USS Voyager (Star Trek)

Mission

Voyager was launched in 2371. The crew's first orders were to track down a Maquis ship in the Badlands. An alien force called the Caretaker transports both Voyager and the Maquis vessel across 70,000 light-years to the Delta Quadrant, damaging Voyager and killing several crewmembers (including first officer Lt. Cmdr. Cavit, the ship's chief medical officer and the rest of the medical staff, helm officer Stadi, and the chief engineer). To prevent a genocide of the Ocampans, Janeway orders the destruction of a device that could transport Voyager and the Maquis vessel home. Stranded, and with the Maquis ship also destroyed, both crews must integrate and work together for the anticipated 75-year journey home.

Starfleet Command eventually becomes aware of the ship's presence in the Delta Quadrant and is later able to establish regular communication. After a seven-year journey, the ship returns to the Alpha Quadrant via a Borg transwarp conduit with the aid of the time-traveling Admiral Kathryn Janeway (former Captain of Voyager) from an alternate future.

The ship's motto, as engraved on its dedication plaque, is a quote from the poem Locksley Hall by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: "For I dipt in to the future, far as human eye could see; Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be."

Crew

USS Voyager was launched with 141 crew on board. After the starship was flung to the Delta Quadrant, several crew members were killed, including several senior officers, namely Lt. Commander Cavit, the first officer; Chief Medical Officer Fitzgerald; Lieutenant Stadi, the Betazoid Helm Officer; and the chief engineer.

As of 2377, the crew complement was at 146, having gained some crew from the Maquis, the Equinox, Samantha Wildman's child Naomi, and several liberated Borg drones, including Seven of Nine and Icheb.

The senior staff of Voyager include:

1. Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), who commands the ship
2. Commander (field commission) Chakotay (Robert Beltran), her first officer, who joined from the Maquis
3. Lt. Tuvok (Tim Russ) (later rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander), the Security/Tactical officer
4. Lt. JG (junior grade) (field commission) B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson), Chief Engineer
5. Lt. JG (falling to ensign as a result of demotion but later rising in rank to full lieutenant) Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), Helm Officer
6. Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang), the Operations Officer

Several non-commissioned personnel considered as "senior staff" include:

Several recurring characters include Naomi Wildman, the "Captain's Assistant" and daughter of Ensign Samantha Wildman, and the Borg children, Icheb, Mezoti, Azan, and Rebi.

Design and capabilities

The 15-deck (257 rooms), 700,000 tonne Voyager was built at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards and launched from Earth Station McKinley.

Voyager is equipped with bio-neural gel packs, designed to increase processing speed and better organize processed information, that supplement the ship's isolinear optical chips. The ship had 47 spare gel packs and could not replicate additional packs. The ship also has two holodecks. Voyager was the first ship to be equipped with a class-9 warp drive, which was intended to be tested in deep space, allowing for a maximum sustainable speed of Warp 9.975. Variable geometry pylons allow Voyager and other Intrepid class ships to exceed warp 5 without damaging subspace. Like the Galaxy Class, Voyager's warp nacelles are below the primary hull. Voyager is capable of planetary landings. Unlike the Galaxy Class, the ship cannot separate the saucer during an emergency; instead, it ejects the warp core.

Voyager includes an Emergency Medical Hologram programmed with a library of more than 5 million different medical treatments from 2,000 medical references and 47 physicians. The hologram itself is generated by a series of holographic emitters installed in sickbay. Voyager's EMH is eventually able to leave sickbay due to a piece of 29th century technology commonly referred to as the mobile emitter.

The ship is initially equipped with 38 photon torpedoes with type VI warheads and two tricobalt devices, both of which are used to destroy the Caretaker's array. Quantum torpedoes were also compatible with Voyager's launchers, with some modification. Voyager housed five standard torpedo launchers (two fore, two aft, one ventral) able to fire up to four torpedoes per launcher at once. In the final episode, an alternate future Kathryn Janeway equips the ship with transphasic torpedoes and ablative hull armor.

During the years in the Delta Quadrant, the ship is augmented with custom, non-spec upgrades and modifications, some of which are modified from technology of other cultures, an example being Seven of Nine's alcoves and the Delta Flyer which both utilize modified Borg technology. Several pieces of technology from the future were also installed in the final episode, courtesy of Admiral Janeway who went back in time to bring Voyager home. Some of the adaptive solutions are to compensate for the disadvantages of being 70,000 light years from port, such as the airponics bay and the transformation of the Captain's dining room to a galley, and the acquisition of enhancements from aliens in the Void that massively increases replicator efficiency.

The Borg are a major source of technological upgrades conducted on Voyager. Cargo bay 2 is equipped with several Borg alcoves when Captain Janeway forms an alliance with the Borg and several Borg are forced to work aboard Voyager during the alliance. Seven of Nine and Harry Kim build an astrometrics lab from scratch with Borg-enhanced sensors, knowledge of which Seven of Nine retained from the Borg. Additionally, the crew design and build the Delta Flyer support craft at the behest of Tom Paris.