On the subject of how Equinox and VOY ran into each other... that's fairly easy.
Even if the Equinox took a different route from the array back to Earth than Voy, both ships ultimate destinations would have been the same, so its likely they would have crossed paths one way or the other (unless one of the two ships got back to Earth first).
There would be only two places where the two ships would be"likely" to be close to each other: the Caretaker array, and Earth. Everything in between would mean a separation by thousands upon thousands of lightyears, considering the madly meandering route we see
Voyager take (necessary because of the off-beeline shortcuts already, but veering off for other reasons as well).
It would be different if we could assume both ships aimed for a beeline, but we know that to be false. It would be different if we could assume both ships were channeled to the same optimal if serpentine path, but we know that to be false, too (they met different opponents, they took different shortcuts, Janeway had Seven and Neelix to give directions).
It would also be different if there were constrictors or attractors en route. But Ransom never appears to have paid attention to the Borg, so he wouldn't have squeezed through the Northwest Passage (which Janeway sidestepped anyway thanks to Kes). Taking the same wormhole would help, but Ransom never admits to doing so. And nothing so attractive ever popped up that it would have pulled two starships from their courses to investigate, again because Ransom and Janeway never agree to having met the same attractor, except very early in the game.
But I gather the last is our best bet: there could have been an attractor that turned out to be a disappointment but nevertheless synchronized the two skippers, neither of whom saw any point in returning to their original, differing courses after the disappointment. The later, the better: the Think Tank, perhaps?
If Ransom managed to find a wormhole early on like he said, that could have transported his ship about 20 000 Ly's from their position until encountering the Ankari and the space dophins which gave them a Warp boost... that would account for the 10 000 Ly's he mentioned.
...With all the accompanying complications and contradictions, yes. The wormhole story probably was
intended to be part of the lie to cover up the dolphin abuse. But Ransom would still have needed a shortcut or two in order to get to where he was: if it was all thanks to dolphin-burning, then the issue gets even more contradictory, with Ransom now truly randomly running out of dolphin-fuel right next to Janeway even though he's otherwise moving hundreds of times faster than her and no doubt interested in doing a beeline.
Voyager took a more direct route back to Earth, and Janeway already demonstrated she decided to power through and had a more capable ship.
Which apparently meant she stopped more often to have adentures, and made more turns, simply because she could afford those. The seventh-season map certainly shows extreme twisting and turning, and Seven's course advice was supposed to make a big difference, which of course would not apply if the course was close to a beeline to begin with.
Ankarans having a planet 50 Ly's away from where Voyager encountered the Equinox is not necessarily strange - It could be a distant colony or outpost the Ankarans established (10 000 Ly's away from their home planet)... and it makes sense they'd have a vessel near it.
The real question there goes, how the hell did Janeway know there would be Ankari there?
She hasn't seen any Ankari that we'd know of. She hasn't been to that particular planet, or she would have attended a Spirit Seance (if before Ransom) or gotten a memorable reception, with sharpened avocados thrown at the away team (if after Ransom). She would have needed to get the directions from Ransom - but Ransom would probably only ever mention the original planet from which he got the Spirit Seance Springtrap idea in the first place. And how could Ransom have a map of all Ankari planets?
Timo Saloniemi
