Tattoo ( episode ) Chakotay investigates mysterious symbols and visions that are remarkably similar to one of his childhood experiences . Summary . Teaser . Commander Chakotay and an away team are investigating some polyferranide deposits on an uninhabited moon when Tuvok discovers an unusual symbol in the remains of a long - dead campfire . This symbol sparks a flashback in Chakotay , returning him to a memory of a childhood camping trip in Central America with his father , Kolopak . The young Chakotay sees the same symbol carved into a fallen tree trunk . His father calls the symbol a CHAH - mooz - ee and explains to him that the local tribe are descendants of the ancient Rubber Tree People , just as they themselves are , and left it as a blessing to the land after cutting down the tree for firewood . Unlike their own tribe , the local tribe never left the jungles , living as the Rubber Tree People did and are the closest thing to the ancient tribe in the modern era . As they discuss their ancestral traditions , Chakotay displays unconcern and dislike for his father ' s insistence on following traditional beliefs . His father attempts to teach Chakotay about the Sky Spirit s and their role in Indian history , but Chakotay remains skeptical . As the scene reverts to the present , Chakotay tells the others that the symbol is " a blessing to the land , for damaging it with the campfire . " Tuvok is skeptical , and Chakotay plays down his knowledge of the rituals . Act One . Back on , Ensign Wildman is in sickbay , complaining of a " shooting " pain in her lower back . The Doctor informs her that the baby is fine , it is just pressing against a nerve in her back . Kes wants to relieve Wildman of duty for a couple of days , but The Doctor refuses , telling her that she ' d just have to " learn to live with " the discomforts surrounding pregnancy , and schedules her for a follow - up appointment . After she leaves , Kes lectures The Doctor about showing compassion for his patients , and he replies by stating that " Voyager " is crewed by adults , and that he would not " coddle them . " As Kes leaves , The Doctor refutes her arguments ( to himself ) by proclaiming that he doesn ' t have a life , only a program . In the meantime , Chakotay and Captain Janeway are discussing Chakotay ' s flashback on the surface of the moon as they walk into his quarters . He reveals that he ' d hated the expedition , expressing his dislike for being away from home and friends near the Cardassian border for an expedition in the jungle , seeking the closest descendants of the ancient Rubber Tree People . Chakotay shows the captain a picture of the pattern he found ; set against the ceremonial stone from his medicine bundle , the designs are nearly identical . Chakotay can offer only one explanation , citing an ancient myth that claims that a group of " Sky Spirits " created the Rubber Tree People and led them to a " sacred land " where they could live eternal lives . Janeway points out that he doesn ' t seem to believe the myth , and Chakotay counters by bringing up the story of Adam and Eve , comparing that belief to his . The captain reveals that B ' Elanna Torres has detected a warp trail leading away from the moon , and asks Chakotay if he thinks they should follow it . He claims to not want to put his interests ahead of the ship ' s , while Janeway counters by claiming that the race that left the trail might have the polyferranide the crew needs . Chakotay agrees with her logic . The crew tracks the warp signature to an M - class planet , but sensor s can ' t find any life sign s on the surface . They do , however , discover some unusually elevated EM readings , which are too high to be natural . Chakotay believes it is some sort of cloaking device , and Janeway orders Ensign Kim to transmit a continuous identification message . Lieutenant Torres then calls to inform the captain that they ' ve discovered large deposits of polyferranide some ten kilometer s underground . The captain orders an away mission to survey the deposit , and Chakotay , Torres , Tuvok , and Neelix prepare to transport to the surface . In the transporter room , however , problems arise . Torres and the transporter chief have tried seven sets of beam - down coordinates , but each time they lock on , a mysterious thunderstorm develops which blocks transport . Tuvok speculates that the transporter beam is causing electrostatic discharges in the atmosphere , and the team decides to proceed in a shuttle . As the shuttle enters the planet ' s atmosphere , another mysterious storm develops , sparking another of Chakotay ' s excursions into memories of similar times long ago . As they were waiting out a downpour in the rainforest , young Chakotay and his father had another disagreement about the nature and intentions of the Sky Spirits , and Chakotay still seems skeptical of their existence . Outside of the shuttle , Chakotay sees a man ' s face in the flashes of lightning . Act Two . Arriving