Home > Star Trek: Voyager

Equinox: Part 1

( dramatic theme playing )

Stay the course!

( console beeping )

Shields are down to 29 percent. They're breaking through.

Let them! Sir?

Take the shields offline and recharge the emitters.

That'll bring them up to full power.

The charging cycle takes 45 seconds. We'll be vulnerable.

We'll be dead if we don't get the shields back up.

Arm yourselves!

Drop shields!

( console beeps )

( shields power down )

Recharge cycle?

Thirty seconds.

( whirring )

There!

Time?

Ten seconds.

( high-pitched screeching )

( screaming )

( screeching )

( triumphant theme playing )

( muddled ): This is Captain Ransom

of the Federation Starship Equinox.

We're under attack.

We need assistance.

This is Captain Ransom of the Federation Starship Equinox.

We're under attack.

We need assistance.

Ransom.

He was in command of a science vessel, the Equinox.

His distress call was transmitted approximately 14 hours ago.

Distance?

3.2 light years.

Try to get a fix on their location.

CHAKOTAY: What's it doing in the Delta Quadrant?

Perhaps it's searching for Voyager.

The Equinox is a Nova-class ship.

It was designed for planetary research, not long-range tactical missions.

I've got their coordinates.

Heading 258 mark 12.

Set a course, maximum warp. Go to red alert.

Hang on, Captain.

Did you know this individual?

JANEWAY: Only by reputation.

He was an exobiologist, promoted to Captain after he made first contact with the Yridians.

Species 6291.

The collective determined that they were extinct.

So did the Federation.

Ransom proved otherwise.

I always wanted to meet him.

Too bad it won't be under better circumstances.

I look forward to meeting him as well and his crew.

I wish to expand my knowledge of humanity.

Let's hope you get the chance.

( dramatic theme playing )

We're approaching the coordinates.

Take us out of warp. KIM: I've got them.

2,000 kilometers off the port bow.

They're moving at low impulse.

Intercept. Can you get a visual?

( beeping )

TUVOK: They are heavily damaged.

TUVOK: Multiple hull breaches.

Warp drive is offline.

What's happening to their shields?

They're being disrupted by some kind of energy surges.

Weapons fire?

There are no other ships in the vicinity.

We're in hailing range. JANEWAY: Open a channel.

This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation

Starship Voyager. We're responding to your--

RANSOM: Voyager! You've got to extend

your shields around our ship.

Match the emitter frequency.

Are you under attack?

RANSOM: Shields! Quickly! Do it.

( dramatic theme playing )

We're in position.

I'm attempting to match their shield frequency.

( whirring )

Do you hear something?

( whirring intensifies )

( console beeping )

Interspatial fissures are opening on Decks 10, 6 and 1.

Tuvok. Stand by.

Shields are holding.

The fissures?

No sign of them.

Voyager to Ransom. Captain.

( static )

Assemble rescue teams. Secure the Equinox.

Tuvok, you're with me.

( alarm blaring distantly )

( ominous theme playing )

CHAKOTAY: Hello?

Is there anyone here?

( ominous theme playing )

See if you can bring main power online.

Tom.

( beeping )

CHAKOTAY: What happened?

Some kind of thermalytic reaction.

It's desiccated every cell in that body.

B'ELANNA: Commander.

I can't make heads or tails of this injector manifold, and it looks like the dilithium matrix has been completely redesigned.

We'll try to find one of their engineers to help us.

In the meantime, see if you can bypass the core.

Aye, sir.

( gasping quietly )

Hang on.

( grunts )

( grunting )

I'm Commander Chakotay, USS Voyager.

But...

But we're the only humans in the Delta Quadrant.

That's what we used to think.

Come on.

( groaning )

KIM: Over here!

( sighs )

Hang on. We're getting you out of here.

I don't believe we've met.

Ensign Kim...

And this is Seven of Nine.

I have to cut him out with a plasma torch.

Talk to him. Keep him calm.

State your name.

Lessing...

Noah.

What are you doing on this side of the galaxy?

The answer is complicated.

Do me a favor?

See if my legs are still there.

I haven't felt them in two days.

SEVEN: Your limbs are intact.

