Caretaker Abductions

[Bry_Sinclair]

A thought occured to me this morning about the Caretaker abducting ship crews and experimenting on them.

Before the pilot, he had already swiped one crew (that we know of) from the Federation so already knew the biology and physiology of several member races.

He then kidnaps the raider and holds them for a while--long enough for Tuvok to miss a check-in, then for Janeway and paris to get from Earth to DS9, before heading into the Badlands. When Voyager is brought to the DQ and onto the Array, they are over there for three days, at which point both crews are released at the same time.

Were the Maquis in the "waiting room" for days before being tested on? It seems unlikely they would've sat on their hands for any longer than the Starfleeters did. Its not like the Caretaker needed time to understand their genetic makeup or didn't have highly advanced technology--he had the ability to scan across 70,000 light-years for suitable candidates.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

The magazines in the waiting room were so tedious they were put into magazine induced comas.

 

[hux]

Chakotay's gang went sight seeing for few days. Took in some shows

A number of things from Caretaker confuse me

The Caretaker said people didn't die because they were ill but because they were incompatible (like Kim and Torres) so does that mean everyone else "was" compatible. I never got what was going on with his search for a replacement

The Caretaker is some kind of super being but can't provide the Ocampa with replicators (they get nutritional supplements instead or something)

Neelix said ships had been pulled in by the array for months. Presumably some of these were Federation (where did they end up?) Voyager encountered none of them?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Voyager encountered one of them.

I'm thinking he didn't bother starting a mass rape until he had a mass large enough to mass rape.

Other wise he's always putting on and taking off his mass rape mittens, when really if he's decided that he'll keep taking ships and pouring their crew into his mass rape engine without thought to maximising his utility, then Banjoman'll be taking his mittens on and off constantly to deal with an inconstant dribble of irregular masses.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

^ The Equinox.

 

[hux]

Forgot about the Equinox. A ship that arrived before Voyager and used aliens as super fuel yet still wasn't able to get much further ahead of them

No others though? They must have had better captains who got them home safely

I'm thinking he didn't bother starting a mass rape until he had a mass large enough to mass rape.

Neelix mentioned around 50 ships so either large groups of them must have headed off together once they got their crewmen back or some of them just thought screw it, let's leave our crewmen behind and head home

 

[Timo]

The search clearly was aimed at finding suitable individuals, not just suitable species. There might well be several levels to the selection: first, pick a promising ship from across the galaxy, then, study the crew for a brief while, and finally, conduct extensive experiments on individuals found promising. It would be these final experiments that would kill those unfortunate enough to be considered promising but not measuring up.

Why keep the Maquis waiting? There might have been quite a queue there, really, as it was said the Caretaker was picking up pace with his abductions and experiments. We don't know if the Badlands were his only hunting grounds, and it sounds rather unlikely that this would be the case.

Also, there's some evidence that the Caretaker also studied Cardassians from a Galor class ship around that time. If that's Gul Evek's ship, then it would probably supersede the study of Chakotay's crew, and take quite a bit of time, considering the size of that vessel.

Presumably some of these were Federation (where did they end up?) Voyager encountered none of them?

Janeway knew of no missing Starfleet starships in the region. There was the Equinox, sure, but if there were several vessels of starship caliber lost recently, this would probably have been mentioned. It takes a starship to escape the clutches of the Caretaker and linger where Janeway would meet her - any lesser vessel, if managing to escape, would simply flee in a random direction, and fall prey to the locals.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Guy Gardener]

Are you forgetting that Caretaker was either Senile or/and a Moron?

I'm not being glib, you look into his actions long enough and senile moron is almost the only conclusion.

Why else would he harvest strange from the same spot three times?

 

[Timo]

Well, why not? It was individuals he was after, and each ship would add to the pool.

I guess we need to ask why he stuck to the Badlands and didn't start harvesting in some Alpha location more like the Hekaras Corridor, with lots and lots of traffic. It's not as being found out would have been high up on his list of things to be afraid of. Or is Badlands what you always get at the other end when a Caretaker starts using his or her kidnap beam?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Guy Gardener]

I say he's a moron because I don't think he could aim his tractor beam.

Like Zoolander trying to get files out of a computer, he just thumped at buttons till something happened.

Meanwhile Tuvok worked out how to plot a reverse course in seconds.

 

[hux]

It would be these final experiments that would kill those unfortunate enough to be considered promising but not measuring up.

So the Caretaker doesn't have the means to cure them from the illness of being experimented on (so he sends them off to the Ocampa to die).....but the hologram created by the dumb bi-pedal humans, does have the means!

And he aims his tractor beams at an area already shown not to have what he needs. Doesn't space have other directions?

What kind of super being is this

Suspiria was pretty dumb too

 

[Anwar]

Let's not forget the guy was basically a rapist. He was kidnapping and doing forceful experiments on people so he could see if he could mate with one of them (regardless of what they want) and make a kid.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Dipshit couldn't remember what gender he was.

Personally I'm something like a man, so when I try to make babies I stick my manhood into a womanhood, but Caretaker had either forgot how babies were made, forgot what gender he was or couldn't tell the difference between the genders of the men he was raping and the women he was raping.

Did Harry look like a girl, or did B'Elanna look like a man?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

In The Voyager Conspiracy wasn't it shown that the Caretaker previously took a Cardassian ship?

It's kind of a shame they never did anything with that.

Maybe Caretakers are like Asari, they mate with aliens of any gender.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I believe the allusion was that that was Gul Evets ship from the pilot?

This is how dumb Caretaker is.

He took Voyager, noticed that most of the crew was human, so spied for Earth to create an appropriate holding environment that would leave all his prospective babymommas calm and docile while they waited for their rapings.

Like Trelane in the Squire of Gothos, who was a baby, Caretaker forgot to account for the speed of light, which is why they were all kennelled in the seemliness of a 1930s homestead.

Earth is almost exactly 440 lightyears from the Badlands as the crow flies.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

What! All this time I thought it was that setting because Paris's head was all a'flutter over playing in The Beverly Hillbillies in a super vintage retro hipster holoserial.

 

[Guy Gardener]

If that were true, it could only be because Caretaker was more telepathic than he let on, and the dirty codger was trying to seduce Tom. This is exactly how little time the "man" had, that he passed on a prime piece of ass like Tom, because his mating drive left him too baby mad to give in to his little banjo's demands.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

At this point in Tom's development as a human being he would have made a bad father, and unlike B'Elanna Caretaker was hardly the one to whip him into shape. Caretaker was dying, he needed someone not only to DNA him but also to parent the product.

So yes, that was a dumb decision if he plucked Tom's favorite romantic setting from his brain and inflicted it on everyone else. But a lot of people make dumb decisions when it comes to reproduction.

 

[Melakon]

Hey. Y'all want some deviled eggs?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Caretaker wasn't thinking that far ahead.

Once dead, he couldn't stop the "mother" taking his or her child back to the Alpha Quadrant or whereever. Even alive, he couldn't give away his little Kazon infested empire to any of the many Captain's who's ships he'd raped stem to stern.

It's possible the child would be an "adult" instantly after birth, or even require only a year or so of some sort of nanny program before he, she or it was up to the task of Caretaking the Ocampa.

This is how dumb Carkertaker was.

His job could be performed adequately by an unsupervised new born.