Caretaker


 * see also Caretaker, for other uses of the word.

At the helm of Starfleet's newest starship, the USS Voyager, Captain Kathryn Janeway sets out on a mission to rescue an undercover crew member - unaware of just how far her journey will eventually take her.

Introduction (blurb)
More than any other television show, more than any other motion picture series, Star Trek has for nearly thirty years been the most popular space adventure of all time. Now Star Trek: Voyager joins Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the newest star in the ever expanding Star Trek universe.

Pocket Books is proud to present the novelization of "Caretaker", the premier episode of Star Trek: Voyager. This is the story of Kathryn Janeway and the crew of the Starship Voyager. Transported by the alien technology to the other side of the galaxy, years away from the Federation and everything they call home, their voyage back home will be a fantastic odyssey that will take them through uncharted space; into dangers as they travel where no one has gone before...

Summary
A rebel Maquis vessel commanded by former Starfleet officer Chakotay disappears in the plasma storms of the Badlands. Also aboard the Val Jean is the Vulcan, Tuvok, who is the chief of security aboard the USS Voyager, who is currently on an undercover spying mission. Voyager 's commander, Captain Kathryn Janeway, recruits cashiered Starfleet officer, Thomas Eugene Paris - a former Maquis member who served under Chakotay - from the New Zealand Penal Settlement to help her track down Chakotay, and Voyager soon departs to the Badlands from Deep Space 9.

Once Voyager reaches the Badlands, the starship becomes caught in an unusual displacement wave and is flung over 70,000 light years into the Delta Quadrant, suffering major damage and numerous casualties in the process. As the crew struggle to get Voyager back up and running they discover that they are adrift near an Array. The Array is sending energy pulses to a nearby star system, but before the crew can investigate further they are all transported over to the Array.

The crew are transported into a facsimile of a farm from Earth. As they begin to investigate their surroundings, Tom Paris and Ensign Harry Kim discover the Maquis crew unconscious and connected to unknown machines in a barn. Before Captain Janeway can take action, her entire crew are rendered unconscious and also connected up to the machines.

Almost three days later, both crews awaken on their own ships, though two crewmembers are still missing: Kim and the engineer from the Val Jean, B'Elanna Torres. Chakotay uneasily agrees to cooperate with Janeway in the search for their missing crew members and accompanies Janeway back to the Array, where they encounter an elderly man playing a banjo. The man reveals that he is the alien being who drew their ships into the Delta Quadrant. He tells them that time is running out and that he must continue looking for something, but before Janeway and Chakotay can press for more information they are transported back to Voyager.

Meanwhile, Kim and Torres awake to find themselves in a medical facility under the care of a race known as the Ocampans. Both Kim and Torres are ill and have many unusual skin growths on their bodies. They discover that they are in a subterranean city with no escape to the surface. All of the Ocampans needs are cattered for by the Caretaker, who lives on the Array. It is also revealed that many others have been sent to the Ocampans with the same symptoms as Kim and Torres, but no cure was found and they died.

Back on Voyager, Janeway reasons that the energy pulses from the Array are being sent to the fifth planet of the nearby star system. Enroute to the planet, Voyager enters a debris field and finds the Talaxian trader Neelix at the center of the field, aboard his shuttlecraft, the Baxial. Neelix offers to act as a guide for their journey to the fifth planet.

Characters

 * Kathryn Janeway • Chakotay • B'Elanna Torres • Kes • Tom Paris • Neelix • The Doctor • Tuvok • Harry Kim • Aunt Adah • Caretaker • Aaron Cavit • Aman Evek • Jabin • Owen Paris • Quark • Veronica Stadi • Toskat

Starships and vehicles

 * USS Al-Batani (NCC-42995) • Baxial • USS Voyager • Val Jean • Vetar • • Type-6 shuttlecraft

Locations

 * Alpha Quadrant • Badlands • Moriya system • Terikof belt • Bajor system • Deep Space 9 • Ops • Quark's Bar • Earth • New Zealand • New Zealand Penal Settlement • Starfleet Academy • Volnar colony • Delta Quadrant • Caretaker's Array • Ocampa

Species and cultures

 * Betazoid • Cardassian • Ferengi • Human • Kazon • Nacene • Ocampa • Talaxian

Governments and organizations

 * Kazon Collective • Kazon-Ogla • Maquis • Starfleet • United Federation of Planets

Other
angla'bosque • Arias expedition • bio-neural circuitry • Bolian tomato soup • Caldik Prime • clarinet • Class M • compression phaser rifle • cormaline • corn • displacement wave • Emergency Medical Hologram • Federation Council • Fourth Order • G-type star • graviton • Koladan diamond • lek • lemonade • Lobi crystal • medical tricorder • Molly • nucleogenic particle • phaser • plasma storm • science officer • sickbay • sporacystian lifeform • tetryon • tomato soup • trianoline • tricobalt warhead • tricorder • Warming, The • warp core • water • Zakarian

Information
The novelization calls Chakotay's ship Liberty, as it does in Pathways. Pathways has Tom and B'Elanna meet prior to 48315.6, so their unfamiliarity with each other here is inaccurate. Likewise, Kathryn met The Doctor in Relativity, mere hours before this book, so her unfamiliarity is inaccurate.

Related Stories

 * VGR novel Pathways.
 * VGR episode Relativity.
 * VGR episode Future's End, Part II.
 * VGR episode The Voyager Conspiracy.