Starship database - USS Equinox

2370

The USS Equinox is on a research mission in the Badlands, when she is hit by a displacement wave and carried 70,000 light years across the Galaxy to the Delta Quadrant by a powerful alien being called the Caretaker. After the crew has been undergone medical examinations by the Caretaker and has returned to her ship, the Equinox sets a course for the distant Alpha Quadrant.

In her first week in the Delta Quadrant, the crew of the Equinox is attacked by the Krowtonan Guard, claiming that the Equinox has violated their territory. The only slightly armed research ship is heavily damaged, 39 of 80 crew members die in the incident. After the encounter, the crew is defeated: the ship is nearly destroyed and doesn't has operational dilithium crystals anymore, like many other systems, the food replicators are failing so that the crew has to starve. Since they suppose that they are stranded in the Delta Quadrant for the rest of their live, at this point, the Equinox crew decides to abandon their mission and the Starfleet protocols and search for a way home by all means instead.

Fortunately, the Equinox, which is only running on thrusters, discovers the home planet of the Ankari in their awkward situation. The Ankari help the crew to repair the ship, equip it with new Dilithium crystals and supply them with food. To bless their journey, they conjure up the "spirits of another realm". The Equinox crew exchanges one of their energy transformators for one of the summoning devices and finds out that these "spirits" are nucleogenic lifeforms; subspace beings which emit antimatter from their bodies. The crew suceeds in holding the being, which can normally only survive for seconds outside its own dimension, in our universe for several minutes. It dies, however, when they didn't manage to send it back in the nick of time. The crew then finds out that the remains of these beings can be used as fuel for the propulsion systems, with every being considerably increasing the warp drive efficiency. Using this and many other beings, the Equinox can bridge 10,000 light years in two weeks.

2370-75

Within five years, the Equinox, even though it is a small ship with weak propulsion systems and few resources, can cover further 30,000 light years by utilizing dozens of the subspace beings.

2375

December

The subspace beings used for propulsion run a major attack on the USS Equinox from their realm. When the shields increasingly weaken, the crew sends a general distress call to all ships. When the shields of the heavily damaged Equinox finally fail, beings enter normal space through subspace fissures and attack the crew, which desparately tries to defend themselves.

The crew of the USS Voyager receives the disress call and enhances the shields of their ship to protect the Equinox from the attacks temporarily. Aboard Voyager, which is also in the Delta Quadrant for years, both crews exchange experiences and Captain Ransom honors his deceased crew members, pretending not to know anything about the invaders. When the subspace beings expand their attacks on both ships, Captain Janeway decides to stop repairing the Equinox and abandon it as the weaker ship in favor of Voyager.

Although Ransom doesn't want to abandon his ship, he finally accepts Captain Janeways order. Secretly, however, he prepares to return to the Equinox and steal the multiphasic generator that has been developed by the Voyager crew to protect them from the aliens. Before he can realize his goals, the Voyager EMH discovers the dark secret of the Equinox crew in the scientific lab. The whole crew is arrested. With the help of their holodoc, which has stolen the mobile emitter of the Voyager EMH, they can nevertheless escape and beam to their ship with the shield generator. The Equinox leaves Voyager, which is at the mercy of the subspace beings without protection and failing shields.