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SUMMARY: When Chakotay becomes stranded on a planet, he discovers a powerful connection to his ancestors which eluded him as a young man.
 While on a planet searching for minerals needed to repair Voyager, members of an away team led by Chakotay discover a mysterious symbol. Chakotay is astonished that he knows what the symbol is! It is a "chah-mooz-ee" or "blessing to the land", a symbol used by his people's ancestors. The same symbol is engraved on the river rock he has in his medicine bundle. He observed similar symbols when he was a teenager accompanying his father, Kolopak, through the Central American rainforest on a journey to find the truth about their ancient ancestors. The teenaged Chakotay had not wanted to go on the journey, despising his father's and his tribe's adherence to old traditional ways. Intrigued by the "chah-mooz-ee", he explains its significance to Janeway. She tells him they have detected an ion trail leading away from the planet where they found the symbol and asks if he wishes to them to follow it and thereby the spacecraft whose occupants probably placed the "chah-mooz-ee". He wants to but replies that he cannot be that selfish, but she rejoins that Voyager is a ship of exploration and they might be able to obtain precious minerals. Accordingly, Voyager sets off to investigate.
Kolopak and the young Chakotay crouch to examine a symbol |
the symbol |
| Meanwhile, in Sickbay, the pregnant Ensign Samantha Wildman is having a pre-natal check-up. She is suffering pains in her legs, but although she receives advice from the Doctor she receives no sympathy. Kes chides the Doctor for his lack of compassion towards Wildman's discomfort and suggests that if he himself were to experience illness he would get an idea of what it felt like to feel vulnerable and a little afraid. |
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Voyager arrives at the planet which was the destination of the mysterious spacecraft. The away team, comprising Chakotay, Tuvok and Neelix, report to Transporter Room 3, only to be told by Torres that she is unable to beam them to the planet surface. She explains that storms keep mysteriously appearing. Chakotay decides to reach the planet by shuttlecraft, and Torres joins the away team. As they prepare to land their shuttlecraft, Chakotay remembers back to the age of 15 when he disappointed his father by not embracing the traditions of his tribe. The memories are strong, and he briefly glimpses the mental image of one of his ancestors.
the away team in the shuttlecraft experience a very bumpy
ride through a storm to reach the planet's surface |
the image that Chakotay he is startled to see |
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In Voyager's Sickbay, Kes discovers that the Doctor has programmed himself to experience the symptoms of Levodian flu for 29 hours. He has taken up her suggestion and intends to experience illness for himself. He is finding it an interesting but not unpleasant experience - blowing his nose for the first time ever, for instance - such that when Kim enters Sickbay complaining of feeling unwell the Doctor underwhelms him with sympathy. |
On the planet surface, the away team explores the planet's terrain and its flora. Neelix is delighted to discover that he has something in common with Tuvok - they both breed orchids. Torres and Chakotay spy a native hawk flying above them, which reminds him of seeing a hawk during the expedition through the Central American rainforest. It reminds him of his father, with whom the teenaged Chakotay had a strained relationship, especially when the young Chakotay informed his father he had applied to Starfleet Academy, and been accepted, sponsored by Captain Sulu, all without Kolopak's prior knowledge.
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| Kolopak and the young Chakotay; the latter tells his father he is going to Starfleet Academy |
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Suddenly Chakotay and Torres hear Neelix screaming. Hurrying to him, they find him on the ground writhing in agony - the hawk has attacked him in the eye and badly injured him! Chakotay has Neelix beamed to Voyager for treatment. |
| Neelix is successfully treated in Sickbay by the Doctor, but by a Doctor who is now finding the Levodian flu a nuisance and rather uncomfortable. Neelix and Kes leave arm in arm. On their way out the Doctor dives for a holographic tissue. |
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On the planet, Tuvok finds what appears to be an abandoned native village. Its appearance and architectural simplicity remind Chakotay of the native village he, his father and the expedition of his youth discovered in the rainforest.
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| The deserted village on the planet; the away team explore it. |
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| Kolopak puts up his hands and encourages the natives to appear. |
Kolopak speaks to the village leader in the ancestral tongue |
Prompted by the memory, fearing the Voyager away team may have frightened off the natives, Chakotay tells Tuvok and Torres to lay down their weapons in a gesture of trust. Torres does so but Tuvok protests that this counters Starfleet regulations so Chakotay makes it an order. He puts up his hands to show plainly that he is not a threat, just as his father had done during the expedition. The action of disarming themselves reminds Chakotay of the significant moment during the rainforest expedition when he suddenly noticed several armed natives watching them. His father drew a "chah-mooz-ee" and spoke the natives' language, it being his tribe's ancestral language. This led the natives to welcome the members of the expedition like long-lost family. |
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| the tribal leader tells his people they can welcome the strangers who are strangers no more |
But the Voyager away team's gesture of peace seems to inspire a violent storm. They try to reach the shuttlecraft. Chakotay becomes separated from Tuvok and Torres. Chakotay suddenly glimpses an alien humanoid rushing away ahead of him. He shouts after the alien but the alien rushes away. And then a tree cracks in the storm and it falls on Chakotay, pinning him to the ground. It knocks him unconscious but as he becomes unconscious he again has the mental image of one of his people's distant ancestors. Meanwhile, Torres and Tuvok are beamed back to Voyager, but the fall has dislodged Chakotay's combadge. His combadge is beamed to Voyager along with Torres and Tuvok, but not Chakotay himself - he is stranded!
