Seven revives in Sickbay after Borg implants burst through her skin

holodeck rehearsal of the cortical node transplant operation

post-mortem of the holo-operations

Icheb persuades the Doctor to look at his genetic resequencing data

Icheb persuades Seven and the others to transplant his cortical node

Later, when Seven attempts to regenerate she discovers she cannot interface with her alcove because her cortical node is malfunctioning. Instead of reporting to the Doctor, she stays up all night in the Messhall. After Neelix arrives in the morning, she falls to the floor convulsing as Borg implants burst through her skin. In Sickbay, the Doctor realises Seven's problem is more serious than he previously thought, in that her cortical node, which regulates her vital functions, is destabilising, and she will die unless it is replaced.

Janeway leads an away team to a Borg debris field and salvages a cortical node from a dead drone.

Back on Voyager, Janeway, the Doctor, and Paris rehearse the cortical node replacement operation in a holodeck simulation, but the operation fails each time. In the simulation using the dead drone's cortical node, the holo-Seven's body goes into anaphylactic shock when it rejects the node, losing synaptic cohesion. The Doctor has Paris apply two 20 millijoule neurostatic pulses to Seven followed by one 30 millijoule pulse, but they fail to revive her holographic body. The Doctor aborts the holo-simulation after the twelfth attempt, and concludes that the salvaged node has been inactive too long and they realise that a cortical node from a dead drone is useless. Janeway announces that she is willing to take a cortical node from a living drone, but the Doctor objects to ending a life to save another.

Icheb also comes to realise that only the cortical node from a living Borg can save Seven, so he volunteers to have his own node removed and transplanted into her. Icheb devises a genetic resequencing that would allow him to survive without his node. The Doctor took scans of Icheb when he left the Borg Collective, noting that he had emerged from his maturation chamber before he was fully assimilated. As a result, Icheb's physiology is less dependent on implants. However, the genetic resequencing procedure would be risky.

When Icheb is unable to get Janeway, Seven or the Doctor to agree, he programs the computer in his regeneration alcove to disengage his cortical node. Now apparently dying, Icheb convinces them and Seven to transplant the node into her and perform the genetic procedure on him. The operation is successful and Seven fully recovers. Icheb will have to spend some time in Sickbay but he too will recover.

While Paris and Kim bring the Delta Flyer to peak condition ready for the race, the Doctor has decided that, in keeping with the "traditional history" of practitioners of medicine, he is taking up golf on the holodeck and practices by means of carpet golf in Sickbay. He uses golf balls which are transparent, with blinking green lights in the centre.
Torres plans for a romantic holodeck vacation with Paris on Gedi Prime. She refers to it as "the vacation paradise that makes Risa look like a tourist trap." It has endless kilometres of crystalline beaches, mood reefs, bioluminescent waterfalls and, so the Doctor notes meaningfully, a championship golf course. (The episode's title, "Drive", is a clever one - it refers both to the Antarian Trans-Stellar Rally and the Doctor's golf as 'drive' is a golfing term.)

Torres questions her relationship with Paris, wondering if it is a "bad match" but eventually decides a solution is to share his interests, so she joins the race team. The Doctor ends up treating an alien co-pilot for severe burns after his console explodes. The Doctor reports that his condition is stabilising and that he should be able to start dermal regeneration in a few hours. Later, sabotage proves there are those prepared to commit mass murder to destroy the peace.

in Sickbay: Janeway, the Doctor and a mysteriously unconscious Tabor

Doctor: "If this keeps up I may have to open a special coma ward."

in the Brig, the Doctor runs some medical scans but Tuvok refuses to go to Sickbay for more scans

the subliminal message from Teero Anaydis

Eventually Tuvok realises that he is the attacker and has himself confined to the Brig, where he admits he attacked the Maquis crew members and then performed mind-melds on them, although he does not know why. The attacks started after he received a letter from his son. Investigation shows the message contained a subliminal message of a Bajoran vedek giving an exhorting spiritual chant or instruction - the Bajoran is the one that Tuvok has been seeing in his mind. Chakotay notes that the vedek, Teero Anaydis, was a fanatic who worked with the Maquis conducting mind-control experiments.

With Janeway's prompting, Tuvok suddenly recalls memories of Teero performing mind-control experiments on him.

But by then it is too late - Teero's instructions have been received by Chakotay and the other Maquis whom Tuvok attacked, and they swiftly mount a mutiny and seize control of the ship. As part of the mutiny, Sickbay is raided and the Maquis crew there leave to join in. Janeway is put in the Brig by Chakotay, the Maquis leader. Tuvok is released to join the mutineers, and after being tested by Chakotay, is considered trustworthy.

