It's not the same thing. The Excelsior has transwarp drive, while the Borg utilize transwarp conduits. The former sounds like just an enhanced warp drive, while the latter is basically an artificial wormhole.
Sulu’s ship vs Style’s ship - The story of 2 Excelsiors...Theory
- Thread starter anh165
- Start date
It's not the same thing. The Excelsior has transwarp drive, while the Borg utilize transwarp conduits. The former sounds like just an enhanced warp drive, while the latter is basically an artificial wormhole.
I think there was more to it than that. The Excelsior was seemingly very very close to the Klingon neutral zone and I expect it was sent there to show the flag and basically rub the Federation's technological superiority in the face of the Klingons.
As for the transwarp drive, like others have said, I think it was a success. Partly because I can't see them building a whole new class around an untested drive and partly because nothing about the design was changed in the period between STIII and STVI (it still had the same warp nacelles).
The change in bridge module could simply be because the former module was designed for heavy diagnostic information, so they could effectively test all the new systems.
Sometime during 2283...
RD: You asked me to create intelligence, of a level fit to steer your fantasy ship further than you dreamed of. And besides the fact that Rome wasn’t built in a day!
SFC: I am sorry Doctor, how did we not make it clear enough? We did not ask for sentience or something that ‘decides’ what action to take, that is a step too far..... for obvious reasons. The deadline for the transwarp drive control is less than 3 months ...
RD: If its time that carries currency, you have wasted much of mine, at my age you dare dangle carrots and moved the goal posts - you all knew what separates me from
the rest of them! Why am I not speaking to the Chief of Science, who is this?!
SFC: We speak on behalf of Starfleet operations - we re-iterate that the brief was for computational agility, a simplifed (or more correctly) a specialised closed loop intelligence - on the fly corrections, many of them - none of our existing ship navigation systems or the ones in the pipe line can cope with the numbers and intensity we want. We were hopeful that your experience would bring the next generation of that compute power sooner.
RD: And that is why I am always at odds with starfleet’s angle of thought! More operations over time and repeatedly is not the most efficient approach, give the machine capacity to learn, programming that is lucid in calculation regardless of the input metrics thrown at it, it will rapidly almost instinctively accomplish the same objective with less.
SFC: We really don’t want to debate with your superior and unrivalled expertise on this field. At this juncture - we now must mandate a solution that operates at the high-end of theoretical warp velocities - almost at any cost, except that of time in which we cannot afford any further. If this cannot be acheived Dr then we regret ...
RD: Why are you still insisting on sending thousands of men & women into the deep cold anyhow? I even heard rumours of ships that would host families, children too?!! You have invested an enormous amount of resource for this experiment, in addition you are wasting your finest minds on adding shine to outdated methods of exploration, or whatever your idea of that is.
SFC: We are not in the business of sending out probes and drones to represent our values and...
RD: Then our business is done!
The word got back to Cartwright, Monroe and the Chief of Science. Regret filled the ready room, 18 months they waited for Daystrom to deliver the ultimate number cruncher to harness the unprecidented transwarp power - instead they waited for the man who still only wants to create a new mind.
What is our other option? We have 3 months left, I may authorise 4 at a push, perhaps I wont...... Cartwright was known for awkward silent pauses. The CoS was cornered for an answer: I know a technology house with promising young talent - they thrive under pressure and I am confident they can get us something in time. They already commenced prototype work 6 months back despite our commission of Dickie.
Monroe had to ask: Why did you recommend Dr Daystrom in the first place?? we all know about his ...
Second chances, Admiral...and in terms of sheer genius in his field - he is second to none in this half of the Galaxy. Science is in my view: 99% belief, 1% metric. Even though I have a backup strategy - I still maintain that Daystrom is the right man for this - if we afford him the time. I feel we do owe him for what he has acheived.
The chopping block and the CoS neck drew closer.
Cartwright: With all due respect to ‘Dickie’ his best days are behind him and I wouldn’t want to see a great man fail yet again - he is no longer an option. So this house of startup talents, do you not feel concerned of their lack of experience?
If we are going down this road sir - I the would like to vouch for Capt Montgomery Scott to overlap where possible and oversee the on ship test runs. I have reached out to him over encrypted subspace comms without revealing too much other than the transwarp in concept, and to be perfectly frank he isn’t receptive to the concept yet - but I will keep working on it.
To be continued ...
RD: You asked me to create intelligence, of a level fit to steer your fantasy ship further than you dreamed of. And besides the fact that Rome wasn’t built in a day!
SFC: I am sorry Doctor, how did we not make it clear enough? We did not ask for sentience or something that ‘decides’ what action to take, that is a step too far..... for obvious reasons. The deadline for the transwarp drive control is less than 3 months ...
RD: If its time that carries currency, you have wasted much of mine, at my age you dare dangle carrots and moved the goal posts - you all knew what separates me from
the rest of them! Why am I not speaking to the Chief of Science, who is this?!
