Alternate Route Home

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Since I don't have access to Seven's AstroMetrics Lab, I was wondering if instead of setting course for the AQ, What if Voyager set course for the Bajoran Worm hole in the GQ
an an alternative course home...Can you imagine the WH opening up and out comes a StarShip thought to be lost for several years...Any Comments...

Resistance is Futile

 

[od0_ital]

Yeah, since this is a question that has never come up before, I'm goin' to have to give it some thought before givin' a real response.

 

[exodus]

Since I don't have access to Seven's AstroMetrics Lab, I was wondering if instead of setting course for the AQ, What if Voyager set course for the Bajoran Worm hole in the GQ
an an alternative course home...Can you imagine the WH opening up and out comes a StarShip thought to be lost for several years...Any Comments...

Resistance is Futile

I would assume you can't sneak past the Dominion as well as you can sneak by the Borg. The Dominion control all the trade and supply routes in the GQ. Voyager could never make allies or restock for supplies without alerting the Dominion.

 

[JoeFromEarth]

How much of a threat did the Federation think the Dominion was when Voyager disappeared?

 

[Dancing Doctor]

How much of a threat did the Federation think the Dominion was when Voyager disappeared?

Considering it's a year after the U.S.S. Odyssey was destroyed by three Jem'Hadar attack ships and probably after the Defiant came back from the Gamma Quadrant and from the Founders' homeworld, they thought it was a big threat.

 

[od0_ital]

Enough of a threat to know what Jem'Hadar warships looked like & incorporated 'em into holosimulations for pilot trainin'.

 

[Destructor]

How much of a threat did the Federation think the Dominion was when Voyager disappeared?

Considering it's a year after the U.S.S. Odyssey was destroyed by three Jem'Hadar attack ships and probably after the Defiant came back from the Gamma Quadrant and from the Founders' homeworld, they thought it was a big threat.

No, it was more like 2-3 months after the destruction of the Odyssey.

Considering the nature of the Dominion threat, Janeway probably ruled out the Bajoran wormhole as a navigational option.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I don't think he ruled it out.

I don't think she even thought about it.

If Kathy didn't bother researching the DQ enough to know she was heading toward Borgspace and the Ferengi Picard misplaced, it's doubtful she even remembered that the Bajoran wormhole existed.

 

[DonIago]

As always, the problem with setting course for the wormhole is that you have no reason to strongly believe the wormhole will be there when you arrive.

I believe the wormhole was collapsed or almost collapsed between 5-10 times in DS9, and that's just seven years. Voyager would have needed substantially longer to get there.

I can't even imagine the speech Janeway would have had to give if they'd arrived to find the wormhole missing.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I can't even imagine the speech Janeway would have had to give if they'd arrived to find the wormhole missing.

"Well, shit. This sucks."

 

[DonIago]

"Looks like I owe you a dollar Chakotay."

 

[od0_ital]

Plus, her sayin' "Set a course...for home." has more impact emotionally than her sayin' "Set a course for the Gamma Quadrant end of the Bajoran Wormhole which will get us back into psuedo-Federation territory pretty easily. Maybe Bajor will be a member world by the time we get back!!!"

 

[The_Baroness]

I think it's been established before somewhere (off screen) that the distance from where Voyager was dumped and the Bajoran wormhole wasn't alot less than the direct route anyway. They still had to cross the entire Delta Quadrant and most of the Gamma to get there. Maybe they could shave 10 years off the journey, but it's too big a risk to take for such little gain.

That said, I often wondered what Janeway would have done had they found a wormhole that led to, say, the middle of Dominion Territory...

Probably single handedly wiped out the Dominion....

 

[Guy Gardener]

She killed maybe a few thousand swarmies to shave off 15 months.

It's amazing what they sometimes consider an intolerable detour.

 

[od0_ital]

... That said, I often wondered what Janeway would have done had they found a wormhole that led to, say, the middle of Dominion Territory...

Probably single handedly wiped out the Dominion....

All the more reason I'm glad VOY steered clear of the Dominion and just stuck with neuterin' the Borg.

 

[The_Baroness]

... That said, I often wondered what Janeway would have done had they found a wormhole that led to, say, the middle of Dominion Territory...

Probably single handedly wiped out the Dominion....

All the more reason I'm glad VOY steered clear of the Dominion and just stuck with neuterin' the Borg.

As am I - though I maintain that it would have been interesting to have seen an episode when they either stumble across a wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant and get caught up with the Dominion before have to retreat back to the Delta Quadrant, or more likely, and much less fan-wankish - to have come across one the 100 changelings sent out by the Founders smack dab in the middle of the Delta Quadrant.

 

[Destructor]

come across one the 100 changelings sent out by the Founders smack dab in the middle of the Delta Quadrant.

That's actually a really good pitch.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Maybe that's the same sort of thinking that lead to Janeway and Paris dumping their Lizard babies?

 

[Deks]

As it was already mentioned...
The distance to the Bajoran wormhole end in the GQ was practically the same as the distance between Voy's starting point and the AQ's Federation.

Technically speaking, Janeway might have known about the Dominion given the fact the ship was indeed launched months after the Odyssey was destroyed.
But, that information could have been known only by her and some of the highly ranked officials on her ship at the time (such as her first first officer - not Chakotay).

Chakotay apparently had no idea who the Dominion was. He only referred to them as 'an ally from the DQ' who supplied the Cardies with ships and weapons which lead to the extermination of the Maqui.

That only proves the Maqui had no idea about them, but not Janeway, and possibly Tuvok.

Aside from that... I would have still picked the same route as Janeway.
Given the unreliability of Wormholes, and how many times the Bajoran one was threatened with destruction/closure over a mere 7 year period, Janeway might have taken into account the possibility that this power struggle might occur at some point seeing how the Odyssey was destroyed as a mere demonstration, and chose a route that wouldn't potentially result in something like this:

"We're at the coordinates of the GQ Bajoran Wormhole".
-Looks out the viewscreen, but no wormhole appears.
"Where is it?"
"I'm detecting residual neutrinos, but nothing that would correlate with a subspace matrix of a Bajoran Wormhole. It was here at some point, but sensors indicate is was collapsed approximately 3 decades ago".

With devastated looks on their faces, Naomi Wildman (who was now in command and approximately 65 years of age) orders the conn to set course for the AQ.
Even at maximum speeds, it would still take them another 75 years to reach the Federation.

So the crew effectively doubled their journey if something happened to the Bajoran Wormhole in the time it took them to reach it.

Seriously... why would you take a route that would take as much time to get home and rely on a chance that a subspace phenomenon (controlled by aliens who are outside of space-time) would still be there by the time they reach it?

 

[exodus]

Technically speaking, Janeway might have known about the Dominion given the fact the ship was indeed launched months after the Odyssey was destroyed.
But, that information could have been known only by her and some of the highly ranked officials on her ship at the time (such as her first first officer - not Chakotay).

Chakotay apparently had no idea who the Dominion was. He only referred to them as 'an ally from the DQ' who supplied the Cardies with ships and weapons which lead to the extermination of the Maqui.

That only proves the Maqui had no idea about them, but not Janeway, and possibly Tuvok

I would think most of the folks in Starfleet would know about the Odyssey due the it being the first offical act of war against Starfleet & the amount of casualities lost.

Based upon 7 years of Kira explaining how terrorist cells work, not all the Maquis would know due to their fractured infromation network nor would they have any interest at the time. At that time, the Dominion had no connection to anything involving their fight.