Hayes: "We've dispatched two deep space explorers to your location. With any luck, they could rendevous with you in 5 to 6 years."
In those 5 to 6 years, Voyager could travel 5,000 lys further towards the UFP, and those deep space exploeres could travel 5,000 lys out. They would rendevous at some point 25,000 lys from Earth. this means that those deep space explorers were locatyed 20,000 lys from Earth when they were dispatched to rescue Voyager!!! Now, if we take it that the UFP is 8,000 lys across, then that 20,000 lys distance would be 16,000 lys from the UFP. Those ships were real far out....However, one must note that according the Picard, the 150 MEMBER worlds were spread across 8,000 lys. the actually colonies, outposts, and starbases could extend much further. The "core" of the AQ, where DS9 took place, would be the point where the Cardassian Union, the UFP, the Romulan Empire, and the Klingon Empire met in space. If the feds had starships 20,000 lys from Earth, they must've knwon of the cardassians a lone time ago. Perhaps the cardassian were known, but just weren't a major power yet.
This "core" of the AQ would be something like Western Europe in the year 1800, with colonies spread across much larger distances, all around the world. The dominion war would be like a world war faught in the ago of european colonialism, with the main fighting near the origins of the major powers, either europe of the core AQ, with the fighting itself spread across a much larger distance, either the planet Earth or thousands of lys out into the galaxy.
It looks like this one remark in voyager could change our entire view of the star trek galaxy.....
Jim Phelps
watches Voyager AFTER 51030
Member # 102
posted
That's possible, but remember the courier ships from the DS9TM capable of maintaining Warp 9.92 for longer periods? Five or six years at that speed would certainly do the trick of travelling 25,000 ly.
posted
It does stand to reason that Starfleet would have sent some ships to extreme-duration journeys 20,000 ly from home at the speed of 1000 ly/yr - after all, it *can* do that in theory, and such exploration may produce worthwhile results.
However, I cannot understand how Starfleet could have given new instructions to ships 20,000 ly away from Earth. Were they contacted by the superduper pulsar-boosted hypersubspace radio, too? (must have been a surprise...) Or have they been laying comm relay buoys along their route? I'm visualizing a ship that looks like a toad pregnant with a zillion eggs which it lays one by one - how small can you make a subspace relay, and still be sure it will work 40 years from now? How sparsely can you risk laying them?
If, OTOH, the ships were near Earth and were dispatched to the rendezvous with the help of their superfast drive systems - why haven't we heard more of these drives? A footnote in DS9 TM really isn't the correct place for such groundshaking relevation.
The third possibility is one of shortcuts. Perhaps Starfleet knew of wormholes or other anomalies that would either allow the explorers to reach the rendezvous point faster, or allow for communications with explorers already en route. Or then Starfleet was counting on the Voyager finding further shortcuts of her own, and maintaining her real average speed from the past six years instead of her nominal cruise speed?
In any case, I feel sorry for the explorers if Voyager fails to keep the rendezvous date...
posted
Well, since we know that Voyager's last season will be next year, and that they'll most likely be coming home, it's a good bet that those two ships will be waiting for a while. Of course, they could always be called back.
------------------ "A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx
posted
Well, the Prometheus was designed for deep space tactical assignments. And what better ship to go out in possible hostile areas than the Prometheus.
------------------ "Life's a bitch, then you die" -USS Luzon, Vanderbuilt Class starship
Jim Phelps
watches Voyager AFTER 51030
Member # 102
posted
Isn't the Prometheus capable of Warp 9.99? IIRC, the Fact Files/Magazine made a mistake - can someone check?
It seems to me that the line "deep space explorers" was meant to explain how Starfleet can reach Voyager in a couple of years. Such ships would probably be optimized for speed, or otherwise be already located far enough to be near Voyager. In addition to communication problems, the former seems more likely for the additional reason that we've never seen Starfleet ships coming back from *decades* of exploring unknown space. Even Kirk's Enterprise remained within 200 light-years of Earth for the most part.
The Prometheus is the canon design closest to at least one type of fast courier ships, and that is the four-nacelled pathfinder with two alternating warp cores, one for each set of nacelles. Once the Prometheus' secondary hull splits into two halves, the lower half of the sec-hull warp core powers the lower nacelles while the upper half powers the upper nacelles. It seems conceivable that the two core-halves could alternate between the nacelles even during connected travel, providing for greater speed.
posted
but remember, they were "deep space explorers," not deep space couriers. And condsidering that the Prometheus class is so new, I don't think they'd be able to send them out that far that fast....We have seen a ship assigned to deep space exploration with little or no contact with the UFP for up to eight years: the USS Olympia from "The Sound of Her Voice." I think its possible that starfleet has several such ships based far from the UFP. However, I doubt that if they were out that far they would be little nova-class couriers out there (which, by the way, are not known the have endurance. Sure they can keep above warp 9 from DS9 to Earth, but from the borders of the UFP members worlds out 12,000 lys if much further). I think we might see some ambassador class ships out there, still on the front lines of ultra deep space exploration having not been replaced by galaxy class vessels, which would need some time to get out that far. We might even see some Nebula class vessels assigned that far. Or maybe a Cheynne class.....But I for one would be disappointed to see Voyager get resuced by a fleet of soverign, prometheus, and defiant class vessels coming in the nick of time to save Voyager from a borg cube.......
posted
In 'Message in a Bottle' it went warp 9,9 according to the Doc, I just checked that. That doesn't mean that it is the top cruising speed. It did stay amazingly steady, and from what I understood it was supposed to go warp 9,9 for quite a while.
I don't know at what speed Voyager begane to shake during 'Treshold', but I do know that in the episode the Prometheus was said to be the fastest ship in the fleet...
Also the Prometheus was build for deep space tactical assignments. CAn someone explain to me what tactical in this sence means?
------------------ Meddle not in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!
(-=\V/=-)
[This message has been edited by Altair (edited May 13, 2000).]
posted
I'm just saying it'd be a plothole to see starfleet's newest vessels, just built, fly out 25,000 lys in just a few years to rescue Voyager. Of course, we could always see new ships that have never been seen before as they were so distant from the federation core....
However, with the end of the Dominion War, the Prometheus-class ships that Starfleet would have indoubtedly built to refine the design seen in 'Message in a Bottle' (remember, it was boarded and taken-over by the Romulans) might be lying around with nothing else to do. What better that to assign these kick-ass ships to rescue the Fed's longest lost ship (that they know is around, that is!).
Brand-new spanking-gorgeous ships wouldn't go astray either, though.
*pictures the U.S.S. Nightmare, or a cargo pod with a worp core and eight nacelles*
------------------ Remember December '59 The howling wind and the driving rain, Remember the gallant men who drowned On the lifeboat, Mona was her name.
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