[Bridge]

ROK: Who is that?
ZERO: An interesting development.
JANEWAY: I'm Kathryn Janeway, your training advisor. I'm a hologram based on one of the most decorated captains in Starfleet history, programmed to assist the Protostar's crew on their journey back to Federation space.
POG: Urgh. She's hideous. Why is her forehead so smooth? Urgh.
JANEWAY: You're no summer peach either, Tellarite.
POG: (laughs) Jankom Pog likes her.
ROK: What's a Freder... Fred Erasion?
JANEWAY: What Starfleet crew doesn't know the Federation? Where's your captain?
GWYN: Right here. I am the captain, and I order you to return us to Tars Lamora...
DAL: We'll have to forgive her. She's delirious. Her brain's sick with space... flu. I'm in command of this ship.
ROK: Huh?
JANEWAY: Quite a vote of confidence. I'm only here to offer advice and maintain the Protostar's lower-level functions. Everything else is up to your crew. But I believe there is something you aren't being truthful about.
DAL: Er... I can explain.
ALL: Huh?
JANEWAY: You see, it's obvious you're Starfleet cadets. No uniforms, no clue. I can spot greenhorns a parsec away.
ROK: Greenhorns?
DAL: Yes. We are cadets. Can you remind us what the Federation does again? For my crew. Not me.
JANEWAY: The United Federation of Planets. An interstellar union of different worlds and species, with shared principles of universal liberty, rights, and equality.
ROK: Equality? That sounds nice.
JANEWAY: Starfleet is the Federation's representatives for deep space exploration, on a mission to maintain peace and freedom, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new civilisations. To boldly go where no one has gone before.
POG: Ha. This Federation biz sounds er... actually pretty good.
ZERO: Is such a collective possible?
JANEWAY: It is. Shall I help you plot a course?
DAL: No!
ALL: No?
POG: Okay. Well, were we listening to the same pitch just now?
ROK: I like to boldly go. Or at least I think I do.
ZERO: I sense an aversion in Dal, but I cannot clearly read his mind. Perhaps if I get a little closer...? Oh. Read it clearly now. I will not be probing any further.
DAL: We don't need her help. We can plot our own course. Which way is Federation space?
JANEWAY: Here, in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.
DAL: Then we want to go all the way over... This place.
JANEWAY: I must caution you. That little red dot represents a...
DAL: Just tell us how to get there, Holo-nanny.
JANEWAY: You're the captain.
GWYN: Grr. He's not the captain.
DAL: Hey, Janeway, does this ship have a brig?

[Lower deck]

(Down the stairs from the bridge.)
DAL: She said starboard side. But which side is that?
ROK: Dal, why are we lying about being cadets?
POG: The kid's not wrong. We just kidnapped the boss' daughter. We're floating blindly through space in a ship we don't know how to fly. This is bad.
ZERO: The Federation could give us adequate protection from the Diviner's tyranny.
DAL: Are you all crazy? Did the oxygen levels drop in here?
ZERO: Oxygen level's optimal.
DAL: Let me tell you how the galaxy really works.
GWYN: This oughta be good.
DAL: The Federation? It's just another name for someone else in charge. Yeah, Janeway sings a nice song, but I can tell you from experience, people in authority lie. They try to sell you the good life, but it's a good life for them, not us. Besides, how much protection are they gonna give to a bunch of fugitives who roll up in their stolen ship? Take it from me, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.
ROK: You're in charge. Do you lie to us?
ZERO: Yes. He lies all the time.
DAL: But I lie for us. Don't think of it as lying to her, think of it as playing pretend. This used to be a Federation ship, but now, it's our ship. And as long as we control it, we're in charge. Don't listen to her.
DAL: She's got space madness.
ROK: You mean space flu.
DAL: Hey, Murf found starboard. C'mon Zero, let's take her to the brig.
POG: Ah, it's okay, kid.
ROK: What do we do now?
POG: You heard the cap. It's our ship. Let's see what she's got to offer.

[Brig]

ZERO: Disappointing.
DAL: I dunno. This is one of the nicer prisons I've been in.
ZERO: I meant Gwyn's mind. Her resistance to my telepathy must be inherited. I had hoped to gain an insight into why her father desires to obtain this ship. It's quite the mystery.
DAL: I don't need to read her mind to know she's picturing herself blasting me out of an airlock. That sound about right? Wow. Didn't we just do this? Oh that's right... but last time I was in there, and you were out here. Wait, is this soundproof? Can she hear us?
GWYN: You're an imbecile.
ZERO: Well, there's your answer.
GWYN: My father will come for me. No matter how far you try to run, he'll hunt you down and make all of you pay for taking his daughter.
DAL: What's a guy in a tank gonna do? Swim at me?
ZERO: You laugh, yet your mind is reeling with pure terror.
DAL: (laughs) Good one, Zero. Let's go.
GWYN: All I have to do is wait.

[Solum's chamber]

SOLUM: What is the status of the riots?
DREDNOK: We have regained control of the Unwanted with minimal losses.
SOLUM: Minimal? Losing the Protostar and my daughter is not minimal.
DREDNOK: Agreed. Shall the Unwanted continue to extract chimerium?
SOLUM: Yes. Exhaust them so they're too tired to rise up again. And I'll need every speck of chimerium for trade to get my ship back. Prepare the REV-12.

