There's coffee in that nebula...

[Gingerbread Demon]

Remember when Janeway said that line?

Everyone talks about the replicators and them needing some kind of input to make new stuff. She said there was some gas or other substances in the nebula that they would need to get the replicators back online.

I took it as meaning that they used the ships ramscoops to pick up stuff and send it for storage for use in replicators..

Would that be correct at all?

 

[Ithekro]

That or there were some vital cooling materials or some other needed elements to be used to get the replicators fixed, or at least in better working condition than they were in at that point in time.

 

[C.E. Evans]

The collectors could collect hydrogen to replenish the ship's deuterium fuel supply, which in turn would ultimately keep the engines (and replicators) running at full power.

 

[Mytran]

In this case, it was more like topping up the antimatter supplies:

TUVOK: There are unusually high levels of omicron particles within this nebula, Captain.
JANEWAY: Are you thinking we could collect these omicron particles to provide an additional antimatter reserve, Lieutenant?
TUVOK: Precisely.

The replicators weren't offline in this episode, it was just that everyone was really anxious about saving energy (which is why Janeway drank Neelix's coffee)

 

[MacLeod]

They could easily have gone with there is a lot of hydrogen in the nebula rather than omicron particles. It would serve the same purpose as the Bussard collectors would collect the hydrogen which could be converted to dueterium and anti-deuterium thus providing power. It was an early example of bad technobabble.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It couldn't have been hydrogen. It isn't exactly hard to get hydrogen, you don't need special nebulas for it. It didn't have to be something made up but definitely not hydrogen. Just like, I don't buy in Night Terrors when what the alien ship needed was hydrogen. Also since pretty much the entire nebula is hydrogen, it wouldn't explain why they had to cut through the barrier in the center of it.

All you needed to get from that conversation was 'Something in nebula make power'. Technobabble did its job there.

 

[MacLeod]

Whilst hydrogen can be found throught the universe in Night Terrors they might have need a high concentration of it for their plan to work.

And yes you can make the argument that the tecnobabble did it's job, it' still bad technobabble.