Needs of the Many

Source Episode: VOY 1x01/02 Caretaker

Neelix was a strange, funny man.

An average-sized humanoid with yellow-toned skin, freckle-like spots, and long slashes of platinum hair shooting straight from the top of his head and the length of his jawline, Neelix's looks were as quirky as his personality. He was a jumpy yet friendly man who was at once cheerfully optimistic and sharply cynical.

Despite being younger than me, Neelix had a wide breadth of experiences—a soldier, trader, negotiator, traveler, mechanic, miner. At the moment, he lived alone on a small cargo ship scavenging for parts to sell.

Neelix was amazed by the notion that we could replicate water, which was evidently quite scarce in the region of space we had found ourselves in. After bringing him and his ship aboard Voyager for the trip to Ocampa, he went rather overboard in utilizing the replicator technology in his guest quarters. He replicated himself a selection of foods from nearly every Federation world, two rather unfortunately-patterned pantsuits, and, of course, every flavor and form of water listed in the database.

But perhaps the most wonderful thing about having Neelix around was that he had no bias against myself and Chakotay due to our being Maquis. Initially, this would seem like an obvious non-issue, as he knew nothing of our conflict with the Federation and was entirely unimpacted by it. However, being a small ship, it wasn't long before some Starfleet evangelist had brought him up to speed on why Chakotay and I were not to be trusted over Captain Janeway.

Neelix's response was to visit the guest quarters I shared with Chakotay and strike up a conversation.

As an adolescent, Neelix had been a resistance fighter himself. Ten years ago, his homeworld—Talax—had been brutally conquered in a war that ultimately took the lives of his entire family. Millions were slaughtered and he was forced to flee. He'd been a bit of a vagabond ever since, working temporary jobs here and there, meeting new people and learning about a variety of cultures, yet never feeling a draw to settle anywhere for too long.

After sharing his own story, he listened attentively as Chakotay and I shared ours.

And when Captain Janeway called us all to the transporter room, he smiled and said, "No matter what happens, I am glad to have had the opportunity to know you both."

Captain Janeway, Tuvok, Tom, Chakotay, Neelix, and I all beamed down to the surface of the fifth planet at a settlement that Neelix had directed us to. The planet was entirely made up of desert. According to Janeway, it lacked neucleogenic particles in its atmosphere, leaving it incapable of producing rain. Ramshackle buildings constructed from the ruins of an ancient city stood before us, and some of the rough-looking occupants ducked into structures near the place where we materialized.

"Why would anyone want to live in a place like this?" Tom wondered aloud.

"This area has many rich cormaline deposits which are very much in demand," Neelix explained.

"So the Ocampa use it for barter?" Chakotay asked.

Neelix shook his head. "Not the Ocampa, the Kazon-Ogla." Seeing the captain's confusion at his correction, he clarified. "Kazon sects control this part of the quadrant. Some have food, some have ore, some have water. They all trade and they all kill each other for it."

Janeway's brow furrowed. "I thought you said the Ocampa had our people."

Neelix sidestepped further explanation smoothly, quickening his pace towards the Kazon-Ogla as a group of them advanced on us. "My friends!" he exclaimed excitedly. Some of the men disarmed us, while the others seized Neelix and carried him to structure in the middle of the settlement where they deposited him in front of a wall.

Contradicting the friendly act that our acquaintance had been putting on, the Kazon pulled their weapons and pointed them in the Talaxian's face. Instinctively, I reached for the blade hidden at my ribs, but Chakotay grabbed my hand and gave a nearly imperceptible shake of his head.

Right. We were doing this the Starfleet way.

I dropped my hand and allowed the Kazon men to escort us to the building across from Neelix, where they forced us to the ground.

Neelix laughed nervously when the men threatened to kill him. "Very amusing. Yes, yes, we all love a good joke. Now, I must speak with your Maje, the ever-wise Jabin!" A Kazon man with a definite air of authority about him emerged from another building, and Neelix excitedly called to him. The man glared at the Talaxian, who was at least smart enough to read the cue and get straight to the bargain. "Water, Jabin. I have water to replace all that I borrowed. Their ship has technology that makes water out of thin air!"

