Hologram Janeway makes a sacrifice to open a time wormhole, and the young crew faces the Federation's judgment.
The crew realizes it can stop the destruction by sending the Protostar into proto-warp while it is destroyed. Hologram Janeway stays behind and sacrifices herself, and the others escape in a hastily built shuttle. The explosion opens a wormhole into the future, where Janeway believes the ship's original crew may still be alive.
On Earth, the young crew faces a hearing. Admiral Janeway defends them, and they join her mission to find Captain Chakotay and the original crew, while Gwyn returns to her homeworld to try to prevent the war. Kevin and Dan Hageman wrote the first season finale.