Another futile effort at making sense of warp velocities:
1. "There's a star system a little less than five light-years from here. No M-Class planets."
The above refers to Idran, the closest star to the wormhole, as determined upon wormhole exit by Dax in "Emissary"[DS9-1].
2. "Then they may know the speed of our runabouts. If they do, they probably have a faster ship to make their escape." "Major, survey all ships in dock with a high warp capability." later: "We've got eight ships in dock capable of warp five or more."
The above suggests that runabouts may be limited to less than warp five. On the other hand, Kira may've been considering lower-than-runabout speeds considering Sisko's "high warp" order.
3. "Maximum warp, engage. Time to Parada system?" "One hour, fourteen minutes."
The above dialog occurs in "Whispers"[DS9-2], wherein O'Brien (... er, sort of ...) tries to go back to the scene of the crime in the Gamma Quadrant.
4. Several times throughout the series it's made clear that runabouts aren't the fastest things in the galaxy.
Therefore:
Even if we assume that Parada is a planet in the Idran system, and assume that "a little less than five" = four, then the runabout's speed in "Whispers" was 28,410c.
Ah crap. Nevermind. That's only about 9.975 or so, depending on which examples of warp speed vs. real velocity one wishes to make use of.
(sigh)
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on July 05, 2004 01:06 PM:
Eddies in the space-time continuum.
Posted by Fleet-Admiral Michael T. Colorge (Member # 144) on July 05, 2004 04:08 PM:
That or Chief O'Brien tweaked the engines like any good Starfleet engineer.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on July 05, 2004 05:40 PM:
i'd think that a Runabout can make warp 6 on the TNG scale for cruising and mabye even 7 for a limited time in an emergency.
Not enough to outrun a Romulan, Myridorn or Dominion ship though.
I only think that warp 6 is likely because the crew had traveled all the way back to Earth (I think) and Cardassia was less than a day's journey away (The Wire).
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on July 05, 2004 07:02 PM:
1) Idran was the nearest *recognizable* star system, while several others were closer to the Gamma end but unknown to UFP databases during "Emissary".
2A) The Gamma end of the wormhole moves about at near-lightspeed, so by the time of "Whispers", Parada is closer than Idran.
2B) Either Idran or Parada moves about at near-lightspeed.
3) "Whispers" features a cut between the emergence of the runabout from the wormhole and the computer comment. Perhaps O'Brien has been traveling at less than maximum warp for a while before issuing the order?
4) Warp five is indeed a good deal faster than Okuda claims, and easily propels the runabout across more than five lightyears in 1 h 40 min.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on July 05, 2004 09:31 PM:
quote:Originally posted by TSN: Eddies in the space-time continuum.
No I'm not!
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on July 05, 2004 10:59 PM:
Timo: I think 2B sounds rather a bit less likely than the others.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on July 05, 2004 11:42 PM:
Actually, in one of the DS9 Relaunch books, the Idran system moves to the wormhole terminus...
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on July 06, 2004 03:51 AM:
Well, I sure hope no-one was living in it.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on July 06, 2004 05:03 AM:
No, it was a dead system. But Jake and a crew on a merchant ship were in the system.
Posted by Ultra 2 Legit 2 Magnus (Member # 239) on July 06, 2004 05:03 AM:
I have not read a single thing that contradicts the opinion that the "Star Trek: New Deep Space Nine" novels are magnificent. Yet.
