The Caretaker has been providing for the native Ocampa people and their world since his race severely damaged their atmosphere in an accident. Knowing his own death nears, the aged alien is collecting people of different origins to test them for compatible DNA to provide a mate that will bear offspring to carry on his work. The Caretaker kidnaps both crews and examines them, but they are returned some three days later, except for Kim from Voyager and B'Elanna Torres, a half-Klingon, half-human Engineer from the Maquis vessel. Banding together to successfully rescue their missing mates, the two crews encounter Neelix, a Talaxian scavenger and jack-of-all-trades and his lover Kes, an Ocampan who strives for more than her people's sedate and dependent lifestyle underground.
