“Riddles” is episode six of season six of Star Trek: Voyager.
Neelix is on the Delta Flyer with Tuvok. They’ve apparently been on an ambassadorial gig; Neelix doesn’t think Tuvok is the most sociable of travel companions. Neelix wants to play a game. Tuvok wants peace and quiet. Neelix suggests a riddle. A good riddle stimulates the mind. Tuvok reluctantly agrees. Neelix’s riddle is not logical; it uses word play. Tuvok leaves to find his peace and quiet, but a station has been activated. Neelix says it wasn’t him. Tuvok scans and detects anomalous readings. He believes it is a cloaking field. Then something unseen shoots him. Neelix runs in to find Tuvok having a seizure and contacts Voyager.
Captain Janeway enters sickbay. The Doctor is working on Tuvok, who isn’t doing so well. He’s been stabilised for the moment but has suffered severe neurological trauma caused presumably by an alien weapon. Neelix didn’t think to scan for cloaked ships. It would help the Doctor to know something about the weapon and the captain asks Neelix if the people they were negotiating with might know anything about the attackers. It couldn’t hurt to ask.
Deputy Investigator Naroq arrives and greets Neelix, the captain and Chakotay. He believes the attacker was a Ba’Neth. In his language, it means shadow people. They conceal their identity and are paranoid and xenophobic, probably responsible for several attacks. His government didn’t tell Neelix about them because the official position is that they don’t exist. Most believe them to be a myth. There have been so few encounters – twelve before this – and no-one has ever seen them. Naroq bribed his supervisor to get the assignment. It matches the other incidents; vessels foreign to the sector being studied. Naroq believes this is to assess the technology of new arrivals. Naroq thinks Tuvok’s tricorder was destroyed so that their cloaking frequency wouldn’t be seen. He also wants to examine Tuvok and the Delta Flyer. It might prove his theories. Janeway is more concerned about helping Tuvok. It might do both.
In sickbay, Tuvok still has brain activity. More than can eb said of the previous victims. Naroq and the captain leave; Neelix wants to help. He can’t sleep. The Doctor admits that sometimes comatose patients respond to external stimuli. Neelix asks if he might provoke a response. If anyone can provoke Tuvok, it’s Neelix. Neelix brings items from Tuvok’s quarters and plays Tuvok’s favourite music. The Doctor doesn’t like it. Nor does Neelix for that matter. The Doctor wanted Neelix to stimulate Tuvok’s senses, not annihilate them. Behind them, Tuvok has sat up. Though he seems very nervous of being scanned. Neelix reassures him.
Seven of Nine and Naroq have something to show Captain Janeway on the Delta Flyer. There is a residual presence that Naroq believes is from the cloaking field. Naroq uses an item of his own design and they get an image of the Ba’Neth. Seven thinks she can improve it and can. The Doctor requests the captain’s presence and, before she leaves, she asks if they might be able to use this technology to decloak a Ba’Neth ship.
When Janeway arrives in sickbay, the Doctor tells her that Tuvok’s brain is rewiring itself. He’s regained basic motor functions but not speech. If he could talk, he might be able to remember the Ba’Neth’s cloaking frequency. The Doctor isn’t certain Tuvok recollects anything yet. Neelix is going to take him on a tour of the ship.
Seven and Naroq have modified the deflector array with Naroq’s technology. It’s activated, and a cloaked ship is detected nearby. Janeway says to hail it. Harry asks which one; there are a lot of them. They open fire and bolt. Clearly, they have no interest in talking.
Tuvok is improving, with Neelix’s help, but he’s not becoming Tuvok again. For one thing, he’s quite emotional. Which is pretty disturbing. And starts to have fun. With Neelix. If they want to cure Tuvok, they still need to find the Ba’Neth, but finding the ships is difficult without Tuvok’s help with the cloaking frequency, and the best way to get that is from Tuvok. Who would likely be able to remember it more easily if he was well. And to cure him they need to find the Ba’Neth.