- Anything? - Not really.
The polyferranide deposits are contaminated.
There's something here I think you should see.
Pack it up. We'll find better quality down the line.
Our nacelles will burn themselves up if we don't find it soon.
- What have you got, Lieutenant? - There have been other recent visitors.
What do you think this is? A message?
- I don't want you to go wandering off. - I'm not. I'm just looking at something.
Antonio.
He says you're quite a scout.
I was just looking at a lizard when I saw it.
It was your eyes that saw it. No one else's. That's the important thing.
Come. I want you to understand this.
It's a blessing to the land, an ancient healing symbol.
A CHAH-mooz-ee. They probably cut this down for firewood.
The Rubber Tree People?
The closest thing to the ancient Rubber Tree People we'll ever see.
The people in this tribe are their descendants, just like we are.
But they never left this jungle and rarely intermarry with other tribes.
And they still use firewood instead of magnesite fuel.
Chakotay, they have chosen to live like this for centuries.
That's why we are on foot and not using a transporter.
We honour the Sky Spirits who led our ancestors to the sacred land.
- Sacred land? - Yes.
Huh. The Sky Spirits must have taken a wrong turn.
Maybe it's a blessing to the land, for damaging it with a campfire.
What is your basis for that conclusion?
Just something somebody told me once.
Describe the nature of your pain.
In the lower back. It's tight.
Choose the word describing your pain.
Burning, throbbing, stinging, shooting...
Shooting. It even goes down my legs.
- Is the baby all right? - Certainly.
- Nothing to worry about. - That makes me feel better.
The baby is putting pressure on your sciatic nerve. Return to your post.
The pain makes it difficult to sit for any period of time. It's uncomfortable.
Elevating your legs should provide relief.
Perhaps a day of rest, off duty.
Ensign Wildman, this is your first pregnancy, correct?
Pregnancy causes discomforts and you have to learn to live with them.
That's how it is. Schedule her for follow-up in two days.
If the pain has not subsided, we'll decrease the sensitivity of the nerve.
Thank you, Doctor.
Call me day or night if this gets any worse.
Don't you have any compassion for her?
Every member of this crew is an adult. I will not coddle them.
Compassion can be your department. You have enough for both of us.
You've never been sick or in pain.
I wish once in your life you could know how it makes you feel vulnerable.
Then you'd understand.
I don't have a life. I have a program.
I hated every minute of it.
My father dragged me from our colony near the Cardassian border on a quest.
Away from my friends, my home,
to the middle of a Central American jungle,
looking for the Rubber People's descendants.
- It must have been important to him. - It was.
He was disappointed I didn't share his enthusiasm.
He'd been tracking down the origins of our tribe for years.
The one on the right is the one I found today.
And now something you saw on that trip years ago shows up again
on a moon's surface almost 70,000 light years away.
I don't suppose you have any theories that might explain this?
I can give you an official Rubber Tree People theory.
Sky Spirits.
- Sky Spirits? - It's an ancient myth.
Sky Spirits created the first Rubber People in their own image
and led them to a sacred land to live for eternity.
You don't put a lot of faith in this explanation.
How much faith do you put in Adam and Eve?
Science proved all humans developed from an evolutionary process.
That's what I was always taught.
But my teachers never spent much time in the Delta Quadrant.
B'Elanna tells me we picked up a warp signature. Think we should follow it?
Is it fair for me to put my own curiosity ahead of the ship's priorities?
We still need polyferranide to seal the warp coils.
If they have warp technology, they might help us.
Besides, we are in the business of exploring, aren't we?
My father would put on his hat and shout, "Let's go!"
That's good enough for me.
No lifesigns.
- You're sure the signature ended here? - Positive, Captain.
Harry, check your sensors. That look like a power source to you?
That is a high EM reading for a natural occurrence.
It could be cloaking technology.
Mr Kim, transmit a message identifying who we are, where we're from
and that our intentions are peaceful.
Torres to bridge. We're in luck, Captain.
My readings show polyferranide ten kilometres below the surface.
We'll send an away team. Report to transporter room 3.
If we meet resistance, abort the mission.
I have no intention of disturbing an alien race.
But if we can make contact, our goal is to get permission
to excavate as soon as possible.
Tuvok, you're with me.
Mr Neelix, report to transporter room 3 for an away mission.
I'll meet you there, Commander.
We may be out of luck.
- Problem? - We can't transport down.
Every time we try to lock onto a transport site, a storm begins.
We've tried seven sites. As soon as we lock on, an electrical storm forms.
