USS Voyager, NCC-74656

2378: Star Fleet Command declares the USS Voyager officially lost with all hands.
Federation Space considers Voyager and her crew permanently MIA, and Janeway and her crew having never returned to Earth.

USS Voyager, NCC-74656
Class	Intrepid-class
Registry	NCC-74656
Affiliation	Federation/Star Fleet
Status	Missing (2378)

The USS Voyager (NCC-74656) was an Intrepid-class Federation starship. It was launched in 2371 and was under the command of Captain Kathryn Janeway. The ship's maximum warp was 9.975, with warp nacelles that pivot upwards while in flight. Voyager featured improved computer systems using both traditional isolinear circuitry and new bio-neural circuitry to improve performance. Voyager also had the capability of landing on the surface of a planet with landing struts.

Command Crew

Commanding Officer (CO) - Captain Kathryn Janeway

"There are three things to remember about being a starship captain: keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew."

- Captain Kathryn Janeway, 2375

Kathryn Janeway was a 24th century Star Fleet officer, most noted for her service as Captain of the starship USS Voyager. She became the first Federation captain to successfully travel to the Delta Quadrant, encountering dozens of new planets and civilizations. While there, she and her crew also survived numerous encounters with the Borg.

Janeway was well-known for her addiction to coffee. She refused to go a day without a cup of coffee and preferred it completely black, without milk or sugar. Janeway once tried to give up coffee, unsuccessfully. Once, Neelix tried to get her to use Voyager's food reserves instead of her replicator rations by giving her his "Even better than coffee substitute". Grudgingly, Janeway agreed to try it, but was relieved when the bridge called her just before Neelix was finished pouring it. In an alternate timeline, Janeway gave up coffee in favor of tea later in life.

From 2365 onward, Janeway and Tuvok became close friends, and Janeway found she could always "rely on his insightful and unfailingly logical advice". Tuvok was one of her most trusted friends and advisers, and she discussed all command decisions with him. When Voyager was first stranded in the Delta Quadrant, Janeway met with Maquis cell leader Chakotay. After the Maquis ship was destroyed, Chakotay and Janeway became reluctant allies in the attempt to find missing crewmembers and return to the Alpha Quadrant. Their complicated relationship began first as enemies, then as reluctant ship mates, forming into possible romantic interests, and settling with best friends. Chakotay became Voyager's First Officer, and Janeway relied on Chakotay's innovative tactics in battles, integrating many Maquis techniques.

Executive Officer (XO) - Commander Chakotay

In 2371, while Star Fleet was trying to capture him in the Badlands, he and his Maquis crew were pulled into the Delta Quadrant and forced to merge with the crew of the Voyager during its journey towards home. Before serving as Voyager's first officer, he had resigned Star Fleet after years of service in order to join the Maquis to defend his home colony.

Being of Mayan and Native American descent, Chakotay's tribe - mainly because of the intrusion of more technological societies - left Earth hundreds of years ago to find their own home on another planet near the Cardassian border. His father tried to impart his values on Chakotay in many ways, such as taking him to hikes to nearby forested worlds of their ancestors. When his father died, he resigned from Star Fleet to join the Maquis and defend his home colony, continuing the fight in his father's name. He also took the mark, his face tattoo, in order to honor the memory of his father and to signify his Native American heritage.

One of the many reasons he joined Star Fleet was to pursue his interests in anthropology and paleontology. He was fascinated by 20th century Earth, and the early history of space exploration. Since his time at Star Fleet Academy, Chakotay was a fan of boxing. While there, the legendary Boothby helped him train. He occasionally ran a program on the holodeck where he would box a Terrellian with Boothby's assistance. He also said that "boxing helped him relax."

Aboard the Maquis ship Val Jean, Chakotay was close with many of his crew. B'Elanna Torres was Chakotay's engineer and unofficial first officer, and he endorsed her becoming Voyager's Chief Engineer. They had a close, almost sibling-like relationship, though she did not chose him to be her child's godfather because she believed he didn't really know about raising children. (She and Tom chose The Doctor instead.)

