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ABOUT THE
SHOW |
SHIPS & CHARACTERS |
EPISODE
LISTING |
En
route to the fifth planet of a neighboring system, Voyager's
crew encounters Neelix, a Talaxian scavenger. He explains that
the Array has been bringing ships into the region for many
months. Neelix guesses that the "Caretaker," who controls the
Array, may have sent the missing crewmembers to the Ocampa, a
race that lives two miles below the surface of the fifth planet.
Neelix volunteers to be their guide and they accept.
Meanwhile, Kim and Torres are being cared for in the Ocampa
medical facility. Although they now live in a subterranean
society, the Ocampa inhabited the planet's surface until it was
struck by an environmental disaster 500 years ago. Since that
time, they have lived underground, with all their needs provided
by the man they refer to as the Caretaker.
Beaming down to the planet's surface, Neelix introduces Janeway
to the Kazon, a savage alien species that has taken possession
of the arid Ocampan world. Janeway asks Jabin, the Kazon leader,
if he can help them, but he refuses.
Neelix is hoping Jabin will trade Kes, an Ocampan woman he is
holding captive, for some of Voyager's precious water. But the
Kazon are more interested in obtaining all of Voyager's
technology — forcibly. When Jabin tries to take the crew
hostage, Neelix helps them escape and beam back to the ship,
along with Kes.
Kim and Torres persuade an Ocampan nurse to show them a route
that could lead to the surface. On Voyager, Kes agrees to lead
Janeway and the others through the tunnels to her underground
city to search for the pair.
As the Array increases the rate of the energy pulses that power
the city, Kim and Torres begin their journey, narrowly missing
the search party from Voyager. Tuvok theorizes that the
increased activity of the Array may indicate that the Caretaker
is dying; he is clearly attempting to give them a surplus of
power that will sustain the Ocampa after he is gone.
The search is complicated by a new turn of events. The Array is
now firing a weapon at the planet to seal up all of the energy
conduits, the tunnels that provide the only access to the city.
This will protect the Ocampans, but prevent the others from
escaping. Splitting up, Paris, Neelix and Kes find Kim and
Torres, and send them up to Voyager. Then Paris and Neelix go
back for Janeway, Tuvok and Chakotay. Chakotay's skepticism
towards Paris' loyalty is erased when Paris saves his life.
Returning to the Array, Janeway again encounters the old man,
whom she realizes is the Caretaker. He explains that he was
bringing beings from across the galaxy to the Array in the hopes
of finding a compatible species with which he could procreate,
thus providing the Ocampa with someone to care for them after he
dies. But no species has been a match so far.
Janeway tries to convince the Caretaker to send Voyager and the
Maquis ship back home, but he refuses. Apparently, the Caretaker
wants to destroy the Array so that it won't fall into the
invading Kazon's hands. But he dies before he can carry out his
plan, and Janeway is left to decide whether to use the Array to
get home — which would leave it intact for the Kazon — or to
destroy it and save the Ocampa. She chooses what seems to be the
only moral option and makes a mortal enemy of the Kazon.
With Chakotay's ship destroyed in the battle with the Kazon,
Janeway asks the Maquis to become part of Voyager's crew. She
also allows Neelix and Kes to stay aboard. With Chakotay her
First Officer, Tom Paris reinstated as a Starfleet lieutenant,
and Torres and Kim cured by the Emergency Medical Hologram,
Janeway and her new crew set course for the long trip home,
70,000 light-years away. |
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