Contagion;What would you have done?

[Maurice]

FTW

The saucer was "infected" before they knew anything more. Remember the door to Picard's Ready Room didn't open, until his second approach? So the virus had spread into different systems around the ship already.

I think the point here was more to get the bulk of the crew away from the warp core. No doubt other things could kill the crew (life support comes to mind). But at least the risk of a warp core breach was removed.

Exactly. Minimize the risk to the civilian population as much as possible.

Were the Neutral Zone Outposts ever rebuilt? Seems you could have parked the saucer near one.

 

[Vanyel]

The saucer was "infected" before they knew anything more. Remember the door to Picard's Ready Room didn't open, until his second approach? So the virus had spread into different systems around the ship already.

I think the point here was more to get the bulk of the crew away from the warp core. No doubt other things could kill the crew (life support comes to mind). But at least the risk of a warp core breach was removed.

Exactly. Minimize the risk to the civilian population as much as possible.

Were the Neutral Zone Outposts ever rebuilt? Seems you could have parked the saucer near one.

They would need the warp drive to get to a NZ Outpost. On its own the infected saucer would not be able to reach an Outpost in time.

Personally, I'd prefer the quick, sudden, painless death of a warp core breach to suffocation or freezing.

 

[Timo]

According to "Arsenal of Freedom", the saucer on its own is quite capable of interstellar flight. And according to "Encounter at Farpoint", it's capable of it at medium warp or better; the saucer reaches Deneb IV basically as fast as the battle section in the pilot episode.

Which would mean that yes, the saucer can reach safe haven in time - but also that no, abandoning the battle section will not make you safe from a devastating warp drive malfunction, because the saucer has one of those bombs aboard, too. It's just better camouflaged than the battle section warp core...

I know the Tech Manual insists the saucer lacks warp drive, but that's not supported by the actual episodes. OTOH, the manual says there is a photon torpedo launcher aboard the saucer, which isn't supported by the episodes, either, but would mean that there's antimatter aboard the saucer, which again is bad news in the "Contagion" scenario. And never mind that the warp drives of the shuttlecraft (and possible other, larger auxiliaries) might be bombs, too, if their containment systems malfunctioned.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[MacLeod]

Even if the compuers prevented ejecting of the Warp Core or Anti-matter pods, any sane Engineer would have designed in a manual release system.

 

[Timo]

I'm not convinced something that complex could be done without computer control.

It's not just a matter of dumping a piece of equipment. It's a matter of controlling the dumping of an integral part of a starship's innards, something that extends its volatile tentacles through the entire ship. If one valve is closed too early or too late, the system will not be purged of antimatter but will release a tiny bit of it in a destructive manner, creating a chain reaction that will quickly destroy the core and the fuel pods, too.

It's probably a bit like trying to save a sinking submarine or an out-of-control airship by adjusting the buoyancy: the sequence in which things are done is critical - simply getting all the right things done will more probably doom the vessel than save it unless the sequence is right.

We know from the episodes that manual jettison is never an option. We also know that destroyed starships don't turn into vapor but often leave behind near-intact wrecks, though. Perhaps antimatter jettison does work in most cases - but unless it happens perfectly, it kills the entire crew even when saving most of the hull of the ship.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Maurice]

I think the point here was more to get the bulk of the crew away from the warp core. No doubt other things could kill the crew (life support comes to mind). But at least the risk of a warp core breach was removed.

Exactly. Minimize the risk to the civilian population as much as possible.

Were the Neutral Zone Outposts ever rebuilt? Seems you could have parked the saucer near one.

They would need the warp drive to get to a NZ Outpost. On its own the infected saucer would not be able to reach an Outpost in time.

Personally, I'd prefer the quick, sudden, painless death of a warp core breach to suffocation or freezing.

I wasn't suggesting the saucer truck over there on its own. It was merely a question as to if the Outposts were ever said to have been rebuilt.

And Timo, yes, there are two episodes which imply the saucer's ability to go travel as warp, and BOBW 2 shows the saucer firing antimatter spreads. Once can assume all this implies warp capability, but it's never expressly stated as being the case.

 

[Vanyel]

The saucer firing an antimatter spread could have been something Riker had LaForge rig up for that specific battle with the Borg. It was never meant to hurt the Borg, but distract them.

As for the saucer having warp capabilities, in Brothers, a saucer separation is advised to regain control on the star drive section. Either Riker or LaForge mentioned that once separated the saucer would soon fall out of warp and they could swing back and get it and Data.

 

[Jerikka Dawn]

I'm just sayin' that before the Iconian probe was even an issue, before "the whole sleigh ride began", these guys, starting with Varley, were violating Neutral Zone treaty, risking war with the Romulans and taking their young children along for the ride when they were perfectly capable of separating the saucer and then heading into the NZ.

Then by the time the probe became an issue for the Yamato, so many innocent lives wouldn't have been lost, and we certainly know that when the Enterprise arrived, even if scanned by the probe, Geordi wouldn't have had to endure a 30 deck turblift ride from hell. The whole situation would have been different.

I know hindsight is 20/20, but the probe, IMO, is irrelevent when they were violating the Neutral Zone in the first place like a couple of cowboys. Sadly, Yamato got what it deserved save for the innocent children on board, and Picard should have known better anyway.

As for the topic, what I would have done was not gotten into the situation.

 

[Vanyel]

I'm just sayin' that before the Iconian probe was even an issue, before "the whole sleigh ride began", these guys, starting with Varley, were violating Neutral Zone treaty, risking war with the Romulans and taking their young children along for the ride when they were perfectly capable of separating the saucer and then heading into the NZ.

Then by the time the probe became an issue for the Yamato, so many innocent lives wouldn't have been lost, and we certainly know that when the Enterprise arrived, even if scanned by the probe, Geordi wouldn't have had to endure a 30 deck turblift ride from hell. The whole situation would have been different.

I know hindsight is 20/20, but the probe, IMO, is irrelevent when they were violating the Neutral Zone in the first place like a couple of cowboys. Sadly, Yamato got what it deserved save for the innocent children on board, and Picard should have known better anyway.

As for the topic, what I would have done was not gotten into the situation.

Enterprise became infected by the logs and data being sent by Yamato. It was Yamato's logs that led Enterprise to the Iconian planet. In order for the sleigh ride to begin, Enterprise and Yamato had to meet and Yamato had to be sending the logs and data she collected. Otherwise Enterprise would have nothing to go on and have no other choice but to leave the NZ. She would also have been uninfected.

 

[DonIago]

To be fair, Varley went into the neutral zone because he felt that the Romulans discovering Iconia was an unacceptable risk. Unfortunately we have no way of knowing how things might have played out had they discovered Iconia first.

 

[pengbuzz]

1) Ask Data to identify and isolate the virus.

2) Meantime, Have Geordi curt off all essential ship functions from the main computers and put them on manual operations. de-link and isolate the ship's main computers from those systems physically via removing the connections in the Jeffries tubes.

3) "Safe" the warp drive system and prepare to eject the antimatter containers to space manually in the event of imminent magnetic field breach (This involves manually opening hatches; space suited personnel would be necessary).

4) Using impulse drive, under manual supervison, reach the closest class-M planet friendly towards the Federation and offload all non-essential personnel.

5) Launch a marker-buoy towards one of the most widely-travelled space routes used in Starfleet navigation; use a tricorder to upload the info to insure the marker is NOT infected, with instructions in it (encrypted to prevent enemy races from using it) on where to find the ship, what has happened, and a request for assistance.

5) Pray.