Tom begins working intently to fix up the battered vessel, which he christens the Alice. He briefly tries on the neurogenic interface, a metal strip that attaches across the forehead. However, Harry, who has been helping out, wants to call it a night, and Tom reluctantly agrees.
But as he returns to his quarters, Tom hears a woman's voice, and then catches a glimpse of a female figure walking down the hall. Opening the door to the shuttle bay, he says "Who are you?"
A voice replies "It's me. Alice." Tom walks in.
The next morning, Tom is fixing and cleaning the shuttle. He's wearing a flightsuit. He goes to the engineering department, and appears to be talking to himself. Seemingly obsessed with Alice, he doesn't even want to play holodeck games with Harry.
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In the mess hall,
Seven complains about the quality of items acquired from Abbadon. But Neelix finds a beryllium crystal -- highly valuable to some species -- which Abbadon surely had not intended to sell.
Tom and
B'Elanna go to see the shuttle, which B'Elanna jokingly refers to as "the other woman." Inside the cozy cockpit, they drink champagne and are about to kiss -- when an environmental alarm goes off. The mood broken, a peeved B'Elanna leaves, only to receive an irritating electric shock from the ship on the way out.
Chakotay speaks with Tom about his distracting shuttle "hobby." Tom seems to give in, but then goes back to the shuttle bay -- and Alice is there in person.
In human form, Alice is an attractive brunette with a silky voice. She tells Tom to ignore Chakotay's wishes and, instead, keep working on her "repairs." Soon, she says, they will be able to leave Voyager together.
Tom is reluctant, but Alice soothingly convinces him to relax in the cockpit -- with the neurogenic interface strapped to his forehead. Soon, he is ready to continue the repairs.
A childhood love
Soon, Tom is skulking around Voyager's Jeffries tubes and stealing components. Alice -- invisible to anyone but Tom -- accompanies him. Tom reminisces about his childhood love of flying.
In the astrometrics room, Seven questions Tom's apparent attempt to plot a course (as we later learn, it's for his new shuttle), but he leaves without offering a satisfactory answer about that. He also ignores questions about strange modifications he has made to his flightsuit.
Meanwhile, Harry and B'Elanna notice that someone has stolen some power cells. B'Elanna calls it an "open and shut case," and goes to confront Tom.
Entering the shuttle bay, B'Elanna does not find Tom, however, but discovers the missing items inside the cockpit. Suddenly, the shuttle's hatch shuts behind her, and environmental controls go off-line.
As Tom enters the bay, he finds B'Elanna choking inside the shuttle and pounding on the glass. He opens the hatch, and she runs out gasping, accusing the ship of trying to kill her. When she blames Tom for the thefts, he is angry, distraught.
After B'Elanna leaves, Tom grasps Alice by the arms in an accusing way and tries to walk off to report the nefarious goings-on. Unfortunately, as he enters the turbolift, Alice appears again, staring intently at him until he screams. Using telepathic coercion, she herds him back to the shuttle bay.
B'Elanna tells Janeway that the neurogenic interface is influencing Tom.
Suddenly, there is an unauthorized launch -- Tom, speeding away in the domineering shuttle.
As Voyager attempts to grab the shuttle with a tractor beam, Tom falls even more deeply under Alice's control. Colorful cords shoot out from the cockpit chair and wrap around him.
"We're one now," the brunette tells him.
The shuttle escapes, its warp signature masked to prevent Voyager from following. Janeway brings her ship back to Abbadon, the junk dealer, who is uncooperative until Neelix entices him aboard with the beryllium crystal.
Cortical precautions against the she-shuttle
As Abaddon tells the Voyager crew about the shuttle's powers, Alice appears to the junk dealer with scales and hairy tendrils like his own. Abaddon collapses and awakens in sick bay, where the Doctor gives him a cortical suppressant to prevent further intrusions by the she-shuttle.
Abbadon explains that Alice had been searching for a pilot with whom she could meld. He apologizes for not warning the Voyager crew.
The shuttle, meanwhile approaches a "particle fountain," a luminous, highly dangerous phenomenon which Alice calls "home." Luckily, Voyager crew reconstructs Tom's course-plotting data, and the Starfleet ship is soon fast on the shuttle's trail.
Voyager fires on the shuttle, but it becomes clear that Tom's integration with Alice's systems make the attack equally harmful to pilot and vessel. Adopting a new strategy, Janeway has the Doctor tap into Alice's communications, to send an image of B'Elanna to Tom.
Aboard the shuttle, the B'Elanna projection tries to coax Tom away from Alice's control, while the brunette cajoles him otherwise. Meanwhile, the small vessel approaches the particle fountain.
Urgently, Alice tells Tom that her shields are failing. But he is slipping from her control, and Voyager beams him away. The pilotless shuttle hurtles into the particle fountain and explodes.
In sick bay, the Doctor tells Tom he will recover in a few days and leaves him alone with B'Elanna. She gives him a get-well card from the young Voyager orphan Naomi Wildman. Tom says he is "sorry -- for everything." B'Elanna is understanding. B'Elanna and Tom hug, then kiss.
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