Episode Synopsis : Season 1
LEARNING CURVE
Episode 16

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While Janeway is playing children's governess Mrs Lucille Davenport in her gothic holoprogram, the two child holocharacters, named Henry and Beatrice, unexpectedly disappear due to a disruption of power to the relevant energy grid. Tuvok investigates the problem and finds that Crewman Kenneth Dalby, one of Chakotay's former Maquis crew, has replaced a malfunctioning bioneural gel pack. He takes Dalby to task for doing unauthorised repairs which interfered with ship's systems. Dalby is defensive and antagonistic. Chakotay, Tuvok and Janeway discuss the bioneural gel pack failure. There are only 47 spare gel packs and no way to replace them once the reserve runs out. Half the ship's critical systems are run using the gel packs. Chakotay suggests converting some systems to run on traditional isolinear circuitry. Discussing Dalby, Chakotay says: "My guess is the man's frustrated. He's not used to dealing with Starfleet protocol and procedure." Janeway says: "Dalby's not the only Maquis having problems adjusting. And besides, it's not only a matter of attitude. It's also a matter of experience. It's not fair to expect Starfleet behaviour from people who never went to the Academy. We need to bring some of these people up to speed, instruct them in how to run a Starfleet vessel, show them why we do things the way we do, give them an opportunity to feel like they're part of a team." She orders Chakotay to pick out those Maquis crewmembers who would benefit from a crash course in Starfleet procedures, and orders Tuvok, a former Starfleet Academy instructor, to train them. He, not Chakotay, is chosen because he already has their respect but Starfleet has yet to earn it. The four Maquis crewmen Chakotay selects are Crewman Dalby, Crewman Gerron (a Bajoran youth), Crewman Henley (female), and Crewman Chell (male Bolian). But Tuvok's curriculum, time-honoured in the past for making successfully training thousands of Starfleet cadets, looks like failing with these four. At the end of their first session they disobey Tuvok and walk out, going to the next only because Chakotay punches Dalby and forces them to. Tuvok forces them to adhere inflexibly to a course of academic learning, rigorous compliance with Starfleet dress regulations, and hard physical exercise. The latter involves a hike through the Jefferies tubes on numerous decks, followed by a 10.1km run in a gravity increased by 10%, all to be repeated the next evening. As the four crewmen collapse afterwards, exhausted, Henley gasps: "That wasn't a run. It was a death march." Meanwhile the ship suffers an increasing number of bioneural gel pack failures, affecting more and more critical ship's systems as the crew become unable to compensate with backups. Torres takes a failed gel pack to the Doctor to examine its biological matrix. While Chell has to degauss a transporter room using only a micro-resonator, a job that will take 26.3 hours by Tuvok's estimate, Kim reports to Torres there was nothing untoward about the food stores brought on board from the planet Napinne. The stores included varmeliate fibre, whole green putillos and schplict, the latter being grakel milk. Tuvok's latest lesson for his four trainees is a tactical scenario in a holoprogram which simulates Voyager's bridge. The trainees, with Dalby in command, are attacked by Romulan warbirds and are 'killed' when they "go out with phasers firing". When Tuvok informs them that they should have retreated, the trainees feel yet again that the course is pointless, and that they are not Starfleet material. Perplexed by his failure to instruct them, build them into a team and instill in them a desire to make goals and achieve them, Tuvok listens to Neelix's advice that he try to "bend a little" and get to know them. But his attempt to bond with Dalby over a game of pool in the Chez Sandrine holoprogram is a disaster. Dalby walks out, telling Tuvok: "I don't want to get to know you, and I don't want to be your friend." Meanwhile Tuvok, while conversing with Neelix, realises that for Neelix to make brill cheese from the schplict from Napinne means that he had to have cultivated bacteria....which was borne throughout the ship through the ventilation system. Torres has the Doctor examine the cheese. He remarks: "This is the most pernicious infective agent I have ever seen. It's systematically attacked every cell in the gel pack's biological matrix." Prompted by Kes, he realises that there is a virus inside the bacteria. It can be cured by causing a fever, just as in the human body. Janeway acts on Torres' suggestion to raise the temperature of the gel packs throughout the ship by infusing them with a high energy plasma burst from a symmetric warp field (warp field that is inverted towards the ship instead of away). Achieving the high temperature means that all the crew, except the Doctor who of course is a hologram, soon feel hot and exhausted and, with life support systems impaired, close to collapse. Tuvok is with the four Maquis crewmen in the cargo bay for a further training session. When numerous ship's systems go down they try to leave for their duty station but the door opening mechanism fails to operate. With the nearby emergency door override also failing to work, Tuvok orders Gerron up the ladder to the gantry where the control room is, in case the controls there to open the doors still operate. Meanwhile he has the others open the hatch to the Jefferies tube. But when the plasma burst is initiated, although it eradicates the virus and eventually allows ship's systems to be brought back online, it causes a conduit to rupture in the cargo bay. They are in a room filling with gas that will soon become toxic! Tuvok orders Chell, Henley and Dalby to leave through the Jefferies tube. Dalby is outraged that Tuvok intends to leave Gerron on the gantry and now unconscious, despite Tuvok telling him: "It is always tactically correct to sacrifice the few for the many." Tuvok forces him into the Jefferies tube, and then returns for Gerron. He fetches Gerron from the gantry but the gas makes him lose consciousness before he can reach the Jefferies tube. Dalby, Chell and Henley force the cargo bay doors open using brute force. They rescue Gerron and Tuvok. Outside in the corridor, now safe from the gas, Dalby tells Tuvok: "I thought Starfleet rules said that was an unacceptable risk, going back to save him." Tuvok replies: "It was. However, I recently realised that there are times when it is desirable to bend the rules." To which Dalby, with support indicated from the others, says: "Lieutenant, if you can learn to bend the rules, I guess we can learn to follow them." They help Gerron and Tuvok to Sickbay, with Dalby walking with his around Tuvok to support him. Following their encounter with danger in the cargo bay, and impressed by Tuvok's behaviour, the trainees are upbeat. There is no doubt that the rest of Tuvok's training programme will be a success. Out in the corridor, now safe from the gas. Tuvok and Gerron are helped to Sickbay.    DOCTOR TO TORRES ABOUT A BIONEURAL GEL PACK SHE HAS ASKED HIM TO EXAMINE: To discuss the patient's condition in front of the patient would be a serious breach of professional etiquette.    TUVOK TO THE TRAINEES: The strongest tactical move is always the one in which you will reap the highest gain at the lowest cost. Going out 'with phasers firing' may seem heroic, but in the long run it is merely foolish. Retreat is often the best possible option.    TORRES: Get the cheese to Sickbay.