Homestead : Episode 169 Part C :: EPISODE GUIDES :: Janet's Star Trek Voyager Site

HOMESTEAD: Episode 169

HOMESTEAD : Episode 169

Astrometrics Lab.
Seven: "As you can see, our sensors are extremely precise. We can scan for lifesigns light-years away."
Neelix: "That's how we found you."
Seven: "I have something else that may interest you."
Brax: "What is it?"
Dexa: "Talax. You can scan that far away?"
Seven: "No, this image is from our database."
Dexa: "It's as beautiful as I remember."

Seven brings up a close-up of Talax's surface.

Neelix: "There's the Godo Mountain Range."
Dexa: "And the Axiana Lakes. That was always one of my favourite places."
Neelix: "Mine too."
Brax: "Why don't we just go back to Talax? We could live there."
Dexa: "It's still controlled by the Haakonians. They don't treat Talaxians very well. That's why we left."
Brax: "Maybe Neelix can go with us and we can fight them, take the planet back."
Neelix: "If tomorrow's negotiations go well you won't need to go anywhere."

The tour continues.
Neelix: "Next stop, engineering."
Brax: "The warp core!"
They meet Naomi Wildman in the corridor. She greets Neelix.
Neelix: "Naomi! I'm sorry, I forgot all about our kadiskot game."
Naomi: "That's alright. I know you're busy. I just wanted to meet your friends."
Neelix: "Of course. Dexa, Brax, this is my god-daughter Naomi."
Naomi: "Hi."
Dexa: "You live on a beautiful ship."
Naomi: "Thanks. Maybe Brax would like to go to the Holodeck?"
Neelix: "That's a great idea."
Naomi: "Lieutenant Paris has a new programme: Invaders From The 9th Dimension."
Neelix: "Sounds scary."
Naomi: "Very."
Brax: "What's a 'holodeck'?"
Naomi: "Neelix is right. Might be too scary for you."
Brax: "I'm not afraid." To his mother: "Can I?"
Dexa looks at Neelix who gives a nod of reassurance. Brax and Naomi go off to enjoy the Holodeck adventure, leaving Neelix and Dexa together.
Dexa: "You're lucky to have found these people. They obviously think a great deal of you."
Neelix: "The feeling's mutual."

Dexa's guest quarters.
Neelix proposes the toast: "To the Axiana Lakes."
Dexa: "It really is delicious."
Neelix: "I've been saving it for 15 years. I wasn't sure I'd ever open it. But tonight seemed like the right occasion."

They look at each other for a long time. Suddenly Neelix manages to break out of it. He offers her some more taga cake. She accepts a little.
Dexa: "I haven't had this in years."
Neelix: "I'm glad you like it. It's a family recipe."
Dexa: "You're a good cook. I haven't seen Brax this happy since his father was alive."

Neelix: "How did he-? I'm sorry, you probably don't want to talk about it."
Dexa: "I don't mind. We'd settled on a planet called Phanos. There was a lot of unoccupied territory but the government restricted us to a very small area."
Neelix: "Why?"
Dexa: "They said it was a quarantine, to protect the population from alien diseases. It was just an excuse. We were outsiders. They didn't want us mixing with their people. It wasn't long before we realised we didn't have enough land to grow what we needed to feed ourselves. Oxilon said we'd just have to conserve our resources. My husband was tired of being told what to do, so he started farming outside the restricted zone."
Neelix: "They didn't like that."
Dexa: "A security patrol confronted him. He told them he had to provide for his family, that he wasn't afraid of them. There was a fight. He was killed."
Neelix: "I'm sorry."
Dexa: "After that we came here. I thought we'd finally found a place where nobody would bother us."
Neelix: "Maybe this time it'll be different."
Dexa: "Maybe. But even if it isn't, thank you for trying."
Neelix: "I should get a good night's sleep if I'm going to be my best at the negotiations tomorrow."
Dexa calls to him as he is about to leave: "Neelix, it's been a wonderful day."

Nocona's ship alongside USS Voyager.

