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Neelix
Neelix, the Talaxian, self appointed moral officer, head chef and delta quadrant guide, played by Ethan Phillips.
Talaxian trader who joined the crew of the Starship Voyager in 2371. As a child, Neelix lived with his parents and younger brothers on Rinax, a moon of Talax, where, due to Talax's three suns, the summer seasons were the hottest in the sector, reaching temperatures of 50 degrees Celcius with 90 percent humidity. Neelix was very close to Alixia, one of his sisters. The two enjoyed many adventures together, exploring the Caves of Touth, visiting the equatorial dust shrouds, and even hunting arctic spiders. Neelix bred orchids, which he liked to serve in salads with Baldoxic vinegar. Neelix's entire family, including Alixia, was killed when Rinax was devastated by the metreon cascade attack by the Haakonian Order. Neelix survived because he was on Talax at the time, fleeing from military duty in a war he felt was unjust. Neelix worked for two years on an orbital tether maintenanc team on Talax. He served for two years as an engineers assistant aboard a Trabalian freighter and also worked in a mining colony. There were a few incidents in Neelix's past that he would probably have preferred to have forgotten. He and his friend Wixiban had a run in with Ubean authorities. Although Neelix escaped arrest, Wixiban served a brutal term in an Ubean prison.
Neelix, a native of the Delta Quadrant, had been a trader of junk and debris, but prided himself on his skills as a jack-of-all-trades. Neelix helped Captain Janeway deal with the Kazon-Ogla shortly after Voyager's arrival in the Delta Quadrant, and was subsequently invited to join the Voyager crew, in part because of his familiarity with the region of space. Neelix was romantically involved with the Ocompan Kes, who also joined the Voyager crew.
Shortly after joining the Voyager crew, Neelix appointed himself ship's cook and took it upon himself to convert part of the mess hall on Deck 2 into a kitchen. Neelix hoped not only to reduce the crew's dependence on replicated food, but also to prove his value as a member of the ship. In his kitchen, Neelix prepared numerous delicacies with food grown in Kes's hydroponics bay, or gathered from planets visited by Voyager. Unfortunately, Neelix neglected to note that he had used the captain's private dining room, immediately adjacent to the mess hall for storage. Neelix also took it upon himself to serve as the ship's morale officer. Neelix performed diplomatic duties in helping the Voyager crew deal with newly contacted civilizations, a task for which Janeway once jokingly suggested he should be promoted to ambassador. Neelix even produced a daily informational audiovisual program, entitled 'A Briefing with Neelix', which he distributed over the ship's internal communications system. Neelix often took part in monthly tactical exercises aboard Voyager.
On stardate 48532.4, Neelix was attacked; his lungs were surgically removed, and they were implanted into a Vidiian named Motura, who was suffering from the phage. When Janeway declined to order Motura's death to reclaim Neelix's lungs, Kes donated one of her lungs to be implanted into Neelix's body, thereby saving his life. In 2372, Tuvok and Neelix were involved in a transporter accident that merged them at the molecular level, forming a new living being who adopted the name Tuvix. Neelix did not exist during the two weeks that Tuvix lived. Neelix encountered his old friend, Wixiban, in 2373 at the Nekrit Supply Depot space station. Neelix was briefly drawn back into the world of illicit trade, until he was injured when a cylinder of stolen warp plasma exploded. Janeway subsequently ordered Neelix to serve two weeks of deuterium maintenance duty as punishment for having stolen the plasma and engaged in illegal activities.
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