“One” is episode twenty-five of season four of Star Trek: Voyager.
Seven of Nine is in the mess hall and she looks nervous. She approaches Harry and B’Elanna who invite her to join them. Seven says she doesn’t require nutrition at this time; she’d like to talk. She asks Harry a question, but in the middle of the answer asks B’Elanna one. In the middle of B’Elanna’s answer, Seven asks Harry another question and continues asking and interrupting until B’Elanna gets offended by one. At which point the Doctor halts the program. He asks what she’s doing. What the Doctor told her to do. He replies that he created the program to make her more comfortable in social situations, not to practice alienating people. The Doctor had told Seven that she should ask people questions; that’s what she did. He meant her to listen to the answer and continue with more in the same vein. The Doctor wants to continue; Seven says she is overdue for her weekly medical maintenance and they should go. The Doctor has never seen her volunteer for a check-up before. Seven thinks it’s preferable to remaining there.
Voyager has encountered a massive nebula that stretches beyond the range of their sensors. The captain orders they go into it. Harry has detected a slight radioactive field; he then loses the train of his thought. He says he feels a headache coming on and is agreeing he needs to go to sickbay when Tom starts suffering too. Harry is now blistering. The others on the bridge do as well and the captain orders Tom to turn them around but he collapses. She contacts the Doctor, who has been inundated with calls. He dispatches Seven of Nine to the bridge. Tuvok has managed to reach the helm controls and turns the ship around. Once Voyager clears the nebula, everyone feels better. Seven arrives on the bridge and discovers not everyone has recovered; one crewmember is dead.
In astrometrics, Seven tells the captain that the nebula stretches for at least 110 light years. It will take at least a month to get through and a year to get around. The crew is unable to tolerate it for a few minutes, let alone a month, but Captain Janeway isn’t going to let a nebula stop them.
According to the Doctor, sub nucleonic radiation affected the crew. He has come up with a means of protection: stasis chambers. The crew would be put into suspended animation, the Doctor would remain active to keep an eye on them. The captain asks who would monitor the rest of the ship’s functions. The Doctor thinks he has demonstrated a command of the rudimentary aspects of piloting. Yes, but he needs backup. What if his holomatrix goes offline.
Only one person bar the Doctor seems to be unaffected; Seven of Nine. The captain briefs Seven in Seven’s cargo bay. She doesn’t doubt Seven’s abilities, but this is unusual. Seven found it difficult to adjust to a ship of only 150 people after being in the Collective; how will she feel with only the Doctor for company? She will adapt. The captain tells her humans have problems with being alone; Borg even more so. Seven states she is neither human nor Borg. She’s told the Doctor will be in command.
The senior staff is briefed and questions answered, though everyone is uneasy with the situation. After everyone but Chakotay has left, he wants reassurance. After all, Seven of Nine has butted horns with the captain since she came on board, disregards authority and disobeys orders she doesn’t believe in. The captain can see things in Seven no-one else can. She also can’t really explain them. The crew are put into stasis pods all on the same deck and the Doctor reassures them all.
Seven of Nine narrates her personal log. She has established an efficient daily routine. To the mess hall to drink a nutritional supplement, to the engine room to check systems, to the bridge to check the course. She also finds an unconscious Tom who has left his stasis unit. According to the Doctor, such isn’t unheard of. Leave Mr Paris to cause as much trouble now as when he’s awake. Seven replies that if the Doctor was expecting it, he shouldn’t complain. He wasn’t; it was a small joke. Very small, according to Seven.
The Doctor wants Seven to interact more; she’s becoming irritable and short tempered. She replies that the Doctor is as well. Yes; because he has to put up with her. This involves a return to the holodeck which doesn’t go that well and the Doctor and Seven are just deciding that they are going to avoid each other as much as… not exactly humanly possible, when an alarm goes off. According to the computer, the anti-matter storage tanks are failing. Seven heads to engineering, but the Doctor tells her it’s too late; engineering is filled with plasma. Which it manifestly isn’t. The neural gel packs are malfunctioning.
The ship’s systems are feeling the effects of the nebula and need constant maintenance. The Doctor is dependent on the ship’s systems to remain active. Seven of Nine is not, but she also has systems inside her, and it looks like those are having problems too.