Gamma Quadrant DS9?

[All Seeing Eye]

I was just wondering if it would be possible to move DS9 through the wormhole to the otherside? was it ever mentioned in the pilot episode (when they moved the station) that that would be impossible?
I think it would make a lot of sense to have DS9 on the Gamma Quadrant side of the wormhole or at least build an equivalent starbase on the otherside to deal with Gamma Quadrant trade and have it armed to the teeth incase the Dominion decide they wanna have seconds.

Just imagine a starbase armed with phaser beams, phaser pulse cannons, Quantum Torpedos and Multiphasic Regenerative Shielding.

 

[DS9forever]

"Q-Less" suggests that the station would be destroyed if it went through, although it could have been the speed of the entity that would have destroyed it.

 

[Michael]

The Sisko would provide a safe passage.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

Given the potentially destructive energy found in the Wormhole, I doubt moving something as large as a space station through it would be too wise. DS9 is better where it is, anyway. It serves as a hub of shipping and defense for Bajor. Being on the Alpha Quadrant side gives them the advantage of a bottle neck should enemy ships come through the Wormhole.

A more powerful battle station wouldn't have prevented the station from being taken. The Dominion had numbers on their side, and would have quickly overwhelmed any space station short of a Death Star.

 

[Timo]

I'm not sure whether DS9 ever did any good as a wormhole-blockading gunnery outpost. We never saw the station as much as fire potshots at ships coming from the wormhole. There simply wouldn't have been enough reaction time for that kind of stuff.

For serving Bajoran shipping, the station should have been left right where it originally was, in relatively low orbit around Bajor. That way, cargo and personnel could have been beamed down to the planet, rather than being shuttled by vessels that apparently took hours to span the distance. At such a location, the station could also have more efficiently protected Bajor.

So the real utility value of the station was to defend the Alpha mouth of the wormhole from threats that originated from the Alpha side. There wouldn't be a problem with reaction times there.

As for the original question, the biggest thing to go through the wormhole that we know of would have been a Romulan D'eridex warbird. Or perhaps a formation of those, as we never quite saw the Tal'Shiar/Obsidian Order fleet maneuver into a single file when they dove into the wormhole in "The Die is Cast". The station wouldn't be that much bigger than those ships, let alone formations.

OTOH, we saw even bigger things already within the wormhole in "Sacrifice of Angels": the Dominion forces flew in a wide enough formation. (Cut and paste, as TrekCore doesn't like hotlinks)

http://ds9.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/6x06/sacraficeofangels311.jpg

Timo Saloniemi

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I wonder what would happen if a ship altered course in the wormhole and flew into the side walls (with the ripple effect). Would they blow up or would they suddenly exit the wormhole halfway to the Gamma Quadrant. Hmmmm.

Speaking of those Dominion forces, ive always thought it would make an interesting twist for a future episode in a new series if the prophets had actually only forwarded the Dominion fleet through time like that Bajoran Solar sail ship (and not destroyed them) and so the Dominion fleet exited the wormhole in 2410 or something and started to attack the Alpha Quadrant.

 

[DS9forever]

Does the wormhole expand to let larger ships through? I suppose it does. Did anyone ever read Peter David's novel The Siege where a Borg cube comes through the wormhole? That scene would have been great to see in the series.

 

[Navaros]

Anything the Feds tried to put on the other side of the wormhole would be blown up by the Dominion in about 30 seconds flat. As it should be. :thumbsup:

 

[nx1701g]

There was a comic book a few years ago where there was an accident and DS9 was sucked through the wormhole. Not that it counts or anything.

 

[trash80]

I think if the federation started to build a powerful base on the gamma side of the wormhole then the Dominion would have sped up their invasion plans.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Why is everyone talking past tense, I was talking about now the war is over, it would make sense to build a station on the otherside of the wormhole to fortify that side, the Station could slow down any future invasion force and just before the station gets blasted they could fire their lifeboats straight through the wormhole to safety, well at least until DS9 gets blasted

 

[Timo]

But we don't even know if anybody from the Alpha side (save for Odo and his escort) is allowed to travel to the Gamma side any more. Since that was the real casus belli originally, it would make sense for there to be a complete ban as the consequence and conclusion of the war.

We know the wormhole still works, as per that single image in the final montage of "What You Leave Behind". And we know the Dominion didn't insist on tearing down DS9. But it would be odd of them to allow the Alphans to install anything on the Gamma side now, and basically impossible for the Alphans to do it without the approval and cooperation of the Dominion.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[cwalrus2]

Yeah, I'd have to agree that I don't think it makes sense for the Dominion to allow any Alpha Quadrant power to build a station on the other side of the wormhole. I'm not absolutely sure, but I'm guessing that the treaty signed in What You Leave Behind probably allows ships in the Gamma Quadrant for the purposes of scientific exploration but certainly not to colonize or claim any territory which is what a station on the other side would be. My question is that the Dominion can't possibly control the entire Gamma Quadrant. There has to be another type of empire or political power that the Feds haven't seen. The Dominion probably controls the space / worlds closest to the wormhole. When you think about it , even though what the Dominion did was out of line and ethically wrong, the Bajorans might have provoked the Dominion by building a colony on the other side of the wormhole earlier on in the series (remember New Bajor). Basically, because the planet was uninhabited they just decided to settle there without realizing that the planet may have belonged to someone else. It's like if your neighbor sees that you haven't used your back yard in ages and just decides to claim it for his own since you're not there.

