15 Issue Equinox
15 Issue Equinox
15 Issue Equinox
00
15
TM
NOVA CLASS
Sc SCIENCE VESSEL
U.S.S. EQUINOX
TM
NCC-72381
LENGTH: 222 METRES
NUMBER OF DECKS: 8
NC C -72381 Contents
04: PROFILE: U.S.S. EQUINOX NCC-72381
18: ON SCREEN
Stand assembly:
Final position
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U.S.S. EQUINOX NCC-72381
SPECIFICATION
REGISTRY: NCC-72381
CLASS: Nova
LAUNCHED: 2370
DESTROYED: 2376
DECKS: 8
CREW: 80
U.S.S. EQUINOX
NCC-72381
This small science vessel was ill-equipped for survival
thousands of light years from Federation space.
SHIP PROFILE
DATA FEED
The Equinox was one of several ships that
the Caretaker pulled into the Delta
Quadrant. Originally an explorer from
another galaxy, the Caretaker had
remained in the Delta Quadrant to care for
the Ocampa after accidently ruining the
atmosphere on their planet. Finding himself
close to death, he sought to find a
successor from anywhere, but abandoned
every species that he deemed unsuitable.
T
he Nova-class U.S.S. Equinox was built at the was established to deal with the Borg threat in
Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards and was designed the 2360s. However, when the Defiant project
to function as a science and scout vessel, took a different approach, the Nova prototype
making it perfect for short-term planetary research was reclassified as a science vessel. Four of its
and analysis rather than long-range tactical torpedo launchers were torn out and replaced
missions. As a result the Equinox had a top speed with sensor platforms. Additional sensor platforms
of only warp eight and was fitted with minimal were located around the perimeter of the saucer
weaponry, although it was one of the first ships section and in the dome on the underside of the
to be equipped with an Emergency Medical saucer. The secondary navigational deflector at
Hologram. the front of the saucer section further enhanced
Measuring 221.74 metres in length with eight the ship’s scanning abilities.
decks, the Equinox was a relatively small vessel. The The Nova class did however retain several
Nova-class spaceframe was originally developed design features from those early days, including
as part of the Defiant Pathfinder project which a recessed bridge protected from conventional
attacks by an outer ring. From here the entire ship
could be operated by as few as two officers.
Like Intrepid-class ships, the Equinox was
designed to land on a planet’s surface and was
fitted with retractable landing struts located in the
5
SHIP PROFILE U.S.S. EQUINOX
p When Voyager’s lower decks of the engineering hull. The Equinox the crew 70,000 light years from Earth.
commander, Captain also carried a number of shuttlecraft including a Even travelling at its top speed of warp 8, it
Janeway, discovered
what Ransom had done
hypersonic Waverider shuttle, which was docked was clear it would take decades for the ship to
she attempted to arrest on the underside of the saucer section. Similar to reach home. Nevertheless, Ransom set a course
him, but he and his the captain’s yachts on Galaxy-class vessels, the for Earth. Within a matter of days the Equinox had
surviving crew members
Waverider shuttle was designed to operate within unwittingly entered an area of space controlled
took the Equinox and hid
near a planet with a a planetary atmosphere and could reach speeds by a species known as the Krowtonan Guard who
parthogenic atmosphere in excess of Mach 5. ordered them to leave their territory. However,
that masked the ship since a detour would add six years to their journey,
from sensors.
LOST IN THE DELTA QUADRANT Ransom opted to maintain course. The Krowtonan
The U.S.S. Equinox was commissioned on Stardate Guard launched a series of vicious assaults that
47007.1 and placed under the command of resulted in the loss of half the Equinox crew and
Rudolph Ransom III, a well known and admired severe damage to the ship. Although the Equinox
exo-biologist who, after making first contact with survived, she was not equipped for long-term
the Yridians, a species previously thought to be survival away from Starfleet support facilities, and
extinct, was promoted to the position of captain. within a few years the ship was on the point of
In 2371 the Equinox was one of a number of vessels collapse with the remaining crew facing starvation.
that was pulled into the Delta Quadrant by the The ship managed to enter orbit around an
entity known as ‘The Caretaker’, who abandoned M-Class planet, whose inhabitants known as the
6 U.S.S. EQUINOX
SHIP PROFILE
Janeway pursued
Ransom and in the
ensuing battle Voyager
inflicted serious damage
on the Equinox.