Thank you.

KIM: Seven, give me a hand.

Do not be frightened.

Too late for that.

( beeping )

I'm picking up life signs.

NEELIX: Hello?

Is there anyone here?

No!

We're here to help you!

Take cover!

We're under attack!

( grunts )

( machines beeping )

Neelix to Sickbay.

DOCTOR: Sickbay here.

We've found another survivor.

His wounds are not serious, but he's suffering from psychological distress.

DOCTOR: Acknowledged.

( ominous theme continues )

( beeping )

( groaning )

( grunts )

( sighs )

My crew.

You took heavy casualties.

We're treating the survivors. Who attacked you?

We don't know.

We can't communicate with them.

They've been attacking us for weeks.

( breathing heavily )

Easy. Easy.

( moans )

I've got to secure the ship.

Leave that to us.

No.

Treat me here.

I'm not leaving my Bridge.

I can't pull rank on you, Captain, but you're in no condition to put up a fight.

( sighs )

So...

How's Earth?

I wish I could say.

( continues breathing heavily )

You weren't sent here to find us?

I'm afraid not.

We've been stranded in the Delta Quadrant for five years.

We were pulled here against our will by an alien called

BOTH ( in unison): the Caretaker.

We'll compare notes later on.

Let's get you to Voyager.

We're here to commemorate our honored dead.

Lieutenant William Yates,

Lieutenant John Bowler...

Ensign Dorothy Chang...

Ensign Edward Regis...

And Crewman David Amanti, who all served with distinction. Their bravery and sacrifice will not be forgotten.

They will be missed.

But now, there is cause for optimism.

Captain Janeway, Voyager...

On behalf of my crew... thank you.

We'll have time to give the newest members of our family a proper welcome in the days ahead, but right now, we've got our hands full.

The Equinox is secure, but its primary systems are still badly damaged.

Harry, B'Elanna, make it your priority.

Captain Ransom has provided us with data regarding the alien attacks.

Tuvok, Seven, you'll be working with

First Officer Maxwell Burke.

To kindred spirits... may our journey home together be swift.

Dismissed.

We should begin by familiarizing you with Voyager's defenses.

Can you give me a minute?

There's someone I'd like to say hello to first.

We'll be in the Astrometrics Lab.

Deck 8, Section 29.

See you there.

BLT.

Max...

I tried to say hello in Sickbay, but you were sedated.

I remember. I thought I was dreaming.

( sighs )

So... where's my sweater?

The blue one?

Class insignia on the back?

We went to the Academy together.

Ah...

Maxwell Burke. Tom Paris.

Harry Kim.

Welcome aboard.

First Officer. Impressive. The last time we talked, you were about to drop out of Starfleet.

I heard you beat me to it... The Maquis?

For a while.

Until I ran into these two.

( chuckling )

And it's been hell ever since.

Well, I told your resident Vulcan

I'd be right with him.

Are you free later? I'd love to catch up.

Why don't we all have dinner together?

Sounds great.

( door opens, closes )

( sighs )

"BLT"?

Bacon, lettuce and tomato. It was a nickname.

A nickname? My initials.

Oh... How romantic.

We broke up over ten years ago.

No need to go to red alert.

How about yellow alert?

You're cute when you're jealous.

Who's jealous? See you on the Equinox.

Well, Turkey Platter, what do you say we go to work?

Who's jealous?

Commander?

Um... I've been assigned to one of the repair crews on the Equinox, and I was wondering if I could join a different team... Maybe one on Voyager.

Problem?

Just a little post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Bad memories.

A few.

Actually, I could use someone with your engineering abilities.

Well, thank you.

Such a clean ship.

I'm used to falling bulkheads and missing deck plates.

In a few weeks, you won't even recognize the Equinox.

You'll be happy to go back.

Unless I stay.

You said you could use someone with my engineering abilities.

I don't think your Captain would appreciate that.

He's got a skeleton crew as it is.

Engineering's five decks down.

It's a long crawl through the Jefferies tubes.

Deck 11. ( beeps )

I haven't set foot in a turbolift in over three months.

Claustrophobia?

If one of those fissures opened up in here, where would we take cover?

