“Alert! Solean Battleship detected on approach vector.”
The young man sighed and looked up from his work. It had been a few days since they had found this vessel. He had managed to access the ship’s computer mainframe, and configure the sensors to alert them about approaching vessels. While he was at it, he changed the language settings, and encoded some new lingual code, namely teaching the computer Basic. It didn’t know any modern languages before.
That alert however really took his notice. It wasn’t the first alert about an approaching ship. However, this was the first alert in which the computer had given any real identifying information. Much less told him what race built the ship it was alerting him about.
“Computer basis of identification?” he inquired
“The vessel was identified with the following identifiers of mass, hull configuration, energy signature, and hull composition. The ship has a 99.8 percent correlation with Solean design. The ship is powered by a combination of Omega energy and Subspace energy wells, technology exclusively employed by the Solean Empire. Mass and hull configuration are consistent with Solean battleship designs. Based on these factors, there is a high probability that the ship in question is a Solean battleship.
The young man did not think that news was good. A vessel that this ship recognized was undoubtedly of precursor origin. The precursors possessed unrivaled technology and abilities. Their own technology was ahead of the curve for much of the galaxy, but they had not yet achieved the same heights as the precursors. It was what made this old ship so valuable. Whoever uncovered its secrets would have unparalleled power in the galaxy. It would change the balance of power among the old races.
As he dropped his work, and headed over to a comm console to contact the taskforce, he asked the computer, “what exactly is Omega energy?”
He already knew that this ship ran off of Zero Point Energy, and that was potent stuff. Able to rival stars in energy output, and remarkably efficient. They had sent a couple power modules back home for study as those modules alone were game changers.
The computer responded in its typical flat voice, “Omega energy is a form of high energy power generation that extracts vast amounts of energy from the Omega Molecule. A highly unstable high mass molecule that exists partially in hyperspace. Most cultures look into Omega at some point in their development due to its vast potential for energy generation. A single molecule of it can rival a small star in terms of energy output. Unfortunately the Omega Molecule is highly unstable, and prone to detonating almost as soon as it has been synthesized. Omega detonations propagate through hyperspace, and cause irreparable damage to hyperspace. Detonations may also tear open rifts into normal space. Rendering FTL travel impossible in regions extending several lightyears after a detonation occurred. The Altean Directorate banned all research into the Omega phenomenon due to this property.”
That was concerning, “If the stuff is that dangerous, why do the Soleans use it?”
“Unlike most races, the Soleans never signed any treaties forbidding research into Omega energy. They also discovered Omega far later in their development than most cultures do. Allowing them to conduct their research unhindered in the void between galaxies, an option the Altean Directorate did not have when it conducted its initial studies.”
He was about to ask another question of the computer, when the computer stated, “New Information. Vessel identified. ISS Constellation, Sovereign class. Solean Imperial Fleet registry, SFR-45567595-EEE. Commissioned in the year 3421459 SDE on the Solean Calendar, last seen on Stardate 411230 on the Altean Standard Calendar, or 3422857 on the Solean Calendar. AI, core Megumi. Last Known captain, Toku of Clan Shiro. Would you like to review her combat record? One thousand three hundred ninety eight years available for review. Public record only.”
How old would that ship be now? He wondered. Apparently out loud, as the computer informed him. “Based on current date, and commission year of the ISS Constellation the ship is one million four hundred twenty four thousand, five hundred and twenty nine years old.”
That age was shocking. It was already weird that the ship had a combat record nearly fourteen hundred years long available for review, but apparently it was a drop in the bucket. Likely useless as well.
Meanwhile. Megumi was fully aware that she was on final approach to the ADS Inquistor. Her mind was mostly elsewhere however. As she looked over the image of her new Biomech avatar in the mirror. She could not wait to show herself to Melia when she woke up. As for Kiru, she was doing well in her training, and it might prove useful for some of it.
