“Message in a Bottle” is episode fourteen of season four of Star Trek: Voyager.
B’Elanna is complaining to Chakotay about Seven of Nine. He’s getting tired of playing referee between them; if B’Elanna has a problem with Seven, she should talk to her herself. B’Elanna says it would be irrelevant; Seven may look human and sound human but she’s all Borg. Chakotay thinks that attitude isn’t helping either. It seems Seven took something from engineering to the astrometrics lab without asking and locked the door behind her. Chakotay asks if B’Elanna wants him to throw Seven in the brig for the rest of the journey home. Not the worst idea she’s heard.
Seven if Nine then contacts Chakotay, instructing him to report to the astrometrics lab. B’Elanna says if Seven gets in her way again, she’s not responsible for what happens. Chakotay tells her she’s a senior officer; act like one. He heads to astrometrics, meeting Captain Janeway on the way. She was summoned too. Seven has been working to increase the range of the sensors, and has detected something of particular interest. A ship. Whose warp signature shows it to be a Starfleet vessel.
The ship is in the Alpha Quadrant. No; Seven of nine hasn’t extended the sensors that far. She did extend them enough to detect a large network of relay stations, of alien construction, abandoned but still functioning. Seven established a sensor link to the nearest, which allowed contact with the entire network. The ship she detected is in range of one of the farthest sensors, at the outer edges of the Alpha Quadrant. It will move out of range in 41 minutes. Can they use the network to broadcast to the ship? Short answer, yes.
Set up takes the time left down to 16 minutes. A channel is opened and the captain broadcasts a message. They receive an incoming transmission, but it’s themselves. Their signal is being deflected back. The network is degrading their carrier wave. They could send something stronger, a holographic data stream. The Doctor.
B’Elanna heads to sickbay and downloads the Doctor into his mobile emitter without explaining. When he’s told what’s happening, the Doctor says this isn’t what he had in mind when he requested more away missions. They have 90 seconds before the ship moves out of range. There’s a risk that they won’t be able to get the Doctor back, or many other things could go wrong. He’s being asked to take a chance. He takes it.
The Doctor arrives in sickbay on what the computer tells him is the Prometheus. He tries contacting the bridge, or any crewmember; the computer says access to the comm system has been restricted. The Doctor is walking through sickbay, not noticing one body, then seeing a phasor burn and stumbling across another. The second is dead; the3 first is revived briefly enough to say Romulans are the cause. They’ve taken over the ship. Then dies. On the bridge, the Romulan commander is told a Federation vessel is approaching.
The Doctor is told that there are 27 Romulans onboard. And no living Starfleet crew. The Prometheus is an experimental prototype for deep space tactical assignments, featuring multi-vector assault mode. The Doctor is not cleared for that. The ship starts taking fire from the other Federation craft and the Romulan commander orders the, untested, multi-vector assault mode. This is an ideal time to test it. Multi-vector assault mode means the ship splits into multiple parts and takes down the Starfleet ship easily.
One Romulan is injured and taken to sickbay. When the Romulans enters, the Doctor pretends to be a normal EMH – and that he was automatically activated by them entering. He needs to operate on the injured Romulan. Of course he can be trusted; he’s a doctor.
The Doctor asks if he can activate this ship’s EMH. He can. The EMH asks who the Doctor is, as he’s not a member of the crew. When the Doctor explains, the EMH says he’s the Mark 1. An inferior program. What is he doing here? The Doctor explains. The EMH wants to activate the intruder alert. The Doctor stops him before he can alert the Romulans. The EMH Mark 2 deactivates itself. The Doctor reactivates it. Standard procedure is for the EMH to deactivate itself and wait for rescue. They don’t have that luxury.
The Doctor asks if they are at war with the Romulans. No; they are just not involved with their fight with the Dominion. The Dominion? Long story. The Prometheus is an experiment prototype and so is the Mark 2. The Doctor wants to retake the ship. He explains what he’s done and has been active for 4 years. Mark 2 thinks he’s delusional. More discussions ensue; the Doctor convinces Mark 2 to help. After a bit of gloating on each side; the Doctor likely wins through his mobile emitter, being off the ship and adding… extras to his program to allow intimate relationships.
On Voyager, everyone is waiting. Tom has to deal with the aftereffects of a chilli that Neelix made and is concerned about being stuck in medical exile. Then there’s the relay network. The owners may still be around.