We never asked to be involved.
The walls of the dark barn were flickering madly as the holographic matrix which had posed the illusion to Janeway and Tuvok the two Starfleet officers were on a barn in a farm in the dead of night. The holographic illusion was faltering after the entire space station seemed to shake from a massive impact, making Janeway wonder what had happened.
The impact had taken her and Tuvok by surprise, but it had had a terrifying effect on the Caretaker; the entity had wailed in horror as the station was rocked to pieces before its automatic systems kicked in and compensated.
The Kazon were currently battling Voyager and the Val Jean, the Maquis ship that had brought them into the Delta Quadrant but had something happened by accident since the Kazon would never have dared launch an attack on the Caretaker's Array considering its power. But just because they were afraid of the Array did not mean, she couldn't rule out some kind of accident, like a torpedo hit. But now the entire Array was obviously badly compromised, although Janeway had no idea about how much; the Caretaker's technology was far superior to that of the Federation, but she had no idea if the Caretaker's race, who were clearly incredibly powerful if they had originated from another galaxy, relied solely on their power and their methods rather than a superior knowledge of things like metamaterials or energy shielding.
The array had been able to yank Voyager and who knew how many ships from different parts of the galaxy if what Neelix had said was true, and to be honest while Janeway wasn't entirely sure she trusted the little Talaxian who'd tricked them, she had to bear in mind the Caretaker himself had claimed that he/it had spent months searching the galaxy with methods beyond their comprehension.
One thing that did seem to be similar to Federation science, however, was just how vulnerable holograms could be.
Finally, the barn illusion was gone, replaced by a brightly lit control centre with the walls resembling conduits, although Janeway was uncertain if they were conduits or the Caretaker's version of control interfaces. Oh well, Tuvok was currently studying the surroundings with his tricorder, she could always examine the readings later when they had a moment to themselves.
Janeway turned and she gaped in surprise. It seemed the barn illusion wasn't the only illusion that had been lifted.
"The Caretaker?" Tuvok said.
Janeway didn't bother to reply. The Caretaker's 'body' was nothing like that of a humanoid. It was more of a pulsating mass of light that seemed both matter and energy. As a Starfleet officer, Janeway had read the reports of dozens of Starfleet captains who'd come before her while she followed the tradition of space exploration. One of her favourite stories was how James Kirk stumbled across the Horta on the planet Janus IV which had been attacking the miners at the colony there because they had been destroying the next generation of Horta. It was one of her favourites because it was one of the first times Starfleet had ever encountered an alien life form that was completely different from the norm. She had seen pictures of the Horta, and something about the Caretaker's shape reminded her of the story.
Janeway tapped her com badge, desperate for news about what was happening - her ship had suffered severe damage thanks to being brought into the Delta Quadrant, and the battle with the Kazon was the last thing they needed - and in any case, she wanted to know the latest news. "Voyager, report."
"Kazon vessel just collided with the Array, Captain," Tom Paris' voice came over the line; she wasn't sure about him being on her bridge considering how unlike his father he was, but considering the special circumstances of the mess they were in, she would give him the benefit of the doubt for now. "Are you alright?"
Janeway's eyes widened. A collision made sense, but it was the last thing they had expected to happen. But what terrified her the most was what it would mean for their chances of getting home; Tuvok had just found the program which would get them back to Federation space - she hoped - but from what the Vulcan officer and long time friend of hers had implied was it would take time for the program to activate. Did the Array need to be intact for it work? Could it work still? Would they be able to get back? Or had the Array been too badly damaged by the Kazon vessel's collision with a section of the structure to make it work? Once again she cursed how they knew so little of the Caretaker's technology to get a more precise answer to those questions.
"Affirmative, standby," Janeway said at last, hoping that what she'd just said was correct. She only hoped they could find a way of getting home soon before the Caretaker finally died.
"The Self-destruct system has been damaged," a low voice echoed around the room and the Caretaker's form seemed to flatten and contort like a hand was slowly squeezing some jelly in different directions, "now this installation will not be destroyed. But it must be. The Kazon must not be allowed to gain control of it," Janeway's heart caught in her throat as she saw how the entity was getting smaller and smaller, and she realised that it was using the last of its strength to tell them this important news.
When she had told him to allow the Ocampa to grow instead of being confined in that underground city for the rest of their existence, the Caretaker had baulked at the idea. For a being that came from a race of explorers, the Caretaker itself seemed to have forgotten one of the guiding truths. The alien races that existed throughout the universe needed to grow.
Didn't the Caretaker know about how some of the Ocampans were becoming tired of being treated like children? They may only live for nine years, but some of them wanted so much more than what they had; while their city was impressive, it was clear to Janeway that many of the Ocampa wanted nothing more than to step in the sunlight of their planet, although it would be virtually impossible considering how something the Caretaker and his people had done had reduced their world into a desert.
Janeway had no idea how many unique lifeforms there were, plants, animals… all of them gone now the planet was nothing more than a desert which had permanently lost the ability to create clouds or rain.
It had taken a gentle talk to make the dying entity see that although it had been protecting the Ocampa, he had also been holding them back. In his final moments, the Caretaker, with her encouragement and her advice, had transferred the entirety of its knowledge to the Ocampa although it would be released to the Ocampa gradually when the short-lived race had managed to develop to the right level with a letter of apology for everything he had done and told them to be careful with his knowledge while encouraging them to be better than he had ever been. Janeway had been slightly surprised by how he had put that into the message, but that mostly the wording. But still, with the knowledge, Janeway wondered what the Ocampa would be like within the next five years.
Would they have grown?
