What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy instead

[at Quark's]

Let's suppose for a moment Voyager had not been stranded in the Delta Quadrant, but in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy instead, very near its fringe, on the Milky Way side of it. The sagittarius dwarf galaxy is a satellite galaxy to our own. See https://alexautindotcom.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/galaxy.gif for a picture of its location relative to our galaxy.

As far as I can determine, they would still be about 70.000 LY from home (give or take 10.000), but instead of being able to 'leapfrog' through our galaxy, they would have to cross a huge void sooner or later.

I can see the following options:

1. Still head for home in the shortest course possible, a large part of that straight line being through intergalactic void (or at the very least, incredibly sparsely populated by stars).

2. Try to minimise the 'void part', and head to the galactic plane in a perpendicular line, and once in our galaxy, resume a normal course for home. Even then, they probably still have to cross at least 10k-15k of void as far as I can tell, and it will lengthen their journey significantly compared to 1.

3. Not try to cross the void at all, but just head deeper into the sagittarius dwarf galaxy (hence travel away from earth), in hopes of locating a friendly civilization somewhere in that galaxy with technology that can help them make the jump .

4. Just give up on the idea of trying to get home, and try to make a new home somewhere within that galaxy, while at the same time never entirely loosing sight of locating technology like mentioned in 3.

What would be the wisest choice? And -not necessarily the same- what would Janeway or the crew have decided ?

 

[q264]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

I would scout the area for a year and a day to see if there's any alien tech around to help shorten the trip (star gates, slip streams, sling shots, etc). After that fails I'd stock up on coffee and head into the void. Shortest distance is the best route, but I reckon an alternative method is worthy enough to fart around for awhile to see what's available.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

I'd do the same thing I would have done in the original scenario - find a nice M-class world to set up on and use a heavy replicator cycle (replicators on full, making ship and base parts including more replicators and power production systems) to build an outpost of the Federation there - and then scout outward from there to seek out new life, new civilizations, and new technologies. I would try to build alliances and have another branch of the Federation waiting to join up with the Federation back home whenever we or they develop the tech to make communication and/or transit feasible in reasonable time frames. Seems a LOT more useful and practical than spending an expected 70 years trying to get back home to loved ones who may or may not be dead by then, but will *certainly* have moved *well* on with their lives.

 

[Catarina]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

I like how questions like these bring out the science geeks and the Resolution type posts bring out the sociology geeks like me :-) Drama geeks too. Anyway, I mean that respectfully.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

I like how questions like these bring out the science geeks and the Resolution type posts bring out the sociology geeks like me :-) Drama geeks too. Anyway, I mean that respectfully.

Hey, I happen to be a science/sociology geek myself.

 

[Catarina]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

My apologies :-)

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

My apologies :-)

None are necessary.

 

[at Quark's]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

I simulated this voyage using Space Engine (a cool program if you happen to love astronomy btw), and it turns out that, even if you go directly towards earth from Sagittarius dSph, you 'only' have to cross about 18k LY of void, because then you hit the central bulge of the milky way, where stellar density is lower than in the galactic plane, but certainly not near-zero. After crossing the bulge, you don't re-enter a void because by then you are close enough to the galactic plane.

That is, if the models used in that program for our galaxy are accurate. But since that is one of the purported goals of the program, I'll take it.

Which is a shame, because I wanted to find a scenario where the best option wouldn't be a straight line towards earth, but preferably still at 70k distance ...

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

I don't think the crew would last an 18,000 light-year trip across a void. Remember in Night, I think the trip through the void was only supposed to take a year or two and the crew was fidgety and Captain Janeway was cutting her wrists listening to My Chemical Romance in her cabin. That's not counting how screwed they'd be if they ran out of dilithium or the ship broke down partway through the void. It'd be better just to stick around the Sagittarius Dwarf and look for wormholes or new technologies.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

I don't think the crew would last an 18,000 light-year trip across a void. Remember in Night, I think the trip through the void was only supposed to take a year or two and the crew was fidgety and Captain Janeway was cutting her wrists listening to My Chemical Romance in her cabin. That's not counting how screwed they'd be if they ran out of dilithium or the ship broke down partway through the void. It'd be better just to stick around the Sagittarius Dwarf and look for wormholes or new technologies.

I don't see why they couldn't be put in stasis with only a few people awake at a time. I mean it's not like in ONE where only seven could be awake. Here they could give each small group a period of vigil and then back to the sarcophagus or whatever the name of the thing was.