The man sniffed suspiciously at a bottle that Tom offered to him, then took a swig from it. When he asked if we had more of it, Janeway tapped her combadge and gave Voyager the order to energize. Two large tanks of water instantly materialized on the surface, and the Kazon's eyes widened with disbelief.

Janeway got right to the point. "This man led us here suggesting we might find a people called the Ocampa. Do you know where they are?"

Jabin gestured to a petite young woman with short blonde hair and a large black eye who had appeared in the doorway of the building behind him. "She is Ocampa. Why would you be interested in such worthless creatures? They live only nine years, and they make poor servants. We caught her when she wandered to the surface."

Jabin explained that the energy pulses from the array provided energy and food to the Ocampa, who lived in a subterranean city where they had access to the only source of water on the planet. He also explained that the Caretaker had established a barrier to prevent anyone from invading their settlement and taking the water by force.

Neelix begun trying to persuade Jabin to trade the young Ocampan woman for more water, but Jabin asked for Voyager's technology instead. Without warning, the Talaxian grabbed Jabin by the throat with a small disruptor weapon he'd concealed on himself and forced the Kazon to drop their weapons. Then, pointing his disruptor at the water tanks, he shot a large hole in each. Jabin and the rest of the Kazon rushed to the tanks with smaller containers to save what they could. Meanwhile, Neelix called for the woman to join us, then suggested to Janeway that she have Voyager beam us out.

When we materialized in the transporter room, Neelix hugged the woman close and looked deep into her eyes. "My dearest," he said to her. "Didn't I promise I'd save you?"

While the EMH treated Neelix's partner in Voyager's sickbay, Tuvok dealt a stoic Vulcan scolding to our unusual ally. "If you had told us what you had planned, we might have anticipated your irrational behavior."

"Irrational?" Neelix asked defensively. "We got out of there, didn't we?"

"Excuse me," interjected the sprite Ocampan woman as she sat up on the biobed. "Don't blame Neelix."

Setting down the dermal regenerator with a firm hand, the EMH circled around the biobed to confront the rest of us standing just outside of the surgical bay. "That's enough! This is a sickbay, not a conference room. Visiting hours are over. Everyone except my patient is to leave immediately."

Crossing her arms in front of her, Captain Janeway regarded the balding hologram with a single raised eyebrow. "Computer, end Medical Holographic Program."

Voyager's artificial intelligence chirped its acknowledgment of Janeway's command, and the EMH evaporated into nothing.

The Ocampan woman looked at Neelix, who had moved to her bedside. "I never should have gone to the surface. I'm too curious. I'm told it's my worst failing."

"No, no," Neelix countered, taking her hand in his. "It's a wonderful quality, Kes. Your most endearing one."

She smiled sweetly at the compliment.

The captain stepped up to Kes's bed. "Would you be willing to take us underground to look for our missing crew?"

"I'm afraid Jabin was right," Kes replied. "There's no way to get down. The tunnel I came out has been sealed."

Janeway gave a slight smile. "We don't need a tunnel. We have the ability to transport there directly."

"Captain," Tuvok interjected, "our sensors did not pick up any indication of an underground civilization. The subterranean barrier Jabin described may be responsible. It might also block our transporter."

"There are breaches in the security barrier where it's begun to decay. That's how I got out."

The captain turned to Tuvok. "Have the transporter room begin a sweep for any breaches we might be able to beam through."

With a nod of assent, Tuvok left sickbay.

"Kes can tell you where to go," Neelix told Janeway, "but now that she's free, we're leaving this system together."

"Neelix," Kes objected, "these people helped to rescue me. It would be wrong not to help them now."

With a resigned sigh, Neelix lowered his head.

Looking at Janeway, Kes promised. "I'll help you find your people, Captain."

