Kes is one of the main protagonists of Star Trek: Voyager and love interest of Neelix. She is portrayed by Jennifer Lien who also voiced Vitani from Lion King 2.
Biography[]
"Kes : Your past has become my future."
"If there's one thing that this experience has taught me, Captain, it's that there's no time like the present."
Kes was born on Ocampa in 2369. She belonged to a species that had telepathic abilities and a normal lifespan of only nine years. Kes' father, to whom she was very close and whom she considered the greatest inspiration in her life, died not long after her first birthday. She still thought about him and often felt his presence when she needed guidance. (VOY: "Caretaker", "Elogium", "Dreadnought", "Before and After")
When she was born, her mother expressed a wish that she would one day see the sun. Like most Ocampa, Kes was brought up underground, as her planet's surface had became a barren wasteland due to a catastrophic event and was unsuitable for habitation. (VOY: "Caretaker", "Before and After")
About 500 generations ago, a race of explorers from a distant galaxy, called the Nacene, had inadvertently damaged the atmosphere of the planet so badly that all nucleogenic particles were lost, thus rendering the atmosphere incapable of producing rain. The Nacene deeply regretted what they had done and left two of their kind behind to protect and provide for the Ocampa. While the female Nacene settler left in order to further explore the galaxy, the male Nacene, known as the Caretaker, stayed. He built a vast underground city, provided the Ocampa with food, entertainment and water from subterranean sources, as well as energy from the Array in space. The Ocampa civilization was sealed in by the Caretaker with a force barrier, and the ruling Elders were subsequently charged with discerning the wishes of the Caretaker, who had attained an almost godlike status among to the Ocampa. The Ocampa remained in this state for five hundred generations.
Over the years, some had found a way to circumvent the energy barrier and reach the surface. They were part of a rebellious minority who wanted to explore other possibilities, and no longer wished to remain dependent on the Caretaker. Among them was Kes. She was frustrated that the Ocampa had been dependent on the Caretaker for so long that they couldn't even think for themselves anymore. She knew that before they had given up their independence for comfort and security, they had been a people with full command of their minds' abilities, abilities they had lost because they stopped using them and began to just take what they were given. Kes did not want to walk the path the Caretaker had set for her and other Ocampa anymore; she believed her people needed to evolve, and that they could only do so by learning to survive on their own and on their own terms.
Her yearning to see the outside world led her to leave the city in 2371 through some ancient tunnels. However, upon reaching the surface, she was captured by members of the Kazon-Ogla sect, who had established a camp near the city. There, she was mistreated and tortured for information regarding the entrance to the city. The Kazon were a crude and rather technologically deficient race and finding a way to the fruitful underground oasis of the Ocampa city would have provided them with abundant resources.
During her time with the Ogla, she met the Talaxian Neelix and the two fell in love. Neelix promised to rescue her. He managed this with the aid of Captain Janeway's USS Voyager and Chakotay's Maquis crew that had been transported to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker's Array. In return, Kes agreed to help them retrieve crewmembers that had been sent to the Ocampa city for care, after the experiments the Caretaker had done on them.
After the Array – which could have taken Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant – had to be destroyed by Janeway so that the Ocampa would not fall victim to the ruthless Kazon, Kes and Neelix asked to join the Voyager crew on their journey, promising to serve the ship and its crew as valuable crewmembers. (VOY: "Caretaker")
Skill/Powers[]
Tuvok and Chakotay were attacked by an alien while returning from an away mission. After the two were beamed aboard, strange things started happening to the ship, with different crewmembers implicated as the culprits. Kes informed Janeway that she sensed an alien on board. Tuvok attempted a mind meld with her to help with her telepathic abilities in order to find the alien. It ended in failure when both were disabled by an energy surge like the one that hit Tuvok and Chakotay (although, this was later revealed to be a lie; in reality, Kes had been knocked out by Tuvok, who was possessed by an alien being at the time). (VOY: "Cathexis")
Kes' native telepathic powers continued to grow during her time in space, and she received training from Tuvok to control her powers. When Voyager encountered another group of Ocampa and the entity Suspiria, Kes' powers increased so fast that she began to lose control of them, incinerating the hydroponics bay and nearly killing Tuvok due to her new power of pyrokinesis. Fortunately, she saw how twisted these Ocampa had become and used her powers to fight them off. With the escape of Suspiria, her powers returned to their normal levels. (VOY: "Cold Fire")
In an artificially-created hallucination, it was Kes who telepathically sensed that Janeway's spirit was still present on Voyager, but attempts by Tuvok and Kes to make contact with her failed. Janeway soon learned that she was simply being pursued by an alien who was trying to convince her that she was dead and wanted her energy to feed off. (VOY: "Coda")
At the end of the year during the battle with the Borg and Species 8472, she could sense Species 8472. She warned an away team that they are about to be attacked by the aliens, and was able to determine that Species 8472 was planning an invasion of the Delta Quadrant. (VOY: "Scorpion")
Gallery[]
Quotes[]
- [last lines] Kes : If there's one thing that this experience has taught me, Captain, it's that there's no time like the present.
- Kes : Doctor, you've lost your hair. The Doctor : I beg your pardon?
- Kes : Your past has become my future.
- Kes : It's not as if I've seen everything that's going to happen over the next six years. I only remember short periods I experienced between jumps. Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres : Even so, I bet you found out some pretty interesting things. Lieutenant Tom Paris : Yeah, Kes. Tell us what you know. Commander Chakotay : Careful, Tom. You may find out that you leave Voyager only to join a monastery.
