Ouroboros, Part I (episode)

Real world article

(written from a production point of view)

A desperate Asencia launches an all-out attack on the Federation that will destroy subspace, while Wesley and the cadets try to correct the timeline.

Summary[]

Act One[]

Asencia is infuriated that The Uprising has rebelled against her coup d'état of the government of Solum, and powers up a machine that opens wormholes above Solum for her fleet of warships to pass through in order to quickly attack multiple Federation targets. Aboard the USS Voyager-A, Commander Tysess detects this anomalous activity, with Captain Chakotay noting that the spacetime rifts will lead to Federation starbases in three quadrants.

To the rest of the crew's surprise, Wesley Crusher celebrates this turn of events, as it proves that Asencia has developed the necessary technology to send the USS Protostar back in time to its proper place in the timeline. Rok-Tahk realizes how they can alter the spacetime rifts into a wormhole that can do just that, both preventing the invasion of the Federation and fixing the temporal paradox. Zero likens this task to finding a needle in a haystack, lost in the outer galaxy with only a telescope. Both Dal R'El and Admiral Kathryn Janeway agree that they have to start looking.

Janeway orders Chakotay and the crew of the Protostar to make preparations for the ship to be exactly as it was when it was originally found on Tars Lamora. Wesley, Rok, Maj'el, and Zero search for the correct spacetime coordinates. Dal, Gwyn, Jankom Pog, Murf, and Ilthuran suit up in order to beam down to the surface to manually enter the correct spacetime coordinates at the top of Asencia's research spire. Dal swaps out his Combadge for one with the same design as the Combadge that he and Rok first found on the Protostar when their adventures began. Voyager will battle Asencia's forces above Solum to try to delay the invasion of the Federation.

Voyager and the Protostar remodulate their shields, allowing them to fly past the departing Vau N'Akat warships without being detected. Through a small gap in the planet-wide transporter scramblers, Gwyn and Dal's away team beams down to Solum.

Asencia watches a viewscreen as her warships slowly proceed to the wormholes. On Earth, an opening wormhole can be seen from the surface in San Francisco. However, Voyager begins disabling the warships with Quantum torpedoes, temporarily preventing some from passing through the wormholes, but Tysess warns Janeway that they don't have enough torpedoes to last much longer.

The needle-in-a-haystack team hasn't yet come up with the necessary coordinates, but Wesley reminds them to keep their minds open. On Solum the spire team makes it partway up the structure before being discovered by Vau N'Akat Drednok units. Ilthuran tells the others to head forward while he holds off the guards with a Phaser. Murf extends his arms and carries Jankom higher, while Gwyn and Dal proceed up the stairs on foot.

On the Protostar, Hologram Janeway laments what will become of her when the ship is sent back in time through the wormhole, since she must lose her memories in order to be in the state the crew originally found her in. Chakotay assures her that they'll find some way to copy her memories so they won't be lost, even though her program has grown so large.

The needle team review all the time-travel events and wormholes related to the Protostar, but fail to find the necessary coordinates. Zero realizes that the only wormhole that's out of place is the one that sent the ship to Tars Lamora in the first place, as it never happened in their timeline due to the paradox they created. Rok theorizes that maybe their present selves are the ones who have always created that wormhole, leading to all the other events and wormholes afterward. Wesley agrees, It's temporal mechanics 101. Small changes to time don't matter as long as we make sure the big stuff still occurs. They realize they if they match the rift energy to the Protostar's quantum variance and get the timing just right, that will produce the "needle" they are looking for in order to stitch all the related holes in spacetime back together.

The spire team, exhausted from their climb, finally reach the top of the spire where they can input the coordinates, but Asencia and her Drednok shoot the console they were going to use, disabling it. Jankom says they can still input coordinates without the console, but they have to do it manually from the transceivers, requiring more climbing.

