Location of Federation HQ post The Burn

[Timo]

...For all we know, this was by design: sometimes Vance would have to risk using the tunnels, so it would pay to have some nearby. (Those are no doubt constructed things, so having one mouth somewhere is likely proof that there are multiple mouths in the vicinity, this being a constructed hub.)

These tunnels would appear to be basically everywhere anyway. Perhaps they were/are built by the Borg, who famously were/are everywhere? Finding one that has not decayed too much yet is the difficult thing - not the "finding one" part yet.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[jackoverfull]

For all we know, this was by design: sometimes Vance would have to risk using the tunnels, so it would pay to have some nearby.

actually I don’t have a problem with the tunnel being there: as far as we know that’s how the HQ reached that location in the first place!

The one just near the unexplored nebula is a bit more difficult to explain (but can be done, of course).

 

[Agony_Boothb]

actually I don’t have a problem with the tunnel being there: as far as we know that’s how the HQ reached that location in the first place!

The one just near the unexplored nebula is a bit more difficult to explain (but can be done, of course).

The one that is really hard to explain is the transwarp aperture right on Earths doorstep as seen in 'Endgame'. You would think the Borg who are all about efficiency would have used that instead of taking the scenic route every time they invaded the Federation.

 

[Timo]

We know little about the tunnels currently, and all sorts of scenarios are possible. But a leading one seems to have the following characteristics:

1) You need better than 24th century UFP tech to build these things (but the Borg have it)
2) One thing you might need could be a "transwarp coil" (which you can steal from the Borg)
3) Once built, a conduit is free for use by any random sap who knows the secret knock, though (as in "Descent", say)
4) Once built, a conduit slowly decays, and requires dredging of some sort lest it collapse or get filled with junk (and perhaps the coil is the dredge?)

What we don't know is what it takes exactly to get such a tunnel dug. Does one have to do it at both ends? This would explain "Endgame" the easy way: there was no offramp near Earth until after the Borg reached Earth by conventional means and built one "from the outside", either in connection with one of their witnessed intrusions, or then as part of an intrusion we and the camera didn't see but the Earthlings sure did, or then in a stealthy operation witnessed by nobody even in-universe.

The other interpretation is that the Borg had no need to get to Earth unopposed: the whole point was to be opposed, so that the intruders could assimilate all kinds of new and delicious defenses. We already know a single Borg ship doesn't qualify as an "invasion": those involve dozens of such ships, as in "Dark Frontier", and those don't fail. Rather, single ships may be tickling Earth just like they tickled the poor victims in "Child's Play".

Folks other than the Borg may build the tunnels after the 24th century. Perhaps the Feds learn how to do that? If so, one would assume these to be everywhere: the Feds aren't particularly advanced, so dozens of cultures everywhere would be engaged in this digging, and the only reason the Milky Way wouldn't be utterly Swiss-cheesed in the 25th-31st (or before that, by those other parties) is because the already dug tunnels decay.

For all we know, warp was no longer a primary means of deep space exploration in the years immediately preceding the Burn. and the Kelpien science vessel reached the dilithium planet by digging a transwarp tunnel to that location; it would then be one of the more recent ones, and still available to our heroes and villains come the season finale.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Agony_Boothb]

But the Egg Plant Queen found the HQ rather easily. Was that because of Discovery and Burnham's "child bull in a China shop mentality?"

The course to Federation HQ was already laid in to the computer. Osyraa just took advantage of that fact.

 

[jackoverfull]

The one that is really hard to explain is the transwarp aperture right on Earths doorstep as seen in 'Endgame'. You would think the Borg who are all about efficiency would have used that instead of taking the scenic route every time they invaded the Federation.

I always assumed it was a recent tunnel just built in preparation of an upcoming attack.

Which of course we know would have failed anyway, as in the original timeline earth is obviously not assimilated!

For all we know, warp was no longer a primary means of deep space exploration in the years immediately preceding the Burn. and the Kelpien science vessel reached the dilithium planet by digging a transwarp tunnel to that location; it would then be one of the more recent ones, and still available to our heroes and villains come the season finale.

this is a very good explanation!

 

[jackoverfull]

Now I wonder what happened to the technology to build new tunnels, though...

 

[Timo]

It would be lovely to imagine that building of transwarp conduits is an infrastructure undertaking comparable to the digging of canals. Starfleet would be disinterested in doing so until it amassed a lot more (of its former?) resources and influence; until then, it has to settle for existing waterways, even though the actual art of canal-digging is still well known to it and some of the excavators are still in workable condition.

Timo Saloniemi