Life Line: "five or six years?"

[Sandoval]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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Ever gone for a big walk with a fatty or a three year old?

You're walking at regular speed for a full minute, only to turn around and see that your fatty or 3 year old is 20 meters behind you screaming that they don't want to be abandoned, so you have to sit down for 5 minutes to wait for them, or actually retrace your steps.

I went for a walk with a fat three year old once.

That was the worst of both worlds.

[Deks]

I would surmise that those 2 deep space ships were already far out enough to meet Voyager in 5 or 6 years.
In terms of what they would be able to do...
Well, for one thing, they might have systems on-board specifically made for deep-space travel that could be adapted to Voyager and provide some support - though, speaking strictly from a pure technological point of view, that's utter nonsense since practically every ship equipped with functioning transporters and replicators or at least recycling technology would have to set up shop near a star and use solar power for energy source and replicate or manufacture however things are needed.
They have the means to pull it off, but the writers conveniently forgot this notion for the sake of 'drama'.
Even a small Equinox would be able to do the same and restock in any uninhabited star-system like that... the only limiting factor is the Nova class ship Warp speed (which is probably why it was mentioned that it wouldn't do deep-space exploration very well in the first place).

If SF chooses to do so, they could easily redirect those 2 ships to act as escorts to Voyager on its way back to the AQ - though that would seem like a waste of resources.
Voyager is a medium class ship and has more than enough technology/means in it to alleviate resource concerns (unlike what we were shown).
The only conceivable thing I can think of is that those 2 ships could provide assistance to Voyager should combat situations arise.

But, its a bit odd... it would have been interesting if Janeway at least tried to communicate with those 2 ships using the hyper-subspace antennae array that was installed on Voyager (it is conceivable those 2 ships would have similar technology since SF was able to redirect them to Voyager in the first place) and see if they could provide her with some interesting details in regards to their upcoming path - such as resource rich systems (at least ones where they could easily extract them without setting in orbit at a star and replicate things for some time), which species to avoid, etc.

[MacLeod]

Perhaps those ships were scheduled to return soon anyway, and a convoy of 3 ships does have some advantages.

[Guy Gardener]

So they spent a year travelling out of their way, and probably extending their mission if they were at the limits of their deep space mission... And suddenly, they're sent a message "Voyager is home, you might as well turn around and come home too, see you in twenty years. How did Voyager get home? Don't worry, you don't have the balls to do what they did, so just truck along at warp 6, besides, it's your job to chart space not get home super quick."

Hmmm.

What are deep space missions for?

1. Fomenting diplomatic relations.
2. Dropping transspace radio antenna boosters.
3. Mapping unknown space.

If Janeway is drafted into a deep space mission, then by the new rules of her existence she isn't allowed to take shortcuts any more, because she has a job to do for Starfleet, and if chance supplies an opportunity, leaping through a wormhole towards the AQ is desertion and dereliction of duty.

They'll all be in chains as criminals when they get back to Earth.

[teacake]

But she wasn't drafted into deep space, she just decided to seize upon that idea to give the crew something to feel good about doing for 70 years. It's like when you get lost walking somewhere and you try and tell kids you're having an adventure.

[Guy Gardener]

You're not thinking fourth dimensionally enough.

When they rendezvous.

After they teamed up into small fleet.

The other two ships would continue dropping subspace radio boosters and charting space.

Voyager goes and looks at interesting shit, the new directive for the mission back is too look at everything, and even nothing.

So Janeway is either going to help (join) the deep space missions, so that those ships can continue close to spec, who have completely compromised their timetables to play search and rescue for woe is me Voyager, or Voyager is too much of a princess to engage in hard science and share the workload.

"There's no point in scanning that star field. It's just a field of stars it's boring. its a waste of my time." says Janeway

"It's on the list. We have to make sure it's boring so that mom and pop on a holiday with the kids in 50 years don't run afoul of a time eddy we were too lazy to tag." says some other Captain.

"But that's pointless." says Janeway.

"True, but it's also your job." the other Captain snaps.

[47]

I guess I'll have to write that story, even if it's a short one...

[teacake]

Except Janeway would never respond like that. She's the one that is always adding days and weeks to their trip back to look at phenomenon.

[47]

True. Janeway is an explorer, maybe a little too much in this case.

[Guy Gardener]

Phenomena yes, vast endless monotonous vistas of nothing?

Maaaybe?

[KNH]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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That ship they offered him was humorously converted into debris by the Borg at Wolf 359... Am I conflating again?

If I remember correctly, every ship that was offered to Riker found itself blown to varying numbers of pieces soon after it was offered. Staying with Picard was, essentially, survival instinct.

[Guy Gardener]

A pity his survival instincts couldn't keep Dee from trying to pilot Enterprise.

[Deks]

47 wrote:

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True. Janeway is an explorer, maybe a little too much in this case.

It would actually have been interesting to have the crew embrace being 'stuck' in the DQ and explore that region of space with enthusiasm.
Granted, Voyager was never launched with necessary provisions for a deep-space assignment, otherwise, it would quite likely already come equipped with self-sustaining systems for the long haul, not to mention fully stocked (which it wasn't).

[Guy Gardener]

Voyager is tiny, who was half way through a two week mission.

Although O'Brien would have given the ship a once over at DS9, and topped up anything that was dipping below optimal.

[teacake]

Deks wrote:

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It would actually have been interesting to have the crew embrace being 'stuck' in the DQ and explore that region of space with enthusiasm.

By that you mean, explore it slower? Because they seemed to be spending as much time exploring it as Picard's Enterprise did. They visit planets, chat, trade, uncover ways in which things are not as they seem and then leave. They map and take readings of astronomic phenomenon. They go off course when something interesting catches their eye.