The Disease

Voyager meets the Varro, a reclusive people who have lived aboard an enormous generational ship for centuries and who keep outsiders at arm's length. While helping repair their failing ship, Harry Kim begins a secret relationship with Varro engineer Tal, in breach of the rules on intimate contact with alien species. Varro intimacy creates a biological bond, and Harry is soon visibly affected, with Janeway angry that he hid it from her. Meanwhile, synthetic parasites are eating away at the generational ship. They turn out to be sabotage by dissidents who want to break away from the closed Varro society, and Tal is one of them. As the ship begins to tear apart, Voyager is trapped in the docking port until Harry finds a way to extend Voyager's structural integrity field around the Varro vessel. The ship divides, the dissidents are allowed to leave, and Harry and Tal share a painful goodbye.