“Hunters” is episode fifteen of season four of Star Trek: Voyager.
Voyager is receiving a message that is suffering from a lot of interference, which cuts off. Harry tells Captain Janeway that the transmission just stopped. When asked to locate the source, he says it looks to have been sent along the same network of relay stations they used to send the Doctor to the Alpha Quadrant in the previous episode, “Message in a Bottle”. Starfleet Command must be using them. After the interference is cleaned up, the message says that it is from Starfleet Command and they have information… and is then cut off. According to Harry, the bulk of the transmission is lodged in a relay station 3.8 light years away. Chakotay points out that the last time they used the relays, the people who built them were not happy. The captain doesn’t want to lose the opportunity. On a Hirogen ship, underneath a wall of skulls, they have also detected the message and set a course. The ship’s commander paints his helmet. That doesn’t seem a promising sign.
Harry thinks that maybe Starfleet has found a way to get them home. Tom says it’s 60,000 light years. Harry says they don’t know what technologies have been developed. Tuvok agrees; technology brought them here, it’s a reasonable assumption that technology will get them back. Chakotay suggests a stable wormhole, like the one to the Gamma Quadrant. The captain suggests they reign in speculations. Also, those back home will probably have given up, mourned, then gone on with their lives, only to find they are so far away they might as well be dead. However, they could be in constant contact with home now.
The Doctor has gone to Astrometrics, because Seven of Nine hasn’t reported for her weekly check-up. She’s trying to recover more of the message, and has gone 58 hours since her last regeneration. In the past, she’s gone as long as 200 hours. The Doctor points out that, in the past, she was Borg. And she’s only recovered six words. Surely it would be more efficient to wait? The Doctor thinks about what might happen when they return. He could be treated as a hero. Seven suggests that his program could be deleted and be upgraded to the most recent standard. The Doctor considers that unlikely. Then the ship shakes. Gravimetric force coming from the relay station. They also detect a drifting ship. Only one dead humanoid male onboard.
In sickbay, the Doctor has what looks like a skin sack. He says the victim has suffered a complete osteotomy – he’s been gutted. The entire skeleton, musculature, ligaments, tendons, internal organs, all gone. Seven has seen something like that before. The Borg encountered a ship belonging to Species 5714 destroyed in the same fashion. No, the Borg didn’t determine who and why. It was irrelevant.
The relay station is at least 100,000 years old and is emitting a gravimetric field from a quantum singularity power source. A black hole. He recommends not going any closer. The captain and Seven of Nine are recovering more data. The captain starts reading the message, saying it’s awfully personal for Starfleet Command. Then realises it is personal. The crew have got letters from home. Seven has found a latent data stream, heavily encrypted, text and maps. Janeway hopes it’s a plan to get them to the Alpha Quadrant. The idea lacks any emotional resonance for Seven; she’s never been to Earth. The captain asks if she realises that she might have family. She had not.
Different people have different reactions to the messages they get. Chakotay tells B’Elanna that there are no more Maquis. The Cardassians got an ally, a species from the Gamma Quadrant – the Dominion – who killed them all, bar for those in prison or on Voyager, in the Deep Space Nine episode “Blaze of Glory”. She takes it badly. Harry is really looking forward to a message from his family. Tom, rather less so. Seven of Nine wants to get in closer to stabilise the containment field, using a shuttle, which will stand up better than Voyager. The captain agrees.
B’Elanna teases Harry about Seven of Nine, though he really wasn’t looking for her in Astrometrics, but bringing B’Elanna a message. Seven of Nine herself seems to be after the captain’s approval. Then, there are a Hirogen. A species that seems to use the same interior decorators as the Predators. Walls of body parts and weapons.