SFC: We speak on behalf of Starfleet operations - we re-iterate that the brief was for computational agility, a simplifed (or more correctly) a specialised closed loop intelligence - on the fly corrections, many of them - none of our existing ship navigation systems or the ones in the pipe line can cope with the numbers and intensity we want. We were hopeful that your experience would bring the next generation of that compute power sooner.
RD: And that is why I am always at odds with starfleet’s angle of thought! More operations over time and repeatedly is not the most efficient approach, give the machine capacity to learn, programming that is lucid in calculation regardless of the input metrics thrown at it, it will rapidly almost instinctively accomplish the same objective with less.
SFC: We really don’t want to debate with your superior and unrivalled expertise on this field. At this juncture - we now must mandate a solution that operates at the high-end of theoretical warp velocities - almost at any cost, except that of time in which we cannot afford any further. If this cannot be acheived Dr then we regret ...
RD: Why are you still insisting on sending thousands of men & women into the deep cold anyhow? I even heard rumours of ships that would host families, children too?!! You have invested an enormous amount of resource for this experiment, in addition you are wasting your finest minds on adding shine to outdated methods of exploration, or whatever your idea of that is.
SFC: We are not in the business of sending out probes and drones to represent our values and...
RD: Then our business is done!
The word got back to Cartwright, Monroe and the Chief of Science. Regret filled the ready room, 18 months they waited for Daystrom to deliver the ultimate number cruncher to harness the unprecidented transwarp power - instead they waited for the man who still only wants to create a new mind.
What is our other option? We have 3 months left, I may authorise 4 at a push, perhaps I wont...... Cartwright was known for awkward silent pauses. The CoS was cornered for an answer: I know a technology house with promising young talent - they thrive under pressure and I am confident they can get us something in time. They already commenced prototype work 6 months back despite our commission of Dickie.
Monroe had to ask: Why did you recommend Dr Daystrom in the first place?? we all know about his ...
Second chances, Admiral...and in terms of sheer genius in his field - he is second to none in this half of the Galaxy. Science is in my view: 99% belief, 1% metric. Even though I have a backup strategy - I still maintain that Daystrom is the right man for this - if we afford him the time. I feel we do owe him for what he has acheived.
The chopping block and the CoS neck drew closer.
Cartwright: With all due respect to ‘Dickie’ his best days are behind him and I wouldn’t want to see a great man fail yet again - he is no longer an option. So this house of startup talents, do you not feel concerned of their lack of experience?
If we are going down this road sir - I the would like to vouch for Capt Montgomery Scott to overlap where possible and oversee the on ship test runs. I have reached out to him over encrypted subspace comms without revealing too much other than the transwarp in concept, and to be perfectly frank he isn’t receptive to the concept yet - but I will keep working on it.
To be continued ...
There's no good "in canon" way to fix this. The Excelsior has Transwarp Drive for exactly one reason- because Nimoy and his writers went overboard with the Excelsior being "bigger and better". They just piled on a little too much without realizing they'd have to explain it later. The bridge set looks different between films for budgetary reasons. etc. Same with the Klingon ship bridge. You just kind of have to ignore it all.
I think the transwarp becomes new warp scale explanation is a very good in canon explanation.
2290
Hikaru Sulu still could not believe the reality at some moments. He was finally on-board, sworn in by Admiral Morrow (it was the last official errand) before the Admiral would step down from fleet operations command. Monroe shook Sulu’s hand and gestured to the receiving XO to escort the new Captain, it was ‘the walk’ to The Bridge. The turbolift doors opened and there was Sulu.
The Excelsior, orbiting Mars after de-coupling herself from the new drydock facility. She has not been seen by many, including Cpt Sulu anywhere near Earth for over 3 years . The Mars facility was the closest she would be to home since. The captain caught glimpse of the sheen from the vessel’s plaque, adorning the registry of NCC 2000 - no more Starfleet Command pushing for trial runs, the diagnostics, and follow up downtime from months of repair or urgent refit, this ship is now ready, it was actually happening. The new commanding officer has taken the conn.
Seven years have passed since his offer of promotion was leaked between the Admirality - then that ‘thing’ with genesis took hold, then there was the probe threat, the growing tensions with the Klingon Empire not helped by Romulan meddling - a succession of events that kept the Enterprise & her crew together beyond their original expected shelf-life. It just was not Sulu’s time yet, the chair was offered to Cpt Styles when word got out the Enterprise was involved in a hostile engagement with another starfleet ship.
An hour passed since embarking, the final systems checks were being performed, impulse drive and warp drive was available at Sulu’s command. He was throughly briefed regarding the ship’s principle capabilities. The Excelsior underwent changes during the 7 years - transwarp was rumoured to been a disaster, fueled by the retrofit of conventional warp drive - yet the new Transwarp nacelle design were deemed ‘backward compatible’ - coupled with the latest generation warp core and dilithium assemblies, the ship is expected to be 1.2-1.3 times faster at cruise than the NCC 1701-A
Sulu sensed comforting familiarity on the bridge, the close knit design akin to the Enterprise-A, the consoles and displays all bear the standard Starfleet design language of the period. There wasn’t a sense of sparseness, disconnect, coldness or ‘lacking of soul’ as described by Cpt Montgomery Scott during the TW engineering visits on the Excelsior in 2284
Sulu was briefed of the further changes about the ship, a crew of 650 instead of the original 800 plus families - automation was improved since 2282, and escalation in tensions meant all front line vessels are to operate in readiness for hostilities, thus trimming non essential personel during active service.
