In 2376 Voyager found the USS Equinox, whose crew had been killing alien life forms to fuel their engines in their rush to get home.
The USS Equinox, a small Nova-class science ship, had also been pulled into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker and had lost much of its crew. Voyager found it in 2376 under attack by aliens. Captain Rudy Ransom had been capturing these nucleogenic life forms and processing them to boost his ship's warp drive.
Ransom stole Voyager's equipment and fled. Janeway pursued him with a ruthlessness that alarmed her crew. Ransom eventually freed the creatures and died when the Equinox was destroyed. The surviving Equinox crew joined Voyager as crewmen.