Because they have contracted a virus and will remain healthy only if they remain on the planet, Janeway and Chakotay send Voyager homeward with Tuvok as the new captain. They ask the Vidiians for medical help for Janeway and Chakotay. The Vidiians agree, but set a trap.

Voyager is ambushed by three Vidiian ships and has to raise shields. Shields are dropped for a a short moment in order to beam aboard the anti-viral serum provided by Dr Danara Pel.

Janeway and Chakotay are in stasis chambers on the planet while the Doctor attempts to find a cure for the virus.

stasis chambers

Among the items left on the planet with Janeway and Chakotay are a modular shelter, weapons, tricorders, a replicator, petri dishes, protein analysers, DNA sequencers, and other items for research and survival. When they leave the planet, they do not take the shelter. It is possible that a team of junior crew arrived after they beamed back to the ship, dismantled the shelter and beamed it back aboard.

Janeway and Chakotay start to unpack the supplies they have been left, which include the ingredients for a modular shelter

Janeway and Chakotay after packing, with the shelter built and not dismantled, ready to beam back to Voyager

Voyager can stay in contact with Janeway and Chakotay for approximately thirty-six hours after leaving orbit, giving a rough indication of communications range.

Voyager fires three torpedoes are fired during the conflict with the Vidiian ships. Two torpedoes are fired from the aft torpedo bays, and one is fired at the antimatter container dropped by Voyager. The explosion that results from the latter succeeds in disabling all three Vidiian ships.

An osteogenic stimulator is used to set a broken arm. (Medical reports, including data on equipment, are not generally in this section but can be found elsewhere on site.)

There has been a problem with the pre-fire chamber temperature. Janeway asks Chakotay to see if the problem has been fixed in their absence.

An unseen type-9 shuttle is also left on the planet with Janeway and Chakotay in case they are able to leave the planet, although Paris points out that it has a maximum speed of warp 4 and it would thus take them about 700 years to reach home.