The defensive systems, beginning with the deflector shields were progressive improvements over the Constitution class. And despite generating almost twice the shielding ‘surface area’ - shield effectiveness increased by approx. 12-17% against phaser & disruptor fire, and an average of 24% improved saturation of matter/anti-matter based detonation, as typically found with photon torpedoes.
Photon control is fully automated, and a significant volume of the ship’s neck houses upto 180 warheads & probes, plus the dual loading-launcher complex. A significant escalation of secondary firepower compared to the Constitution class’ 100 warhead semi-manned photorp system.
Before the failed transwarp trials - The NX Excelsior was suspected (to the horror of Cpt Scott on his initial engineering visits) to have sported as many as 12 phaser banks on the saucer alone, coupled with a possible 6 phaser control rooms. Starfleet ops command never confirmed or denied the rumoured primary weapons design, and if they were indeed true - it would only serve as an ominous indicator of potential hostilities or ambition of war with the Klingon and Romulan empires. The non-disclosure of the defensive systems during the trial runs as a NX vessel served only to fuel the gossip, albiet some dismissed the rumours when the source is Cpt Scott - his position of the NX 2000 project was well documented.
Sulu learned his NCC 2000 is the first ship in the fleet to use the new Type-8 phaser system, 8 banks on the saucer with precise variation of beam patterns and intensity - the official spin was the Type-8 is a true ‘multi-purpose’ phaser system, and not merely a ship mounted destructive outlet as found with the Type-7 pulse fire system of the mid-heavy cruisers during 2270’s & 2280’s
To Sulu’s relief, the NCC 2000’s primary mission is predominately scientific. The patrols and skirmishes of this side of the neutral zone were left to the aging Federation class and the brutal to live with Ulysses class Dreadnoughts, flanked by the swarming Cutter class ships. The Excelsior was the new face of Starfleet, a white glove of a ship and the first of a projected first run of 20 ships with a lifespan of 80+ years each.
There were mumblings about the cost of the NX 2000 prototype and questions were afloat on how Starfleet could realistically construct enough of these ships to replace the current mainstray. The repoted level of duranium consumed (2.5 x more than the Constitution class) was a concern enough, however it was the amount of rare hyper-duranium & iso-duranium alloys rumoured to be 4.5 x that used on the Constitution class. Yet Admiral Cartwright was unflinched and authorised the colossal bill of materials for the prototype. It should be noted that Commodore Durant and Rear Admiral Shin requested to dispatch the Excelsior with a payload of long range 11 anti-planetary photon torpedoes against the alien probe threat. The strategy is to Transwarp there quickly and ward off the probe at distance, then rescue the Sarratoga crew in the probe’s wake. Cartwright was quick to understand from early intelligence captured from the probe encounters away from sector 001 would be that the distortive field would unpredictably compromise most energy generating sources in the vicinity - he did not want to risk the Excelsior so soon - and the fact her specialist trained crew couldn’t be replaced without significant time and cost, with so much invested on the whole ‘great experiment’ proposition - Cartwright to the dismay of SF ops, ordered the Excelsior to effective immediatly have shut down her transwarp and main power systems as she idled on auxillary batteries in space dock. Play Possom and used only as a last resort was the spin.
The bespoke systems devised and manufactured by the leading and innovative tech houses. The tightening deadlines afforded little time for efficiency in size, mass and energy consumption - plus the complexity of various major systems could not yet be automated with confidence. And as with her defensive systems, the NX 2000 official dimensions were never disclosed. Observers inside Earth Space dock who witnessed the Enterprise returning back were stunned by the size differential. ‘She can easily hold twice the crew and possibly a small army’ one of the hospitality personel quipped.
Nearly 500 meters nose to tail, that was the approximation when Sulu scanned through the official specifications, mass was only 1.6 times greater than the Enterprise - which in turns debunks the rumours 6 years ago of the amount of duranium and associated hyperalloys used to construct her. 90% of the on-board systems were standard Starfleet issue, founded on smaller ships like the Constitution and Miranda classes - it has been deduced that the bulky and bespoke systems during the NX years were outdated or not needed without a functional Transwarp drive, and just like
the latter - it was replaced with conventional offerings. This indeed makes Starfleet’s ambition to build 19 more like her a reality.
The maiden voyage was about to begin, Communications officer Rand turned to Sulu and smiled, in a we’re good to go kind of way. A quarter impulse power as she broken out of Mars’ orbit, the course was set and Sulu made the call - he gripped the arm rests and braced for warp speed...