Ankari summoned their ‘Spirits of Good Fortune’ Quadrant. Accepting Voyager’s help, Ransom Ransom was willing
to bless the crew. Discovering that the spirits hid the reason behind the alien attacks. When to surrender but his first
officer, Maxwell Burke,
were in fact nucleogenic life forms who emitted the truth was exposed, Janeway attempted to wasn’t. Ransom elected
high levels of antimatter, Ransom and his crew arrest him and his crew and to make peace with to destroy the ship, killing
captured and accidentally killed one of the aliens. the nucleogenic life forms. The Equinox fled and in both himself and Burke.
The five surviving crew
They used the remains to enhance the Equinox’s the ensuing battle, Ransom realised what he had
members joined
warp drive. done, beamed his crew to Voyager, and destroyed Voyager’s crew.
the Equinox, with himself aboard.
MORAL SHORTCUT
The new power source enabled the ship to travel
over 10,000 light years in just two weeks. Ransom
DATA FEED
In one version of the future,
and his crew continued to capture and kill the
Harry Kim was the captain
aliens in a bid to shorten their journey to Earth. of the U.S.S. Rhode Island,
However, the aliens retaliated by attacking the a design of Starfleet vessel
ship killing many of the remaining crewmembers. that had clearly evolved
In early 2376, after one such attack left the ship from the Nova class. The
almost crippled, Ransom sent out a distress call, most obvious difference
was that it had a “filled-in”
which was picked up by the U.S.S. Voyager,
nose section.
another Starfleet vessel trapped in the Delta
7
SHIP PROFILE U.S.S. EQUINOX LAYOUT
of 80, which were located on the upper decks. The lower ran between Decks 2 and 4. The Waverider shuttle was
decks in the engineering hull were largely taken up by the docked just forward of this on Deck 4, where it nestled into
navigational deflector, which crossed Decks 6 and 7 and the ship behind the secondary deflector dish. Other
main engineering, where the vertical warp core ran between shuttlecraft were housed in a shuttlebay at the rear of the
Decks 5 and 8, with a hatch in the bottom of the hull allowing ship on Deck 3, which also housed a variety of science labs.
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p Voyager’s scans showed that the
Equinox crew had made significant
modifications to their warp drive.
9
SHIP PROFILE U.S.S. EQUINOX PLAN VIEWS
Ship’s registry
ADVANCED PHASERS
The U.S.S. Equinox may have been relatively
lightly armed, but it was fitted with the most
advanced form of phasers available to
Starfleet. The Type Xb phasers were an
advance on the Type X phasers that were in
use on Galaxy and Intrepid-class starships.
This improved design had a new hot-standby Shuttlebay
feature where a low power pulse was
Phaser strip
constantly running through the central EPS
conduits. The design of the Type X phaser
had been further refined by the time the
Prometheus class was being tested. This class Formation light
of ship was fitted with Type Xc phasers, where
the hot-standby filament was exposed to
space, and ran at a higher power level.
Formation light
Phaser strip
Sensor palette
SICKBAY
The majority of the
experiments on the
nucleogenic life forms
were carried out in
the Equinox’s sickbay
on Deck 4 and were
performed by the
ship’s EMH, who
only cooperated after
Ransom deleted his
Transporter emitter Secondary navigational deflector ethical subroutines.