When we change sites, a new storm forms.
Might the transporter beam cause an electrostatic charge?
That's as good a guess as any. I can't explain it. We just can't transport.
Fine. We'll take a shuttle.
A storm has formed as a result of our interaction with the atmosphere.
The meteorological conditions changed when we began entry.
Shields are holding.
It takes more than a thunderstorm to bother a mighty Starfleet ship, huh?
Nothing we can't handle. Relax.
That's why they call it a rain forest.
Why do your Sky Spirits choose a place where it rains all the time?
And it's hot and there are so many bugs.
It's said the Sky Spirits honoured the land above all else.
Maybe it's because this land yields so many different kinds of life.
Maybe they wanted us to become friends with everything in nature,
including the bugs.
Sorry, Sky Spirits, I will never make friends with bugs.
Maybe that's why they bite you.
You're miserable.
It was a mistake to bring you. Sorry.
I'm sorry I can't be what you want me to be.
From the day you came out of your mother, upside down,
I knew the Spirits had chosen you to be a Contrary.
No one chooses for me. I choose my own way.
If that makes me a Contrary, I'll have to live with it.
If you have no spirits to guide you, you will lose your way.
Altitude, 5,000 metres.
Decreasing speed to 720kph. Entering terminal approach phase.
Visibility zero. Switch to enhanced terrain scanning.
Touchdown site scanned. Continuing descent.
Activate Emergency Medical Holographic program.
State the nature of the emergency.
I thought we changed your program to not say that.
We did. But I became so uncomfortable trying to find new ways to break the ice,
as it were, that I restored it. Let's just say it works for me.
- Doctor. - You noticed.
- Are holograms supposed to sneeze? - No, but I've accepted your challenge.
I programmed myself with the symptoms of Levodian flu.
Thus I will gain experience beneficial to the performance of my duties.
Holographic tissue paper for a holographic runny nose.
Don't offer them to patients.
Interesting sensation, blowing one's nose. My first time.
I think this is very brave of you.
Nothing of the sort. I intend it to be educational.
- I'm sure you'll learn a lot. - I meant for the crew.
I'm tired of the whiny, cranky attitudes we see around here.
I will serve as an example of how duties do not have to be disrupted by illness.
Doc, I don't feel so good.
Neither do I and you don't hear me complaining.
We are making no progress locating the source of the power reading.
Then we'll search for these people with our eyes and ears.
Is something bothering you, Commander?
No. It just reminds me of another jungle that I visited once.
The Central American rain forest on Earth.
It's the only other place I've seen this flower.
It is a rare variety of Cypripedium, of the Asiatic genus Paphiopedilum.
I never knew you had such horticultural expertise, Mr Vulcan.
In fact, I am, or more accurately, I was, a breeder of prize Vulcan orchids.
Then we have something in common. I breed orchids, too!
Don't they make an exquisite salad?
A touch of Baldoxic vinegar, pure heaven.
I designate you two the team's botanical surveyors.
Collect a sample of that flower. B'Elanna?
It's what we're looking for. Almost pure polyferranide.
But there's a crust-reactivity problem.
If we can't solve it, we might contaminate the entire yield.
Have Kim run an analysis from the ship. We should...
- I'll be damned. - What?
It almost looks like a hawk, doesn't it?
Listen to him, Chakotay. What does he say to you?
He says, "You are home". Huh?
I'm leaving the tribe, Father.
What?
I got to know Starfleet officers patrolling the Cardassian border.
I asked Captain Sulu to sponsor me at Starfleet Academy.
And he would do that without discussing it with me?
I told him I had your approval. I kept him as far away from you as I could.
I take it you've been accepted by the Academy?
You've never fully embraced the traditions of our tribe. I know that.
You were curious about other societies and I allowed you to read about them.
I believe ignorance is our greatest enemy.
But to leave the tribe...
Our tribe lives in the past. A past of fantasy and myth.
That past is a part of you, no matter how hard you try to reject it.
Other tribes have learned to accept the 24th century. Why can't ours?
It is not the place of a 15-year-old boy to question his tribe.
- I know. That's why I have to leave. - You will never belong to that other life.
If you leave, you will never belong to this one.
- You'll be caught between worlds. - I ask for your blessing, Father.
Botanical surveyor number 1 to Chakotay.
- Go ahead. - You won't believe what I found.
I think it's...
- Neelix, what the... - The bird! The bird!
My eye.
Away team to Voyager. Emergency beam out.
