Star Trek: 10 First Contacts We Need To See
3. Starfleet-Nacene
Wait a minute! We've already seen first contact between a Starfleet crew and the Nacene, haven't we? Well... no, we haven't. So desperate for attendees at his banjo concert, the Caretaker pulled ships from all over the galaxy, usually sending them back afterwards. Amongst those, there was logically at least one other Starfleet vessel that must have arrived before Voyager blew everything up (although not before the Caretaker turned into a rock) — the USS Equinox.
When Captains Janeway and Ransom met, they both said "Caretaker" with such simultaneity that we can be pretty sure that's how the Equinox got to the Delta Quadrant. Why, presumably after making (first) contact with the sporocystian entity, the Equinox crew then decided, or were forced, to take the long way home remains uncertain. It's only a theory, but I bet Lieutenant Maxwell Burke — not the brightest star in the fleet — just thoroughly p**sed the Caretaker off!
Nonetheless, it is hard to resist the thought of seeing first contact between one of the galaxy's most powerful species and the crew voted Starfleet's most murderous at the recently renamed Rudy Awards. It would be equally interesting to see who the Equinox met next during its first week in the Delta Quadrant — the Krowtonan Guard. According to Ransom (take it or leave it), he lost half his crew to attacks from the never-spoken-of-again species when he gave the order to continue on through their territory.