If Janeway had not destroyed the Caretaker....

maybe Ransom pissed of the Caretaker and the Caretaker thought: "Screw them, I will say I have not enough energy left to send them back"

 

Which to this day I kind of scoff at. They were written to be quite stupid. Hard to imagine a space travel species hard up for water (assuming they can travel to water bearing planets just fine) and the brains to operate the array.

 

There was no precipitation on Ocampa.

Which is not good.

All water had to brought in from off world.

 

This.

Every time somoene complains about why the Kazon can't find water I have to wonder how much of the show they've seen.

The Kazon are divided into different sects that control different areas, and don't have replicators. So any water they have they have to find and store. If the area of space that they control doesn't have any planets with water on them, then they have to trade for water with others. We only saw the one sect talk about needing water.

 

Your assumption is off. The different sects controll different regions. The sect that has no water controls an area of space that has little to no water so they have to trade for their water. It was also said that they didn't develop their space travel technology but stole it.

 

Trading for water, is easier (for the Kazon) than harvesting water from a gas giant or comets, in the Ocampa system. The Ogla probably control other systems where there are planets with seas and other water sources that are not troublesome, but even internally within a single sect commerce and trade is necessary.

 

Yes.

Even Neelix who was not tied to a specific region of space said there was no water around

 

He was tied to Kes.

If he got enough water, he could buy his girlfriend off the kazon.

 

I like your posts. They get me thinking when we have difference of opinion and correct me when I am mistaken.

 

That's what I love about this place, even in regards to a 20 year old show we can still challenge each others opinions and have great discussions about it.

 

Cormaline.

Mining and refining minerals is hot enough to destroy the machinery doing the mining, unless you use a coolant.

Water is a useful coolant.

You can't recycle water that's pumped into a 10 mile deep mine shaft by the cubic ton.

 

Hahaha

 

I think the Kazon were awed by the transporter technology. They seemed most interested in it, and as we know, transporter technology also includes replicators. Getting water would be a small matter for Voyager, but might be a major hassle for these Bandits and warlords trying to mine raw materials from ocampa.

 

The Kazon weren't the only ones. There were several species that didn't have transporter technolgy

 

This would have been the real tragedy.

 

The Kazon would have ended up destroying the array in a conflict. Even if they didn't, the technology is probably far beyond their understanding.

Species 8472 would have spent decades fighting the Borg (who while losing still had plenty of resources). By the time Species 8472 win their resources will be depleted and the Federation will probably have a presence in the delta quadrant to negotiate a peace. Or they could invent the very torps Janeway originally used on them (since it took them zero time).

Regarding water, Kazon ships were technologically inferior to Voyager. Despite their size, the technology was probably comparable to the Andorians and Tellarites in the 22nd century. So limited warp travel, no replicators and probably no synthesizers. Also they aren't really that smart and probably don't have the technical know how to set up space based mining platforms. So you have ships taking weeks to reach their destination, in a portion of the delta quadrant that's lacking water (probably due to whatever the Caretakers did). That water is going to have to last them a long time.

 

The Kazon may not have understood the technology but they could still have used it to cause problems after all they didn't build their own ships but stole them from the Trabe.

As for Species 8472 and the Borg I'd say it was pretty darn desperate for the Borg, they were lost countless ships and whole planets, they would have lasted against a sustained 8472 offensive. Janeway gave them a way out of total defeat.

Q stated the federation wasn't supposed to have a presence in the Delta Quadrant for a century-he may have been referring to another timeline or he may have just not been omniscient and was going by what he thought would be the case.

In any case Janeway as I have always said can be compared to a DeSoto in that she trailblazed human exploration of the DQ. And paved the way for further exploration and settlement. It would have taken decades perhaps centuries for the Federation to fully colonize/integrate the region.

In the novels there is reference of the Federation not making lasting peace with the Voth until the 27-28th centuries telling me the Voth were one of the last rivals to Federation expansion in the region.