Headscratchers / Star Trek Voyager S 1 E 9 "Prime Factors"

• Harry hears one Sikari woman talking about how important stories are to her, and concludes from this that the entirety of Sikari culture must be based around stories.
  • Law of Conservation of Detail — they need to get on with the plot.
  • Kim doesn't say that their entire society is based around stories. He says, "Stories are an important part of their culture. They seem to provide more than entertainment. They're kind of a measuring rod of values and beliefs." It's a pretty general conclusion, and Eudana may have made it clear during their conversations off-camera that her thirst for stories is typical for Sikari people.
• Janeway wants the crew to respect Sikari rules against giving teleportation technology to comparatively primitive races like their own... by trying to bribe the Sikari into giving them teleportation technology. Made even more insane by the fact that B'Elanna suggests they could simply ask to look at it and try to figure out how it works on their own, which would not be violating the rules of either side and would still give them a chance to get home (or at least significantly closer), but Janeway shoots this down as disrespecting their rules despite being fine with the aforementioned plan.
  • That's trade, not bribery; a concept that even a Post-Scarcity Economy like the Federation understands. And B'Elanna didn't suggest 'asking' to look at it. The last thing Janeway wants is B'Elanna being accused of espionage when she's trying to negotiate handing over the same technology.
  • Janeway wasn't negotiating for the Sikari to hand over the technology — just to get the Sikari to use it once to get Voyager past the halfway point of their journey.
  • First Janeway asks for their technology, even offering to destroy it once used. Then she asks the Sikarians if they can just use it to give Voyager a lift. Either way the point still applies; when the captain in the middle of negotiations, she can't afford to have her crew accused of snooping because it would look like they were trying to steal it when she's trying to negotiate in good faith.