On Long-Range Fleet Travel: Collective Slipstream Corridors and Their Dangers
Title
Lieutenant, USS Artemis, EX-11000
Abstract
Introduction
On Stardate 242004.15, the Pathfinder Project deployed to the Delta Quadrant. Consisting originally of eight ships, they were deployed there via slipstream – a new technology available to Star Fleet and included in their newest ships, such as the Luna and Vesta classes which comprised the bulk of the flotilla. The lone Scott, Nightingale, and Jupiter class representatives were also equipped with slipstream drives. The flotilla had spent several weeks working together to facilitate these slipstream jumps, and coordination was key to the success of the project. Over the course of the twenty-one day trip, during which the fleet executed twelve separate slipstream maneuvers, the flotilla was able to maintain cohesion and a strong slipstream corridor through the coordination of the group’s engineering teams making their drives work in concert. The last maneuver, executed on stardate 242005.06, nearly ended in disaster. The flotilla encountered a tachyon field which impaired the chronometric sensors used to read changes in the slipstream corridor in time for navigation to react. This quickly overcame the flotilla, and forced the engineers to diverge in their thinking. One ship, the USS Calisto, attempted to clear the tachyons using a modified bussard collector, which instead overloaded their systems and forced them out of the slipstream quickly, taking two other ships with them. The rest of the flotilla was able to disengage the drive, though not without damage to the slipstream drives themselves. Eventually all ships were recovered with minimal casualties. The largest damage was to the sensitive chronometric sensors from the tachyon field, which dissipated before it could be learned what had caused it. Following a detour of helping the Talaxians set up a new homeworld (see logs of USS Artemis and USS Calisto for more information if desired), the flotilla spent quite a while assessing the state of their drives.
Damage and Causative Factors
Crews from each ship, as well as the larger engineering team available from the Scott, were able to conduct thorough inspections of each and every ship within the Pathfinder Project flotilla. While assessing the slipstream drives themselves, we compared our observations of the drive with expected maintenance cycles proscribed by Utopia Planitia. While they were clearly damaged by the tachyon field, this damage was fairly localized and evident. More worrying was that we detected microfractures forming in several locations upon the drives of every ship that remained with us (Calisto having been forced to head back to the Alpha Quadrant due to personnel injuries that could not be treated in situ). They formed a regular pattern, and conformed with expected stress damage, but were forming at a much more rapid pace than predicted. The Scott had been provided with maintenance equipment for the slipstreams that normally was only available at starbase facilities as a “just-in-case” measure, which was able to correct the issue. Primary causes of the premature aging of the drives, for lack of a better term, are speculated to be the stress of having the several ships of the flotilla going through slipstream together, and at a fairly rapid pace – Corps of Engineers recommends using slipstream for only twelve out of every forty-eight hours, which we followed to the letter. It is possible that longer rest periods might have helped alleviate the stress fractures. In addition, while all of the ships of the flotilla were slipstream-capable, the Vesta-class ships were the only ones designed with the drive in mind from the ground up. The Luna, Scott, Nightingale, and Jupiter classes all have drive as an afterthought, and are not as “slipstream-dynamic” as the Vesta is. The varying slipstream geometry of the various ships likely contributed to the heavy wear upon the flotilla’s drives. Another factor to consider is a possible repeat of the events of the flotilla’s last slipstream trip – if something were to happen to one ship in the corridor, it would likely affect all of the other ships as well. Pathfinder was lucky that half of the flotilla’s ships stayed together in the stream after the rest fell out; it is likely that would not happen again. There are many possible factors that might interfere with a slipstream corridor, from tachyons to gravity wells or even chroniton fields, most of which would interfere with the entire group, rather than a single vessel. It should also be noted that, apart from external interference – natural or sentient-made – there is also the possibility of internal problems. Should one ship in a flotilla travelling through a slipstream corridor have technical problems and be forced to make an emergency stop, it could prove catastrophic for all involved. While more “slipstream-dynamic” vessels may be able to take the changes in stride more readily, others are likely to find their drives overstressed by the sudden loss of one ship and be forced to make their own emergency stops. In addition, the formation of the flotilla could put other ships in danger depending on how the emergency stop is handled, potentially causing collisions or worse, collapsing the corridor entirely which would cause major damage to all ships that were in the corridor at the time.
Solutions
First and foremost, the recommendation of the engineers of the Pathfinder Project is to undertake long-distance, repeated slipstream travel only sparingly. We recommend that for regular, long-distance use the rest period between uses of the drive be extended from thirty-six hours to between sixty and seventy-two hours, to allow for extra maintenance time as well as extra time to rest the drive unit itself between uses. In addition, coordinating a large group of ships – in this case, more than three to four – should be done only for short bursts. The difficulties inherent in piloting multiple large craft with the precision required by the slipstream drive are such that overcoming them requires practice and coordination that is difficult to achieve once you extend beyond a mere handful of pilots. It is believed that over short distances – an hour’s worth of travel at slipstream velocities or less – this can be achieved easier, but it will still cause undue stress to the engines. Going forward, we recommend that any groups travelling at slipstream together be of the same class, as well. This will help improve the dynamics of the slipstream as each engine is attempting to shape the corridor the same, rather than each drive fighting for control. We still recommend that the number of ships sharing a corridor be kept to a minimum, however, and would very much recommend that instead, ships travel at a distance of ten thousand kilometers from each other, each in their own slipstream corridor. This would allow them to still be close enough to assist once back in normal space, but is far enough apart that their corridors would not intersect and interfere with each other. We also recommend that an evaluation of the “slipstream-dynamics” of various ship classes be conducted. While these cannot be improved for existing ship hulls, it will prove informative for new classes going forward. Also, it may be required to re-evaluate what ships actually contain the slipstream drive and to remove it from ships where it would simply prove untenable to keep it, or where it would not be used well enough. This is, however, outside the scope of this brief and would be for Star Fleet Command to determine on a strategic level.