As we searched the Ocampa settlement, we observed that the energy pulses from the Caretaker's array were steadily increasing. At their fastest, there were about three pulses coming at the planet per second. Then, inexplicably, they stopped. Voyager reported to Captain Janeway that the array was realigning its position, but they were unsure why until a weapon charge slammed into the surface of the planet, shaking the entire settlement.

Evidently, the Caretaker had given the Ocampan people enough of an energy surplus to last them for several more years. Then, he moved to seal the conduits. With that information, Tuvok deduced the motive behind all of the Caretaker's actions.

He was dying.

When Kes returned from the clinic reporting that our people hadn't been seen in several hours, Janeway considered their whereabouts. "If they were trying to get to the surface, how would they go?"

"Probably the same way I did," Kes suggested. "Up one of the ancient tunnels."

Janeway turned to the rest of our team. "Mister Paris, you and Neelix go with her and check the tunnels. We need to talk to every doctor and nurse at this hospital, see what they can tell about Torres and Kim."

Chakotay glanced at me. "Talia, I want you to go with them." When I turned to follow Kes, he grabbed my hand and pulled me to himself, crushing my mouth with a desperate kiss before dragging his lips so close to my ear that even Tuvok wouldn't hear him. "Watch your back," he whispered, "and be ready to run."

Feigning indifference towards the public setting of Chakotay's affections, I made a soft moan in the back of my throat and murmured, "You, too, Tay." With one final squeeze, we broke apart, casting worried glances at each other as we went our separate ways.

"So," Tom observed after we had left the main hall, "you and Chakotay, huh?"

A big part of me wanted to snap at him. Yeah, me and Chakotay. Because sex actually means something to him. But that wasn't fair.

I grabbed his hand and squeezed it, because despite my anger, I had missed my best friend. "It's good to see you again, Tommy."

He returned the squeeze with a guilty smile. "You, too, Tal."

In the cavern leading up to the tunnels, Tom took out his tricorder. "They're in this one," he said, pointing to a metal staircase on our right. I took off up the stairs as he commed Captain Janeway to report that we had found them.

"Call for transport when you have them, Paris," she said. "We'll meet you on the ship."

We had made it to the sixth landing when Tom's combadge chirped again.

"The transporters aren't working," Janeway informed him. "You're going to have to find a breach in the security barrier when you get to the top. We're a few minutes behind you."

I had paused on one landing to glance up ahead when I saw them, resting on another landing some flights up. "B'Elanna!" I called into the cavern towards the exhausted pair.

The Caretaker's weapon continued to slam into the surface of the planet, making the stairways shake and loosening rocks all around us. Still, Tom, Kes, and I maintained our hurried pace until we reached them. Stepping past Tom's friend, Harry, I grabbed B'Elanna and secured her arm over my shoulders.

Behind me, I could hear Tom and Harry bantering. "Took you long enough," Harry groused.

Tom grunted as he took Harry's weight. "How could I let down the only friend I've got?"

"Friend?" Harry echoed with strained sarcasm. "What makes you think I'm your friend?"

B'Elanna glanced around nervously as small rocks continued to shake loose and fall throughout the cavern. "What are the odds of this whole thing coming down and trapping us in here?"

"Don't worry," Kes reassured her. "I know we can get through the barrier."

At the top of the stairs was a tunnel just large enough for two people to fit side-by-side. Several yards from the mouth of the tunnel, I saw the barrier—a golden, shimmering force field of some kind that covered most of the tunnel.

"Don't touch the barrier," Kes warned as she pressed her back tightly against the rock wall of the tunnel and carefully maneuvered past it. From the other side, she helped me get B'Elanna through the opening before I took my turn.

Once everyone was past the barrier, we followed the tunnel until it reached the top. Tom and Neelix took out their phasers and blasted a hole in the ceiling of the tunnel, allowing the sunlight to flood the corridor. We climbed out onto the planet's dead surface, and Tom tapped his combadge. "Voyager, can you get a lock on us now?"

