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SUMMARY: A painful chapter in Neelix's past is re-opened when the man responsible for killing his family beams aboard Voyager.
Neelix is enjoying a game of pool with Tuvok and Paris in the Chez Sandrine holoprogram when he is urgently summoned to the Bridge. Neelix is aghast when he sees that a Haakonian named Dr Ma'Bor Jetrel is in contact with Voyager and asks to meet with him. The Haakonians had fought a long, destructive war against his people 15 years earlier, and Jetrel is the scientist who helped them conquer Talax by developing the Metreon Cascade, a weapon of mass destruction that slaughtered over 300,000 people on Talax's moon Rinax, including Neelix's family. But now Jetrel says he has come forward to examine Talaxians like Neelix who helped evacuate survivors from Rinax, for during the evacuation they exposed themselves to high concentrations of metreon isotopes and could have developed a fatal blood disease called Metremia.
Neelix explains to Janeway how he lost all his family in the Metreon Cascade |
Jetrel says he wants to examine as many Talaxians as possible, including Neelix |
Neelix understandably considers Jetrel a monster, but Janeway and Kes, who are more concerned for Neelix's health, persuade Neelix to let Jetrel examine him. After the examination, Jetrel informs Neelix that he has Metremia.
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| Jetrel examines Neelix |
Later, Jetrel convinces Janeway to make a detour to the Talaxian system. Using the ship's transporter systems, Jetrel feels he may be able to develop a cure by retrieving samples of the Metreon Cloud still surrounding Rinax. Janeway agrees, but Neelix is still bitter although he allows Jetrel to take more medical scans of him. He angrily condemns Jetrel for the devastation he has caused, countering Jetrel's argument that scientific discovery is inevitable even ones that make mass murder possible, by telling him what consequences really mean; Neelix tells him about the terrible scenes of devastation that he witnessed, including the fate of a young Talaxian girl named Palaxia whose death was painful and lingering. Jetrel reveals that he is also paying the price, for he too has the disease and only has a few days to live.
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 | | NEELIX: Her name was Palaxia. We brought her back to Talax with the other survivors. Over the next few weeks I stayed at her bedside and watched her wither away. Those are consequences, Dr Jetrel.
JETREL: There is no way I can ever apologise to you, Mr Neelix. That's why I have not tried. |
The ship's arrival at Rinax opens old wounds for Neelix (see quote below). But there is more to Neelix's past. He confesses to Kes that he has lied for years about being part of the Talaxian defence forces. He never reported for duty. Instead, he spent the war hiding on Talax, and has felt guilt-ridden ever since. Rather than reproach him, Kes understands.
Neelix seeks out Jetrel, only to find the Doctor deactivated and Jetrel covertly conducting experiments in the lab. Suspecting the worst of Jetrel, Neelix tries to notify Janeway, but Jetrel seizes him, injects him with a hypospray sedative and renders him unconscious.
Jetrel's mysterious experiment |
Jetrel attacks Neelix |
Jetrel heads for the transporter room, where he is confronted by the Captain and Tuvok. Jetrel pleads with Janeway to let him conclude his real work. This is not simply to retrieve samples of the Metreon Cloud, but actually to do so, re-integrate them and thereby resurrect the deceased Talaxian victims of Rinax. He believes that he can use the transporter to regenerate their disassociated remains, and confesses that he came to Voyager wanting only to use the ship's transporter and that his wanting to examine Neelix was merely a pretext. In fact, the Talaxian does not have Metremia and is fine, for Jetrel gave a false diagnosis.
Janeway allows Jetrel to proceed, but the experiment fails. Jetrel collapses, knowing that he will never be able to redeem himself.
Jetrel's experiment using Voyager's transporters - a figure starts to form |
Jetrel collapses, knowing he has failed |
Neelix pays a last visit to Jetrel in Sickbay and tells him that he is forgiven, allowing the Haakonian to die with some semblance of peace. By doing so, Neelix at last begins to find peace for himself too.
| | NEELIX: Hard to believe that on clear nights you could look up from Talax and see the shimmering lights of the colony. The night of the Cascade, a bright flash cut across the sky. It was so blinding that people threw themselves to the ground. Then everything stopped, like a moment out of time, then we all looked up to see where the flash had come from, but the sky seemed oddly empty. Took most of us a few seconds to realise it was because Rinax was......gone. Of course the moon was still there, we just couldn't see it because of that Metreon Cloud. |
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