Enterprise becoming a training ship?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Wasn't there a novel which suggested that there was an unstable wormhole or other such anomaly that tended to pop up in the solar system, which was (or at least could be) responsible for the sudden disappearance, and consequently being flung great distances in an instant, of Earth ships like the Charybdis and Valiant?

 

[David cgc]

Wasn't there a novel which suggested that there was an unstable wormhole or other such anomaly that tended to pop up in the solar system, which was (or at least could be) responsible for the sudden disappearance, and consequently being flung great distances in an instant, of Earth ships like the Charybdis and Valiant?

I think you're thinking of @Christopher describing the "Black Star" from "Tomorrow is Yesterday" in Watching the Clock. From the annotations:

The term “black star” comes from TOS: “Tomorrow is Yesterday.” It was probably intended to mean what we would now refer to as a black hole (a term that was not popularized until nearly a year after the episode aired). It’s rather a coincidence that the same black hole that sent Kirk’s Enterprise back in time also flung Voyager 6 across the cosmos, but I figured it would be an even greater coincidence if there were two black holes in such proximity to Earth.[/url]

 

[Timo]

OTOH, the black star of TOS was a risk to ships in the vicinity of Starbase 9, rather than of Earth, according to Kirk's perhaps hasty analysis of the situation. And we probably don't want to put Starbase 9 inside Sol, even though that would solve all our related problems.

Black holes may come and go - one was passing through Sol in "Past Tense". Perhaps space probe displacement is possible with such microscopic singularities already, and in fact quite commonplace?

On the other hand, these mysterious probe-jackings seem to stop once Earth gains warp drive and begins interacting evenly with its neighbors. So, sophomoric pranks by said neighbors?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Stevil2001]

OTOH, the black star of TOS was a risk to ships in the vicinity of Starbase 9, rather than of Earth, according to Kirk's perhaps hasty analysis of the situation. And we probably don't want to put Starbase 9 inside Sol, even though that would solve all our related problems.

Black holes may come and go - one was passing through Sol in "Past Tense". Perhaps space probe displacement is possible with such microscopic singularities already, and in fact quite commonplace?

On the other hand, these mysterious probe-jackings seem to stop once Earth gains warp drive and begins interacting evenly with its neighbors. So, sophomoric pranks by said neighbors?

Timo Saloniemi

I like the idea of a Tellarite freighter captain who gets his jollies from displacing space probes and sleeper ships from Earth.