USS Protostar
The USS Protostar (NX-76884) was a  Federation starship launched by Starfleet during the late 24th century.

Service history

Original voyage 
The Protostar was under the command of Captain Chakotay for a mission in the Delta Quadrant undertaken in the years after the return of the . () It was equipped with a holographic training advisor known as Hologram Janeway, modeled after Chakotay's former commanding officer, Captain Kathryn Janeway, and holographic projectors in multiple areas of the ship. (, et al.) 

During the mission, Chakotay sent out a mayday reporting that the Protostar had encountered an anomaly and found themselves being boarded, as Drednok forced his way onto the bridge. 

By the 25th century, Drednok and the Vau N'Akat had control of the Protostar and placed blocks in the ship's main computer to conceal information about its original crew and purpose, partially using the Vau N'Akat language as a passcode encryption. Drednok also gained access to Chakotay's command authorization codes. () A Vau N'akat weapon was hidden onboard the ship, one capable of hijacking Federation ship systems and causing them to "turn on themselves... and tear themselves apart." They planned to use the Protostar as a Trojan horse to deploy the weapon in Federation space; however, this plan went awry, and the Protostar was lost in the past. The Diviner was then sent back in time in search of the Protostar. ()

By 2366, the lost Protostar was abandoned and located deep inside Tars Lamora. The Diviner spent many years searching for it, establishing the Tars Lamora prison colony to conduct and finance his efforts. ()

Under the command of Dal R'El and his crew 
In 2383, it was accidentally discovered by Dal R'El and Rok-Tahk buried in the Northwest Crevasse within the prison colony. ()

After escaping Tars Lamora along with Zero, Jankom Pog, Murf and The Diviner's daughter Gwyndala, the ship encountered a binary star system and was almost destroyed by the gravitational pull of an orbiting white dwarf that was in the final moments of tearing apart its red giant companion. () Under Janeway's advisement, the crew continued on to investigate a Class M planet located in the Hirogen system, where the ship was nearly consumed by the cilium-like vegetation that inhabited the planet-like superorganism before nearly being captured by The Diviner. ()

They succeed at escaping the REV-12 when the ship's proto-drive was engaged, and the ship was hurdled nearly 4,000 light years to the Gamma Quadrant in a matter of minutes. Around this time, Murf discovered the ship's holodeck, which included such holoprograms as Andoria IV, Ceti Alpha V skydiving, kal-if-fee gladiator match, Count Dracula, 1885 Deadwood South Dakota, Paxau Resort, Janeway Lambda One, and the . ()

The Protostar visited the Cymari homeworld and made first contact with the Cymari. ()

The Protostar then flew through a tachyon storm, which fractured the ship into several parallel realities moving at variable speeds and nearly caused a warp core breach. The crew was forced work together across these fractured realities, guided by Hologram Janeway, to make the repairs to restore it to normal time and prevent the ship's destruction. ()

Eventually, the crew of the Protostar were given an ultimatum by The Diviner that forced them to return to Tars Lamora and surrender the ship. However, they removed the exotic matter dilithium matrix, preventing the ship from going to proto-warp and allowing the crew to rescue the miners and reclaim the Protostar. ()

When the Protostar left from Tars Lamora, its proto-warp signature was detected by the  for the third time. The Dauntless commander, Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway used the signals to track the ship, on a rescue mission to find its former captain, Chakotay. ()

List of first contacts 
Cymari (2383)

Personnel 
Original crew
Chakotay – Commanding officer
Hologram Janeway

Replacement crew
Gwyndala – Communications officer
Hologram Janeway – Training advisor
Murf
Jankom Pog – Chief engineer
Dal R'El – Acting captain
Rok-Tahk
Zero – Flight control officer

Appendices

Appearances

Background information 
According to Star Trek: Prodigy producer and screenwriter Aaron Waltke, the ship's NX registry is derived from his birthday of .

External links 

Federation starships