“Prototype” is episode thirteen of season two of Star Trek: Voyager.
The episode opens with a staticky view of blackness. Then Voyager appears and comes closer as characters appear at the bottom. The watcher is beamed aboard the ship. Everything is in black and white. B’Elanna approaches whatever was beamed aboard in the transporter room. She thinks it’s extraordinary; Tuvok states that it is a potential security risk. Captain Janeway is there as well. B’Elanna says it’s losing power and she wants to move it to engineering before it is completely drained. Tuvok suggests that allowing that would be a good idea, as they would be able to examine it whilst it is without power and determine if it is wise to repair. B’Elanna replies that the power source is unfamiliar, and she doesn’t think they will be able to get it going again once it is drained. The captain agrees. In engineering, B’Elanna is working on it with Harry. They link it up to an EPS power conduit to buy some time. The viewpoint of the watcher moves, eventually focusing on a screen that shows a silvery humanoid being worked on.
Back in colour and not from the humanoid’s viewpoint, Harry is saying that it is completely robotic, not a cyborg. The robot runs on superconducting plasma and the EPS power may destroy it. The robot attempts to talk and fails. B’Elanna tries to see if it can understand her, but Harry says they don’t even know if it can see them, let alone understand them. B’Elanna wants to continue working but Harry suggests they take a break. She tells him he can and, when he says he will stay, tells him not to. She jokingly suggests making that an order.
B’Elanna heads to the mess hall to recharge her own declining energy reserves. After trying to drink an empty cup of coffee, Neelix tells her that two pots are her limit. She explains that all she can do with the robot is postpone the inevitable; it’s losing power. Neelix tells her a story about how he was trying to perfect an omelette, but it wasn’t right. Eventually, he fell asleep and realised in a dream that it needed another spice. Salt. The most common spice in the galaxy, but he was too tired to see it. That’s a hint.
B’Elanna heads to engineering and has a one-sided conversation with the robot before heading to bed. However, as soon as she gets in, she has an idea and heads to sickbay, activating the Doctor. The Doctor, seeing her clothes, asks if there’s been a change in the official dress code. This is what B’Elanna sleeps in. She has a problem. Not a medical one but an engineering one. She thought he might have some insight. The plasma powering the robot is contaminated. Like diseased blood, the Doctor says. Has she considered a transfusion? Where can she get her hands on something, she didn’t even know existed 24 hours ago? The Doctor suggests warp plasma. Which is different, but a comparison with genetically altering blood to make it compatible gives B’Elanna an idea.
Working with Harry and the captain, they get the programming centre of the robot activated and the robot’s hand grabs B’Elanna’s arm. It says it is Automated Unit 3947 and thanks her.
3947 explains that it ended up in space badly damaged when its mining pod exploded. It is currently unable to access all the information, but it was stationed aboard a Pralor vessel. B’Elanna explains what they did and 3947 asks her to confirm she repaired its power module. Is she a Builder? B’Elanna says she is an engineer, but yes, she’s a builder. Probably not realising that the word likely had capitals. According to 3947, only Builders are capable of contracting or repairing power modules. She could create a new power module. Not for him, but for a prototype for additional automated units. The Builders no longer exist.
B’Elanna explains to Captain Janeway that the race that built the automated units were killed off decades ago in a war. They are now wearing out and breaking down; they can do self-repair but are unable to construct new power modules. B’Elanna might be able to do it. Unfortunately, according to the captain, this is a clear violation of the Prime Directive. They can’t do it. Despite B’Elanna’s entreaties, Janeway says they cannot do it. B’Elanna tells 3947 this; it seems to realise that B’Elanna would have liked to attempt it. They’ve also discovered his ship.
The ship hails Voyager and the commander, 6263, is told that they rescued their crew member. B’Elanna has extra warp plasma for 3947 and is the transporter room with it. Before 3947 can be beamed out, it stuns B’Elanna and the transporter operator, then beams them both aboard the Pralor ship. It seems 3947 is not going to take no for an answer.
The Pralor vessel is more powerful than Voyager, so B’Elanna agrees to work on the prototype. During this, a discussion of robots comes up and she explains they only have one comparable to 3947. Data, of course, from TNG, and how he is treated just the same way as anyone else. Then the matter gets complicated, and then it gets worse.