“Scientific Method” is episode seven of season four of Star Trek: Voyager.
B’Elanna is in a Jeffries tube and she stumbles across Seven of Nine. She didn’t realise Seven was assigned there. She’s not; the tube was unoccupied so she came to work. Reconfiguring the power couplings for the astrometrics lab. Yes, there are some minor adjustments to engineering, but it won’t affect them. Except it did; B’Elanna’s team were adjusting the warp core and were unable to do so because of Seven of Nine’s actions. Seven of Nine is unaccustomed to a hierarchy; in the Collective, there was no need to ask permission. B’Elanna starts giving a speech on procedures existing for a reason, then abruptly stops. She’s realised she’s given Seven of Nine a speech Captain Janeway gave to her. B’Elanna tells Seven of Nine that if she can adjust to Starfleet life, so can Seven. Seven apologises for the inconvenience.
Tom is trying to get out of sickbay, telling the Doctor that he forgot to turn in his conn report. Because they’ve been so busy, he forgot to do it earlier. Sickbay is deserted. The Doctor agrees he can go, but Tom doesn’t head to hand in his report, instead getting something replicated and doing a site to site transport. He beams near to B’Elanna with a bunch of flowers. He had to cancel the previous night’s date, as he had an extra shift on the bridge. As they are kissing, something is scanning them and B’Elanna jolts, thinking someone is watching. She thinks she’s being paranoid. She’s not.
The Doctor is treating Janeway in her quarters. She’s been having problems sleeping and suffering from headaches. He doesn’t find her condition surprising. She would prefer something easier than the rather strenuous massage the Doctor is giving her. Chakotay contacts the captain; they have reached the source of the energy readings. The captain decides to head to the bridge. When the Doctor calls her back, Janeway says she can’t neglect her duties. That wasn’t what he was doing; he was going to suggest a change of outfit before she headed for the bridge. Given she’s dressed in a towel. The energy readings are coming from binary pulsars. Janeway isn’t feeling the best and leaves it to Chakotay.
Tom has brought something to B’Elanna in engineering. It sounds like an excuse. Others there appear to think that as well. It was. This time, when B’Elanna hears something, Tuvok arrives with some power usage data B’Elanna requested. She babbles. Tom follows Tuvok to find out if he’s going to report what he saw. Tuvok doesn’t exactly answer.
B’Elanna and Tom are in a turbolift and she’s fretting. How did Tuvok sound? Vulcan. They want to keep their relationship to themselves for now. Don’t they? They do. They need to be more careful in public. They arrive at a meeting of the senior staff where a plan to survey the pulsars is discussed. The captain wants a word with Tom and B’Elanna in private. Half the ship is talking about their ‘secret’ relationship and she’s not pleased with their current behaviour.
Chakotay is in his quarters when he gets a drink. Something is scanning him. He feels pain then drops the cup. When he splashes water on his face, his hair comes off. In sickbay, the Doctor tells Janeway that Chakotay has all the signs of aging. Something has hyper stimulated Chakotay’s DNA. The Doctor wants B’Elanna’s help in the science lab.
Tom is with Harry in the mess hall when Neelix suddenly collapses. His appearance has changed. In sickbay, the Doctor says that Neelix’s DNA has been hyper stimulated as well. But differently. Neelix says he looks like a Mylean. Talaxians and Myleans don’t share a common ancestry, but they have intermarried and his great grandfather was a Mylean. Chakotay and Neelix start trying to one up each other on their symptoms.
The Doctor is with B’Elanna and more crew are being affected. He finds something on Chakotay’s DNA. Some sort of marking. He tells B’Elanna to have a look. She doesn’t think it looks as if it belongs. It’s also transmitting and is slightly out of phase. Before they can do anything, the Doctor’s program starts being deleted and B’Elanna collapses. Whoever put the marker on the DNA doesn’t want to be found out. The effects are starting to become life threatening. and it ends up becoming really quite creepy.