for duty in sickbay , Kes activates the Doctor who responds with his standard greeting . Kes is confused as she thought the Doctor had removed it from his programming , only for him to explain that he restored it after he was struggling to find new ways to introduce himself before sneezing . The Doctor has " infected " himself with the symptoms of the 29 - hour Levodian flu following Kes ' s worry he is unable to feel compassion for the patients he treats . He explains that he intends for it to be a learning experience but not for himself ; he intends to show the crew that a simple illness doesn ' t give one an excuse to complain or not go about their usual routine . Meanwhile on the planet , the away team searches a jungle . Chakotay spots a rare flower which appears identical to one he saw during the camping trip with his father . While Torres discovers a possible lead on the mineral , Chakotay is distracted by a . He remembers telling his father his plans to leave the tribe to join Starfleet . His father has mixed emotions : he recognizes his son ' s desire to explore the universe , but is worried that if young Chakotay leaves the tribe now he will forever be caught between worlds . Amid their conflict , they discover a primitive structure . Back in the present , Neelix has apparently been attacked by the same hawk Chakotay saw . While trying to fight the hawk off , Chakotay again sees a brief flash of a face . As Neelix beams out , Tuvok discovers an alien structure which amazingly resembles the primitive structure from Chakotay ' s past ; while this structure obviously consists of materials from a high tech society , the way they used them is in nearly the exact same manner . Act Three . The Doctor treats Neelix , pointing out that he is twenty hours into his sickness and still does not require compassion . After examining the structure and surrounding area , the Away team reports that while there was a civilization nearby but it left quickly , just before their arrival on the surface . Chakotay believes that with no evidence to the contrary that the beings are hiding nearby and orders the team to lay down their weapons , as his father had on the journey in his past . On that trip , after laying down their weapons to show that they posed no threat , the primitive descendants of the Rubber Tree People from which Chakotay ' s tribe also descends appeared from the brush to make friendly contact . A severe storm strikes up very quickly , causing the away team to try to get back to their shuttle . Chakotay sees an alien figure running through the brush and is separated when a tree is blown over , knocking him to the ground and knocking off his combadge . Thus when Tuvok calls for an emergency beam out , Chakotay is left behind . Act Four . Paris scans the ground and finds no trace of the shuttle . Janeway prepares to return to the surface to find the commander but is interrupted by the EMH – his 29 - hour flu has lasted thirty hours , causing him to panic . Kes admits she added two hours to the illness The Doctor programmed , to teach him a lesson . Chakotay awakens and returns to the structure . He attempts once again to address the aliens , telling them they have nothing to fear from him . He remembers his earlier experience : the Rubber Tree People stripped their clothes off and drew the tattoo symbol on his father ' s forehead . Chakotay strips down and dons a robe he finds in the structure . When it becomes clear that weather prevents any attempt to beam down to the surface , Tuvok postulates that someone is controlling the climate to prevent visitors . Left with no other choice , Janeway decides to prepare " Voyager " to land on the surface to search for the missing commander . However the landing goes wrong and " Voyager " gets caught in a cyclone when the weather ' s severity suddenly increases . Act Five . Paris fights with the controls while Torres down in engineering squeezes out every bit of power she can for the engines , but it ' s not enough and " Voyager " is in danger of crashing on the surface . Chakotay takes shelter from the intense weather in a cave where he once more tries to communicate with the aliens . This time he is apparently successful : several armed humanoid aliens appear , each with a tattoo similar to his own . They however only speak in the tribal language of the Rubber Tree People and Chakotay ' s tribe , which he admits he never learned . He does however recognize the lead alien saying the same words as the lead tribesman did to his father . Chakotay can only repeat " " CHAH - mooz - ee " " ; the lead alien walks up to him and sees his tattoo . The lead alien puts a device in his hands , which turns out to be a universal translator . The alien is shocked to learn that he is Human , and calls him a descendant of " The Inheritors " ; they had been taught that Chakotay ' s more recent ancestors had been annihilated , and Earth ravaged by others with no respect for the land or other living creatures . Chakotay