Vidiian

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The Vidiians are a fictional race in the Star Trek fictional universe, located in the Delta Quadrant that are under the affliction of a plague called the Phage. They only appear in the series Star Trek: Voyager, in the first two seasons.

They possess medical technology far more advanced than Starfleet, as they must constantly replace their organs with transplants, often stolen, to remain alive. Their bodies appear to be made of a patchwork of different alien skins. In several second-season episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, the Vidiians come into conflict with Voyager and its crew in various attempts to steal organs from them. It was later discovered that the Vidiian people were not aware of the involuntary organ snatching, knowledge and activity of it being closely held by the government and/or military. The Vidiians said that they were driven to their organ raids on other races out of extreme desperation, and that before the Phage struck they were a peaceful and cultured race of scientists and explorers, much like the Federation.

Klingon physiology was resistant to the Phage, and with Klingon tissue samples Vidiian scientists hoped to find a treatment for the Phage.

The formal name of the Vidiians government is the "Vidiian Sodality" (Vidiian brotherhood).

Later in the fifth-season Star Trek: Voyager episode "Think Tank", an alien named Kurros claimed that his group had cured the Phage.

In reality, a phage is a virus that infects and kills bacteria.