"Affirmative," came the response. "But I'm reading only six signals."

"The others are—"

A charge that looked like a very large torpedo came screaming towards the ground from space, interrupting Tom's transmission. He shouted a warning at us, but I was already in motion, throwing myself on top of B'Elanna and covering my head with my hands. After the explosion, Tom and I looked back at the hole we had just come out of, which was belching out clouds of dust.

Again, Tom activated his combadge. "Paris to Janeway." Silence. "Chakotay, Tuvok, do you read?"

No one responded.

I double-checked the security of my knife in its sheath—a ritual for when I was about to walk into danger. "I'm going back for them, Tom."

He considered me for a moment, then turned to Neelix. "I'm going with her. Make sure these two get taken care of."

Neelix gave a resolute nod. "You can count on me, sir."

Tom tapped his combadge. "Voyager, prepare to transport everyone in this group except for me and Talia."

"Acknowledged."

"Energize."

After they dematerialized, I dropped down into the tunnel and made my way back to the stairs as fast as I could go. Tom followed close behind, but I wasn't paying much attention to him—preoccupied as I was with willing Chakotay to just, please, be okay.

Two flights down, I spotted Captain Janeway's tight brown bun. "They're here!"

She was on the next landing kneeling beside Tuvok, who looked dazed. Chakotay was sitting on the stairs just behind them, which had broken loose from the landing and were swaying precariously. He was gripping the railing so tight his knuckles were white, and his face was contorted with pain.

Janeway looked up as I approached. "Help me with Tuvok!"

Tom came up behind me and grasped my shoulder. "I'll get Chakotay." I looked at him, and for a split second, I had the urge to shove him back and go after Chakotay myself. But, I recognized the look in those earnest blue eyes—a promise.

I nodded, then knelt down to pick up Tuvok and made the grueling ascent back to the surface.

While the EMH patched everyone up in sickbay, Voyager made her way back to the Caretaker's array with our raider, the Valjean, following close behind. When we arrived just after the Kazon-Ogla, Janeway allowed Chakotay, B'Elanna, and I to return to our ship.

Being a highly territorial species, Maje Jabin took it as an act of aggression when Captain Janeway and Tuvok beamed onto the array in order to convince the Caretaker to send us home. Initially, the Ogla's decision to open fire on Voyager seemed utterly vain; between our ship and Starfleet, we could easily defend the array against their small spacecrafts. Within minutes, however, a third Kazon vessel arrived, which was more powerful than both of our ships combined.

We watched in despair as the Ogla assaulted Voyager.

"Their weapons array has been hit," Chakotay said. "They're in trouble."

"Neither of us has enough fire power to stop that ship!" B'Elanna exclaimed.

Two options came to mind. Abandon Voyager and live the rest of our lives alone in the Delta Quadrant, or—

"We can ram it."

Chakotay and B'Elanna gaped at me.

"We'll be in Starfleet custody, but at least we'll be alive and back in the Alpha Quadrant."

"Their structural integrity is weakest around their weapons arrays," B'Elanna observed. "If you build up enough speed, you could disable them."

"Good idea," I told her. "This will work. The only problem is, our guidance system is down. I'll have to pilot it manually."

Chakotay shook his head. "No. I'll do it. You two get the crew ready to beam to Voyager."

I grabbed Chakotay's hands and met his eyes. "Tay, you know I'm the better pilot. Let me do this."

He considered me for a moment, then nodded. "I'll grab your things." Tipping my chin upward, he slanted his lips over mine, kissing me deeply. "See you in a bit," he murmured before following B'Elanna into the aft section.

Swiveling my chair back towards the conn, I opened a communication channel to our unlikely allies. "Voyager, I'm sending the crew over to you. Keep a lock on me, but wait for my mark. I'll take care of the Kazon."

Tom's friend, Harry, answered my hail. "Acknowledged."