( whooshing )

It's only a graviton relay, nothing to worry about.

Do I look worried?

( whirring )

Emergency stop! ( beeps )

Um, if you don't mind,

I think I'd rather take the Jefferies tube.

I could use the exercise.

I've run a thermographic analysis of our shields.

It revealed multiple stress points.

We believe they're the result of alien attempts to infiltrate our vessels.

TUVOK: Each time a fissure opens within a meter of our shields, it weakens them by 0.3 percent.

At the present rate, we have less than two days to mount a defense.

According to your bio-scans, the aliens can survive in our realm for only several seconds.

They're like fish out of water, but they can do a lot of damage in those seconds.

Nevertheless, it is a tactical weakness.

Perhaps we can exploit it.

What have you got in mind?

If we can show them we have the ability to hold them here, they'll think twice before launching another attack.

JANEWAY: But the question is, how do we catch these fish?

You build a net.

Commander?

A multiphasic force field to be exact. We wanted to see what we were up against, so we built a small chamber that could keep one of them trapped for several minutes.

If we could expand on that technology, we might be able to create a latticework of multiphasic force fields around both ships.

Rudy? If Captain Janeway agrees.

We'll need to examine that stasis chamber.

I'm afraid that won't be possible.

It's in our research lab.

That whole section was flooded with thermionic radiation during the last attack.

It'll be days before anyone can go in there.

The design schematics are in our auxiliary datacore.

I'll see if I can download them. You give me a hand?

( tranquil theme playing )

I couldn't help but notice your crew calls you by your first name.

When you've been in the trenches as long as we have, rank and protocol are luxuries.

Besides, we're a long way from Starfleet Command.

I know the feeling.

You seem to run a pretty tight ship.

We've been known to let our hair down from time to time, but I find that maintaining protocol reminds us of where we came from and, hopefully, where we're going.

It seems to work quite well for you.

Oh, we've overcome our share of obstacles, warp core breaches, ion storms, a few rounds with the Borg. The Borg?

We haven't seen so much as a cube since the day we arrived.

Consider yourself lucky.

Have you ever run into the Krowtonan Guard?

Never heard of them.

That's how we spent our first week in the Delta Quadrant.

They claimed we violated their territory.

I gave the order to keep going.

I lost 39, half my crew.

I'm sorry.

We never recovered from that loss.

It changed everything.

What do you mean?

When I first realized that we'd be traveling across the Delta Quadrant for the rest of our lives,

I told my crew that we had a duty as Starfleet officers to expand our knowledge and uphold our principles.

After a couple of years, we started to forget that we were explorers.

Then there were times when we nearly forgot that we were human beings.

This is a Nova-class science vessel designed for short-term research missions, minimal weapons.

You can't even go faster than warp 8.

Frankly, I don't know how you've done it.

You've obviously traveled as far as we have with much fewer resources.

I wish that I could take all the credit, but we stumbled across a wormhole, and made a few enhancements on our warp engines.

I'd like to ask you something, captain-to-captain.

Mm-hm.

The Prime Directive... how often have you broken it, for the sake of protecting your crew?

Broken it?

Never.

Bent it on occasion.

And even then, it was a difficult choice.

What about you?

I've walked the line once or twice... but nothing serious.

There you are.

( tranquil theme playing )

It's a good omen.

Let's put it back where it belongs.

I thought I'd find you here.

How could I resist after two years on emergency rations?

Don't get too comfortable.

( sighs )

If Janeway's any indication, these people will never understand.

They're going to find out eventually.

Not if we keep them out of the research lab and away from the warp core injectors.

And be careful what you say around their crew...

And that includes old girlfriends.

Understood.

( tranquil theme turns dramatic )

Mm... Not bad.

How's my angel of mercy?

Crewman Lessing.

I didn't expect you to recover so quickly.

You have an outstanding EMH.

Ours can barely hold a laser scalpel.

The doctor is efficient.

I've been assigned to help you sort through our biodata.

You saved my life.

The least I can do is save you a little time.

( whirring )

( console beeping ) Lateral shields are offline.

How's that possible?

Fissures are opening on Decks 1, 8 and 11.

Reroute power!

