STAR TREK: A Long Road (Voyager Fix It Quest)

DragonCobolt · May 8, 2022

The Dragon: Once per episode, at the beginning of combat place an Advantage on the field representing a cunning tactic or strategy devised by Danara Pel.

NAME	USS Voyager	PROF.	MULTIROLE
CLASS	Sovereign Class Heavy Exploration Vessel	CONST	2371
SHIELDS	13/13	RESISTANCE	6	SCALE	6
POWER	13/13	CREW SUPPORT	6	SMALL CRAFT	5

		COMMS	ENGINES	STRUCTURE	COMPUTERS	SENSORS	WEAPONS
BREACHES		0/6	0/6	0/6	0/6	0/6	0/6
		9	11	10	11	9	10
COMMAND	3	12	14	13	14	12	13
CONNING	2	12	14	13	14	12	13
ENGINEERING	2	11	13	12	13	11	12
SECURITY	3	13	15	14	16	13	14
SCIENCE	2	11	13	12	13	11	12
MEDICINE	2	11	13	12	13	11	12

TALENTS	Command Ship: Can give advantages using Command within range to Away Missions or to supporting ships. EMH: Has an EMH! Improved Warp Drive: When going to warp, roll 1cd on an effect, regain the power point. Quantum Torpedoes: Can use Quantum Torpedoes! (60 total) Secondary Reactors: +5 to Power High Resolution Sensors: +1 momentum to out of combat sensor checks.
TRAITS	Federation Starship – A highly sophisticated and advanced vessel, with holodecks, replicators, and similar comforts, primarily designed to handle multiple operations. Highly sensitive and requiring constant maintenance, the vehicle is less rugged than other interstellar craft Maquis Crew - a good chunk of the crew are former Maquis troublemakers. Expect discipline problems and unorthodox plans.
WEAPONS	Phaser Arrays Power Cost: 1-3 \| Range: Medium \| Damage: 9cd [+1 per extra power spent] Can Use Spread: Hit +1 time at ½ damage per effect OR Area: hit +1 ship per effect within close range. Versatile 2: Gain 2 bonus momentum with a successful hit Photon Torpedoes Power Cost: 0 \| Range: Long \| Damage: 6cd High Yield: If it causes 1 breach, it causes +1 breach Quantum Torpedoes Power Cost: 0 \| Range: Long \| Damage: 7cd (Vicious 1 - +1 damage on effects) High Yield: If it causes 1 breach, it causes +1 breach Calibrations: Requires 1 minor action to calibrate Tractor Beam (Strength 5) Power Cost: 0 \| Range: Close \| Damage: None Effect: If successfully established, enemies face a diff 5 check to escape.

CREW COMPLIMENT (Base Stat: 9 | Base Skill: 2)
CO: Captain Katheryn Janeway (Skilled: Command, Science | Weakness: Combat)

SPECIAL ABILITY: "We Can Be Better" - if you succeed on any diplomatic check with Janeway, Get +1 momentum

XO: Commander D-91 (Skilled: Command | Weakness: Socialization)
HELM: Lt. Tom Paris (Skilled: Conn | Weakness: Not Being A Fucking Up)
TACTICAL: Ensign Harry Kimm (Skilled: Gunnery | Weakness: Harry Kim)
SECURITY: Lt. JG Amy Strong (Skilled: Personal Combat | Weakness: Lying)

MAQUIS HEADBREAKER: C'nola (Skilled: Combat, Sneaking and Scheming | Weakness: Emotional Wreck)

SCIENCE: Tuvok (Skilled: Science | Weakness: Emotionless)
COMMS: Lt. Bian T'are (Skilled: Communications | Weakness: Combat)
MEDICAL: The EMH (Skilled: Doctor | Weakness: Kind of a Dick)
ENGINEER: B'lanna Torres (Skilled: Engineering | Weakness: Also a dick)

SECONDARY CHARACTERS
Ensign Steve (Useless Security Goon)
Ensign Becky (plural fighter jock)
Petty Officer Third Class Jessie (Hard working engineer)
Crewman Billingsly (Dude, Billingsly!)
Crewman Chandra (Concerned Crewman)
Bifurcate (bidimensional robot girlfriend of Harry Kim)
Princess Lyan Positron (runaway daughter of magician most foul and girlfriend of Harry Kim)
Soria Flyte (Pegasus girl and girlfriend of Harry Kim)
Mirror Universe Trevor (he's fine!)

