Val Jean

The Val Jean was a small raider-type craft operated by the Maquis during the early 2370s. The impulse engines of Val Jean were originally built in 2332.
In 2371, while under the command of Chakotay, the Val Jean was pursued by the Cardassian warship Vetar, Gul Evek's flagship. Chakotay ordered the ship into the Badlands to try to escape the Cardassians.
After eluding pursuit, the Val Jean was scanned by a coherent tetryon beam and transported into the Delta Quadrant by the . Once there, the crew was abducted and subjected to medical tests to determine their biological compatibility with the Caretaker. One of the crew, chief engineer B'Elanna Torres, was removed from the others and sent to the surface of .
In order to recover his missing crewmember, Chakotay reluctantly joined forces with Starfleet captain Kathryn Janeway of the , who had been sent to capture him but had instead been pulled into the Delta Quadrant as well. The cooperation proved successful, and both Torres and Voyager crewmember Harry Kim were rescued.
Subsequently, both Voyager and the Val Jean were engaged in a dogfight by a small fleet of Kazon-Ogla warships, including a massive vessel. Because the Kazon vastly outgunned both Voyager and the Val Jean, Chakotay chose to perform a suicide run maneuver to destroy the much larger ship and "take some heat off [Voyagers] tail." The ramming was successful; the carrier was destroyed after colliding with the Caretaker's array, and Chakotay was beamed out of the cockpit in the nick of time.
Following the destruction of their ship, the Maquis crew were accepted as members of the Voyager crew and given temporary Starfleet commissions due to the unique circumstances. Although they came from hostile backgrounds, the two crews would have to work together to survive in the Delta Quadrant and return home to Earth. ()
== Crew manifest ==
* See: Val Jean personnel
== Appendices ==
=== Background information ===
The name of Chakotay's ship, Val Jean, came from , where it was seen on Teero Anaydis' computer. 
According to the , the ship was named by one of the writers for "Repression" after Jean Valjean, the hero of Les Misérables. The Star Trek Encyclopedia also noted that the ship's name was a typographical error, as it was incorrectly spelled as "Val Jean". Michael Eddington also referenced Valjean, comparing his situation to the Maquis in .
A number of other names have been given for the ship in non-canon sources:
* Zola: from a cut line in .
* Liberty: from Jeri Taylor's Pathways.
* Selva: from Susan Wright's novel The Badlands.
* Spartacus: from the novel . The novel also stated that Maquis captains frequently changed the names of their ships in order to make it appear that the Maquis had more ships than they actually do. This novel also mentioned this vessel was of the .
=== External link ===
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Category:Starships