stardate 48546.2. Neelix's lungs are surgically removed during on a planet on an away mission and were implanted into a Vidiian body suffering from a disease affecting the lungs known as the Phage. Unwilling to kill another to keep one's own alive, Neelix is kept alive with holographic lungs as his crewmates must find a way in order to keep Neelix alive.

stardate 48546.2. Deciding the need for the ship to be refuelled, Janeway seeks fuel from a nebula. But what appears to be a nebula at first was later found to be some kind of life-form, and entering it, the Voyager had wounded it. Janeway now not only tries to find a way to get out of this predicament but also find a way to heal the life-form.