NAME	MRSS Val Jean	PROF.	TACOPS
CLASS	Keldon Class Heavy Cruiser	CONST	2370
SHIELDS	12/12	RESISTANCE	5	SCALE	4
POWER	7/7	CREW SUPPORT	4	SMALL CRAFT	3

		COMMS	ENGINES	STRUCTURE	COMPUTERS	SENSORS	WEAPONS
BREACHES		0/4	0/4	0/4	0/4	0/4	0/4
		9	9	9	8	7	10
COMMAND	3	12	12	12	11	10	13
CONNING	2	11	11	11	10	9	12
ENGINEERING	2	11	11	11	10	9	12
SECURITY	3	12	12	12	11	10	13
SCIENCE	1	10	10	10	9	8	11
MEDICINE	2	11	11	11	10	9	12

TALENTS	Electronic Warfare Suite: Whenever making a Jamming or Intercept communications check, can spend 2 momentum to select +1 target (repeatable.) Fast Targeting Systems: No +1 diff for called shots Improved Hull Integrity: +1 Resistance Cloaking Device: Spend 3 power, and make a Control+Engineering + Engines + Security check with a diff of 2. If successful, gain the Cloaked Trait (impossible to detect, cannot attack, shields are down.) It takes a minor action to decloak.
TRAITS	Cardassian Ship – Durable, uncomfortable, close, cramped and cheap. Thinks creature comforts are for other people and technical sophistication is for people who haven't spent decades starving to death. The fact that the starving could have been avoided if the government were less...you know, monstrous doesn't seem to have occurred to that many of them. Okampan Crew – the crew are bright, perky, cheerful, and incredibly psychically powerful. Individually, they're all better than Vulcans, and as a gestalt? Who knows!
WEAPONS	Phaser Arrays Power Cost: 1-3 \| Range: Medium \| Damage: 7-9cd (Spread: Hit +1 time at ½ damage per effect OR Area) Versatile 2: Gain X bonus momentum with a successful hit Disruptor Banks Range: Medium \| Damage: 8-10cd (Vicious 1: Each effect adds +1 damage) Tractor Beam (Strength 3)

CREW COMPLIMENT (Base Stat: 8 | Base Skill: 1)
CO: Lt. Commander Brian Wacoche (Skilled: Commando Tactics | Weakness: Independent)
TACTICAL: Seska (Skilled: Being Seska | Weakness: Everything Else)
CONN: R'lash skilled: Piloting | Weakness: Romulan Fuckup)
ESPIONAGE: Kes (Skilled: Commando Tactics | Weakness: Naive)

Crewman Stadi - Age 23, Betazoid, born Beta Colony-5 to Zani and Talwyn of the House of Riis, survived by her sisters Tari and Batri.
R'mor - age 182, Vulcan, burn on Romulus to R'tan and Leslali, survived by his twelve nieces and nephews across the Empire

DragonCobolt · May 13, 2022

Rivenscryr said:
Does our ship have the ability to make bio-neural gel packs? (I know newer classes like the Intrepid and Sovereign use them). And would those be of some use for this sort of tech?

Yes, but you can't really scale that production, since you'd be growing them in your science lab.

Basically, your ship is a flying high tech replicator that can handle all sorts of tasks - buuuuut a majority of them have serious bottlenecks. You can produce enough food to feed 700 people, easy peasy, every single day. By running those replicators all out, you could double or even quadruple that. But feeding 7 million people, you're going to hit your upper limit on how much you can produce at any one time and, also, run out of organic feedstock.

(Replicators, imo, function by taking the basic elements and run them through a transporter beam and reconstruct them into new structures.)

(Also, replicated food tastes identical to normal food, and people who say otherwise are just fucking whiners.)

Rivenscryr · May 13, 2022

DragonCobolt said:
(Also, replicated food tastes identical to normal food, and people who say otherwise are just fucking whiners.)

