Degradation of Subspace

[Kaziarl]

Ok, so I am thinking of starting a story that deals with degradation of subspace to the point where warp travel is impossible. Two questions.


1) What alternative forms (if any) might the federation use to get around?

2) Would subspace repair itself, and over what kind of time frame?


The idea comes from something I proposed in the future of trek thread, called Star Trek: Rebirth. Go there if you want the basic story line.

 

[JNG]

It would seem to detract from the impact of this condition if subspace were considered likely to repair itself on anything other than a grand timeframe--meaning it is far enough away that the interstellar links of civilization would not survive in a meaningful fashion. It could be useful to have the tease of a possible way to speed its restoration, though.

As for alternate means, off the top of my head I don't recall that Star Trek has ever shown us an FTL drive that is not somehow dependent upon subspace. There are different "layers" of subspace, but if the layers that are typically accessed in Federation FTL communications and transport are degraded, it is likely to have a severe impact on efforts to access the "lower" levels. I caution against introducing a significantly developed alternate flight regime or using any handwave terms like "hyperspace." Uhm...tachyon envelope or something? Maybe for a one-shot experiment.

The Bajoran wormhole is something like a stable verteron matrix and its operating principle may allow it to function even if local subspace sustained significant disruption.

 

[Kaziarl]

I was thinking something along the lines of several thousand years. The story would be based then when a small group decides they want to try to restore the federation. What I am wondering is would they have forgotten what happened to subspace, or would they try to find something else?

 

[Tigger]

In the TNG episode where the Federation imposed the Warp 5 limit, was it noted that subspace would repair itself or was the damage deemed permanent?

 

[Unicron]

I don't recall, since they pretty much igored this rule afterward.

 

[DonIago]

In response to point 1, and given the earlier point that the Bajoran wormhole might not be affected, I'd point out that there was evidence that the Federation was studying the creation of artificial wormholes (the episode where Dax's previous host's lover shows up...yes, the one with _the kiss_). If you're looking for alternate means of FTL travel, you may have one there.

Of course, if stable wormholes could be created at will, the first race to come up with them would have a pretty decisive advantage over everyone else, especially if warp travel was no longer possible.

 

[SoM]

There's also long-range transporters as a possibility - Dukat was able to beam Kira over several light-years in Covenant (from DS9 to Empok Nor), given a homing transponder to lock onto, and I think there was an episode of Voyager where a race replaced the crew by beaming them hundreds of light years one-by-one.

Or your people could luck onto an Ionian (sp?) Gateway

 

[darkwing_duck1]

There's also long-range transporters as a possibility - Dukat was able to beam Kira over several light-years in Covenant (from DS9 to Empok Nor), given a homing transponder to lock onto, and I think there was an episode of Voyager where a race replaced the crew by beaming them hundreds of light years one-by-one.

Or your people could luck onto an Ionian (sp?) Gateway

Transporters operate on subspace frequencies...

 

[Timo]

Perhaps, perhaps not... The Ferengi long range transporter from "Bloodlines" or "Firstborn" (I can never remember which is which) was specifically said to be a subspace transporter, and transporting of matter through subspace was said to be an unstable endeavor, all this heavily suggesting that the regular deal makes do with ordinary EM or whatnot. But then again, perhaps long range transport always requires subspace versus EM, even when done with Dominion hardware?

That would certainly make sense, as a non-subspace transporter could be expected to be limited to lightspeed. Not only would an interstellar trip take years, those years would be spent in a transporter beam that might begin to degrade within the first few minutes already.

There's some doubt whether Dukat really had a long range transporter in the first place, of course. In "Covenant", the existence of the device is just speculation on the part of our ill-informed heroes (where would Worf get such information, really?). Dukat's disciple doesn't say anything beyond the fact that the transponder was key to bringing Kira to Empok Nor; for all we know, it simply allowed the disciples to beam Kira off the station to a nearby innocent-looking freighter which then relayed the anesthesized victim forth, until a final vessel docked with Empok Nor.

A number of VOY species came up with "space tunnels" of temporary or semi-permanent nature. At least the Waadvaur ones, of the latter type from "Dragon's Teeth", sounded like they weren't related to warp drive in any way. The Federation might construct something like that, but probably only with extreme effort and with all sorts of limitations...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Perhaps, perhaps not... The Ferengi long range transporter from "Bloodlines" or "Firstborn" (I can never remember which is which) was specifically said to be a subspace transporter, and transporting of matter through subspace was said to be an unstable endeavor, all this heavily suggesting that the regular deal makes do with ordinary EM or whatnot. But then again, perhaps long range transport always requires subspace versus EM, even when done with Dominion hardware?

Timo Saloniemi

In "Best of Both Worlds" (Part 2 IIRC), Data explicitly says that the Borg communicate with one another on a series of subspace frequencies "similar to that of a transporter beam".

 

[Timo]

Ah, there goes that theory... Thanks for the correction!

So, apparently a transporter uses subspace but does not actually "push matter into subspace", as the latter feat was considered undoable in "Bloodlines". I wonder what other staple Starfleet technologies would collapse? The various tech manuals suggest that shields, tractor beams and phasers rely heavily on subspace phenomena, too, and might all become useless in the scenario described here.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ronald Held]

Could the matter be transmiited at STL speeds but the information to reassemble be sent through subspace?

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Ah, there goes that theory... Thanks for the correction!

So, apparently a transporter uses subspace but does not actually "push matter into subspace", as the latter feat was considered undoable in "Bloodlines". I wonder what other staple Starfleet technologies would collapse? The various tech manuals suggest that shields, tractor beams and phasers rely heavily on subspace phenomena, too, and might all become useless in the scenario described here.

Timo Saloniemi

I think the "Bloodlines" situation can best be explained by saying you can't simply "push" matter faster than lightspeed without a subspace field (Einsteinian relativity and all that.)

 

[Kaziarl]

What about the Romulan engine core's? Could those be used to make quick slingshot hops with it's own gravity well? Nothing large enough to effect time, but enough to send them large distances?

 

[Meredith]

I always thought the problem was caused by warp engines dumping excess energy in subspace that builds up whenever a ship passes by using coils that work, but aren't designed correctly. This extra energy if concentrated in one spot by traffic lanes would then cause subspace to tear and leak energy out of other subspace domains.

They could build a large dyson sphere type device to safely drain away the energy and repair the rift. But it could be expensive.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Based on what they said in the tech manuals, it seems subspace is like a pair of nylons...keep bunching it up and stretching it out, and eventually it develops "runs" (weak spots".