Janeway takes three crew members under her wing.
An efficiency review by Seven of Nine identifies three crew members who are struggling: the hypochondriac William Telfer, the insecure Bajoran Tal Celes, and the antisocial theorist Mortimer Harren. Instead of reassigning them, Janeway takes all three on a survey mission aboard the Delta Flyer to get to know them.
The shuttle is struck by an invisible mass that Harren believes is made of dark matter, and a creature from it gets inside Telfer. Each crewman is tested by the crisis, and Harren offers to sacrifice himself before an explosion knocks everyone out. They wake aboard Voyager after the ship recovers the Flyer, and Janeway feels she has brought her lost sheep home.