"Phage" is the fifth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. The episode originally aired on February 6, 1995 on the UPN network. The episode was directed by Winrich Kolbe.
In the course of helping to investigate a network of caverns in a planetoid for dilithium deposits, Neelix is attacked by a previously undetected alien and left in a state of shock. He is beamed directly to the ship's sickbay where it is discovered his lungs have been teleported out of his body. The Doctor keeps him alive by projecting a pair of holographic lungs into his torso using the sickbay's holographic emitters. As a result, Neelix must remain absolutely motionless, able only to talk, for the rest of his life.
Another away mission is quickly organized to find the perpetrator and retrieve Neelix's lungs. They return to the planetoid and discover an alien facility behind sophisticated cloaking technology, and conclude that the facility is being used to store organic material, particularly respiratory organs. The aliens escape the planetoid on a ship, and Voyager goes in pursuit. Eventually Voyager catches up with them and Captain Janeway orders the abduction of the two alien life forms aboard the ship. An interrogation reveals that the aliens belong to a race known as the Vidiians, who have been suffering for generations from a disease called the Phage. No one knows where the pathogen came from or the cure, only that it eats away at the flesh of a person's body if they are infected.
The eyes like fiery embers*
Smoking nostrils and flowing mane
Untamed steed of hell
Sent by death
This black mount as fast as wind
Will lead you to eternal flames
So furious you are riding
Black conqueror
[Chorus:]
Fly like arrow
Through valleys and plains
On the back of the demon horse
Towards the thresholds of the hades
Is the dark conqueror end
Through your kingdom you are flying
You are trying to pull the reins
But the beast is stronger than you
Mad race to the burning chasm