Voyager receives a distress call from another Federation ship in the Delta Quadrant - the USS Equinox, a smaller and less defensible ship than Voyager, and commanded by Captain Rudolph Ransom. The Equinox is under constant attack by nucleogenic lifeforms. The Voyager and Equinox crews co-operate in repairing the Equinox's systems and to create shields to defend against attack. During the repairs, the two captains discuss the Prime Directive.
Ransom: "Have you ever run into the Krowtonan Guard?"
Janeway: "Never heard of them."
Ransom: "That's how we spent our first week in the Delta Quadrant. They claimed we'd violated their territory. I gave the order to keep going. I lost thirty-nine - half my crew."
Janeway: "I'm sorry."
Ransom: "We never recovered from that loss. It changed everything."
Janeway: "What do you mean?"
Ransom: "When I first realised that we'd be travelling across the Delta Quadrant for the rest of our lives, I told my crew we had a duty as Starfleet officers to expand our knowledge and uphold our principles. After a couple of years we started to forget that we were explorers. There were times when we nearly forgot we were human beings."
Janeway: "This is a Nova-class science vessel, designed for short-term research missions - minimal weapons, you can't even go faster than warp 8. Frankly, I don't know how you've done it. You've obviously travelled as far as we have, with much fewer resources."
Ransom: "I wish I could take all the credit, but we stumbled across a wormhole, made a few enhancements to our warp engines. May I ask you something, captain to captain? The Prime Directive: how often have you broken it for the sake of protecting your crew?"
Janeway: "Broken it? Never. Bent it, on occasion. And even then, it was a difficult choice. What about you?"
Ransom: "I've walked the line once or twice but nothing serious."
[Seasons 5 & 6: Equinox]
Despite the Equinox crew's attempt to conceal it, Janeway learns that they have been trapping and using the dead bodies of nucleogenic lifeforms to enhance the ship's propulsion systems, hoping to increase their chances of getting home quickly. This is why the creatures have been attacking the Equinox - in self-defence. The Equinox crew's actions violate the Prime Directive and, by deliberately trapping the creatures, violates almost everything the civilised Federation stands for.
Janeway: "The alien compound. 10 isograms. If I understand your calculations, that's enough to increase your warp factor by, what, .03% for one month? Unfortunately, that boost wouldn't get you very far. So you'd need to replenish the supply. And that means killing another lifeform. And then another. How many lives would it take to get you back to the Alpha Quadrant? I think you know the reason we're under attack. These aliens are trying to protect themselves from you."
Ransom: "Sixty-three, that's how many more it will take. Every time I sacrifice one of those lives, a part of me is lost as well."
Janeway: "I might believe that if I hadn't examined your 'research'. These experiments were meticulous, and they were brutal. If you'd felt any remorse, you'd never have continued."
Ransom: "Starfleet Regulation 3, paragraph 12: 'In the event of imminent destruction, a captain is authorised to preserve the lives of his crew by any justifiable means.'"
Janeway: "I doubt that protocol covers mass murder."
Ransom: "In my judgment it did."
Janeway: "Unacceptable!"
Ransom: "We had nothing! My ship was in pieces! Our dilithium was gone. We were running on thrusters. We hadn't eaten in sixteen days! We had just enough power to enter orbit of an M-class planet, and lucky for us, the inhabitants were generous. They were called the Ankari, and they provided us with a meal and a few supplies, even some dilithium crystals. They even performed one of their sacred rituals to invoke 'spirits of good fortune' from another realm to bless our journey. But these weren't spirits. They were nuceleogenic lifeforms. Our scans revealed that they were emitting high levels of antimatter. Later that same night we managed to obtain one of the summoning devices devices in exchange for an energy converter. We constructed a containment chamber that would prevent the lifeform from vanishing so quickly. But something went wrong. We tried to send it back. But it was too late. We examined the remains and discovered it could be converted to enhance our propulsion systems. It was already dead! What would you have done? We travelled over ten thousand light-years in less than two weeks. We'd found our salvation! How could we ignore it?"
Janeway: "By adhering to the oath you took as Starfleet officers: to seek out life, not destroy it!"
Ransom: "It's easy to cling to principles when you're standing on a vessel with its bulkheads intact manned by a crew that's not starving."
Janeway: "It's never easy but if we turn our backs on our principles we stop being human. I'm putting an end to your experiments and you are hereby relieved of your command."
