“Displaced” is episode twenty-four of season three of Star Trek: Voyager.
Tom and B’Elanna exit the holodeck; she does not look happy. Tom says that the Klingon martial arts program is the best workout he has ever had. B’Elanna, making her point whilst waving her bat’leth around, says she only did it because Tom tricked her with that stupid bet (in the previous episode, “Distant Origin”). Tom asks B’Elanna why she gets so hostile. She retorts that she isn’t hostile. Quite loudly and forcefully. Then a man materialises in front of them and asks where he is.
Tom contacts the bridge whilst the man asks what they want with him and why they abducted him. B’Elanna reassures him that they didn’t abduct him. However, she’s still gesturing with her bat’leth, which lacks reassurance. The man asks where he is, as he was on Nyria III walking home then appeared on the ship. Where it is too cold and too bright. B’Elanna suggest they take him to sickbay.
In sickbay, the Doctor has raised the temperature and lowered the light. Captain Janeway and Tuvok are there; they want to know if the alien’s people possess transporter technology. Not that he knows of, though he has heard of other races who do. Although he can’t imagine why they transported him. He describes what the transportation felt like. When asked where his colony is – a red giant with a large cloud of interstellar dust beyond the fifth planet – it doesn’t sound familiar. Kes isn’t present and the Doctor says she’s late for her shift. When the computer is asked where she is, she’s not on Voyager. When the times are compared, she disappeared at exactly the same time as the alien arrives. Hardly a coincidence.
In engineering, Harry says sensors haven’t detected another ship that could have transported the Nyrian nor is there a planet closer than 10 light years. B’Elanna sys nothing unusual was detected at either place where a transport happened. Then decides to ask Harry if she’s hostile. She has a temper but that doesn’t mean she’s hostile. That’s very different from being hostile. Suggesting she’s hostile is way off mark, B’Elanna states. Hostilely. Harry agrees. B’Elanna asks why he looks afraid for his life. At which point the sensors detect a polaron surge and seconds later Harry is gone. Another Nyrian has appeared on the bridge. Over the course of time more appear and Tuvok is in the middle of saying that raising shields did nothing when he vanishes too.
When the, remaining, senior staff meet, 22 people are gone, all of whom have apparently shown up at the Nyrians’ colony, and no-one knows where that is. B’Elanna mentions the surge of polaron particles before Harry vanished, but it could be from a spatial anomaly or from technology. Janeway wants the Nyrians confined to a cargo bay and an eye kept on them. Chakotay says they don’t seem threatening, but the captain is concerned. A crew member is disappearing every 9 minutes and 20 seconds; at this rate, the entire crew will be gone in 18 hours. It would be a good way of taking over a ship.
Twelve hours since this began and over half the crew has been lost. They are running out of security people. According to B’Elanna, a Nyrian astrophysicist mentioned something that could suggest a wormhole. It’s possible they passed through a baby one whilst it was forming. She wants to speak to the astrophysicist again and Janeway is in the middle of contacting Neelix when she disappears.
Chakotay is on the bridge and he asks the ensign at tactical how she likes being the new head of security. It’s everything she dreamed off. There are only 40 crew left and Chakotay wants to restrict access to computers, close off areas they are not using and erect forcefields around certain areas. He hopes he’s just being paranoid.
B’Elanna is in engineering with the Nyrian astrophysicist and his security escort. She doesn’t think it’s a wormhole; in fact, she doesn’t think it’s a natural phenomenon at all. The Nyria takes out his, useless, escort and grabs his gun. He’s moving B’Elanna to the head of the line, and she’s transported off. She arrives where the missing crew are and tells the captain the Nyrians are responsible. They know. A Nyrian guards takes B’Elanna’s combadge. The crew have supplies and appear to be in a compound created especially for them.
On Voyager, they are running out of crew. The Nyrians are no longer in their cargo bay and Chakotay wants the bridge and engineering secured against intruders. This doesn’t work. The Nyrians look a lot more hostile now. Chakotay and Gennaro are the only ones left so Chakotay decides they need to sabotage as much as they can, taking out navigation controls, shutting down power, turning up the lights and disrupting computer function. Gennaro has gone and Chakotay is down to about two minutes., He downloads the Doctor into the mobile emitter before the Nyrians can delete his program.
Voyager‘s crew are now in several compounds. This is how the Nyrians take over places, by gradually replacing the people. The crew should be grateful; they could be dead. Now, they need to work out how to escape and get their ship back.
Tom and B’Elanna decide to talk about their differences, with the Doctor providing ‘helpful’ comments until B’Elanna mutes him.