To save Kes's life, Janeway must test her own spiritual beliefs by undergoing the secret ritual of an alien religious order.
While visiting the Nechisti monks, Kes is rendered comatose by an energy field that protects one of their special shrines. Unfortunately, when back on the ship, the Doctor can't help Kes because he doesn't understand her condition. The local magistrate tells Janeway that Kes violated a holy place that only monks may enter -- and only after they have undergone a purification ritual to protect them from the energy field. Later, Neelix uncovers an ancient story of a king who went through the ritual to save his comatose son's life. Janeway requests permission to do the same.
The Nechisti Council approves Janeway's petition and the Doctor implants a subdermal bioprobe to monitor her physical condition during the ritual. A guide meets Janeway at the sanctuary and leads her to a room where three old people admit they've been waiting for the ritual to start for as long as they can remember.
With Kes's life in the balance, Janeway impatiently demands that the ritual begin. The Guide hands the Captain a rock, and asks her what she sees. Janeway says she sees a stone, and is told to keep looking. Hours later, an exhausted Janeway is told to put her hand in a basket, and an unseen creature bites her.
On Voyager, the Doctor tracks the toxins from the bite as they course through Janeway's bloodstream, theorizing it might be the key to treating Kes. In a vision, Janeway asks the spirits to restore Kes's health, and her Guide cryptically tells the Captain that she already has what she needs to save Kes, and ends the ritual. Janeway returns to Voyager, where the Doctor prepares a cure from the toxins in Janeway's system. Yet when he applies it to Kes, she actually gets worse. Baffled, Janeway confronts the Guide, who sends her back to the waiting room.
The Council Members chide Janeway, saying she has no faith in the spirits because she can't scan them with her technology. Janeway realizes that if she's going to save Kes, she has to believe -- if not in the spirits, then in her own faith that she can help Kes. Janeway carries Kes back into the shrine. Whether it's the Captain's altered biochemistry or her irrational faith is unclear, but this time, the energy field doesn't harm them, and Kes recovers.
CAST
CAPTAIN KATHRYN JANEWAY
KATE MULGREW
COMMANDER CHAKOTAY
ROBERT BELTRAN
LIEUTENANT B'ELANNA TORRES
ROXANN BIGGS-DAWSON
KES
JENNIFER LIEN
LIEUTENANT TOM PARIS
ROBERT DUNCAN MCNEILL
NEELIX
ETHAN PHILLIPS
THE DOCTOR
ROBERT PICARDO
LIEUTENANT TUVOK
TIM RUSS
ENSIGN HARRY KIM
GARRETT WANG
GUEST STARS
GUIDE
BECKY ANN BAKER
OLD WOMAN
ESTELLE HARRIS
OLD MAN #2
KEENE CURTIS
OLD MAN #1
PARLEY BAER
HARRY GROENER as "The Magistrate"
Teleplay by: LISA KLINK
Story by: GEO CAMERON
Directed by: ROBERT DUNCAN
McNEILL
HIGHLIGHT LISTING
STAR TREK: VOYAGER: "Sacred Ground" -- To save Kes's life, Janeway must test her own spiritual beliefs by undergoing the secret ritual of an alien religious order.
