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Voyager away teams are searching for polyferranide. One of the away teams, comprising Tuvok and Ensign Bennet, have crashlanded on an uninhabited moon after their shuttlecraft entered the ionosphere in which they were rocked by electrodynamic turbulence. A thermal inversion gradient causes unusually strong and unpredictable currents in the upper levels of the atmosphere. Those currents caused the shuttlecraft to crash. Bennet is fatally injured in the crash. Tuvok comforts the dying Bennet, stores his body within a stasis field for burial upon return to Voyager, and leaves the damaged craft.
Tuvok races out of the crashed shuttlecraft with a medikit |
Bennet's last moments - his injuries are too severe |
Tuvok soon realises he is not alone on the moon when three frightened children venture out from hiding. The children tell him that their ship crashed as well, killing the Attendants i.e. the people who were looking after them.
Tressa |
Elani and Corin |
Meanwhile, Voyager plays host to Alcia, the first prelate of Drayan II. According to Neelix, no one has had contact with the Drayans in decades. Alcia explains that the Drayans developed advanced technology but have eschewed it and have remained isolated to avoid the influence of those who might lead them back down the wrong path. Despite the Drayans' preference for seclusion, Janeway hopes to develop a relationship with them so that she can negotiate for some of the polyferranide deposits available on the Drayan moons.
in the transporter room Janeway
greets Alcia, First Prelate, and her two aides |
Janeway takes the Drayans on a tour
of Voyager including, here, Sickbay |
The visit goes well until Alcia receives an emergency message, calling her away. Before she leaves, she brusquely asks the crew to leave the area.
As Tuvok tries to repair his damaged shuttlecraft, the children (named Tressa, Elani, and Corin) are afraid they will be killed in the night by a creature they call the Morrok, with their fears centred on a nearby cave. They are even more frightened when a Drayan search party arrives. The children tell Tuvok that the Drayans sent them to the moon to die and, with his help, they elude the search team.
the children tell Tuvok about their fear of the Morrok |
the mouth of the cave which the children fear so much |
the children at play despite Tuvok's
attempt to make them "well-behaved" |
in the shuttlecraft, the children tell Tuvok
the Drayan search party wants to kill them |
Tuvok helps the children hide from the
Drayan search party, which finds only his shuttlecraft |
the children hug Tuvok |
Alcia informs Janeway that they have found Tuvok's crashed shuttlecraft on the moon - they consider the moon to be sacred ground. She orders Janeway to remove her surviving crew member immediately.
The next morning, an hysterical Tressa claims that Elani and Corin have vanished. Tuvok finds their clothes in a nearby cave, but not the children themselves.
Alcia tries to warn Voyager off |
Tressa, by the burnt out embers of the night's fire,
about to wake and find Elani and Corin gone |
During a break in the atmospheric turbulence, Tuvok manages to send a brief message to Voyager. As they are unable to transport him to the Voyager due to the same turbulence which caused the shuttlecraft to crash, Janeway and Paris take a shuttlecraft to rescue him. The Drayans use some kind of di-electric field to protect their shuttles from the turbulence. Paris generates the same kind of field with the shuttlecraft's warp coils so that he and Janeway can fly through the turbulence. Immediately after the shuttle leaves Voyager, a Drayan shuttle begins pursuit in an attempt to keep them from landing on the sacred site.
Janeway and Paris leave Voyager in a shuttlecraft |
Janeway and Paris aboard the shuttlecraft |
| As the Drayan search party surrounds Tuvok and Tressa, Janeway and Paris arrive. Tuvok refuses to let the Drayans take the child and is supported by Janeway. But he, Paris and Janeway are stunned when Alcia reveals that Tressa is actually 96 years old. For among the Drayans the aging process is in reverse compared to other species. Near the end of life, Drayans reach a stage of complete innocence and free themselves from all responsibilities to this life, so that they can leave it peacefully. Tressa was not brought there to be killed, but to die a natural and peaceful death. |
Alcia meets Tuvok, Tressa, Janeway and Paris, and reveals
that Tressa is actually an old woman near the end of her life |
After the misunderstanding is cleared up and Alcia learns how calming Tuvok has been for the children, and that he was correct to calm their fears about the non-existent Morrok, she allows him to stay with Tressa to comfort her in her final moments. Despite the initial friction, it turns out that the Voyager crew have made new friends in the Drayans.
Tressa says Tuvok reminds her a lot of her grandson,
and Tuvok agrees to stay with her |
with Tuvok as her support and companion,
Tressa heads for the cave where she will end her days |
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