posted
Actually, looking from above, Wolf359 is down and to the left. About how it already is on the map, but closer to Earth, and twice as far down as to the left. I think a lot of maps show it different (down and to the right) because they are calculated incorrectly. They use Earth's 0deg declination as the plane of the map, rather than the galactic plane (or a plane parallel to it). If one uses declination, it makes 90deg declination to qudrant border. However, this places the quadrant border at an angle, compared to the galaxy, so the stars seem to be in different places (e.g. W359 seems to be in the beta, rather than the alpha quadrant).
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posted
I don't think the Borg necessarily made a straight trip through Federation space. They could have taken the scenic route. Testing defenses, perhaps. Making sure that Picard's knowledge was accurate. And then heading for Earth.
posted
Well, the Borg were of course free to take whatever route they pleased. But the underlying assumption must be that Starfleet had SOME means of predicting where the Cube would pass. If the Cube was taking a random route, then it would have made zero sense to deploy starships at Wolf 359 - there was no guarantee the Cube would pass through there, so the only sensible place to gather the fleet would have been inside the Sol system itself.
Of course, it may be that the Cube was taking a complicated but still predictable route (say, a helix of some sort) that Starfleet was able to compute as passing through Wolf 359. But the admirals must have been pretty damn convinced that they had predicted the route correctly for them to send the ships to Wolf 359 and not to Sol.
As for the location of Wolf 359, I was relying on Crhistian R�hl's Hipparcos data from www.stdimension.de. That data shows some easily identifiable stars like Alpha Centauri or Rigel or Deneb in their classic directions, so I thought the "down and to the right" (or rimwards and antirotationwards) direction of Wolf 359 sounded pretty convincing...
posted
The decision to make a stand at Wolf 359 was made after Worf's dire observation that the Borg had set a course to sector 001, wasn't it? I can see the Borg popping around the Federation for a bit until their semi-final confrontation with the Enterprise, and then deciding to make for Earth. The composition of the fleet Starfleet organized makes more sense the less time they have to prepare.
quote:The Klingon Empire HAS to be there... and not the other way around... it varies with everyone who posts, an older version had it the other way and everyone bitched.
The Cardassians are so 'coreward' as to let the whole Klingon and Cardassian conflicts to work in DS9
The Romulans were not involved as much in the war with the Dominion as the Klingons and the Feds were
Well, this can be easily addressed by keeping the Klingons in their canon position and nudging the Cardassians _rimward_. The Klingon Empire then forms the entire Rimward border of the Federation, extending well into the Alpha Quadrant and bordering Cardassian Space.
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posted
There's a big problem with this approach if we want to assume that the various empires are "solid" and "impermeable". Namely, the Feds are known to be traveling to places like Rigel or Mintaka, in the rimward direction and far, far away. This wouldn't be possible if the Klingons and the Cardassians jointly were blocking the way.
But I don't believe in the "solidity" and "impermeability" of empires much. It's more likely that empires consist of a network of corridors joining together spheres of influence around inhabited systems. Only in the densest parts of such networks can an empire hope to block others from trespassing. In the rim areas, everybody simply goes flying through the net.
The "joint border" supposedly shared by the Klingons and the Cardassians could be nothing more than two "outlier" planets close to each other but far away from their respective empires. Much like, say, the Aleuts where Russia and the US are in touch even though the border is of near-zero strategic importance and far removed from either mainland. This would allow the Feds to fly through to the rimward direction as they please.
posted
Well, Timo, I agree, that is why I did the map with 'fuzzy' borders... there is no way you can draw in thick lines for borders...
another way might be like this... where there is a central core area, with 'rays' jutting out to out-lying colonies... but even still it comes down to empty areas of space where anyone can travel about...
Andrew
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posted
You know, I find this all silly, for one BIG reason. You're thinking two-dimentionally! It was Khan's undoing, after all. The Cardies and Rommies pretty much have to share a border. The Klingons and Rommies share a border, for sure. The Klingons and Cardies share a border. The Fed borders all three. The only way this works in in 3D space. 2D maps will not suffice.
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posted
Dont't the Klingons, Cardassians, and Romulans have a little bit BIGGER empires? You've portrayed them in such a way that they appear 3d-rate powers (which they might be after the War, but there is no way the Federation could be so much more massive)
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posted
Accually I believe that you do have the Klingons and Romulans reversed. In the episode Bloodlines where Worf travels from DS9 to Romulan territory they show a map and IIRC the travel route has Worf leaving DS9 in the upper left hand corner of the UFP traveling along the coreward UFP border until he reaches Romulan space which was in the upper right hand corner of the UFP. In the second part of the two parter I believe Data is looking at a map as he is describing the route that Worf took.
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Testing defenses, perhaps. Making sure that Picard's knowledge was accurate. And then heading for Earth.
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