Janeway's pursuit of Captain Ransom takes a dark turn.
With Voyager badly hurt and crew members dead, Janeway hunts the Equinox with an intensity that alarms her officers. She fires on Ransom's ship, threatens a captured Equinox crewman with the alien creatures during an interrogation, and relieves Chakotay of duty when he objects. Aboard the Equinox, Ransom's crew delete the Doctor's ethical subroutines and order him to pull Seven of Nine's encryption codes from her mind.
A moment with Seven leads Ransom to rethink what he has done, and he decides to surrender, but his first officer, Max Burke, leads a mutiny. Ransom and the loyal Marla Gilmore send the Doctor, Seven and several crew back to Voyager, then Ransom steers the failing ship away before it explodes. Five survivors join Voyager as crewmen without rank, and Janeway restores Chakotay. The sixth-season opener completes the story by pushing Janeway herself close to the line Ransom crossed.