| File:USS Dauntless profile, Hope and Fear.jpg | |
| Class: | Dauntless-class |
| Launched: | Stardate 51472.0 (2374) |
| Status: | Presumed destroyed, possibly assimilated (Stardate 51978.8) |
| File:PrometheusMSD.jpg | |
The "USS Dauntless" (NX-01-A) was an alien vessel disguised as a Starfleet prototype starship of the Dauntless-class.
In mid-2374, while still stranded in the Delta Quadrant, the USS Voyager received a transmission from Starfleet Command via the ancient Hirogen communications network. Although the message contained a number of unencoded personal messages, there was also an encrypted file that the Voyager crew was unable to open.
On Stardate 51978, Voyager encountered an alien named Arturis who had a gift for translating languages, both verbal and computerized. He easily decrypted the mysterious message, which gave a set of coordinates near their current location. Upon arrival, the Voyager crew discovered the advanced Starfleet explorer, Dauntless.
Incorporating technology, called a quantum slipstream drive, that promised a faster trip home, the Dauntless proved to be an elaborate trap set by Arturis to arrange for the Voyager crew's assimilation by the Borg. Arturis's race had been recently assimilated by the Borg, and Arturis blamed that event on Kathryn Janeway's short-lived alliance with the Borg against Species 8472.
Ultimately, Voyager eluded the trap, and Arturis was left stranded aboard the Dauntless as it entered Borg space, where he was presumably assimilated. (VOY: "Hope and Fear")
In 2375, Voyager used the slipstream technology examined aboard the Dauntless to construct their own makeshift slipstream drive. In Harry Kim's attempts to alter the timeline, phase variance corrections sent to Seven of Nine prematurely collapsed the quantum slipstream, which propelled Voyager over 10,000 light years closer to home.(VOY: "Timeless")
Background
The registry number implies that there was an earlier USS Dauntless with the registry of NX-01 (or NCC-01). This may have been contradicted by the NX-01 Enterprise later seen in Star Trek: Enterprise.
It is equally possible that the registry was an homage (in-universe) to Enterprise or that registry numbers were reissued to different ships after the founding of the Federation.