Stardate not given: B’elanna puts herself at great risk to retrieve Voyager’s only remaining unmanned probe from an ion storm, which does more damage to her shuttle than it does to the probe. After an emergency landing, a piece of debris is found imbedded in her shuttle’s hull – a piece of metal with the symbol of the Klingon Empire on it, which Chakotay presents to B’elanna. She disregards the object – which has been determined to be several centuries old – until it appears to bleed, and she hears voices speaking Klingon. This potentially important archaeological find inspires a Klingon celebration – and some odd behavior, at least from B’elanna’s perspective. Tuvok, while demonstrating hitherto unknown prowess with the bat’leth, injures B’elanna with it and embarks on an uncharacteristically vehement lecture about her dishonor of her culture. During the party itself, B’elanna is helpless to watch as Klingon assassins appear in the crowd, slicing her crewmates down one by one. And then she is dragged to the Barge of the Dead, which ferries dishonored souls to Grethor, the Klingon hell – and B’elanna is not alone, for her mother arrives shortly afterward. But when B’elanna suddenly awakens in sick bay, it turns out that everything – even the crash-landing of the shuttle – was part of an elaborate vision, a near-death experience triggered by the real ion storm. B’elanna can only deduce that her mother has died, and it is now up to the engineer to retrieve her from Grethor and deliver her to the gates of Sto’vo’kor.
teleplay by Bryan Fuller
story by Ronald D. Moore & Bryan Fuller
directed by Mike Vejar
music by David BellGuest Cast: Eric Pierpoint (Kor’tar), Sherman Augustus (Klingon), Karen Austin (Merab), John Kenton Shull (Brok’tan)
LogBook entry by Earl Green