Voyager runs into a gravimetric force and is stopped dead because the layer of subspace acts as a sandbar, disrupting the ship's warp field. When distortions appear in the holodeck, during the running of holoprogram 'The Adventures of Captain Proton', the crew believe they are random fluctuations until they realise that photonic beings from another dimension have boarded Voyager thinking the holoprogram to be real. Weapons fire on the holodeck from the holocharacter Chaotica against the photonic beings creates power surges, pulling Voyager deeper into subspace. The only solution is for certain crewmembers to play roles in the holoprogram and defeat Chaotica, whereupon the distortions close.

Voyager, stranded

Seven runs a transpectral analysis and discovers that the barrier between normal space and subspace is unstable throughout the region.

See also under SHIP STATUS. Gravimetric forces around the ship disrupt power flow taking the holodeck controls offline. The crew also loses access to communications, deflector controls, and weapons. As long as they are trapped, they do not have access to the computer core, tactical, holodecks, and all but six replicators (they later lose two additional replicators). The power problem also means long queues for those toilets remaining in use, causing particular problems for the Bolians crewmembers.

When Janeway was science officer on the USS Al-Batani, the crew tried to navigate a dense protonebula that stopped them dead in their tracks, much as Voyager is in this situation. Every time they engaged engines, they were increasing resistance of the nebula's particle field.