Voyager's Briefing Room.
Janeway: "Isn't there enough to mine here without destroying their home?"
Nocona: "Their home contains more than 30% of the field's ore. Without that asteroid, the operation isn't worth the expense."
Neelix: "Would you be open to some kind of compensation?"
Nocona: "All we want are the minerals."
Oxilon: "And you'd kill us to get them."
He rises to end the meeting but Neelix gently pushes him back into his chair.
Neelix: "Wait. The Talaxians have found a way to produce a lot of geo-thermal energy. Maybe they could share it with you."

Nocona: "What do you mean, 'share'?"
Neelix: "You could convert it into fuel to power your ships."
Nocona: "The energy they generate isn't compatible with our technology."

Janeway: "We'd be willing to help you make the modifications."
Nocona: "We have quotas to meet. We don't have time for that."
Janeway: "Commander, the future of more than five hundred people is at stake here."

Meanwhile, Dexa, Brax and Naomi Wildman are spending time together in Voyager's Messhall. Brax and Naomi are playing kadiskot and chatting.
Naomi: "And once, there was a transporter accident. Neelix and Commander Tuvok got combined to make a completely different person."
Brax: "Really?"
Naomi: "You don't think I could make up a story like that, do you?"
Neelix, fresh from the end of the negotiations, enters.
Brax: "Hello, Neelix."
Naomi: "You want to play kadiskot?"
Neelix: "Maybe later."

He and Dexa move away in order to talk.
Dexa: "I know it wouldn't work."
Neelix: "We did get them to make a small concession. They've extended the deadline. You'll have enough time to dismantle your equipment."
Dexa: "Thanks, but there's too much to take with us."
Neelix: "Captain Janeway has agreed to ferry all of you and your supplies to the nearest M-Class planet."

Dexa goes to collect Brax.
Dexa: "Come on, Brax. We're going home."
Brax: "Why?"
Dexa: "We have to pack. Come on."
Brax says to Neelix in an accusing tone: "You said you were going to help us."
Dexa admonishes him, "Brax." and takes him out of the Messhall, leaving Neelix thoughtful.

Astrometrics Lab. Tuvok enters where Neelix is looking at starcharts.
Tuvok: "You wanted to see me."
Neelix: "I've detected five warp-capable species within two light-years of the planet where we're taking the Talaxians. I'm worried they might be vulnerable to attack."
Tuvok: "They would be vulnerable anywhere."
Neelix: "I thought you could help me devise some defence strategies for their new home."
Tuvok: "Frankly, Mr Neelix, they don't seem inclined to defend themselves."
Neelix: "No, I suppose not."
Tuvok: "But if they were going to make a stand, their emotional attachment to their present home might be an asset."
Neelix: "Are you saying they should stay?"
Tuvok: "I'm speaking hypothetically."
Neelix: "'Hypothetically', if they wanted to defend the asteroid, how could they do it?"
Tuvok: "To begin with, they would need to establish some kind of perimeter.
Neelix: "You mean shields."
Tuvok: "Yes. The miners are monitoring the asteroid. If they detected the Talaxians erecting a shield they would attempt to stop them."
Neelix: "I suppose so."
Tuvok: "Your people would need competent leadership to defend against a pre-emptive attack."
Neelix: "If you had the Captain's permission, would you be willing to provide that leadership?"
Tuvok: "Certainly not. It would be a violation of the Prime Directive. And even if it weren't, I don't believe that I am the person most qualified to assume that role."
Neelix: "You mean me?"
Tuvok: "I am merely speaking hypothetically."
Neelix: "I couldn't lead those people, Mr Tuvok. I'm not a fighter. I'm just a cook, who sometimes imagines himself to be a diplomat."
Tuvok: "On the contrary, Mr Neelix, you are much more than that. You are perhaps the most resourceful individual I have ever known."
Neelix: "I always thought you always just tolerated me."
Tuvok: "You do have some annoying habits. However, during your time on Voyager, you have developed many valuable skills, skills that would serve you well if you ever decided to assume a leadership role."
Neelix: "You really think so?"
Tuvok: "Let me be clear: I'm not urging you to do anything. I'm simply telling you that I believe that you are more than capable."

