I went and checked, Tuvok specifically says it’ll take several hours before they can send Voyager home (though not specifically that it needed to charge). Here’s the exact line:
TUVOK: Captain, I can access the system to send us back to Federation space, but it will take several hours to activate.
They’d have to prevent the Kazon from damaging or taking over the array for quite some time before they could leave. I can understand why Janeway would make the call she did, given the risk of attempting that, but also can see why she would be tortured by the what if…
I went and checked, Tuvok specifically says it’ll take several hours before they can send Voyager home (though not specifically that it needed to charge). Here’s the exact line:
TUVOK: Captain, I can access the system to send us back to Federation space, but it will take several hours to activate.
They’d have to prevent the Kazon from damaging or taking over the array for quite some time before they could leave. I can understand why Janeway would make the call she did, given the risk of attempting that, but also can see why she would be tortured by the what if…