A question about the area surrounding DS9

[nx1701g]

^ I know it doesn't really count for anything but Memory Alpha claims they were D'deridex Class.

 

[Strider]

So the existence of nearby repair facilities sounds possible, even probable. Although "nearby" could still mean Bajor's orbit or moons, since it's not as if Starfleet would have any higher representatives in the system besides our DS9 heroes... O'Brien could still be the Big Boss of systemwide operations.

Timo Saloniemi

The dialogue was probably intended to refer to docking warbirds at DS9, but since that wasn't clearly explained I think nearby repair facilities in the Bajoran system makes more sense. One could get the impression from the show that DS9 is the only thing in the Bajoran system besids Bajor and a couple moons, but that's not necessarily the case at all. Bajor is supposedly a major hub because the wormhole. Who knows what might have been built in orbit of Bajor or in interplanetary space?

 

[Timo]

One would assume that the Federation, Klingon and Romulan fleets all would have some portable dock facilities in their arsenals, and that they would have shipped that sort of gear to Bajor pretty soon after the station and the system were retaken from the Dominion.

Indeed, it would have been nice if they had been shown doing that in "By Inferno's Light" already. This would give more military urgency to the threat of the star blowing up: not only would the laziests and least alert ships be caught in that blast (while some 90% would escape scot free), but the almost immobile dockyards and support systems would also be lost.

Oh, well. At least we could assume that, as the result of that forewarning, they now carefully avoid placing all of their eggs in one basket. The only thing that really needs to sit next to the wormhole is DS9 itself, for being an important fortress/firebase. The dockyards should be farther away. As should the headquarters, really, but probably DS9 is just so convenient that it's used despite the risks - and since Klingons have a say with the 9th Fleet, risk-taking is par for the course...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Strider]

Indeed, it would have been nice if they had been shown doing that in "By Inferno's Light" already. This would give more military urgency to the threat of the star blowing up: not only would the laziests and least alert ships be caught in that blast (while some 90% would escape scot free), but the almost immobile dockyards and support systems would also be lost.
Timo Saloniemi

That whole scene was pretty ridiculous. I can't remember if the wormhole is supposed to be on the outer edges of the Bajoran system or not, but at any rate the fleet would have had anywhere from about 20 minutes to four hours to escape the star blowing up. I mean, it would have been pretty much a disaster for the Bajorans and DS9, but the fleet would have had enough time for everyone to have dinner and relax with a glass of wine and a good book before they even bothered to warp out.

 

[nx1701g]

^ I think that the materials that the Dominion were using were going to cause a rapid shockwave similar to that of Star Trek: Generations.

 

[Jono]

^ I think that the materials that the Dominion were using were going to cause a rapid shockwave similar to that of Star Trek: Generations.

They mentioned that the bomb Bashir had included trilithium.

It is possible that the Dominion knew that most of the fleet would escape and didn't really care. They would still destroy Deep Space 9 and Bajor leaving the wormhole undefended for further reinforcements and also send a message to the Federation, Klingons and Romulans that they could and would destroy entire star systems to get the outcome they wanted. Think of the fear it would have created in the quadrant. More powers and systems might be willing to accept Dominion control to avoid the fate that Bajor suffered.

 

[Timo]

I can't remember if the wormhole is supposed to be on the outer edges of the Bajoran system or not, but at any rate the fleet would have had anywhere from about 20 minutes to four hours to escape the star blowing up.

Well, we could assume Bajor orbits about 10 light-minutes from the star, like Earth does. And we have reason to think the station is about twice as distant from the star: by runabout, it takes either two or six hours to go from DS9 to Bajor, which is what would happen if ten light-minutes took two hours to cover at runabout impulse, and at times the station was on the same side of the star as the planet, at times on the opposite side.

So the 20-minute estimate sounds about right.

^ I think that the materials that the Dominion were using were going to cause a rapid shockwave similar to that of Star Trek: Generations.

But in ST:GEN, the shockwave was not rapid. The visual indication of the star dimming reached the ship or the planet first (supposedly after a few minutes of lightspeed waiting), and the shockwave followed much later, and was easily avoided by going to warp 1.

