by Rolaant McKenzie

The memory of these things lingers for months, or even years, like an ever-present partial eclipse of the sun. Life goes on, but not as brightly as before, because it is dimmed by the memory of terrible mistakes of the past.

How many of us have often wished that time travel was possible, and that we could somehow go back and correct what was done and make things right? This is a recurring theme in many fictional stories and films.

One such example can be seen in Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001), a science fiction television series set in the 24th century. It follows the adventures of the starship USS Voyager as it attempts to return home to the Alpha Quadrant after being stranded in the Delta Quadrant on the far side of the Milky Way galaxy.

In the episode Timeless (Season 5, Episode 6, 11/18/1998), the crew of Voyager attempted to use a newly developed slipstream engine technology to bring them home. Ensign Harry Kim and Commander Chakotay were in the shuttle Delta Flyer guiding the larger ship.

Kim was responsible for entering the precise calculations in the shuttle's navigation computer to help Voyager maintain a stable slipstream. But something went wrong with the calculations, and it became unstable. This caused the ship to drop back into normal space out of control and crash into a nearby ice planet with all hands lost. The shuttle survived the disaster, so Kim and Chakotay were the only ones of the Voyager crew to make it home.