( whirring fades away )

What happened?

Apparently, the aliens began to focus their attacks on a single shield vector.

It collapsed before the auxiliary emitters could respond.

It looks like they've changed their tactics.

We may have less time than we thought.

( dramatic theme playing )

SEVEN: We've examined the schematics of your multiphasic chamber.

It can be adapted.

We intend to create an auto-initiating security grid.

TUVOK: The moment an alien invades either ship, a force field will surround it.

Once we modify our field generator to emit multiphasic frequencies, it will power the security grids on both ships.

How long will it take?

Approximately 14 hours.

We don't know when they'll break through again. We may not last.

CHAKOTAY: We could cut the time in half if we evacuate all personnel from the Equinox, and focus our efforts here on Voyager.

Remember, we are still

35,000 light years from Earth.

We should try to preserve both ships.

With two vessels, we'd be able to pool our resources, doubling our chance at finding a shortcut home.

Normally, I'd agree, but right now, one of our ships is vulnerable.

Chakotay's right.

We should make our stand on Voyager.

I don't want to force the issue, but I am prepared to return to the Equinox with my crew.

What is the protocol in this situation?

We have two Captains and two ships.

Who gets the last word?

Starfleet Regulation 191, Article 14.

"In a combat situation involving more than one ship, command falls to the vessel with tactical superiority."

I looked it up this morning. Good thinking.

In this case, protocol recognizes my authority.

Are you ordering me to abandon my ship?

I'd rather not have to.

And that protocol was written in the Alpha Quadrant.

I'm not so sure that it makes much sense out here.

The regulation stands.

Who am I to dispute protocol?

Give Captain Janeway your full cooperation.

Rudy... Max, that's an order.

We'll get through this.

If that's all, Captain,

I'd like to return to my quarters and collect a few mementos.

By all means.

( dramatic theme playing )

( beeping )

( console beeping )

Intruder alert.

Same old Max, going through my things.

That is a command station.

It's off-limits without my direct authorization.

I didn't realize.

You gonna throw me in the brig?

I think we can overlook this infraction.

Can I help you with something?

I'm just doing some homework, studying your propulsion system.

If there's a chance I'm gonna be stuck on Voyager,

I figured I'd better learn my way around.

Maybe you could tutor me over dinner.

Problem is... you were never really interested in the work.

Or the meal.

( chuckles )

Something tells me you haven't changed.

You'd be surprised.

I'm not the... What did you once call me?

Pahtk.

Pahtk. I'm not the pahtk I used to be.

Let me prove it to you.

Look, Max...

Don't get me wrong.

It's good to see you again, but ten years...

Tom Paris.

Tom Paris.

You could do worse.

So we're still on for dinner?

Just the two of us?

Get going... or I will throw you in the brig.

Before we abandon the Equinox, we should try to salvage any useful components.

Let's start with your dilithium crystals.

Mm, what we have left of them.

I'm afraid we only have a few isograms.

That's barely enough to power the sonic showers.

Can I make a suggestion? Please.

Let's forget about the primary systems.

They're too badly damaged. Let's focus on supplies.

We picked up a few items I think might come in handy,

Uh... Two kilotons of kemacite ore, a dozen canisters of mercurium.

Tell Neelix to make room in Cargo Bay 1.

Right.

Could you use a synaptic stimulator?

Depends. What is it?

It's a neural interface you wear behind your ear.

It taps into your visual cortex and shows you different alien vistas.

Just think of it as a poor man's holodeck.

So that's how you kept yourself entertained.

Beats checkers. The Ponea gave it to us.

Never heard of them.

We call them the life of the Delta Quadrant.

They see every first contact as an excuse to throw a party.

( all chuckle )

I wish that we... had encountered more species like that.

You're the first friendly faces we've seen in months.

I'm glad we found you.

The feeling is mutual.

Those modified plasma injectors looked elaborate.

What were you trying to do?

Uh... We were experimenting with ways to enhance our warp drive. It didn't work.

Maybe we should let B'Elanna take a look.

It won't work.

Um... We tried for months.

NAOMI: Excuse me.

Oh, hello, there.

Commander, permission to interrupt?

