“Relativity” is episode twenty-four of season five of Star Trek: Voyager.
The episode opens at what appear to be the Utopia Planetia shipyards around Mars. One of the ships being worked on is Voyager. Captain Janeway beams aboard and is welcomed by an admiral. They head off, talking about the ship, going to the bridge and then the captain’s ready room, where Janeway asks about Tuvok. He’s presumably on Chakotay’s ship. Janeway says she has an idea for a pilot who may be able to help; Tom Paris. They head out to the bridge and Janeway asks an ensign to move from a console. The ensign is Seven of Nine. Lacking any visible Borg implants.
Seven leaves the bridge and enters the briefing room, contacting someone and telling them the bridge is clear, there is no sign of the weapon. She’s told to continue scanning. Janeway and the admiral enter and Janeway briefly speaks to Seven. They all leave, the captain’s group heading to sickbay where the EMH is briefly activated. Seven heads to engineering where Lt. Carey speaks to her. Or, more properly, sounds to be hitting on her. As the captain’s group enters engineering, Seven enters a Jefferies tube. She reports localised temporal distortions and that she’s found the weapon.
A warning sounds in engineering as Seven starts her work and Janeway says she will investigate herself. Seven says the weapon is out of phase; they sent her to the wrong timeframe. At least they know where the weapon is placed; now they need to know when. Janeway has found the hatch closed from the inside and detects chroniton particles. Seven reports she has been detected and must leave, but there’s interference. On the bridge of another ship, the captain, Braxton (the same Braxton in “Future’s End” but played by a different actor) is told that transporting Seven risks damaging her bionetic implants. Braxton orders the lieutenant to go ahead anyway. When the captain arrives where Seven was, all that is detectable is chroniton flux. Seven materialises on the other ship, then collapses, dead.
Lt. Ducane tells Braxton they haven’t been able to revive Seven. Braxton says they will have to recruit her again. Ducane is concerned about temporal psychosis. Braxton says if they don’t repair the timeline, Seven and her crew will die. They will recruit her just before the explosion.
Seven is being examined by the Doctor. Her vision is off and she’s diagnosed herself with a rare neurological condition that hasn’t affected anyone in 200 years. The Doctor states it’s sensory aphasia. That’s the danger of diagnosis. He treats Seven and tells her to next time call him not use the database. Seven states the Doctor is the database.
Tom is planning to play ping pong later. His partner is out and he asks Seven to join him instead. She has no interest. He’ll just tell B’Elanna she was afraid to lose. Yes, he is trying to appeal to Seven’s vanity. Seven eventually agrees.
The captain arrives in sickbay, not looking so great. Space sickness, according to the Doctor. The third case he’s treated today.
During the ping pong game, Tom smashes what would probably be the winning shot – except the ball hands stationary in mid-air. Seven scans it and states it’s a temporal distortion. In astrometrics, it’s stated that temporal distortions are fracturing space time throughout the ship. They sound to be emanating from where Seven found the weapon. If not stopped, they’ll tear the ship apart.
The Doctor now has 37 cases of space sickness when the captain contacts him and tells him that temporal distortions are likely to be at fault. Neelix contacts the Doctor from the mess hall; a crewman is violently ill. When the Doctor arrives there, Neelix hadn’t contacted him and the crewman looks fine. Then collapses. The mess hall is seven minutes behind sickbay.
Chakotay reports to the captain in her ready room that there are temporal paradoxes, time differences across the ship. Janeway thinks that explains why the coffee tastes as if it’s three days old. Chakotay is briefly affected by a temporal shift. B’Elanna and Seven find the weapon, though only Seven’s Borg implants allow her to see it.
Braxton recruits Seven of Nine again, and it seems he doesn’t have a high opinion of Captain Janeway. Not just for stranding him in the 20th century for 30 years, but for the events of “Timeless” and another, unspecified occasion.
With this being a time travel episode, events get a bit confusing. Especially tenses.