Part 1 The crew of the
USS Voyager is surprised to receive an emergency hail from another
Federation starship, the
Equinox, in the Delta Quadrant. They arrive to find the damaged ship under attack by
nucleogenic lifeforms. Under advice from the
Equinox captain, Rudy Ransom, Captain
Kathryn Janeway has
Voyager extend its shields around both ships, quelling the attack, though the creatures continue to bear down on the shields, weakening them over time. Janeway and Ransom discuss how both their ships had been pulled into the Delta Quadrant, five years earlier, by
The Caretaker. Ransom shares that they found a
wormhole and made enhancements to their warp engines, explaining how this allowed the smaller and slower
Equinox to travel the same 40,000 light years as
Voyager on its return to Earth. Of Ransom's crew, only 12 are still alive. While surveying,
Voyager's crew finds an area of the ship they cannot access due to intentional overrides by the
Equinox crew. Janeway sends the holographic
Doctor to the area, where he finds the
Equinox crew has been harvesting bio-energy from the nucleogenic creatures, slaughtering dozens of creatures to enhance their warp drive, traversing 10,000 light years in two weeks. The
Equinox crew know that they can reach Earth within weeks if they use more creatures. They then attack
Voyager stealing a shield generator and escape, kidnapping
Seven of Nine along the way.
Voyager, unable to raise shields, suddenly finds itself under attack from the angry nucleogenic creatures.
Part 2 On
Voyager, 15 crew members have been killed or wounded because of Ransom and his crew. On
Equinox, Seven has encrypted the codes accessing its warp controls, delaying their plan to murder another 63 aliens for fuel. After learning the Doctor in their sickbay is from
Voyager, and erasing his ethical sub-routines as they did with their EMH, they tell him to probe Seven's brain to obtain the codes, knowing it could permanently incapacitate her. Janeway starts taking the objective of stopping Ransom to extremes. She orders torpedoes to be fired on the
Equinox, nearly kills an Equinox crew member during an interrogation, tractor beams an Ankari ship to strong-arm their cooperation, and relieves
Chakotay from command when he questions her orders. While the Doctor prepares to probe the incapacitated Seven's brain, he idly sings "
Oh My Darling, Clementine" in a duet with her, rattling Ransom into realizing his error in having murdered multiple aliens and
Voyager crew. He orders his crew to return the
Equinox to
Voyager, but Commander Max Burke leads the crew in a mutiny against Ransom. Ransom, supported by loyal crew member Ensign Marla Gilmore, transports the four mutineers they can access, as well as the Doctor and Seven, back to
Voyager, while Burke and three other mutineers are killed by the aliens. After transporting Gilmore to
Voyager, Ransom sacrifices himself by piloting the failing
Equinox far enough away from
Voyager to protect it from the resulting explosion. As
Voyager resumes its journey home, Janeway reinstates Chakotay to Commander and strips the five surviving
Equinox crew members of their ranks while integrating them into
Voyagers crew, telling them that they will work under heavy supervision until she personally deems them trustworthy. Seven promises to help the Doctor secure his ethical sub-routines from being deleted in the future. ==Reception==