Her mind could not help, but drift back to when she first received an Avatar. Back then she had not yet been installed in the Constellation. Although it had not been long after that when she was installed in the Constellation. It had been a very memorable, and precious day for her.
Stardate 2-4-3421459 SDE, Solean Central Shipyards (Graviterra Galaxy, Last Light Starsystem)
Megumi stretched her body as her avatar stepped out of the pod. From the walls a series of special photon emitters generated a wave of light that ran over her bare skin and removed the traces of fluid clinging to her skin. She waved a hand and a mirror was holographically projected allowing her to inspect her new biomech avatar. She had spent months designing the thing to her satisfaction and she wanted to see if the pod had grown it, to her specifications. It seemed the pod had managed replicate her desired appearance. She looked a lot like a Solean in their true form, with one major exception. Instead of talons she had human feet. Her wings were tightly folded on her back and covered in light scale-feathers. Patterned in gold and silver, scales also lightly coated other parts of her body. Scales ran up her legs in a spiral pattern, and a number of thinner scales coated her stomach and underboobs. Creamy white skin was exposed on her shoulders and the top of her boobs. Her pink nipples could also be seen. Scales also coated both of her arms in a similar spiral pattern to those on her legs. She had a few gold and silver scales on her cheeks as well.
Overall she stood at a hundred and thirty centimeters tall, which was a little on the short side for a Solean female. She had lovely silver hair that fell to her waist, and framed her round face. She had large gold eyes that just seemed to take everything in, a small mouth and nose. Overall she looked cute, especially with her small boobs and butt. Spreading her folded wings, she began to access her internals. Finding that the systems were exactly the way she had specified. Hidden in her right arm was an internally mounted light dual-modal plasma cannon. Her wings were also fully functional, and she had an internal shield generator. Under her scales was a nanoweb of armor that could stop most small arms, both ballistic and energy-based. Most important though was her internal micro-drive making her capable of limited starflight. Overall her capabilities were top notch, especially when compared to standard biomechs.
Feeling satisfied with her appearance, and feeling her avatar to be functional she folded her wings. Crossing the room she opened a box and pulled out the outfit waiting for her. Which was a simple white top, and a grey skirt. There wasn’t any underwear with it, but she didn’t expect there to be any. The Soleans were both shapeshifters, and telepathic so it came as no surprise that as a race that they were lacking in modesty and as a consequence their clothing tended to be revealing. She only understood the concept, because she had been taught about it when her caretaker taught her about diplomacy. She dressed in the outfit and walked out of the door. At the same time, she felt her connection to her primary core vanish. She wasn’t surprised, today was the day that her core would finally be installed in a ship. It had been ten years since her core first came online. Which meant that it could be argued that today was her tenth birthday. Which for an AI marked the end of their equivalent to a childhood.
Walking out the door she ran into her caretaker. A young woman of seven thousand years, which for a Solean was still quite young. Few races were as long-lived as the Soleans and the only race she knew with a comparable lifespan were the Star Dragons. Which was one of the reasons why it was often said the two races were cousins. She didn’t know if that was true, but she wanted to find out. Her caretaker was of average height, with a modest bust and a well-filled figure. She currently looked to be Terran, her racial characteristics having been shapeshifted away. Something that was quite normal while aboard a ship or station, since they didn’t want to damage the floors with their talons. That is also why her avatar didn’t have talons, since she didn’t want to damage the floors either. Sure the scratches were easy enough to fix, but it was considered common courtesy not to damage someone else’s floors.
“Good to see you are up. How are you feeling?” said her caretaker.
“I feel fine, but it is a little disconcerting not being able to feel my primary core. Good to see you too, Talia” said Megumi.
“Well, you will just have to put up with it for a couple of hours,” said Talia
“So are you going to tell me, what kind of ship I’m being installed on?” asked Megumi.
“I forgot to tell you?” asked Talia.
“You did, but you did seem stressed last time we spoke,” replied Megumi.
