Fair Trade ( episode ) A meeting with an old friend lands Neelix in an ever - deepening hole of trouble . Summary . Teaser . For some time , Neelix has been trying to expand his usefulness ; he has been considering roles as an engineer , or a security officer , or some other more official job . With Janeway ' s assertion that the ship is full of opportunity , he goes to Lieutenant s Tuvok and B ' Elanna Torres directly and starts to pester them with questions , though neither has the time . As the crew of the arrives at a dense , menacing cloud barrier , Captain Kathryn Janeway asks Neelix to come to the bridge . He ' s able to identify the looming barrier as the Nekrit Expanse . Act One . Neelix admits not much is known about the Expanse , and advises caution . Tuvok notes it is too wide to go around . Neelix also points out there is a space station at the border , though doesn ' t remember the coordinates . Commander Chakotay finds it and Janeway orders a heading for it . Neelix appears to be apprehensive about it . When they get there , they meet the administer , Bahrat , who agrees to discuss their efforts to take on supplies . Interestingly , he insists on monitoring them on the station as well as any communications , and also demands 20 % commission on any trades . While Lieutenant Thomas Paris and Chakotay visit the main trading post , Janeway arrives to Bahrat ' s office with a list of supplies she wants . He ' s obviously busy , but takes a few minutes . He promises to compile a list of potential suppliers . Neelix , meanwhile , meets up with an old friend , Wixiban ( " Wix " ) , who was in a smuggling operation with him a long time ago , which ended in a run - in with the Ubean s and landed Wix in prison . After the jovial reunion , Wix and Neelix get to talking . While Neelix impresses his old friend with the tales of " Voyager " , he finally admits that he thinks he may not be needed anymore . His knowledge of space goes only as far as the Nekrit Expanse and he is no longer useful as a guide . As a result , he has been trying to acquire a map of the area on this station . This piques Wix ' interest . Act Two . On board " Voyager " , Wix visits Neelix while Neelix was working in his kitchen . Wix was able to help " Voyager " to get some magnetic spindle bearings . In private , Wix tells Neelix that he knows where to get pergium ( a rare commodity that " Voyager " needs ) and a map . He also tells a different story , one of great difficulty and burdensome debts . He is unable to leave the station because his shuttle is being impound ed by the station master . Playing upon Neelix ' s sympathies for him , he asks for a favor : he wants Neelix to get a " Voyager " shuttlecraft which he and Wix will use to complete a secret transaction in exchange for the pergium and the map . He explains that he is selling medical supplies to get back his shuttle and wants to do it in secret to avoid the station master ' s twenty percent cut of the profits . All Neelix has to do is hide this information from the crew . Neelix agrees . They ' re successful in obtaining the supplies and come back to the station . Unfortunately , the true nature of the transaction gradually becomes apparent when Wix grabs a phaser and they meet the potential buyer . He is Sutok , the same man who tried to sell drugs to Chakotay and Paris when " Voyager " first docked with the station . From Wix ' s and Sutok ' s interaction , Neelix deduces that the medical supplies can actually be used as a narcotic , making this trip not only highly dangerous but highly illegal . Sutok attempts to get the drugs for nothing by trying to kill both Talaxian s . This results in a firefight and Wix kills Sutok in self - defense . Several unseen alien s appear , an alarm sounds , and Neelix is knocked down , but the two of them beam out . Act Three . Neelix flies the shuttle back to " Voyager " – leaving the dead body to be found by Bahrat ' s men . Neelix is furious at being betrayed but Wix soothes him with more emotional manipulation and convinces him to cover it up and not tell anyone on the ship . Bahrat informs Janeway that a murder has occurred on the station , and a Federation phaser ' s energy signature was detected at the scene . Janeway briefs the senior officers with Bahrat present , promising that " Voyager " will give full co - operation during the investigation . Neelix , who is present at the briefing , feels uneasy as Bahrat reveals what he knows so far , which is a lot already . As part of the investigation , Tuvok questions Neelix about Wix . He distances himself , and doesn ' t give a lot of information about him . Neelix accompanies Tuvok to the station to interview Wix . Wix