In 2372, a race of sentient robots (Automated Personnel Units) built by the now-extinct species the Pralor capture Torres. By threatening the existence of Voyager the Pralor robots compel her to construct a prototype power module to enable them to build additional robots and thus prevent them from dying out. She later learns, however, that the Pralor robots are fighting a war against similar robots built by the now-extinct Cravic species, and they want the prototype power module so that they can build more robots and win the war by force of numbers. Torres learns to her horror that the Pralor and the Cravic were made extinct by their own robots, once the robots learned that their builders were about to make peace, thus rendering the robots redundant. Torres realises that the robot power module was designed by the builders to be unique to each robot specifically to prevent the robots from multiplying or assuming control. In the beginning, Torres had been sympathetic to the Pralor robots and wanted to build the prototype, but Janeway had rightly pointed out that the Prime Directive prohibits such action. She realises how right Janeway was all along, and she kills the prototype despite the threat to Voyager. However, Torres is successfully beamed to safety aboard a shuttlecraft despatched under cover of the battle which ensues when a Cravic ship attacks the Pralor ship.
Captain's Ready Room.
Torres: "Apparently thousands of them were built, as service modules. But the race who created them, the Builders, were killed off decades ago in war."
Janeway: "Leaving the Automated Units to fend for themselves."
Torres: "Now they're wearing out, breaking down. They've learned to make repairs to themselves, some pretty complex, but the construction of a power module - the device which sustains them - is beyond their grasp." With excitement: "It's an incredible challenge, Captain. But with enough time to study their systems I might be able to do it."
Janeway: "I don't doubt your abilities, B'Elanna. But helping them reproduce is a clear violation of the Prime Directive."
Torres: "They've expressed a desire to procreate. That's basic to any lifeform."
Janeway: "I'm not saying they don't have the same rights as any organic species. That's not the issue here."
Janeway replicates beverages for them both.
Torres: "Are you sure? Suppose they were organic but they had become sterile and we had a treatment that would enable them to start reproducing again. Would you withhold that treatment?"
Janeway: "Maybe. I'd have to know more about the circumstances but we're not talking about treating a disorder here, are we."
Torres challenges her: "What's the difference?"
Janeway: "Unlike a species that's become sterile, these robots never had the ability to reproduce. What you're talking about is giving them new abilities, which is the equivalent of altering their genetic structure."
Torres: "To correct a flaw."
Janeway: "You can't call it a flaw. This is the way they were designed."
Torres: "I'm trying to save them from extinction."
Janeway: "Unfortunately, extinction is often the natural end of evolution."
Torres: "So you're just willing to let their entire society die off?"
Janeway: "We don't know that's going to happen. If they're as adaptable as you say and capable of educating themselves they may very well learn how to build a power module themselves some day."
Torres, passionately: "'Some day' could be too late. There are only a few hundred of them left."
Janeway: "I feel for the robots' plight, but what you're proposing is exactly the kind of tampering the Prime Directive prohibits. We know almost nothing about these creatures or the race that built them. What would be the consequences of increasing their population, both to their own civilisation and to others in this Quadrant? Who are we to swoop in, play God and then continue on our way without the slightest consideration of the long-term effects of our actions?"
Torres: "Captain-"
Janeway is firm. "B'Elanna, I share your scientific curiosity, and I admire your compassion, but the answer is no."
Later, in Engineering, Torres reports Janeway's decision to Automated Personnel Unit 3947.
APU 3947: "I do not concur with your Captain's decisions."
Torres: "She's following our Prime Directive."
APU 3947: "Define Prime Directive."
Torres: "It forbids us to interfere in the natural development of other cultures."
APU 3947: "The Automated Units were not created naturally. We were built. You can help us build more."
Torres: "Captain Janeway doesn't think that's a good idea."
APU 3947 surmises from her words: "But Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres does."
Torres: "Maybe. I don't know. I'd like to try, but I can't."
APU 3947: "Without your help, we will not survive. I thought Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres was a Builder."
Torres replies sadly: "So did I."
[Season 2: #29 Prototype]
Both Janeway and Torres follow through in upholding the Prime Directive, even though Torres, in particular, knows that her actions may lead to devastating consequences for Voyager for at the time when she stabs the prototype and kills it she does not know that Paris is piloting a shuttlecraft towards her intent on rescuing her.
It is possible that Torres' reply: "Maybe. I don't know. I'd like to try, but I can't." to APU 3947 encourages the Pralor robots to formulate the plan whereby Torres is kidnapped. Maybe from her words they believe she would help them if she could and they merely furnish the opportunity, although they are prepared for her to refuse and attack and threaten Voyager to force her compliance.
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