Janeway catches up with Neelix in the corridor on the way to the Shuttlebay.
Janeway: "Going somewhere, Mr Neelix?"
Neelix: "Just to see my friends."
Janeway: "Chakotay tells me you're using your own ship. Why not have Tom take you in the Flyer?"
Neelix: "I didn't want to bother anyone."
Janeway: "You wouldn't be planning anything foolish, would you?"
Neelix: "Whatever I do, I promise it won't involve Voyager."
Janeway: "That wasn't my question."
Neelix: "I know you have Prime Directive issues, but I'm not officially part of your crew so I don't have the same constraints."
Janeway: "You're as much a part of this crew as anyone else."
Neelix: "Are you ordering me not to go?"
Janeway: "That depends on what you're going to do."
Neelix: "It's up to the Talaxians."
At this Janeway herself activates the control to open the Shuttlebay doors. audio: shuttlebay doors shuttlebay doors "Safe journey, Mr Neelix."

Neelix leaves for the asteroid colony in his little ship, Baxial.

At the colony Neelix addresses a group of Talaxians, with Oxilon and Dexa present too.
Neelix: "I know from personal experience that you have forcefield emitters. We could use them to establish a shield grid." He operates the computer console so that an animated schematic up on the monitor visible to all illustrates his points. "We'd need to deploy a series of them on the asteroid surface along bisecting diameters. Sixteen emitters should be enough to form a grid."

Oxilon: "Even if you're right it would take weeks to dig that many tunnels to the surface."
Neelix: "Commander Tuvok suggested that we could modify the emitters so they could be fired from torpedo tubes on your ship and planted in the surface."
Oxilon: "As soon as the miners realised what we were doing they'd attack."
Neelix: "I could provide cover from my ship, but you're right, we'd have to work quickly."

Dexa: "We could route power to the emitters directly from the core. They'd have a permanent energy supply."
Neelix: "Good idea."
Oxilon: "If we do what you're suggesting people are going to be hurt."
Neelix: "This is your home! The miners have no right to force you out."
Oxilon: "I agree, but fighting..."
Neelix: "I don't like it either, but at some point you have to stand up for yourselves. How do you know there won't be someone to terrorise you the next place you go?"
Dexa to Oxilon: "You know he's right."
Neelix to Oxilon: "No one has worked harder to build this place than you. Isn't it worth defending?"

	Nocona's ship alongside USS Voyager.
	Voyager's Briefing Room. Janeway: "Isn't there enough to mine here without destroying their home?" Nocona: "Their home contains more than 30% of the field's ore. Without that asteroid, the operation isn't worth the expense." Neelix: "Would you be open to some kind of compensation?" Nocona: "All we want are the minerals." Oxilon: "And you'd kill us to get them." He rises to end the meeting but Neelix gently pushes him back into his chair. Neelix: "Wait. The Talaxians have found a way to produce a lot of geo-thermal energy. Maybe they could share it with you."
	Nocona: "What do you mean, 'share'?" Neelix: "You could convert it into fuel to power your ships." Nocona: "The energy they generate isn't compatible with our technology."
	Janeway: "We'd be willing to help you make the modifications." Nocona: "We have quotas to meet. We don't have time for that." Janeway: "Commander, the future of more than five hundred people is at stake here."

	Meanwhile, Dexa, Brax and Naomi Wildman are spending time together in Voyager's Messhall. Brax and Naomi are playing kadiskot and chatting. Naomi: "And once, there was a transporter accident. Neelix and Commander Tuvok got combined to make a completely different person." Brax: "Really?" Naomi: "You don't think I could make up a story like that, do you?" Neelix, fresh from the end of the negotiations, enters. Brax: "Hello, Neelix." Naomi: "You want to play kadiskot?" Neelix: "Maybe later."
	He and Dexa move away in order to talk. Dexa: "I know it wouldn't work." Neelix: "We did get them to make a small concession. They've extended the deadline. You'll have enough time to dismantle your equipment." Dexa: "Thanks, but there's too much to take with us." Neelix: "Captain Janeway has agreed to ferry all of you and your supplies to the nearest M-Class planet."
	Dexa goes to collect Brax. Dexa: "Come on, Brax. We're going home." Brax: "Why?" Dexa: "We have to pack. Come on." Brax says to Neelix in an accusing tone: "You said you were going to help us." Dexa admonishes him, "Brax." and takes him out of the Messhall, leaving Neelix thoughtful.