However, Tuvok uses the opportunity to attack Chakotay and perform another forced mind-meld on him and then the others. The mutiny is over. (It is possible that the Doctor then conducted medical check-ups of the affected crewmembers as a precaution, although this is not indicated in the episode.)

the Doctor talks to Dr Dysek at a patient's bedside on the spacious and well provided for Level Blue

the Doctor, Chellick and Dr Dysek

the sickly Chellick capitulates to the Doctor's demands

The Doctor learns to his horror that the ruthlessly efficient medical service is administered by a computer called the Allocator whose decisions are based on a "T.C." or treatment co-efficient assigned to each patient. Because resources are limited, the T.C. results in priority treatment being given to those with a perceived higher worth to society rather than to those with more urgent medical need. For instance, an agricultural engineer is adjudged more important to the Dinaal society than a waste processor. The hospital's Levels categorise patients accordingly: Level Red is for those with a low T.C. and if their ration of medication runs out before they recover they are simply discharged; and Level Blue offers the best and most comfortable medical facilities and even provides cytoglobin injections. Cytoglobin slows arterial aging, and daily injections increase life expectancy up to 40 per cent, and thus cytoglobin is given to even reasonably healthy patients on Level Blue. But the cytoglobin is denied to patients on Level Red with chromoviral infections who will die if they do not receive it. (During time on Level Blue the Doctor reveals that he has done extensive research in the area of cellular repair.)

The Doctor protests but is ignored, so he steals cytoglobin from the ample supply on Level Blue and administers it to patients on Level Red. Chellick finds out and restricts the Doctor to Level Blue, linking his holomatrix to the Allocator so his every move is monitored and delegated.

When Tebbis, a patient on Level Red, dies after running out of his medication allotment, the Doctor is spurred to take drastic action. He forcibly injects Chellick with the same virus that killed him and has the Allocator identify Chellick as Tebbis. The Allocator therefore denies him medication. Dr Dysek, the facility's chief doctor, sympathises with the Doctor's aims and supports the Doctor's refusal to treat Chellick unless he meets the demand that Level Red be given an adequate supply of medication. With the prospect of dying unless he is treated, Chellick relents.

After the crew retrieves the Doctor, he asks Seven to check his ethical subroutines for any glitches that might explain why he deliberately poisoned a man. Seven, however, informs him that he has "a clean bill of health".

holo-Barclay bluffs when the Doctor expresses doubts about the synthetic antigen

the three Ferengi, in their ship, Alpha Quadrant

holo-Barclay rudely puts off the Doctor

at the Doctor's suggestion, holo-Barclay's program is tested

Unlike the real Barclay, holo-Barclay is self-confident, and the life and soul of the party. But he has also been secretly reprogrammed by three Ferengi, and his mission is to deceive the Voyager crew into believing it is safe to steer the ship through a geodesic fold to immediately reach the Alpha Quadrant. In fact, the geodesic radiation would kill everyone on Voyager. The Ferengi want Seven's body and they expect her 3.6 million Borg nanoprobes to make them fabulously wealthy, at a price of six bars of latinum per nanoprobe unit. Nanoprobes are not just used for assimilating but are valuable because they can re-animate necrotic tissue and slow down the aging process.

The Voyager crew work implement special shield modifications against the geodesic radiation, the Doctor lends holo-Barclay his mobile emitter to enable him to oversee the work, and the Doctor is given details of a synthetic antigen for inoculations, but they are unaware that these measures will not actually work.

Early on, holo-Barclay's deception comes close to being uncovered when the Doctor tells him: "I've been going over the instructions from Starfleet Medical. As far as I can tell their 'new' innoculations aren't much different from run of the mill radiogenic vaccines. I don't think they'll protect the crew." On incorporating the synthetic antigen: "Yes, but it only increased the resistance by ten per cent. .... We can't afford to be cavalier, Reg. If these treatments don't work the crew will wind up liquified."

The Doctor, who is a friend of the real Barclay, looks forward to playing golf with holo-Barclay, but he is startled when instead of playing golf together the other puts him off rudely. Fearing that the rudeness might mean a possibly faulty hologram, the Doctor persuades Janeway to let him examine holo-Barclay, but the tests reveal no problems. With the crew convinced by holo-Barclay, Voyager heads for the geodesic fold, leaving it to those on Earth, specifically the real Barclay and his friend Deanna Troi, to unravel the evil plot.