Gwyn confronts Asencia so the others can complete the mission, but Asencia's Drednok pursues them. Asencia fights by combining both her own heirloom and Gwyn's into a dual-bladed weapon; Gwyn tries but is unable to psychokinetically wrest her own heirloom back from Asencia. Gwyn continues the fight using a plain metal pipe, but is at even more of a disadvantage due to her intermittent temporal phasing.

Act Two[]

Janeway presses the needle team for a solution, since they're running out of time, and Wesley reports that they're almost finished. As Zero reminds the spire team that their window of opportunity is closing fast, Jankom sets up a transceiver to a temporal variance of 47 millicochrane and begins to adjust its direction. The machinery's movement momentarily distracts Asencia, allowing Gwyn to knock both of them down to a lower level on the spire.

Jankom activates the readjusted system, but its energy knocks a cable loose, putting them all in danger; they've already started powering up the device and it could explode. Dal decides to go fix the cable and trusts Murf to handle the Drednok that has finally caught up with them. Murf defeats the Drednok in single combat, but Gwyn and Asencia are still fighting. Asencia declares that she will make this Solum into the world she wants it to be, and pins Gwyn to the ground with her heirloom; Gwyn catches the blade between her hands, barely keeping Asencia from dealing a killing strike. Dal climbs higher and plugs in the cable at the last possible moment, but is shocked and falls off the edge; thankfully Murf catches him.

Above Solum, the wormholes begin to close, destroying the warships in the process. A new wormhole opens, and Asencia realizes that something is wrong. Gwyn tells Asencia that she's lost, but Asencia keeps trying to deal a lethal blow. Many Vau N'Akat gather around the two fighters, including Ilthuran, the younger Asencia, Borom, and Kathon. The Vau N'Akat use their collective psychokinesis to pass their power to Gwyn, allowing her to overpower Asencia and claim both heirlooms. When Asencia tries to reassert her control over the heirlooms, she ends up burning out her own psychokinesis, falling to the ground, helpless. Gwyn smiles out at the gathered Vau N'Akat who made her victory possible.

The needle team assembles on the Protostar and is poised to finally send their ship through the wormhole to fix the temporal paradox, but the Loom begin to appear, earlier than Wesley had predicted.

Log entries[]

Memorable quotes[]

"What do you mean we lost contact?"
"The city is in chaos. The Uprising has mounted resistance against us. They demand peace with Starfleet."
"No! No, no, no! Launch the invasion! Open all rifts! Strike every key Federation target!"
"Opening up that many wormholes will tear apart the fabric of subspace!"
"Oh, our world is already tearing apart. And if our enemies wish to join the Federation, they can... in death!"

- Asencia, her Drednok, and a Vau N'Akat scientist

"I'm detecting dozens of spacetime rifts, more appearing every minute."
"And their trajectories lead to every major Federation Starbase across three quadrants."
"Yes, she did it! [laughs] This is what we've been hoping for!"
"Whoa, wait, what? You were hoping for Starfleet's annihilation?"
"No! [laughs] No, our chance to close the time loop, to get the Protostar back to Tars Lamora and fix our dying timeline!"
"He's right!"

- Tysess, Chakotay, Wesley, Jankom, and Rok

"Asencia created those rifts, which means we can use them. If we merge their energy to make a temporal wormhole, it'll stop her invasion and we can send our ship to the past where it belongs!"
"You are suggesting we stabilize an unstable wormhole fixed to an exact time and place?"
"Yeah, that's what I said!"
"With so many rifts, there's innumerable spatial variables. The science is akin to finding a needle in a haystack, lost in the outer galaxy with only a telescope."
"Then we better start looking."

- Rok, Maj'el, Zero, and Dal

"And what if we don't find this needle?"
"The paradox will unravel our reality enough to ring the dinner bell for the Loom to consume and erase us from existence."
"Let's try to avoid that, Mr. Crusher."

