Deep Space 9 Defenses
- Thread starter PhaserLightShow
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Considering there were more than a few stories that were subtly inspired by Schindler's List, Terok Nor was designed to extract labor from Bajorans and keep them in place.
What about it's sister station Empok Nor. Was that an ore processing station or something else?
Probably for ORE-Processing.
Still, Terek Nor/Deep Space 9 have defenses.
I am asking why the defenses DS9 had in "Emissary" were so bad.
Not anything about the mirror-universe sister station to it (specifically, its purpose).
The thread I started is about Deep Space 9/Terek Nor, not any other space station.
Well, if you accept the analogy of Terok Nor as labor camp, then the level of defenses should come logically: enough to keep the natives in line, but not enough to put a lot of advanced weapons into their hands; strong enough to make an opposing fleet think twice, but not so strong that it would be considered critical to neutralize. No one ever described it as a fortress.
I don't understand why this is so hard to...understand...
1) Cardassians withdraw. Whatever defenses DS9 has are trashed in the process.
2) Starfleet arrives. Because DS9 isn't a priority and the major threat in the region just withdrew voluntarily and the station is barely functional, defenses aren't considered a priority.
3) The wormhole is discovered. Suddenly DS9 matters to everyone and the lack of defenses is an issue.
4) The Cardassians attack. DS9 has poor defenses because there's been no time to get anything worthwhile operational and/or installed.
5) By the time of WotW, obviously DS9's strategic value has been reassessed and its defenses have been massively upgraded beyond anything even the Cardassians had in mind for it.
1) Cardassians withdraw. Whatever defenses DS9 has are trashed in the process.
2) Starfleet arrives. Because DS9 isn't a priority and the major threat in the region just withdrew voluntarily and the station is barely functional, defenses aren't considered a priority.
3) The wormhole is discovered. Suddenly DS9 matters to everyone and the lack of defenses is an issue.
4) The Cardassians attack. DS9 has poor defenses because there's been no time to get anything worthwhile operational and/or installed.
5) By the time of WotW, obviously DS9's strategic value has been reassessed and its defenses have been massively upgraded beyond anything even the Cardassians had in mind for it.
It's quite clear and easy to understand. As effectively The Federation only had to worry about steps 1 and 2 as no one knew about the wormhole. Had the wormhole been known about improved defenses for Deep Space Nine would be moot as the Cardassians would never have withdrawn from the system.
In Way of the Warrior they had spent a year beefing it up to fight the Dominion.
And in "Shattered Mirror" DS9 (or Terek Nor on that side of the mirror) they destroyed Birds-Of-Prey easily with powerful phaser hits and withstood intense assaults from a Klingon fleet with powerful Deflector Shields.
Yeah, but the mirror universe only reflects the prime ST universe when it's convenient for the writers' plot points.
Well I search for in-universe answers. And taking into account "Mirror, Mirror" we can assume that the technology of the two universes is fairly similar (except for the agony booth).Yeah, but the mirror universe only reflects the prime ST universe when it's convenient for the writers' plot points.
And yet, the station's reactor remains vulnerable to an attack. Could it's blade of armor strong enough to withstand a ramming blow from an enemy war ship?
Empok Nor has nothing to do with the mirror universe.
DS9 didn't have Ablative Armor. Defiant and Prometheus only.
All things being equal, ramming should be no problem for the station. Or to be more precise, the momentum of the rest mass of a ship striking the shields of the station should be absorbed. What would be consequential would be the energy of the ship in motion, provided by the engines, and any subsequent explosions caused by the destruction of the various components.
That said, we never see any enemy trying to destroy DS9 in an assault. Every attack has been to capture the station, so we can't really say what kind of force, tactically speaking, would be required.
But the station was never supposed to be isolated on the other side of the system, it was supposed to be in orbit of Bajor, protected by the Bajoran militia. Starfleet would have been reasonably content that having abandoned the planet and station, the Cardassians would not have been likely to attack either without due warning.
It's only the specific, unforseen circumstances of Emissary that place Deep Space Nine in a vulnerable position and open to Cardassian attack: the wormhole is discovered, the station is moved, Dukat's ship disappears, and the wormhole is gone again. Faced with a missing ship and a nonexistent wormhole, Gul Jassad not unreasonably assumed Deep Space Nine was responsible.
Kira didn't have a choice but to move the station, even though it was evidently wholly unprepared for such a situation. All the evidence is there in the pilot episode - the station was wrecked, with shields barely functioning, and just the six torpedoes - I assume they were offloaded by the Enterprise along with the Runabout, at least one of which is equipped to fire them, as per dialogue from other episodes. The phaser banks were presumably drained of power or otherwise disabled, but resourceful Chief O'Brien managed to route some power through one bank to create the effect of a phaser blast, albeit only the one.
I'm sure in subsequent episodes the Cardassian phasers and photon launchers are brought back online, until the Starfleet retrofitting programme was completed.
