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Romulan-Vulcan war?
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Masao: [QB] I've racked my brain trying to reconcile a lack of Romulan warp capability with the prosecution of an interstellar war. Unless the Romulans were stuck on Romulus and Romii, which were under siege for 4 years by Earth, a war between star systems lasting only 4 years is not possible without FTL flight. Also, if only Earth had FTL flight, they would have been the agressors. I have to conclude that the Romulans had warp capability and that Scotty's line that they had only simple impulse (suggesting no Warp speed) is misleading or just plain wrong. Whether the romulans could have set up an empire on the far edge of the Federation without FTL depends on how large the Federation is and how far Romulus is from earth. Supposedly the Federation is thousands of light years in diameter. If the romulans didn't have FTL, they could travel at a maximum of 1 light year per year. If the schism that drove them from Vulcan occurred 2000 years ago, they couldn't be more than 2000 light years away and probably much less. If the schism occurred more recently, they would have to be even closer. So, as jh says, warp drive is probably needed in the past to establish the empire. jh's suggestion that the Romulans lost warp capability after reaching their new homes is possible, but I think it's not necessary, unless you believe that the fought the E-R War without FTL. For the record, here's what spock says about the War (I transcribed this in a hurry, but I think I got most of it): "Referring to the map on your screens, you will note beyond the moving position of our vessel a line of Earth outpost stations. Constructed on asteroids, they monitor the neutral zone, established by treaty after the Earth-Romulan conflict of over a century ago. As you may recall from your histories, this conflict was fought, by our standards today, with primitive atomic weapons and in primitive space vessels, which allowed no quarter, no captives. Nor was there even ship-to-ship visual communications. No human, Romulan, or ally has ever seen the other. Earth believes the Romulans to be warlike, cruel, treacherous. And only the Romulans know what they think of Earth. The treaty, set by subspace radio, established this neutral zone, entry into which by either side would constitute an act of war." How wide is the neutral zone? I had always assumed that it was at least a light year wide. Maybe by judging the speed of Enterprise the scale of this map can be figured out. Also note that in this episode, there is no mention of who won this conflict. The idea that Earth prevailed was later introduced only in the TNG era, with the establishment of the Battle of Cheron. A strange thing about this episode is the distinction drawn between invisibility and sensor detectability. A major plot device is that while the Romulan ship cannot be seen, it can be tracked by sensors. Similarly, although the Romulans cannot see Enterprise they can detect it with sensors but dismiss is as a sensor echo. Therefore, the cloaking device as seen here is the equivalent of darkness or a thick fog. As with modern aircraft, most combat in space will probably occur without visual contact. I haven't seen "The Enterprise Incident" for about 15 years (yes, I'm about 150 years old), so I can't comment on how cloaking device is treated in that episode. However, by the TOS movies, the cloaking device prevented both visual and sensor detection. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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