Plot
The crew of Voyager encounter a large nebula in their path towards home. As they start to enter it, the entire crew begins to suffer from intense pain, and one crewmember dies from burns on his skin; only Seven of Nine is unaffected. Realizing that they cannot withstand the subatomic radiation eminating from the nebula for the month it would take to cross, they start to consider travelling around it, which would take an additional year to clear. The Doctor proposes a novel solution: to place the crew, save for himself and Seven, in stasis, allowing them to cross the nebula safely. Captain Janeway agrees, and soon, the crew is safely stowed into stasis chambers.
Seven adopts a daily cycle to assure the ship maintains its course and the crew remains healthy while in stasis, at times dealing with Tom Paris's fear of small spaces and placing him back in stasis with the Doctor's help. The Doctor attempts to engage Seven in human activities such as a holodeck party with the virtualized crew, but Seven continues to try to keep working during these times. Suddenly, the computer reports failure in the anti-matter storage tanks, but when Seven arrives in engineering to eject them, there is no sign of problems. They discover the gel packs are starting to fail due to the nebula's radiation, but are able to reroute the computer processor to avoid these faults. The Doctor discovers his mobile emitter has started to fail as well, and is forced to resign to stay in sickbay until the journey is complete.
As the ship nears the edge of the nebula, Seven becomes concerned she is feeling the effects of prolonged isolation such as disturbing dreams and hallucinations. Another ship appears, helmed by Trajis Lo-Tarik, looking for supplies. Seven brings him aboard and provides him with the requested equipment, but when she is struck by another hallucination, Trajis disappears. She warns the Doctor of the intruder on board and attempts to locate Trajis, who seems intent on destroying Voyager. Seven continues to suffer intense hallucinations, including watching Paris and Ensign Harry Kim burst into flames. The Doctor hot-wires the mobile emitter to try to help Seven, assuring her there is no one else on board, before his emitter dies out. As the hallucinations worsen for Seven, she finds that the ship's propulsion system are failing. Knowing that the ship must clear the nebula, she opts to route power from life support while maintaining the stasis chambers, eventually passing out.
Seven comes to in sickbay, surrounded by Janeway, the Doctor, and other crew members. They congratulate her on successfully getting the ship out of the nebula, and that all has been returned to normal. Later, Seven observes Paris, Kim, and Torres at the mess hall. She requests if she could join them, feeling the need for companionship after her ordeal, and they invite her to join in.
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