states that is no longer true , but admits that he has no memory of Inheritors . As a descendant , Chakotay is supposed to have the memory as one of their gifts , but the alien accepts that perhaps it has been lost over time ; the previous flashes of the man ' s face in Chakotay ' s mind is all he has received . Touching Chakotay ' s collarbone , he shows him the memory . . . Forty - five thousand years previously , the alien ' s people visited Earth and ran across a small group of primitive nomadic hunters , who had no spoken language and no culture other than fire and stone tools . Deeply impressed by their respect for the land and other living creatures , the beings gifted the people with an inheritance , a genetic bonding , in the exact same way that the alien is touching Chakotay now , so the hunters might thrive and protect their world . They monitored Chakotay ' s ancient ancestors with subsequent visits and found that their genetic gift brought about a spirit of curiosity and adventure , which impelled the Humans who received the gift , whom the Spirits referred to as " the Inheritors , " to migrate away from their cold climate to the North and South America n continents over the course of nearly a thousand generations . Eventually , they numbered in the hundreds of thousands , but thousands of years later they were decimated by invaders from other lands with weapons and disease . Those who survived scattered , many seeking refuge in other societies . When the Sky Spirits eventually returned twelve generations ago , they found no signs of the Inheritors ' existence . They are the Sky Spirits Chakotay ' s people have worshiped for countless generations . The Sky Spirit goes on to explain that when they received " Voyager " s message of peace , they were worried – they were afraid that " Voyager " s Human crew , like the Human conquerors generations ago , were dishonest and intended to wipe them out . After Chakotay explains that they ' ve tried to change their ways and they mean no harm , the weather suddenly dissipates , freeing " Voyager " . Chakotay is given as much polyferranide as the Sky Spirits are willing to part with , and though they apologize that it is not the full amount " Voyager " needs , Chakotay is grateful for their generosity . Chakotay tells the lead Sky Spirit about how he joined the Maquis and took the tattoo after his father died defending the colony from the Cardassians , and spoke to him on vision quest s , but he never answered . . . until now . Chakotay is located by an away team and says goodbye to the Sky Spirit people . As a hawk flies overhead , he hears his father ' s voice , " " Do you hear him , Chakotay ? " " " " Yes father , " " Chakotay says aloud , " " I finally hear him . " " Memorable quotes . " " I don ' t have a life , I have a program . " " " " Doc ? I don ' t feel so good . " " " " Neither do I and you don ' t hear me complaining . " " " " Choose the word that would best describe your pain ; burning , throbbing , piercing , pinching , biting , stinging , shooting . . . " " " " The logical course isn ' t always the right course . " " " " Sorry , Sky Spirits . I will never make friends with bugs . " " " " Maybe that ' s why they keep biting you . " " " " Holographic tissue paper for the holographic runny nose . Don ' t offer them to patients . " " " " You ' re lucky the bird didn ' t tear your eye from its socket – we have no spare Talaxian eyeballs . " " " " She ' s far more devious than I ever suspected . " " " " The Sky Spirits must have taken a wrong turn somewhere . " " " " Warning , approach vector is too steep . Discontinue landing sequence . " " " " Can somebody turn that off , " please " ? ! " " " " Can we go to low warp ? " " " " The ship might make it without inertial dampeners but we ' ll all be stains on the back wall . " " " " We need that extra power , B ' Elanna . " " " " Ten minutes . I just need ten minutes . " " " " Put those away ! " " " " A lot of things have changed since the last time you stopped by . " " Links and references . References . astiline ; Adam and Eve ; alloy - polymer matrix ; antithoron ; away team ; Baldoxic vinegar ; botanical surveyor ; breeder ; Cardassian border ; Central America ; " CHAH - mooz - ee " ; Chakotay ' s tribe ; cloaking device ; combadge ; cyclone ; cypripedium ; Delta Quadrant ; Earth ; electrical storm ; Emergency medical holographic channel ; eyeball ; eye socket ; fire ; fusion reactor ; ; horticulture ; ignorance ; inertial dampener ; inheritance ; Inheritor ; Inheritor ( first ) ; kilometer ; Levodian flu ; lizard ; logic ; magnesite ; meter ; migration ; Mister Vulcan ; monsoon ; nose ; orchid ; " Paphiopedilum " ; polyferranide ; red alert ; Rubber Tree People ; runny nose ; salad ; sciatic nerve ; Sky Spirit ; Sky Spirits ' homeworld ; sponsor ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Academy ; ; surveyor ; Talaxian ; tissue paper ; towel ; tricorder ; universe ; variety ; Vulcan orchid ; warp coil ; warp signature