The temperature in downtown Barstow is 75 degrees.
Far out!
Come in.
Oh, sorry. I was practising my serve.
- Your serve? - Tennis.
After 19 years, I'm taking it up again.
I'm a little rusty. I played in a holodeck tournament.
I lost my first match in straight sets.
Maintain eye contact with the ball
at the apex of its trajectory,
and your serve would be more effective.
You play tennis?
Simple physics.
Not as simple as high school tennis.
What can I do for you?
I've completed my security evaluation...
Red Alert. Captain to the bridge.
Report.
Some sort of spatial rift. It opened in front of us.
It's a distortion in the space-time continuum but it's got a graviton matrix.
- It's being artificially generated. - By whom?
Sensors can't get inside.
The distortion field's fluctuating.
Something's coming out.
It's a small ship, approximately six metres in length.
Magnify.
Sensors are reading one occupant, human.
He is at the perimeter of the rift.
There's a subspace signature emanating from the ship.
Captain...
It's Federation.
Hail them.
No response.
- They're charging weapons. - Shields up. Hail them again.
- Shields are down. - Get us out of here.
- Helm control is off-line. - He's firing a sub-atomic disruptor.
- Return fire. - Full phasers.
No effect.
Voyager is coming apart!
Divert all power to the deflector.
Send out a polaron pulse to disrupt his weapon.
Emitting deflector pulse. Now.
- It's working. - We are being hailed.
On screen.
I'm Captain Braxton of the Federation timeship Aeon.
I've come from 500 years into your future.
- Disengage your deflector pulse. - Why are you firing at us?
Your vessel causes an explosion that will destroy Earth's solar system.
I've come to prevent that. My mission is your destruction. Do not resist.
- I'll need more information before I... - Debris from your hull was found.
- Captain, I... - No time!
He's remodulating the subatomic disruptor. Our deflector is losing power.
- If he's telling the truth... - I won't sacrifice us without proof.
We're not going to get it.
Match the frequency of his weapon. Try to overload his emitter.
It's working. His weapon is off-line and his ship has been damaged.
The rift is destabilising and he is being pulled back inside.
Re-establish helm control.
We're caught in some sort of graviton distortion. We're being pulled in, too.
Status.
Primary systems are back on-line.
The weapons grid and power array are damaged.
- The temporal rift is closed. - Where are we?
Home.
- We just cut across half the galaxy. - The rift must have originated here.
Hail Starfleet Command.
No response on standard frequencies.
Curious. I am picking up a multitude of narrow-band EM signals.
Let's hear.
The question isn't where we are. It's when we are.
- Mr Kim. - According to astrometric readings...
...the year is 1996.
The late 20th Century.
They had surveillance satellites then.
Maintain a high orbit and modulate the shields to scatter their radar.
We don't want to alarm them.
Is the timeship here, too?
There is no sign of it. Scanning the planet's surface.
I am picking up readings from the northern hemisphere.
Subspace technology shouldn't exist for another 100 years.
Could be our friend from the 29th Century. Localise it.
North American continent. Pacific coast.
The city of... Los Angeles.
We've got to go down there.
If it is Captain Braxton, he's the key to all this.
His ship is the only way to get back to our own century.
Chakotay, Tuvok, Paris, you're with me.
- Mr Kim, you have the bridge. - Yes, Ma'am.
You are something of an aficionado on 20th Century America.
What will we need to pass as locals?
Simple. Nice clothes, fast car and lots of money.
We could have worn our Starfleet uniforms.
No one would have noticed.
The readings are coming from within 100 metres,
but I can't pinpoint the source.
I can't believe a 29th Century ship could have landed here unnoticed.
We don't know what kind of technology they have. Maybe it's cloaked.
Let's spread out. Tuvok, Paris, go check the shoreline.
Chakotay and I will search the boardwalk.
- Well, Kathryn, you got us home. - Right place, wrong time.
- But it is good to be back. - I should look up some ancestors.
One was a school teacher in Arizona.
I don't know what my relatives were doing.
For all I know, she could be my great-great-great-great-grandmother.
- She has your legs. - Have you ever been to California?
No.
After the Hermosa Quake in 2047, this entire region sank under water.
It became home to thousands of different marine species.
Some interesting species in this century.
- Subspace readings are weaker here. - Let's head up to the boardwalk.
- The sun feels great. - Radiation is at hazardous levels.
Lighten up, Tuvok.
