Threshold Line-by-Line

Torres: I guess I'll go find them myself. Fill him in.

 

KIM: Neelix, it would take too long to...

(*gasp* I can't believe we haven't done Threshold yet! This will be fun!)

 

Neelix: What are you saying? I'm not smart enough? I'll have you know I did two years as an engineer's assistant aboard a Trabalian freighter. I'm well-versed in warp theory.

 

Paris: Okay, okay. We'll tell you. We're trying to break the maximum warp barrier.

 

KIM: Nothing in the universe can go warp ten. It's a theoretical impossibility. In principle, if you were ever to reach warp ten, you'd be travelling at infinite velocity.

 

Neelix: Infinite velocity. Got it. So that means very fast.

 

PARIS: It means that you would occupy every point in the universe simultaneously. In theory, you could go any place in the wink of an eye. Time and distance would have no meaning.

 

Kim: If Voyager achieved warp 10, we could be home in as long as it takes to push a button.

 

NEELIX: Wow! And you're working on this?

 

Paris: We discovered a new form of dilithium in the asteroid field we surveyed last month. It remains stable at a much higher warp frequency.

 

KIM: The problem is, every time we simulate crossing the transwarp threshold, the nacelles get torn off the ship.

 

NEELIX: "I remember there was a time when I lost a warp nacelle going through a dark matter nebula."

 

Paris: This is a very different problem.

 

Neelix: I realise that. I'm just using it as an example. As the ship went through the nebula, it sent out a dark matter bow wave. Eventually so much pressure built up, it tore the nacelle from its housing. Now, maybe the same thing is happening to you.

 

KIM: No, the simulations don't indicate any kind of subspace stress on the nacelles.

 

Paris: Wait a minute. What about the shuttle itself?

 

KIM: What do you mean?

 

Paris: Maybe we've been looking in the wrong place. What if the nacelles aren't being torn from the ship? What if the ship is being torn from the nacelles?

 

Kim: The hull of the shuttle is made of tritanium alloy. At the speeds we're talking about, that alloy could depolarize.

 

PARIS: "And create a velocity differential. The fuselage would be travelling at a faster rate of speed than the nacelles."