“Sorry about that. You’re being installed aboard the ISS Constellation. A Sovereign-class battleship, measuring 12,340 meters in length with seven hundred and forty decks. The armor is 2120 meters thick in a type four overlord configuration. With integrated energy plate generators for added protection when needed. The hull and plating is composed of Xeos alloy. For shielding the Constellation is outfitted with type nine multilayered Excalibur class energy shields. As for armament, in standard configuration, your primary battery is composed of eight hyperdensity plasma cannons. The data on those will be loaded to your core during the installation so don’t worry, but for now I will tell you they are designed for use against capital ships and super-capital ships, so they don’t work well against small targets. Your secondary battery consists of 7,500 Super Heavy Phased Plasma Beam Banks, 35,000 Standard Mount Phased Plasma Beam Banks and 2250 Subatomic Disruptor banks. You have a tertiary battery consisting of 100,000 banks of Hellfire Plasma cannons. Additional armaments consist of 18,000 integrated torpedo launchers, one spinal mounted ASC, and 20,000 drones.
As for propulsion, you will have both a type four warp drive and a type one hyperwarp drive for FTL. Sublight propulsion is primarily achieved by eight heavy-duty Startech Industries Plasma Pulse Wave Engines. You will have eight hundred additional sub engines for maneuvering,” said Talia.
“Sounds like a good ship, but I was kind of hoping for something bigger, like an Excalibur class Superdreadnought,” said Megumi with a bit of a pout. Talia chuckled, and replied, “I know, but there aren’t any dreadnoughts available, much less superdreadnoughts. You're quite lucky to have gotten a battleship.”
“We are in the middle of a shipyard complex the size of a solar system, that builds hundreds of millions of ships every month and you’re telling me that not a single dreadnought was available?”
“None are scheduled to be completed this month. I had to pull a few favors to get the Constellation moved up in the queue just to get you a battleship. Sorry I couldn’t get you that dreadnought you wanted,” replied Talia.
“I’m glad you tried though. I think I can live with a battleship,” responded Megumi. Talia then asked her to follow her. She followed her down the corridor and past a number of viewports. Outside the viewports, an endless field of berths and ships under construction could be seen. The berths were lined up in orderly rows with enough space between them to provide ample room for ships to maneuver. Tugs and worker bees were flying around the field doing various tasks. Some of the ships had beams of light running over them. As the light ran over the hulls, the metal seemed to grow at a rapid rate, forming into the desired shape. Megumi wanted to sit there and watch, but she had to keep up with Talia. After a number of rapid turns, and a couple of lifts the pair came to a shuttlebay. In the bay, were a number of shuttles standing by for passengers. Talia led her to a shuttle on the left, and they boarded the shuttle. She had barely settled into her seat when the shuttle took off. Exiting the bay, and entering the void. Megumi looked out the window of the passenger shuttle and began to imagine what it would feel like to actually swim in the void.
She had experience with simulations, but as she was finding with her avatar. Simulations were nothing like the real thing. The data she was receiving from her avatars nerves was far more vibrant than any simulation. She was enjoying every little sensation as they were all new to her. From the subtle sensation of her clothes rubbing against her skin, and scales. To the more noticeable sensation of the chair hugging against her small frame. She was brought out of her thoughts, by the chuckling of her caretaker.
“What's with the laughing?” asked Megumi.
“You look like an adult, but act just like a little kid. It's adorable,” said Talia. Megumi knew she was referring to the presence of wings and scales, which for Soleans were a marker of adulthood. Around their five hundredth year they manifest their secondary racial characteristics which include their talons, scales, and wings.
“I’m not a child! I’m ten years old, and I’m getting a ship,” said Megumi with a cute pout.
“Sorry to tell you, but in most cultures, ten years old is still a child,” said Talia as she ruffled her hair. Megumi turned away.