WAVERIDER SHUTTLE
The Waverider shuttle
was an auxiliary craft
docked to the underside
Sensor palette of the saucer and
accessed from Deck
4. It was designed for
medium-range missions
Ventral phaser array Primary navigational deflector and was larger and
more comfortable than
a standard shuttle.
u The design of the Defiant
Pathfinder established the basic
layout of a small, modern starship.
DESIGNING THE
EQUINOX
The U.S.S. Equinox started out life as another,
very different, tough little ship...
T
he script for Equinox called for small Federation starship used as both a
something that had never been scout ship and research vessel, but as it
seen in STAR TREK before: a small was at least 80 years old, it didn’t look
scientific vessel that would have been as modern as I knew the Equinox
built around the same time as Voyager needed to be. So I started thinking
so Rick Sternbach knew that to come about other small ships that I could
up with an appropriate design he would study instead and then it dawned on
have to start from scratch. As he recalls, me that I’d actually already designed a p The original design appeared in the STAR TREK:
there was one vessel that provided him ship that fit the criteria and which had DEEP SPACE NINE Technical Manual, and was
illustrated by Doug Drexler based on Sternbach’s
with some inspiration.“I began roughing never been used before.”
concept. The Technical Manual is one of the
out some basic shapes using the Oberth The ship in question was the Defiant few books that is accepted to contain canon
class as a starting point. That was a Pathfinder, which Sternbach had information about the STAR TREK universe.
DESIGNING THE SHIP
Caption
13
DESIGNING THE SHIP U.S.S. EQUINOX
Caption
Sternbach placed it next to a top view sensor arrays commonly found on giving some Starfleet ships a large
of the Voyager in scale and presented science ships. However, Sternbach shuttle-like embedded craft, such as a
it to Lauritson, who quickly gave it his opted to leave in place the recessed the captain’s yacht on the Enterprise-D
seal of approval. It was now left to bridge, which on the Defiant was and the aeroshuttle on Voyager,” says
Sternbach to turn his design for a protected by a circular wall. That done, Sternbach. “I placed an arrow-shaped
heavily armed warship into a science he turned his attention to the underside craft on Equinox’s underside which was
vessel. It proved to be relatively simple of the ship which in the original drawings known as a hypersonic Waverider
process, mainly involving replacing the contained very little in the way of detail. shuttle, a highly fuel efficient vehicle at
six torpedo launchers with the large “I decided to continue the trend of Mach 5 and above.”
14 U.S.S. EQUINOX
Once the changes had been made, Fortunately, according to Sternbach, as
it was then the turn of Digital Muse to far as CG programming was concerned
turn Sternbach’s sketches into a creating the right kind of damage was
computer generated model. child’s play. “From what I’ve seen,”
“Orthographic views were definitely Sternbach explains, “in LightWave you
needed to build a CG model of the can remove or distort groups of
ship, so I worked those up on tracing polygons until they look twisted,
vellum,” recalls Sternbach. “All the vapourised and so on.”
typical Starfleet hull parts were called Understanding that some fans might
out, and colours and lighting specs wonder how a prototype warship and a
were furnished to visual effects. Eddie science vessel could end up looking so
Robinson from Digital Muse built the similar, Sternbach went to the trouble of
model based on my drawings, and after creating a backstory that linked the
a couple of over-the-shoulder sessions, Equinox and the Defiant.
and discussions on colours and “To my way of thinking, Starfleet
markings, the ship came out of looked at a number of possibilities for
LightWave almost exactly as it went in.” the Nova-class science vessel and dug
out the design for the Pathfinder. Then
IN THE WARS maybe some ASDB officer said, ‘Say Bob
Sternbach and the VFX team were then ,since you’re not going to use this one,
faced with one final challenge – to take can I have it for the Nova development
a pristine looking ship and smash it up. It cycle?’ That being the case, both the The final CG
version of the Equinox,
had to look like a vessel which had Nova and Defiant classes could have
complete with the
been under attack for a long time and, been in service in plenty of time for damage it suffered on
while looking battle scarred, was still Ransom to take command and get its journey through the
able to make its way through space. yanked into the Delta Quadrant.” Delta Quadrant.
