Synopsis:
The Voyager crew launches a daring
rescue mission to save two officers trapped in a subterranean
city facing disaster.
En route to the fifth planet of a
neighboring system, Voyager's crew encounters Neelix, a Talaxian
scavenger. He explains that the Array has been bringing ships
into the region for many months. Neelix guesses that "the
Caretaker," who controls the Array, may have sent the
missing crewmembers to the Ocampa, a race that lives two miles
below the surface of the fifth planet. Neelix volunteers to be
their guide and they accept.
Meanwhile, Kim and Torres are being
cared for in the Ocampa medical facility. Although they now live
in a subterranean society, the Ocampa inhabited the planet's
surface until it was struck by an environmental disaster 500
years ago. Since that time, they have lived underground, with
all their needs provided by the man they refer to as the
Caretaker.
Beaming down to the planet's surface,
Neelix introduces Janeway to the Kazon, a savage alien species
that has taken possession of the arid Ocampan world. Janeway
asks Jabin, the Kazon leader, if he can help them, but he
refuses.
Neelix is hoping Jabin will trade Kes,
an Ocampan woman he is holding captive, for some of Voyager's
precious water. But the Kazon are more interested in obtaining
all of Voyager's technology -- forcibly. When Jabin tries to
take the crew hostage, Neelix helps them escape and beam back to
the ship, along with Kes.
Kim and Torres persuade an Ocampan
nurse to show them a route that could lead to the surface. On
Voyager, Kes agrees to lead Janeway and the others through the
tunnels to her underground city to search for the pair.
As the Array increases the rate of the
energy pulses that power the city, Kim and Torres begin their
journey, narrowly missing the search party from Voyager. Tuvok
theorizes that the increased activity of the Array may indicate
that the Caretaker is dying; he is clearly attempting to give
them a surplus of power that will sustain the Ocampa after he is
gone.
The search is complicated by a new turn
of events. The Array is now firing a weapon at the planet to
seal up all of the energy conduits, the tunnels that provide the
only access to the city. This will protect the Ocampans, but
prevent the others from escaping. Splitting up, Paris, Neelix
and Kes find Kim and Torres, and send them up to Voyager. Then
Paris and Neelix go back for Janeway, Tuvok and Chakotay.
Chakotay's skepticism towards Paris' loyalty is erased when
Paris saves his life.
Returning to the Array, Janeway again
encounters the old man, whom she realizes is the Caretaker. He
explains that he was bringing beings from across the galaxy to
the Array in the hopes of finding a compatible species with
which he could procreate, thus providing the Ocampa with someone
to care for them after he dies. But no species has been a match
so far.
Janeway tries to convince the Caretaker
to send Voyager and the Maquis ship back home, but he refuses.
Apparently, the Caretaker wants to destroy the Array so that it
won't fall into the invading Kazon's hands. But he dies before
he can carry out his plan, and Janeway is left to decide whether
to use the Array to get home -- which would leave it intact for
the Kazon -- or to destroy it and save the Ocampa. She chooses
what seems to be the only moral option and makes a mortal enemy
of the Kazon.
With Chakotay's ship destroyed in the
battle with the Kazon, Janeway asks the Maquis to become part of
Voyager's crew. She also allows Neelix and Kes to stay aboard.
With Chakotay her First Officer, Tom Paris reinstated as a
Starfleet lieutenant, and Torres and Kim cured by the Emergency
Medical Hologram, Janeway and her new crew set course for the
long trip home, 70,000 light-years away.
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Cast:
Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn
Janeway™
Robert Beltran as Chakotay™
Roxann Biggs-Dawson as B'Elanna Torres™
Jennifer Lien as Kes™
Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris™
Robert Picardo as The Doctor
Ethan Phillips as Neelix™
Tim Russ as Tuvok™
Garrett Wang as Harry Kim™
Guest Cast:
Bruce French as Ocampa Doctor
Richard Poe as Gul Evek
Josh Clark as Carey
Alicia Coppola as Lt. Stadi
Stan Ivar as Mark
Scott Jaeck as Cavit
Eric David Johnson as Daggin
Basil Langton as Banjo Man
Scott MacDonald as Rollins
Jeff McCarthy as Human Doctor
Gavan O'Herlihy as Jabin
Jennifer Parsons as Ocampa Nurse
Angela Paton as Aunt Adah
Keely Sims as Farmer's Daughter
David Selsburg as Toscat
Armin Shimerman as Quark
Creative staff:
Director: Winrich Kolbe
Story By: Rick Berman & Michael Piller & Jeri
Taylor
Teleplay By: Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor
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