun at him and orders him to hand her the bag. He refuses, replying that she dare not fire the weapon there as it would cause a polaric energy detonation. She says they will wait until a moment past the time of the explosion that will destroy the world, believing that this stopping Makull from carrying out his planned sabotage will prevent the disaster.
 One day in the future, the away team trace the flashpoint of the explosion to the same room where Janeway, Makull and the saboteurs were. Kes' psychic sense confirms that this was where Janeway died.  They set up the polaric generator and cut through subspace to find Janeway and Paris. In the past, Janeway sees their polaric beam moments before the explosion is due to take place. Makull comments that the beam will intersect with the conduit wall. This suddenly makes Janeway realise that it was not the protesters who caused the accident, but the away team's rescue attempt!
She persuades Makull to let her use her phaser, which he has brought along in the bag. It is the only thing that can save them. She sends out a phaser beam to meet the impact of the polaric beam. After the polaric beam shorts out the polaric generator, Janeway continues to fire the phaser, and thus succeeds in sealing the opening.
Janeway sends a phaser beam to intercept the polaric beam and she successfully seals the subspace fracture.
 This resets time. The polaric explosion never occurs, hence nor does the damage to the hull on Voyager's deck 3, nor any of the adventures of the Voyager crew on the planet as described above. As Paris tries to persuade Kim to join him on a double date with the Delaney sisters, Kes comes to the Bridge after being woken by a sense that something important has happened to a nearby planet. Janeway explains that, as the M-class planet, which has a sizeable living population, has a pre-warp civilisation, Starfleet policy is not to make contact. To reassure herself completely, Kes asks to see the planet. Janeway has it displayed on the main viewscreen, and Kes is satisfied.
 | | JANEWAY ABOUT POLARIC ION ENERGY: A timebomb underneath every street, running into every home. |
| | DOCTOR: But I seem to be the last to know just about everything about here. So, tell me, just how many other new arrivals are there?
NEELIX: Just us.
KES: And the crew from another ship that was destroyed. |
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