VOYAGER’s
p On several occasions Voyager was able to use forms of subspace
corridors that allowed it to cover vast distances at great speed.
JOURNEY
The 70,000-light-year journey back from the Delta Quadrant should
have taken a lifetime, but Voyager made the trip in seven years...
W
hen Voyager was stranded in posed a threat to the ship, she took the Borg’s assimilation of his world.
the Delta Quadrant 70,000 painful decision to leave. But before her Following a number of modifications,
light years from Earth, the departure, she was able to propel the Voyager’s crew was able to use the
crew had to face the uncomfortable ship more than 9,500 light years closer slipstream technology to travel 300 light
truth that even travelling at their top to Earth, knocking 10 years off their years closer to Earth. Several months
speed it would take at least 70 years journey. later, they managed to use the
to reach home. But thanks to a number slipstream again, this time to travel
of stellar phenomena and alien QUANTUM SLIPSTREAM another 10,000 light years.
technologies they were able to Later that year, Voyager acquired an Unfortunately, the slipstream collapsed
make the journey in just seven years. advanced propulsion system known as and it was decided that the technology
The first major advance came in a quantum slipstream drive, which was simply too dangerous for repeated
2374 when they had been in the Delta worked by creating subspace tunnels. use so the decision was taken to
Quadrant for three years. Kes began The drive was part of a trap set by an dismantle it.
evolving onto a different plane of alien called Arturis to exact revenge on Voyager’s run of good luck
existence and, finding her new powers Captain Janeway for her role in the continued in 2375 when it entered a
VOYAGER’s JOURNEY
dead area of space known as the Void. ride the resulting shockwave to the crew cut another three years off their
The crew came across a spatial vortex other side of the Void. journey. And even Q popped up to
– literally a doorway that linked two provide a more efficient route as a
points in space. However a race known BORG TECHNOLOGY thank you for Janeway’s help in dealing
as the Malon were using the vortex to Soon afterwards the crew managed with his wayward son.
dump anti-matter waste that was to steal a transwarp coil from a Borg The final leap came about after a
poisoning the native inhabitants. Keen sphere. Like the slipstream drive, the visit from Janeway’s future self, who
to use the vortex to leave the Void and transwarp coils opened corridors in had travelled back in time to change
to put an end to the pollution caused subspace and the stolen coil allowed the course of history. She persuaded
by the Malon, Janeway hatched a plan Voyager to travel 20,000 light years, the crew to access a transwarp network
to destroy the vortex by deploying eliminating another 15 years from its that the Borg used to travel between all
photon torpedoes inside it. By hastily journey. Then a graviton catapult, built four quadrants. The hub was protected
jumping to warp when the torpedoes by an alien called Tash as a means of by at least 47 Borg cubes, and Janeway
were detonated, the ship was able to travelling around space, helped the worked alongside her future self to
destroy the entire network by infecting
q Voyager finally made
the Borg Queen with a pathogen that
it back to Earth in 2378
after the ship covered caused the Queen to lose control of the
30,000 light years by shielding around the manifolds.
using a Borg network of
Voyager was then able to destroy the
transwarp conduits.
manifolds by firing transphasic
torpedoes as it travelled through the
transwarp conduits. This set off a chain
reaction that resulted in the collapse of
the entire network. The shockwave
enabled Voyager to exit the conduit
less than a light year away from Earth
bringing about an end to its journey,
63 years ahead of schedule.
17
APPEARANCES U.S.S. EQUINOX
ON SCREEN TRIVIA
At the end of Equinox, Part II five members
of Ransom’s people joined Voyager’s crew.
Janeway stripped them of their rank and
privileges and told them they would work
under close supervision. Only one of them
ever appeared again: Brian Soffin made a
brief appearance in Repentance, where he
was seen working for Neelix as a guard.
18 U.S.S. EQUINOX
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