Ocampa

Ocampa is the fictional home planet of the Ocampa, a fictional race of elf-like humanoids in the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager.

Originally surface dwellers and the dominant species of their homeworld, the Ocampa exhibited phenomenal mental powers far in excess of any similar race in Star Trek canon. Their amazing mental abilities were offset, however, by their extremely short nine-year lifespan. (This is in marked contrast to the usual practice of making alien races longer-lived than humans.)

History


The development of the Ocampa race was interrupted when an exploratory vessel from another galaxy visited the Ocampa homeworld. The technology of the intergalactic vessel caused an irreversible chain reaction in the atmosphere of the planet, destroying the ability of the atmosphere to produce rain. According to Captain Janeway, the planet's atmosphere was completely devoid of nucleogenic particles. The intergalactic explorers, upon realizing their mistake, took upon themselves the responsibility of caring for the Ocampa. The Caretakers built a massive underground cavern with access to the only remaining natural water source on the planet and supplied it with energy via transmissions from a gigantic orbiting station. From this station, the "Caretaker" dutifully watched over the Ocampa, supplying every need and protecting them from every danger. As a result of this life of absolute ease, the Ocampa eventually stopped using their mental powers and eventually lost them, though legends of their ancestors' cognitive abilities lingered. Over time, the Ocampa became completely dependent on the Caretaker for all necessities of life. Their planet's surface, although ruined by desertification, was sparsely inhabited by the Kazon-Ogla, a subsect of the Kazon race.

The Ocampa remained in this state until the lone Caretaker remaining on the station began to die (two of the explorers stayed behind to care for the Ocampa, though the other left some three centuries before the events in the pilot episode). This Caretaker reasoned that only his own offspring could carry on his work of protecting the Ocampa, and so he began a galaxy-wide search for a genetically compatible race with which to procreate. This search consisted of a long series of transgalactic ship-jackings, which is how the Federation Starship Voyager came to be in the Delta Quadrant. Another starship, the Equinox, was pulled in shortly before Voyager was.