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Voyager sets down on a planet for
a major maintenance overhaul while away teams in shuttles are
sent in search of supplies. As Torres informs Captain Janeway
that repairs will take days longer than originally expected,
suddenly several consoles black out. Moments later the consoles
flicker back on, and Icheb steps forward to explain the repair
he made. Impressed, Janeway assigns Icheb to work with Torres,
hoping he can help get the job done a little faster.
Harry Kim, Seven of Nine and
Neelix are on the Delta Flyer searching for dilithium when they
are caught in the crossfire between two alien ships. They
receive a distress call from a Kraylor captain begging for help
with casualties and claiming that his ship is on a humanitarian
mission. Hesitant to get involved, Kim contacts the opposing
ship, but the Annari commander there is very arrogant and
charges weapons. Kim uses the Flyer's deflector to damage the
Annari ship, forcing them to retreat. He and Neelix then beam
over to the damaged Kraylor ship with medical kits and learn
that the captain was killed along with all the ship's other
officers. Kim sets out to repair the ship's engines and cloaking
device, and impresses the Kraylor with his skills. When the ship
is ready to fly again, Loken, the doctor in charge of the
research team aboard, asks Kim to command the ship to their
destination, since no one left alive among them is trained. Kim
declines, but Loken insists that they can't afford to fail in
their mission to deliver vaccines to their homeworld that will
save thousands of lives. Since their flight plan will take them
close to Voyager's location, Kim agrees to fly the ship that
far.
When the cloaked Kraylor ship approaches the planet where
Voyager is grounded, they discover three Annari warships in
orbit. It turns out the Annari are attempting to befriend the
Voyager crew and become trading partners. Once the Annari leave
the planet, Kim brings Loken to Voyager, where he appeals to
Captain Janeway for help getting home. In private, Janeway tells
Kim that he has put her in a difficult position, but Kim presses
the case on behalf of the Kraylor, and offers to take charge of
the mission himself. He notes that after seven years on Voyager
he's still an ensign, and wants a chance to prove himself as a
commander. Janeway agrees, but orders him to take Seven along.
After getting a lesson in decisiveness from Neelix, Kim enters
the bridge of the Kraylor ship with authority and lays in a
course. He renames the ship "Nightingale" after the famous
wartime nurse from his homeworld. He then prepares the ship for
departure and gives the command to engage. During the flight,
Seven informs Kim that she asked the acting helmsman, Terek, to
make a course correction. Over Seven's objection, Kim goes to
check up on the crewman and ends up doing the job himself.
Meanwhile on Voyager, Icheb has been working with Torres, who
invited him to go rock climbing with her on the holodeck. After
he gets advice from the Doctor on how to tell if someone has
romantic feelings for another, Icheb thinks he's getting
"signals" from Torres while working very closely with her in a
Jefferies Tube, and even scans her for the physiological
responses the Doctor described.
On the Nightingale, an alarm sounds and the cloak destabilizes.
Kim orders all stop and works in Engineering with Seven and
crewman Dayla, making the repairs himself and rejecting the
suggestions of the others. Seven criticizes Kim's overly
hands-on and dismissive approach to commanding the crew, but Kim
proceeds to order the ship to resume course. The cloak soon
fails again, and six Annari vessels swoop in and fire upon them.
While Seven tries to get the cloak back on-line, an explosion in
Engineering knocks her unconscious. Kim tries to leave the
bridge, but the crew insists he stay, so he lets Dayla go down
to Engineering while he gives her instructions over the com. As
he's doing that Loken suddenly interrupts and gives Dayla
different orders, which succeeds in re-engaging the cloak. Kim
eyes Loken suspiciously as he orders the ship to escape at full
impulse.
 Later, Loken reports that Dayla is dead while Kim tries to treat
the still-unconscious Seven. Kim tests Loken by asking his
advice as a doctor, having realized that he knows a lot more
about cloaking systems than he does biology, as did Dayla. He
presses Loken for the truth, and the Kraylor admits that he and
his colleagues have not been developing vaccines, but rather
cloaking devices for his people's fleet. The so-called medical
transport is actually a prototype ship, and the Annari don't
want it to reach the Kraylor homeworld. He reveals that his
planet has been under an Annari blockade for three years which
has been choking off supplies of food and medicine, therefore
their mission is still a humanitarian one. Nevertheless, the
angered Kim orders the ship to reverse course back to Voyager.
But the crew refuses to obey, and Kim realizes he's lost
command.
Back on Voyager, Icheb gets flustered when Paris jokes that he's
been spending a lot of time with his wife lately. Icheb
approaches Torres and tells her outright that they should not be
romantically involved. Torres is dismayed, but she plays along
and agrees that they should stop "seeing each other."
When Seven of Nine comes to, Kim tells her about the situation
and that they should take an escape pod back to Voyager. Seven
asks if he's abandoning ship because the mission isn't what he
expected, or that being a captain isn't what he expected. In
spite of his remorse over Dayla's death, she exhorts him to
fulfill his commitment to get the Kraylor home, because they
won't survive without him.
As the Nightingale approaches the Kraylor homeworld, the crew
sees Annari ships in orbit emitting pulses of energy designed to
illuminate cloaked ships. Unsure how they will get through that
barrage, Kim comes back to the bridge and promises to find a
way.
Voyager receives a hail from the Annari captain who befriended
them earlier, ordering Janeway to leave Annari space immediately
because they've discovered her people are supporting their
enemy. The warp engines are not repaired yet, but Janeway has no
choice but to let Voyager be escorted away at impulse speed.
Meanwhile, the Nightingale is detected and gets fired upon by
Annari ships. Kim opens a channel to the lead Annari vessel and
offers to discuss terms for surrender. He tells his crew to
trust him as he proposes to the Annari that they be allowed to
evacuate to the surface in exchange for turning over the ship
with its cloaking technology, otherwise he'll self-destruct the
ship. The Annari commander agrees, but Kim has a plan. Kim,
Seven and Terek stay aboard while Loken and the others leave in
escape pods. Kim tells Seven to get the exact polarity of the
Annari's tractor beam in order to use their own weapons against
them. At just the right moment, the Nightingale reverses shield
polarity and snaps free, heading for the Kraylor defense
perimeter. They outrun the Annari and get through the planet's
shield grid, and the Annari break off pursuit. Kim orders Terek
to take them to the surface, completing his mission. Back on
Voyager, Kim notes in his log that although the mission was a
success, he doesn't feel entirely good about it, and he
confesses to Neelix that he's not a captain ... not yet, anyway.
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