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While visiting the world of the
Mari, a telepathic race, a Mari man named Frane collides with
Torres in the marketplace. Soon after, Frane viciously attacks
another man. During questioning, Torres admits to Chief Examiner
Nimira that she had thoughts of hurting Frane when he bumped
into her. To her surprise, Torres is arrested for "aggravated
violent thought resulting in grave bodily harm."
Torres is told she must undergo
an engramatic purge, a medical procedure to identify and remove
the offending images from her mind. Frane will go through the
same purge. Janeway protests when she hears there's a risk of
neurological damage, and she sets out with Tuvok to review the
evidence. They find that Frane has a record of previous arrests
for harboring violent thoughts, but Nimira claims he has been
cured through previous purging. In the marketplace, a Mari woman
experiences Torres' violent thought against Frane and attacks a
young merchant, killing her.
Puzzled by the two related attacks among these normally
non-violent people, Tuvok mind-melds with Torres to learn more
of her brush with Frane. He learns that a Mari named Guill
approached her after the incident and probed her mind. When
Tuvok questions him, Guill telepathically senses the Vulcan's
dark impulses and offers to help Tuvok control them. After
witnessing Guill secretly accept money from another Mari, Tuvok
realizes Guill may have a business interest in violent thoughts.
He approaches Guill again, offering to telepathically exchange
his disturbing images.
 Questioning him further, Tuvok learns Guill buys violent
thoughts from people or sometimes takes them, as he did with
Torres. Guill denies he's responsible for the marketplace attack
or for the circulation of Torres' thoughts, but Tuvok wants to
take him to Nimira for questioning. Just then, two of Guill's
conspirators intercept them. Meanwhile, Torres begins the
engramatic purging.
Tuvok lures Guill into a mind-meld with the promise of
transferring his violent thoughts, but instead he inflicts
mental pain on Guill and brings him to Voyager. Janeway gets
Nimira to stop the purging procedure after Tuvok explains that
Guill and Frane conspired to provoke the thought in Torres.
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