[Briefing room]

JANEWAY: Okay, let's begin.
(Extracts from individual interviews.)
DAL: I was only trying to move the ship, not steal it. This is way better with sugar.
POG: Jankom's done with the nice, nice, so let me give it to you straight. It was one heck of a ride. Whoo!
MAJ'EL: They are very difficult to reason with, Admiral. It was a problem.
ROK: I tried to stop them. Really. Why is my mouth so dry? Are your mouths dry? Do you have any water?
ZERO: Some mistakes were made. We tried not to alter past events, but Captain Chakotay ended up piloting the Protostar to who knows where.
(Murf makes lots of gelatinous gestures.)
DAL: That's when we got the message to save Gwyn... in the past.
MAJ'EL: Sent by a mysterious unknown entity. While we do not know who, they assisted several times. It was all highly illogical.
POG: If you ask Jankom, it was a ghost.
GWYN: I'm alive because of them.
ROK: Is this going to go on our records?
(More Murf waving.)
JANEWAY: Thank you for your candour. Your answers were... helpful. Dismissed.

[Corridor]

DAL: You think they believe us?
GWYN: Huh. Would you?

[Briefing room]

EMH: I know I have a headache, and I don't technically have a head.
NOUM: They're troublemakers. Their recklessness lost Chakotay, endangered the time stream.
EMH: I haven't seen a crew this dysfunctional since the Cerritos. What they need is more supervision.
JANEWAY: Their altering of the timeline has already displaced Gwyn from our reality. The first sign of terrible things to come.
EMH: I have stabilised the poor girl, but it's only a temporary solution.
JANEWAY: Which is why we've got to find and return the Protostar to its rightful place on Tars Lamora in the past. Clearly, this isn't over. It was an accident. They were on a mission they never should have been on which need I remind you, you were all willing to be a part of 48 hours ago. We all share the blame.
TYSESS: There's also the matter of this mysterious entity.
NOUM: How did it know about our mission?
JANEWAY: It feels like there are bigger things at play here. Do a multispectral sensor sweep. I'll send my report to Starfleet. Until then, Doctor, please ensure our wayward guests stay out of trouble.
EMH: Certainly.

[Mess hall]

DAL: Restricted access? Seriously?
ZERO: After what happened, they might not want us further wandering the ship.
DAL: Oh, oh. Well, why not just throw us in the brig?
ROK: You should feel lucky they're letting us continue our studies, even if it is on probation.
POG: Lucky? This ain't exactly the happy reunion Jankom Pog was hoping for. Huh?
DAL: Hey. You okay?
GWYN: Yeah. Just... not used to this thing. The doctor says not to fiddle with it. I miss my heirloom.
ZERO: Oh, Maj'el. Come join us.
DAL: Maj'el! Over here!
MAJ'EL: I cannot.
GWYN: What about Solum? I failed my homeworld, and I feel like I abandoned them.
DAL: Guys, we can still fix this. Chakotay and the Protostar have got to be out there somewhere, right? I say we find them, then send our ship back to Tars Lamora where we found it. Our past is fixed, Gwyn gets better, she saves Solum, and we all redeem ourselves.
POG: Oh, is that all?
ROK: We've already dug this giant hole for ourselves, and your suggestion is we just keep digging? Aw, Murf. Now is not the... time?
GWYN: Why'd you make that?
DAL: Whoa. Gwyn. What's wrong?
GWYN: That spiral. I've seen it before. In the cave, I heard a voice say we must stay together.
POG: That's the ghost!
ROK: Well, I did see Murf acting weird, talking at the walls.
GWYN: Murf, did it speak to you too?
DAL: Wait, you're telling me whoever's been helping us left some kind of secret message with Murf?
ZERO: Well, I can't read his mind. So what is he saying, Gwyn?
GWYN: I know a lot of languages, but Murf's not one of them. The strange events, the voices, why it's happening to us - Murf could be the key to everything.
POG: Yeah, great, except we're grounded, none of us speak Murfese, and the senior officers already think we're crazy.
GWYN: I don't care. We have to figure out what he's saying.
EMH: What is he doing?
(All cry out.)
POG: A food fight gone wrong?
EMH: A bit anxious, aren't we? I know the failed mission you were on was a harrowing ordeal, but I'd be more than happy to discuss the matter.
GWYN: Thank you for the offer, Doctor, but we were just leaving.
EMH: Perfect. I'd be delighted to escort you all personally.

[Dal's quarters]

EMH: I believe you'd benefit from my 10-step Anti-Anxiety for Academy Hopefuls programme. Or AAAH for short.
(Door closes.)
DAL: Oh, finally. Let's reconvene at Murf's and figure out our next move.
(Door opens.)
EMH: I knew you'd be interested.
(Door closes.)
DAL: Er, guys, we gotta ditch the Doc.

