Stardate: Unknown. Captain Janeway starts seeing characters and objects from her holo-novel around the ship. Soon afterwards the crew begins entering a catatonic state one by one, while only Kes and the Doctor remain unaffected.

Stardate: Unknown. Tom Paris is demoted to ensign and is sentenced to thirty days in the brig for disobeying orders. While serving his sentence, Tom writes a letter to his father about the events that led to his demotion.