Stardate not given: Voyager discovers hibernation chambers on a Kohl planet whose surface was devastated 19 years ago. An aed message says that the hibernation was scheduled to end after 15 years. Janeway decides to beam the five chambers and the control system aboard. Two individuals died of heart failure after a massive neural trauma, three more are still alive. It is not possible to wake them up because simply disconnecting them would cause neural damage. Harry and B'Elanna are hooked up to the system to terminate the program from within. What they encounter is an overall pleasant virtual environment that is ruled by an evil clown called "Fear". He can kill anyone connected to the system using mock executions. It turns out that Fear is a manifestation of the fears of the people in the chambers, and has developed a personality of his own. Fear allows B'Elanna to leave but keeps Harry as another hostage. Janeway sends in the Doctor as a negotiator, but the clown declines all offers. Fear kills one of the three Kohl, Viorsa, when B'Elanna attempts to shut down the environment piece by piece. Janeway then decides to send in the Doctor again with an ultimatum: Fear has to release all the hostages in exchange for Janeway, or she will pull the plug. Fear agrees, but then he notices that Janeway is just a holographic projection, upon which he disappears.

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