This was a great time and place. You're seeing it first-hand.
- Take off your shirt. - And risk dermal dysplasia? No.
Oh, Vulcans... Deep down, you're all hypochondriacs.
The readings are coming from over there. 10 metres.
There.
So much for the timeship.
There's no doubt. The subspace readings are coming from him.
No way.
Way.
It's crap. The component density is too low, the voltage variance is out
and I don't like the colour.
We've got less than six months before we introduce the Hyperpro PC.
With a chip like this driving it, we'll have to change the name to Edsel.
I gave you this contract because you're the best.
Next to us, of course.
Go home, Jim. Lose some sleep over this. I want a full report next week.
- What am I doing? - You're in a meeting.
- And... - I know I'm not supposed to interrupt.
But there's a woman calling from Griffith Observatory.
Rain Robinson. She says it's urgent.
Put her through.
- Henry Starling. - Hi. I don't know if you remember me.
I'm an astronomer at the SETI lab you're funding.
- We met at the Griffith restoration party. - Yes. What is it?
It was my understanding you wanted to be notified immediately
if I picked up a gamma emission that matched the frequency you gave me.
Well... I did. So I am.
- Are you certain? - Positive.
I tracked the emission and the source is in orbit right above us.
When did it show up?
Er... according to the raw data, about 90 minutes ago.
I'm not picking up anything from the standard search parameters.
No one else knows there's something up there. We've got to call NASA!
That's a little premature, don't you think?
This could be a close encounter, but it could be a flock of geese.
Hmm, geese don't park themselves 20,000 kilometres above North America.
Let's send a message up there.
No! We don't know what we've found.
Until we do, I won't risk embarrassing myself or the observatory.
Track the emission, collect more data and keep my informed.
I'm going to put a bottle of champagne on ice.
Do you think ET likes Chateau Coeur?
- If he doesn't, I've got a six-pack. - Good work. Stay in touch.
What the hell?
Anyone up there?
That trip through the rift is affecting our primary systems.
Weapons are off-line, we blew three EPS conduits
and our main transporter buffer just crashed.
- We've got an away team down there. - I know.
We've only got short-range emergency transporters.
How close would we have to get to beam them up?
- Less than 10 kilometres. - Somebody would see us.
I'm picking up an EM signal from the planet's surface.
- It's directed at our coordinates. - On screen.
Greetings from the people of Earth.
- Shall I respond, sir? - Absolutely not.
He appears to live on the street.
That pushcart seems to contain all his belongings.
He spends most of his time putting up literature about the end of the world.
- Janeway here. - We've got a problem.
We received a signal from the surface. It's a greeting for extraterrestrials.
- We've been detected? - It looks that way.
It came from 20 kilometres from your location.
Transport Paris and Tuvok there.
I can't do that without going into a lower orbit.
The main pattern buffer is off-line. It could take days to repair.
Then transmit the coordinates to Tuvok's tricorder.
He and Tom will have to get there using more conventional means.
Aye, Captain. Kim out.
Nobody walks here and they don't have much public transport.
- We'll need wheels. - Do what you have to.
Find out who sent that message. How many people know about us?
We cannot risk contaminating the time line.
See you later.
Who are you? This is my stuff.
We don't want your stuff. We just want to ask you a few questions.
No! No more questions. No more surveys.
Damn social workers coming around all the time!
I don't need your advice. I don't need your...
Voyager!
I knew you'd show up. This is all your fault.
Captain Braxton.
I told you to turn off your deflector pulse but you wouldn't listen.
Voyager. Fools!
The last time we saw you...
I was a younger man, confident in my mission! But you wouldn't listen to me.
- You were trying to destroy us. - I was trying to save lives!
Trying to stop a chain reaction.
It's too late now. All things are set in motion.
The temporal explosion will occur. The end is coming. The future's end.
How long have you been in the 20th Century?
Too long. 30 years too long.
And yet we just arrived. Why?
Pure chance. You knocked my navigational system off course.
There's no telling where we would have ended up!
Who took my pencils?
Oh, always something missing.
Always wanting to steal things.
Greedy people! Post-industrial barbarians!
Captain, we want to help you, but you've got to give us more information.
You said Voyager causes the explosion.
Yes.
No... Hmm, yes.
That's the paradox, my dear. A leads to B, leads to C, leads to A.
Your juvenile minds. How can I make you understand?
A. There's an explosion in the 29th Century.
Debris from Voyager is found. I go back in time to destroy you.