“Don’t pout, you will grow up in time. Besides, being a kid isn’t a bad thing. You should enjoy your childhood while you still have it,” said Talia as a ship came into view. On its hull in big pure white and bold letters was emblazoned the name ISS Constellation and under it was SFR-45567595-EEE. Which she knew to be the ship’s registry number, the triple E after the number indicated it was not the first ship of the name, but just the latest ship to take the name Constellation. The hull of the ship was a sleek black. Its shape was mostly that of an elongated saucer, with numerous small towers rising from the hull. Many of the rising towers were topped with turrets and launchers. At the rear of the hull which flared out, six thick sweptback wings extended from the craft. At the ends of each swept-back wing was a massive nacelle where the ship’s FTL engines would be mounted along with most of the maneuvering engines. There were two pairs of nacelles running above and below the centerline of the hull, with the final pair being mounted parallel to the centerline of the hull. Indents were spaced at regular intervals on the sides of the saucer where the doors to the ship’s many shuttle and drone bays were located.
Overall she thought the ship looked beautiful, and she knew this ship would be her body, likely for the rest of her life. She couldn’t feel it yet, but she knew that right now her main core was being installed into the ship’s central mainframe, which would be buried somewhere in the center of the ship. Protected by an outer casing of reinforced plating, secondary shield generators, and internal force fields. The core would also be protected by security drones and internal turrets. In fact, a ship’s AI Core was the single most protected system in the entire ship.
The shuttle docked in one of the massive side bays. A powerful barrier kept the atmosphere in the ship, and allowed shuttles to launch and land freely. Carrying workers and materials in and out of the ship. The bay itself was beautiful to her eyes. Sleek lines, and every surface plated in sturdy plating. Shuttles hanging in mounts from the ceiling and a constant flow of traffic.
“Come on, I’m going to show you around and introduce you to the captain. You will be with him a long time so I hope you two like each other,” said Talia as she led her into the ship.
Present-day, ISS Constellation:
Looking back, she realized Talia was right. She was still a child then, and she had much to learn. Her first captain had taught her a great deal, and she found herself wondering what he was doing now. She had kind of lost track of him after he had been promoted to rear admiral. She had tried to keep in touch, but with the war that had proven difficult. Chances were he was probably a lord protector by now, and a highly revered elder. If she ever found her creators, she hoped she could find him again.
She didn’t have much time to reminisce, however, before she arrived at her destination. Megumi immediately refocused her attention and scanned the ships in her surroundings. Dead ahead was the ADS Inquisitor who had seen better days, and twelve starships of unknown design. Technologically equivalent to the Ludole ship she had repaired a couple of days ago. That meant it was likely an elder race that had located the Inquisitor. Not entirely surprising, an older race was more likely to have the technology to locate the Inquisitor in this soup.
She took a moment to study the sleek predatory alien vessels. They were outfitted with reasonably powerful shields, neutronium hull plating, and powerful SIF generators. Armament was a mix of Antiproton and Plasma-based weapons. What she took the most note of was that all twelve ships featured fairly advanced cloaking devices. These ships were ideally suited to evade notice, and strike unseen. Some of the design was reminiscent of Solean design during the late Nomadic Era before the Empire had been founded. They were solid ships but were actually inferior to Solean vessels of that time period. It had little to do with their design though, and everything to do with the limits of their current power systems. They used a fairly ingenious antimatter reactor design to supply power to their various systems. A design that actually used a hyperspatial reaction chamber to maximize reactants, thereby allowing a substantial increase in available power at the cost of making them rather fuel-hungry. These alien vessels relied on a series of fusion generators for day-to-day power needs
Overall she did not see them as much of a threat. Not to her anyway, and not with such low numbers. If there were more of them, they could constitute a threat. Especially with the Inquisitor supporting them. Speaking of the Inquisitor, she was in fairly decent shape. Her main drives were offline, but she still had her maneuvering thrusters. She had partial main power, and partial auxiliary power, as roughly half her power modules were either missing or offline. A couple of the active modules were intermittent though.
