“The Chute” is episode three of season three of Star Trek: Voyager.
In what looks like an underground prison, a siren sounds as another prisoner is coming in. A chute opens and Harry slides down it. The other prisoners start beating on him. Tom is also there and he, too, hits Harry. One of the other prisoners, Pit, claims that Harry is his and starts dragging him away. Harry states he doesn’t belong there. This is met with derision. Tom intervenes, saying that Harry is his; he’s the reason Tom is there. Harry was Tom’s partner in a bombing that killed 47 patrollers, but confessed to the tribunal and gave up Tom’s name. Tom takes Harry away; Harry says he didn’t have to hit him so hard. Tom doesn’t want people thinking he’s soft.
After they were split up, Harry was interrogated. He wouldn’t confess and was dragged in front of a judge who said Tom had already confessed and he was pronounced guilty. The same happened to Tom. They must have been drugged before being dumped down the chute. Tom hasn’t seen any guards or wardens; the other prisoners say they are 300m underground.
Tom is edgy and he says he thinks it’s an effect of the ‘clamp’; an implant all the prisoners have. He says he’s been acting jumpy since he got there. Taking it out is a bade idea; a prisoner tried it and the clamp killed him. Another siren goes and this time food is dumped down the chute, but not enough, and one prisoner is killed by another.
Tom and Harry are 72 hours overdue and Captain Janeway is losing patience with the authorities. They don’t know if Tom and Harry were killed in the bombing and Tuvok can’t find any sign of them. Ambassador Liria hails the ship and informs the captain that Tom and Harry were convicted of the terrorist bombing. They had traces of the chemicals used in the attack, trilithium, and there’s no source in the system. But Voyager‘s dilithium could be used to create it.
The attack was convicted by a group called Open Sky and they long believed the terrorists had off world support. The Akritirians have decided that Voyager is that support. Two ships are being sent to Voyager; they are under arrest and their ship is being impounded. Rather than return fire, the captain orders the ship to leave.
Harry is now also getting edgy. There are nearly 50 prisoners, but no food and the chute is apparently the only way out. It’s protected by a forcefield. Tom has a pipe he found; he thinks Harry will be able to rig a device to sort out the forcefield.
On Voyager, the senior staff are discussing the situation. They still don’t know where Tom and Harry are. The captain says they need to work to prove their innocence. According to B’Elanna, there isn’t any trilithium in the sector, but paralithium, used as fuel by some ships, can also be converted to create it.
Harry is ready to try his device, but it doesn’t work. Other prisoners gather to find out what they are doing, and Pit attacks Tom. Tom is holding his own, but another stabs him. Another comes over and tells Harry that Tom, if he doesn’t bleed out, will die from infection.
Later, Harry approaches that prisoner, Zio, for help. He offers, in trade, to take Zio with them when they leave. Through the chute; Harry can disable the forcefield. Zio agrees, with a standard threat of death.
Voyager has tracked several ships using paralithium. The latest one is a freighter, but one that doesn’t want to talk. B’Elanna confirms there are traces of trilithium, so the two on the ship are beamed aboard and the freighter is tractored in to the shuttle bay. They appear to be the ones who supplied the terrorists.
Tom is getting worse and the clamp is messing with both his and Harry’s brains; it’s stirring up aggression. Zio, however, doesn’t seem to be affected. The prison is also not an easy place to escape from. The Akritirian government is also not a very nice one. Voyager needs to find their missing crew quickly, or there won’t be anyone left to find. Neelix’s ship is seen for the first time since the beginning.