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Answering a distress call, the
U.S.S. Voyager crew finds the Federation Starship Equinox, a
vessel made for planetary research. Captain Ransom pleads with
Janeway to extend Voyager's shields over his ship, which is
under attack. As the shields are put in place, interspatial
fissures erupt on several decks. Once a rescue team boards
Equinox, they find many crewmembers dead of a thermolitic
reaction. A few people are still alive, including Ransom, who
explains that his ship was also pulled into the Delta Quadrant
by the Caretaker.
Hostile aliens — flying
nucleogenic lifeforms from another realm — are trying to enter
the two ships at every fissure point. At the current rate,
Voyager will be under full attack in less than two days.
However, the aliens cannot survive inside the ship's atmosphere,
so the crew sets out to create a multiphasic forcefield to trap
the nucleogenic lifeforms and show them they cannot afford to
continue their assault. Meanwhile, Ransom and Burke secretly
discuss that they must hide their research lab and warp core
from the Voyager crew.
Once Seven of Nine determines how to create a security grid that
will protect the ships, Janeway decides it will be in everyone's
best interest to abandon the Equinox and concentrate all efforts
on preserving Voyager. Ransom and his crew prepare to steal
Voyager's field generator and leave them behind. When Seven and
Tuvok discover the research lab aboard Equinox has been
deliberately contaminated with radiation to keep them away from
it, Janeway sends in the Doctor to investigate.
The Doctor finds organic matter — from the nucleogenic lifeforms
— which has been converted into a crystalline compound. The
compound can be used to enhance the Equinox's propulsion
systems. When Janeway learns that Ransom and his crew were
planning to kill as many of the creatures as it took to get
home, she confines them to their quarters and sets out to make
contact with the aliens. Meanwhile, the Doctor goes back to the
Equinox research lab and summons their EMH, which looks exactly
like him. The Equinox Doctor explains that he created the
conversion technology after his ethical subroutines were
deleted. Then, he disables Voyager's Doctor and steals his holo-emitter.
Once the evil Doctor frees his crew from confinement, they beam
back to the Equinox. Seven, who was onboard trying to disable
their converters, is knocked unconscious. Before the security
grid can be put on-line, Ransom and his crew steal Voyager's
field generator. As the Equinox is set on course for the Alpha
Quadrant at warp speed, Voyager's shields go completely
off-line, and the aliens attack Janeway and the crew through
fissures on all decks ...
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