Chakotay, who has his hands up to try to encourage the native aliens
to make contact, and the away team are buffeted by a growing storm |
the alien Chakotay glimpses |
Torres and Tuvok report to Voyager's bridge. Janeway is frustrated by several unsuccessful attempts to find Chakotay. It is as if something on the planet is trying to prevent them from beaming down.
 In Sickbay, the Doctor is feeling very ill and particularly irascible as a result. He contacts Janeway to inform her with great annoyance that there is a malfunction in his program, for he programmed a 29-hour flu and it has now gone on for 30 hours. He cannot bear the flu any longer. Janeway orders Kim to investigate, at the same time ordering Kes to report to the transporter room to go on the away mission she plans in order to find Chakotay who may be injured. When Kim arrives in Sickbay ready to examine the Doctor's program, Kes has just helped the Doctor onto a biobed and given him a holographic cold towel across his forehead to ease his raging fever. The Doctor is now feeling greatly distressed and frightened by the irksome flu and begs Kes to stay with him, but she reminds him she has to go on the away mission. When Kim enquires about the Doctor's condition, Kes explains about the Doctor's self-experiment, adding that she added several additional hours to the length of the flu, for if he knew when it was going to end he would not fully experience what his patients suffer since they do not know when their illness will end. The Doctor describes Kes as being "more devious" than he ever realised, to Kim's amusement.
Janeway is frustrated to find that freak bad weather is preventing them from beaming to the planet. It is the same mysterious pattern experienced by the first away team. She orders Paris to land Voyager, but as the ship tries to enter the planet's atmosphere, they are engulfed in a cyclone which Tuvok suspects is generated by the native inhabitants to ward off intruders.
to Kolopak's disappointment the young Chakotay stands aloof when his fathers and the
other expedition members are stripped and given native clothing
Chakotay removes his clothes
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On the planet, Chakotay regains consciousness. He finds he is uninjured. He finds he has lost his combadge, but his tricorder is still operational. Its readings tell him the shuttlecraft is no longer there, not realising that the natives have masked its existence. This encourages Chakotay that Torres and Tuvok managed to get to safety. He enters the deserted native village. He recalls what his father did upon the expedition being surrounded by curious and wary natives - his father took off his hat, and drew a "chah-mooz-ee" on the ground, causing the village leader to befriend him as a fellow-brother and call the villagers who eagerly make friends. The teenaged Chakotay, however, was unwilling to be enthusiastic about this first contact. The older and wiser Chakotay of the present attempts to make first contact with the natives of the planet, whom he is convinced has some connection with his people's tribal ancestors, by mimicking much of what his father had done on the expedition. His father had been very happy to let the villagers remove his clothes, while the village leader, calling the newcomers their "cousins", marked him with a tribal tattoo on his left temple and called him "one of us". Chakotay remembers it well, although at the time he did not wish to be involved. Accordingly, now Chakotay removes his clothes. He puts on a simply-designed garment that he finds close by, and follows what seem to be guidance in the form of freak storm weather. This leads him to a cave. |
Inside the cave several inhabitants of the planet approach him. He is surprised to learn that they speak the language of his ancestors, and he is annoyed with himself that he had never learned it as his father had done. Instead he says: "Chah-mooz-ee". This encourages them to approach closely. One of them, the apparent leader, examines his tattoo which they recognise. The leader himself wears an identical tattoo. He places a translation device in the palm of Chakotay's hand. Clasping his hand so that he and Chakotay are both in contact with the device which is a translation machine, they make first contact. The clasping of hands for translation purposes is also a powerful hand-clasp symbol for this momentous meeting.
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| Chakotay and one of the "Sky Spirits" from his people's ancient lore |
representation of the "Sky Spirits" visiting Chakotay's ancestors whom they called "the Inheritors" |
Chakotay explains that he wears the tattoo to honour his father, who wore it to honour his ancestors. (His father died defending his home which was along the Federation/Cardassian border.) The alien leader explains that they knew those ancestors whom the aliens called "the Inheritors" when they visited Earth some 45,000 years earlier and gave them a gift of knowledge after being impressed by their respect for the land. It is this deep race memory which had earlier prompted Chakotay to have a brief mental image of one of his ancestors. |
Voyager is unable to break free of the cyclone and is being pulled toward the planet and destruction. Inertial dampers have gone offline. If they jumped to warp, they "would all be stains on the back wall", as Paris puts it. In engineering, Torres is unable to help.
Chakotay realises the aliens are the "Sky Spirits". His people's ancient lore is based on them. The alien leader explains that his people visited Earth again much later, and discovered that nearly all traces of the Inheritors had vanished, presumably destroyed by other humans. The alien leaders informs Chakotay that they attacked Voyager and its crew with storms because they feared they were enemies who would try to destroy them just as the human ancestors did to the Inheritors. Chakotay tells them that they came in peace, but the alien leader explains that they have learned that a peaceful appearance is often how enemies first approach. Chakotay assures them that humans have come a long way since those ancient days and mean them no harm. At this, the aliens stop the cyclone, saving Voyager from destruction just in time.
The aliens give Chakotay some of the minerals that Voyager needs. He confides to the alien leader that he and his father did not get on well, which Chakotay regrets. At that moment, Tuvok, Torres and Kes arrive, pointing weapons at the mysterious stranger. Chakotay orders them sharply to put their weapons away, which they do. The away team members are surprised when they see him and the alien leader embrace like brothers. Chakotay and the leader bid farewell over another "chah-mooz-ee". As Chakotay beams back to Voyager with the away team, he has the strong sense that he has regained his connection to his people, and to his father.
Chakotay and the "Sky Spirits" leader, and
the farewell "chah-mooz-ee" |
the pair bid farewell |
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