Well, sure, but a replicated meal is going to be identical to the one that was programmed into the replicator each time, so there's something to be said about prepping things yourself or having something cooked fresh if you like a bit of variation. Can't guarantee the replicator has the best pattern for a meal after all.

slybrarian · May 13, 2022

Statistically, when people say "I can tell it's replicated" they mean "I can tell it's not my grandparent's recipe, as I remember it from childhood" and will often claim non-replicated food is obviously replicated. Also, they don't remember that their grandparent cheated half the time using an objectively less advanced replicator.

Michael Eddington, for his part, is just an egotistical jerk who makes the entire universe about him.

RvengefuLobster · May 13, 2022

[x] Mr. Vulcan Investigates

Derek58 · May 13, 2022

[x] Mr. Vulcan Investigates

Talkos · May 13, 2022

DragonCobolt said:
(Also, replicated food tastes identical to normal food, and people who say otherwise are just fucking whiners.)

Look, replicators can make food perfectly according the chemical makeup of the example recipe each and every time. But ol' granmama always saw "two cloves" of garlic in the recipe and added a half a head, and granpappy always put in a stick of butter and tablespoon of salt more than any Federation doctor would approve of in a single meal.

Bolo · May 13, 2022

[x] Mr. Vulcan Investigates

JNewbold54 · May 13, 2022

[x] Mr. Vulcan Investigates

DracoDracul · May 13, 2022

[x] Mr. Vulcan Investigates

Torres and C'NOLA is too much anger issue for a single away team.

Skippy · May 13, 2022

This Quest is great, and catching up over the last few hours has been a lot of fun.

Really enjoy how you're characterising Starfleet in this Quest with basically the same sort of blend of self-awareness and humour without sacrificing drama or idealism as The Lower Decks. It's honestly my favourite approach to the setting.

[x]Harry Kim and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
-[x] Tuvok
-[x] C'nola
-[x] Harry Kik

Harry and C'nola already had some good scenes together in the last updates, and with Tuvok there bringing his "disapproving teacher supervising a field trip" energies, plus Harry's propensity to fail-forward into driving the plot, this will be one corker of an away mission.

Rivenscryr · May 13, 2022

I could go for that.

[x]Harry Kim and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

DragonCobolt · May 13, 2022

Skippy said:
Really enjoy how you're characterising Starfleet in this Quest with basically the same sort of blend of self-awareness and humour without sacrificing drama or idealism as The Lower Decks. It's honestly my favourite approach to the setting.

I am channeling the mood of James Allen Gardener's Spark/Darkling universe, wherein...the universe is objectively silly and weird, but also, just because the holographic killer cowboy is fucking sillyass nonsense does not change the fact he IS going to kill you if you don't stop him - so you have to, like, do that.

Skippy · May 13, 2022

DragonCobolt said:
I am channeling the mood of James Allen Gardener's Spark/Darkling universe, wherein...the universe is objectively silly and weird, but also, just because the holographic killer cowboy is fucking sillyass nonsense does not change the fact he IS going to kill you if you don't stop him - so you have to, like, do that.

Yeah, when it's done well, you can turn on a dime from high-concept sci-fi silliness to a feeling of real peril and problems to solve, and from from humour to serious drama and conflicts of ideals. Good stuff.

KarmaA · May 13, 2022

[X] Just another episode
-[x] Tuvok
-[x] Harry Kim
-[x] B'lanna Torres

Agree with the desire to find a way to salvage the cloak and key equipment or materials off the cardassian ship. Sovereign has to have some space to store loot.

Can we give the rest of the cardassian ship to the caretaker in exchange for help with the large repairs?

If we get the power/engines sorted is it possible to do additional repairs ourselves and use the Voyager to gather resources/replicate stuff the caretaker needs in exchange for eventually teleporting Voyager back home? We get blueprints / hands on with some powerful new tech and they get intelligent help. Would be down for collecting non-sentient samples from nearby planets.

Edit: For the plan have Tuvok and logic for figuring out society/negotiations, Harry for emotional/charisma to balance out the grouchiness and spy mindset since they're telepaths IIRC, and B'lanna to see if their engineering is good enough to be helpful.

jwolfe_beta · May 13, 2022

DragonCobolt said:
I am channeling the mood of James Allen Gardener's Spark/Darkling universe, wherein...the universe is objectively silly and weird, but also, just because the holographic killer cowboy is fucking sillyass nonsense does not change the fact he IS going to kill you if you don't stop him - so you have to, like, do that.