Chief Tactical Officer / Chief of Security - Lieutenant Commander Tuvok

As a teenager, Tuvok rebelled against the Vulcan ideal of logic and reasoning when he fell in love with a Terrellian girl named Jara, the daughter of an ambassador. When she did not return his desperate feelings, Tuvok chose spend several months in isolation studying with a Vulcan master, where he learned to subdue his emotions. Tuvok entered Star Fleet Academy at the age of 25, but found it difficult to fit in. He found the egocentric nature of humans difficult to deal with, but endured it because it was the wish of his parents to enter Star Fleet, and he felt obligated to fulfill their expectations.

In 2371, he infiltrated the crew of the Maquis raider commanded by a former Star Fleet officer, Chakotay. While hiding from a Cardassian ship in the Badlands, the raider was hit by an energy wave which transported both the Maquis ship and Voyager into the Delta quadrant. Tuvok's status of a spy was revealed when he and Captain Janeway welcomed him back onto the ship.

Tuvok was a devoted parent and husband. Tuvok married T'Pel in 2304, and later had four children, three sons and a daughter. In 2374, he learned that his eldest son Sek had a child, named T'Meni after his mother, making him a grandfather. Tuvok was a prize-winning orchid breeder, and used grafting techniques on flowers from both Earth and Vulcan. Tuvok's main pastime was the Vulcan game kal-toh, which he frequently played with Ensign Harry Kim. He also spent his spare time meditating, and instructed various members of the crew in this pursuit over the years.

His closest friend aboard Voyager was Captain Janeway herself, who trusted him completely, and whom he considered the closest thing to family aboard Voyager. Previous to his assignment to Voyager, Tuvok was an instructor at Star Fleet Academy for a period of sixteen years.

Officers

Chief Engineer - Lieutenant Junior Grade B'Elanna Torres

With mother being Klingon and her father being human, B'Elanna was quick to anger and hard to get through to. Though she adored her father as a child, he left B'elanna and her mother, severing any contact. Blaming herself for his leaving, combined with being made fun of for her Klingon head ridges, the young girl began to resent her Klingon heritage. She attended Star Fleet Academy, but felt she did not fit in, continuously getting in fights with teachers and other students. Within two years, she was suspended once and had four disciplinary hearings against her, and she eventually dropped out in 2368. She met Chakotay and joined the Maquis, finding that fighting Cardassians was the perfect outlet for her anger issues. Being a brilliant Engineer, she was an asset to the Maquis, and even managed to re-program a Cardassian missile for their own use.

Once on Voyager, B'Elanna found more people to fight with, usually the next in line for Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Carey. Once she proved her skills to Captain Janeway and earned her respect, Janeway then made her Chief Engineer over Carey. Often captured by Delta Quadrant species due to her genetic diversity, she continued to feel conflicted about it herself. After marrying Tom Paris and conceiving a child, B'Elanna even went so far as to try and genetically modify her child, to ensure it would not look Klingon, and face the same hardships she did as a child.

B'Elanna was, in part, responsible for Seven of Nine being abandoned by the Borg. During Voyager's first encounter with the Borg, she helped to engineer nanoprobes to use as a weapon against Species 8472, who had become a threat to both Voyager and the Borg. When Seven, on board Voyager, attempted to assimilate the Star Fleet ship after the Species 8472 threat had been eliminated, B'Elanna created a power surge through Seven that disabled her. This severed Seven's link to the Collective, and the collective left without coming back for the drone.

Pilot - Lieutenant Junior Grade Tom Paris

Tom had a love of the ocean and sailing: he planned to join the Federation Naval Patrol until his father pressured him into joining Star Fleet. At the age of eight, his father took him for a trip in an S-class shuttlecraft, and Tom discovered that he loved piloting. He was dismissed from Star Fleet when he tried to cover up a piloting error on his behalf which led to the deaths of three fellow officers. After being expelled from Star Fleet, he joined the Maquis, but was captured on his first mission. Paris was serving time in a Federation Penal Settlement in New Zealand when he received a visit from Captain Janeway. She gave him the opportunity to redeem himself, by participating on a mission to track down the Maquis who were hiding in the Badlands.

