Janeway: "Captain's Log, stardate 49655.2. Our sensors have located a variety of flower which may prove to be a valuable nutritional supplement. I've sent Mr Neelix and Mr Tuvok to collect samples." Voyager orbits the planet.

On the planet surface, Neelix is enjoying himself with typical exuberance. Neelix: "Ah, smell that air, Mr Vulcan! Look at that sky! Oh, it's an exhilarating day, isn't it?" Tuvok is concentrating on collecting orchid samples. "As you well know by now, Mr Neelix, I do not experience exhilaration." Neelix: "Oh, let's not quibble about semantics." Cheerily he waves an orchid in Tuvok's face. "A breeze is blowing, the sun is shining - it's beautiful!" Tuvok: "The weather is certainly adequate for our purposes." Neelix: "'Adequate'? You know something, you're acting more Tuvokian than usual this morning." Tuvok: "I am who I am, Mr Neelix. It is impossible for me to be more or less like myself." Neelix: "There you go with the semantics again! But you know what I'm talking about." Tuvok: "I'm afraid I don't." Neelix: "Well then, I'll explain it to you. You're a nature-lover, aren't you?" Tuvok: "I appreciate nature, yes." Neelix: "It's one of the few things you and I have in common. And here we are on a perfect day, foraging for an exceptionally lovely variety of orchid, your favourite flower, and all you can say about the experience is that it's 'adequate'! I don't see why you're not having fun." Tuvok: "We are not here to have fun. We are here to collect samples." Neelix: "Why, is there some regulation that says we can't do both at the same time? I know, why don't, why don't we sing a song while we toil, hmm? It'll cheer you up. Now, I've been studying Vulcan music. Do you know that lovely tune that starts, 'O starless night of boundless black-'" Tuvok: "That 'lovely tune' is a traditional funeral dirge." Neelix: "I know, but it was the er...the most cheerful song I could find in the Vulcan database. Come on, Tuvok, join me!" He goes off singing, 'O starless night of boundless black...' and chuckles to himself. Tuvok: "Mr Neelix." Neelix: "Yes?" Tuvok: "Do you think you could possibly behave a little less like yourself?"

Janeway exits her Ready Room and enters the Bridge. Chakotay is standing next to the duty security/tactical officer. Janeway: "Are Neelix and Tuvok back from the surface?" Chakotay: "Not yet. We're having some trouble with the transporter."
Torres turns from the engineering II station. "Captain, there's a minor glitch in the molecular imaging scanners. Ensign Kim should have it up and running in a few minutes."

In Transporter Room 1, Kim completes repairs of the molecular imaging scanners.
He heads back to the control console where Hogan is on duty and tells him: "Try narrowing the annular confinement beam." Hogan: "How's that?" Kim: "Let's try it again." He taps his combadge. "Kim to away team. Sorry for the delay. We're ready to bring you back." Tuvok, via comms: "Acknowledged." Kim tells Hogan: "Energise." Hogan activates the controls but during transport suddenly says: "Something's wrong, sir. I'm only getting one pattern." Kim: "Tuvok or Neelix?" Hogan: "I don't think it's either of them." Kim: "Abort." Hogan: "It's too late."
They look up to find transport has completed. transporter There is a stranger standing on the transporter pad! However, he does look oddly familiar....!
Immediately Kim aims a phaser at the stranger and contacts security. combadge "Kim to security. Intruder alert, Transporter Room 1." To the stranger: "Identify yourself!"
The stranger seems as bewildered as they. Uncertainly: "I'm Lieutenant Tuvok.......and I'm Neelix." At this, Hogan and Kim stare at him.
Hogan looks at the instruments. To Kim: "Sir, according to the bio-scanners, he's right. Somehow their patterns have merged." The stranger says: "I think the logical thing is for me to go to Sickbay."

In Sickbay the Doctor examines the stranger in Sickbay, while Janeway, Kim and Kes look on. A security team is on duty, one by the door, one behind the stranger. Janeway: "And you recognise all of us?" Patient: "Of course." He looks at each in turn: "Doctor, Captain Janeway, Ensign Kim, Kes." For a moment his gaze lingers warmly on Kes who is looking unsettled. Doctor: "My scans indicate that all biological matter was merged on a molecular level - proteins, enzymes, DNA sequences. The man you see before you is literally a fusion of two men." Not only is he biologically a fusion, but in dress too - it is a fusion of Neelix's outfit and Tuvok's uniform. "But he's surprisingly healthy considering the circumstances. All vital signs are stable." Janeway: "What's the last thing you remember?" Fused Tuvok/Neelix: "I, we, that is to say, Tuvok and Neelix, we had just finished gathering the samples. We were beaming back to the ship. The next thing I knew I was standing on the transporter pad, as you see me now." Doctor: "I'm also picking up traces of a third genetic pattern. It appears to be plant-based." Fused Tuvok/Neelix: "The orchids! We had collected several dozen samples of orchids. They were in our sample containers when we beamed up." Doctor: "They're part of your genetic structure now. They don't appear to be affecting your biochemistry." Janeway to Kim: "Torres said you were having trouble with the molecular imaging scanners." Kim: "That's right." Janeway: "Maybe this alien plant life affected the scanners in some way." Kim: "Possibly. I'll know more after I've run a diagnostic on the biofilters and transporter logs." Janeway: "Get on it. In the meantime, I'll send an away team in a shuttlecraft to collect fresh samples of the orchids for further study." Once Kim has left, she turns to the Doctor: "Doctor, let me know as soon as you have something more." Doctor: "Yes, Captain." Janeway leaves. The security teams remains to keep watch on the patient. Doctor: "Kes, take our patient to the Science Lab and perform a full biospectral analysis. I'll start examining the genetic data." Kes acknowledges, but looks more unsettled.