GOOD SHEPHERD : Episode 140 : Part B

In the Messhall Telfer is trying to help Celes. Telfer: "The analytical aspects of the subspace infra-red algorithm are four-fold." Celes: "Unfortunately I have a three-fold brain." Telfer: "You just have to break it down. Think of it as four smaller algorithms." Celes: "Okay, but what's the sequence?" Janeway enters and overhears. Janeway: "It's 'Zero G Is Fun'. As you were. Zeta particle derivation, Gamma wave frequency, Ion distribution, Flow rate of positrons: ZGIF - 'Zero G Is Fun'. That's how you remember the sequence." Celes: "Thank you, Captain. I'll try." Janeway: "Good, because where we're headed you're going to need it. I'll be briefing you this afternoon in Astrometrics. We'll leave first thing in the morning."

Mitchell: "Captain on the deck!" Janeway: "At ease. Junction room 16?" Mitchell: "Over there, Captain." Janeway: "Of course. Crewman Mitchell. How have you been?" Mitchell: "Er, never better, ma'am. Yourself?" Janeway: "Not bad. Not bad at all."

Janeway: "Crewman Harran." Harran: "Captain Janeway. Are you lost?" Janeway: "I was, for a minute. I'll be briefing you this afternoon." Harran: "Oh there's been a mistake." Janeway: "Excuse me?" Harran: "You have me assigned to an away mission. I have my duties here, I prefer not to leave my post." Janeway: "Ensign Culhane will cover for you. The pre-flight schedule is all there." Harran: "If this is charity, Captain, I don't want it." Janeway: "I didn't ask you what you want. I'm taking the Delta Flyer on an astronomical survey mission and your expertise is needed." Harran: "What do you know about my expertise?" Janeway: "As much as I need to."

Janeway briefs the mission team: she will drop out of warp and maintain one quarter impulse on a sweep through the protostars, and she will pilot the Delta Flyer; Celes will run an on-going sensor analysis, providing data for her colleagues; Harren will look for subspace particle decay which might offer new information about star formation; and Telfer will look for signs of life, a long shot in this environment. Telfer exhibits worry about landing on a planet. Janeway surmises he is actually concerned about his health and assures him they will check there are no pathogens and that the Delta Flyer is fully equipped to deal with any emergencies. "Shuttlebay 1, 0600 hours. Dismissed."

After Harran, Telfer and Celes leave, Seven, who has been present during the briefing, working in the background, speaks to Janeway. Seven: "Celes is unreliable. Her sensor analyses will be full of errors. You could be putting your lives at risk." Janeway: "Don't worry, Seven, I'll check her work." Seven: "This mission could be better served with a more experienced crew." Janeway: "No, not this mission. Ever hear the tale of the Good Shepherd? If even one sheep strayed into the wilderness, the shepherd left the safety of the flock and went after it." Seven: "So you're intending to rescue them?" Janeway: "In a manner of speaking. Maybe all it will take will be some personal attention from their Captain, maybe something more, but I won't abandon a member of this crew, no matter what their problems might be."

In the Messhall Torres notes that Harran is sitting alone in the corner.
Paris: "Poor guy, rotting away down on Deck 15, counting the years until we get out of this godforsaken Quadrant. It's a shame he doesn't have a superior officer who cares."
Torres: "It's not my job to make everyone who works for me. Some people just don't want to fit in."
Neelix: "I'll bet you haven't said two words to him."
Paris: "Two words exactly. We collided in a corridor during a Borg attack. I said, 'Excuse me.' Since we were at red alert and about to be destroyed I think it was very considerate of me."
Torres: "Well, Mr Considerate, why don't you go over there right now and offer him some encouragement - his first away mission. I'm sure he could use it." But Harran snubs Paris' attempt:
Paris: "Delta Flyer specs?"
Harran: "I'm not a mechanic."
Paris: "Oh, then what are you doing?" Harran shows him his PADD. "Very interesting."
Harran: "What do you find most intresting about it?"
Paris: "Your creative use of the minus sign."
Harran: "I see you have a...appreciation for multi-variant analysis. It's a shame. I imagine it gets tedious up at the helm."
Paris: "I enjoy the view."
Paris returns to sit with Torres and Neelix.
Torres: "Well?"
Paris: "I invited him over to watch our television set tonight. You don't mind, do you?"
Torres gave Paris a television set in the episode [#134 Memorial].