Hikaru Sulu still could not believe the reality at some moments. He was finally on-board, sworn in by Admiral Morrow (it was the last official errand) before the Admiral would step down from fleet operations command. Monroe shook Sulu’s hand and gestured to the receiving XO to escort the new Captain, it was ‘the walk’ to The Bridge. The turbolift doors opened and there was Sulu.
The Excelsior, orbiting Mars after de-coupling herself from the new drydock facility. She has not been seen by many, including Cpt Sulu anywhere near Earth for over 3 years . The Mars facility was the closest she would be to home since. The captain caught glimpse of the sheen from the vessel’s plaque, adorning the registry of NCC 2000 - no more Starfleet Command pushing for trial runs, the diagnostics, and follow up downtime from months of repair or urgent refit, this ship is now ready, it was actually happening. The new commanding officer has taken the conn.
Seven years have passed since his offer of promotion was leaked between the Admirality - then that ‘thing’ with genesis took hold, then there was the probe threat, the growing tensions with the Klingon Empire not helped by Romulan meddling - a succession of events that kept the Enterprise & her crew together beyond their original expected shelf-life. It just was not Sulu’s time yet, the chair was offered to Cpt Styles when word got out the Enterprise was involved in a hostile engagement with another starfleet ship.
An hour passed since embarking, the final systems checks were being performed, impulse drive and warp drive was available at Sulu’s command. He was throughly briefed regarding the ship’s principle capabilities. The Excelsior underwent changes during the 7 years - transwarp was rumoured to been a disaster, fueled by the retrofit of conventional warp drive - yet the new Transwarp nacelle design were deemed ‘backward compatible’ - coupled with the latest generation warp core and dilithium assemblies, the ship is expected to be 1.2-1.3 times faster at cruise than the NCC 1701-A
Sulu sensed comforting familiarity on the bridge, the close knit design akin to the Enterprise-A, the consoles and displays all bear the standard Starfleet design language of the period. There wasn’t a sense of sparseness, disconnect, coldness or ‘lacking of soul’ as described by Cpt Montgomery Scott during the TW engineering visits on the Excelsior in 2284
Sulu was briefed of the further changes about the ship, a crew of 650 instead of the original 800 plus families - automation was improved since 2282, and escalation in tensions meant all front line vessels are to operate in readiness for hostilities, thus trimming non essential personel during active service.
The defensive systems, beginning with the deflector shields were progressive improvements over the Constitution class. And despite generating almost twice the shielding ‘surface area’ - shield effectiveness increased by approx. 12-17% against phaser & disruptor fire, and an average of 24% improved saturation of matter/anti-matter based detonation, as typically found with photon torpedoes.
Photon control is fully automated, and a significant volume of the ship’s neck houses upto 180 warheads & probes, plus the dual loading-launcher complex. A significant escalation of secondary firepower compared to the Constitution class’ 100 warhead semi-manned photorp system.
Before the failed transwarp trials - The NX Excelsior was suspected (to the horror of Cpt Scott on his initial engineering visits) to have sported as many as 12 phaser banks on the saucer alone, coupled with a possible 6 phaser control rooms. Starfleet ops command never confirmed or denied the rumoured primary weapons design, and if they were indeed true - it would only serve as an ominous indicator of potential hostilities or ambition of war with the Klingon and Romulan empires. The non-disclosure of the defensive systems during the trial runs as a NX vessel served only to fuel the gossip, albiet some dismissed the rumours when the source is Cpt Scott - his position of the NX 2000 project was well documented.
Sulu learned his NCC 2000 is the first ship in the fleet to use the new Type-8 phaser system, 8 banks on the saucer with precise variation of beam patterns and intensity - the official spin was the Type-8 is a true ‘multi-purpose’ phaser system, and not merely a ship mounted destructive outlet as found with the Type-7 pulse fire system of the mid-heavy cruisers during 2270’s & 2280’s
To Sulu’s relief, the NCC 2000’s primary mission is predominately scientific. The patrols and skirmishes of this side of the neutral zone were left to the aging Federation class and the brutal to live with Ulysses class Dreadnoughts, flanked by the swarming Cutter class ships. The Excelsior was the new face of Starfleet, a white glove of a ship and the first of a projected first run of 20 ships with a lifespan of 80+ years each.
There were mumblings about the cost of the NX 2000 prototype and questions were afloat on how Starfleet could realistically construct enough of these ships to replace the current mainstray. The repoted level of duranium consumed (2.5 x more than the Constitution class) was a concern enough, however it was the amount of rare hyper-duranium & iso-duranium alloys rumoured to be 4.5 x that used on the Constitution class. Yet Admiral Cartwright was unflinched and authorised the colossal bill of materials for the prototype. It should be noted that Commodore Durant and Rear Admiral Shin requested to dispatch the Excelsior with a payload of long range 11 anti-planetary photon torpedoes against the alien probe threat. The strategy is to Transwarp there quickly and ward off the probe at distance, then rescue the Sarratoga crew in the probe’s wake. Cartwright was quick to understand from early intelligence captured from the probe encounters away from sector 001 would be that the distortive field would unpredictably compromise most energy generating sources in the vicinity - he did not want to risk the Excelsior so soon - and the fact her specialist trained crew couldn’t be replaced without significant time and cost, with so much invested on the whole ‘great experiment’ proposition - Cartwright to the dismay of SF ops, ordered the Excelsior to effective immediatly have shut down her transwarp and main power systems as she idled on auxillary batteries in space dock. Play Possom and used only as a last resort was the spin.
