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SUMMARY: Voyager is ordered by Starfleet to retrieve an old Earth probe called Friendship 1. Voyager finds the probe suffered an antimatter containment leak which saturated the planet it landed on with radiation. Because of the radiation, the infected populace are hostile, believing humankind sent the deadly probe as a prelude to invasion.
Now that the U.S.S. Voyager has established two-way communications with Starfleet, the Voyager crew receive their first official assignment in seven years, namely to locate and retrieve the Friendship 1. This is a probe which was launched from Earth in 2067 with a message of peace to other worlds. Contact was lost 130 years ago (calculating from 2377), but its known trajectory would place it in the Delta Quadrant near Voyager's current position.
a generation ago before 2377, Friendship 1 approaches a Delta Quadrant planet and descends to the surface
After five days of searching, the probe is detected on a planet darkened by a nuclear winter caused by antimatter radiation.
An away team consisting of Tom Paris, Harry Kim, Chakotay, Neelix and engineer Lieutenant Joe Carey take the Delta Flyer to the planet. They go searching for the probe wearing environmental suits. While Paris, Neelix and Carey follow their tricorder readings into a cavern, Chakotay and Kim are surprised to find a field of missile silos containing active warheads.
top left: Joe Carey prepares for the away mission;
top right: Carey and others in the Delta Flyer see the afflicted planet surface for the first time
above two pictures: the Delta Flyer's arrival is spotted by a native who is wearing an environmental suit
Paris, Neelix and Carey see evidence that the cavern is inhabited yet sensors had detected no lifesigns. They find a piece of debris labelled "Friendship 1" and prepare to transport it to the Delta Flyer, but then they are suddenly surrounded by armed aliens who look sinister being robed in heavy black environmental suits with breathing equipment.
Kim and Chakotay on the closed launch hatch of a missile silo. |
In the cavern, part of the away team is captured by armed aliens. |
Meanwhile, Chakotay and Kim discover that the Delta Flyer has been invaded by one of the planet's inhabitants who has hidden in the aft compartment. The intruder knocks over Kim but is stunned by a blast from Chakotay's phaser. Then antimatter weapons start rocking the Delta Flyer. As the shields are damaged, Chakotay is forced to lift off to fly back to Voyager and leave the others behind.
the alien intruder on the Delta Flyer |
The Delta Flyer comes under attack. |
the alien leader, Verin |
In the cavern, with their environmental suits removed, the native people are malformed and mottled from radiation exposure. Their leader, Verin, is very hostile to the captured members of the away team. When Verin learns they are here to retrieve their probe, he accuses them of causing his people's suffering.
Verin contacts Voyager and tells Janeway he has taken her crewmen hostage. He demands that Voyager relocate all of his people to another planet, starting in three hours. |
Janeway confers with the Doctor, who has examined the unconscious alien Chakotay brought back, and learns that his tissues are saturated with antimatter radiation, which explains why no lifesigns were detected on the planet.
Otrin |
The Doctor wakes the alien, who is named Otrin. Otrin reveals to Janeway, Chakotay and the Doctor that his planet's devastation was caused by an antimatter containment failure. He blames the human race for it because, until the Friendship 1 arrived and introduced that technology, his people had never conceived of anything like antimatter. After decades of suffering, they came to the conclusion that humans intended to contaminate their world in order that they could eventually come and conquer it. |
Tuvok locates a Class-M planet 132 light-years away, and determines it would take almost three years at maximum speed to relocate all 5,500 of the aliens.
Seven of Nine extracts nanoprobes from her bloodstream so that the Doctor can reprogram them to cure Otrin of his radiation sickness. Janeway asks Otrin to give more detail about his efforts to neutralise the planet's radiation.