On board Voyager, he quickly befriended Harry Kim, and began dalliances with any woman that could stand him for the night. A few serious relationships included Kes, on-and-off with the Delaney sisters, and his eventual wife, B'Elanna. Hobbies included creating and playing in Holodeck programs, playing practical jokes on friends and colleagues, and enjoying old Earth movies, specifically of the science fiction and horror genre.

Paris was the first Star Fleet officer to reach warp 10. While experimenting with ways for Voyager to quicken her journey, he realized that in simulations, the shuttle was being ripped from the nacelles, not the the other way around. With a minor adjustment, the transwarp threshold could be crossed safely. Despite success in the simulations, the real flight experience caused him to begin to mutate. A disoriented Tom then kidnapped Captain Janeway and took her on a Warp Ten journey, which caused her to mutate as well. When Voyager found them, they had evolved into amphibians. They produced three offspring which the crew left on the planet. Once back on Voyager, The Doctor was able to "de-evolve" them back to their Human forms. Trans-warp travel was then deemed too dangerous and the idea was abandoned.

Operations Manager - Ensign Harry Kim

Fresh out of the Academy, being stranded in the Delta Quadrant hit Harry pretty hard. With Voyager being his first field assignment, the Ensign wasn't even sure how to address his Captain. He was quickly befriended by Tom Paris, who, combined with his own rebellious nature, helped Harry instill some confidence in himself over the years. Though he always seemed unlucky in love, Tom continued to set up double-dates between the two men and two female officers known as the Delaney sisters.

Harry's green nature may have labeled him an "easy mark" - he was abducted from The Caretaker, the Vhnori, the Akritirians, and held captive on-board Voyager by the Hirogen. What he lacked in experience, however, he made up for in ingenuity. He and friend Tom Paris built the Delta Flyer, a technologically-advanced shuttle, and its successor, the Delta Flyer Mark 2, which became an asset to the USS Voyager.

In addition to tagging along on Tom's holodeck programs, Harry enjoyed a variety of his own hobbies. He played music on both the clarinet and saxophone, and enjoyed sports such as volleyball, Parrises squares, and tennis. Perhaps processing an eidetic memory, Harry claims to remember what it was like inside his mother's womb.

Enlisted Crew Members

Head of Astrometrics - Seven of Nine

Formerly known as Annika Hansen, the Borg drone known as "Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01" was stranded on Voyager while the two fought against beings only identified as Species 8472. Having been assimilated at six years old, the Borg Collective was all that she knew. Her parents were exobiologists investigating the existence of the Borg, and in 2356, all three were assimilated. Naturally, being ripped away from the Borg was traumatic for the person the Voyager crew would come to affectionally call "Seven," which took her some time to come to terms with.

Assisted by Harry Kim, Seven of Nine designed and constructed the ship's astrometrics lab, which used Borg technology to plot routes that trimmed several years off of Voyager's journey towards the Alpha Quadrant. She would go on to assist Harry and Tom in building the Delta Flyer shuttlecrafts. When Neelix's knowledge of the Delta Quadrant waned, Seven was there to step in and inform the Captain what the Borg knew about the species or sector in question. Though not one to usually get along with the crew, Seven did not seem to mind being an outsider, though her lack of empathy did make interpersonal relationships problematic.

Ironically enough, one of Seven's first friends was that of a crewmember's child - Naomi Wildman. The young girl, like Seven, also felt out of place on Voyager, since there was no else like her on board. Naomi, who wanted the made-up job of 'Captain's Assistant,' secretly studied Seven, deciding that the Borg pursuit of perfection would help her achieve her goal of working on the bridge. When Seven discovered Naomi spying on her, she befriended her, admiring her ambition. This may have started Seven's knack for babysitting; in 2376, Voyager rescued four "immature" Borg drones: children who had been assimilated. Seven became their den mother of sorts, creating a strict timetable for them, and strived to help them assimilate back into a more normal way of life. Three of the four children were either returned or adopted, with the oldest choosing to remain on Voyager.

