As Voyager approaches a planet that revolves at an extremely high rate of speed (pictured), the ship enters a gravimetric gradient, which pulls it into orbit and traps it in a tachyon field. Warp drive goes offline and impulse engines do not respond when the ship is caught in the gravimetric gradient. The matter/antimatter reaction is still active in the warp core, but the field is "raising hell" with the nacelles forcing the crew to keep warp drive offline. The planet's core creates a space-time differential between itself and the vessel, so that a second on Voyager is equal to nearly a day on the planet. Since time is moving so fast on the planet, by the time the crew realise the situation centuries have already passed on the planet surface. The imbalance caused by Voyager's predicatment affects the planet's outer crust, causing periodic earthquakes on the planet surface.

The Doctor visits the planet and returns with data that the crew use to realign Voyager's thrusters. They attempt to break orbit, but stop when it increases seismic activity on the planet. A space module from the planet docks with Voyager. As its two astronauts enter the bridge they are brought into Voyager's timeframe, they collapse from the transition and one dies. The surviving pilot agrees to help them interpret the Doctor's data and find a way to break out of orbit. Meanwhile the planet's inhabitants are now experimenting with warp technology, and soon Voyager is under attack from antimatter torpedoes then a tricobalt weapon. Janeway sends the pilot home with Voyager's specifications, hoping he can persuade his people to help Voyager break orbit. Eventually two ships materialise next to Voyager and use a tractor beam to pull it out of orbit. Using a temporal compensator that his planet has devised, the pilot returns to Voyager to say farewell. Voyager repairs warp engines and leaves the planet's skies.

The Voyager crew modify a class-5 probe (pictured) for low orbit and configure the program to scan along all subspace bands, setting it for visual images every ten milliseconds. It scans the planet for the equivalent of two hundred years before its decays in orbit.

modified class-5 probe in low orbit around the planet

Not knowing what the natives look like, for his away mission Torres gives the Doctor access to his facial and epidermal parameters so that he can rewrite his own program. She speeds up the scan rate of the Doctor's program to allow him to make the temporal transition. Unfortunately, the confinement beam destabilises and needs to be recalibrated to compensate for the temporal field, which means he is left on the planet for three of its years.

When Voyager is attacked with antimatter torpedoes by the planet's inhabitants, transporters go offline and shields go down. Hull breaches are imminent on Decks 8, 9 and 10. Life support begins to fail.