The Fate of the USS Brattain
- Thread starter Bry_Sinclair
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Would they automatically know what happened? Does everyone in Starfleet know what happens on every other ship? I'm not so sure.
Well, Mariner did get suspected of being Starfleet Intelligence by Boimler and Rutherford due to events on one of her previous ships (the USS Atlantis), which turned out to actually be classified because "Do you know how embarrassing it is to lose a starship to lice?!"...
In truth, @Dukhat is right. There isn't even a visual reference in any of the pulled back shots, to the Brattain still being near them when they set off the explosion, & at one time it was right alongside them.
I guess the easiest explanation could be that they do say that for many days they'd been "Adrift". Now, what that might mean in space lingo is usually just that they are without propulsion, which ordinarily just means they are stalled in one spot. But it could also mean like it does for sea vessels, & that they are subject to whatever forces in their area might move them about uncontrollably.
So it's explainable that something in the Tyken's Rift had also been mildly altering their orientation enough that they eventually drifted away from the Brattain, & couldn't do anything about it. In any event, the Brattain was still in the rift, & the D & it's alien partner vessel both escaped after the explosion, & the Brattain didn't. So it remained in the ruptured rift. It's more than likely destroyed or lost.
The Enterprise and Brattain were adrift for at least 2 weeks by the time the explosion was set off. They likely drifted away from each other... it was a binary system, and maybe the Tyken's Rift also made the drifting worse somehow.
Besides, the Enterprise had only moments to escape once the explosion was set off. Their priority was getting out, especially since all the bodies from the Brattain were already aboard and that ship was dead in space. Save 1,000 lives or grab an inert, empty ship? Easy choice.
Starfleet may have sent a ship in later to retrieve her, with the proper stuff to set off a similar explosion and leave. Especially considering they were still 'bringing the fleet back up' after Wolf 359. (Shelby said it would take about a year. "Night Terrors" is probably about 8 months after the Borg cube was destroyed.)
Starfleet would also be just as likely to wrute her off due to it still being pretty dangerous.
And, as others have said, she could have been destroyed by the explosion.
Besides, the Enterprise had only moments to escape once the explosion was set off. Their priority was getting out, especially since all the bodies from the Brattain were already aboard and that ship was dead in space. Save 1,000 lives or grab an inert, empty ship? Easy choice.
Starfleet may have sent a ship in later to retrieve her, with the proper stuff to set off a similar explosion and leave. Especially considering they were still 'bringing the fleet back up' after Wolf 359. (Shelby said it would take about a year. "Night Terrors" is probably about 8 months after the Borg cube was destroyed.)
Starfleet would also be just as likely to wrute her off due to it still being pretty dangerous.
And, as others have said, she could have been destroyed by the explosion.
About the problem, the Tyken's rift.
When first Bela Tyken and later Enterprise along with the alien ship used an explosion to overload or dislocate the rift, does that explosion destroy the rift or does the explosion just temporarily help ships escape?
When first Bela Tyken and later Enterprise along with the alien ship used an explosion to overload or dislocate the rift, does that explosion destroy the rift or does the explosion just temporarily help ships escape?
I don't think it's made clear in the episode. But given it's a spatial phenomenon, and it seems to permeate across a large area, I think it's just a temporary opening in a small section... the section that exploded.
I mean is it really all that much worse/weird than serving on the ship where the entire crew got devolved into animals and, apparently, started eating each other?
"Night Terrors" is playing on Pluto TV right now. At the end, though.
Funny coincidence.
Funny coincidence.
Unfortunately that goes against Newton’s laws of motion. The Enterprise and the Brattain were right next to each other, motionless, each time we saw them. Unless some nearby gravitational force caused the ships to separate (and no force of that kind was apparent, as the Tyken rift was not described as a gravitational force), then there would be no reason why the two ships would drift apart.
The captain's log said they were drifting for 10 days, and that was around the halfway point of the episode. And wouldn't those binary stars be responsible for some kind of gravitational forces?
Do we still see the Brattain next to the Enterprise as this log is being recorded?
That would depend on how close the ships were to the stars.
Honestly, I'd have to double check to be sure if it was or not. I'll do so later. (I'm curious myself.)
I just saw the scene of the log entry where they have been adrift for 'a total of 10 days', and the Brattain is shown on screen with the Enterprise. (The Enterprise is facing the Brattain's port side.)
They also mention how the distance is so far that they don't expect their distress call to be answered for at least 2 weeks.
This makes it somewhat unlikely Starfleet will bother salvaging the Brattain.
They also mention how the distance is so far that they don't expect their distress call to be answered for at least 2 weeks.
This makes it somewhat unlikely Starfleet will bother salvaging the Brattain.
Why? If the rift was destroyed, there shouldn't be any trouble salvaging the ship. TBH, that's how the episode should have ended, with the Enterprise towing the Brattain away. But they didn't do that, because both the writers and the VFX people seemingly forgot the ship was there. Unless the implication was that the ship blew up offscreen.
Edit: Reading MA, I see that the rift was only disrupted, not destroyed. But that still doesn't explain why we don't see the ship afterward, unless one has to be actually inside this invisible rift to see anything inside it.
Edit: Reading MA, I see that the rift was only disrupted, not destroyed. But that still doesn't explain why we don't see the ship afterward, unless one has to be actually inside this invisible rift to see anything inside it.
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The rift was only temporarily opened, so the priority was getting the Enterprise out with the crew alive. The Brattain was completely inert and the bodies were already aboard the Enterprise.
There have been occasions where we don't see ships unless you are also trapped. The null space in "The Outcast", for example.
It might also partly explain why the Enterprise never saw the alien ship. (Data does say it's possibly on the other side where they can't detect it. Whether that's because of the stars or the Tyken's Rift, it was never made clear.)
There have been occasions where we don't see ships unless you are also trapped. The null space in "The Outcast", for example.
It might also partly explain why the Enterprise never saw the alien ship. (Data does say it's possibly on the other side where they can't detect it. Whether that's because of the stars or the Tyken's Rift, it was never made clear.)
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