[Mess hall]

POG: Gah! What sort of mess hall has no mess to eat? I'm starving. Ah!
JANEWAY: If you need sustenance, Cadets, the food replicator uses matter conversion to create any meal you dare dream up.
POG: Er, Jankom's a little light on credit.
JANEWAY: As a cadet, you should know the Federation has moved past traditional currency. It's free.
POG: What? Blood truffle biscuits, sweet radish pie, and don't skimp on the sour gravy. Oh. Come to Poggy.
(Starts eating straight off the tray.)
POG: Go on, Rok. Try it out. What's your favorite food?
ROK: I don't know. I'll just have what you got.
JANEWAY: Dream big, Kid. You should order whatever you want.
POG: Nutri-Goop? That slop they fed us back in the mines? Why?
ROK: It's the only food I've ever had.
JANEWAY: I appreciate a gal who knows what she likes.

[Bunk room]

DAL: Check out the bunk room. Looks cosy.
ZERO: I suppose communal sleeping quarters could accelerate team bonding.
(Blue gloop is falling onto Zero.)
DAL: Er.
ZERO: Ah, Murf, you've settled in. I look forward to sharing this experience with you... from over here. Perhaps we could be bunk mates, Dal. Dal? Huh?

[Captain's quarters]

DAL: Whoa. Look at the Captain's quarters. Oh man. Whoo. Oh. Ah, this bed's kinda lumpy. I mean, it's kinda lonely in here, and I mean come on, who needs all this view? Curse of being a captain, I guess.
ZERO: I can still read your mind.
(Doors close.)
DAL [OC]: How 'bout now?

[Brig]

GWYN: Back to mock me, girl?
ROK: For so many years, you watched them take us, how they treated us. Why didn't you stop them?
GWYN: My father told me... I thought you were criminals.
ROK: We're not criminals. The only crime we ever committed was getting caught.
(She's brought a bowl of food for Gwyn.)

[Engineering]

POG: Jankom's just checking under the hood. This shiny girl has two warp cores. Just one'll take us to warp nine, if it don't break us into a bajillion pieces.
ZERO: If those are the warp cores, what is this?
POG: Huh? Jankom Pog has no idea.
COMPUTER: Red alert. Red alert. Red alert.
POG: Didn't touch anything. Wasn't me.
ZERO: No, that wasn't you, Jankom. There seems to be a bigger problem.

[Bridge]

DAL: Relax, I'm sure this is just a routine systems check. Pull it up on screen.
POG: Oh, that does not look routine.
ZERO: It's beautiful.
DAL: What exactly am I looking at?
JANEWAY: Your course has led us into a binary system where the gravitational pull of an orbiting white dwarf is in the final moments of tearing apart a red giant.
ZERO: A dying star. What a rare and exciting way to meet our doom.
POG: This right here is why we shouldn't be in space.
JANEWAY: For the record, I tried to caution you. Perhaps you'd like my help to change course, Captain?
DAL: Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. I see what you're doing. But this is my ship. I control it. Be gone.
ROK: Your ship?
DAL: I said our, didn't I? You just couldn't hear it over all this noise. Zero, get us out of here.
ZERO: Attempting to change course.
DAL: Okay. Appears like we're still heading straight into it. Why aren't we changing course, Zee?
ZERO: It's not me. We are falling into the dwarf star's gravity well.
DAL: Then warp us out of here.
POG: Okay. Doing what you told me to do.
JANEWAY: Just a friendly reminder. Using a warp drive inside a gravity well may result in unpredictable and dangerous side effects.
DAL: Right. I knew that. I meant divert all the power to the impulse engines.
POG: Oh, er... So many buttons.
JANEWAY: If you divert all power, you'd be deactivating...
POG: Victory for Jankom Pog. Oh wait, where'd the lady go?

[Brig]

(Forcefield deactivates.)
GWYN: Huh?

[Bridge]

ZERO: Even at full impulse power, the star's gravity is so strong, we are being pulled into it. I've never been inside a star before.
ROK: Dal, I really think we need Janeway.
DAL: We need to be faster... er, lighter. Ditch all non-essential cargo.
POG: Why are you looking at me? Jankom Pog is essential.
ZERO: That's debatable.
DAL: I mean, dump everything not bolted down.

[Corridor]

COMPUTER: Ejecting escape pod one. Ejecting escape pod two. Ejecting escape pod three.
GWYN: Please tell me there are more escape pods onboard.
COMPUTER: There are no more escape pods onboard.
GWYN: Qu'vatlh.
COMPUTER: Would you like the vehicle replicator to create a shuttlecraft?
GWYN: What's a vehicle replicator?
COMPUTER: The Protostar's vehicle replicator, located in the shuttle bay, designed to quickly create any means of transport...
GWYN: Yes. Make a shuttlecraft now.
COMPUTER: Vehicle replicator activated.

