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loss of subspace

Kaziarl

Commodore
Commodore
Ok, so I posted this question a little while ago, but now I can't find it. But I found some new things that might be pertinent. The question was what might cause subspace to completely collapse. I was thinking something like the dead zones in the Maximum Warp books, but cause by the excessive use of warp drive straining the subspace layer. What I would like to know this time is what kind of technology would begin to fail? What depends on subspace. Communications and warp drive obviously. but what about smaller things? Tricorders? Transporters? even replicators? how many of these things would become useless?
 
Your question is pretty hard, considering that there are many interpretations on what subspace actually is. Do you see it as a set of alternate realities, alternate dimentions within our own universe, or what?

Transporters would almost definitely be out, dispite the fact that the Enterprise-D was able to use them in the subspace rift. There have been many references that transporters employ some form of subspace technology, which would almost certainly be affected. Tricorders should be alright, since they seem to use short-range emmisions to make observations. Long-range sensors might be interfered with; the Argus array was a subspace telescope. Replicators...maybe. It depends on if subspace comes into play in transporters during the disintegration/reintegration process or the transmission process. The former, replicators probably would be out, but the latter means that it shouldn't cause problems.

What would be interesting to see is how the Borg would cope. Any areas of space that had subspace ruptures should be Borg-free, since the Collective conciousness is reportedly created through subspace.

Something I've wondered about for a long time since I saw the episode "Schisms" is how exactly subspace comes into play with warp propulsion. If warp drive is slowly sundering subspace as they travel, and subspace can be a home for life-forms like an alternate universe, is it possible they've been creating subspace roadkill? Does the warp drive access only one specific subspace domain, several, or possibly all? Does the Prime Directive not apply to any life that may exist in those subspace realms because they're not a part of our universe?
 
The borg is something that I'm not sure what to do with. Nanites and drones a connected through subspace links, but do they have a back up? Their obsessive quest for efficiency and perfection would say yes, but what would be as efficient as what they are known to use? Would they possibly revert to a more primitive type of borg?
 
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