Captain Janeway and Captain Chakotay were the last two to enter the meeting room. I was present via Muninn while I was in my quarters.
Ensign Kim and the Convict had arrived a minute ago while Commander Tuvok had been there even before me, silently reading a PADD in his seat.
It felt... light.
We didn't have a science officer or a chief medical officer.
Neelix was present as well. Dinah was across the table from him.
Captain Janeway moved to sit down, "Alright, let's get started. Commander, what have you found?"
Tuvok walked over to the display and tapped a couple of buttons, bringing up an image of a Kazon.
"The Kazon did not build these ships," he started, motioning at the screen, "From what we were able to determine, until very recently the Kazon were a slave race beneath the rule of a species known as the Trabe. It does not say for how long, but a significant time ago, likely at least hundreds of years, the Trabe conquered the Kazon homeworld just as the Kazon started to work bronze. They enslaved the population and used them as laborers. As the Kazon population grew and the Trabe lived in luxury, the Trabe population shrank from lower birth rates. Eventually enough so that the Kazon saw their opportunity and attempted to overthrow their oppressors. Apparently they succeeded."
"So they can't build new ships?" Kim asked.
"As far as we can tell, no. In fact, even their ability to conduct repairs are limited to what they can get the computer to instruct them to do. They barely understand their technology at all, even now," Tuvok answered.
I snorted, "So we have cavemen running around in stolen starships. Well, that's just great."
Tuvok nodded, "You are not far off, Lieutenant. The Trabe seems to have intentionally kept the Kazon as ignorant as possible while still having them be useful. No education other than what was necessary for a specific task. The Kazon have lost a lot, their history barely kept alive through tradition of mouth."
Chakotay frowned but didn't say anything.
"Which explains why they wanted to trade for water," Janeway commented, "It's a rather abundant element."
"To say the least," Chakotay agreed, "The Kazon are at a real risk to backslide as they are. If they can't build new ships and barely understand the ones they have, they may eventually lose warp capability."
"Agreed," I said, having Muninn nod for me, "Which actually put us at greater risk. They know how advanced Voyager is, it may be enough to unite them in an effort to capture us. They're likely ignorant, not stupid. Nobody stupid manages to overthrow an interstellar empire and figure out how to fly starships."
Tuvok nodded, "Just so," he agreed, "The Kazon are split into sects, posturing and warring with each other. So far we have run into them in singles or doubles. But the Kazon as a whole have many hundreds of ships."
"A dozen ships is more than a match for Voyager," Tuvok pointed out, "They would not need to all join forces. A pair of allied sects would be a very real threat."
Chakotay nodded once more, "I recommend we try to leave their space as soon as possible to stop this from happening. Seska believes that as little as a hundred lightyears may bring us out of their regular patrol paths."
Janeway considered it before she looked at Neelix, "What do you think?"
"W-well," he said, "We should be able to find what we need. We can rework our courses and stop after our next one to a safer space. She is right though, if we change to that area of space we will significantly lower our chance of encountering the Kazon."
"Get with Mister Paris and Captain Chakotay and figure out an optimal course," she told him, "But on that topic, what can you tell us of the planet we're approaching. You said they were friendly and a good source for food supplies?"
Neelix nodded, "Yes. A primitive people, but mostly friendly. The Toliax are always happy to sell you any supplies you need, but only basic goods. Food, minerals and such. They don't have any real technology to speak of."
"They don't have warp ships?" Janeway asked with a frown.
"Oh no," Neelix said, shaking his head, "They didn't even have any way into orbit last time I visited. You have to contact them via radio and then land to trade."
Janeway sighed, "Neelix, the prime directive forbids us from interacting with pre-warp civilizations."
"May not apply here, Captain," I said, "It's there to stop us from interfering with their natural development and culture. In the case of them already being contacted, and seemingly in common contact with alien races, the point is a bit moot. As long as we keep technology within their own limits or raw materials as currency, we're well within the spirit of the prime directive."
She looked thoughtful for several long moments before she nodded, "You may be right, Mister Zephyr. I'll consider it. If we do trade with these people, I want you to lead the negotiations."
I blinked in slight surprise, "Me, sir?"
"Your file says you grew up in a capitalist society. You'll have a better handle of currency than any of us," Janeway said.
"I suppose I would," I admitted, "It's not the same as trading resources for resources, but I'm willing to give it a go. But us overpaying is likely not an issue at all, we'll just stop by an asteroid on the way and harvest a couple of tons of platinum and gold. That should be sufficient for any trade we need."
"They do like those," Neelix agreed, "I usually just traded them some trinket however."
"If we trade with these people, we're not giving them any technology," Janeway said firmly, "Resources only."
"Yes, sir," I agreed.
Janeway nodded, "Mister Paris, set a course to the closest asteroid field. We'll extract the materials first, even if we decide not to trade with these people, they may be useful in the future. Let's get to it," she then added as she got up.
Everybody started to file out. I waited out of habit as I considered the problem.
Mining the materials wouldn't be difficult. Just find a rock as pure as possible, cut a small piece with phasers, move it to the hangar bay with a suttle tractorbeam and then cut into pieces small enough to fit in a replicator for disassembly.
The junk atoms could be put to the side and elementally pure bars or whatever we decide on of the material we need replicated.
Then we just throw the stuff we don't want outside.
With the right rock, operations should only take a couple of hours or so. As the door closed, I noticed that Muninn wasn't the only thing still in the meeting room. Chakotay was standing and looking out the window.
Hmm.
Wonder what's going on there.
"Captain?" I asked as I had Muninn stand up and walk up next to him, "You are thinking of something relevant?"
He glanced at the drone as if a bit surprised to see it before he shook his head, "No, Lieutenant. I'm thinking of the Kazon and my own people."
"Your people, sir?" I asked, mildly interested.
Chakotay sighed, "My ancestors were driven from their homeland. By the Spanish, then by deforestation, then the eugenic wars. We lost so much then. World war three was even worse, we lost..." he said and shook his head, "We don't even know how much. Our culture, our identity. We gathered what we could, tried to recreate what we could, built a new colony, tried to... find ourselves again."
"Did you?"
He smiled a bit sadly, "Some. But no, too much was lost. We've tried to piece things together, but... it's traditions from a dozen tribes. We even discovered that some we thought were right, were just fabrications from old popular media. My people had no writing, just oral traditions. We just lost too many people."
I had Muninn nod, suddenly understanding why he joined the Maquis. Have his people go through all that and then the Cardassians roll in and do it all over again?
In fact, I think he may had been remarkably restrained about it.
"You're seeing parallels with your people and the Kazon?"
"Some," he sighed, "I empathize at least. They were pulled into a world they were not ready for, lost their identity. My people have a saying, 'Judge not the river rock for the movement of the water'."
"Indeed," I agreed, "And it was not an uplift either. They were pulled into slavery. I do not blame them for lashing out over what happened to them, but that does not mean we should roll over for them either."
"No it doesn't," Chakotay agreed, "But we have to be careful."
"We go," I said before I shifted Muninn's head to study him, "...So what do you do with those traditions? How do you filter out the right ones?"
Chakotay smiled a bit, "We don't. Our faith may not be identical to our ancestors, but at some point you just have to go with the intention behind them rather than the fine details. That is how the original rituals formed in the first place."
I considered that for a moment before I nodded with the drone, "Sensible."
I knew some about being pulled into a brand new world not of my own against my will.
