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After Kes asks Paris to be her
flight instructor, he finds himself falling for her. A jealous
Neelix picks up on the Lieutenant's crush, and instigates a
messy fight with Paris in the mess hall. Despite — or because of
— the friction between them, Janeway decides to send the
sparring pair on a shuttlecraft mission to replenish food
supplies. The most likely source is a planet surrounded by
trigemic vapors, which can cause severe skin irritation.
As they approach the planet,
electromagnetic disturbances in the atmosphere cause the
shuttlecraft to lose power, and they're forced to make an
emergency landing on the planet. Tracking the shuttle, Voyager's
crew notes their problems and launches a search-and-rescue
mission.
In order to lessen their exposure to the dangerous vapors on the
planet's surface, Neelix and Paris seek refuge in a cave and
seal themselves in. Back on Voyager, search efforts are hampered
by an attack from an alien vessel that places itself between
Voyager and the planet. The crew is ultimately able to disable
the alien ship's weapons systems and proceed to the planet.
In the cave, Paris and Neelix cautiously explore their
environment. They find footprints leading to a clutch of eggs.
As they watch, a reptohumanoid creature hatches from one of
them. With the baby's mother nowhere in sight, Neelix decides
that it's their responsibility to care for it. But when the
baby's heartbeat begins to weaken, Paris realizes that by
sealing the cave, they've cut off the supply of vapors the
newborn needs to survive. Opening it up, they manage to get some
of the nutrients from the air into the baby's system and it gets
stronger.
Bonded by their concern for the creature, Paris and Neelix
resolve their differences as they wait for the crew to find
them. There is only a limited window of opportunity for Voyager
to beam them aboard, but when, at last, the "window" opens and
Voyager is able to contact the pair, Paris and Neelix delay
beaming up for the sake of the baby. Soon, one of the aliens
shows up on the scene; it seems to be the baby's mother. As
Paris and Neelix watch, she retrieves the newborn. Satisfied,
the Away Team returns to Voyager, where the two new friends go
off to have a celebratory drink.
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