Stardate 50537.2: An away team prepares to beam down into the caves of an apparently abandoned mining colony with gallicite deposits that may be used to replenish the ship's warp coils. B'Elanna Torres is working with Ensign Vorik, who suddenly proposes marriage to her. He grabs her head, upon which she knocks him down. In sickbay, the Doctor concludes that Vorik has entered the pon farr. In the caves on the planet, the away team climbs down a steep cliff. Neelix falls down, breaking his leg. B'Elanna apparently loses her nerve and runs away. Tuvok surmises that she too suffers from pon farr after a mind meld with Vorik. A search team catches up with B'Elanna, but suddenly they are surrounded by aliens that don't register on the tricorder. B'Elanna manages to overwhelm one of them when an earthquake strikes the cave. She and Tom are separated from the rest of the away team. B'Elanna wants to mate with Tom, but he initially refuses her advances, knowing that she would not normally behave this way. Tuvok and Chakotay learn from the aliens, the Sakari, that invaders overran their colony a long time ago, and that the survivors chose to hide in the caves ever since. On the ship, Vorik tries in vain to cope with his pon farr using a holographic mate. He beams down to the planet and challenges Tom to the koon-ut-kal-if-fee. B'Elanna accepts the challenge herself and fights with Vorik, until both of them have overcome the pon farr. Remains of the aggressors are found on the Sakari planet: the Borg.

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