The NEXUS: naturally occurring or sentient-made? Or possibly both?
- Thread starter Aquehonga
- Start date
Do you imagine Starfleet having a small Scientific Research Division dedicated to the Ribbon and the Nexus?
It may only passe close to Earth space every 39 years and they only have the scientific data (if any at all) gathered from the Ent-B and the Ent-D and Picards report to go on, plus there could've been a ship come close to it in the time it passed through between the time of the E-B and E-D encountered it?
They probably have it's course tracked and likely try to figure out what properties it is made up of and what the Nexus really might be, kind of like what we're talking about just now.
It may only passe close to Earth space every 39 years and they only have the scientific data (if any at all) gathered from the Ent-B and the Ent-D and Picards report to go on, plus there could've been a ship come close to it in the time it passed through between the time of the E-B and E-D encountered it?
They probably have it's course tracked and likely try to figure out what properties it is made up of and what the Nexus really might be, kind of like what we're talking about just now.
And not necessarily even that. The pass could be through a different area of UFP space every time, considering how easily the thing is swayed by gravity, and how everything within the Federation is in subtle movement even within timespans as short as 39 years.
The pass in the prologue might have been the first that went through UFP territory, so Harriman had little or no data on Nexus. But the first pass was dramatic enough that the course was subsequently plotted, and observers (plus Soran) were posted for the second pass, properly cautioned against the known hazards. And so the second pass was not particularly dramatic (save for Soran's first, clandestine and failed attempt to get in) and the phenomenon was deemed harmless and largely forgotten.
Timo Saloniemi
But the shockwave (at least the planet-shattering one) moved at sublight speed, and would have had very little effect.
Still, it's possible that some unseen, faster component of the blast caused the course changes. But Nexus also changed speed, from galaxy-spanning high warp to walking pace, when it approached planets. That might have been the effect of the planetary and stellar masses, too...
Timo Saloniemi
Still, it's possible that some unseen, faster component of the blast caused the course changes. But Nexus also changed speed, from galaxy-spanning high warp to walking pace, when it approached planets. That might have been the effect of the planetary and stellar masses, too...
Timo Saloniemi
combination of short term change of gravitational field and subspace shockwaves?
It just occurred to me that people assume the Ribbon, which has some very funky time-and-space-warping properties, does its full tour of the Galaxy in realspace.
Does it?
What if the Ribbon isn't a device but a symptom? The raffled edges of a tear in reality itself that links to wherever it is the Nexus exists. The Ribbon could be nothing more than the debris resulting from that tear, an area of space around the point where two universes meet where the turbulence of that meeting causes tremendous stress on any ship to pass through it. Rather than make a sweep of our galaxy, what if that tear completes the rest of its journey in its own universe, only touching ours every forty-odd-years?
In this respect it could easily be natural; just the by-product of Trekverse' multiple realities temporarily overlapping. It doesn't explain why the Nexus is such a convenient piece of heaven though.
Does it?
What if the Ribbon isn't a device but a symptom? The raffled edges of a tear in reality itself that links to wherever it is the Nexus exists. The Ribbon could be nothing more than the debris resulting from that tear, an area of space around the point where two universes meet where the turbulence of that meeting causes tremendous stress on any ship to pass through it. Rather than make a sweep of our galaxy, what if that tear completes the rest of its journey in its own universe, only touching ours every forty-odd-years?
In this respect it could easily be natural; just the by-product of Trekverse' multiple realities temporarily overlapping. It doesn't explain why the Nexus is such a convenient piece of heaven though.
...Which is why I prefer to think of it as a purpose-built heaven instead: a malfunctioning and misunderstood passenger vessel or hospital ship of some sort.
The drama of the movie requires the movements of the Nexus to be highly predictable and traceable. Thus I'm not veyr fond of the idea that it would disappear from the Federation scopes completely for 39 years. The first time around, it was news to everybody, and deemed dangerous. The second time around we did not see - but the third time around, nobody seemed alarmed about the phenomenon any more, heavily suggesting some sort of safe predictability...
Timo Saloniemi
The drama of the movie requires the movements of the Nexus to be highly predictable and traceable. Thus I'm not veyr fond of the idea that it would disappear from the Federation scopes completely for 39 years. The first time around, it was news to everybody, and deemed dangerous. The second time around we did not see - but the third time around, nobody seemed alarmed about the phenomenon any more, heavily suggesting some sort of safe predictability...
Timo Saloniemi
I admit, the Nexus disappearing doesn't gel with the impression from the movie that it's perfectly traceable. It's just a way I tried to rationalise it slowing down (sublight around planets) and speeding up (you don't cross the galaxy on sublight in 40 years).
The 'misunderstood passenger transport' sounds suspiciously like the electric cloud from the Ghost Ship novel. A mysterious phenomenon that damages ships, sucking out the crew and placing them into a state of ostensible-yet-shallow bliss...
The 'misunderstood passenger transport' sounds suspiciously like the electric cloud from the Ghost Ship novel. A mysterious phenomenon that damages ships, sucking out the crew and placing them into a state of ostensible-yet-shallow bliss...
It does, now doesn't it? Trust Carey to come up with good and enduring dramatic concepts while sticking to her somewhat stale 20th century guns and 'tudes.
I've never read Ghost Ship, but there's a bookstore of the antiquarian persuasion just next to a shop I intend to visit within the hour... This is an interesting coincidence to be explored. I wonder if Berman or Braga ever read this one?
Timo Saloniemi
I would think the Nexus only has an access point that moves in this Universe.
God (Q?), I hope not. There should be space in, uh, space, for all sorts of other interesting entities besides the Q and their creations...
One of the Greg Cox books already suggested the Q made the Galactic Barrier and the Great Barrier. What next, they conceived James T. Kirk out of pure midichlorians?
Timo Saloniemi
One of the Greg Cox books already suggested the Q made the Galactic Barrier and the Great Barrier. What next, they conceived James T. Kirk out of pure midichlorians?
Timo Saloniemi