“Learning Curve” is episode sixteen of season one of Star Trek: Voyager and the season finale.
Captain Janeway is on a holodeck, returning to the holonovel she started in “Cathexis”. She is introducing herself to the two young children for whom she will be governess, and coming across hints that things may not be right in the household, when both children suddenly disappear and can’t be restored. According to Chakotay, there is a disruption in the energy grid that is causing power fluctuations; Tuvok has gone to investigate.
Tuvok has found an open hatch and contact B’Elanna to see if she has authorised repairs. She has not. A crewman, Dalby, comes out of the hatch; he was replacing a bio-neural gel pack. No, he hasn’t notified B’Elanna yet. Tuvok points out that he interrupted systems. Dalby said that on a Maquis ship, they did things differently. Tuvok reminds Dalby that this isn’t a Maquis ship. Dalby gets quite angry over this.
Losing gel packs is not good, as they can’t get any more. The captain asks Tuvok and Chakotay why the pack malfunctioned, but that is currently unknown. The pack is being analysed, but they only have 47 spares. Which run half the critical systems on the ship. Chakotay suggests they start switching to isolinear chips.
Tuvok brings up Dalby; when confronted, he became angry to the point of insubordination. Captain Janeway has heard complaints about him from others. This isn’t the first incident; Dalby has tampered with systems and not shown up for shifts. Chakotay, when askes, says that Dalby was always pretty aggressive, and now he’s also frustrated. He isn’t used to Starfleet protocol and procedure. Janeway says they need to bring him and others up to speed, show them how they do things in Starfleet and why they do them. She wants Tuvok to give them a crash course; him, because the Maquis already respect Chakotay and Tuvok taught at the Academy for 16 years.
Tuvok meets up with those chosen, a human man and woman, a Bajoran and a Bolian. Crewman Henley interrupts Tuvok during his introduction, asking why they have been chosen. Tuvok believes it is self-evident; interrupting a senior officer is not acceptable behaviour. They will be made familiar with Starfleet protocols to minimise mistakes. The Bolian, Shell, doesn’t see what he has done wrong and keeps talking. So ends up doing laps around the cargo bay. Dalby takes offence – something he appears to do quite readily. They didn’t ask to come aboard and have done the best job they goo; now Tuvok is telling them that isn’t good enough. Yep. So Dalby and the others leave against orders. That did not go well.
In the galley, the Bajoran, Gerron, doesn’t think leaving was a good idea. Henley asks what can they do as punishment; every member of the crew is needed. It’s not like they are guilty of mutiny. They do their jobs, not leap through Starfleet hoops. Chakotay comes over and Dalby is complaining about the Starfleet way as opposed to the Maquis way. The Maquis way has always been good enough. Chakotay asks Dalby if he wants to still keep doing things the Maquis way. Dalby says he does – even though he should have listened to Chakotay’s tone. Because Chakotay slugs him in the face. That is also the Maquis way, and Chakotay can keep doing that until they report to Tuvok.
Which they do. Tuvok assigns them study assignments and inspects their uniforms, finding problems with all except for Dalby. Later, Dalby is complaining to B’Elanna. She suggests he is afraid he won’t make it through field training, and continues in that vein. Reverse psychology. Then there is a power failure. B’Elanna tells Dalby to replace the gel packs and check the circuits; she is heading to sickbay.
Kes asks what it is and B’Elanna says it is their new patient, a bio-neural gel pack. B’Elanna has been unable to find a mechanical problem so she’d like the Doctor to look at the biological component. The Doctor says the patient is sick. When asked what with, the Doctor says that discussing the patient’s condition in front of the patient is a breach of etiquette. It’s been suggested that he cultivate a better manner – and is doing so with a piece of equipment. When convinced to elaborate, the Doctor says the gel pack has an infection. A dangerous one, but one that is probably not harmful to humanoids or they would have seen evidence of it with the crew. The affected gel packs should be isolated and quarantined until a treatment regimen is created. Which means they need to find the source.
So, part of the crew is trying to find out what is making the gel packs sick as power systems fail all over the ship. Enough that soon the ship won’t be able to power life support, let alone anything else. Tuvok takes his trainees on a variety of assignments, including running all over the ship, but doesn’t seem to be making progress with them. Neelix gives him some advice on this.