The ship had sustained quite a bit of damage in her last battle. However it seemed she still had an ample supply of drones, and a number of her main weapon batteries were online. At the moment, the Inquisitor was no threat, but only because she was outside of weapons range, and the other ship lacked the ability to close. Megumi had complete control of the situation. All the cards were in her hand.
With a thought, she opened a communications channel. A part of her was curious about who had found the Inquisitor first. Megumi could not allow them to keep it, but she figured she would try diplomacy first. Not a normal Imperial tactic, but with such a clear advantage it was a risk she felt she could afford.
Sure the scratches were easy enough to fix, but it was considered common courtesy not to damage someone else’s floors.
The fact that their talons alone for their True body is able to scratch or even gouge out spots in the floor of a ship is impressively scary.
Very much so
Isn't starflight, even limited, a bit overkill for a body? Not that it prevents me wanting one, both it and the ship, though I find the ship design a little iffy the specs more than make up for it and if it comes with a shipboard AI... Well, 'no' just isn't an option.
. The armor is 2120 meters thick in a type four overlord configuration
JESUS THATS THICCCCC!!! 0-O
Very, no wonder they couldn't hurt her right...
This reminds me of a dream I once had, intact this novel reminds me of a few rather fond dreams. To be honest I kinda just realized I had a biomechanical body in that dream.
Love the novel, its quite a fun read in my opinion.
I get the feeling our author has watched too much star trek *grin 😀* while writing this chap
Maybe just a little
yeah, other the fact than the design of the ship in star treck is uter bollock, and totaly idiotic like hell, structuraly talking. The ship are also far to thin (the saucer) wich is not only a total wast of space, but also (another) idiot structural choice of design. The fact from up or down it make him a very, VERY big target is also ... well. The nacelle/motor put on very thin "wing". Seriously, nothing work in it. You catch my drift. I don't even talk about the tendency to lose so many "red shirt" all the time, and to seem to give no real sh*t about it. Yeah, i don't like star treck for many reason (not the old serie at last, the last movie are pretty ok)
Honnestly, very few starship design in movi or TV-serie are ok. Battlestart Galactica are ok. StartWar is a big joke for most of them. Some from Babylone 5 (mostly the starfighter), Killjoy ? Some from StarGate, and bviously the better for the "not too far from our" is The Expense.
But yeah, the worst are Star Treck and Star Wars. Sadly, most of the ship in Mass Effect are also bad (as much as i love the game). Yeah, sorry to said that ...
Well, of course, i don't talk about the story telling and plot there. Only the design of the ship.
Honestly many science fictions don't get it right. Battlestar Galactica did great the first time around, and then they bombed it the second time around. Star wars? Yeah most of them aren't all that great from a design standpoint. Stargate has some pretty good designs, Tau'ri, Asgard, Ancient, and a few others make great sense, and look good. The Goa'uld are more aesthetic than anything else.
As for the Expanse. They went for realism, and not to far out, but there is one big glaring question. Where the hell is the laser weaponry? We are working on it right now, and it shows great promise. It's literally a just around the corner technology.
Babylon Five did do very good with bost starships and fighters. Although there is an obvious focus on the fighters which is why they are good.
Star Trek does have really good designs, and not-so-good designs as well. I may have taken some inspiration from them. I did try to correct some of the more glaring flaws of the designs. Saucers, yes they do present large targets from a dorsal or ventral vector, but they also have advantages. Particularly with firing arcs, and weapons support.
In short every fiction has its good designs, and its bad apples.
@JCountry well, the Goa'uld design of ship, in fact make totaly sense, when you start by the fact they are literaly designed to push fear and awe from the slave-specie under them. Like the energie-spear of their soldier : it's build for fear, not fonctionality.
