“The Void” is episode fifteen of season seven of Star Trek: Voyager.
Captain Janeway, Chakotay, Tom and B’Elanna are dining in the mess hall. A special meal and the captain compliments the chef – Seven. Seven has been expanding her palate and she says that preparing meals herself was the best way to ensure quality. Neelix would take offence, but the food is so good. He almost feels like hanging up his apron. Which gets the expected response from Tom. Seven is rather particular, though; she informs Chakotay that the wines have been selected to carefully compliment the food when he asks for the wrong one and offers Tom a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when he asks for salt. Then the ship shakes.
As they arrive on the bridge, Tuvok says they are being pulled off course by a graviton surge. They are pulled into a vortex and emerge in a region with no stars. And a ship firing at them.
The attacker doesn’t respond to hails and Tuvok reports the weapons have a Vaadwaur signature. The ship, though, has technology from different species. Another ship arrives and shoots at the first, driving it off, before it itself attacks Voyager, breaching their shields and beaming stuff off before leaving. Tom can’t track the course.
Voyager has lost more than 90% of its food, everything in hydroponics and a computer console from engineering, as well as emptying three deuterium tanks. Tom wonders why anyone would steal deuterium; you can find it anywhere. Except perhaps not here, according to Seven. She’s not detecting any matter.
Tuvok has detected more than 150 ships but only 29 with lifesigns. Another ship approaches, but this one hails. The commander introduces himself as General Valen and welcomes them to the Void. He congratulates them on surviving the first few minutes; most ships don’t.
Valen comes aboard Voyager and explains that the Void is an enclosed structure surrounded by an inert layer of subspace. Matter and energy can’t penetrate. Ships are pulled in but can’t get out, and the ships are the only matter in the Void. It’s about nine lightyears around and Valen has been trapped for five years. Trying to escape only wastes resources. The only source of food and energy is new ships drawn in. The captain isn’t going to go along with Valen’s suggestion to trade weapons or attack new ships.
According to B’Elanna, they’re using power at ten times the normal rate. Their deuterium will be gone in ten days. In astrometrics, Seven says she can predict the location of the funnels that draw craft in before they appear. With some reinforcement of the shields and by jumping to warp 8.2 at the right moment, they could get out through a funnel. The first attempt fails and the warp core goes offline.
B’Elanna thinks she can get the warp core offline, but they’re short of power. The captain suggests they track down the ship that stole from them and get their stuff back. However, that ship is drifting and dead, picked clean. Seven says the casing that contained the warp core is made of tricesium, a source of power. The casing is beamed onto Voyager. Along with another lifeform.
Valen has the deuterium and is tracked down. The captain only wants to take back what was stolen though. Tuvok and Chakotay head to see her in her ready room. They feel they might have to use other tactics. The captain has decided they will stick to their principles. Yes, the crew might have to die for them, but she believes those principles will keep them alive. The Federation is based on mutual cooperation. They just need to try and form an alliance of any ships in the Void who agree to act together in order to escape. No killing, no stealing and not giving up. And Voyager will start by sharing its own supplies.
Building an alliance is not easy, given the current mentality in the Void. The Doctor spends some time with the alien they beamed aboard, as does Seven (the actor who plays the alien, Jonathan Del Arco, played Hugh in TNG and would reprise the role in Picard, as would Jeri Ryan with her role as Seven).