Is it possible to make current flow through a transistor from the emitter to the collector without supplying voltage to the base?

I've started studying bipolar junction transistors, and I'm trying to understand how they work.

When learning about how a transistor work, you always see it connecting 2 circuits, the smaller one involving only the emitter and the base, and the largest one with the collector too.

According to what I understood current flow in the largest, only if it flows in the smallest.

If I disconnect the base and the smaller cirucuit, or remove the voltage generator from that circuit, current stop flowing in the largest one too.

For this reason a transistor in a circuit if no voltage is supplied to the base (or the base not attached to anything) is said to be "off".

As my current understanding (it may be wrong), in this scenario, however you put the voltage generator the current can't flow due to the presence of an electric field inside the transistor ( depletion layer).

But what would happen if I increase the voltage?

Is there a trashold limit where the depletion layer is overcomed? Or is, more generally, possible to make electricity flow from the emitter to the collector without supplying voltage to the base?