Auto-destruct! ABANDON SHIP!!

[c0rnedfr0g]

Why did Sovereign and Constitution class ships (E-E and E, respectively) require 3 officers to activate the auto-destruct, but the Intrepid class (Voyager) only requires the Captain's voice command? Seems to be a flaw that one person could hold that much power....

 

[Captain X]

Actually it makes less sense to need so many people to activate it, especially since some of them could potentially be dead or otherwise unable to give the command.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Actually in Nemesis Picard would of been able to activate the Enterprise-E's self destruct by himself.

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

we've seen on DS9 that a voice sample can be used to fool the Main Computer (O'Brien's voice in Tribunal used by the Cardassian spy, or hologram/android can copy a voice). What's to stop some hooligan from copying a Captain's voice and destroying the ship?? it's easier to find one person's command codes than 3

 

[Marie1]

Maybe the voice is connected to the com-badge signal, as well as some sort of access? Does the Defiant know to switch between Dax and Sisko etc. automatically?

If I recall the Defiant correctly, all Sisko had to do was mutter "abandon ship" to activate it... maybe the ship was suicidal... funny how that'd work and nothing else would...

 

[JNG]

I think I have a good reason. The first officer of Voyager had been killed, and so had the CMO and some other important officers. While Janeway made the call to replace them with provisional officers, it makes sense that she would have been able to reconfigure the computer authorizations however she saw fit in light of the death of the other officers, and she may not have fully trusted the ex-Maquis at that point, either. It seems very much in keeping with her personality that she would have given herself independent authority to take such a step.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Maybe the autodestruct systems are made that way (i.e. not consistent from one ship to another) on purpose - so that if one ship's systems get 'hacked', then it's less likely other ships could be compromised.

Any given ship's crew would know the proper procedure, of course, but if Starfleet makes available a wide variety of autodestruct systems, it makes it just that much harder for an attacker to hit many different ships.

 

[2 of 10]

In several Treks it did not even require any command authorization to destroy a ship, it would seem that the chief engineer could destroy a ship by just shutting off the magnetic constrictors around the warp core.
Could that be a way to destroy any Star-Ship??

Resistance is Futile

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

Maybe the autodestruct systems are made that way (i.e. not consistent from one ship to another) on purpose - so that if one ship's systems get 'hacked', then it's less likely other ships could be compromised.

Any given ship's crew would know the proper procedure, of course, but if Starfleet makes available a wide variety of autodestruct systems, it makes it just that much harder for an attacker to hit many different ships.

that would make sense why the Defiant-class required 2 officers and their hand prints (i'm assuming senior officers?).

do the officers ordering the destruct have to be in the computer as being "assigned" to that ship? that would make sense if each ship's auto destruct protocol is different

 

[nx1701g]

In several Treks it did not even require any command authorization to destroy a ship, it would seem that the chief engineer could destroy a ship by just shutting off the magnetic constrictors around the warp core.
Could that be a way to destroy any Star-Ship??

Resistance is Futile

Actually, if I recall, that was one way that was used in an episode. They also used a phaser on the core itself to cause an explosion.

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

In several Treks it did not even require any command authorization to destroy a ship, it would seem that the chief engineer could destroy a ship by just shutting off the magnetic constrictors around the warp core.
Could that be a way to destroy any Star-Ship??

Resistance is Futile

Actually, if I recall, that was one way that was used in an episode. They also used a phaser on the core itself to cause an explosion.

luckily starfleet finally wised up and installed shields around the warp core (as seen on the E-E in NEM i believe)

 

[Timo]

...It might be that such shields are always up on normal ships, and what we saw in ST:NEM was a rare instance of maintenance downtime coming to an end.

The Defiant certainly had such an (invisible) forcefield normally in place; it was removed for a brief while in "The Adversary", allowing Odo to kill the competing Changeling by pressing it against the core's deadly aura of proximity radiation or somesuch.

As for the various different auto-destruct modes, one would assume that the skipper could configure those to his or her pleasing. It would always be extremely improbable for the enemy to hack into that system, and extremely unlikely that a certain interface configuration would be a greater hindrance to hacking than some other configuration. So Picard would opt for a difficult-to-activate system when in a peaceful environment where the greatest risk would come from accidental triggering, but for a quick-activation system when in an environment where the threat of enemy boarding was acute and the necessity for subsequent self-destruct existed.

There'd always be the option of simply sabotaging something crucial "manually". But that would probably make the ship go kaboom instantaneously - and few skippers would be that suicidal. Rather, they would opt for a self-destruct that comes with a controlled countdown.

Timo Saloniemi