B. You try to stop me, disabling my weapon,
which causes me to crash-land back here in the 20th Century.
C...
Someone in this century steals my timeship and launches it.
They go into the future, and once there they make one critical mistake,
which causes a temporal explosion
that takes us all the way back to A.
An explosion in the 29th Century. The cycle of causality is complete.
How do you know all this?
What evidence do you have that your timeship causes the disaster?
I've spent 30 years answering that very question.
Yes. When the explosion first happened,
my sensors recorded a variety of chronometric data.
The pulses were highly chaotic. I thought it was a warp core implosion.
But then I found debris from Voyager and my theory seemed to be confirmed.
It was you. But then someone here stole my timeship and it dawned on me.
If someone were to fly my timeship into the future,
without recalibrating the temporal matrix,
that could cause the kind of explosion that I witnessed.
- So it wasn't Voyager after all. - No.
No. I reconstructed all the chronometric data, as best I could remember it,
and it proved that I was right.
My ship causes the catastrophe.
Which raises the question, who has your timeship?
Starling. Henry Starling, CEO, Chronowerx Industries.
Philanthropist, entrepreneur, outstanding citizen, huh!
Before I crashed in the year 1967, I made an emergency beam-out.
But he found my ship before I did, in a mountain range,
I've been following this corrupt little man ever since, tracking his movements.
He's become too powerful. I can't get close to him.
You can't accomplish anything in this wretched century.
Nobody here listens. Once, they put me in a mental institution,
and filled me with primitive pharmaceuticals.
Maybe we can help you find Starling and your ship.
- I wouldn't do that. - Why not?
- Haven't you listened? A leads to B... - Leads to C. Yes, we heard you.
- Why shouldn't we try to stop him? - You're involved in the disaster.
That's why I found debris from Voyager at the explosion.
You will be destroyed as well.
Now that we know what's going to happen, maybe...
Hey, Captain. How are you doing?
I understand you've been putting these signs up again.
No, not me. I... I would never do that.
- Walk over here. - Stay where you are!
- Quasi-Cardassian totalitarian! - We just want to talk about the signs.
- People have complained. - Captain, tell him I'm not crazy.
Tell him I'm from the future.
They came from the future too. They came in on a starship.
Al right.
Traitors!
We'll worry about him later. Right now, we've got to find Starling.
We're not at the little green men stage yet, but you'll be the first to know.
What I think we have is an over-enthusiastic young lady.
She's exaggerating. We don't have anything. Not yet.
Thank you, Professor.
You know what that little brat did?
She e-mailed a friend of hers at JPL, who called his professor at Cal-Tech.
She's a security risk. Go to Griffith, get the data, get rid of her.
- Yes, sir. - Dunbar.
If it's true, if they're here, it's only a matter of time before they find me.
There's no telling what capabilities they'll have.
- You may have to use the weapon. - I understand.
Perhaps we should find a more secluded parking place. This is a stolen vehicle.
Nobody's around, Tuvok. We're fine.
A taxi cab would have been less worrisome and more ethical.
We didn't steal. We borrowed a car. We'll return it when we're done.
I was referring to the ethics of time travel.
Taking a test drive won't alter the course of the universe.
Over here.
These are radio-wave readouts.
It looks like radio telescope transmission. It's pretty basic.
Lieutenant, you are being careless. I will not lighten up on this matter.
I have tolerated your impulsive methods. At times, they work to our advantage.
But discretion is also a virtue.
We must leave things exactly as they were.
They found us, all right. The orbital schematic matches Voyager's position.
They are tracking the warp emissions from our engines.
They don't know about warp emissions.
They've configured their telescope to scan for them.
Excuse me. "Do not enter. Employees only." The sign on the door.
I'm sorry. I think we're lost.
We were on the tour and we took a wrong turn at the Saturn exhibit.
Perhaps you could tell us how to get back to the lobby.
Take a left at Mars, right at Halley's Comet,
then straight ahead past the soda machine.
This lab is pretty groovy.
- "Groovy..." - What do you do here?
- We watch the skies. - For what?
Signs of extraterrestrial life. Nice meeting you.
- My name is Tom Paris, by the way. - Rain Robinson.
- Your curves don't look so great. - Excuse me?
- This is a Fourier spectral analysis? - That's exactly what it is.
You might get better resolution if you adjust your amplitude parameters.