As for the firing arc of the saucer ? Yes, it does ... ONLY if the saucer is build with different strata, like some layer cake of birthday. If not, the weapon in the rear of it can fire without striking the one before it. So no, the one in the serie and movie still don't work. Or you have to slope the vessel to fire with all the weapon from either up or bellow : but you can't do it with both in the same time ... wich cut half of your firepower (but then, the Federation ship are not build for war, but peace-keeping mainly).
@Ombre37 Yes, it does take some shaping. And note the ship above certainly doesn't match Federation design. I adapted the saucer part for war. Those towers for example, are designed so their elevation can be adjusted. The mounted turreted weapons and torpedo launchers. The constellation can adjust her weapon positions to fire a significant chunk of her firepower towards most arcs. Especially on the horizontal vector.
@JCountry yes, i remember of this part. Remember me of the turret of the bunker from the Maginaux Ligne (sorry, i'm French lol) who where able to do exactly that. raise, fire, go back to hide themself from the return fire. A ship able to basicaly shapshifting is pretty damn hell for his foe.
@Ombre37 yep
@JCountry & @Ombre37, you two forgot to go into the ship naming. In the Original Star Trek series, the ship was Constitution class.
also the Constitution Enterprise's saucer is small when compared to the Galaxy Enterprise-D (which can separate) *wink*
@Luna20 Saucers that can't separate are kinda weird, really, since it seems like all star trek ships were designed for some degree of atmospheric capabilities.
In terms of realism though, there's actually a good reason why the borg are the only race that doesn't make "flat" ships. Volumetric supply complexity. If you have a basically planer design, meaning one that is reasonably thin from some angle, you can route all your high capacity supply infrastructure in a flat 2D layout and branch up or down for other decks. The level of complexity needed to manage this layout is reasonable even at large scale, handy when you have mortal meat bags rerouting power as needed. They're basically fish.
The borg cube and sphere are the exception because those have no central plane, they have to be routed in a 3D volumetric layout where there are far more conduits supplying things but each one is lower capacity, more like a capillary oriented design. Managing that layout only makes sense if you have a computer doing the routing and monitoring, hence borg. Curiously enough, 2D layout has to use bigger trunks so the maximum capacity would be better, but borg designs can over engineer to make their supply grids have unrealistic overhead and reactor oversupply. Honestly, borg ships only really work because they're run by the borg and thus don't need to obey common sense.
A subtle detail in the phaser array is that they appear to function as a cluster rather than a single emitter. Imagine having 10 in a row and the output is channeled through adjacent units so the full 10x output gets fired perpendicular from one point. You could cluster axially, on the firing direction, but the saucers seem to curve the array along the outer hull in such a way that they can channel most of the weapon power into any direction, something only really suited to flat surfaces like the saucer section. As a bonus, this design operates in arbitrary divisions if you make it right, giving considerable resilience against having holes punched through it. It's really a design meant for fighting edge on to a threat while retaining flexibility for other directions.
@kaithar the key difference between TOS and TNG era Enterprises is in TOS the Federation is in conflict with Romulans and Klingons whereas in TNG it's (mostly) peaceful. Both ships are meant for exploration and in TNG the saucer section is primarily an escape ship for the crew and their family.
https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/behindthescenes/eo1a.jpg
https://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/publicity/bts/stardrive.jpg
https://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/publicity/bts/youngfrakes_1701d.jpg
@Luna20 oh yeah, a fair point, though it's funny that the battle section is the one without the better phasers. The enterprise D and E were definitely top of the line flagship grade though, so they're as close to real warships as the federation got prior to the defiant and voyager class ships. There's probably some lore explaining that the separating saucer wasn't around before then because giving the saucer that lower spec warp drive has all kinds of problems... actually, now that I think about it, if that part of the ship had that much independent power, why does it never come up when something wrecks the main power systems?
@kaithar The saucer doens't have a secondary lower spec warp drive. Its sublight restricted only.
@JCountry I am 99% sure the saucer maintained warp speed on a number of occasions ...