It wasn't easy living our entire lives out of duffle bags, constantly moving between multiple bases and ships. But, at times, it meant we didn't lose the precious few possessions we had.

Within two minutes, the crew was ready to transport to Voyager, so I reopened the comm channel and dropped the shields. "Eelo to Voyager. The crew is ready for beam out."

"Acknowledged," Harry repeated.

With that, I was alone on the old rust bucket for the last time.

"Standing by to transport on your mark, Eelo," Harry said.

"Acknowledged." I gave the console one last affectionate rub. "Ironic how things turn out, isn't it, old girl?"

"I'm sorry?"

I chuckled. "Don't mind me. Just saying goodbye to my old friend here."

Harry probably thought I was crazy, but Tom would understand.

Bringing the vessel about, I gave myself some space to build up momentum before impact. Then I lined up and aimed Valjean directly at the Kazon's starboard weapons array.

Over the comm channel, I could hear the chatter on Voyager's bridge as I closed in on the Kazon ship. "I have a lock on her, but she's getting too close," Harry warned.

"She'll hold," Tom insisted, as confident in my abilities as he was in his own.

It was right about that time when the Kazon noticed what I was doing, because they stopped targeting Voyager and began firing on me. I was so close, but with my shields down, it would only take a few volleys to tear me apart. One of the shots took out my starboard nacelle, causing an explosion in the stern of the ship and throwing me violently off-course.

"You're breaking up, Tal," came Tom's voice.

"Wait," I insisted, straining to steer Valjean back towards her target. The cockpit still had containment, and I had five hundred meters yet to go.

Four hundred.

Three hundred.

Two hundred.

Back on course and close enough to see into the windows of the Kazon vessel, I offered a silent prayer of gratitude to the rebuilt raider that had carried us so far. Then I shouted, "Mark!"

In the space of a heartbeat, I materialized on the transporter pad. Chakotay was at my side in an instant, kissing me so hard that I couldn't breathe and only pulling away when Tom's worried voice sounded over the comm.

"Transporter room two, do you have her?"

Chakotay cupped my face in his hands. "She's here, Paris."

"Nice flying, Tal," Tom said. "You took out their entire weapons system, inertial dampers, among other things. They won't be bothering us anymore."

By the time we stepped off of the turbolift and onto the bridge, the Kazon ship had collided with the array, ripping off one of its central arms. Minutes later, Captain Janeway and Tuvok returned.

Janeway strode quickly to her command seat. "Mister Tuvok, ready the tricobalt devices."

"Aye, Captain."

"Open a channel to the Kazon."

Harry carried out her order, and Maje Jabin appeared on the viewscreen. "Be advised, Captain," he threatened, "I have called for additional ships."

"I'm calling to warn you to move your vessels to a safe distance," Janeway informed him. "I intend to destroy the array."

B'Elanna, Chakotay and I all looked at each other while the Maje protested. "You can't do that!" he shouted.

"I can and I will." Janeway slashed her hand through the air and the comm was dropped. She strode towards the helm, coming to a stop behind Tom and ordering him to back Voyager away.

"What do you think you're doing?" B'Elanna snapped, wheeling Janeway. "That array is the only way we have to get back home!"

"I'm aware everyone has families and loved ones at homes they want to get back to," Janeway snapped back. "So do I. But I'm not willing to trade the lives of the Ocampa for our convenience. We'll have to find another way home." At that, she turned on her heel and walked back to her seat.

"What other way home is there?" B'Elanna moved to follow, but Chakotay grabbed her shoulder. She spun on him. "Who is she to be making these decisions for all of us?"

"She's the captain," he said.

With the tricobalt devices ready, and Voyager positioned at a safe distance, Janeway issued the order to fire. Two blue charges shot out and slammed into the array, destroying it completely.

Immediately Maje Jabin hailed, glaring daggers at the captain and growling, "You have made an enemy today." The transmission was abruptly cut off, and the Kazon ships withdrew.

We were alone in the Delta Quadrant.