Granted.

Ensign Gilmore.

That's right.

Naomi Wildman, Captain's Assistant.

GILMORE: Is that so?

I wanted to officially welcome you aboard the Starship Voyager.

I'm glad to be here.

If you need anything, replicator rations, a tour of the lower decks, I'm your man.

Thank you, Miss Wildman. I'll keep that in mind.

As you were.

( chuckling )

I didn't realize that you had children on board.

Only one.

She was born here.

Mmm. I have a nephew back on Earth...

The same age.

Well... Not anymore.

I guess he's a teenager by now.

I probably wouldn't even recognize him.

You'll see him again. ( comlink beeps )

RANSOM: Ransom to Gilmore. Yes, Captain.

RANSOM: Report to the Equinox Bridge.

On my way.

Duty calls.

Assemble a salvage team.

Aye, sir.

( dramatic theme playing )

BURKE: Once we take their field generator, we'll part company.

What happens to Voyager?

They have weapons, shields, a full crew. They'll survive.

Maybe we should abandon ship...

Try to forget everything that's happened here.

A shower and a hot meal.

I guess that's all it takes for some of us to forget what's at stake here.

We're going home.

We can't let Voyager stop us now, not when we're this close.

Now, we're proceeding as planned.

Are there any other objections?

I need each and every one of you to give me your very best...

As you always have.

Max.

This won't be easy.

The generator is located on Deck 11, next to the warp plasma manifold.

We can't get a clean lock without boosting the signal.

Marla, we need you to set aside your claustrophobia and crawl through the access port and set up the transport enhancers.

Understood.

We'll have to take the internal sensors in that section off-line.

Noah, you're elected.

You can count on me, sir. I'll disengage the power couplings from Engineering.

( sighs )

You'll all have time for one last shower.

Make the most of it.

There's a minor power fluctuation in the security grid.

It's within tolerance.

I believe I can correct it.

The discrepancy is in the Equinox research lab.

If we can determine the exact frequency of their multiphasic chamber,

I will tune our field generator to match it.

There are times when perfection hinders efficiency.

This is odd.

The lab is still permeated with high levels of thermionic radiation.

It should have dissipated by now.

I believe I have an explanation.

Three EPS conduits have been rerouted to the lab.

It appears they are emitting the radiation.

TUVOK: The lab was contaminated intentionally.

Any theories?

Only one.

Ransom doesn't want us to enter the research lab.

He has been adamant about protecting his ship.

I thought it was simply a Captain's pride.

I want to take a closer look at that lab.

If we close off those EPS conduits, how long will it take to vent the radiation?

Several hours. I don't wanna wait that long.

Send the doctor.

He'll be immune to its effects.

Tell him to look for anything out of the ordinary.

Monitor his progress from Astrometrics.

Shall I notify Captain Ransom?

Not yet.

I want to wait until we test your theory.

( dramatic theme playing )

DOCTOR: I'm in.

( dramatic theme grows ominous )

I've found the multiphasic chamber.

There's some kind of organic mass inside.

It appears to be a member of the alien species,

but its cell structures have vitrified.

This is more than just a stasis chamber.

It's some kind of matter-conversion technology.

Hold on. There's a control port here.

Hm.

Doctor?

DOCTOR: The chamber contains a polaron grid and a sub-molecular resequencer.

It looks like it was designed to convert the alien cell structures into some kind of crystalline compound.

That function was not specified in their schematics.

I have a feeling there's a lot here they didn't specify.

I've accessed their research logs.

They're encrypted, but judging by the file headings, they've performed this procedure dozens of times.

( beeping )

More of the alien compound.

But it's been biochemically altered.

They've extracted the base proteins.

( beeping )

Its molecular structure is most unusual.

Can you be more specific?

DOCTOR: It appears to store a great deal of nucleogenic energy.

I'm no engineer, but I'd say they were trying to convert this material... into a source of power.

( dramatic theme playing )

I'm going to miss this ship.

Once we get back to Earth, there'll be plenty of women.

Status? Ready on all fronts.

The transport enhancers are in place and Noah's created a subroutine to mask Voyager's internal sensors.

Power couplings?