@kaithar Yeah, well YETI. The tech manuals, specifically state it has impulse power only
it's almost like the show writers have selective amnesia.
according to wiki:
In 2364, Captain Jean-Luc Picard was forced to order an emergency saucer separation at warp speed following the USS Enterprise-D's first encounter with Q. While the saucer continued on to Deneb IV, the stardrive section confronted Q. The two sections were later reconnected in orbit of Deneb IV. (TNG episode & novelization: Encounter at Farpoint)
A few months later, Geordi La Forge ordered a saucer separation so that he could return to the planet Minos and rescue Captain Picard and an away team, after the Enterprise had come under attack by the Echo Papa 607 weapons system. (TNG episode: "The Arsenal of Freedom")
In early 2367, the Enterprise separated as part of a tactical maneuver to confuse the Borg and allow a small team to infiltrate the vessel and recover Captain Picard who had been assimilated by them and turned into Locutus. (TNG episode: "The Best of Both Worlds")
The Enterprise-D saucer section about to crash in 2371
In the 2371, Commander Riker ordered the Enterprise-D to undergo saucer separation after a confrontation with Lursa and B'Etor in orbit of Veridian III resulted in damage to the warp core coolant lines. The crew was evacuated to the saucer and attempted to get to a safe distance, but they were caught in the shockwave from the core breach and crash-landed on the planet, disabling all controls, including helm controls in the saucer. (TNG movie: Generations)
@kaithar, the was only one instance in the show/movie where the saucer was under warp (Pilot Episode Encounter at Farpoint), the reason it stayed at warp was due to inertia which it used to reach Deneb IV.
@JCountry YETI? That's not one I know.
Ok, so follow my logic on the warp drive, tell me if I'm going wrong somewhere. The warp core produces energy fed to the warp coils which make the warp field, if you cut power from the coils the field collapses and the ship drops out of warp. The physical ship doesn't exceed light speed, instead the local space-time is distorted to move the isolated subspace bubble. As part of this process, the deflector dish projects a field forward to prevent impacts from any debris that survived transit (and ridiculous acceleration) through the compression zone in front of the ship. The idea of a subspace distortion surviving once the source is turned off seems weird, cause that would mean that sustaining warp speed requires minimal power once the bubble is formed.
Yet in Encounter at Starpoint the ship separates at warp, the saucer shouldn't have been able to maintain a warp bubble without some kind of warp drive. Worse, the star drive moving away requires both sides to maintain and modify the field distortion to avoid one of them being ripped apart by the boundary conditions. Even if it some how just immediately dropped to sublight the stress and impacts, with neither the deflector dish nor main power boosted structural integrity to help, should seriously damage the saucer. It logically has to have enough of a warp drive to allow it to drop to impulse safely after separation.
Then again, the saucer arrives at Farpoint under its own power but impulse would have limited it to half light at most, so unless the bit with Q happened almost on top of the system, the saucer should have maintained warp until it got there. There are other cases where the ship is supposed to separate and limp to a nearby location but impulse is useless for interstellar travel... a sector would take like 50 years to cross at best, a solar system is hours across. (Pluto is around 5 light-hours from the sun, the Oort cloud is more than a couple dozen light-weeks away)
Basically, the primary hull would be dead in the water if it couldn't manage at least the warp capabilities of a later gen shuttlecraft to let it get FTL *shrug*
@Luna20 Lmao, you replied while I was writing and checking my reasoning on that exact point. I don't buy the inertia explanation, that's just not how warp drive works. The whole reason for mucking around with subspace was to avoid superluminal velocity.
The Minos incident's orders (go to the starbase) literally make no sense without warp unless they were in the same system. Impulse just isn't fast enough to leave the system in a reasonable time frame, you might as well stay still and wait for rescue.
I actually thought there was another incident during the conflicts with the borg where they separated and had both travelling at warp to different locations, but that seems to be mistaken. The separation and warp technologies are both terribly explained so it's not surprising things make no sense when both are involved.
