Unfortunately before she's had a chance to do anything more than meet him she's interrupted.

"Captain, we're getting some strange energy readings. You'd better come up here."

"Acknowledged. Computer, end program."

Q appears in a flash of light.

"Not so fast, Captain! You can't just stuff this man into an isolinear chip and leave him there! He deserves to live!"

Q snaps his fingers and vanishes. The program ends, leaving Janeway standing in the deactivated holodeck... with William Laurence.

"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Davenport. Now if you'll be so kind as to step to this side, the bosun will lift you aboard with his--"

"--Excuse me, miss. I'm afraid I-- I--"

One moment ago he was standing on a dock, his ship Reliant resting before him, about to go aboard with the governess and her charges who were taking passage with him this voyage. It has been a clear, sunny day with the wind in the west. He had felt the salt breeze on his face.

And now... there is no sign of ship, dock, crew, or indeed the sun or breeze. Only the strangest room he's ever seen, and the one unchanged figure: the governess, now minus the children she was accompanying.

"--I fear I may be seeing things. Miss Davenport, would you be so kind as to tell me what you see directly at this moment?"

Not the best impression for a captain to be giving at the beginning of a voyage, to seem an invalid having some sort of fainting spell, but what else can he do? He has no idea what is going on, and she is the one thing he can grasp at to find out.

And then he averts his eyes, because she appears to be wearing an extraordinarily revealing costume that leaves less to the imagination than a bathing suit. But he is certainly not going to accuse a gentlewoman of such absurd immodesty when the far more likely explanation is that he is somehow dreaming or having the vapours. He keeps his gaze firmly fixed to the wall behind her, however.

"A moment... Sir."

"Captain to Chakotaky. I've just had a visit from Q. Any sign of him?"

"Q? No captain, we haven't seen him. And the energy readings are gone now. What did he do?"

"He appears to have... extracted... a character from my holodeck program."

She turns to Laurence, momentarily at a loss for words.

Laurence is still deeply confused, but he heard her speak to a man out of sight and caught a few words.

"I beg your pardon. Are we on a vessel at this moment?" The room is small and dark; they must be near the belly of the ship. "Would you call Captain Tochakotay here, so that I may present myself to him? Is he an officer in His Majesty's Navy?"

By their strange accents, Laurence suspects he may be on a ship with rebels from the colonies. Technically England is not at war with them anymore; he hopes these will not treat him the worse for being an Englishman.

(He's never heard of such shocking salaciousness in modes of dress in the colonies, but it's the best guess he can come up with for the moment.)

There are too many misconceptions there to deal with at once. She tries to figure out how to start to explain.

"You're aboard the USS Voyager..."

How does she address him? If the Reliant was real, of course it would be "Captain Laurence", but it isn't. On the other hand, it's just as real as anything else about him. If he wanted to talk about his parents, it wouldn't seem reasonable to quibble about it. And it would also be offensive in the extreme, she suspects, to deny the legitimacy of his rank. 

"... Captain Laurence. Please come with me: I'm afraid we have quite a bit to discuss"

She sets off towards sick bay.

Somewhat to his surprise, Laurence finds himself following her. Her tones of command are unmistakeable, despite her being a woman. Her manner and dress would be shockingly illegal in England, but it seems that he now finds himself in a strange country indeed. When in Rome.

He's never heard of that ship, but the term "USS" is vaguely familiar. "United States Ship? Is she a frigate from the colonies, then?"

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't beat around the bush."

"By your calendar, it is the year 2371. Voyager hails from the United Federation of Planets, a union of over 150 planets, including Earth."

What.

"One hundred and fifty... planets? Then... where are we?

"And, if I may be so bold, er--" he is no longer sure how to address her-- "what is your own role on this vessel?"

"Easy question first. Captain Kathryn Janeway, at your service. I am in command of Voyager. The man you heard be talking to, Commander Chakotay, is my first officer."

"As to where we are, the short answer is 'space, a very, very long way from home'".

They reach the holodeck doors, which open with a quiet hiss, revealing a carpeted metal coridor, with white lights shining down from the ceiling. There are no windows in sight.

Laurence takes in the magically moving doors, the strange decor -- so perfectly clean, unlike a sailing ship, yet strangely bare -- the unnaturally bright lighting, and her words, all with an increasing sense of unreality. It's becoming clear that a female captain is the least of the strangeness here. For all he knows, they don't birth children here, they spring fully formed from their fathers' foreheads.

"A very, very long way from home," he repeats, more to himself than to her. He's familiar with the notion of the space between planets, of course, but the idea that men could go there is fantastical.

And then the next realization hits him. The year 2371. Five hundred years after he -- and most likely everyone he knows -- should be dead and gone. How is this possible? What would a Captain William Laurence even be in such a world-- adrift without family, without friends--

And more to the point, what would become of the world without him? His ship, his crew? The war? He was there just a moment ago-- And in that moment, he realizes what he must do. He almost asks her what became of Napoleon-- but no. It would be better not to know, for he intends to do his duty to England regardless.

"How can I return to my ship? To my own time?" he asks her urgently.

What are the options here...

Option 1: Maybe Q could be persuaded to put Laurence back into the holodeck program. It seems unlikely that Laurence would want that if asked.

Option 2: Maybe Laurence could be transported to the real 1804? There are many recorded instances of time travel in Starfleet records. Just three years ago, that android on the Enterprise was transported to the late 19th century, which isn't even very far off. But of course she's not going to pursue that course. The temporal prime directive prohibits tampering with the past.

Option 3: Could Q be persuaded to send Laurence to some sort of alternate dimension? But Q is gone, and unlikely to want to undo his meddling in any case. Why did Q do this?

"I'm sorry, Captain Laurence. I'll consult with my crew, but I see no way to return you to your own time."

The crushing weight of it hits him then. Everything and everyone he ever knew, gone. He grasps onto that "I'll consult with my crew" with the hope of a dying man.

But, Janeway did not sound hopeful. It had the sound more of a sop to frustrated hopes than a true expectation that anything could be done.

He takes a deep breath and asks a question that should perhaps have been before the last several. "Where are we going?"

"Sickbay. The manner in which you arrived here is novel to us, and I want to make sure you're not suffering any medical problems from it. It's just a precaution."

They arrive at a turbolift, which obligingly hisses open.

So he's going to some sort of hospital. Fine. "And after that? Am I a free man, or a prisoner here?"

Laurence gives her a quizzical look-- why are they entering this tiny room, which does not appear to be a hospital?-- but follows her anyway.