Stardate: 49005.3 While performing a ritual to honor the anniversary of his father's death, Chakotay's shuttlecraft unknowingly violates Kazon-Ogla space. He becomes the target of Kar, a young Kazon boy undergoing a manhood ritual to earn his warrior name and place among his people.

When Voyager's crew encounters a swarm of strange alien lifeforms in space, the aliens start forming what seems to be a attachment to Voyager. Meanwhile the encounter seems to accelerate Kes's reproductive cycle that comes only once in her species lifetime.