The Cloud

Episode Summary

“With energy reserves nearly depleted, Voyager investigates possible resources inside a nebula, which – as it turns out – is not really a nebula.” from Memory Alpha

Omicron particles, and the promise of replicated coffee they could enable draws Voyager into what appears to be a Nebula, but which turns out to be a nucleogenic cloud – a space dwelling, living organism which Voyager injures by breaking through its barrier. They have to go back in to repair it, but leaving it again they have to dump deuterium so, as it turns out, they lose much more than they gain by the adventure (unless you count the knowledge and experience as a relative gain).

B’Elanna diagnoses the problem with help from the doctor. Neelix complains that this habit of stopping for every anomaly is idiocy, while Kes remarks that “If I were the captain, I’d open every crack in the universe and peek inside just like Captain Janeway does.”

Notes

We’re introduced to Tom Paris’ hobby of creating holographic environments in this episode, and the first is from his memory of Chez Sandrine: Sandrine’s bar in Marseilles, France.

Chakotay introduces his Medicine Bundle, part of his native American faith, and tries to help Captain Janeway find her animal spirit guide.

“A-koo-chee-moya. We are far from the sacred places of our grandfathers,
and from the bones of our people, but perhaps there is one powerful being
who will embrace this good crew and give them the answer they seek.

On The Chakotay Homestead

We have been in our own ‘Delta Quadrant’ for 8 years now. We came here on purpose in order to find a better life, although – like Voyager – I feel that I was dragged here against my will. At the time, I was trying to squeeze myself into the role of ‘submissive Christian wife’ and followed Chakotay because that was what he wanted. In many ways it has been a terrible mistake, and a hard struggle just to survive. But one of the reasons Chakotay brought us down here was the get me away from the fundamentalist influences I was living under at the time, and that was a good thing. It has just been a very painful and difficult journey.

I have felt as though I was drowning, and every time I came up for air, a new disaster would befall us. We moved to the seaside because it looked like a better life, but we ended up having to move house 7 times in 5 years for various reasons. We’ve been settled now for just over two years but I don’t feel recovered yet, and I still feel completely out of place. I’m homesick. I don’t feel that we have enough of everything we need here. And to top it all, I have effectively, more or less, lost my faith.

I always liked the idea of being a ‘pioneer’, and when my children were younger, the Christian homeschooling circles seemed to be almost obsessed with the idea of “Little House on the Prairie“. I was in my element then, in the city, with lots of similar minds walking the same path together. I thought I was a real ‘earth mamma’. The reality though, when you’re on your own in the ‘wilderness’ with no help or support is not fun. It’s hard and depressing and draining, and I am so desperately lonely. How do you renew your ‘spirit’ in such circumstances?

How do I get out of this cloud?