Brin |
On the planet, the hostages try to befriend Yun, a young girl, and also Brin who is pregnant. Brin's previous babies all died, due to the radiation. Paris, an expectant father, has great sympathy for her. Neelix tries to tell Verin that humans are not so bad and never meant to harm his people, and shares his own experience when his family was wiped out by the Metreon Cascade. Verin expresses sympathy but refuses to be convinced. |
Janeway later contacts Verin and tells him that relocation is impractical. She offers an alternative: Verin should help Otrin carry out his theories on how to counteract the radiation. Verin refuses. Then Janeway asks to exchange a supply of food and medicine for one of the hostages. Verin picks out Carey and tells him to set up the transporter enhancers. But immediately before Carey is beamed out, Verin shoots him and he arrives in Sickbay dead - it is Verin's dreadful way of telling Janeway it is not a negotiation.
Carey's last moment of life as Verin apologises to him
before shooting him dead |
As Janeway learns of Carey's murder, Verin tells her:
"This is not a negotiation!" |
Seven tells Otrin some home truths about leadership |
Janeway tells Verin she will start evacuating his people in an hour, but then she calls Tuvok and Chakotay into a meeting. In Sickbay, Otrin is recovering after his nanoprobe treatment, and hopes that the Voyager crew can heal all his people this way. But Seven points out that Verin has refused their help, and suggests to Otrin that he would be a better leader than Verin, better able to help his people embrace new ideas. |
Verin stands in front of Tuvok whom he thinks has just become another Voyager hostage. To the left in the foreground, Brin cradles her baby whom Paris has resuscitated. |
Meanwhile, on the planet, Paris helps deliver a baby to Brin. The baby boy arrives stillborn, but Paris is able to resuscitate him.
A patrol arrives, having captured another Voyager crewmember, Tuvok. Verin believes he has the advantage of another hostage. But it is actually a rescue: one of the alien guards is the Doctor in disguise, and he helps Tuvok to overpower the captors. The hostages can now beam out. Before leaving, Paris tells Brin the baby will not survive without further treatment. She allows him to take her son to Voyager and he promises to return. |
| Once the baby's medical condition is stabilised by the Doctor, Janeway plans to send him back along with some food and medical supplies, but then to leave the planet. Paris and Neelix appeal to Janeway to help these people in spite of their refusal to co-operate. |
Paris and Neelix persuade Janeway |
| Accordingly, Janeway and Seven work with Otrin to develop a plan to neutralise the planet's radiation with an isolitic chain reaction, using photon torpedoes to deliver the catalytic agent. Otrin returns to the planet, bringing the now-healthy baby with him, and confronts Verin, trying to persuade his people to accept Voyager's help and begin trusting them.
Voyager enters the planet's atmosphere to detonate the charges that will counteract the radiation. When the ground begins to shake, Verin, believing Voyager is attacking, arms an antimatter missile and prepares to launch it at Voyager, despite Otrin's protests. |
Voyager fires photon torpedoes to neutralise the planet's radiation with an isolitic chain reaction by using photon torpedoes to deliver the catalytic agent. |
But Brin aims a gun at him to prevent him from ruining their best chance of survival, and his lieutenants do not intervene. In this way, authority transfers peacefully from Verin to Otrin.
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| Brin aims a gun at Verin |
Just then Yun runs in and urges everyone to come outside. They do so and see that sunlight is starting to break through the dark clouds, for the first time in decades. Verin looks at the happy Brin and realises he was wrong about Voyager's crew.
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| Brin, who is cradling her baby, Verin and others witness sunshine and clearer skies as Voyager eradicates the radiation |
Voyager retrieves the Friendship 1 probe and resumes course for the Alpha Quadrant. Chakotay joins Janeway in Joe Carey's quarters where they admire the 'ship in a bottle' model of USS Voyager which he crafted; he had only one nacelle to add in order to finish it. Their mission was successful but it cost the life of a crewmember, who leaves behind a widow and two young sons. The sons are mentioned in [#10 Prime Factors].
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| Chakotay and Janeway, with the model of USS Voyager created by Joe Carey |
 | | FRIENDSHIP 1'S MESSAGE: We, the people of Earth, greet you in a spirit of peace and humility. As we venture out of our solar system, we hope to earn the trust and friendship of other worlds. |
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