- Noum, Wesley, and Janeway

"The odds are against us. But if we pull this off, we need to be ready. Chakotay, take your crew to the Protostar to prep its final voyage. To keep history intact, the ship must be exactly as it was when they found it on Tars Lamora."
"We'll help Wesley figure out the spacetime coordinates. Four heads are better than... Scratch that. Three heads and Zero."
"Much obliged."
"To create the wormhole, the data must be entered manually from the top of Asencia's research spire."
"Well, that's just inconvenient."
"Gwyn and I will lead an away team to the surface and see what we can do. We'll need all the luck we can get."
"We'll slow Asencia's attack on the Federation and buy you as much time as we can. No one else is coming to save us. Voyager is our last and only defense, and we will hold the line."

- Janeway, Rok, Zero, Maj'el, Jankom and Dal outline the plan

"Ah, good to see that remodulated shields could still fool enemy sensors."
"Those old Maquis tricks will only get you so far. We almost lost a nacelle back there! What happened to keeping the ship intact?"
"I know, I'm doing my best."

- Chakotay and Hologram Janeway while flying undetected past Vau N'Akat warships using techniques he and B'Elanna Torres used in the past (VOY: "Dark Frontier")

"Let me guess, ripping apart spacetime isn't the best for someone displaced in time?"
"I'll be okay. The mission comes first. I jut hope our friends can figure it out."
"They will. They must."

- Dal, Gwyn, and Ilthuran after beaming down to Solum

"What's with you? You've been on me all day."
"Maybe I'm just facing facts."
"And what facts are those?"
"If this ship is supposed to go back to Tars Lamora exactly as they found it, what happens to me? My memories, our time together. I'll lose it all."
"We'll make a copy."
"We both know my program's too big."
"We'll find a way. We always do."

- Chakotay and Hologram Janeway discuss her fate

"Ha ha! I told you we'd figure it out. You can put me down now."

- Wesley, to Rok, as she is lifting him off the ground in a big hug after their discovery

"I'm never taking a turbolift for granted again."

- An out of breath Dal after climbing over 20 stories

"Ah! We got a loose connection!"
"Please tell me that wasn't important."
"Ah! The rift energy's gotta converge. If we don't connect those cables now, we're doomed."
"Double doomed."
"Do not move."
"You got this, Murf."
"[yells in Murfese]"

- Jankom and Dal, and Murf, as Asencia's Drednok catches up with them just after an important cable comes loose

"Whoa, whoa, careful! That temporal energy will scatter your particles to the next century."
"I'm gonna forget you said that."
"Why? It's true!"

- Jankom and Dal, as Dal puts himself in harm's way to fix a disconnected cable on a powerful temporal energy device

"I won't give up on this world."
"The Multiverse holds a bitter truth, girl. My home, my Solum was destroyed, and it always will be. So, I will conquer this reality until I have the Solum I want that bends to my will."

- Gwyn and Asencia fight for Solum's future

"Gwyndala, my will is yours."
"Gwyndala, our will is yours."
"Gwyndala, our will is yours."
"You! You traitors!"
"Gwyndala, our will is yours."
"I will not let Solum slip away! There is no... barrier... we cannot..."

- Ilthuran, Young Asencia, and the Vau N'Kat unite to give Gwyn the strength to beat Asencia

"Wow. Ain't she a sight? Dal?"
"Yeah."

- Jankom and Dal, about the wormhole and Gwyn respectively

"Captain, we're picking up a subspace signal. It's from the wormhole."
"Put it through."
"No, no, no, no, it's too early. We had time."
"What do you mean? What's early?"
"The Loom. They're here."

- Maj'el, Chakotay, Wesley, and Rok, as a new threat appears just as victory seems certain

Background information[]

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Continuity[]

Dialogue indicates 2382 was "two years ago," and that 2436 is "fifty-two years from now," suggesting it is still 2384. The previous episode, PRO: "Touch of Grey", indicates it is 2385 (fourteen years since Janeway took command of the USS Voyager in 2371.)
Holo-Janeway mentions the old Maquis tricks of remodulating the shields that Chakotay used against the Numiri during VOY: "Ex Post Facto".