[Seasons 5 & 6: #120 and #121 Equinox]
Janeway, outraged at Ransom's violation of the Prime Directive and his oath as a Starfleet captain, takes aggressive and sometimes reprehensible action with the aim of correcting the violation. She nearly murders an Equinox crewman to elicit information. Voyager makes proper first contact with the nucleogenic lifeforms, with Janeway even agreeing to surrender the Equinox to them knowing that would probably mean death for the Equinox crew rather than the Federation's punishment of imprisonment. Meanwhile, on the Equinox, Ransom's already troubled conscience is pricked further by his captive, Seven of Nine, who urges him to "find another way". But when Ransom decides to surrender to Janeway, his First Officer Max Burke mutinies. Ransom, aided by his chief engineer, transports Seven and his crew to Voyager except for Burke who, with the remaining mutineers, are killed by the nucleogenic lifeforms. With the Equinox about to explode, Ransom redeems himself, at least in part, by steering the starship away from Voyager, and he dies in the resulting explosion.
Ransom, in his last moment of life, his conscience at last clear
the destruction of USS Equinox, with Ransom aboard
Janeway's action against Ransom and the Equinox crew re-affirms commitment to the Prime Directive, motivated strongly by morality and the desire for justice. Along the way, Janeway sees what could happen if she were to behave like Ransom and bend the rules too far in order to get home, and it is perhaps that which makes her exhibit at least two instances of behaviour which are at best questionable and at worst beyond reasonable bounds. These are firstly her way of dealing with the captive Equinox Crewman Lessing in trying to blackmail information from him, and secondly her willingness to give the Equinox (when captured).
Janeway demands Ransom's tactical status. "I'll drop the shields around this room and let your little friends come pay you a visit." Lessing: "That would be murder." Janeway: "You could also call it poetic justice."
Her actions show she is almost unhinged by her overwhelming feeling of moral outrage and her utter determination to apprehend Ransom. This is a new, unsettling and more dangerous Janeway. Her warped judgement causes her to exchange sharp words with her two most senior officers: she and Chakotay argue about her treatment of Lessing, and Tuvok protests at her agreement to hand over the Equinox to the nucleogenic lifeforms - she suspends Chakotay from duty and threatens Tuvok with the same.
Chakotay: "Our first priority is to get Ransom. If there's one thing you've made clear it's that."
Janeway: "We've had our disagreements, Chakotay, but you've never openly opposed me."
Chakotay: "You almost killed that man today."
Janeway: "It was a calculated risk and I took it."
Chakotay: "It was a bad call."
Janeway: "I'll note your objection in my log."
Chakotay: "I don't give a damn about your log! This isn't about rules and regulations. It's about right and wrong. And I'm warning you: I won't let you cross that line again."
Janeway: "Well then, you leave me no choice. You're hereby relieved of duty until further notice."
Chakotay: "What's happened to you, Kathryn?"
Janeway: "I was about to ask you the same question."
She leaves.
[Seasons 5 & 6: #120 and #121 Equinox]
Ankari commander: "'Give us the Equinox! Give us the Equinox!' They insist on destroying the ones responsible."
Tuvok: "We will punish them, according to our own rules. They will be imprisoned. They will lose their freedom."
Janeway steps forward and shouts to the aliens: "Alright! If you stop your attacks, I'll deliver the Equinox to you!"
Tuvok: "These beings would destroy Captain Ransom and his crew."
Janeway to the Ankari commander: "What's their answer?"
Tuvok: "Your behaviour is irrational. We could find another solution-"
Janeway: "I've already confined my First Officer to quarters. Would you like to join him?" To the Ankari commander: "Well?"
Ankari commander: "They agree."
[Seasons 5 & 6: #120 and #121 Equinox]
The television viewer also witnesses what the Doctor would be like without his ethical subroutines removed, for the Equinox EMH, after Ransom deactivates his ethical subroutines, is capable of complicity in the destruction of the lifeforms.
There are two instances in the story of similar circumstances designed to point the contrast between the Equinox crew and the Voyager crew, and these are:
The dedication plaque:
Equinox's dedication plaque is found on the floor. Its fall is a metaphor for the fall of the Equinox's principles. At the end of the story, utilising the same metaphor, Voyager's dedication plaque is also found to have fallen down.
There is also the contrast of the two captains and how they behaved with regard to moral standards and the Prime Directive. Yet there is also, by the fall of the dedication plaque, a hint that Janeway came close to falling too, in betraying her own principles while attempting to apprehend Ransom.
As Chakotay and Janeway see and deal with the fallen plaque, putting it back up again symbolises the (start of) the mending of their relationship.
The mutiny by the Equinox's First Officer Max Burke contrasts with Chakotay's decision. Chakotay tells Janeway he considered mutiny but decided against it.
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