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SUMMARY: The discovery of a wormhole in deep space raises the crew's hopes of finding a shortcut home.
the microwormhole, displayed on the Bridge's viewscreen |
When Ensign Kim finds a wormhole that might lead to the Alpha Quadrant, the crew believes they may have found a rapid route home. Although the opening to the tunnel in space proves too small for Voyager to fly through, Janeway decides to launch a microprobe into it to investigate what is on the other side. |
To Kim's disappointment, the probe gets stuck in a gravitational eddy before it makes it all the way through, but he is surprised by readings indicating the probe is being scanned by someone on the other side. Janeway transmits a message through the probe, hoping it will be picked up by whoever is scanning it. Before long, they receive a subspace response, from the Alpha Quadrant, 70,000 light years away!
In the meantime, Kes begins working closely with the Doctor in Sickbay. She is surprised by how rudely Voyager's crewmembers treats him because he is "only a hologram", which she sees for herself when she witnesses Lieutenant Walter Baxter's manner during treatment. Accordingly she visits Janeway in the Captain's Ready Room and asks for the Doctor to be treated with the same respect as crewmembers. Janeway replies that she will look into it, and later visits Sickbay. She tells the Doctor he should begin thinking of himself as a member of the crew. She will also give him control over his own deactivation sequence, giving him his first taste of independence.
Kes discusses the Doctor with Janeway |
Janeway discusses the situation with the Doctor |
When Voyager finally succeeds in achieving voice contact with the Alpha Quadrant ship, they discover that it is a Romulan vessel, a science vessel called the Talvath with one crewmember. Janeway, who has gone to bed by this time, talks to the Romulan captain via the audio link from her private quarters, looking out to the stars of the Delta Quadrant so far from where the Romulan is. He declines to give his name. He is suspicious of the communication from a Starfleet vessel, thinking at first that they must be Federation spies.
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| aroused from sleep during the night, Janeway talks with the Romulan captain via audio link |
The next day they establish a visual link and the two captains communicate eye-to-eye. The Romulan becomes more sympathetic to their plight after Janeway reminds him of his own family from whom he is separated during his mission. He says that he will check with the Romulan authorities about relaying messages to the crew's families back home.
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| the visual link |
Torres excitedly informs Janeway that she can "piggy-back" a transporter beam onto the visual link, which theoretically would allow the crew to beam to the Romulan ship in the Alpha Quadrant. After successfully transporting a test cylinder to the Romulan ship, they must then test it on a person. The Romulan captain refuses to permit anyone to transport onto a Romulan ship, and instead allows himself to be transported onto Voyager.
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| the test cylinder is successfully transported |
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| the Romulan captain is transported aboard Voyager and is welcomed by the senior staff |
The transport is successful. Once on board, Tuvok's scans discovers they have beamed the Romulan from 20 years in the past, due to a time rift in the wormhole. They discuss the potential problems of returning through time but realise that they must not wreak havoc with the timeline. Janeway asks the Romulan to relay the crew's messages to their families in 20 years's time. He agrees, and becomes more friendly as he realises their plight. He introduces himself as Telek R'Mor of the Romulan Astrophysics Academy and says that he would welcome a message from them when they return even though he would be an old man by then. He takes the crew's messages and returns to his ship.
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| the Romulan captain takes the crew's messages to take back to his ship |
Before Janeway can give the crew the satisfaction of knowing their families know they are alive and where they are, Tuvok reveals information that he has withheld until the Romulan's departure, namely that a database check reveals that the Romulan died four years before he was able to deliver the messages. Although very disappointed, they have no choice but to resume their course for the Alpha Quadrant, still out of touch with anyone at home.
 | | JANEWAY TO ROMULAN: If we were spies, we wouldn't be asking what I'm going to ask you now. We have no way of communicating with Starfleet, with our friends and families. We're hoping you might be able to relay a message for us. Our crew is not large. Each of them could write a short personal message. You'd be welcome to read them all before passing them on. I think you'd be convinced that they're nothing more than the heartfelt words of some very lonely people. |
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