Bypass controls have been routed to our Bridge.

All you need to do is say energize.

Janeway wants to bring on the security grid at 1900 hours.

We'll have to act before then.

Tell the others to be prepared to...

Max.

The Transporter Room's not far from here. Keep moving.

Captain Janeway wishes to speak with you.

JANEWAY: The alien compound.

Ten isograms.

If I understand your calculations, that's enough to increase your warp factor by, what, 0.03 percent for one month?

Unfortunately, that boost wouldn't get you very far.

So you'd need to replenish the supply.

And that means killing another lifeform.

And then another.

How many lives would it take to get you back to the Alpha Quadrant?

I think you know the reason we're under attack.

These aliens are trying to protect themselves from you.

Sixty-three. That's how many more it will take.

Every time I sacrifice one of those lives, a part of me is lost as well.

I might believe that if I hadn't examined your research.

These experiments were meticulous, and they were brutal.

If you'd felt any remorse, you'd never have continued.

Starfleet Regulation 3, Paragraph 12.

In the event of imminent destruction, a Captain is authorized to preserve the lives of his crew by any justifiable means.

I doubt that protocol covers mass murder.

In my judgment, it did.

Unacceptable.

We had nothing. My ship was in pieces.

Our dilithium was gone.

We were running on thrusters.

We hadn't eaten in 16 days.

( sighs )

We had just enough power to enter orbit of an M-Class planet.

And lucky for us, the inhabitants were generous.

They were called the Ankari.

And they provided us with a meal

and a few supplies, even some dilithium crystals.

They even performed one of their sacred rituals

to invoke spirits of good fortune

from another realm to bless our journey.

But these weren't spirits.

They were nucleogenic lifeforms.

Our scans revealed that they were emitting

high levels of antimatter.

Later that same night,

we managed to obtain one of the summoning devices

in exchange for an energy converter.

We constructed a containment field

that would prevent the lifeform

from vanishing so quickly.

But something went wrong.

( screeching )

Get it out of there.

RANSOM: We tried to send it back.

( screeching )

We can't.

RANSOM: But it was too late.

We examined the remains and discovered it could be converted to enhance our propulsion systems.

It was already dead.

What would you have done?

We traveled over 10,000 light years in less than two weeks.

We'd found our salvation.

How could we ignore it?

By adhering to the oath you took as Starfleet officers. to seek out life, not destroy it.

It's easy to cling to principles when you're standing on a vessel with its bulkheads intact, manned by a crew that's not starving.

It's never easy, but if we turn our backs on our principles, we stop being human.

I'm putting an end to your experiments, and you are hereby relieved of your command.

You and your crew will be confined to quarters.

Please, show them leniency.

They were only following my orders.

Their mistake.

( dramatic theme playing )

It's a long way home, Captain.

( door closes )

Doctor, return to their research lab and retrieve all the data you can locate on the aliens.

I wanna find a way to communicate with them.

Aye, Captain. Go to their engine room.

Take those warp core modifications offline.

Captain?

Let's try to make first contact the right way.

What's going to happen to us?

That's up to Captain Janeway.

You'll be confined to quarters until we can find a way to make peace with these lifeforms you've been killing... if it's not too late.

To be honest, I'm glad you stopped us.

Living the rest of my life knowing what we'd done.

You could've stopped yourself.

Why didn't you? I don't know.

When the Captain ordered me to modify the warp core,

I concentrated on the work.

I tried not to think about how it was gonna be used.

Well, think about it now because we need your help.

Commander? After you.

We're having trouble making sense of all this.

SEVEN: The schematics are encrypted.

I can't access them.

Do you know the decryption codes?

Your Captain's been relieved of command.

You take orders from me now.

Do you have the codes?

Yes.

Proceed.

Think of it this way, Ensign.

You might live with yourself a little easier.

( dramatic theme playing )

( beeping )

( beeping )

GILMORE: You said you wanted to learn more about humanity.

I guess we're not exactly prized examples.

I'm sorry.

On the contrary.

You've taught me a great deal.

Computer, I decrypted this data file. Why can't I access it?

COMPUTER: EMH authorization is required.

Is your EMH still functional?

Affirmative. Activate him.

