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SUMMARY: Voyager encounters a colony of Talaxians with advanced mental abilities who urge Kes to remain with them, but their guardian is the dead Caretaker's mate and she wants revenge for his death.
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It is now ten months since Voyager was pulled into the Delta Quadrant. In the medical lab, Kes and the Doctor notice a peculiar change in the stored remains of the Caretaker, the powerful sporocystian entity who trapped Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. The remains seem to be resonating in response to an unusual energy source. |
Remembering that the dying Caretaker had mentioned a female of its kind, Janeway wonders if she could be nearby. If so, a meeting with her could result in their being sent straight home. As a precaution, Tuvok develops a toxin that could debilitate the female lifeform if she poses a threat - he produces an energy weapon that will fire the toxin which will then break down that enzyme and cause temporary paralysis in sporocystian lifeforms.
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| Janeway discusses the implications of finding a female Caretaker. Later Tuvok configures a weapon to fire the paralysing toxin developed by the Doctor, to be used only if Suspiria poses a threat. |
Voyager is attacked by the array |
Following the energy trail, the crew comes upon a space station, which is a smaller version of the Caretaker's array. This one is inhabited by a colony of Ocampa, who fire on the ship. Kes expresses surprise to find the Ocampan colony as there is no record of an Ocampan ever leaving the home world, leading Kes to believe she was the first. Kes agrees to act as the crew's liaison to her people. Immediately they seeing Kes on Voyager's Bridge, the Ocampa stop firing and are willing to meet. |
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| Tanis, the Ocampan leader, sees Kes and the attack on Voyager immediately ceases |
When the Ocampa leader, Tanis, boards Voyager, Kes assures him that the crew comes in peace. Tanis informs Janeway that Voyager has a reputation of being a "ship of death" that killed the Caretaker, declared war on the Kazon, and raided planets for their resources. The crew will encounter these rumours, spread by the Kazon, again in future.There are over 2,000 Ocampa on the array, and they have not had contact with the Ocampa world for hundreds of years (about 300 years).
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| Tanis meets with Janeway and Kes, and telepathically asks Kes for a meeting with just her |
 
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In a private meeting which takes place in the airponics bay of which Kes has charge, Tanis tells Kes that the female caretaker, Suspiria, is nearby. She has taken care of this group of Ocampa for 300 years, and has taught them to develop their psychokinetic skills. The Ocampa can contact Suspiria directly and do not consider her a "Caretaker" although they are dependant on her in many ways. Suspiria has helped them develop technology that would extend their lifespan. Tanis is 14 while his father lived to be 20 whereas the oldest known Ocampa on the home world only lived to be 9. Suspiria and the Caretaker are members of a race known as the Nacene. She lives in Exosia, a region of pure thought and energy. Although the Ocampa consider it to be a place of the mind, Tanis admits that the Voyager crew would call it a subspace layer. Tanis shows Kes a sample of the powerful abilities she has yet to tap when he causes the plants in the airponics bay to bloom instantly. |
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Later, Tanis communicates with Suspiria, who demands that he deliver Voyager to her.
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Tuvok continues to instruct Kes in the use of her mental abilities. In her mental exercises supervised by Tuvok, Kes is able to pick out Neelix's thoughts from the rest of the crew and read his mind, which Tuvok attributes to their close bond. Her classes with Tuvok have recently been running late, causing her to be late for her duty shift in Sickbay. In the session before they encountered the Ocampa space station, Tuvok taught her a sensory focus exercise, worked on her precognitive skills, and showed her how to self-induce a hypergogic mental state. Tanis helps her further expand her mind by teaching her the psychokinetic manipulation of matter.
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| Kes manages to use her mind to boil water, tutored by Tanis, watched by a concerned Neelix |
Tanis' lessons nearly end in disaster when Kes tries to demonstrate her new-found skill to Tuvok by boiling water with her mind but, to her horror, she inadvertently boils Tuvok's blood instead. He collapses in shock, writhing in agony.
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| Kes accidentally boils Tuvok's blood |
After Tuvok recovers from the near-fatal incident, Kes realises the full potential of her mental powers when her mind causes the plants in the airponics bay to burn up. Tanis urges Kes to leave Voyager and live on the Ocampa space station, where he says she will be embraced by Suspiria and surrounded by her own people.
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| Kes burns up the plants in the airponics bay |
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As Kes considers Tanis's offer, Suspiria emerges from Exosia, boards the ship in the corporeal guise of an apparently harmless little girl and attempts to destroy Voyager in retaliation for what she believes to be the crew's part in the Caretaker's death. Suspiria attacks several officers and is about to complete her mission of revenge when Kes becomes mentally aware of her presence and her intention. |
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| Janeway, while talking to Suspiria, feels blood drop onto her shoulder from above. She looks up and is horrified at what Suspiria has done to two of her crew. |
Horrified, Kes attacks Tanis with her expanded psychic abilities, and Tanis's pain temporarily incapacitates Suspiria.
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| Kes turns on Tanis when she realises Suspiria's malevolent intent |
As a result of Kes' intervention, Janeway is released from the pain inflicted on her by Suspiria long enough to fire the toxin at Suspiria, subduing her. For good measure, she is surrounded by a forcefield. Suspiria expects Janeway to kill her but when instead she is granted freedom she realises she may have misjudged the Voyager crew.
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| Janeway fires the toxin at Suspiria |
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| Suspiria, as a little girl, then reverted to her true form |
Suspiria reverts to her true form and leaves Voyager, taking Tanis with her, though she does not sending Voyager home.
Tuvok resumes tutoring Kes on her mental abilities. She tells him she does not want to see that part of her again which got pleasure from destroying those plants in the airponics bay and the part of her that was tempted to go with Tanis; she never realised she had such dark impulses. But Tuvok assures her that dark impulses are a necessary part of her being, of everyone's being but indicates that it is possible to control those impulses.
 | | KES AFTER FIRST MEETING TANIS: I'm just a little overwhelmed. I always believed that my people had the potential to be more than what they were, that our mental abilities can be somehow heightened. And now I've met someone who's realised that potential, and I don't know whether to be excited or frightened. |
| | TUVOK TO KES: Without the darkness, how would we recognise the light? Do not fear your negative thoughts. They are part of you. They are part of every living being, even Vulcans. The Vulcan heart was forged out of barbarism and violence. We learned to control it, but it is still part of us. To pretend it does not exist is to create an opportunity for it to escape. |
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