The bespoke systems devised and manufactured by the leading and innovative tech houses. The tightening deadlines afforded little time for efficiency in size, mass and energy consumption - plus the complexity of various major systems could not yet be automated with confidence. And as with her defensive systems, the NX 2000 official dimensions were never disclosed. Observers inside Earth Space dock who witnessed the Enterprise returning back were stunned by the size differential. ‘She can easily hold twice the crew and possibly a small army’ one of the hospitality personel quipped.
Nearly 500 meters nose to tail, that was the approximation when Sulu scanned through the official specifications, mass was only 1.6 times greater than the Enterprise - which in turns debunks the rumours 6 years ago of the amount of duranium and associated hyperalloys used to construct her. 90% of the on-board systems were standard Starfleet issue, founded on smaller ships like the Constitution and Miranda classes - it has been deduced that the bulky and bespoke systems during the NX years were outdated or not needed without a functional Transwarp drive, and just like
the latter - it was replaced with conventional offerings. This indeed makes Starfleet’s ambition to build 19 more like her a reality.
The maiden voyage was about to begin, Communications officer Rand turned to Sulu and smiled, in a we’re good to go kind of way. A quarter impulse power as she broken out of Mars’ orbit, the course was set and Sulu made the call - he gripped the arm rests and braced for warp speed...
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I'll gladly accept if this is meant to be someone else, but is this supposed to be Admiral Morrow, by chance?
Fixed 4 U
Somewhere, sometime post 2286.....
Day 64, or perhaps it was 65? - Cpt Styles couldn’t maintain updates on his personal log - it was just another morning, no sun rise, just another billion stars and the backdrop of blackness as seen from his quarters.
Uniform ‘buttoned up’ still a perfect fit, Styles was no big eater, especially in recent weeks. The clock already hit 9 AM - A quick swig of double espresso from a cup with a print of the ship’s name and registry - NX 2000. A first for such detail on a starfleet ship.
You don’t have to again ask me how I am today, you’re just a turbo lift. Styles had been tempted this past week to lay into someone over in engineering about these morning conversations he keeps having - was it a glitch or did someone have a sense of humour when they designed the computing?
Morning Captain! it was the XO at the navigation station, always ready for the next order. Good morning Joe.... (just how does he maintain that ‘can-do’ demeanor every morning??) Styles thought to himself. Day 65-whatever, flat, he even forgotten his swagger stick - if only he had another espresso shot before stepping into duty.
One officer, a Deltan handed Styles the morning edition of the ship’s status - a quick scan through followed by a look of indifference. It was no wonder why he had nothing to say in the personal logs as of late.
The bridge lighting used to remain uniform and neutral - over time Styles would discover the bridge’s hidden tricks, one being it can dynamically alter throughout the ‘day’ outside of red alert - the adaptive lighting continued through most decks of the ship, and Styles believed it helped with crew moral and productivity - even the CMO concurred. The mornings would be bright with a familar warmth of colour to that of the Earth and Vulcan suns. By 19:00 hours, the bridge would go darker - then night would settle in, the wrap around black glossy consoles and 180 degree main viewer would dominate with multi coloured patterns, visual data from the sensor and scanner arrays streamed facinating shapes in almost random fashion, much like 22nd century Tokyo or Caspian VI city at night.
So what adventures awaits us this fine day?! Styles scoffed, a brief blip of uplift from his resorts of sarcasm couldn’t quite pull him out of the lull. He observed the remaining officers on the bridge, why they were buzzing like bees? - the chatter, the smiles, almost in a we’re making progress type of way. Style’s eyebrow raised.
Joe; Commander Joe Peck: Sir - It’s been approximately 12 days since our last attempt at Transwarp, during that time in between things - I been making use of the long range scanning arrays, the data captures, and refining the navigation maps - big time. We atleast know where relatively we are in a radius of 42 light years.
Hmph, if we only knew where we are relative to the entire galaxy - give or take the 42 light years..... Styles never did praise well.
It’s a start Sir, in another week I’m positive we will extend that range somewhat, if only we can try another series of T-warp sprints.
I am not willing to wear down more of the ship’s warp assembly on further transwarp runs until we are certain of a meaningful result. I would like to visit a planet however, preferably with habitable features, actual sunshine - can we find one of them at ordinary warp factors?
Peck couldn’t help it: Not within the 40 light year radius, Sir.....it maybe in the relm of possibility if we look beyond that however??