gives a cover story of him being asleep at the time of the shootings . After Tuvok has left , Wix tells Neelix that he was acting as an agent for some Kolaati suppliers in the drug trade . The suppliers , not at all happy with the loss of their drugs , agree to let them live if Wix can get some warp plasma from " Voyager " . Neelix immediately says it has gone too far , but Wix appeals to his situation in nearing the end of his time on the ship . He persuades Neelix to help him once again . Act Four . On " Voyager " , Neelix finds Paris in a supply room . While helping to locate some part for him , he engages him in asking him about why he was in prison . Paris obliges and says it was because he didn ' t tell the truth . The part is found and he leaves , still thinking about his task and leaving Paris a bit confused . He then goes to engineering to complete the task . Torres is not there , but Ensign Vorik is and so Neelix explains he ' s just poking around . Still contemplating his situation , he asks Vorik about how he feels about how things turned out on " Voyager " generally , and he replies he ' s found it a good challenge . Neelix then leaves him to get the plasma , but he can ' t bring himself to do it . When Neelix and Wix meet at the station at the arranged time , Neelix tells Wix that he couldn ' t steal from his friends . They are interrupted by Bahrat arresting Chakotay and Paris , who are nearby , charging them with murder and dealing illegal drugs , because they were seen talking with Sutok hours before he was killed . Janeway is furious that Chakotay and Paris were arrested based on circumstantial evidence that does not prove any connection to the crime , but Bahrat is adamant that someone be punished for the crimes by fifty years of cryostatic suspension . Janeway insists Tuvok be present at the interrogation and promises Bahrat she will not let her officers pay the price for a crime they didn ' t commit . However , to save Chakotay and Paris , Neelix devises a plan , which Wix reluctantly agrees to . Act Five . He and Wix tell the truth about the incident to Bahrat , who is furious . They are then able to talk their way out of being put into cryostasis by explaining that these smugglers are defeating internal security and that they will help Bahrat and his men catch the criminals when they return for the plasma . Expecting their attempt to be futile , the station master agrees . Neelix gets a canister from Bahrat with tainted warp plasma and deactivates the safeties . The suppliers , led by Tosin , arrive to meet with Neelix and Wix . When Tosin accepts the canister he realizes that it is worthless but Neelix quickly tells him the canister has been leaking plasma into the room and any energy discharge from his weapon will ignite the entire section . Bahrat arrives and attempts to arrest them but one of the suppliers fires anyways and the ensuing plasma fire knocks Neelix unconscious . When he reawakens in sickbay , he is told by Tuvok that one of the criminals has been killed and the rest have been taken in to custody by Bahrat , and Wix has gotten his shuttle back and has gone on his way . Janeway arrives and after dismissing the others , demands an explanation from Neelix . Only then does Neelix come clean to the captain as to how the situation arose : he wanted a map and got caught in a cover - up . After a stern lecture from the Captain , Neelix is prepared to accept his fate , which he presumes to be compelled to leave the ship permanently . To his relief ( in fact , he is barely able to contain his excitement ) the captain explains to him that the crew is a family , and he cannot simply walk away from his responsibilities . He gladly accepts his sentence of two weeks of cleaning out the ship ' s exhaust manifolds . Links and references . References . 47 ; advisor ; anarchy ; astrometric chart ; bartering ; bio - mimetic gel ; ; concussion ; coordinate chart ; cryostatic suspension ; database ; Delta Quadrant ; deuterium maintenance ; dilithium matrix ; duotronic probe ; environmental control ; exhaust manifold ; Federation ; fire snake ; " gagh " ; gravitic caliper ; impulse response filter ; isonucleic residue ; Jefferies tube ; junior grade ; Kes ; Klingon ; Kolaati ; lung disease ; magnetic spindle bearing ; map dealer ; murder ; narcotic ; Nekrit Expanse ; Orillian lung maggot ; pergium ; type 2 phaser ; phase lock ; plasma burn ; warp plasma canister ; plasma injector ; plasma storm ; reaction control assembly ; replicator ; rhuludian crystal ; smuggler ; spectral analysis ; station manager ; supply depot ; Talaxian ; tavern ; toffa ale ; trading ship ; Ubean ; vermin ; Vulcan s ; warp plasma ; warp plasma particle