The Equinox and the Caretaker

[t_smitts]

So it's established that the USS Equinox was one of the many vessels abducted to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker, but it's not clear what happened after that. Presumably, they were experimented on, as possible mates, just as the Voyager crew and Maquis were. A couple of them might've shown promise, but they were sent to the Ocampa, were they soon died. In fact, the fact that Ransom was familiar with the name "Caretaker" would imply that at least some of his surviving crew had made contact with the Ocampa. The Kazon on the planet, however, don't seem to be familiar with Starfleet when we first see them, so the Equinox may not have made contact with them (or Neelix, for that matter).

Now, in "The Voyager Conspiracy", Neelix speculates that the Caretaker sent back most of the ships he abducted, though this clearly was not the case with the Equinox and the Dreadnought missile. (In the latter case, he was probably too occupied with breeding a replacement to bother with an unmanned missile). In Voyager's case, Janeway made repeated attempts to appeal to the Caretaker to send them back. Would Ransom have not done the same? Did he really give up so easily and settle on the long way back? Why didn't the Caretaker send the Equinox back?

 

[Finn]

Plot

Anyway, I always believed that the "Ocampa Sector" was quite distant from the bulk of the Kazon civilization, and the Krowtonan Guard may have had a presence close by at the time the Equinox was pulled in but things changed by the time Voyager arrived.

 

[The Wormhole]

My theory is that when the Caretaker sent ships back he wasn't too careful about making sure they went back exactly where they came from. In the case of the Equinox, he ended up sending them to a different region of the Delta Quadrant as opposed to back to the Alpha Quadrant. Thus explaining why the Equinox was always running into aliens Voyager never did and why the Equinox never encountered the races Voyager did like the Kazon, Vidians or even the Borg.

 

[Summer Solstice]

I think the Equinox probably started to go on a more direct route home than Voyager, which took them through the Krowtonan Guard territory, whereas Neelix made sure Voyager stayed mostly on a Talaxian trade route because he knew the route and he knew to avoid the Krowtonan Guard.

The Caretaker may have sent some ships back, but as he got less powerful and more desperate he probably cared less about sending them back. The Ocampa said everyone else that the Caretaker sent them died, which suggests Ransom didn't succeed in getting his crew back from them and may have just run away from the Ocampa sector as fast as possible.

I would love to know when the Equinox arrived in the Delta Quadrant.

 

[Sumire]

If the Equinox crew members that were sent to the Ocampa for care died, it seems possible that Ransom and his crew may have viewed the Caretaker as hostile and thus may not have been open to the possibility of being sent back or even given him the opportunity to offer.

 

[Oddish]

And the Caretaker was not near death when Ransom was there. Maybe it didn't even grant him any kind of audience.

 

[t_smitts]

I would love to know when the Equinox arrived in the Delta Quadrant.

Likely not more than a few months before Voyager. The Equinox had apparently been in service earlier than Voyager, but likely not more than a year or so. The dedication plaque says it was launch on a stardate that basically works out to the start of TNG 7th season/DS9's 2nd. But even aside from that, we know Starfleet was commissioning ships with numbers in the 72XXX range around then, like the Sutherland in "Redemption, Part 2", or the first batch of runabouts assigned to DS9.

 

[The Wormhole]

Also, the Equinox had the new 2371 issue commbadges so by definition could not have ended up in the Delta Quadrant any earlier than the start of 2371. Which could also support my theory that the Caretaker's attempt to send the Equinox home actually sent it to another region of the Delta Quadrant, given how recently before Voyager it would have had to have arrived, there's no way they could have been in the same region of space and not run into Voyager or the Kazon or the Vidians in the first couple of years.

 

[Phaser Two]

Also, the Equinox had the new 2371 issue commbadges so by definition could not have ended up in the Delta Quadrant any earlier than the start of 2371. Which could also support my theory that the Caretaker's attempt to send the Equinox home actually sent it to another region of the Delta Quadrant, given how recently before Voyager it would have had to have arrived, there's no way they could have been in the same region of space and not run into Voyager or the Kazon or the Vidians in the first couple of years.

I like your take here a lot. I've said this once or twice before, but it also seems likely that the Equinox couldn't have been taken too much earlier than Voyager, because Starfleet didn't warn Janeway that the Equinox had disappeared. She had no idea and was surprised to find them.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

I love the critical thinking on display here. You'd all make excellent journalists.

 

[herofhyrule]

I love the critical thinking on display here. You'd all make excellent journalists.

Nah, we'd somehow find a way to argue about canon and continuity errors.

 

[Guy Gardener]

And the Caretaker was not near death when Ransom was there. Maybe it didn't even grant him any kind of audience.

Standard Operating Procedure...

Janeway confronts her opponents and really get's in their face.

Rudy runs away and hides for as long as it takes.

Therefore, Rudy would not have boarded the Array to get his crew back and ask for a free ride home, and he would not have gone to Ocampa to get more of his crew back and he would not have stopped to ask Neelix for directions, or challenged the Kazon as absolute rulers of that zone of space.

...

Starships are powered by stars.

Deuterium is collected by bussard collectors.

Picard's Enterprise needs to stop at every 25th star system to fill up the tank,

Voyager needs to stop at every tenth star system to fill up the tank.

Equinox needs to stop at every third star system to fill up the tank.

(Guestimations, obviously.)

Yes you can collect some Deuterium in deep space, but you can collect a lot more within spitting distance of a star.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

As Tuvok would say, the most obvious answer is usually the correct one.

Ransom is confirmed to have lied about some pretty major things. Thus, any other story he tells that doesn't add up has a very easy explanation.

My guess is that some combination of Ransom, Burke, and other Equinox crewmembers tried something morally questionable, resulting in the Caretaker booting them away. Given that Ransom, unlike Janeway, didn't pick up any new crewmembers, I suspect the crime had something to do with how they treated an Ocampan refugee or something along those lines.

 

[Ragitsu]

Maybe he tried to broker a(n ultimately unsuccessful) deal with the Kazon that would have given those space bullies too much of an edge? Then again, I'm not sure if I'm keen on any implication that Ransom was rotten from the start.

 

[Summer Solstice]

I like the idea that Ransom started out fairly similar to Janeway - a captain of a small ship with a love of science, who under better circumstances would enjoy exploring the Delta Quadrant. I think Burke was always morally questionable. It would be much harder for Ransom to not lose his moral compass with Burke encouraging him to do morally questionable things than for Janeway when Chakotay didn't behave like Burke.

 

[Oddish]

Chakotay was often a better Starfleet officer than Janeway was.

 

[Summer Solstice]

Chakotay was often a better Starfleet officer than Janeway was.

That's an interesting idea for a thread.

 

[fireproof78]

Did he really give up so easily and settle on the long way back? Why didn't the Caretaker send the Equinox back?

I always took it as the Caretaker flung them away, and they were left stranded with limited resources. Maybe they tried to make peace with some of the locals, but were limited or attacked during those overtures.

 

[Oddish]

That's an interesting idea for a thread.

Maybe. But most of my threads take the express route to oblivion, compromising my fragile male ego.

 

[Farscape One]

Ransom did mention they stumbled across a wormhole on the way to the Alpha Quadrant. It could have been an unstable one right at the start of their journey and dropped them off not too far from where we find them in "EQUINOX". He never specified when it was encountered.

It would also explain why Voyager never heard of the Krowtonan guard.