Stardate 50156.2: Harry and Tom find themselves in an Akritirian detention facility, surrounded by relentless prisoners. Janeway learns that they were sentenced to prison because of a bombing on Akritiri with trilithium, a material that is not available in the sector but that may be converted from Voyager's dilithium. As the Akritirian authorities threaten to seize the ship because of the alleged support for the terrorist group Open Sky, Janeway decides to retreat. In the prison, Paris is stabbed but he and Harry receive help from a man named Zio. An implant called the "clamp" in the head of every prisoner is designed to incite violence as it seems, but Zio says that he has learned to control it. Kim lets him in on a plan to escape through the "chute", the only apparent access to the prison that is secured by a forcefield. In order to find the people actually responsible for the bombing, Voyager investigates vessels using paralithium in their propulsion systems, a substance that too can be converted to trilithium. They capture an Akritirian freighter, manned by just a young man and his sister, and find evidence of trilithium. The man, Vel, is a member of Open Sky and offers to reveal the location of the detention facility, but Janeway decides to turn the alleged terrorists over to the Akritirian government in exchange for Paris and Kim. In the prison, Paris's condition deteriorates. Kim finally succeeds in disabling the forcefield and climbs up the chute together with Zio. But they end up at a hatch to open space. Kim continues to work on a way escape anyway, but gets infuriated when no one listens to him. When Paris rips apart the device Kim constructed to disable the forcefield, Kim almost kills him. Janeway's negotiation with the Akritirian government fails, and she decides to accept Vel's proposal. Using Neelix's ship, an away team breaks into the prison and frees Paris and Kim. The Doctor removes their implants, which indeed stimulated aggressive tendencies by the production of acetylcholine in the hypothalamus.

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