In [#142 Muse], the Delta Flyer has crashed on a planet with a pre-warp society. In an attempt to make repairs, Torres engages the help of a native poet who uses her plight as inspiration for his plays.

Following the performance of his play about "shining Voyager, far from home" and Voyager's crew of "Eternals", an alien poet named Kelis returns to the remains of the crashed Delta Flyer where he has Torres tied to her seat. When she wakes, rather than let Kelis bleed her she gets him to let her use a Starfleet medkit to treat the wounds she sustained in the crash. She questions his intentions and Kelis replies that he is her servant and she is the muse, or inspiration, for his plays.

Kelis the poet comes to see how Torres is faring, intending to treat her wounds by bleeding her;
he has set up candles in the Delta Flyer

Torres uses a phaser to make Kelis leave her alone but he persists and returns later;
the damage to the front of the Delta Flyer can be partly seen

Getting him to free her, Torres recalls that she and Kim had crashed while searching for dilithium. She had ordered Kim into the escape pod before the Delta Flyer went down, but he is nowhere to be found. Kelis believes that Torres is an "Eternal", a being that has the power to make the ground open up and the sky fall. His people believe eternals are the inspiration behind all the events made famous by the ancient poets. His people live on a class-L planet that is the fourth planet in an F-type star system, and his people are a pre-warp civilisation (apparently with much in common with the ancient Greeks of Earth's 5th and 4th centuries BC). Torres reluctantly agrees to help Kelis with his story in exchange for his assistance in repairing the Delta Flyer, otherwise if his patron knew that Torres was an eternal he would capture her and force her to fight his enemies. Torres obliges Kelis to venture onto his patron's hunting ground (for which death is the penalty for trespass) to obtain some dilithium, known to Kelis as "winter's tears", but the dilithium he brings is too impure for use. (The screenshot shows dilithium as catalogued in the ship's database and displayed to Kelis on a monitor.) Instead Torres decides to repair the Delta Flyer's transmitter so that she can contact Voyager, and demands that he bring her a metal plate made of three parts tin to five parts bronze with one side coated in gold.

Torres tries to repair the Delta Flyer

Torres is unable to restore power with the dilithium Kelis brings

Meanwhile, Voyager searches for Kim and Torres.

the crashed Delta Flyer

As the days move on, Kelis rehearses his next play and brings Torres to the theatre where he introduces her to the actors (pictured) as "a fellow poet from across the eastern sea, an expert on the Voyager eternals." Kelis lacks an ending for the play, which is particularly important as he hopes his play will persuade his patron not to go to war with his neighbour. Torres inspires him for the required 'sudden reversal' part of the plot, in which Janeway will try to make peace with the Borg Queen, but refuses to help him further, leaving him to try and think of an ending for the play. Layna, an actress who is in love with Kelis, jealously confronts Torres aboard the Delta Flyer and threatens to expose Torres as an "eternal" to the patron if she does not depart immediately.

After Layna leaves, Kim appears at the window of the Delta Flyer, greatly to Torres' delight. His escape pod‡ had run into turbulence so he decided to turn around and follow the Delta Flyer's signature, finally landing and walking two hundred kilometres while tracking the Delta Flyer's position with his tricorder. He has brought emergency rations, a phaser, and the escape pod's emergency transmitter. ‡The Delta Flyer escape pod is not seen in this episode; one is seen in [#140 Good Shepherd].

the actress Layna; she is in love with Kelis the poet

Torres manages to restore power

The next evening, while Kim and Torres continue to work on their rescue, the actors start performing the play. Kelis and the actors are most unhappy with the weak ending Kelis has been forced to write for the lack of any other inspiration. Voyager receives a message from Kim and Torres and sets course to rescue them. Torres receives a note from Kelis saying that he needs her for inspiration. Torres leaves Kim in the Delta Flyer and heads for the theatre. Torres enters the stage and begins improvising an ending - she and Kelis say good-bye to each other because it is time for her to leave. Layna tries to sabotage everything by telling the patron that Torres is really an Eternal, but the other actors pretend that it is part of the play and that Layna is just acting the part of the jealous girlfriend. The patron loves the plot twist, leaving Torres and Kelis to finish their farewells. Torres then beams up (the screenshot shows the start of the transporter beam). Her sudden and complete disappearance amazes the audience, ensuring that the play and its anti-war message will never be forgotten.

• Behind-the-scenes: actor Joseph Will (Kelis) gives this site his first official interview
• In Memoriam: actress Kellie Waymire (Layna)
• Behind-the-scenes article: Starfleet Box