Nightingale (medical transport)

The Nightingale was the name given by Ensign Harry Kim to the Kraylor vessel Medical Transport 136.

The crew of the USS Voyager first came across this vessel in 2377 when the Delta Flyer responded to a distress signal from the commander of the Kraylor vessel. Responding to the signal, Harry discovers the Kraylor are at war with the Anarri, and are under attack by Anarri vessels. Harry tries to negotiate with the Anarri, but is forced to disable their vessels when they find themselves under attack.

Beaming onto the Medical Transport 136, Harry and Neelix found the vessel in complete disarray - about half the crew were dead, including all but one of the bridge officers. Harry offers to help with repairs of the vessel, along with Neelix and Seven of Nine.

After the vessel has been repaired, Lokan, head of the research team begs Harry to captain the vessel back to their homeworld, telling him that the vaccine they have been working to develop must reach there. Harry is relunctant, not wanting to violate the Prime Directive, but finding out that the planet where Voyager had landed is en route, agrees to take them that far at least.

Captain Janeway is eventually convinced to take the Anarri's side in the matter, and permits Harry to take command of the "medical transport", which he promptly names the Nightingale. However, Janeway asks Seven of Nine to go along on the journey. Harry is excited at the chance of having his "first real command".

The cloak begins to fail a short time into the journey, due to a fluctuation in the propulsion power systems. Repairs are made, yet Harry dismisses Seven's recommendations to run a full diagnostic, reminding her Janeway wanted them back before Voyager finishes repairs. He should have listened to her - a short time later, the primary generator fails, as does the cloak. Half a dozen Anarri vessels move into attack range. A Kraylor researcher named Dayla volunteers to try and bring the cloak back online, receiving instructions from Harry, yet her and Lokan together figure out how to bring the cloak back online by taking the warp core offline. Unfortunately for Dayla, life support fails in the Engineering area, and Dayla dies.

Confronting Lokan, Harry discovers the Nightingale's cloak is actually a prototype, what Lokan's team, including Dayla, had really been working on at a secret base. The Anarri know about the prototype, and don't want it to arrive at the Kraylor homeworld. Harry realises he's in the middle of a breach of the Prime Directive, and orders the Nightingale to reverse course, but is relieved of command. Seven of Nine points out to Harry that if he truly cares about the crew, he needs to help the Kraylor home, otherwise they may not survive.

At the Kraylor homeworld, a new series of scanning pulses illuminates cloaked vessels. Having been detected and surrounded and outgunned by Anarri vessels, Harry takes command, promising to help them, to which Lokan agrees. Realising the situation, Harry appears to offer a conditional surrender with the Anarri - however, if they don't allow the scientists to safely evacuate to the planet, Harry threatens to destroy the Nightingale. Lokan is furious about Harry's apparent betrayal, but is assured he has a plan to save the vessel, but if he fails, "...at least the scientist who designed [the cloak] will be alive to create another one." Once under the grip of the Anarri tractor beam, Harry reverses the Nightingale's shield polarity, and uses the momentum to outrun their persuers to the defence perimeter.

Harry Kim's final entry in the Nightingale's log notes that his actions have lead to cloaking mechanisms being added to the Kraylor fleet. (VGR: "Nightingale").

As Harry himself admitted, he named this vessel for Florence Nightingale, whom he described as being known for aiding wounded soldiers on the battlefield - an approrpriate name for this vessel, which he believed was delivering vaccines to their homeworld.