- You're probably right. - Or try using a theta-band filter.
You know a lot for someone who can't find his way past Saturn.
- I majored in astrophysics. - Where?
- Starfleet Academy. - Never heard of it.
East coast school.
"Orgy Of The Walking Dead"? That's a classic!
Did you see the sequel, er..."Bride Of The Corpse"?
- You minored in B-movies? - Something like that.
Pardon me, Tom. We should be going. Our friends are waiting for us.
Yeah, right.
Gotta go.
Hey!
Er... I do the planetarium show Tuesday nights.
You guys should come by, check it out. Bring your friends.
"The best stars in Hollywood are right above us."
Yeah, great. But I think we're busy on Tuesday.
Thanks anyway.
No problem.
I downloaded her data into the tricorder and disrupted her data storage device.
- I hope she doesn't get into trouble. - It will look like a computer malfunction.
She was about to make the biggest discovery in history.
- It could have changed her career. - And ended ours.
I am curious. What does it mean, "groovy"?
- Hey, you guys! - Red Alert!
Hey!
Just wait a minute. What the hell did you do to my computer?
- The hard drive is wiped. - I don't have time to explain.
Who are you? And what is that thing in your pants?
- I beg your pardon? - What is it? A demagnetiser?
Get down!
- What? - Do you have a car?
- Over there. - We'll need to use it.
Operations officer's log, supplemental.
We've been looking for signs that anyone else has detected Voyager.
I've also asked Neelix and Kes to monitor all media broadcasts.
We've set up a computer algorithm to search for keywords about Voyager.
- Anything so far? - Not yet.
But we have come across some very intriguing televised broadcasts.
Take a look at this. It's a form of entertainment called a soap opera.
The exploration of human relationships is fascinating.
I can't imagine watching the story and not being a part of it.
You've been spoiled by the holodeck.
There's something to be said for being swept away in the narrative.
Oh, I can't wait to see if Blaine's twin brother is the father of Jessica's baby.
Good work. Keep me informed and don't get too swept away.
Nobody will know the difference.
I'll know. How can I face my brother knowing that our son is his son?
All you need to know, Jack, is that I love you.
So far, so good. We haven't set off any alarms.
Mr Starling has built himself quite a corporate empire.
Looks like he's got wealth, celebrity, and an ego to match.
I see you never learned to type.
Turn-of-the-millennium technology wasn't a required course.
- This is like stone knives and bearskins. - This isn't.
I'm detecting a force field. I can't scan beyond this wall.
I don't see an access port or control panel.
Maybe there's something in his computer.
He's got a massive database but it's protected by an encryption sequence.
I'm going to try interfacing my tricorder.
Looks like a series of pictographs.
They used symbols to represent the computer's functions.
Let's see what Henry has been up to all these years.
The transtators were disrupted by that weapon.
Our communicators are useless.
So we can't call the... our friends. What do we do now?
Take a right at the next light cos you're taking me home.
And you're not keeping the van.
That is not possible. Your life may be in danger.
I'll start screaming until you tell me what's going on.
Who are you? What is that thing in orbit? Why did that guy try to kill us?
- I told you. We're secret agents. - I'm opening the hatch.
We saved your life. Isn't it obvious we're on your side?
I'm standing up. I'm taking a deep breath!
Don't scream! You've seen some strange things but trust me.
We're not going to hurt you, and I will explain everything.
That, or take your chances with the guy who tried to vaporise you!
The UFO. What is it?
It's a Soviet spy satellite. Part of a massive KGB operation.
- We're trying to stop it. - Soviet?
The USSR broke up five years ago. The KGB doesn't even exist any more.
- That's what they want you to think. - We've said enough for now.
What about you, Agent Tuvok? What's up with those ears?
Thought I didn't notice? I did.
What about your weapons? What are they? Lasers?
That information is classified.
And as for my ears, they are a family trait.
- He's very sensitive about them. - Ugh, whatever.
We must find a way to contact our... friends.
Starling's computer designs were inspired by technology from the timeship.
He introduced the very first isograted circuit in 1969,
two years after Braxton's ship crash-landed.
And every few years there's been a revolutionary advance in computers,
all from Chronowerx Industries,
all based on Starling's understanding of 29th Century technology.
- Are you thinking what I'm thinking? - I wish I weren't.
- That the 20th Century computer age... - Shouldn't have happened.
But it did. And it's part of our history. All because of that timeship.
Look at this. Gantry, power conduits, telemetry console.
