Voyager's route home. Traversing Klingon space instead of Romulan.

[James Carter]

Say there's no end game time travel gobbly gook and VoyagerJr decides that crossing Klingon space was wiser then crossing Romulan space. 1)How much longer does it take?
2) what's their route? Do they meet the Hirogen , Borg , Krenim?
3) How do the Klingons greet Voyager.
4) Does the Federation mount an expidition to try to meet Voyager in Klingon space?
I would love any and all thoughts .....

 

[James Carter]

So Voyager does have to treverse the Beta Quadrant basically.

 

[darrenjl]

The two deep space vessels were to meet up with them so I imagine would have shadowed them until they were back in Federation space.

I imagine their route through the Beta Quadrant would have been dictated by Starfleet and they would have alerted the Klingon and Romulans through diplomatic channels, even then they could have chosen a route that doesn't enter their respective territories.

 

[Michael]

VoyagerJr

“Voyager Jr.”? So did the ship hook up with another starship and had a little baby starship?

 

[James Carter]

The two deep space vessels were to meet up with them so I imagine would have shadowed them until they were back in Federation space.

I imagine their route through the Beta Quadrant would have been dictated by Starfleet and they would have alerted the Klingon and Romulans through diplomatic channels, even then they could have chosen a route that doesn't enter their respective territories.

Would Voyager return before or after the Hobus Supernova? Also, from some maps I'm seeing there is Federation territory on the eastern border of Romulan space. Not sure how that would end up happening.

 

[Timo]

The assumption on those maps was that the RNZ was a three-dimensional eggshell that locked all the Romulan stars in but allowed the rest of the galaxy to develop in peace and quiet, just as stated in "Balance of Terror". There would then be Federation all around that eggshell: west and east, top and bottom, core- and rimward. Only, the Klingons would also splash against the eggshell from one direction, meaning there would be only red touching on the green there, not blue...

The Federation is claimed to be 8,000 ly across in ST:FC. That's bigger than the blue core shown in most maps, and the assumption is that there are outlying islets of Federation territory far away from the core - an astrographical construct unthinkable for the paranoid evil empires, which huddle inside tight spheroids and only extend a few tentative pseudopods but are wary of getting cut off. Voyager could run into any of these outer UFP holdings long before it really reaches safe home space...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[James Carter]

I think the premise has been missed. How would a route to take them through Klingon rather then Romulan space change the journey. In this scenario Janeway is not comfortable taking Voyager all the way through Romulan space and would rather treverse allied space (Klingon)

 

[Timo]

Janeway has a half-Klingon aboard, and might have a better idea of how to handle that culture's quirks than she has with the Romulans. Plus, she has already dealt with Klingons recently. In contrast, the one Romulan she managed to phone, back in "Eye of the Needle", did not seem to be a good representative of his culture as a whole - and nobody knows how to deal with Romulans anyway. Klingons only betray you when it's the honorable thing to do; Romulans do it just because.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[darrenjl]

The decision to go through Klingon space vs Romulan wouldn't be made until they were way into the Beta Quadrant. At the start of their journey they just simply pointed in the direction of the Alpha Quadrant; from that point it was a wide direction of routes they could take all dependent on various factors; dodging ion storms, moving out of the way of celestial bodies... The USS Equinox may have gone in a direction towards the Alpha Quadrant slightly different to the USS Voyager and in doing so met with completely different species along their route as their paths diverged further and further along their respective routes.

All along their journey they were plotting their route home; when the Astometrics Lab was opened they found a new more efficient route, I expect by the time they got to the Beta Quadrant they would plot a more specific route back to the safety of Federation space (with help from Starfleet) and then once in Federation space an even more specific route back to Earth (if the ship would even head back to Earth, it might have been the crew disembark at a Starfleet starbase and take another ship back to their families on different planets?).

 

[Michael]

I think the premise has been missed. How would a route to take them through Klingon rather then Romulan space change the journey. In this scenario Janeway is not comfortable taking Voyager all the way through Romulan space and would rather treverse allied space (Klingon)

To take this serious for a second, none of what you are writing has anything to do with what we saw on the show. At no point whatsoever do they discuss whether to traverse Romulan or Klingon space. And why would they? Even at the end of the show they are probably like 50–60 years away from ever reaching the Beta or Alpha Quadrant to begin with.

 

[James Carter]

Wasn't meant to be canon. It's similar to heading to the Bajoran Wormhole instead of the Alpha Quadrant.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Aren't Klingons allies in Voyager's time and Romulans hostile?

 

[at Quark's]

So Voyager does have to treverse the Beta Quadrant basically.

In-universe, that was always the expectation I think (regardless of whether they would then go through Klingon or Romulan territory). Out of universe, of course we knew they'd probably end up home at the end of the 7 years somehow (which would probably mean to skip vast tracts of all quadrants en route).