“Investigations” is episode twenty of season two of Star Trek: Voyager.
Neelix is cooking and being recorded doing so. He welcomes everyone to ‘A Briefing with Neelix’; a new, general interest show for the ship. As the morale officer, the show is intended to make everyone feel better. Neelix is showing this to the Doctor, as he thinks the Doctor could have a slot for tips on healthy living. The Doctor doesn’t appear to be interested until Neelix suggests the show could make him more popular with the crew. Afterwards, Neelix bumps into Harry and asks him what he thinks. Harry thinks, as a former editor of the Academy newspaper, there should be more substantial items in the show as well.
Afterwards, Neelix gets a message from the bridge saying he has an incoming transmission, which he takes in his quarters. The call comes from a Talaxian Neelix knows, Laxseth. Laxseth is now legitimate and is working as the communications master for a Talaxian convoy. He’s going to be seeing Neelix in a few days; the convoy has been asked to rendezvous with a ship to pick up a passenger. A member of the crew who wants to leave the ship.
Neelix speaks to the captain about this, who wants to know how he learned this. Janeway then calls Tuvok in, asking if there are any security issues. There are not. Captain Janeway explains that Tom, who has been having problems that came to a head in the previous episode, “Lifesigns”, has asked to be put off the ship, and the Talaxians have agreed. Neelix asks if he can speak to Tom.
Tom is in his quarters packing. He tells Neelix that he knew he wanted off the ship about a minute and a half after stepping onto it. He knew it was a mistake to try Starfleet again. No, Neelix didn’t contribute to this; no-one did but Tom himself. Like always, he made a mess of things. He must not want family, friends, a home, given how he sabotages himself. It’s just not working, so Tom is leaving before he completely destroys his image. Later, Neelix puts out his show talking about Tom, and how he proved himself. Tom leaves via the transporter, with Neelix, Kes and Harry there.
B’Elanna is briefing the senior staff about a slight imbalance in the magnetic constrictors, and she has a team working on it; Seska convinced Jonas to sabotage the warp engines. As they are discussing the next topic, a replacement for Tom, Jonas contacts B’Elanna and says the magnetic constrictors have lost alignment. She heads to engineering and Neelix accompanies her.
The situation is getting worse in engineering. Antimatter is seeping into the warp core. Jonas suggests venting plasma; B’Elanna doesn’t want to, because plasma that hot will fry the nacelles. Better than a warp core breach, though. The situation deteriorates and they have to vent the plasma. Three crewmen, one of them Jonas, get injured as a result. In sickbay, Neelix is still with them and wants to interview Jonas. The Doctor suggests interviewing him as well. And starts what will probably be a very long explanation. Captain Janeway asks Neelix to join them on the bridge.
Chakotay, Janeway and B’Elanna are there. The warp drive is currently useless because venting the plasma fried the nacelles. They need some replacement materials. Neelix knows of a nearby source of them, run by a consortium of non-aggressive peoples. Then, Voyager gets contacted by the Talaxian convoy. They were attacked by the Kazon-Nistron. All the Nistron did was take Tom.
Tom is on the Nistron ship when Seska comes and greets him. She is quite pregnant; in “Maneuvers” she used Chakotay’s DNA to impregnate herself. She asks what happened to Tom, as this seems out of character. He replies that Lt. Tom Paris was him trying very hard to be someone he isn’t. Seska never liked him, didn’t trust him and still doesn’t. The feeling is mutual. However, if Tom cooperates, he will be well treated. His information on Voyager is valuable., Tom thinks she is already getting valuable information on Voyager from somewhere. After Seska leaves, though, Tom starts working on a console, removing a device he had hidden on him. Something is going on.
Neelix thinks something is going on. How did the Nistron know Tom was on the convoy so fast? The Talaxians would never have told the Nistron where they were; that would be suicide. And the Nistron would normally take the cargo. It looks like they came just for Tom.
So, Neelix takes Harry’s advice to heart and starts becoming an investigative reporter. Which does have the potential to be dangerous. Neelix is sure something is going on, and he’s right. The Doctor, however, keeps getting the slot Neelix talked him into doing cancelled.