Joining forces with a powerful alien species, the Romulan Empire from twenty years in the past creates a wormhole that leads to the present-day Delta Quadrant and Voyager, hoping to seize the ship and gain control of future technology.
Scientific theory holds that ninety percent of all matter in the universe is "dark matter," unable to be detected by ordinary means. The gravitational force of that mysterious material ensures the continuance of all reality, but now a cosmic conspiracy plans to use excess dark matter to bring about the death of the universe. While Chakotay and Paris are lost in a mysterious shadow dimension, Captain Janeway and the remainder of her crew struggle to contain the deadly dark matter wreaking havoc on the ship -- and deep in space. But malevolent forces are working against the Starship Voyager?, and they have seduced the Romulan Empire to their cause!
An imbalance of dark matter has placed two realities in jeopardy, causing the separate universes to merge and threatening the stability of both realms. To preserve reality as it is known, the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager ? must defy a cosmic conspiracy and wrestle with shadows of the darkest degree! "Rescued" by strangers who may prove to be more dangerous than his original captors, Chakotay struggles to convince his new hosts of the danger posed by the mutated dark matter -- and the killer, or killers, still hunting the villages where Tom Paris has been left behind. In their own reality, as Harry Kim loses his heart to an enigmatic visitor from the shadow universe, Captain Janeway and the rest of her crew continue their search for the hidden dark matter that could cause the entire cosmos to contract in a fatal convulsion. But whose side are the Romulans really on? And what surprising Þgure from Voyager's past holds the ultimate key to the fate of both universes?