The Sound of Her Voice

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode
"The Sound of Her Voice"
Episode no.	149
Prod. code	549
Airdate	June 10, 1998
Writer(s)	Ronald D. Moore Pam Pietroforte
Director	Winrich Kolbe
Guest star(s)	Debra Wilson Penny Johnson Mark Allen Shepherd
Year	2374
Stardate	51948.3
Episode chronology
Previous	"Time's Orphan"
Next	"Tears of the Prophets"

"The Sound of Her Voice" is a sixth season episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine first broadcast on June 10, 1998.

[edit] Plot

While traveling home from an escort mission, the crew of the USS Defiant receive a distress call from Captain Lisa Cusak, a Starfleet officer stranded on an alien world by herself, after her ship has been destroyed by actively scanning a strange planet.

Capt. Cusak is forced to use medicine ("triox") to counter the effects of the barely breathable atmosphere, and speaks extensively with the crew of the Defiant as a distraction from her predicament and the effects of the medicine. Despite never seeing her face, the crew grows very close to her, and when Cusak's medicine begins to run short, Sisko decides to increase the Defiant's speed beyond warp 9 by using energy reserves from their weapons. The crew arrives at the planet a short time after she apparently runs out of medicine and loses consciousness, only to find a dead body which has been lying there for 3 years. Chief O’Brien offers a theory that the signal has been deflected through time in both directions through an energy barrier in the atmosphere, explaining why they were able to interact with Capt. Cusak despite her death years before.

[edit] Notes

Most notably in this episode, the crew seemingly never checks the information that Lisa tells them about her, or her ship against their records. Had they, they likely would have found that the USS Olympia had vanished three years prior to the Defiant receiving Lisa's distress calls. Although this could be explained by the fact that the USS Olympia was on a long-term mission and was not due back in Federation space for years. This is evidenced by the lack of surprise on the discovery that Cusak did not know about the war with the Dominion.