- This looks like a launching bay. - The ship's going to be launched.
We've got to send this to Voyager for analysis.
- Janeway to Voyager. - Kim here.
Establish a com-link with my tricorder and upload Starling's database.
We'll need a few minutes to reconfigure to their binary system.
Acknowledged. Let's see if we can find out where that launch pad is.
- You're getting the hang of this. - I'm quick.
In a way, Braxton was right.
If we hadn't fought him when he tried to destroy Voyager,
his ship wouldn't have crash-landed on Earth and this wouldn't have happened.
Time travel. Since my first day as a Starfleet captain
I swore I'd never get caught in a godforsaken paradox.
The future is the past, the past is the future.
Hold on. This looks promising. Try "timeship security portal”.
Maybe it's linked to a surveillance system.
An image of the launch bay would give us a clue to its location.
I see you've made yourself at home. Welcome to the 20th Century.
I know who you are.
You're from the future. I knew you'd come back one day.
I detected your vessel in orbit, and Mr Dunbar had a run-in with your friends.
- You're here to take the timeship. - Mr Starling...
You're about to cause a terrible disaster that will affect the 29th Century,
an explosion that will cost billions of lives.
- We're here to stop you from doing that. - What are you talking about?
If you travel to the future, it will destroy Earth's solar system.
- How do you know this? - We talked to the ship's previous owner.
If its temporal matrix isn't precisely calibrated,
you'll trigger a temporal explosion.
That ship belongs to another century. We have to take it back.
- What's that? - Someone's trying to contact me.
Answer it.
- Janeway here. - We've established a com-link.
- Ready to upload on your signal. - Do it.
My database! Stop or I'll kill your captain.
- Who is this? - You've got five seconds.
- Break the link. - Done.
- What's our transporter status? - The pattern buffers are still off-line.
We can try an emergency transport.
The captain ordered us not to. We'd be risking detection.
- Their lives are in danger. - And if somebody sees a starship?
The captain put you in charge. It is your decision.
Helm, get a fix on Chakotay and the Captain.
B'Elanna, stand by transporters. Get ready to beam them to the bridge.
Take us down.
You've taken over 3,000 gigabytes of information,
including my launch plan.
But that won't be a problem.
I'll make a few changes to my itinerary. You're not going to stop me.
If you don't give us that ship, we'll take it by force.
In case you haven't noticed, I'm holding the gun.
Not for long.
I've got a starship that could vaporise this building in the blink of an eye.
- And you along with it. - If necessary.
Captain, you've got some cojones.
Kill them!
Damn!
Helm, keep us within transporter range.
Disable the force field around that timeship.
Prepare to lock onto the timeship and beam it to cargo bay 2.
Kim, you have an impeccable sense of timing.
Not bad for your first day in the big chair.
The force field's down.
Sir, the timeship!
They're trying to teleport the ship!
The matter stream is remodulating. He's disrupting transport.
Yes!
He's using our transporter beam as a downlink. He's accessing our computer.
Whenever I try to disable his downlink he uses a new command override.
He's using 29th Century technology. We may not be able to keep up with him.
Inertial dampers are off-line. He's gotten into our propulsion systems.
- Disengage transporters. - Destabilising matter stream.
Transporters off-line.
We've terminated the downlink, but he got 20% of our main data files.
- Get us back into orbit and... - Captain Janeway.
- Henry Starling here. - This is Janeway.
U.S.S. Voyager, Intrepid class. Bigger than I expected. And less advanced.
Says here your ship was launched in the year 2371.
You're from the 24th Century? And I thought you were from the 29th.
Looks like I have the home-field advantage.
What's this? This is interesting.
Damage reports are coming in. Power fluctuations in the impulse drive
and burned-out circuits in the main computer core.
- Nothing we can't handle. - Captain, I can't find the Doctor.
- Is his program off-line? - No. His program is gone.
Where am I?
- Who are you? - Welcome.
Captain, there's something on the television I think you should see.
It's a current events program.
I asked Neelix to monitor Earth broadcasts.
I'm transferring it to the main viewer.
Incredible footage was caught an hour ago
by a man using his camcorder to tape a barbecue.
The massive unidentifiable object
is not a meteorite, weather balloon or satellite.
One aviation expert we've spoken to.
Has said it's not any kind of U.S. aircraft currently in use.
We're awaiting investigation by authorities
and we'll keep you updated as news develops.