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SUMMARY: Neelix meets a past colleague and gets caught up in illicit and dangerous trading.
Entering the uncharted Nekrit Expanse, Voyager's crew transports to the Nekrit Supply Depot to trade for supplies. Neelix has been trying to extend his role aboard Voyager by studying Starfleet protocols. He fears Janeway will dispense with his services and put him off the ship as he they have now journeyed to the limit of his knowledge and he does not know the Nekrit Expanse nor what lies beyond.
Neelix: "I think you'll find that I'm fully qualified to serve in the capacity of a Starfleet security officer, junior grade of course. I've been working hard at this. I really do feel I have a great deal to contribute to Voyager beyond my current role." |
Janeway seeks advice from her Delta Quadrant guide: "Neelix, we seem to be approaching some kind of interstellar dust cloud. Can you tell us anything about them? They look rather ominous to me."
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Since he is their supposed expert on the Delta Quadrant, Neelix is determined to find a detailed map of the area but this proves impossible for the Nekrit Expanse is a vast territory of interstellar dust clouds thousands of light years wide, its plasma storms are a problem for navigation and, due to their instability, make the region too difficult to chart.
Janeway, Neelix, Chakotay and Paris visit the Nekrit Supply Depot to obtain supplies. Janeway meets Bahrat, the overworked station manager, who has a network of surveillance cameras throughout the Depot. Chakotay and Paris refuse to buy narcotics from an alien trader named Sutok. Meanwhile, Neelix discovers an old associate living at there - a Talaxian friend named Wixiban. Wixiban's straitened circumstances remind Neelix of his life before he joined Voyager and of what his life would be like otherwise. Following a nasty experience with the Ubeans, Wix spent a year in jail whilst his colleague Neelix escaped imprisonment and since then Wix has spent 3 years at the Supply Depot down on his luck and unable to pay Bahrat what he needs to be able to leave. But Wix holds no hard feelings and soon persuades Neelix to join him in a scheme to benefit them both. The scheme should obtain Neelix a precious map plus a rare substance that Voyager's engines require called pergium. The scheme involves trading some supplies that Wix is to obtain for the exchange, so Neelix borrows one of Voyager's shuttlecaft to deliver them.
the Nekrit Depot map dealer has no maps of the Nekrit Expanse for Neelix to purchase |
Wix visits Neelix on board Voyager |
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But when, that night, they arrive at the exchange site in a deserted part of the Supply Depot, the contact, the same Sutok whom Chakotay and Paris encountered earlier, double-crosses Wix. Instead of paying for the goods, which turn out to be narcotics, he opens fire on Wix. Wix fires back, killing him, using a Starfleet phaser taken from the shuttlecraft. When Sutok's associates attack the Talaxian pair, Neelix manages to extricate them both safely back to the shuttlecraft using the transporter.
Sutok, who intends to kill Wix rather than pay |
Wix and Neelix beam to the shuttle and escape Sutok's deadly associates |
Neelix realises that Wix has involved him in an illicit narcotics deal, but he he feels he owes Wix a debt for the prison time his friend did, and so he reluctantly agrees to keep quiet about the murder.
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| safely back in the shuttle, Neelix wants to reveal all to Janeway but Wix persuades him to keep quiet |
Bahrat, manager of the Supply Depot, informs Janeway that a Federation weapon was involved in the murder, and an investigation is launched.
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| Sutok's murder by a Starfleet phaser is revealed at a meeting of senior Voyager staff |
Neelix becomes even more worried when Tuvok questions him about Wix and proceeds, in Neelix's presence, to interrogate Wix himself who, however, lies to cover the crime.
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| Wix claims he was asleep at the time of the murder |
Neelix's troubles get worse when Wix insists on Neelix stealing warp plasma from Voyager to pay off the drug dealers, whose narcotics were stolen by Sutok's gang during the fight. These drug dealers, the Kolaati, will kill them otherwise. Aware he is being dragged deeper and deeper into an unsavoury business, Neelix considers his situation. He asks Paris why he (Paris) ended up in prison, though without explaining why he wants to know. Paris says that it comes down a simple fact - he lied about a mistake he made. The moral is that it is always better to tell the truth and not try to cover up a mistake. A short conversation with the Vulcan engineer, Ensign Vorik, reminds Neelix that he wants to stay on Voyager and how fortunate he is to be part of the crew. But Neelix remains in a quandary - Wix's life and his own life are under threat.
Paris: "I made a mistake, which happens to people, but if I'd admitted that mistake it would have been a lot better. But I lied about it. And it nearly ruined my life." |
Neelix: "Voyager is a wonderful place to be. People here are very fortunate." Ensign Vorik: "I would concur." |
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| Neelix goes into a Jefferies tube to access some warp plasma |
Neelix decides to go ahead and steal the warp plasma. But, just as he is about to do so, he stops as he cannot bring himself to steal from Voyager and the crew who are his friends.
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| Chakotay and Paris are arrested. Bahrat shows Janeway footage of the accused pair talking to Sutok. |
Bahrat arrests Paris and Chakotay for Sutok's murder, on circumstantial evidence since they were seen speaking to the victim shortly before his death.
Neelix decides to heed Paris' advice, which he received earlier, and to tell the truth, because Neelix is not prepared to see his friends pay for a crime they did not commit. Prepared to do so alone, Wix surprises him by also deciding to do the right thing, and they agree to risk punishment and confess to Bahrat.
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| Neelix persuades Wix, and they visit Bahrat to confess and proffer a plan to entrap the Kolaati. |
After hearing the confession, Bahrat is also surprised to learn that illicit drug dealing occurs at the Depot without his realising it, since the Kolaati are able to secretly disable the surveillance cameras. Bahrat allows Wix and Neelix to set a trap for the top narcotics dealer, Tosin, in which Neelix uses contaminated warp plasma borrowed from Bahrat as bait. The ploy is successful, and Bahrat lets Wix and Neelix off for bringing about Tosin's downfall. Wix receives back his shuttle and hastily leaves the Supply Depot.
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| when Neelix tells Tosin, the Kolaati leader, that he and his associates are under arrest, Tosin decides to kill the Talaxians... |
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| ...but Neelix has previously deliberately disengaged the safety nodes on the plasma container. He warns that, with plasma particles in the air, the firing of a weapon would destroy them all. Bahrat arrives to arrest the Kolaati, but Tosin's associate opens fire and causes an explosion! |
However, back on Voyager, Neelix has to face Captain Janeway. She is furious with him for getting the crew involved in illicit activities, but she understands that he was motivated by a misguided attempt to help them. After lecturing him, she sentences him to two weeks scrubbing the exhaust manifolds. Neelix accepts his punishment gladly, knowing that it means he is not going to be put off the ship.
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Voyager sets out into the Nekrit Expanse....into the unknown |
 | | JANEWAY TO NEELIX: But that's not the point, is it? None of us knows what's coming. That's what Starfleet is all about. We are all in this together and we have to be able to count on each other no matter how hard it gets. Do you understand? |
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