First Con-tact

The Protostar answers a distress signal, only to find it was sent by DaiMon Nandi, the Ferengi smuggler who raised Dal. She offers the crew a cloaking device to hide from the Diviner, and in return wants their help getting a crystal from the people of a nearby planet, who she claims have plenty to spare. Janeway warns them about the Prime Directive, but the crew go along with the scheme. On the sandy world, Gwyn works out that the unseen inhabitants communicate through sound, which they also use to shape matter, and that the crystals are vital to their survival. When Nandi steals one anyway, Dal fights her for it, attaches his combadge to the crystal and has it beamed back to its owners. Nandi slips away with her cloaking device and chimerium taken from the Protostar, and Janeway is left deeply disappointed in Dal.