[Corridor]

POG: Er, yeah. That hologram is everywhere. Ah!
EMH: Hello. Please state the nature of the mentorship emergency.

[Zero's quarters]

ZERO: There may be a way to provide a distraction, but it won't be easy.
(Door opens.)
EMH: Zero, how can I help you?

[Corridor]

ZERO: I was reminiscing about our conversation the other day, and I realised I never got a chance to hear about your latest holo-novel.
EMH: Oh, I'd be delighted to walk you through it. It's entitled Love in the Time of Holograms. The plot involves a physician who creates holo-duplicates of himself to be in two places at once. However, the love triangle grows more complicated, humorously evolving into a love hexagon.
ZERO: Dal, you owe me one.
DAL: Thanks, Zee. Gwyn, Rok, Jankom, we're clear.
ROK [OC]: Whatever illegal stuff you're doing, leave me out of it. I'm not listening. La-la-la-la.
DAL: Okay, everyone who's not Rok, Operation What The Heck Is Murf Saying is a go.

[Quiet place]

GWYN: Now, that sounded different than before, right? It wasn't an oot or an oom, but more of an oop.
POG: Ah, it all sounds like pudding.
DAL: This is getting us nowhere.

[Corridor]

EMH: And that's when Rodrigo tells his holo-duplicate Rodrigo he can no longer see Ana except on Tuesdays.

[Engineering lab]

(Working a comm. badge.)
POG: Just one more tweak, and the translator now should decipher Murf's speech. Huh?
MURF: Mushroom! Bounce! Radio stare! Disco.
POG: We got a malfunction! Get the badge!
MURF: Hullaballoo. Kalamazoo! Saturday.

[Cetacean ops]

DAL: Get the badge!
ROK: I'm not getting involved.
GILLIAN: You want to talk about it?
ROK: Oh, it is a long story, Gillian.

[Gwyn's quarters]

GWYN: Another dead end. My head is spinning. I've cross-referenced Murf's spiral with everything in Starfleet's database, but there's just so many variables.
DAL: Hey, you sure you're all right?
GWYN: I'm fine.
DAL: I just mean with your father, your home world, almost getting erased from existence. It's a lot.
GWYN: I know, but I'm back now, and if this is my chance to set one thing right, then I have to try.
DAL: From here on out, no more going alone. I've got your back, okay? Wait. Computer, go back!
GWYN: What's the origin of this symbol?
(A Chah-Mooz-Ee.)
COMPUTER: A petroglyph used among descendants of the Omotepe Rubber Tree and Nicarao people, who now inhabit the ex-Federation colony on Trebus.
GWYN: Bring up the list of inhabitants.
DAL: Great. Let's go ask every single person on an ex-Federation colony.
GWYN: Wait. Computer, are any of the names on this list in Starfleet?
COMPUTER: There is one former resident missing in action.
DAL: Captain Chakotay!

[Cargo hold]

TYSESS: The power is some kind of cascading photovoltaic loop. How could kids make the advanced calculations to reroute the grid this way?
JANEWAY: The mysterious entity. It was encountered as Chakotay was lost in the time anomaly. Could Chakotay be this entity somehow? Reaching out?
TYSESS: Either way, strange things are afoot.
OFFICER [OC]: Bridge to Admiral Janeway. You have a message from Admiral Jellico.
JANEWAY: Hmm. Send it through to the cargo hold.
JELLICO [on screen]: Vice Admiral, I received your debrief on the wormhole incident. A time anomaly of this magnitude poses a serious threat to the Federation. We can't risk another Protostar disaster. Starfleet has determined it's too dangerous to keep open. Your orders are to collapse it immediately.
JANEWAY: Admiral, I have a young woman aboard who's been affected by it. We don't know what will happen if it's closed. And Chakotay...
JELLICO [on screen]: I'm sorry, Kathryn. This is bigger than Chakotay. The mission is over.

[Gwyn's quarters]

POG: Captain Chakotay? Are you sure?
GWYN: It's too big of a coincidence. Chakotay vanished in the wormhole with the Protostar, right? What if he's been trying to communicate?
DAL: Zero, you okay? Where's the doc?
ZERO: The doctor has been called away. Probably to add more Rodrigos to his holo-novel.
DAL: Sorry, Murf. We get the spiral's related to Chakotay, but we don't know what it means.
GWYN: There's only one person left I can think of who might be able to help.

