Fair Trade

Voyager reaches the Nekrit Expanse, a region Neelix has never visited, and he quietly panics that the crew will no longer need him. At a trading station on its border he meets Wixiban, an old Talaxian friend from his shadier past, who offers to help him obtain a map of the Expanse. The deal turns out to involve narcotics, and when the dealer Sutok turns on them, Wix kills him with a Voyager phaser. Station administrator Bahrat traces the weapon, and Wix reveals that the Kolaati drug gang is forcing him to settle old debts, now by stealing warp plasma from Voyager. After a talk with Paris about honesty, Neelix refuses. When Bahrat arrests Chakotay and Paris for the murder, Neelix and Wix confess and offer to help catch the Kolaati in return for immunity. The sting ends in an explosion. Neelix wakes in sickbay, and Janeway reprimands him but assures him he is family.