At night Telfer wakes Celes protesting that he is sick - he is examining himself with a medical tricorder. Celes insists he is not ill and closes the com. channel.

In his quarters, hypochondriac Crewman William Telfer uses a medical tricorder on himself. The read-out confirms his fears. (pop-up window)

Telfer, in his nightwear (and slippers!), goes to Sickbay but the Doctor insists that he is not ill. Telfer: "See!" Doctor: "It's nothing." Telfer: "It's a fever!" Doctor: "Your temperature is .2 degrees above normal." Telfer: "That's right!" Doctor: "A typical deviation easily prompted by emotional stress-" Telfer: "Or a multi-phasic prion." Doctor: "You have not been infected by a prion." Telfer: "They attach themselves to the mitochondrial walls and they just-" Doctor, packing away his tricorder: "I've already scanned you." Telfer continues to insist. "You can barely see them." Doctor: "They aren't there." Telfer, ignoring him: "If they migrate to my cell membranes while I'm on the away mission they could rupture and I-" Doctor: "Crewman, I am not giving you a medical excuse, not this time. Try to get some sleep. You shouldn't even have a medical tricorder. Believe me, you'll be so caught up in the excitement of exploration there won't be any time for worrying about infections, mitochondrial or otherwise. There's nothing like an away mission to remind a person of why we're out here.

Next morning the Delta Flyer is launched with Janeway, Harran, Telfer and Celes aboard, and the astronomical survey mission gets underway. When the Delta Flyer is jolted, Celes' sensor scan detects .005 fluctation in the spatial continuum but ascribes it to "simple background noise" and Janeway, who is checking Celes' work, agrees. Celes is awkward in conversation with Janeway and nervously accepts Janeway's lunch recommendation - "Neelix 651", pasta soup. She goes to the rear of the Delta Flyer where Telfer obtains two servings of "Neelix 651" from the replicator.

Telfer and Celes enjoy lunch together. Celes tells him that Janeway checks her work, but does not with Telfer or Harran, but that Janeway is right to do so. They both wish they could go back to Voyager. Telfer: "There's always the escape pods!" Celes: "Can you imagine?!"

Janeway tries to get to know Harran better by engaging him in conversation. Janeway: "I understand you grew up on Viko V. No wonder you became a cosmologist." Harran: "Wildest sky in the Alpha Quadrant." Janeway: "So they say. I've never been there." Harran: "Do you really believe that childhood environment is more important than genetically driven behaviour patterns?" Janeway: "Just making conversation." Harran: "Conversation founded on spoken assumptions which I don't agree with. I'm a product of my nucleic acids, where and how I was raised are beside the point so if you're trying to understand me better, questions about my home planet are irrelevant."

Janeway: "Alright then, how's your 13th chromosome, missing a couple of base pairs in gene 178?"
Harran: "I signed on to Voyager because I needed a year of hands-on experience. It was a requirement for getting into the Institute of Cosmology on Orion I. If we hadn't gotten lost in the Delta Quadrant, I'd be there right now."
Janeway: "Sorry to have delayed your career plans. But all of us have had our lives interrupted. That's the nature of space exploration. It's unpredictable."
Harran: "Which is why I don't like space exploration. Stumbling from star to star like a, a drunken insect reeling toward a light source is not my idea of a dignified existence. Pure theory is all that concerns me."
Janeway: "Well I'm not trying to change that. I'm simply trying to get every member of my crew working to their full capacity. That includes you, Mr Harran."

Harran: "You don't feel responsible, Captain, for having three misfits aboard your ship? Well, if there's anything I can do to relieve your guilt, please let me know."

Suddenly an invisible force strikes the Delta Flyer, knocking out the warp engines. Impulse engines are brought back on line but they are damaged. 90 per cent of the engines' anti-matter has been neutralised, and Telfer points out it would take them ten years to make it back to Voyager. Janeway sends a call for help to Voyager but there is no response. Harren suggests to Janeway that a "comet-like assemblage of dark matter" is responsible and says that they must eject their remaining anti-matter in order to avoid another impact, an impact that could rip off the outer hull. But Janeway is not prepared to do this, not without proof for, without anti-matter they will never get the warp drive back online.