The entire dialogue referring to the daring act is here:
- Previously in the episode (and never mind the rest of the show!), ships had gone to warp within this same solar system.
- Dax worries about going to warp inside "a" star system, not Bajor's system in particular.
- One of the consequences of failure would be that when the Founder makes the star go nova, starships nearby will be consumed, suggesting they couldn't escape to conflagration into warp.
It could indeed be argued that warping towards a star would be a bad idea in general. However, our TOS heroes had done that very thing several times. And whenever they did it, it appeared as if high warp was in fact relatively slow going, either because warp engines perform poorly close to stars (of a certain type?), or because they perform just fine but time onboard the ship starts behaving oddly, quite literally giving our heroes more reaction time to steer. Also, even Picard warped inwards on occasion (say, "Schitzoid Man") without any mention of risk. Plus, warp battles inside star systems were the norm rather than an exception in TOS, to the degree that Kirk agonized about not being able to fight at all when caught in an insystem battle without warp drive in "Elaan of Troyius".
Considering "By Inferno's Light" is a truly isolated incident, we could perhaps argue that Dax was being Dax and joking to alleviate the tension, and there was no specific risk about going to warp (as opposed to there being an immense risk in not going to warp!).
Then again, runabouts have never traveled at warp at the inner parts of the system, on trips between DS9 and Bajor, even when there has been great hurry (such as in "The Circle"). Ships have effortlessly gone to warp at the very doorstep of DS9, but on their way outward. We could easily argue that space inside the Denorios belt is subject to exotic hazards relating to that belt. But that would be ignoring Dax' use of "a solar system" as opposed to "this solar system" above... Perhaps Dax just misspoke?
Timo Saloniemi
Remarkable facts:
- Previously in the episode (and never mind the rest of the show!), ships had gone to warp within this same solar system.
- Dax worries about going to warp inside "a" star system, not Bajor's system in particular.
- One of the consequences of failure would be that when the Founder makes the star go nova, starships nearby will be consumed, suggesting they couldn't escape to conflagration into warp.
It could indeed be argued that warping towards a star would be a bad idea in general. However, our TOS heroes had done that very thing several times. And whenever they did it, it appeared as if high warp was in fact relatively slow going, either because warp engines perform poorly close to stars (of a certain type?), or because they perform just fine but time onboard the ship starts behaving oddly, quite literally giving our heroes more reaction time to steer. Also, even Picard warped inwards on occasion (say, "Schitzoid Man") without any mention of risk. Plus, warp battles inside star systems were the norm rather than an exception in TOS, to the degree that Kirk agonized about not being able to fight at all when caught in an insystem battle without warp drive in "Elaan of Troyius".
Considering "By Inferno's Light" is a truly isolated incident, we could perhaps argue that Dax was being Dax and joking to alleviate the tension, and there was no specific risk about going to warp (as opposed to there being an immense risk in not going to warp!).
Then again, runabouts have never traveled at warp at the inner parts of the system, on trips between DS9 and Bajor, even when there has been great hurry (such as in "The Circle"). Ships have effortlessly gone to warp at the very doorstep of DS9, but on their way outward. We could easily argue that space inside the Denorios belt is subject to exotic hazards relating to that belt. But that would be ignoring Dax' use of "a solar system" as opposed to "this solar system" above... Perhaps Dax just misspoke?
Timo Saloniemi