If they used the Caretaker's knowledge, how much of it would they have studied and understood? It had not taken Starfleet long to study interstellar travel, learning from the mistakes of the earliest explorers who set out in primitive warp drive ships before they advanced their knowledge, and with each five-year mission within the 23rd century which had increased in number since with ships being sent out on longer missions to find new worlds and new civilisations to learn from, Federation technology and knowledge had just grown exponentially. Who knew just how far the Ocampa themselves would go?
Would they have found new ways of living under the surface of their planet? Or would the Kazon have destroyed them all? Janeway hoped not. She also wished she knew more about the Caretaker and what it knew about the rest of the universe; it came from a race of explorers from another galaxy, and it likely had ways of exploring the universe that Starfleet just could not replicate.
The Caretaker seemed much smaller now than before.
"They will annihilate the Ocampa," the entity said its final words before it shrank down and down…until there was nothing more than a small rock lying on the deck plate.
The scientist in Janeway was amazed at what had happened to the Caretaker; she knew some lifeforms died off, leaving behind skeletal remains, but this was the first time she had ever seen anything transform into a rock. Janeway walked towards the rock, followed by Tuvok, and she bent down and picked it up before she cradled it in her hands, trying to figure out what she was going to do next, where she would go from here.
Janeway had never liked it whenever she came across a life form when they died. It didn't matter to her if it was a humanoid lifeform or not, the loss was always so poignant. This was no exception, but it was different. The Caretaker could have helped them; while she trusted Tuvok's ability, the true expert on how to return them to the Alpha Quadrant was now dead. On top of that, the Caretaker still had the job of protecting the Ocampa even if he had been content to keep them at a certain level. With him gone…
She had no idea what was going to occur next with the Ocampa, and thinking about it what if the barriers protecting the city on their planet just gave out?
Janeway
"Shall I activate the program to get us back?" Tuvok asked.
"And what happens to the Ocampa after we're gone?" Janeway's doubts were voiced at last. They both knew each other well enough to know they didn't know enough about the Caretaker's technology to guarantee their return, even if they did try. And in any case, Tuvok had said it would take several hours for the program to kick in. Did they have that time? She doubted it. The Kazon wouldn't give it to them.
Sensing rather than seeing Tuvok crouching down to where she was, Janeway listened to the Vulcan while she tried to work out where to go from here.
"Captain, any action we take to protect the Ocampa would affect the balance of power in this system. The Prime Direction would seem to apply."
As a Starfleet captain Janeway had learnt to treat the Prime Directive as gospel; not only had her father, an Admiral in Starfleet, drummed into her mind the need to follow the Directive with excellent examples from moments throughout the long history of Starfleet where captains and crew members from various ships had meddled with races' cultural development, and how it had inevitably blown up in their faces - either years down the line where the consequences had been felt like part of everyday life, or immediately - and thought experiments over hypothetical matters relating to the Prime Directive.
Janeway had learnt to obey the Prime Directive although she was more than aware there were moments where you needed to stretch it here and there. This, sadly, sounded like one of those moments she had dreaded ever since her promotion up the command track where the Directive would need to be stretched. She bit her tongue as she reached an epiphany, one she truly did not want to have to face in any way or form. She was torn; she wanted to give the Ocampa one last form of protection before they left, but she also wanted to get her ship and her crew back home right now. She had to be realistic, the system the Caretaker had used to bring ships to this quadrant for some time would need time to make ready, and in that time Voyager would likely come under attack by the Kazon ships that were still there. And they knew so little of the Kazons' weapons to know how long Voyager could wait and hold them off. She wanted to get everyone back to the Alpha Quadrant, alive preferably not dead.
At that moment Janeway felt her decision being made for her. It wasn't like a light bulb turning on and brightening up her mind. It was a slow, gradual dawning of realisation of the most painful kind. She didn't want to do it. But she also knew she had no choice. There was no chance they could set the program up and perhaps make it work fast to get them away, and then destroy the Array as soon as they left. Jabin would likely summon reinforcements and while Voyager was likely powerful enough to hold off against two small Kazon ships - she hoped - they couldn't hold out forever, especially for a program that was likely incredibly complex and what they did not understand. What if the program didn't kick in without the Caretaker around to control the process? Who knew what would happen if they did that? The Kazon didn't have transporters but that didn't mean they couldn't be good at boarding a place like the Array and with the Caretaker now dead there was nothing for the Kazon to fear anymore.
As a Vulcan would claim, the only logical course of action with this
She didn't want to do what was dawning in her mind.
She didn't want to strand her ship and her crew in the Delta Quadrant, thousands of light-years away from the Federation. But, with each second, it looked like that was what they were inevitably destined to become. It would take seventy years for them to return at maximum warp speeds. It was beyond insanity. A large part of Janeway, the part of her which was the selfish dark side within every single sentient organism wanted to just forget the Ocampa, just activate the program and leave this part of the galaxy and let everything play out with only a small amount of interference on their part. But it was overridden by the cold logical side of her nature when she realised there was no way they could use the Array.
"Would it?" Janeway said at last, with a minute shake of her head as she still held onto the remains of the Caretaker. "We never asked to be involved, Tuvok," she lifted her eyes solemnly to face Tuvok, and she knew just by looking into the calm gaze of her old friend the Vulcan had realised this was one of those no-win scenarios James Kirk had frequently claimed never to believe in. They literally had no way out; they couldn't activate the program without the Kazon bringing in more reinforcements and they couldn't risk Voyager's safety on a piece of technology they didn't understand, and if they destroyed the Array they would be forced to spend potentially their whole lives in a part of the galaxy they knew nothing about.
They knew the Borg Collective was out there somewhere in the Delta Quadrant and the thought of encountering them was beyond unsettling, especially if they were on their way home.
"But we are. We are."
Janeway looked away, closing her eyes as she finally accepted her decision.
"God forgive me," she muttered as she held onto the rock.