Styles: Hmph, nice try!
Flanked to his left was Lt Commander Xi, so often stoic, she refuses to even saw a word to the turbolift controller - possibly the only one of the 800+ crew members to use the manual interface. She looked different this morning, almost as tired as Style’s yet something of a spark in her eyes - this was the ship’s senior science officer, armed with some news to tell...
64 - 65 days earlier, the siren sounded, the overlapping voices, engineers squarked through the intercom, utter confusion.
#We must shut down the transwarp core!#
Styles braced the arm rests: Understood, Styles out. The sudden deceleration from Transwarp was too much for even the next generation inertia damper system, nausea and disorientation overcome training and protocol...
The engineering section engulfed approx. 30% of the secondary hull’s internal volume, coupled by 225 engineers split across 3 shifts to man the business end of the Excelsior’s propulsion system. To dub it as a Transwarp ‘core’ in the same context as a nominal warp core from the Enterprise would have been an understatement, when Cpt Montgomery Scott took up on his inaugural tour - his jaw gave up fighting gravity. ‘It was a monstrousity Bones! Imagine the warp core from the Enterprise on a bad day, over worked and over heated - huddled up with many of the same in some sort of battery cage!?’
There was a race to power down the warp chambers - it took 12 engineers to perform the emergency manual shutdown process - automation was not trusted in engineering yet. Truth be told - Daystrom’s work was hastedly removed from what was already as Cpt Scott commented - a rowdy crowd of ticking time bombs.
In the midst of this - Cmd Joseph Peck tried to make sense of the TW drive computation. The logged nav readings flooded the console with errors - as he drilled into further detail he found a succession of failed / out of range corrections applied by the transwarp computation - then came the resource alarms, in basic terms - the system overclocked itself and froze.
This wont make sense Captain, we have travelled 14862 light years from Earth, the trajectory I have no control of since the transwarp drive computation system froze out, we were in transwarp for over 12 minutes local time but with the velocities we reached and the out of tolerance subspace distortions readings when we reached peak speed.... some significant time must has elapsed.
Styles couldnt direct his eyes at Peck, the numbers XO Peck threw at him were all too indigestible. Where are we? ..... when are we?!!
Peck re-read the transwarp navigation reporting - we must be close if not outside the alpha quadrant edge of our galaxy....as far as how much absolute time has elapsed - we will need to work on that...
It became a scramble, nothing made sense - the readings spitting rapidly from the Excelsiors range of advancd sensors and next-gen computer intelligence could have been compromised or that Peck and every man, woman stationed at an operational console tried combating the disorientation - interpret the data needed focus and a clear head.
Style’s watched on helpless as his bridge officers panicked - it was the mystery of just what did happen during that transwarp sprint? And then leads to the even bigger question of where/when are they? Duty and protocol be damned - the training never prepared them for the fear of being too far from ‘home’.
First thing was first, they must turn back. Styles called for a status update from engineering - warp power unavailable for an indefinate period. Repairs drones at 100% utilisation - the warp cage as Scott called it has rattled loose.
I detect a star system 12 light years away and we dont know who’s yard we are in - we have no mobility Sir! Joseph Peck regained his grasp of protocol. Styles ordered the ship into yellow alert, force fields shrouded the bridge and deck 2-3, then the main deflectors shielded the entire ship. The lighting that simulated the comforting feeling of a warm summer morning decended into a cold night.
Anxiety and confusion spread across every deck, even for those crew members isolated away, from the medics to the mess hall staff. Without the control or visibility to the ship’s course of action, they all felt something was ominous. The yellow alert only compounded the suspicions.
Day 64-65
Lt Cmd Xi liked understatement - and in turn provoked Styles to call a meeting. Peck, Xi, Rabiot, Ai’rel, Collums took turbolift rides to engineering control room 2. Positioned centre of the room was a bulky metallic console island projecting a 3 dimensional map seemingly representing Transwarp type subspace field flux surrounding the Excelsior. Styles tried to digest the graphics and numbers.
Xi: The readings and the data we captured through the previous 14 Transwarp sprints - we have used all this in efforts to construct a new simulation intelligence. I am confident that this new modelling is an order above what was used by the Transwarp task force during the early trial runs back in the sol system.
Peck: Captain, when I mentioned the 40 light year navigation map I drafted together, we used it as a backdrop setting, a ‘mini galaxy’ so to speak, to conduct the new similation within. The results looks promising.
In what way? Styles squinted, still in his brain trying to rationalise the subspace field graphics in front of him.
Xi continued, the Transwarp computation and auto correction processors were efficient and accurate - but up to a point. It was around Warp 17.6 was a consistent threshold, beyond the the correction rates would ramp up and bottlenecking would occur.
Xi called up a previous simulated run - the console projection flickered from subspace field flux patterns to a sphere, with a small dot representing the ship.
