So it's a three-stage process: first dilithium grows scarce and the Federation loses cohesion, then dilithium goes inert and the warp drives that rely on it blow up (supposedly because m/am annihilation without dilithium goes wild), and then the weakened Federation can't figure out what happened so the rest falls apart. But somehow there remains some non-inert dilithium for use afterwards.
The written-in mystery is the apparent attack against dilithium (perhaps only targeted where it hurts the most, so dilithium outside active ships survives). The unwritten mystery is why inability to find more dilithium in the early stages is such a problem if they have this recrystallizing thing down pat. But they supposedly have that in TNG, and still the Romulans rather desperately mine for more dilithium, so the net loss isn't insignificant, even if failure to expand weren't a problem.
I like the design of Burnham's new ride. Does this mean the shuttle prop is lost forever, though, this being a likely conversion? What will SNW use?
Timo Saloniemi