- Get Neelix to sickbay. - Acknowledged.
Commander.
You're lucky this bird didn't snatch your eye out of the socket.
- We have no Talaxian eyeballs. - Is something the matter with him?
He gave himself flu to see what it's like.
- Is he contagious? - It's a simulation, not an actual virus.
There's no need for concern. You may sit up.
- Touchy. - He isn't feeling well.
I don't require any compassion. Thank you very much.
I have been experiencing these symptoms for nearly 20 hours
and I am in complete command of my faculties.
You may both leave now.
If we bombard the crust with radiation,
we can decontaminate it before excavation.
- Then we need permission. - Any progress?
Everything suggests the people left recently and in a hurry.
- Did we frighten them? - We can't discount it.
You'd think with warp technology, they'd have encountered other life.
You'd think they wouldn't live like this.
Have you had any readings to explain the images of a face I've been seeing?
- Images? - Very odd.
Like the flash of a memory, but it's someone I've never met.
Nothing has shown up on the sensors.
Tuvok hasn't detected telepathic activity.
If you want to call it a day, Commander...
We'll press on. If there are problems, I'll let you know. Chakotay out.
Construction is with an alloy polymer matrix we've never encountered.
They're out there. Our tricorders may not tell us so,
but they're out there.
- Lay down your weapons. - Commander?
Disarm. They'll see we don't pose a threat.
May I remind you Starfleet protocol demands
that away teams remain armed until contact is made.
I know about Starfleet protocol.
We don't know their intentions. It is not a logical course.
The logical course isn't always the right course.
Lay down your weapons. Those are my orders.
Can I advise the Captain to move the ship into a tactical position?
Negative. We'll show no force of any kind.
For the record, I must take exception to these orders.
Noted.
They have reason to be scared. Who can blame them?
Their history, our history,
is filled with conquerors who brought slavery and death.
We should leave them alone.
Father.
CHAH-mooz-ee.
I have no explanation, Commander. There is no storm activity indicated.
All right. Let's get back to the shuttle.
Hey, wait!
- We will never make it. - Where is Chakotay?
Away team to Voyager. Emergency beam out.
He was right behind us. I don't understand.
- Was he wearing the com badge? - He was using it to speak with you.
What are the surface conditions near the shuttle?
They are back to normal. Winds two knots.
But I can't find any sign of their shuttle.
- It's not where they landed. - Is it airborne?
- No. - I'll lead the away team back.
- Mr Tuvok, Lieutenant, you're with me. - 'Captain, this is the Doctor.
Turn to your Emergency Medical Holographic channel.
- What is it, Doctor? - Something terrible has happened.
My program...
Doctor, you're carrying this experiment a little too far.
One hour too far to be precise.
I specifically programmed a 29-hour Levodian flu
and it has now been 30 hours.
- We have more pressing matters. - You can't leave me like this.
Get me somebody who can tweak the computer and make me feel better.
Very well. Mr Kim is on his way.
- Try to relax. - I'll see to that, Captain.
I need you with me, Kes. Bring a medkit to transporter room 3.
Commander Chakotay may be injured. Janeway out.
I don't understand it.
I ran a computer diagnostic and it said that my program was fine.
Just rest, Doctor.
Here's a cool holographic towel for your forehead.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Please, don't go yet.
- I have to... - I feel like I'm fading.
Just fading away. You don't know what that means to a hologram.
What seems to be the problem?
My simulated virus is leading me to a simulated death.
It's nothing to worry about. I added a few hours to his program.
He'll be fine in about 45 minutes.
Knowing when it would end didn't exactly make it a fair test.
She is far more devious than I ever suspected.
No shuttle. Well, at least they got out OK.
You have nothing to fear from me.
Talk to me. Let me see you.
No... thank you.
You have nothing to fear from me.
Talk to me. Let me see you.
I don't understand it. It's the same thing.
A storm develops wherever we try to lock on.
Why can we beam people up, but not down?
We have seen enough to discern a pattern.
Someone is controlling the elements of nature to ward us off.
The transporter anomaly is evidence.
We are allowed to leave, but not to approach.
If that's true, I'd respect their wishes.
But I have a missing crewman to get back first. Janeway to Paris.
- Yes, Captain. - We're going to land Voyager.
Take us into the atmosphere.
Acknowledged. Beginning entry sequence.
- Electrical storms forming around us. - Adjusting flight path.
Barometric pressure is falling. We're looking at monsoon conditions.
The shuttle crew didn't report turbulence this severe.