As you can see at point A, the ship enters into intial warp and accelerates into Transwarp speeds - by a distance of just over 3 lightyears the ship has accelerated to a peak velocity of warp 21.45 - we can see inconsistent trajectory as the computation went off phase - it can no longer can react soon enough and the transwarp core complex ramped to 98% utilisation for over 11 minutes - this is what happened in our trial run from Earth. We crossed nearly fifteen hundred light years - the computation not only failed to correct our trajectory but it also failed to throttle the transwarp core - it lead to the Excelsior to continue rising warp factor by warp factor until conduit overload and manual intervention disrupted the transwarp field.
Style: How certain are you both of this? And why did not tell me about the findings?
Peck: Sir, it was only recent - the modelling needed a series of validation and scrutiny - plus we did not want to prematurely send out impressions of hope...
What do you mean hope?!! Styles broke away from the simulation graphics finally.
Day 64, or perhaps it was 65? - Cpt Styles couldn’t maintain updates on his personal log - it was just another morning, no sun rise, just another billion stars and the backdrop of blackness as seen from his quarters.
Uniform ‘buttoned up’ still a perfect fit, Styles was no big eater, especially in recent weeks. The clock already hit 9 AM - A quick swig of double espresso from a cup with a print of the ship’s name and registry - NX 2000. A first for such detail on a starfleet ship.
You don’t have to again ask me how I am today, you’re just a turbo lift. Styles had been tempted this past week to lay into someone over in engineering about these morning conversations he keeps having - was it a glitch or did someone have a sense of humour when they designed the computing?
Morning Captain! it was the XO at the navigation station, always ready for the next order. Good morning Joe.... (just how does he maintain that ‘can-do’ demeanor every morning??) Styles thought to himself. Day 65-whatever, flat, he even forgotten his swagger stick - if only he had another espresso shot before stepping into duty.
One officer, a Deltan handed Styles the morning edition of the ship’s status - a quick scan through followed by a look of indifference. It was no wonder why he had nothing to say in the personal logs as of late.
The bridge lighting used to remain uniform and neutral - over time Styles would discover the bridge’s hidden tricks, one being it can dynamically alter throughout the ‘day’ outside of red alert - the adaptive lighting continued through most decks of the ship, and Styles believed it helped with crew moral and productivity - even the CMO concurred. The mornings would be bright with a familar warmth of colour to that of the Earth and Vulcan suns. By 19:00 hours, the bridge would go darker - then night would settle in, the wrap around black glossy consoles and 180 degree main viewer would dominate with multi coloured patterns, visual data from the sensor and scanner arrays streamed facinating shapes in almost random fashion, much like 22nd century Tokyo or Caspian VI city at night.
So what adventures awaits us this fine day?! Styles scoffed, a brief blip of uplift from his resorts of sarcasm couldn’t quite pull him out of the lull. He observed the remaining officers on the bridge, why they were buzzing like bees? - the chatter, the smiles, almost in a we’re making progress type of way. Style’s eyebrow raised.
Joe; Commander Joe Peck: Sir - It’s been approximately 12 days since our last attempt at Transwarp, during that time in between things - I been making use of the long range scanning arrays, the data captures, and refining the navigation maps - big time. We atleast know where relatively we are in a radius of 42 light years.
Hmph, if we only knew where we are relative to the entire galaxy - give or take the 42 light years..... Styles never did praise well.
It’s a start Sir, in another week I’m positive we will extend that range somewhat, if only we can try another series of T-warp sprints.
I am not willing to wear down more of the ship’s warp assembly on further transwarp runs until we are certain of a meaningful result. I would like to visit a planet however, preferably with habitable features, actual sunshine - can we find one of them at ordinary warp factors?
Peck couldn’t help it: Not within the 40 light year radius, Sir.....it maybe in the relm of possibility if we look beyond that however??
Styles: Hmph, nice try!
Flanked to his left was Lt Commander Xi, so often stoic, she refuses to even saw a word to the turbolift controller - possibly the only one of the 800+ crew members to use the manual interface. She looked different this morning, almost as tired as Style’s yet something of a spark in her eyes - this was the ship’s senior science officer, armed with some news to tell...
64 - 65 days earlier, the siren sounded, the overlapping voices, engineers squarked through the intercom, utter confusion.
#We must shut down the transwarp core!#
Styles braced the arm rests: Understood, Styles out. The sudden deceleration from Transwarp was too much for even the next generation inertia damper system, nausea and disorientation overcome training and protocol...
The engineering section engulfed approx. 30% of the secondary hull’s internal volume, coupled by 225 engineers split across 3 shifts to man the business end of the Excelsior’s propulsion system. To dub it as a Transwarp ‘core’ in the same context as a nominal warp core from the Enterprise would have been an understatement, when Cpt Montgomery Scott took up on his inaugural tour - his jaw gave up fighting gravity. ‘It was a monstrousity Bones! Imagine the warp core from the Enterprise on a bad day, over worked and over heated - huddled up with many of the same in some sort of battery cage!?’