Ambassador to the Delta Quadrant on behalf of Star Fleet - Neelix

Chief Morale Officer, Head Chef

Nurse / Assistant to The Doctor - Kes

Voyager's entire medical crew, including her chief medical officer, as well as her chief engineer were also killed in 2371.

The nature of Voyager's first mission did not require a counselor, and therefore one was not assigned.

History

The USS Voyager was constructed at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards orbiting Mars and was launched from Earth Station McKinley on stardate 48038.5 in 2371. Voyager was the first ship equipped with a class-9 warp drive. The ship later docked at Deep Space 9 to begin its first mission. The mission was to track down a Maquis ship, the Val Jean, in the Badlands under the command of former Star Fleet officer Chakotay. The mission was only meant to last a few weeks.

In the Badlands, both the Maquis ship and Voyager were hit by a displacement wave created by the Caretaker entity, by which both ships were thrown 70,000 light years from their original location to the outer edge of the Delta Quadrant.

In the Delta Quadrant

Voyager officially lost contact with Star Fleet on stardate 48307.5 for being too great a distance away from the Alpha Quadrant. Since the Val Jean was destroyed in a battle against the Kazon, its entire surviving crew were transfered to the USS Voyager to embark on the journey home. Several key positions aboard Voyager, emptied by heavy casualties, were filled by their adopted Maquis crew. The deceased chief medical officer was permanently replaced by the EMH, which was originally designed for brief periods of operation only.

On the first few days in the Delta Quadrant, Voyager encountered three new species, including the Talaxians, Ocampa, and Kazon. A Talaxian named Neelix (External Link) and an Ocampa named Kes became crew members on Voyager after the Caretaker died.

In 2373, Voyager encountered Species 8472, a race more powerful than the Borg. During this time, Voyager forged a temporary alliance with the Borg, involving themselves for a short time in the Borg-Species 8472 War. Voyager developed nanoprobe weapons for use against Species 8472, who eventually retreated from our galaxy. The alliance between Voyager and the Borg led to several temporary additions to the outer hull of the vessel, comprised of Borg technology which allowed the launching of the nanoprobe weapons. While most of the Borg technology was later removed, several components were kept in place as they enhanced the overall performance of several systems. After this incident, a Borg drone designated Seven of Nine became a part of Voyager's crew. At this time, Kes also left Voyager, as a result of her growing telepathic abilities.

Star Fleet presumed the Voyager to be destroyed in the Badlands until 2374, when the ship's EMH was transmitted to the Federation starship USS Prometheus (Prometheus class) using a Hirogen owned relay station. The ship, at the time, had been taken over by Romulans. The Doctor, with assistance by an EMH Mark II, returned the ship to Star Fleet, and spoke directly to Star Fleet Headquarters to set the record straight. The ship's inventory included 32 class-6 photon torpedoes at this time.

File:VoyagerCourse.jpg

The senior staff of Voyager in astrometrics

After the EMH reported Voyager's situation, Star Fleet's Communications Research Center set up the Pathfinder Project to find a way to bring back or maintain constant contact with the ship. This project was under the command of Cmdr. Peter Harkins and was supervised by Admiral Owen Paris. The driving force behind the ambitious task to reestablish communications with Voyager, however, was Lieutenant Reginald Barclay.

In 2375, Voyager found the USS Equinox, which had also been stranded in the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker. Captain Janeway eventually learned of the Equinox crew's criminal experiments on a species of nucleogenic lifeforms. Janeway adopted the remaining crew of the Equinox and put them to work on Voyager under high security, stripping them of commissioned rank.

In early 2376, first contact between Star Fleet Command and the Voyager was finally established over the MIDAS array using an artificial micro-wormhole. Although the periods of data transfer were very limited, not only was Star Fleet able to transmit tactical updates to the Voyager crew, but private conversations between Voyager crew members and their relatives in the Alpha Quadrant were also possible.

In 2377, Voyager recovered pieces of the UESPA long-range probe Friendship 1. Later that year, Voyager encountered a Borg Transwarp Hub and attempted to use it to return home. The attempt failed, and Voyager was declared lost again in 2378.