When a new element is discovered within a nearby asteroid field an away team is dispatched to investigate. When they get there they find caverns containing alien bodies; it appears that they have stumbled upon an alien burial ground. When a sub-space vacuole opens in the cavern they attempt to beam back to Voyager but something goes wrong and only two of the away team re-materialise... along with a recently deceased alien. With Voyager's technology they are able to revive the alien woman and she is most disturbed to discover that not only has she not entered the afterlife; the fact that the asteroids are full of corpses suggests that there may be no afterlife. While the alien appeared on Voyager Ensign Kim finds himself on the planet she was sent from much to the surprise of the locals. They believe he is the first person to return from the afterlife but are confused when he tell them about the bodies on the asteroid. One of them who is preparing to die a starts to have doubts when he hears Harry's story, he wasn't dying but opted to move on to the afterlife since he was a burden to his family after an injury. Now he things there might not be an afterlife he isn't to sure about dying. This gives Harry an opportunity... he can take the place of the alien and hope Voyager is still near the asteroid field. It turns out that he got back just in time; while Voyager was near the asteroids the vacuoles were attracted to the warp core and corpse started to materialise in engineering.
This was an interesting episode; while it lacked action it explores the ideas of what may or may not happen after death in an interesting and fairly non-preachy way although the energy given off as the aliens die does give a slightly unnecessary hint that their beliefs might not be totally false. The story also touches on the subject of euthanasia although it doesn't go very deeply into it.
This was an interesting episode; while it lacked action it explores the ideas of what may or may not happen after death in an interesting and fairly non-preachy way although the energy given off as the aliens die does give a slightly unnecessary hint that their beliefs might not be totally false. The story also touches on the subject of euthanasia although it doesn't go very deeply into it.