 

[Deks]

Since the Dominion are territorial, they only reacted when the Feds and other A.Q. species sent their ships which crossed into Dominion territory.
If I'm not mistaken, the Wormhole in the G.Q. isn't inside Dominions territory so they would have no 'legal' grounds arguing against the Feds building any kind of star base in the G.Q.

But I would suspect that the Dominion would not be happy about it regardless of how you look at it and could in all likeliness threat with another war if something like that was proposed by the A.Q. powers ...
Unless of course the station and it's resources would be available to Dominion personnel such as the Vorta (the Jem'Hadaar being too violent), who would also be in some relevant positions.
That kind of arrangement MIGHT be possible so the Dominion can at least monitor the A.Q. powers ... or that they don't violate their borders.

However there is a problem with that kind of arrangement in it's conception because the Federation and other major A.Q. powers signed a treaty preventing them from establishing a military foothold in another quadrant of the galaxy (again, unless of course a formal arrangement is made that would allow for a construction of such a station that would probably be accessible to everyone).

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Thats another thing, it would have made more sense for the Dominion to have a built a Starbase of their own on the GQ side of the wormhole, if they were really that bothered about AQ incursions into the GQ then building a powerful starbase would have made sense, any AQ ship entering the GQ would have been blasted with Phased Polaron Beams.

 

[HRHTheKING]

Moving the station through the wormhole was not part of the Prophets plan.

If it were, then no doubt they would have made it possible.

 

[Timo]

If I'm not mistaken, the Wormhole in the G.Q. isn't inside Dominions territory so they would have no 'legal' grounds arguing against the Feds building any kind of star base in the G.Q.

Originally, it apparently wasn't Dominion space, or then it was a Dominion backwater where the Jem'Hadar virtually never loitered. (Indeed, perhaps it was just because this was such a backwater that the Founders decided to establish their secret hideout world there, within a relatively short hop of the wormhole as seen in "The Search" and "The Die Is Cast".)

However, by the end of the war, I'd think it inevitable that Dominion would have completely annexed the space around the Gamma end of the wormhole, and declared it out of bounds for anybody and everybody.

Also, the Dominion would have a keen interest in preventing the Alphans from formin galliances with competing Gamma empires. So no "scientific expeditions" allowed, either.

Thats another thing, it would have made more sense for the Dominion to have a built a Starbase of their own on the GQ side of the wormhole, if they were really that bothered about AQ incursions into the GQ then building a powerful starbase would have made sense, any AQ ship entering the GQ would have been blasted with Phased Polaron Beams.

But in "In Purgatory's Shadow", there was a massive Jem'Hadar presence in the neighborhood, hidden in a nearby nebula. Excellent for blockading the wormhole (and after that date, Starfleet no longer dared enter the GQ), and actually more practical than a station right next to the mouth, due to the aforementioned problems with reaction time.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[All Seeing Eye]

But in "In Purgatory's Shadow", there was a massive Jem'Hadar presence in the neighborhood, hidden in a nearby nebula. Excellent for blockading the wormhole (and after that date, Starfleet no longer dared enter the GQ), and actually more practical than a station right next to the mouth, due to the aforementioned problems with reaction time.

Timo Saloniemi

That nebula was lightyears away from the wormhole and from on screen evidence it could have been hours away from the wormhole if not an entire day, the Dominion fleet took down several listening posts along the way which would indicate a rather large distance being travelled since it would be stupid having the listening posts so close together, the distance would not be very effective for blockadeing the wormhole, a more effective approach would be to build a station right on top of the mouth of it, as for reaction time a station would have the upper hand, as soon as elevated neutrinos were detected shields and weapons could be brought online ready to open fire as soon as any vessel came through.

 

[Timo]

...The Dominion would indeed have the advantage of knowing that any ship coming through the wormhole would be free game. Sisko would have to perform IFF first, rendering DS9 almost useless as a blockading asset because a foe would perform a decisive attack before he could be told apart from a friend.

But the Dominion might do better to use unmanned blockading systems such as phaser drones or mines rather than a manned space station.

And a fleet base several hours away would sound ideal for defending the wormhole, much like Starbase 375 for the Alpha end. Safe from surprise strikes through the wormhole, at any rate.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JoeZhang]

remind me - why didn't the Dominion just blow up the wormhole on their side to stop AQ incursions?