There was a race to power down the warp chambers - it took 12 engineers to perform the emergency manual shutdown process - automation was not trusted in engineering yet. Truth be told - Daystrom’s work was hastedly removed from what was already as Cpt Scott commented - a rowdy crowd of ticking time bombs.
In the midst of this - Cmd Joseph Peck tried to make sense of the TW drive computation. The logged nav readings flooded the console with errors - as he drilled into further detail he found a succession of failed / out of range corrections applied by the transwarp computation - then came the resource alarms, in basic terms - the system overclocked itself and froze.
This wont make sense Captain, we have travelled 14862 light years from Earth, the trajectory I have no control of since the transwarp drive computation system froze out, we were in transwarp for over 12 minutes local time but with the velocities we reached and the out of tolerance subspace distortions readings when we reached peak speed.... some significant time must has elapsed.
Styles couldnt direct his eyes at Peck, the numbers XO Peck threw at him were all too indigestible. Where are we? ..... when are we?!!
Peck re-read the transwarp navigation reporting - we must be close if not outside the alpha quadrant edge of our galaxy....as far as how much absolute time has elapsed - we will need to work on that...
It became a scramble, nothing made sense - the readings spitting rapidly from the Excelsiors range of advancd sensors and next-gen computer intelligence could have been compromised or that Peck and every man, woman stationed at an operational console tried combating the disorientation - interpret the data needed focus and a clear head.
Style’s watched on helpless as his bridge officers panicked - it was the mystery of just what did happen during that transwarp sprint? And then leads to the even bigger question of where/when are they? Duty and protocol be damned - the training never prepared them for the fear of being too far from ‘home’.
First thing was first, they must turn back. Styles called for a status update from engineering - warp power unavailable for an indefinate period. Repairs drones at 100% utilisation - the warp cage as Scott called it has rattled loose.
I detect a star system 12 light years away and we dont know who’s yard we are in - we have no mobility Sir! Joseph Peck regained his grasp of protocol. Styles ordered the ship into yellow alert, force fields shrouded the bridge and deck 2-3, then the main deflectors shielded the entire ship. The lighting that simulated the comforting feeling of a warm summer morning decended into a cold night.
Anxiety and confusion spread across every deck, even for those crew members isolated away, from the medics to the mess hall staff. Without the control or visibility to the ship’s course of action, they all felt something was ominous. The yellow alert only compounded the suspicions.
Day 64-65
Lt Cmd Xi liked understatement - and in turn provoked Styles to call a meeting. Peck, Xi, Rabiot, Ai’rel, Collums took turbolift rides to engineering control room 2. Positioned centre of the room was a bulky metallic console island projecting a 3 dimensional map seemingly representing Transwarp type subspace field flux surrounding the Excelsior. Styles tried to digest the graphics and numbers.
Xi: The readings and the data we captured through the previous 14 Transwarp sprints - we have used all this in efforts to construct a new simulation intelligence. I am confident that this new modelling is an order above what was used by the Transwarp task force during the early trial runs back in the sol system.
Peck: Captain, when I mentioned the 40 light year navigation map I drafted together, we used it as a backdrop setting, a ‘mini galaxy’ so to speak, to conduct the new similation within. The results looks promising.
In what way? Styles squinted, still in his brain trying to rationalise the subspace field graphics in front of him.
Xi continued, the Transwarp computation and auto correction processors were efficient and accurate - but up to a point. It was around Warp 17.6 was a consistent threshold, beyond the the correction rates would ramp up and bottlenecking would occur.
Xi called up a previous simulated run - the console projection flickered from subspace field flux patterns to a sphere, with a small dot representing the ship.
As you can see at point A, the ship enters into intial warp and accelerates into Transwarp speeds - by a distance of just over 3 lightyears the ship has accelerated to a peak velocity of warp 21.45 - we can see inconsistent trajectory as the computation went off phase - it can no longer can react soon enough and the transwarp core complex ramped to 98% utilisation for over 11 minutes - this is what happened in our trial run from Earth. We crossed nearly fifteen hundred light years - the computation not only failed to correct our trajectory but it also failed to throttle the transwarp core - it lead to the Excelsior to continue rising warp factor by warp factor until conduit overload and manual intervention disrupted the transwarp field.
Style: How certain are you both of this? And why did not tell me about the findings?
Peck: Sir, it was only recent - the modelling needed a series of validation and scrutiny - plus we did not want to prematurely send out impressions of hope...
What do you mean hope?!! Styles broke away from the simulation graphics finally.
They should have passed it's wreckage in the transwarp conduit from "That Hope Is You, part 2
I'm moving this over, folks. Continue in Fan Fiction!
Look at the teething problems the USS Gerald Ford is having as a comparison. Multi billion dollar, front line USA carrier, and it is having problems coming up to operational capacity. Humans have not changed that much.
I can see transwarp being an over-sold boondoggle. I treat it as such in Epiphany Trek.
I can see transwarp being an over-sold boondoggle. I treat it as such in Epiphany Trek.
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