Voyager receives a special message from Starfleet Command.
At Starfleet Command, ex-Enterprise crewmember Barclay is obsessed with Voyager. He runs simulations in the holodeck, trying to find a way to communicate with the lost ship. After forecasting a rare pulsar, Barclay unsuccessfully tries to convince his superiors that a tachyon beam can be directed at the pulsar. This would provide a gravometric surge capable of creating an artificial wormhole, which could be used to create two-way communication with Voyager. Defeated, Barclay returns to the only place he feels comfortable—his holographic version of the ship.
While Commander Harkins and the rest of Starfleet Command work on the Pathfinder Project, an array that would send signals to Voyager at hyper subspace speeds, Barclay wants to use a wormhole as a conduit for two-way communication. He tries to convince Admiral Paris, Tom’s father, but to no avail. Retreating to the hologrid, Barclay talks through his plan with the Voyager crew and decides that a micro-wormhole is the answer. Faced with Barclay’s history of holo-addiction, Harkins is forced to take him off of the Pathfinder Project and forbid him from using the hologrid or the lab.
Barclay pleads with Admiral Paris to try his plan. Intrigued in spite of himself, the Admiral offers to review Barclay’s findings and let Harkins pursue the plan if he finds them valid. However, this isn’t good enough for Barclay. The Voyager crew has become his family, and he has to do everything in his power to help them. Later that night, Barclay breaks into Starfleet Command and interfaces with the array.
Activating the array’s control matrix, Barclay finds a pulsar and directs the tachyon beam towards it. After adjusting its trajectory to the estimated Delta Quadrant coordinates, Barclay succeeds in creating a micro-wormhole and sending a message to Voyager. Suddenly, Harkins arrives with security officers who chase Barclay throughout the holographic ship. When Harkins stages a warp core breach that would destroy the program, Barclay ends it. Aboard the real Voyager, Seven alerts the Captain to the formation of a micro-wormhole and a message being transmitted on the Starfleet emergency channel.
As the wormhole begins to slowly collapse, Janeway sends a message back to Barclay, which arrives just as Admiral Paris and Harkins are discussing what action to take for his defiance. Excitedly, Barclay begins two-way communication with Janeway, transmitting data about the hyper sub-space technology as she sends navigational records and other data about Voyager. Admiral Paris has a special message for Tom and the rest of the crew, assuring them that Starfleet is doing everything in their power to bring them home.
CAST
CAPTAIN KATHRYN JANEWAY
KATE MULGREW
CHAKOTAY
ROBERT BELTRAN
B'ELANNA TORRES
ROXANN DAWSON
TOM PARIS
ROBERT DUNCAN MCNEILL
NEELIX
ETHAN PHILLIPS
THE DOCTOR
ROBERT PICARDO
TUVOK
TIM RUSS
SEVEN OF NINE
JERI RYAN
HARRY KIM
GARRETT WANG
SPECIAL GUEST STAR
Dwight Schultz
as Barclay
GUEST STARRING
Richard Herd
Richard McGonagle
SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE BY
Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi
Teleplay by: David Zabel and
Kenneth Biller
Story by: David Zabel
Directed by: Mike Vejar
HIGHLIGHT LISTING
STAR TREK: VOYAGER: “Pathfinder” —Voyager receives a special message from Starfleet Command.
