Star Trek: Voyager

Rust?

That's right, Captain.

High levels of ferric oxide... corroded iron particles.

Would you mind telling me

how iron could rust in space without oxygen?

I wish I could.

Mr. Paris,

alter our course to follow that trail of rust.

One-quarter impulse.

Aye, Captain.

Captain, look at this.

I'm picking up traces

of complex hydrocarbons

in the rust... benzene, ethylene,

acetylene...

That sounds like gasoline.

Gasoline?

It's a liquid fuel that was used centuries ago on Earth.

They burned it

to drive internal combustion engines.

How did it get out here?

I'm detecting a small object.

It appears to be

the source of the rust and hydrocarbons.

Put it on screen.

Magnify.

Apparently, it is a ground vehicle

from mid-20th-century Earth.

Whew! It's a 1936 Ford, actually.

Mr. Paris?

That was the manufacturing date: 1936.

Ford was the name of the company that built it.

Antique vehicles are a hobby of mine.

Internal combustion engine,

a reciprocating piston cylinder design.

Fuel source was a refined petroleum.

Gasoline.

So, is this an early hover car?

No, you're about a century too early for that.

This is about one step ahead of the horse-drawn carriage.

Traces of potassium nitrate,

ammonium and methane back here.

I think you'll find that's manure.

Horse manure, if I'm not mistaken.

Judging from the mud on the wheels

and the alfalfa seedlings

stuck in the metal frame,

I'd say this vehicle belonged to a farmer,

or, at least, someone who lived in a rural area.

But the question is: How did it get here?

I doubt there are many

20th-century farmers

driving around the Delta Quadrant.

There are no signs of any wormholes

or temporal anomalies in this region of space.

Let's run a metallurgical analysis of the vehicle.

There's still oil in the crankcase,

water in the radiator.

I wonder if the battery's still charged.

Now, let's see.

This is before voice-command activation,

so there should be something in here called a key.

Key...

What are you doing?

Trying to bring this beauty back to life.

Now, where are the keys?

Aha! Here they are.

Okay, choke out,

clutch in,

give her a little gas,

turn the key,

and step on the starter.

Sorry.

Next time...

you might give us a little warning, Mr. Paris.

Aye, Captain.

I suggest we increase the ventilation in the cargo bay

before we are asphyxiated.

What's that?

That is an amplitude modulation receiving device.

AM radio.

I'm not sure we'll pick up much out here.

Whoa. What was that?

What is that?

It's too regular to be random interference.

I'm running the signal through the ship's database.

It's an ancient Earth distress call known as an SOS.

I've located the source of the SOS signal.

It's coming from a planet in a star system

bearing 310 mark 215.

Mr. Paris, lay in a course.

Aye, Captain.

Why didn't we pick up this signal earlier?

This isn't one of the standard frequencies we monitor.

Messages on this channel only travel at the speed of light...

too slow for interstellar communications.

Course laid in, Captain.

Warp 6.

Engage.

I'll run a diagnostic check, sir.

Mm-hmm.

Bring us out of warp. Full scan, Mr. Kim.

The SOS signal is coming from the third planet.

It's Class-L... oxygen-argon atmosphere.

Any life signs?

There's a great deal of trinimbic interference

in the upper atmosphere.

I can't get a clear reading of the surface.

Can you pinpoint the coordinates of the distress call?

Yes, here it is.

It's coming from a continent in the northern hemisphere.

We won't be able to transport

through this kind of interference.

I might be able to take an away team in a shuttle craft.

That would not be wise, Commander,

as the atmosphere is charged with trinimbic turbulence.

A shuttle craft

could not safely navigate the currents.

We could land the ship.

Are you sure that's necessary?

Someone on this planet is sending out a distress call.

If that someone is as old as the truck in the cargo bay,

they're long-dead by now.

This might be an automated distress call.

Possibly.

But something brought that truck halfway across the galaxy

and that something might be down on that planet.

And if it brought the truck here,

it might be able to take us home, too.

I'd say it's worth a look.

Mr. Paris, prepare the ship for landing.

Captain, I think I should tell you

I've never actually landed a starship before.

That's all right, Lieutenant, neither have I.

Bridge to Engineering.

We're going to land the ship, Ms. Torres.

Take the warp core off-line,

vent all plasma from the nacelles,

and stand by to engage atmospheric thrusters.

Aye, Captain.

This is Lieutenant Tuvok to all decks.

We are preparing to land the ship.

Go to Blue Alert and report to Code Blue stations.

I've plotted a descent course.

How close do you want to land

to the distress coordinates?

No closer than two kilometers.

Okay.

Atmospheric controls at standby.

Landing mechanisms on line.

Inertial dampers at maximum.

All decks report Condition Blue, Captain.

Put her down, Mr. Paris.

Status.

We're on the glide trajectory.

Altitude... 100 kilometers.

Speed... 10,000 kph.

Encountering some trinimbic turbulence. Compensating.

We have an EM discharge in the lateral relays.

I'm rerouting the ODN conduit.

Another EM discharge.

I think we're all right, though.

20 kilometers to the landing site.

We should be able to see it now.

Extend landing struts.

Prepare to release inertial dampers

and adjust them to match the planet's gravity.

Landing struts down and locked.

Standing by environmental controls.

Here we go.

Disengaging engines, securing thruster exhaust.

We're down.

Not bad... for a beginner.

Nice day.

I've locked on to the distress signal.

It's 1.5 kilometers

on a bearing of 246.

Wait a second. I've got something else.

There's a high concentration of trianium particles,

bearing 225... a little over a kilometer away.

Looks like some kind of power source.

Two teams.

Chakotay, yours investigates the power source.

Tuvok, Kim, you're with me.

My God.

The metal is an aluminum alloy.

It appears to be an ancient Earth aircraft.

The SOS call is coming from inside.

I've found the AM transmitter.

From what I can tell,

it's sending out an automated SOS.

What about the power source?

Somehow I find it hard to believe

the battery on this aircraft has been running for 400 years.

I don't recognize the power signature.

Hold on, Captain.

I found what appears to be

an alien fusion-based generator.

It's hooked up to the AM transmitter.

Chakotay to Janeway.