The badly damaged encoded message received from Starfleet Command five months ago is finally translated by Arturis, an alien passenger recently invited onboard, whose species has a great affinity for language. The directive brings the U.S.S. Voyager to a spacecraft, emitting a distinctive Starfleet warp signature, but totally unlike any Starfleet vessel known. With a propulsion system faster than warp speed, the ship is capable of bringing the U.S.S. Voyager crew to Earth — crossing 60,000 light years — within just three months. The crew is elated, but Captain Janeway expresses caution, even though they are all secretly hoping to be home very, very soon. While the crew's excitement grows, so does Seven of Nine's anxiety about living among billions of humans. She asks Captain Janeway to let her depart the U.S.S. Voyager and roam the Delta Quadrant on her own.

Ray Wise (Arturis)
Jack Shearer (Admiral Hayes)

• Season Finale.
  
• Seven and Janeway play a game of "Velocity" on the holodeck. Seven is not a very good loser...
  
• The prototype ship is the U.S.S. Dauntless NX-01A, launched on stardate 51742, powered by a Quantum Slipstream Drive. The ship is a fake, created with "particle synthesis." Arturis was attempting to deliver the Voyager crew to the Borg because he blames Voyager for the assimilation of his world (see "Scorpion, Part I" and "Scorpion, Part II").
  
• The message actually said "We're sorry, here's all the information we have on the Delta Quadrant."
  
• The Borg refer to Arturis' species as Species 116. At the time Seven was disconnected, the Borg had not assimilated Species 116. Yet....
  
• Jack Shearer also played Admiral Hayes in the feature film Star Trek First Contact. Captain Picard took command of the fleet after Admiral Hayes' ship was destroyed.
  
• Voyager received the message from Starfleet in the episode "Hunters".
  
• With this episode, co-creator and executive producer Jeri Taylor leaves Voyager's production crew. She will still remain as a creative consultant to the show. Brannon Braga will step up as executive producer.