THE VOID (STAR TREK: VOYAGER)

"'The Void'" is the fifteenth episode of the seventh season of ''.

Contents

Plot

External links

Plot

As Neelix serves a meal which Seven has prepared for Janeway, Chakotay, Tom and B’Elanna, ''Voyager'' suddenly experiences turbulence, and is pulled into a void. Neelix and Tom realize an approaching ship has opened fire on ''Voyager''.
Another ship approaches and fires on the attacking ship, but then proceeds to fire on ''Voyager'', taking down her aft shields. As the attacking ship transports supplies and deuterium from ''Voyager'', Janeway orders the attacking ships engines to be disabled. But it is too late, and the ship jumps to warp. Another vessel approaches, but does not initiate hostile action; instead, it hails ''Voyager'', and the captain of the ship compliments Janeway for fighting off her attackers.
General Valen the captain of the friendly ship comes onboard ''Voyager'', tells her why she was attacked, where they are, and the nature of “the void”. He offers to trade with Janeway for ''Voyager's photon torpedoes, but Janeway tells him that they do not trade weapons because they do not know how they will be used.
Seven of Nine devises a plan to propel them out of the void and back into normal space. It is, however, risky and complicated. As ''Voyager'' implements Seven's plan and nears normal space, the ship is thrown back into the void causing significant amount of damage to ship systems. With the warp core offline and supplies running low, Janeway orders their attacker to be found, so that they can retrieve their stolen supplies.
When ''Voyager'' finds their attacker, the ship has been badly damaged. There are no life signs aboard and all technology and supplies have been “picked clean”. Seven of Nine states that not everything of value has been taken: the casing of the warp core is made of an element that can be converted into a power source.
Inside the casing, Seven and B’Elanna find an injured humanoid hiding and clinging to a ladder. He is taken to sickbay, but he is afraid and he refuses to allow the Doctor near him. Although hurt, he has a voracious appetite.
''Voyager'' tracks down General Valen, the previously friendly captain, and disables his shields. When he does not return what belongs to them, Janeway contemplates taking more than what is theirs. Janeway goes to her ready room for coffee when Tuvok and Chakotay report; their inventory shows that they recovered less than half of what was taken.
Janeway attempts to find a loophole in the Federation charter and suggests an alliance, where they would pool their resources, protect their allies, and “ultimately get the hell out of this place”.
:“Captains Log, Star date: 54553.4: For the past several days we’ve been making every effort to recruit members into an alliance but it hasn’t been easy.”
Janeway and her officers tell a captain and his crew of their new alliance, noting the benefits and the rules of such an alliance. She asks him to consider it and offers complimentary food and medical care to him and his crew.
Seven notifies the captain that her phase coupling has been stolen. Janeway tells her that it was not stolen, but given to a prospective member. Seven says it is inefficient to give things away. As Janeway leaves, she turns around and apologizes to Seven for “giving away her favourite phase coupling”.
Seven goes to sickbay where she finds the Doctor and the now-named humanoid, Fantome, listening to music. Seven realizes that he can hear and tries using sounds and instruments to instruct him to pick the instruments up. It is determined at this point that Fantome's species is probably native to the void.
Neelix prepares B’Elanna and Tom a meal but are called away early when all senior staff are ordered to the bridge. The ship is set on red alert because another ship has just come into the void and is under attack by General Valen. As Janeway orders weapons targeted on Valen's lead ship, Valen hails ''Voyager''. Janeway tells him they will protect the new ship, but Valen tells her he has a crew to feed and opens fire on ''Voyager''. ''Voyager'' fires photon torpedoes but only reduces Valen upgraded shields to 80%. Whilst Voyager is sustaining damage a third ship approaches and fires on the other two ships forcing them to retreat. Garon, the captain of the third ship hails Voyager and declares "I have decided to accept your proposal"
The Doctor takes Fantome, now no longer a patient, to the mess hall. A prospective member of the alliance named Bosaal, becomes agitated upon seeing Fantome, telling Janeway his species is vermin. Janeway offers to remove those lurking on his ship and relocate them to ''Voyager''.
Around this time Janeway notes that their alliance has produced a new benefit for Voyager. Alien technology has upgraded their replicator systems, allowing a vastly larger amount of food to be produced from the same amounts of energy.
B’Elanna and a member of Garon’s crew run a test that does not go successfully. When all seems to be going well, a part of it explodes. Two aliens spy on Janeway talking to B’Elanna and the member of Garon’s crew as Tuvok walks in. He remarks that they managed to break his security code, and reminds them they should not be spying on members of the alliance, although it should be noted that these aliens are members of the Hierarchy and so spying is second nature to them.
Several members of the crew observe Fantome and others of his kind developing a language with small programmable devices that play music.
In engineering, Janeway learns that a needed modulator has come from an act of piracy. She orders it and Bosaal removed from her ship.
Talking to Chakotay, she realizes that they should have never allowed Bosaal to join their alliance. The two enter enter Astrometrics, where the two aliens who developed the spying technology show Bosaal and Valen talking about a prospective raid on ''Voyager''. Janeway notes somewhat ironically that she should never have explained the value of co-operation, as the hostile aliens are forming their own alliance against Voyager. Tuvok believes they will attack within the next few hours to steal the ship's food and supplies. Janeway prepares to leave the void as soon as possible, so they will not have time to run a test on B’Elanna’s modulator.
Janeway enters sickbay where she tells the Doctor that they will soon be leaving. She says if they would like Fantome and his kind to come with them, then they are welcome. The Doctor communicates with them, but they reply that they would like to remain in the void. They are grateful and would like to help them now.
Janeway and the alliance fleet prepare to leave the void when the funnel begins to form. Bosaal and Valen’s ships, however, have now opened fire on the fleet. Janeway orders all ships to return fire on their designated targets. Once shields have been penetrated, the Doctor and Seven beam Fantome and his friends to the enemy ships. Janeway tells B’Elanna to hurry the modulator online.
Both enemy ships slow to a halt. ''Voyager'' receives a hail from Fantome and his friends, telling they have disabled both ships's engines. The alliance fleet activates the shield modulator, traverses the funnel, and jumps to warp, where they successfully exit the void.
Janeway says her goodbyes to her friendly alliance, remarking to Chakotay that it was almost like being part of a Federation again.

External links

★ Episode summary from Startrek.com

★ BBC News Real Void Detected