Canon Facts Backstage Info  Speculation

Notes : The Krenim are a Delta Quadrant species, and one of the few species in the galaxy besides the Federation which use temporal technology. The Krenim Empire is located many tens of thousands of light years away from the Federation, and as such the encounter was limited to the interactions centred around the USS Voyager.

Voyager encountered several alternate timelines as a result of the Krenim. In the Zahl-dominant timeline the Krenim Empire had been overrun and destroyed by a species called the the Zahl, and the few remaining Krenim ships were small patrol craft with limited weaponry. These remnants took to accosting travellers through Zahl space, claiming the area as their own and threatening destruction to the trespassers. Such a vessel accosted the USS Voyager, although it lacked the weaponry to make good on its promises.

The catalyst for the creation of the other timelines was the Krenim Timeship. The Krenim are one of the very few species which employ Temporal weaponry on a regular basis. In the Zahl-dominated timeline many Krenim ships were equipped with Chronaton torpedoes which, being in a state of temporal flux, were able to penetrate conventional shield technology. While these weapons did not prevent the Zahl victory over the Krenim, a more ambitious system did offer some hope. The Krenim Timeship was a large craft which was able to perform temporal incursions, removing specific objects from space-time in both past, present and future. This act would generate a temporal shock wave which would rapidly generate an altered timeline. The Timeship operated defensive systems which allowed it to operate outside of normal space-time, rendering it invulnerable to all conventional weaponry.

The Krenim ship was commanded by a scientist named Annorax, a man who was obsessed with restoring his home and wife to life again by preventing the Zahl from destroying the Empire. He spent over two subjective centuries on this mission, conducting incursion after incursion without success. Even when the removal of the Zahl homeworld was successful in restoring 98% of the Krenim Empire, Annorax was determined to continue because his own colony remained unrestored.

With the restoration of a Krenim-dominated timeline, the Krenim Empire spread across 5,000 parsecs and 849 inhabited worlds. In this timeline Voyager was under near constant attack by the Krenim, whose temporal torpedoes were easily able to penetrate her shields. The Federation ship took heavy damage but after over two months of almost continuous attack, Voyager managed to improvise a form of temporal shielding which isolated the ship from the changes the Krenim Timeship was making to the timeline.

The next Krenim incursion - which destroyed the Garenor homeworld - left Voyager unchanged, but the new unexpected factor of the ships temporal shielding badly altered the effect of the incursion on the rest of the timeline. The entire Krenim Empire reverted to a pre-warp state, leaving Voyager still badly damaged but without most of her enemies. The Timeships temporal scans revealed the source of the problem, and Annorax intercepted Voyager and kidnapped two members of her crew - Lieutenant Paris and Commander Chakotay - before attempting to destroy the ship with his main temporal weapon. Voyager was able to escape by outrunning the Timeship, whose large mass limited it to Warp 6 at most, but suffered near-catastrophic damage in the process. The ship spent some time in this Krenim-prewarp timeline before another incursion destroyed the Ram Izad system and restored 52% of the Krenim Empire.

Captain Janeway ordered the bulk of her crew to abandon ship and hid Voyager inside a nebula. Despite further equipment difficulties, Janeway was eventually able to forge an alliance with the Mawasi and the Nihydron, two local species who were eager to help Voyager hunt down the Timeship once they realized the damage it was doing. Voyager led a fleet of three Mawasi ships and two Nihydron cruisers into battle against the Timeship. On board the Krenim vessel, Paris and Chakotay were able to disable the temporal core to allow the fleet to attack with conventional weapons, but they were unable to defeat Annorax and he disabled all of the ships. Captain Janeway ordered the fleet to take their temporal shielding off-line and rammed the Krenim ship broadside, rupturing the temporal core and causing one final incursion.

The act destroyed the Timeship and restored the preferred timeline completely. In this timeline the Krenim Empire was largely benevolent, and advised Voyager to avoid their space as it was in dispute. Voyager proceeded on its way as normal.