Ablative generator Ablative generators were an advanced armor technology used by Starfleet . Shield emitter s generated a nearly - impenetrable layer of armor around the hull of a ship so equipped . This defensive technology was acquired by the crew of in 2378 from Admiral Kathryn Janeway of an alternate timeline . ( ) History . " In the alternate timeline , ablative generators were developed as an anti - Borg technology by Captain Janeway . Invented some time after they encountered the transwarp hub hidden inside a nebula in 2378 , but chose not to investigate it further . She used the technology to protect " Voyager " against the Borg on their voyage back to Earth . By 2404 , ablative generators had not yet become standard equipment on Starfleet vessels . Ships like the were not equipped with them . Also , the Klingon s did not yet possess ablative generators . " " During that year , Admiral Janeway embarked on an illegal mission to change history by traveling back in time to help secure " Voyager " s safe return to the Alpha Quadrant sixteen years early . Janeway utilized a Starfleet Command shuttlecraft , the SC - 4 , equipped with ablative generators when meeting with Korath , a Klingon scientist , who had developed the chrono deflector , a device capable of generating temporal rift s for time travel . Janeway stole the chrono deflector and used the ablative armor to defend the shuttle against nadion discharges fired by Korath ' s warship in a retaliatory attack . " After successfully traveling back in time to 2378 , Admiral Janeway assisted " Voyager " s crew in manufacturing and installing the advanced armor technology aboard the ship . The crew used the armor to defend themselves against Borg attacks while attempting to access the transwarp hub located in grid 986 . When the Borg Queen assimilated Admiral Janeway , she also assimilated knowledge of how to construct the armor technology , but was killed by the neurolytic pathogen Janeway was infected with . Eventually " Voyager " s armor integrity was depleted down to to six percent by a pursuing Borg sphere and the crew had to allow the ship to be captured . They were , however , able to use transphasic torpedo es to destroy the sphere upon exiting the transwarp conduit near Earth . ( ) Background information . The look of the ablative armor in " Endgame " was developed by Foundation Imaging . Russ Isler , a visual effects artist at Foundation , was instrumental in working out the effect . At Paramount , Visual Effects Supervisor Mitch Suskin and Supervising Producer Peter Lauritson were relatively happy with the effect , soon after Foundation submitted it for their appraisal . " " I think Mitch had asked for a slight color change ; I think I had chosen orange , but the blue ended up looking a lot better , " " reckoned Foundation ' s Visual Effects Supervisor Robert Bonchune . " " So it was a good call on Mitch Suskin ' s part . " " ( ) After its critical role in " Endgame " , the armor was not shown to be deployed on Federation starships in any subsequent " Star Trek " production , such as the seen in or the " " in . This armor technology should not be confused with the ablative armor that was already used on Borg sphere s , the , and starships . According to " Mr . Scott ' s Guide to the Enterprise " ( p . 14 ) , the deflector shield s of the refit - were a similar technology , while only the defense field s protecting the top decks were traditional force fields . The main shield grid was a massive replicator system , projecting an invisible hull layer , molecularly identical to the diburnium - osmium alloy used to build the Kalandan outpost . In fact , shield impacts from Klingon photon torpedo es were shown to hit the at the armor plating level in leaving some scorch marks from the detonation and small electric arcs , instead of impacting a " shield bubble " such as the shield effect had been established in , which was in production of season 5 at the time of the film ' s release . Apocrypha . The ablative generators were mentioned in the " " trilogy of novels : they were initially examined by Starfleet as a part of Project Full Circle but were abandoned as anti - Borg technology because the Borg Queen had assimilated this technology from Admiral Janeway . The ablative generator technology appears on the " Intrepid " - class retrofit available to players of " Star Trek Online " .