The USS Voyager (NCC-74656) is an Intrepid class starship in the Star Trek fictional universe and was the primary setting of the television program Star Trek: Voyager. Voyager was launched on stardate 48038.5, in 2371, and is owned and used by Starfleet, the defensive and exploratory arm of the United Federation of Planets. Shortly afterward, the starship Voyager's departed Deep Space Nine to conduct counter-terrorist operations in a dangerous territory known as "the Badlands".

Brief history

Voyager is a small but highly advanced Federation vessel with a crew complement of 141, commissioned under the command of Captain Kathryn Janeway. On stardate 48307.5, Voyager was pulled into the Delta Quadrant of the galaxy by an alien entity known as the Caretaker while searching for a missing Maquis ship. Voyager's first officer, chief medical officer, chief engineer and pilot, among others, were killed during this encounter, and Voyager was left heavily damaged.

After combining forces with the Maquis, who had also been pulled into the Delta Quadrant, and battling an alien race called the Kazon in order to protect the Ocampans, Voyager began a long, slow journey back to Federation space. However, even traveling at maximum speed, it would take 75 years to return home.

The surviving Maquis were integrated into the Voyager crew. Relations proved uncomfortable at first, but with their lives on the line, the two crews rapidly learned to work together.

Voyager did not have a counsellor assigned to it due to the short term nature of its original mission. In later years the emergency holographic doctor would perform counselling services for the crew.

New technologies

Voyager, along with its other Intrepid class counterparts, introduced a number of new technologies to Federation starships. Perhaps the most notable feature was an LCARS computer system augmented with bio-neural gel packs. The new gel packs were designed to increase processing speed and better organize processed information, and are used to supplement or replace older isolinear optical chips in many of the ship's systems.

Another innovation introduced with Voyager was the Emergency Medical Hologram. The EMH was a holographic doctor designed as a short-term supplement for the regular sickbay staff. It is programmed with a library of over 5 million different medical treatments from 2,000 medical references and 47 physicians. The EMH form is generated by a series of holographic emitters installed in sickbay. Along with generating the holographic body, the emitters also surround the doctor's holographic image with a magnetic containment field, thus allowing it to interact with objects and patients. The EMH cannot be used in areas that do not have holographic projectors unless equipped with some form of mobile holographic projection.

The warp drive was also improved with the introduction of Voyager. Conventional warp drive has a long-term deleterious effect on the fabric of space, gradually damaging it in a cumulative fashion until eventually a subspace rupture forms. When this effect was discovered by the USS Enterprise-D, the Federation enacted a warp 5 "speed limit" to slow the damage caused by warp drive. Voyager introduced a new variable geometry nacelle warp drive that eliminates the possibility of damage, thus allowing it to travel faster than the warp 5 limit with no worries.

Voyager's maximum speed is Warp 9.975, but this speed cannot be sustained for long periods without damaging the ship.

During their years in the Delta Quadrant, the Voyager crew upgraded their ship as far as possible using captured, stolen and purchased alien technology as well as technology acquired from the future. Major modifications were made to the phaser arrays and shield systems, and the holographic Doctor's programme was expanded to allow him to interact with the crew, leave sickbay and pursue interests outside the world of medicine. Without these upgrades it is unlikely Voyager would have survived its time in the Delta Quadrant.

External links

• USS Voyager at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek WikiWiki
• "Voyager" at LCARScom.Net
• "SHIP: USS Voyager" at Janet's Star Trek Voyager Site