Equinox, Part I

Voyager answers a distress call and finds the USS Equinox, a small Starfleet science vessel that was also flung into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker. Its captain, Rudolph Ransom, and a handful of exhausted survivors are under constant attack from aliens that emerge from rifts in space. Janeway extends Voyager's shields around both ships and proposes that the two crews combine. But the Equinox has travelled suspiciously far, and the Doctor uncovers the reason: Ransom's crew have been capturing the aliens, nucleogenic life forms, and converting their bodies into fuel to boost their warp drive. The attacks are the creatures' revenge. Janeway relieves Ransom of command, but with help from the Equinox's own Emergency Medical Hologram, his crew escape with Voyager's shield generator. As the Equinox flees, Seven is left unconscious aboard it, Voyager's shields fail, and the creatures materialise on the bridge, closing in on Janeway.