Night

Voyager is crossing a vast, empty region of space with no stars at all, and the long dark is wearing on the crew. Paris escapes into his black-and-white Captain Proton holodeck adventure, while Janeway has withdrawn to her quarters, brooding over her decision to strand the crew in the Delta Quadrant. When the ship suddenly loses power, unseen aliens board it and attack. The crew capture one and learn that these night-dwellers are being poisoned by toxic waste that a Malon freighter pumps into the void through a spatial vortex. Controller Emck offers Voyager a way out in exchange for the captured alien, and refuses Janeway's offer of technology to recycle the waste, since it would end his profitable dumping. Janeway plans to destroy the vortex alone, but her crew refuse to let her. Together they close the vortex, the Malon ship is destroyed, and Voyager emerges among the stars.