 

[hux]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

Knowing Janeway, i imagine she'd go in a straight line.

For some, it might not have made great television but i personally would have liked it. No aliens, no anomalies......just a space cruise

Maybe then, we'd have seen babies being born and crew members hooking up a lot more (but the whole show would need to be the best written Trek ever to be watchable.....it would require greater character development and a much bigger cast....i'd be happy with that)

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

Knowing Janeway, i imagine she'd go in a straight line.

For some, it might not have made great television but i personally would have liked it. No aliens, no anomalies......just a space cruise

Maybe then, we'd have seen babies being born and crew members hooking up a lot more (but the whole show would need to be the best written Trek ever to be watchable.....it would require greater character development and a much bigger cast....i'd be happy with that)

It wouldn't be very different from a group of people stranded on a desert island.

 

[at Quark's]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

I don't see why they couldn't be put in stasis with only a few people awake at a time. I mean it's not like in ONE where only seven could be awake. Here they could give each small group a period of vigil and then back to the sarcophagus or whatever the name of the thing was.

That thought had occurred to me, too. But you don't age in stasis, and hence would be 18 year 'younger' compared to the people they love when they got back. Don't know if they would have had a problem with that.

Also, can they take on enough fuel to sustain high warp for 18 years, and go that long without major maintenance that would usually require a drydock?

 

[at Quark's]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

It'd be better just to stick around the Sagittarius Dwarf and look for wormholes or new technologies.

Yes, except there is no guarantee you'll ever find some. Neither would you know that in the Delta Quadrant of course, but from that location, they could look for wormholes/technologies while still traveling in the direction of home at the same time.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

I don't see why they couldn't be put in stasis with only a few people awake at a time. I mean it's not like in ONE where only seven could be awake. Here they could give each small group a period of vigil and then back to the sarcophagus or whatever the name of the thing was.

That thought had occurred to me, too. But you don't age in stasis, and hence would be 18 year 'younger' compared to the people they love when they got back. Don't know if they would have had a problem with that.

Also, can they take on enough fuel to sustain high warp for 18 years, and go that long without major maintenance that would usually require a drydock?

You know, I don't know how it works at warp but in normal space you only need fuel to change direction or speed.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

There's also no guarantee that Voyager would make it across the void. Starfleet warp drives are notorious for failing for no reason. The ship breaks down 9,000 light years into the trip, and the crew's screwed. No rescue from the Federation or any locals from Sagittarius. At least sticking around the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy lets Voyager run into local races who might know people who know people who know people that may assist Voyager at some point or might know information.

 

[at Quark's]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

You know, I don't know how it works at warp but in normal space you only need fuel to change direction or speed.

I believe that it is stated to work differently for warp indeed, that energy is needed to sustain the warp field, besides the field having all kinds of other effects too, like strain on the hull, etc. , cf. statements in different shows like 'captain, we cannot keep up this warp speed for much longer!' which would be nonsense if there would be no such expenditure/effects, the way there aren't any for newtonian velocity.

But that would be a technical discussion perhaps better suited to trek tech

 

[hux]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

It wouldn't be very different from a group of people stranded on a desert island.

Hence it would need to be character driven and brilliantly written (to appeal to Trekkers at least) If you analyse most TV shows, they're locations aren't as diverse as you would first think anyway. Imagine the West Wing on a starship sorta thing

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

There's also no guarantee that Voyager would make it across the void. Starfleet warp drives are notorious for failing for no reason. The ship breaks down 9,000 light years into the trip, and the crew's screwed. No rescue from the Federation or any locals from Sagittarius. At least sticking around the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy lets Voyager run into local races who might know people who know people who know people that may assist Voyager at some point or might know information.

Well, that's not the kind of thing that would stop Janeway, witness Scientific Method where according to Tuvok she had less than one in twenty chances to make it through (we don't know how much less but given Tuvok's reticence it must have been a lot less), well, she did it anyway!

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Re: What if VOY had been stranded in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy inst

There's a slight difference between turning on a race doing experiments on you and leaving an area that is populated and has supplies and taking a chance on an 18 year trip that has no guarantee of panning out.

Sure, Captain Janeway took a chance blowing up the Array and stranding the crew in the Delta Quadrant, but there were still billions of stars with possible planets orbiting them to trade with. The void between galaxies doesn't offer that and a good captain shouldn't make the decision to proceed on a course like that.