So are you rolling with the entire ST setting inherently being nuts or is Starfleet a weirdness magnet in comparison to the other groups running around?

samdamandias · May 13, 2022

DragonCobolt said:
...unless you wanna start a recruitment drive in the Delta Quadrent.

RAG! TAG! FLEET!

Rivenscryr said:
Well, sure, but a replicated meal is going to be identical to the one that was programmed into the replicator each time, so there's something to be said about prepping things yourself or having something cooked fresh if you like a bit of variation. Can't guarantee the replicator has the best pattern for a meal after all.

Sometimes the act of preparing the food is more important. Yeah, Captain Sisko can get better tasting gumbo out of replicator, but he wants to make gumbo. (Also, is replicated matzah kosher?) I could probably get a much tastier and nutritionally balanced plate of Christmas cookies out of a replicator, but the act of making those cookies is an important tradition in my family.

You can replicate some brats or battered fish, you can't replicate a barbecue or a fish fry.

Also please tell me that this time someone remembered to program the replicators with mac and cheese.

[x]Harry Kim and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

DragonCobolt · May 13, 2022

jwolfe_beta said:
So are you rolling with the entire ST setting inherently being nuts or is Starfleet a weirdness magnet in comparison to the other groups running around?

Space is inherently nonsense, but Starfleet tends to interact with weirdness more because if the CUSN (Cardassian Union Star Navy) runs into, like, a space dragon, they just shoot it. Most empires don't explore - they exploit.

It ends a lot of episodes anticlimactically.

jwolfe_beta · May 13, 2022

DragonCobolt said:
CUSN (Cardassian Union Star Navy) runs into, like, a space dragon, they just shoot it.

It ends a lot of episodes anticlimactically.

Yes, to the tune of 'Everybody's dead Jim. Cause: Eaten by dragon.'

samdamandias said:
Also please tell me that this time someone remembered to program the replicators with mac and cheese.

And if they did, it better be a proper version of the dish and not just pasta+cheese.
I've tasted some of the latter forms of the dish. They need to be cleansed with fire.🤮

Rivenscryr · May 13, 2022

jwolfe_beta said:
And if they did, it better be a proper version of the dish and not just pasta+cheese.
I've tasted some of the latter forms of the dish. They need to be cleansed with fire.🤮

There really should be multiple variants, but it really is up to whoever programmed it. If it was some intern who got the pattern for pasta and cheese and called it a day, welp.

DragonCobolt · May 14, 2022

"We need to determine more about this Caretaker - but I have a problem with asking questions about him," Janeway said.

"Which is?" Wacoche asked.

"I don't trust him further than I can throw his spacestation," Janeway said. "So, we're going to be sending an away team down there...who's the best at security now that Amy is in sickbay?" She lookd at Shives, who blinked, opened his mouth.

"Me," C'nola said, casually flexing her fingers. Claws sprang from the tips.

"She is a terror," Wacoche said, grinning.

"All right, that handles if you get into a fight. T'are...can you handle translation and communication?" Janeway asked.

"Yes," T'are said, her voice tight.

"That's handled. Tuvock, you're on science duty," Janeway said.

"Very good, Captain," Tuvock said.

"Whoa, whoa, wait!" Shives said, pointing his finger at Tuvock. "That's two Maquis and one Starfleet - what if the two of them decide to, I don't know...do...terrorist stuff?"

Tuvock inclined his head. "A correct assessment of the danger. However, I am not a member of the Maquis. I am a member of Starfleet Intelligence, in deep cover liaison operations with Brian Wacoche."

"Yeah, where do you think we got all the phasers from?" Wacoche said, smiling cheerfully. "And the intel on getting a cloaking equipped Obsidian Order ship?"

The room was dead silent. Janeway whistled, softly.

"And you aimed a phaser at us?" Harry asked.

"Starfleet Intelligence requires, ocassionally, the use of deception. Not many Vulcans take to it," Tuvock said. "However, I have always been described as mentally flexible by my fellow Vulcans." His voice remained as neutral as ever.

"Is that an insult or compliment?" Tom asked, chuckling.

Tuvock slowly arched an eyebrow. "It is a description of material reality, Mr. Paris. That is all." He stood, while C'nola came to her feet, casually scraping her claws on the artificial wood of the table, sending up tiny wood chips into the air.

