Stardate not given: Voyager receives a message from an automated buoy sent by Seska, begging Chakotay to rescue her, and the child she conceived with his DNA, from the Kazons. The crew come up with a variety of tactical options in the likely event of a Kazon trap including holographic decoy ships and help from a nearby Talaxian colony, and Janeway decides to assume that Seska and the child are in actual danger. A Kazon life pod is discovered, carrying Tiernah, one of Cullah’s aides who has apparently fallen out of favor with the Maje. He volunteers information on a safe path through Kazon space which results in a number of minor hit-and-run Kazon attacks. Janeway becomes suspicious when all the attacks focus on one seemingly unimportant part of Voyager and orders the ship to double back on its course, only to find a well-organized Kazon ambush. Tiernah detonates a kamikaze bomb implanted in his own body, and the attacks render the ship completely helpless, unable even to self-destruct. Suder, the Betazoid crewman who has been confined for murder, goes into hiding in the ship’s ductwork. Tom Paris takes a shuttle to go back and retrieve help from the Talaxians, but contact with him is lost in the ensuing battle. Cullah and the Kazons board Voyager with Seska in tow and take command of the ship. The entire crew is left on a primitive planet without any technology, and Janeway can only watch helplessly as the crew’s only hope to reach home rises into the sky and off into space under the control of the Kazons.
written by Michael Piller
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthyCast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’Elanna Torres), Jennifer Lien (Kes), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim), Brad Dourif (Suder), Anthony de Longis (Jal Cullah), John Gegenhuber (Tiernah), Martha Hackett (Seska), Henry Darrow (Kolopak), Scott Haven (Kazon #1), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)
LogBook entry by Paul Campbell