10. Random Thoughts

The Federation starship Voyager is orbiting the Mari homeworld, a race of telepaths. As the ship's crew trade for supplies, they find it difficult to haggle and bargain with Mari mind readers. Meanwhile, Lt Commander Tuvok and the city's Chief Examiner Nimira discuss security and maintaining order. Nimira's job is becoming obsolete since there has been no violence in Mari society for years. Tuvok offers to transport her aboard Voyager to demonstrate Starfleet security enforcement. While Captain Janeway and B'Elanna Torres are negotiating for a resonator coil, someone bumps into Torres, momentarily angering her. She calms herself, shrugging it off as an accident. Moments later, they find the man who had bumped into Torres beating another man severely. When Janeway stops the aggressor, he expresses surprise at his own behaviour.

While aboard Voyager, Nimira is puzzled by the ship's brig and the concept of incarceration as a form of punishment. She is called back to the surface to investigate the attack, and determines that Torres's angry thought had been transmitted telepathically to the aggressor, making Torres a guilty party. Torres and the aggressor are both sentenced to undergo memory modification to remove the thought. Janeway protests, since this carries the risk of neurological damage. Another violent attack soon occurs with the same memory. Tuvok discovers that the salesman of the resonator coil has engaged in illicit memory trade.

Torres's memory had been goaded from her for resale, but it was too violent to be contained, causing the outbursts among the Mari. Due to the new evidence, Torres is released moments before her brain is probed. Nimira is shocked to learn that all thoughts of violence have not disappeared from her people.

Later, Seven of Nine urges the Captain not to visit foreign worlds to avoid such dangerous complications. Janeway rejects this suggestion, saying that Voyager was built for the purpose of exploration.