I'm doing the best I can. I'm showing gale force winds out there.
The aliens may intensify their response now that they know our capabilities.
- Red Alert. - Inertial dampers are off-line.
We are in a vortex. I can't maintain altitude.
Captain, it's a cyclone.
Altitude 20,000 metres and falling. I can't get us out of this.
Bridge to Torres. We need more power.
They're running 20% over maximum.
- It's not enough. - Could we go to low warp?
The ship may make it without inertial dampers, but we'd be stains on the wall.
I can augment the engines from the auxiliary reactors,
but it will take 20 minutes.
- How much time do we have? - Altitude at 18,000 metres and falling.
At this rate, about ten minutes.
If you can hear me, speak to me.
I'm sorry. I don't know the ancient language of my people.
I can't understand.
CHAH-mooz-ee.
Altitude 6,000 metres.
Warning. Approach vector too steep. Discontinue landing sequence.
- Would somebody turn that off? - Engineering, report.
We need that extra power, B'Elanna.
Ten minutes. I just need ten minutes.
- Do you understand my words now? - Yes.
- Explain the face marking. - I wear it to honour my father.
He wore it to honour his ancestors.
- Ancestors. You are human? - Yes.
Do others on your world have this mark?
Yes. Not many, but some.
We were taught they had been annihilated.
We were taught your world had been ravaged
by those with no respect for life or land.
There was a time when that was true, but no longer.
He claims to be a descendent of the Inheritors.
Inheritors?
The ones our ancestors chose to honour.
I'm surprised you have no memory of the Inheritors.
One of our gifts was the memory.
A descendent should remember.
I'm not sure I understand.
Perhaps it has been lost over time.
45,000 years ago, on our first visit to your world,
we met a small group of nomadic hunters.
They had no spoken language, no culture,
except the use of fire and stone weapons.
But they did have a respect for the land
and for other living creatures, that impressed us deeply.
We decided to give them an inheritance, a genetic bonding,
so they might thrive and protect your world.
On subsequent visits, we found our genetic gift brought about
a spirit of curiosity and adventure.
It impelled them to migrate away from the cold climate to a new land.
It took them almost 1,000 generations to cross your planet.
Hundreds of thousands flourished in the new land.
They had a profound influence on others of your species.
But then new people came with weapons and disease.
The Inheritors who survived scattered. Many sought refuge in other societies.
12 generations ago, when we returned, we found no sign of their existence.
My people called you the Sky Spirits.
Why have you been hiding from us?
When we heard your message, who you were,
observed you probing our land, we believed you were a threat.
We thought you'd annihilate us, as you had the Inheritors.
We communicated peaceful intentions.
We were taught that is the way human conquerors introduce themselves.
As I said,
we've tried to change our ways since the last time you stopped by.
- Altitude 2,000 metres. - Stand by, bridge.
We're initiating the transfer now.
8% boost in the engines.
- That's all? - Fusion reactors are nearly drained.
The storm is taking every reserve.
- Altitude 1,000 metres. - Impact in 20 seconds.
B'Elanna...
Impact in 15 seconds.
I'm sorry, Captain. That's all we've got.
Impact in ten seconds.
- Report. - We're free.
Gaining altitude.
2,000 metres, 2,500. Dampers back on-line.
Storms have completely dissipated. There's not a cloud in the sky.
Stand down Red Alert. Anybody have an explanation?
The inhabitants have decided to make contact.
The cloaking device is turned off and we are showing an alien population.
It may be possible to locate Commander Chakotay without landing.
Establish a search pattern, Mr Paris. Scan for human lifesigns.
As soon as you find Chakotay, we'll send an away team.
My ship will come for me soon.
I'm sorry we cannot permit you to extract all the materials you need.
You were generous to offer so much.
You have a long journey ahead.
It took us more than two generations to reach your world.
- I wish I could see my father's face. - Does he still live?
No.
He died fighting enemies attacking our colony.
Our tribe moved there a few hundred years ago.
So he honoured the land just as his ancestors did.
Yes.
Yes, he did.
We weren't on good terms when he died.
Once he was gone, I didn't know how to reconcile our differences,
how to heal our old wounds.
I returned to my colony and continued the fight in his name.
I took the mark he wore to honour his ancestors.
I spoke to him in my vision quests...
but he never answered.
Until now.
CHAH-mooz-ee.
Commander?
Put those away.
Listen to him. Do you hear what he says to you?
Yes, Father. I hear him.
I finally hear him.
Four to beam up, Voyager.