[Cetacean ops]

ROK: I can't help you! I'm not even allowed to have visitors right now. Plus, I spent months trying to translate Murf and got nowhere.
GWYN: Please, Rok. We've tried everything with him. You're the best xenobiologist I know and you know Murf better than anyone.
ROK: And if we get caught, we might as well have I love the brig signs around our necks. Don't you care about Starfleet Academy any more?
DAL: Rok, we're here because we do care. The doctor said Gwyn's stabiliser is only a temporary solution. She can't stay like this forever. Finding Chakotay and the Protostar might be our only way to fix this. And if we don't, then we... she...
POG: Might never exist, kid.
GWYN: You're part of our crew, Rok. We can't do this without you. I need you. And so does he.
ROK: At least I can help you do it right.
GWYN: I think that one means thanks.
ROK: Okay, Murf, let's think about this. Why can no one understand you? We don't know much about your species, but Mellanoid slime worms did evolve from aquatic sea life. Maybe the reason we can't understand Murf is because he needs to be in water to be understood.
POG: How's a bubble bath gonna help?
ROK: Some frequencies can't be heard easily unless they're submerged, like the harmonics of a whale.
DAL: Oh, I love this part. She gets that look when she's close to a breakthrough.
GWYN: Shh. She's hypothesising.
ROK: Wait a sec. Murf-speak might be too nuanced for the Universal Translator, but maybe not for a whale.
GILLIAN: Anything for you, Rok. Sorry, I was eavesdropping.
ROK: I know you're afraid of her, Murf. I'm not exactly a fan of water either. but this is bigger than both of us, so I'll go with you, and I promise Gillian's going to love you.
(Murf changes to an aquatic form.)
GILLIAN: I believe I understand him. Your friend is saying N-D-M-E-F...
POG: Hey! This ain't the Klingon opera. Somebody grab a pen.
GILLIAN: N-D-M-E-F...
ZERO: D-M-E-F-I-N. Oh, it's out of order.
DAL: Oh, oh! Findi me!
GWYN: No, find me.
DAL: Find who? Chakotay? I don't get it. How?
GILLIAN: Two, zero, six...
POG: Oh, boy, there's more! Quick, give me the pen.
GILLIAN: Two, one, four, six. Two, zero, seven, four, two, one, four, six.
DAL: What's with the numbers?
GWYN: It's too short to be coordinates.
POG: Ain't exactly an address either.
ZERO: It's not a Fibonacci sequence. The numbers are off.
GWYN: So then, what is it?

[Bridge]

TYSESS: Nearly ready, Admiral. Quantum torpedo detonated by tachyon pulse should collapse the wormhole.
JANEWAY: Very well. I'm sorry, Chakotay.
NOUM: Permission to speak freely, Admiral? Everyone on this bridge agrees.
EMH: None of us wanted the rescue mission to end this way.
JANEWAY: Duly noted. Begin the countdown. I'll be in my ready room.

[Ready room]

JANEWAY [memory]: Be careful, Chakotay. It's still a long way from home.
CHAKOTAY [memory]: If I run into any trouble, you'll be the first one I call. Before I go, this is for you. Think of it like a beacon... to guide me home.
(A stone with a Chah-mooz-ee carved into it.)
TYSESS [OC]: Wormhole closure in three, two, one.
JANEWAY: Fire.
(The wormhole collapses.)
JANEWAY: Am I a fool to hope, Doctor, that he's still out there, alive. safe?
EMH: Perhaps this was our only door to Chakotay. But hope is never a foolish thing. I've found whenever a door closes, a window may open.

[Cetacean ops]

(The numbers on Gwyn's temporal stabiliser start changing.)
GWYN: Ah, the numbers. I think I have to change my armband frequency to see what this all means. To find him.
DAL: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're not fiddling with that thing. Remember the don't fiddle with that thing speech?
ROK: Gwyn, that stabiliser is the only thing keeping you in this reality.
GWYN: I know, but someone tried to show me something in that spiral, and I think they're trying again.
DAL: I can't lose you again. It's too dangerous. The voice said we have to be together.
GWYN: And now we are. Dal, I know this is what I have to do. I can feel it. You said you have my back. Do you?
DAL: Always. I'm not going anywhere.
ROK: None of us are.
GWYN: Look, if anything feels off when I cross over, I'll switch it right back. I promise.
(Gwyn uses the numbers Murf told them, and vanishes.)
DAL: Where'd she go? What's happening?
(Gwyn gets pulled along a vortex or warp corridor.)
DAL: Come on, Gwyn. Come back to us.

[Space]

(Looking down at a spiral galaxy.)
DAL [OC]: Gwyn!
CHAKOTAY [OC]: Find me... before they do.
(Gwyn resets the stabiliser.)

[Cetacean ops]

DAL: Gwyn!
ZERO: Are you all right?
POG: Easy does it, cadet. Zero, get her some water. Non-whale, please.
DAL: What happened in there?
ROK: What did you see?
GWYN: Chakotay. I know where to find him. The spiral, it's a map.