"Later nerds," she said, then followed Tuvock as T'are stood and followed after her.

Once they were gone, Janeway sighed. She noticed Wacoche's glance and explained: "TacCom are real assholes. And Starfleet Intelligence hates talking."

"Ah Starfleet," Wacoche said. "Never change."

---

The transporter effect faded from T'are's eyes and she reached up to immediately tick her masker up two notches. The blistering heat of the desert they had just ported into was putting her into overemitting and the last thing she wanted to do was distract anyone. Even if, right now, all she wanted, more than anything was to lose herself in the mindlessness of touch and contact. It wasn't even the sex urge...though, like all Orions, she felt that pretty damn constantly. Humans always misunderstood that - they mapped their own mental image of arousal and sexual need onto Orions and, despite centuries of effort, puritanical thought-modes persisted and translated that to 'slutty.' But an Orion could go without actual sex for a long, long time and be perfectly fine.

It was touch that they needed. The comforting handshake of a friend, the camaraderie of a close hug from a colleague after a breakthrough, the pleasentness of the shared Orion quarters. The Voyager had six other Orions, three male, two female and one agendered woman, and they all shared the same communal quarters. Crawling into the pile and just soaking in the pheromones and the touch was...

Was a long way off, at this rate.

T'are put it all out of her head. Instead, she pulled out her tricorder and began to adjust it by touch, her eyes sweeping around the desert that they had beamed into.

"Well," Nola said, her voice as dry as the sands around her. "Where do you think the Okampa city is going to be?"

She was looking directly at the kilometers wide dome of glowing psychic force about five hundred meters away from them. The air was thick with the smell of ozone, and the crackling sound of discharging energy could be heard even from here.

"While your question is sarcastic, C'nola," Tuvock said. "We must not ignore the possibility that the dome of glowing psychic force is not related to the settlement in question." He turned. "Lt. Bian?"

"I'm picking up a few million life forms within, almost all of them matching the same genetic signature," T'are said, quietly, adjusting her tricorder. "There are a few that stand out as being distinct. That energy field distorts sensors from orbit - but it has no protection down here. Hell, we can walk into it."

"It doesn't look walkable," C'nola said, quietly.

"The discharge is psionic, not electric," T'are said. "We'll be fine, so long as we're not extremely sensitive espers."

She paused.

"Tuvock, what's your esper rating?" She looked at him.

"Approximately three hundred and ninety on the Duke-Heidelberg quotient scale," Tuvock said.

T'are stuck her tongue into the corner of her mouth. "All right, we need to put a dampener on you, but you'll be fine."

Tuvock nodded, then reached down to the pattern buffer on his belt. He dialed through it, then selected a dampening unit from the options. The buffer whirred and the small disk of white plastic with the blinking blue light on it appeared. T'are took it, flipped it over, and plugged her Tricorder into it, her thumb tapping the controls.

"Wait, you just bring psychic dampeners everywhere you go?" C'nola asked.

"No, it's a general purpose energy dampener," T'are explained, absent mindedly. "For dealing with electrical discharges, uh, polaric inversal fields...Nauptican Dispersal Clouds...um..." She muttered. "Quantum...Stuff."

"You're just making things up now," C'nola said.

T'are ignored her. "Okay, good, it blocks subquantum energies." She affixed the dampener to Tuvock's head. "Don't mind meld with this on."

"I will endeavor to avoid this," Tuvock said, his chin held up as he started forward, then walked through the crackling lightning. C'nola shrugged, then slinked through it as if it was no big deal. T'are gulped, squared her shoulders, then stepped through. She blinked as the light washed past her...and then she was standing on a broad green grass lawn. A small house was built on the lawn - the same as what seemed to be thousands of others, spread outwards in a geometric pattern. People were lounging on the grass, walking on the sidewalks, heading into and out of buildings. They were, uniformly, dressed in pale white outfits but were firmly humanoid standard, with the oddity of pointed, almost vulcanoid ears - though their facial features were different.

They tended towards blond and pretty.

C'nola spun in a slow circle, grinning and nodding. "I like this place," she said.

"Visitors!"

T'are turned to see an Okampan - she presumed - woman - she presumed - riding a bycicle - she...well, okay, there were limited ways to build bicycles for bipedal species. The woman kicked out the kickstand, grinning. "You're not Talaxian! Or Kazon." She blinked. "...you're all different!"

