Chakotay is in a holodeck boxing simulation when he is knocked out and Voyager is pulled into chaotic space, where the laws of physics are in flux. Chaotic space is two light-years across, emits enough energy for a dozen stars, shifts position every few minutes and does not match any phenomena in Voyager's database. It is a randomly appearing zone where the laws of physics are out of flux. Chaotic space intersects normal space at the eighteenth dimensional gradient. Voyager entered through a trimetric fracture. Gravimetric shears may destroy the ship unless they can find a way out of the disturbance. Chakotay begins hallucinating and hearing voices calling to him from the boxing ring. Knocked unconscious Chakotay is taken to sickbay. Voyager locates a ship adrift with no lifesigns aboard. Its last distress call reveals that its captain began hallucinating just like Chakotay. The Doctor surmises Chakotay has a genetic marker for a cognitive disorder and the 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 the aliens tell him how to modify the deflector, Chakotay carries out the directions on the bridge as the graviton shear quickly increases. They have to alter their warp field to a rentrillic projectory and modify their deflector to induce a paralateral rentrillic property (which are terms the crew do not understand). Chaokotay recalibrates the deflector dish and routes it through the sensor array The crew then activates the deflector at maximum amplitude and brings sensors online. The sensors find them a course leading out of chaotic space. Seven applies 10,053 algorithms to the energy signatures produced by chaotic space and finds a pattern indicating an isolinear frequency. Once Chakotay completes the aliens' instructions, suddenly Voyager's sensors set the correct course, and the ship is returned to normal space.

See STATUS REPORT. The hull buckles while Voyager in chaotic space.

Starfleet Academy groundskeeper Boothby trained Chakotay as a boxer when he was a cadet. In this episode only the hologram of Boothby is seen. A member of Species 8472 masquerades as him in [#98 In The Flesh]. The real Boothby appears only in [TNG: The First Duty].