Transphasic Torp. Usage?
- Thread starter Silversmok3
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I didn't see them as being necessarily more powerful than current tech, but rather, better at piercing Borg shields. I mean, heck...a 21st century nuclear bomb or a single photon torpedo could probably blow up a Borg ship if that ship didn't have any shields or regeneration ability, right?
I figure something in the gravity plating had a transphasic effect that gave them support. A trickier question, though, is: if normal matter passed right through them without effect, how could they breathe or hear? Air is matter.
Yeah, come to think of it, you're right. I recall reading such a discussion.
If transphasic torpedoes have been manufactured, will we soon see the ablative "Bat Mobile" armor in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Endgame".
Nahh. That was useful as a defense against the Borg since they hadn't seen it before, but I think there's good reason why the Borg hadn't encountered it -- because it's not very practical. Such armor would probably interfere with a ship's sensors and maneuvering thrusters, and most critically would cover up its heat radiators. Space is cold, but vacuum is a superb insulator, so ships can overheat dangerously if they don't have adequate radiators (which is why the space shuttle always keeps its cargo doors open in orbit; the interiors of the doors are the radiators). A ship in combat covered in ablative armor could only function for a short time before overheating. And the armor itself would be very power-intensive due to the need to keep replicating new armor to replace what was lost.
Oh, there's no doubt that the Borg adapted to the armor. That's why it wasn't used in GTTS and Destiny. But that's not the point, and never will be the point in the post-Destiny universe. The question is about whether the armor would be useful in conflicts with other enemies. And my answer is that it wouldn't be, because it's too unwieldy and impractical. Its only value was as a short-term defense against the Borg, and that was only because they hadn't adapted to it yet.
Personally I think the Federation might consider placing regulations on Transphasic Torpedo usage just so you don't have someone in a ship wiping out entire fleets by just emptying the torpedo bays at them. I would think the same would go for the Klingons just because I don't think they would like the fact that a captain could go renagade and do considerable damage to the Defense Force fleet very easily until countermeasures could be developed.
Not having read any of the "Destiny" books yet, and not knowing much more about transphasic torpedoes beyond what I saw in Voyager's "Endgame", I am picturing the T-torp as a weapon that phases through Borg multi-adaptive shielding and homes in on the transwarp coils, causing a catastrophic chain-reaction series of explosions of all of the cube's t-warp coils, hence destroying the ships.
It would seem from dialogue in "Destiny" that the transphasic torpedoes are described differently?...
It would seem from dialogue in "Destiny" that the transphasic torpedoes are described differently?...
Actually I think it's Greater Than The Sum the TNG nove that leads into Destiney discribes how the Transphasic Torpedos work.
^^That's right. Because of the writing schedule of these books, Dave and I each came up with separate models for how transphasic torpedoes work, and then hashed out a version that blended the two and incorporated that into our revisions.
On the subject of defenses against the Borg, at the beginning of GTTS, there was an officer that was going to try releasing anesthezine gas, but didn't get the chance to do so. If events had been different and the gas had been released, how would you have handled that? Would that gas have been effective against the Borg, or would they just adapt to it?
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Plecostomus
Commodore
It might have worked initially but... true Borg adapt to anything and everything.
It probably wouldn't have worked. In FC, we saw Borg functioning unprotected in vacuum, so they can clearly get by without breathing for a fair stretch at a time. I don't precisely recall the anesthezine bit at the moment, but I daresay it was a desperation move.
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