Tri-Colbalt

[Johnny7oak]

I am wondering...
OK:
So maybe not photon torpedoes/maybe so...

If anti-matter and matter are combined together:

A powerful explosion would occur that could destroy a ship as noted in TOS era Trek.

Perhaps:
Anti-matter/matter detonation with a photonic trigger... creates an molecule collision... as a weapon. The torpedo would involve magnetic separation and storage, and pin-point mixing (cause its going to go all at once). So the idea is to put them in two separate holding and drop containment storage.... Deuterium and Anti-matter then "ignite" the bomb with a photon targeting the mixing chamber at the preset distance. Photon torpedoes have been known to have a timer switch on them for various distances. Perhaps giving this process of magnetic storage a count down to desired range of ship.

Quantum torpedoes: May have a "atom smasher" that launch the two holdings toward each other for a more efficient photon torpedo? I am only guessing on this. (as with above)

to the point:
Tri-cobalt may be a combination fission/anti-matter combined explosion. To which, the trick was to create a very powerful loss of molecule released energy and the anti-matter charge. Accomplished by replicating tri-cobalt in a contained environment(possible held up the show on technology) that explodes when initial contact with anti-matter, then detonates a fission reaction from the breaking bonds of the tri-cobalt exploding twice over.

The thought is: Such replication places would be starbases or a torpedo -replication station, and thus tri-cobablt torps would be re-supplied with limited availability...

 

[Mytran]

Except...doesn't an antimatter explosion completely consume the reactants? There's be nothing left for the secondary fission explosion.

 

[Johnny7oak]

Unless the fission release is first... an antimatter collision would be unable to contain the quanta emission? Could the fission detonation produce a quanta similar to an energy weapon? the affect would need to be additive, I'd presume. But maybe you are right, as the show seems to have several differing occasion where ejecting the core has rendered various fields inert.

Although, red matter in JJ Abahms might have used the implosion to ceil off one end of subspace, in a red matter unstability way, it would do so its self... from being a massive particle grab until it imploded on itself. So... maybe that was just to push Enterprise away... although I've seen it in "St:Inssurection"

 

[matthunter]

Quantum torpedoes, according to the DS9 Tech Manual, tap into the zero-point energy of an artificial quantum universe, in a similar manner to the ZPMs on Stargate.

 

[Timo]

It may well be that any arbitrary release of energy in the Trek universe, if intense and localized enough, "opens the gates of Hell" and releases further energies from fictional realms. We know that simple photon torpedo explosions were implicated for opening the time rift in "Yesterday's Enterprise". OTOH, we know that other matter-antimatter explosions in Trek tend to release more energy than they should, such as the ounce annihilating in "Obsession" and having an effect more appropriate for several kilograms at the very least.

Q-torps may tap into the fantastic underworld more efficiently and carefully than the generic explosion. But they might not be breaking new ground there.

As for tri-cobalt, "cobalt bomb" was a Cold War buzzword for a particularly dirty sort of A-bomb. But neither of its two Trek uses suggests a connection to a contaminating bomb: it's an anti-ship weapon in TOS, and a subspace weapon in VOY. So the secret probably lies in the "tri" part rather than the "cobalt" part. Perhaps Trek's tri-substances are subspatially unstable, like trilithium, and tri-cobalt indeed is a secondary effect bomb of sorts, but the effect involved is one that releases subspace energies or opens subspace fissures. The kaboom isn't necessarily bigger, but it may be more effective than generic energy release against certain types of target. Possibly specifically against immobile or poorly maneuvering ones, given the canon uses - perhaps the damage mechanism is the creating of a subspace fissure, and a mobile starship can leave that maelstrom before being consumed?

Timo Saloniemi