Who sabotaged the warp drive?

[Gingerbread Demon]

This really bugs me.

That exact time the warp drive goes off line throwing the Enterprise back into normal space.

Who, what or how did they manage to sabotage it at that particular point near Quon'os?

Did Marcus do it remotely?

Also yeah I still think he knew Khan did the bombing and had approved it, also the attack on Starfleet headquarters, though maybe that wasn't the brightest thing do do. But I think he had a hand in both.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Marcus might have had someone sabotage the coolant system after Scotty left the ship but before the Enterprise departed, or there was a Section 31 sleeper agent aboard the Enterprise throughout their mission.

Or it could have just been a case of bad luck and bad timing, since Scotty had just left the ship and Chekov was inexperienced in the engineer role, so it might have just genuinely been a random coolant leak. But I agree that the timing is too suspicious for it to likely be a random accident.

 

[The Wormhole]

I just assumed Marcus had a double agent among the Enterprise crew.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

But who could that agent be. Let's have some guessing

 

[Ovation]

I did it.

 

[DonIago]

Carol Marcus, obviously.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Shatner. He has a thing for sabotaage.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

But who could that agent be. Let's have some guessing

Cupcake

 

[Khaless the Unforgettable]

I imagine it happened before they even left Earth.

If I remember correctly, the Admiral's plan was for them to fire their torpedoes first, then break down in Klingon space. Unfortunately, the engine broke down prematurely (strongly suggesting that the saboteur wasn't onboard, but that it was instead sabotaged to break down after reaching a certain threshold).

Regardless, and if I again remember correctly, both Spock (while taking to Kirk) and the Admiral himself (while talking ship-to-ship) placed the blame of the sabotaged engine on the Admiral. Though in all likelihood it was someone back on Earth who was only temporarily onboard for routine maintenance or some other similar task.

 

[TwoJakes]

The saboteur was the ship's deputy chief engineer, who was pissed off that a ensign from the bridge was made chief engineer over a Lt. Commander with twenty-five years of experience.

 

[Firebird]

It was definitely an inside job:

 

[Locutus of Bored]

It was the ghost of engineer Olsen who got vaporized in ST09.

 

[ancient]

Unless the saboteur was on a suicide mission, they probably just did it while the ship was in drydock.

A bit of a messy plan overall though.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Unless the saboteur was on a suicide mission, they probably just did it while the ship was in drydock.

A bit of a messy plan overall though.

It was needlessly complicated.

I do like the possibility of Cupcake as he doesn't really like Kirk

Carol Marcus not sure, being brainwashed by your own father? That's a bit much IMHO

Kirk. Actually I like this idea that Kirk did it himself although not knowingly. As far fetched as that is I like it.

 

[drt]

I imagine it happened before they even left Earth.

If I remember correctly, the Admiral's plan was for them to fire their torpedoes first, then break down in Klingon space. Unfortunately, the engine broke down prematurely (strongly suggesting that the saboteur wasn't onboard, but that it was instead sabotaged to break down after reaching a certain threshold).

Regardless, and if I again remember correctly, both Spock (while taking to Kirk) and the Admiral himself (while talking ship-to-ship) placed the blame of the sabotaged engine on the Admiral. Though in all likelihood it was someone back on Earth who was only temporarily onboard for routine maintenance or some other similar task.

I don't think it broke down prematurely, Chekov's dialog seemed to imply that the engineering crew recognized an issue and shut it down.

 

[The Wormhole]

Unless the saboteur was on a suicide mission, they probably just did it while the ship was in drydock.

The problem with it being someone on Earth is that it would require precise timing, calculation and coordination to know when to set the engine to go off. Someone on site could just take note of when they reach a certain point and subsequently sabotage the necessary systems. Such a person need not necessarily be suicidal, Marcus could have lied and promised them rescue.

 

[DonIago]

Wouldn't it just require a patch into the navigation sensors to know when the ship was where you wanted it to be?

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Wouldn't it just require a patch into the navigation sensors to know when the ship was where you wanted it to be?

Since the Federation does seem to monitor nearly everything you do they'd probably already know where the ship is. No patch required. And Section 31 would definitely know where they are, after all they're the CIA of the Trek universe.

 

[Khaless the Unforgettable]

I don't think it broke down prematurely, Chekov's dialog seemed to imply that the engineering crew recognized an issue and shut it down.

Well, either way, it was sabotaged well beforehand, probably before they left Earth and most likely not by any member of the crew. Especially since they would have undoubtedly known the plan, meaning they'd also have had to have signed up for a suicide mission if they did stay onboard and sabotaged the ship in-flight.

 

[Timo]

The plan to start war with the Klingons was clearly a longterm one, not something Marcus cooked up in two hours following Khan's attack on the meeting or whatever. But how well in advance did Marcus plan the use of Kirk and the Enterprise?

Sabotaging the engines of the chosen starship could no doubt be done in minutes, right before her departure. OTOH, finding a sucker of Kirk's caliber in all of Starfleet might take some doing. But it would be up to Marcus to assign Kirk to whatever ship he felt was the best for his plan. Yet it also follows that assigning Kirk to the [iEnterprise[/i] would be easy, and the longer Marcus had been planning on using the foolish young man, the more likely that he would associate Kirk with the Enterprise, a ship that was legitimately Kirk's only a few weeks earlier.

Why did the engines fail prematurely? Perhaps because the sabotage was customized for the manner in which Scotty would have operated the engines? Could simply be that the plan had a bona fide hiccup there, of course.

Then again, was the failure premature? They were already in Klingon space. Any later and Kirk might have shot his load and left the scene. And Marcus wanted victims, not culprits - the Klingons hitting Kirk before Kirk had a chance to hit the Klingons would be perfect. But this makes one wonder why the Klingons failed to act... Did Marcus think too highly of their burglar alarms or response times?

Timo Saloniemi