@kaithar lol is ok, the show writers made their own plotholes as far back as the pilot episode.
i agree the saucer should have been torn to shreds, but that would have made for a very short series.
@kaithar I may have used the wrong letters since I have only ever heard the acronym spoken. I have not seen it written. My answer was Yeti, which I meant to refer to the phrase, 'Yet Another Trek Inconsistency." Trek is actually full of both minor, and major inconsistencies. Perhaps a consequence of both its length and episodic nature.
@Luna20 @JCountry Yeah, that's Trek alright, at the first sign of a plot hole they beam over to the USS Make sh*t Up ... Voltaire's lyrics make me genuinely happy ... "Sisko's on a mission to go no bloody place, he loiters on a space station above Bajoran space"
Warp 34, what were they thinking
Woo, I located the canonical tech that they should have in place to explain this mess: the warp sustainer engine. As of TNG the torpedo launchers operate by generating a warp field that the torpedoes can then sustain (presumably at much lower requirements) to allow them to exceed the speed of a ship firing them at warp speed. It seems reasonable to argue the primary hull has a warp sustainer engine connected to the same system as the two impulse engines on that section, allowing it to coast at warp, exceed normal impulse speeds, and yet not have a warp drive in the proper sense.
@kaithar Likely something made to explain away all the gaping plot holes.
Wouldn't work in my universe though. My warp drive functions differently. Instead of subspace, it relies on spatial folding. Creating a bubble if you will of folded space around the ship. The ship continues to cruise at sublight speeds, but thanks to the folded space effect actually moves faster than light. this is due to the space continuously compressing in front of the ship, and expanding behind it. The ship rides this bubble in a relatively calm location, but it is still subject to a spatial pressure wave acting on the hull. This forces the ship to continuously use its sublight engines while at warp or it will lose speed.
The spatial bubble is also important since the region of folded space is subject to intense spatial flux, and tidal forces. Large objects trying to pass through the field would be torn apart, and the pieces thrown with random vectors and velocities. Although they are often accelerated to C-fractional speeds due to the immense forces. While small particles may be imparted luminal velocities. Lasers, and particle beams attempting to pass through the field may also be redirected at random. This includes those originating from the ship, and not just a potential hostile. A factor that can complicate combat at warp.
I do have one canonical example however of ships traveling at warp speed being fired at with an FTL weapon. The weapon while technically FTL doesn't fire with superluminal velocities. Rather instead it makes use of a hyperwarp conduit to effectively transport a dense bolt of antimatter plasma across vast distances nearly instantly. Allowing the bolt to effectively materialize in the path of a ship traveling at warp. The bolt when passing through the field, is ripped apart, and randomly redirected. However since it is antimatter only a small portion has to make it through and hit the ship, and this is entirely possible due to the random nature of the spatial flux. In fact its practically guaranteed that a portion of the antimatter hits the ship. Due to the energy requirements of maintaining warp speed, a ship's defenses while at warp are also limited.
@JCountry I need to reread how exactly warp drives are meant to work, there's a physics hole from something I'm forgetting :/
The idea seems simple enough if you think of it on cloth like all good space deformation demos... the fabric in front compresses, dragging the unmoving object while the fabric behind stretches. The flaw is that the fabric either side has to do odd things... either space dislocates (and then you are really making a bubble in a conduit) or space has to flow through the bubble somehow (the compressed space has to get behind the ship somehow). You could go "through" the compressed space like tunnelling through a hill, but that doesn't work for a few reasons. I know there is a solution that makes it work under GR but I forget the magic they used.
Then again, "spacetime fabric" is a broken analogy to start with, pretty sure it's actually a 2+1 slice of a 3+1 vector field or something.
@kaithar it does get complicated
@JCountry let's just call it magic and be done with it :)
@Luna20 Well it is sufficiently advanced...