"Is that unusual?" T'are asked.

"Oh yeah, according to the Caretaker, multispecies societies are prime targets for the Takers," the woman said, nodding sagely.

"I mean, she's not wrong," C'nola muttered to Tuvock, who ignored her.

"We're new in this area of space," T'are said. "We've met the Kazon - who are the Talaxians?"

"I only know what Neelix told us," the Okampa woman said, nodding.

"Neelix?" T'are asked. "Who is Neelix?"

"Oh, he's famous! He has his own holoshow - Good Morning Galaxy - and he runs a restaurant and he's a refugee!" her eye's shone excitedly. "And he's so dreamy..."

T'are chuckled. "Got it, he's a big deal. Is he Okampan?"

"No, no, he's a Talaxian," the Okampan woman said, nodding cheerfully. Other Okampa, T'are noticed, were glancing their way...but they all seemed remarkably disinterested. As if aliens walking in through the glowing barrier at the edge of their world was just no nevermind. Said barrier wasn't even subtle - it was just as bright and crackling on this side, though it faded as it reached upwards, the dome itself looking more like a normal, cloudy blue sky, with a bright sun overhead. "He came here a few years ago. It was the most exciting thing since...well, ever." She blinked slightly. "Oh! My name is Gen!"

"A pleasure to meet you Gen," T'are said, taking her hand and shaking it. "I'm T'are and this is Tuvock and C'nola."

"Sup," C'nola said, grinning at Gen, who blushed at her look.

"Your people seem quite accustomed to visitors," Tuvock said.

"Oh, no...uh...this neighborhood is for people just off the Calling," Gen said, blushing. "I was actually on my way to visit my husband - he was on Calling and I wanted to see how he was doing - though..." Her face fell. "He's...not long for this world. Most of these people are going to be gone soon - the memories go, then the minds, then they...just fade away, you know..." She looked sad.

"I'm so sorry for your loss..." T'are said, gently. She stepped close, then took her hand, squeezing. "But...what is the Calling?"

"The Calling is our duty to the Caretaker, who takes care of us. He provides the sun and the skies and protects us from the Takers and hostile Kazon sects," Gen said, perking right up. "When an Okampa is near the end of their life, they are Called-" She pointed back over her shoulder, at the center of the city. There, a glimmering tower of crystal and glass rose. "-and in the Calling, they lend their power to the Caretaker. We're all espers, see!" She puffed up her chest, proudly. "No other species in the known universe has the same esper latency that we do - so, when we go to the Calling, we can keep him alive and keep the City alive."

"...I...see," T'are said.

"How old was your husband?" C'nola asked. "Robbing the cradle?"

"Huh?" Gen looked confused. "No. He was only six, I'm five."

"...five...decades?" C'nola asked.

"Five decades!?" Gen laughed. "No, no one lives nearly that long, that's absurd." she paused. "Well, okay, except for the Caretaker, obviously, but, like, he's the Caretaker, of course he lives way longer." She shook her head. "Next year, I'll be up for Calling - though I may live to seven before I get called, it really depends."

C'nola looked like she was about to say something...very C'nola-ey. T'are put her hand on her shoulder, smiling brightly. "Well, don't let us keep you, Gen. You have to visit your husband."

Gen nodded. "I will! Later!"

She biked off.

"I'm going to fucking shove an antimatter warhead up that fucking cowboy's ass," C'nola growled as she watched Gen go riding.

"Calm your emotions, C'nola," Tuvock said.

"You heard what she said, right?" C'nola hissed.

"We do not know the age-rate of these beings," Tuvock said. "If their natural lifespan is only eight or ten years, then this Calling may be a perfectly natural part of their lives and culture."

C'nola gaped. "But...I...you don't get sentient if you drop dead like fucking fruit flies."

"I'm doing a quick scan," T'are said, aiming her tricorder at two nearby Okampa. Now that she was looking closely, she could see their empty looking eyes, the gray around their temples, their...slightly confused expressions. "...I'm...not reading any of the biological rhythms that would indicate natural lifespans at this age. If anything, I'm detecting an intense tachyon flux."

"Is it consistent with accelerated gestation and maturation?" Tuvock asked.

