Theme from Star Trek: Voyager - Jerry Goldsmith

A ship presses on through space.

Intrepid-class. Like so many of her kind, she is silver-grey in colour - a sleek, tapered head leading off from a smooth yoke, linking it to a slim pair of warp nacelles.

Nearly two years ago, she disappeared in a region of space near Deep Shit Nine known as the Badlands, and ended up on the other side of the galaxy...with no way home.

Her name is Voyager, and this is her story.

Neelix grit his teeth as the klaxon sounded through the whole of the NSF starship Voyager, including his mess hall. 'Must that be so loud?!' he complained. It could be half the volume and still have the whole crew on their toes. Annoyed, he eyed the rapidly-clearing hall.

'Neelix to bridge!' he barked at the intercom.

'Chakotay here. Make it quick, Mr Neelix.'

Neelix spluttered. 'What's happening?!' he screeched.

'We've just spotted a spatial anomaly - and it could lead back to the Alpha Quadrant.'

'B--'

'Sorry, Neelix, there's no time. Chakotay out.'

'Captain's log, stardate 49993.5. After almost two years stranded out here, many of the crew were beginning to give up hope of seeing any of their family or loved ones in the Federation for at least seventy years. Now, however, it appears that we may all be going home sooner than we thought.'

Captain Janeway ceased her log as she heard Harry speak up behind her. 'The rift's definitely wide enough to take the ship through,' he reported, 'but--'

'But, Mr Kim?'

'There may be a temporal discrepancy. We could end up a few years either side of the present.'

'I do not foresee that that will be a problem.' Tuvok wanted to get home as much as any of them, to return to his wife and children, but his calm Vulcan exterior didn't crack a micrometre. 'I have examined Ensign Kim's findings, and the maximum amount of time we could shift is four years. It would be quite simple for us to conceal ourselves from Federation society for two years should we travel that far back in time, and it is certainly more desirable than spending over sixty-five years trying to return home by conventional methods.'

'Then what are we waiting for?' grinned Janeway. 'Mr Paris, lay in a course, directly for that time rift.'

Tom looked back at her. 'I'm way ahead of you, Captain,' he said.

'Engage.'

And with that, Voyager plunged right into the heart of the space/time rift - and vanished.