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SUMMARY: An alien race communicates with Chakotay through hallucinations of himself as a boxer in the ring against an unseen opponent.
Chakotay in Sickbay |
As Chakotay lies in Sickbay, struggling to communicate with aliens with whom he is linked, he recalls the events that brought him there. In the memory, he is in a holodeck boxing simulation. His coach is a hologram of Starfleet Academy's groundsman Boothby. At one point Chakotay sees a strange visual phenomenon when he looks at his holographic Terrellian opponent, just as Voyager is pulled into chaotic space where the laws of physics are in flux, and the holo-boxer knocks Chakotay out. The Doctor treats Chakotay's boxing injuries. |
Voyager's hull seems to ripple due to the effect of chaotic space |
Chakotay in the ring in the Holodeck boxing simulation |
Chakotay is summoned to the Bridge to discover that gravimetric shears might destroy the ship unless they can find a way out of the phenomenon. Seven explains that the Borg, who named the phenomenon 'chaotic space', have encountered it before but only one Borg cube survived an encounter.
holo-Boothby gives Chakotay some boxing advice |
in Voyager's Astrometrics Lab, Seven explains that
the Borg have encountered and named 'chaotic space' |
on the Bridge, Chakotay "holds" the pair of boxing gloves which he imagines he sees |
Whilst in his quarters and again on the Bridge, Chakotay begins hallucinating and he hears voices calling to him from the boxing ring, with one, in the form of the ship's computer, telling him to begin the fight: "Begin round 1." On the Bridge, Chakotay "puts on" the gloves and takes a boxing swing at Tuvok, but he is subdued and taken to Sickbay. |
Voyager's senior staff in the Briefing Room, with the
drifting alien ship visible through the window |
Voyager locates a ship adrift with no lifesigns aboard. Its last distress call reveals that its now-dead captain began hallucinating in the same way as Chakotay when the protein insulation in his neural pathways was stripped. Chakotay's grandfather had suffered from the cognitive disorder known as sensory tremens but refused treatment. Although his family doctor suppressed the sensory tremens gene before Chakotay was born, the Doctor reveals that his DNA has been altered which is why he is exhibiting behaviour as if he has the disorder. The primary symptoms are visual and auditory hallucinations. |
All of it is apparently caused by chaotic space, and Chakotay insists on going on a vision quest to learn more. During the vision quest he "meets" his grandfather whom he is supposed to be trying to persuade to take treatment for his disorder. Chasing after his grandfather, Chakotay ends up in a boxing ring. There Chakotay suddenly finds the aliens communicating through him. They tell him Voyager entered chaotic space through a trimetric fracture, and they must alter their warp field to escape.
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| in his vision quest, Chakotay "meets" his grandfather and ends up in a boxing ring |
Having "met" his grandfather in the vision quest, Chakotay becomes frightened of becoming a crazy old man like him. Despite this he agrees when Janeway asks him to re-enter the vision quest in the hope that they can learn more, since the terms used by the aliens are not understood. redisposed. In the vision quest, Chakotay is continually pulled back to the Holodeck boxing ring to face an unseen opponent named Kid Chaos. Stuck in the vision quest, Chakotay is suddenly interrupted by the Doctor, who takes him back to Sickbay.
in Sickbay, Janeway persuades Chakotay to re-enter the vision quest |
in the vision quest, Chakotay is a boxer about to fight an
opponent called Kid Chaos but whose face he does not see |
In the Astrometrics Lab, Seven finds a pattern in the form of an isolinear frequency. Janeway realises it is a nucleotide resonance frequency designed to activate DNA. She believes the aliens may be on a perceptual wavelength unknown to the crew, and their senses must be altered in order to communicate. Given this chance to make first contact, Janeway allows Chakotay to go back mentally to the boxing ring, where he thinks the aliens are trying to tell him something.
recognition of a nucleotide resonance frequency, displayed on the Astrometrics Lab screen |
Chakotay persuades Janeway to let him make first contact
with the aliens, despite the risk to his mental health |
Back in the ring against Kid Chaos, Chakotay begins piecing together the instructions he is receiving. His fear of losing control almost causes him to block out the voices, but the Doctor convinces him he must give in to them. Once he is "in" the boxing ring, Chakotay and Kid Chaos, who symbolises or "embodies" the chaotic space aliens, begin round 1. They start with the boxing custom of touching gloves, which is a sign of mutual respect between fighters. In this case, the boxing custom involves first contact both literally and as between two species. The aliens tell him how to modify Voyager's deflector. He rushes to the Bridge, now afraid of forgetting the instructions. There he carries out their instructions as the graviton shear increases. Suddenly, Voyager's sensors set the correct course, and the ship is returned to normal space.
Kid Chaos, the "embodiment" of the aliens who live in chaotic space, and Chakotay make first contact through the boxing custom of touching gloves |
Voyager, en route out of chaotic space |
in the holographic boxing simulation, holo-Boothby
helps Chakotay on with his boxing gloves |
During his recreation time soon afterwards, Chakotay, fully himself again, revisits the boxing holoprogram to enjoy a work-out. |
 | | BOXING COACH HOLO-BOOTHY TO CHAKOTAY: It's not against him, it's against your own natural desire to get hurt - that's the real fight. |
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