[Bridge]

(Lumps of rock hitting and scraping along the hull.)
ROK: Are we under attack?
POG: Easy. Jankom doesn't like gettin' jostled.
ZERO: It seems diverting power deactivated our shields, leaving us vulnerable to space debris.
ROK: What?
DAL: Oh, this just keeps getting better. Where's our prisoner?
ZERO: Again, it seems diverting power included the brig's containment field.
DAL: Rok, find Gwyn.
ROK: I... I don't want to. I want off this ship.
DAL: I don't have time to argue, Rok.
ROK: Fine.
POG: You're the muscle, kid. Ain't any of us doing any better.
DAL: Divert power from impulse and get us back our shields. And brig.
ZERO: I can't. Something else is draining power. A vehicle replicator?
DAL: A what?

[Shuttlebay]

COMPUTER: Shuttle 10% complete.
ROK: There you are. I don't wanna hurt you.
GWYN: Listen to me. We're all going to die if we don't get out of here.
ROK: Why should I listen to you? You never helped us. You're a bad lady.
(Takes a swing at Gwyn.)
COMPUTER: Shuttle 20% complete.
GWYN: You're angry. I get that. But I was only doing what I was told, just like you're doing now.
ROK: Get back here.
COMPUTER: Shuttle 30% complete. Shuttle 40% complete.
(What, even with them using bits of it to attack each other?)
GWYN: Hey.
COMPUTER: Shuttle 50% complete. Shuttle 60% complete. Blast shield constructed. Shuttle 70% complete.
(Rok is inside the shuttle, Gwyn outside.)
GWYN: Disable... artificial... gravity.
(Rok smashes her way out.)
COMPUTER: Disabling artificial gravity.
ROK: Whoa, whoa.
COMPUTER: Shuttle 90% complete.
GWYN: For what it's worth, I'm sorry.

[Bridge]

POG: Oh, no.
DAL: And now, we're floating. Okay, we can handle this.
POG: Ah, at least ask Janeway to turn on the air conditioning, unless you all want roasted Pog for dinner.
DAL: Murf, got any fantastic last-minute heroics?
ZERO: I believe Murf is eating a chair.
POG: We're going down.
ZERO: Captain, we need you now. If you don't act now, we'll die.
POG: What do we do? Help! Dal, what do we do?
DAL: Janeway. I need your help.
JANEWAY: You know how to keep a lady waiting.
DAL: How do I get my feet on the ground?
JANEWAY: All you had to do was ask. (takes a drink of holo-coffee) All right, cadets, let's get to work.
POG: Huh?
JANEWAY: Stabilise the inertial dampeners to restore the artificial gravity.
DAL: And where's that?
JANEWAY: The controls are on the operations console.
ZERO: Ah, found it.
JANEWAY: A bit to the left. Your other left. That's the one.
COMPUTER: Artificial gravity restored.
(Pog lands on Murf.)

[Shuttlebay]

(Rok lands on Gwyn.)
ROK: I am not going to let you have this again. I got the prisoner!

[Bridge]

DAL: That's great, kid. We've still got problems up here. Zero, you should have enough juice for the shields now.
ZERO: Shields are at 80%, but dropping with every hit.
JANEWAY: The Protostar's equipped with a sufficient tactical array. Why not use it to even the odds?
POG: Ooo, Jankom Pog gets to blow stuff up?
JANEWAY: Technically it's auto-targeting, but you get to push the button.
ROK: Okay, she's back in the brig. Oh, my gosh, what is that river of fire?
ZERO: Trillions of tons of white-hot ionised gas about to explode.
ROK: That sounds worse.
JANEWAY: What's the call, Captain?
DAL: I don't know. We've done everything you've said, and we're still fighting to get out.
ZERO: That's it. What if we stop fighting and ride the shock wave? Let it propel us free?
JANEWAY: Bingo.
DAL: You were reading my mind.
ZERO: Now that is another lie.
DAL: Er, full impulse into the river of fire, and do what Zero said. Ready? On my mark. Now.
(Whoosh!)
ZERO: Whoo.
(And out into open space just before the star goes Boom! Gwyn can hear the celebrations down in the Brig.)
ROK: We did it. Whoo. We did it. We survived.
DAL: Thank you. You saved our lives.
JANEWAY: I only nudged you all in the right direction. You did the rest.
DAL: Yes. I guess I did know when to ask for help, which is what a natural-born captain would do. You're welcome.
POG: Nobody thanked you.
ZERO: Of course he takes credit.
ROK: We're goners.
JANEWAY: I must say, when the Federation first formed, it wasn't pretty. A collection of species, entirely unfamiliar to each other, different languages, different cultures, but with one shared aspiration... to be better. I've seen my share of wayward crews and I can tell you this... you've got potential.
POG: Huh?
ZERO: Oh. Generous.
DAL: Now that we're still alive, how about you teach us cadets some other things?
POG: Like turning left or right, for example. That would've been helpful.
JANEWAY: We've only just begun.

[Tars Lamora]

DREDNOK: I have tracked the Protostar's warp signature.
SOLUM: Take me to that ship.
(The entire main building takes off.)
SOLUM: Chimerium Cloak activated. I am coming for you, my progeny.