Episode Synopsis : Season 4
HUNTERS
Episode 83
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SUMMARY: Hirogen hunters capture Tuvok and Seven. Voyager receives letters from home.
Voyager learns that Starfleet has sent a message using the Hirogen's communications relay network which stretches across the quadrant. Voyager had used it in the previous episode to send the Doctor to the Alpha Quadrant to report Voyager's situation to Starfleet. However, the message is lodged within one particular module of the network and is degrading. The Hirogen station is using a quantum singularity (black hole) as its power source, using technology that is a hundred thousand years old, and it emits a gravimetric field which reaches two light-years away. So Voyager gets as close as possible to avoid damage.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the Voyager crew, a Hirogen ship is approaching, having traced the source of the alien message. The Hirogen way of life is for the males to hunt alien prey and collect bodily relics, and the Alpha Hirogen in command of the Hirogen ship relishes the hunt as well as the chance to punish those who would appropriate Hirogen technology.
The Voyager crew receive some early warning of this when they beam aboard the body of a dead alien from within its drifting starship. The Doctor reports that the alien underwent a complete osteotomy - a surgical procedure was used to remove the entire skeleton, as well as the musculature, the ligaments and tendons, and the internal organs. Seven says that she has seen this before, when the Borg encountered a small ship of Species 5174 but no attempt was made to learn more as it was considered to be irrelevant to the Borg.
As Seven downloads the early part of the Starfleet transmission, Janeway realises it contains letters from home. So far Seven feels no emotional resonance as she has never been to Earth, but Janeway makes her realise that there might be some as she might have relatives on Earth.
She appoints Neelix as the official mail courier. On handing out the letters, he has to warn people not to get their hopes up but that Seven is still working to download more. The letters bring both good news and bad. Tuvok finds that he has become a grandfather.
But Chakotay learns that all of the Maquis have been killed, with a few lucky survivors imprisoned, by the Cardassians who received ships and arms from a new ally in the Gamma Quadrant (as a result of the Federation war with the Dominion). Torres, told by Chakotay, takes the news very badly.
Janeway receives a letter from Mark, informing her that her dog did give birth and he found homes for all the puppies. He clung to hope longer than most that she was alive, but eventually moved on and, four months ago, married a woman with whom he works.
The longer the transmission remains lodged in the station, the more it will degrade. Janeway authorises Seven's plan to take a shuttlecraft closer to the relay station in order to stabilise its containment field, as a small shuttle can withstand the gravimetric eddies better than the larger Voyager. Janeway orders that Tuvok accompany her, saying that it is not her custom to send only one person on an away mission.
The pair succeed in stabilising the station's transmission signal and as a result Torres, who has taken over downloading the letters, is able to download them a little quicker.
She calls Paris to the Astrometrics Lab to await the download of a letter from his Admiral Owen Paris, his father, but he tries to appear nonchalant about it as they have become estranged. There is friction between Paris and Torres as she tells him that he is not the same person he was four years ago, so probably his father is not the same as he was four years ago either. She ends up revealing that most of her (Maquis) friend are dead, and he comforts her.
Just as Seven and Tuvok complete their mission, they are scanned by a subnucleonic beam which disrupts navigational sensors. Voyager would need to send out a directional beacon to guide them back. They also lose communications, warp engines, and weapons. The attacker is the Hirogen ship which has now arrived. Tuvok ejects a distress beacon to Voyager just before they are paralysed and knocked unconscious, and then transported aboard from their shuttlecraft.
When they regain consciousness, they are saved from immediate death as Alpha Hirogen and his subordinate argue. Alpha wants to kill the prey now and acquire their 'relics' to display as trophies, whilst Beta Hirogen wants to wait for the rest of the Hirogen hunting party arrives.
Back on Voyager, Janeway struggles to accept Mark's news, telling Chakotay that she knew he would eventually moved on and that she had probably been using her engagement as an excuse not to get involved with anyone on Voyager. Suddenly, Kim receives the automated distress signal from the shuttle. Sensors reveal that no one is on board. Voyager retrieves the shuttle. Kim locates the Hirogen ship and detects that Tuvok and Seven are on board. Janeway hails the Hirogen ship and demands the return of her crewmembers. She refuses to heed Alpha Hirogen's leader's order to disconnect her link to the module and, in the face of approaching Hirogen reinforcements, to save themselves and leave without Tuvok and Seven. Instead, Janeway warns him to prepare for a fight and orders battle stations.
The Hirogen ship has monotanium armour plating which scatters Voyager's transporter targetting beam, and it is also heavily armed. More Hirogen ships are detected heading for them. Janeway orders an anti-thoron burst to boost the effect of the singularity, thereby increasing its gravitational pull in order to trap the Hirogen ships. The burst severs Voyager's communications link with the relay, so that the rest of the Starfleet message is lost. Despite the danger, the Hirogen fire on Voyager, foolishly so, as the containment field around the station destabilises. As Tuvok is about to meet his death as their prey, the Hirogen rush to stabilise the ship. He manages to attack one of them but discovers that they are immensely strong and resilient and he is stunned into unconsciousness when one flings him against a bulkhead. Once the singularity is exposed, everything around it is sucked into the black hole, including the station itself and the Hirogen ships. Kim manages to beam Tuvok and Seven safely aboard Voyager in the nick of time.
But Voyager is now about to be pulled into the black hole, just like the Hirogen ships. Janeway diverts all available power (including life support) to the engines in a desperate effort to pull away. Structural integrity begins to fail and the hull starts to buckle. Finally she orders the dangerous action of opening the antimatter injectors to 120 per cent, which could breach the warp core. Fortunately this is enough and Voyager manages to escape the pull of the black hole just in time. Unfortunately, the energy released from the singularity creates a massive discharge along the relay network which disables every one of the stations. This leaves the Voyager crew again without a link to home, although there is a latent datastream buried under the transmission that is heavily encrypted, holding out some hope that it contains information to quicken Voyager's journey home.
Ever since letters from home started arriving, Kim has been eagerly hoping for one and has grown increasingly despondent when one has not materialised. But at last Torres is able to deliver a letter from his parents.
Tuvok reports to Janeway on the Hirogen. The Hirogen are seem to lack any moral centre, are displeased at Voyager causing the loss of their communications network, and it is doubtful that the Voyager crew have seen the last of them.
Janeway confides to Chakotay that in a way she had been using her relationship with Mark as a safety net, to avoid getting involved with anyone aboard. Now she reckons she is alone, but he counters by saying that she is not alone and that there is plenty of time. To cheer everyone up, Neelix holds an impromptu party for the crew. By the time Janeway and Chakotay leave to attend it, they are in good spirits.
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