U.S.S. Voyager : Replicators : Page 4

the food replicator is on the wall at the back by the door to the aft compartment [#148 Imperfection]

There are two food replicators on the Delta Flyer: one in the forward section by the door to the aft compartment, and one in the aft compartment. In [#170 Renaissance Man], Janeway orders "coffee, black" from the one in the forward section.

[Body and Soul]

The Delta Flyer's replicator. Right: Crewman William Telfer obtains pasta soup (program "Neelix 651") for his lunch from the replicator.

[#140 Good Shepherd]

Neelix at the food replicator in the Delta Flyer's aft compartment, here procuring leola bark tea

[Body and Soul]

[Body and Soul]

In the screenshots above the Doctor, in Seven's body, orders a slice of New York cheesecake. The camera shots are taken through the replicator from its back (called a "wild wall" as it is removeable for shooting).

The raw food stock material is an organic particulate suspension, a combination of long-chain molecules that has been formulated for minimum replication power requirements. When dematerialised, using a slightly modified phase transition coil chamber, the resulting matter stream statistically requires the least quantum transformational manipulation to replicate most finished foodstuffs. Osmotic and electrolytic fractioning of waste-water almost all of the food stock to be reclaimed and re-used. On the far larger Galaxy-class ships in the late 2360s, the reclaimable proportion was up to 82% and in the 2370s on the jointly run Starfleet and Bajoran deep space station Deep Space Nine the reclaimable proportion is approximately 91% therefore at optimum operation USS Voyager's would be between those figures.

In a shortage, raw food stock can be replicated from general raw stock or waste material, but the energy cost is correspondingly higher, so this practice is preferably avoided. With Neelix's culinary skills in daily use in the main messhall, that practice need never be used.

The replication system is fairly expensive to operate in terms of the mass of the hardware involved and the energy cost of operation but, assuming adequate power supplies, it is a significant savings over a traditional food storage and preparation system. It seems Voyager reverted to normal replicator usage and practices as ship and crew adapt to life in the Delta Quadrant. In 2372, in [#38 Innocence], Voyager installs a compositor which thereafter enabled them to recrystallise dilithium (but although synthetic dilithium can be used it is not ideal compared to natural dilithium, hence away missions continue to search for natural dilithium e.g. the one on which Ensign Lindsay Ballard is killed [#138 Ashes to Ashes]). That means that the warp engines are, provided deuterium supplies continue to be found, sustainable indefinitely which means that Voyager can more confidently expect to reach supply depots. This relieves the power shortage problem considerably. In addition, Voyager's crew make the most of supply layovers at places like the Nekrit Expanse Depot [#55 Fair Trade] and the Markonian Outpost [#122 Survival Instinct]. Paris' replication of flowers for Torres in [#75 Scientific Method] and on an occasion that Seven's notes reveal she observed in [#116 Someone To Watch Over Me], together with Janeway's frequent replication of coffee and tea, all indicate that the need to economise has diminished.

If Voyager's replication system breaks down, the crew must all eat Neelix's cooking whether they wish to or not. The crew are faced with not being able to use the food replicators at all in [#12 Heroes and Demons] when Janeway tells Chakotay and Tuvok that photonic energy has got into the replicator system, and in [#118 Relativity] time fractures in various places throughout the ship mean that, according to Chakotay: "Food replicated an hour ago is already spoiled." If the crew should become unable to use the replicators on a long-term basis, the total mass of stored foodstuffs would have to be enormous to provide even a fraction of the menu items offered by the replicator system. That would in practice mean that menu choice would become extremely restricted.

Because food is stored as a single uniform staple, very little mass and storage penalty is incurred in providing an extremely wide range of menu choices. Extensive recycling of food stock permits an even more dramatic mass savings over extended voyages, an important consideration for Voyager whose journey home ends up lasting seven years.

The Federation Council provided two industrial replicators to the Bajoran government after the end of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, and four industrial replicators to the Cardassian government to help their people cope with the aftermath of the Klingon invasion of 2372 [DS9: For the Cause], but those were rare cases: help was given to those who were already familiar with replicator technology and there was no risk of thereby upsetting the balance of power in the region. Whereas between 2371 and early 2373, Voyager's crew became engaged in a struggle with the Kazon, in particular the Kazon-Nistrim sect led by Maje Culluh, to prevent replicator and other Federation technology from falling into their hands because everyone knew Culluh would use it to conquer the other Kazon sects and seize more power in that area of the Delta Quadrant [#11 State of Flux] [#27 Maneuvers] [#42 and #43 Basics].

In [State of Flux] Voyager answers the distress signal sent by a Kazon-Nistrim ship. That ship is identified as being nearby earlier when Voyager away teams collected foodstuffs on a planet. The Kazon ship is disabled and all but one of its crew have died horribly, fused into exploded metal and there is nucleonic radiation in the area though contained within a forcefield. Replicator operation generates nucleonic radiation [#11 State of Flux], although Federation replicators have a thick enough interior shield casing to prevent user exposure to such hazardous energy.

[State of Flux]

[State of Flux]

Detecting a Federation signature in the console which was at the centre of the explosion, Voyager uses an "expander" to push aside the nucleonic radiation to extricate the console and transfer it to Voyager where Torres examines it.

[State of Flux]

Torres: "Of all the things to die for. It's a food replicator, or at least it was trying to be." Janeway: "We may take replictors for granted but imagine what it would mean to a culture that doesn't have this technology." Torres: "They didn't use a thick enough interior shield casing. Once nucleonic radiation leaked out a cascade reaction was inevitable." Janeway: "Can you tell if any part of the console came from our ship?" Torres: "There's no doubt about it, Captain. The pattern buffer relays are clearly composed of bioneural fibres. No other Federation ship would have them. Somebody on board Voyager gave them what they needed. I guess they just didn't know what to do with it."

However, in [#114 Think Tank], when Kurros tells Janeway about Voyager's bounty-hunter enemies the Hazari: "We can solve the Hazari paradox without firing a single weapon." she hands him a PADD containing Voyager's schematics and an overview of Voyager's database for him to select payment and says: "I recommend the replicators. They're very popular this year."