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#13 CATHEXIS
 Chakotay, declared brain-dead, and Torres by a medicine wheel
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Tuvok and Chakotay return in a shuttlecraft from an away mission - Tuvok is injured but is soon treated by the Doctor, but the Doctor declares Chakotay brain-dead and puts him on life-support. In Sickbay, Torres moves stones on a medicine wheel, which Chakotay's people believes helps a sick man. The Doctor notes: "You've placed the Coyote Stone at the crossroads of the Fifth and Sixth Realms which would divert Commander Chakotay's soul...that is, his consciousness...into the Mountains of the Antelope Women - according to his tradition, an extremely attractive locale. He might not want to leave." When members of the crew momentarily carry out actions they are later unaware of having done, such as alter the ship's course, it becomes clear that an alien takes over the person's body for that time. Finally the alien takes over Tuvok's body. Holding the bridge crew prisoner, the alien steers Voyager toward a nebula - his people are the Komar and they intend to feed off the brain energy of Voyager's crew for years to come. But when Torres' body is momentarily taken over in order to eject the warp-core which requires a command code as authorisation, Janeway realises there are two presences - one of them is Chakotay. The crew successfully drive the Komar out of Tuvok's body and away from Voyager, but they are now lost in the Komar's nebula. Then Neelix's body is taken over by Chakotay's consciousness and moves some stones on the medicine wheel to make a map showing the route out of the nebula. The Doctor reintegrates Chakotay's consciousness into his body.
"Good job, Commander," says Janeway. "Welcome back." Chakotay replies, "To be honest, I feel like I never left." |