"Yes," T'are said. "That it is."

Tuvock frowned, ever so slightly.

---
CURRENT MOMENTUM: 0
CURRENT SCENE TRUTHS: (on ship) "None" (Away Mission) "Everything Is Perfect In The City" and "Ambient Tachyon Energy"

...well!

[ ] Find this Neelix. As an outsider, he'd know, maybe better than the Okampa, what the Caretaker is about.
[ ] Investigate the...Calling Tower.
[ ] Talk to more Okampa.
[ ] Retreat, beam back to ship, explode the Caretaker with ray guns
[ ] Write In

Crew, doing peeping!
C'Nola, with the best skills, assisted by T'are and Tuvock: 4 successes rolled on observations!

Four questions asked and answered: How many Okampa, Can We Get In Safely, How to get Tuvok in safely...

1 Momentum saved!

T'are gives Tuvock the Advantage of "Psionic Dampening" using her science skill: 2s, success!

T'are spends momentum after Gen's convo to find out about Okampa lifespan.

Derek58 · May 14, 2022

Hah, a holo show and a restaurant, Neelix is certainly doing better for himself than canon.

[X] Find this Neelix. As an outsider, he'd know, maybe better than the Okampa, what the Caretaker is about.

Lets see if he can give us more info before we poke around the tower.

ThatGazzer · May 14, 2022

[X] Find this Neelix. As an outsider, he'd know, maybe better than the Okampa, what the Caretaker is about.

catboy neelix catboy neelix catboy neelix

Breadnaugt · May 14, 2022

Ah yes, the Okampa.

... your species only live a handful of years? How would you even evolve like.. well, alien world with unknown selective pressures I guess? Okay, then.

But wait, your species only go into heat once in your lifetime. And can only produce a single child. Do the males also produce children? Because that raises question of why you'd even have sexual dimorphism enough to be separated into genders, but aside from that, even assuming the males have kids too, that means you need a 100% success rate with your children to sustain zero population growth. Every premature death is a loss you can never recover from, leading to inevitable population decline.

What did the Caretaker DO to you?

DragonCobolt · May 14, 2022

I am doing some rewriting on how the Okampa work because the only justifiable explanation in the original Voyager universe is that they were specially bred as sex slaves for other species.

Spart117MC · May 14, 2022

DragonCobolt said:
They tended towards blond and pretty.

C'nola spun in a slow circle, grinning and nodding. "I like this place," she said.

I can't imagine why.

DragonCobolt said:
"I'm doing a quick scan," T'are said, aiming her tricorder at two nearby Okampa. Now that she was looking closely, she could see their empty looking eyes, the gray around their temples, their...slightly confused expressions. "...I'm...not reading any of the biological rhythms that would indicate natural lifespans at this age. If anything, I'm detecting an intense tachyon flux."

"Is it consistent with accelerated gestation and maturation?" Tuvock asked.

"Yes," T'are said. "That it is."

Tuvock frowned, ever so slightly.

There's another point firmly in favor of "is the Caretaker evil." First he shows a casual disregard to lives lost because of his actions and then he tries to play the victim when discussing other aliens claiming that they're attacking him for his technology right after admitting to kidnapping people for his own purposes.

SFDebris brought up a good point in regards to the Vidiians in his review of the Voyager episode introducing them, describing them as a group that is at de facto war with just about everyone else given that they consider other aliens as justifiable targets for organ harvesting, and in ways not too different from the Borg. I'd say the Caretaker in the quest is on that level as well and would highly recommend against sharing any kind of technology with him.

On the one hand it does indeed seem to be the case that the Okampans are being provided with a comfortable environment and there is the practical concern of how well they would manage on their own even with their lifespans restored to normal particularly in light their world's proximity to Borg space and the Kazon, however besides the obvious ethical concerns there is a question of how much the Caretaker is actually doing to protect the Okampans when just about anyone can walk into their city.

Derek58 said:
Hah, a holo show and a restaurant, Neelix is certainly doing better for himself than canon.

To be fair he did end up doing both aboard canon Voyager. That being said he might have a larger audience on the planet.

Not sure how I feel about Neelix though. He's been here for years and either hasn't noticed something is up or hasn't done anything to change things? At the very least him not having been removed by the Caretaker long ago means that it likely won't try to get rid of the away team either.

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