Voyager meets an alien who offers a way home.
Neelix brings aboard Arturis, a gifted linguist who helps Janeway decode a Starfleet message picked up from the Hirogen network. It seems to point to a ship that can take the crew home, and at the coordinates Voyager finds the Dauntless, an unmanned Starfleet-looking ship with a quantum slipstream drive able to reach the Alpha Quadrant within months. Seven of Nine, who would rather not return to Earth, is suspicious from the start, and soon Janeway is too.
The real message proves to be different, and Arturis turns out to be from a species assimilated by the Borg after Janeway's alliance with them ended their war with Species 8472. He traps Janeway and Seven aboard the Dauntless and heads for Borg space. Voyager, using an adapted slipstream drive, rescues them and Arturis is left among Borg cubes. The fourth-season finale gives the crew a little ground and fresh hope, and tests Seven's trust in her new life.