Please state the nature of the medical emergency.

I require your assistance. Who are you?

Your counterpart from the Starship Voyager.

Where's Captain Ransom? My crew?

In custody.

How were you able to leave your Sickbay?

This device allows me to go anywhere I please.

In case you weren't aware, your crew has been running criminal experiments here.

I know. I designed them.

You?

That's a violation of your programming.

They deleted my ethical subroutines.

( ominous theme playing )

( ominous theme playing )

I'm picking up spatial fissures, hundreds of them.

Looks like they've stepped up their attacks.

Reroute all available power to shields.

They're holding, but at this rate, it won't be long before the aliens break through.

Bridge to Tuvok. We need that security grid.

We're preparing to bring it online.

Charge the emitters.

Bridge to the doctor. DOCTOR 2: Sickbay here.

Did you find anything?

Could you be... more specific?

Neural patterns, cortical scans, anything that could help us program the universal translator.

Negative. I couldn't access the Equinox data files.

They were encrypted.

Keep studying the information we have.

See what you can come up with.

Acknowledged.

Computer, locate Captain Ransom.

COMPUTER: Captain Ransom is in crew quarters,

Deck 9, Section 22.

( ominous theme continues )

CHAKOTAY: Chakotay to Seven of Nine. What's your status?

I've dismantled their antimatter injectors, but I'll need several minutes to neutralize the dilithium matrix.

We don't have much time.

SEVEN: Understood.

The Equinox crew has been infected with a mutagenic virus.

It may be contagious.

I've been authorized to inoculate them.

You've all contracted a virus.

I'll need to treat you.

A virus?

Doctor's orders.

( quietly ): It's me.

Activate the grid.

( buzzing )

What happened? I don't understand.

This should be working.

I'm running a system-wide diagnostic.

( phaser firing ) ( grunting )

( grunting )

I'm reading phaser fire on Deck 9, crew quarters.

Security, seal off Deck 9.

Shields are weakening. They're down to 84 percent.

( comlink beeps ) TUVOK: Tuvok to Bridge.

The field generator is offline.

Its power couplings were disengaged.

Someone reconfigured the internal sensors so we couldn't detect it.

Whatever it takes, get that grid online.

I rerouted transporter control to a panel in the next junction.

We can-- ( phaser fires )

( grunts )

( phasers firing )

( grunts )

( dramatic theme playing )

They've sealed off the deck.

Don't worry.

We're getting out of here.

Shields down to 52 percent.

KIM: Captain, unauthorized transport in progress. It's the Equinox crew.

Block it.

They've bypassed Ops Control. They're on their Bridge.

Forty percent.

Janeway to Seven of Nine.

JANEWAY: Seven, respond.

Damn! What is it?

B'Elanna's erected a force field.

I can't get a lock on the generator.

Try overriding the command codes.

( console beeping )

Someone's disrupting the force field.

It's Max.

He's using one of his triquadric algorithms.

I taught him how to do that 10 years ago.

( dramatic theme playing )

Shields are failing. We've got less than one minute.

Open a channel.

If you don't stop what you're doing, we'll both be destroyed.

What's my alternative, 30 years in your brig?

I'll open fire if I have to.

We've been through worse.

Target their power systems. ( beeps )

Fire.

Max!

Stand by!

Okay, BLT, let's see if you remember this trick.

Bridge, they've got the field generator.

What do you mean, they've got it?

I don't know how, but they beamed it off Voyager.

Get us out of here.

I can't. Warp drive is down.

Bridge to Marla. Report.

One of their crew tried to dismantle the antimatter injectors. Repairs are underway.

What about the field generator?

I'm integrating it now.

( dramatic theme continues )

Shields are down.

( whirring )

Arm yourselves.

It's now or never. Generator's in place.

I'm bringing the grid online.

Fissures are opening, all decks!

( whirring )

Hold your fire!

( screeching )

Take it to the lab. ( beeping )

Sir, engines are up and running.

RANSOM: Set a course for the Alpha Quadrant.

BURKE: Course laid in.

Maximum warp.

Engage.

Captain! ( screeching )

( dramatic theme continues )

( triumphant theme playing )