Then again, even though the Defiant often goes to warp directly after undocking from the station, a big deal was made in this episode about using warp travel within the Bajoran system. Perhaps the risks of insystem warping are time-dependent - perhaps there is "bad warping weather" in the system from time to time, preventing rapid escapes?

We know for a fact that there is bad weather there in the Bajoran system: episodes like "Invasive Procedures" or "Things Past" are based on this fact. We only need to postulate that this affects subspace somehow, then, and we have an explanation for a sudden inability to go to warp.

But we also have to remember that it was only Dax and Kira who speculated that the Dominion wanted to engulf the resident fleets in fire. A far more likely plan for the Founders would have been to scare the fleets into thinking that there was a threat, thereby creating a massive distraction at the very moment the Dominion ships poured out of the jammed-open wormhole. And this plan worked nearly perfectly... We could seriously doubt whether the "Bashir" Founder ever had a starkiller bomb, or whether he was even aboard that runabout at all!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JustKate]

It seems fine to have our cake and eat it too by thinking that the Sol system defenses are layered; the Mars Defense Perimeter is supposed to protect Mars, sure, but also I can easily imagine it is tasked with stopping stuff from getting any deeper into the solar system.

Now, I'm perfectly aware you can approach Earth without going particularly near Mars the vast majority of the time, but hey, the Borg decided to slow to impulse and kind of LOOM over the system and see the sights on their way in, and I guess we can rationalize this with some whatnot about where exactly you ought to stop using warp drive as you get closer to a star.

I always thought -- but hey, what do I know? -- that "Mars Defence Perimeter" referred to a system of defences that orbited the solar system at about the same radius as Mars. So there might be some stuff on Mars, but there'd be other stuff spread out along the same orbit, that is, the same distance from Sol.

But I don't think I picked this up from anything authoritative. That's just what I thought of the very first time I heard the phrase "Mars Defence Perimeter," but I am definitely not authoritative.

 

[2 of 10]

If you were to look a bit closer, you just may see several thousand Tribbles

 

[2 of 10]

If you were to look a bit closer, you just may see several thousand Tribbles in orbit around DS-9. Sisko may just get in trouble with the
S.P.C.A.A (Society for the Prevention for the cruelity for Alien Animals)
We never did see what happened to all the Tribbles in the DS-9 ep Trials and Tribble-Ations...

 

[nx1701g]

It seems fine to have our cake and eat it too by thinking that the Sol system defenses are layered; the Mars Defense Perimeter is supposed to protect Mars, sure, but also I can easily imagine it is tasked with stopping stuff from getting any deeper into the solar system.

Now, I'm perfectly aware you can approach Earth without going particularly near Mars the vast majority of the time, but hey, the Borg decided to slow to impulse and kind of LOOM over the system and see the sights on their way in, and I guess we can rationalize this with some whatnot about where exactly you ought to stop using warp drive as you get closer to a star.

I always thought -- but hey, what do I know? -- that "Mars Defence Perimeter" referred to a system of defences that orbited the solar system at about the same radius as Mars. So there might be some stuff on Mars, but there'd be other stuff spread out along the same orbit, that is, the same distance from Sol.

But I don't think I picked this up from anything authoritative. That's just what I thought of the very first time I heard the phrase "Mars Defence Perimeter," but I am definitely not authoritative.

Star Trek: Starcharts (Not Canon) takes that approach.

 

[Timo]

But in "BoBW", we saw each planet defend itself: there was a big battle at Jupiter first, then the Cube flew right past Mars which also launched defensive stuff, and then the Cube went to Earth. So we lack proof of defenses that would be far away from the planets (but on the same orbital radius).

Personally, I'd consider such defenses wasted effort: the area of space would be too large to be effectively covered by fixed fortifications. And there's nothing special about the orbital distance of Mars, so why have this giant spherical defense be named "Mars DP" specifically?

We have seen planetary defenses, and heard of them. In contrast, we haven't seen or heard of systemwide defenses, and indeed it seems in DS9 that enemies can penetrate quite deep into defended systems before running into the first fortifications...

Timo Saloniemi