Transwarp
Transwarp technology is a means of travelling faster than the speed of light (FTL) via a network of transwarp gates. Faster than traditional warp, transwarp provides near-instantaneous travel between two points.
Because of the large energy requirements, transwarp has not yet been developed for shipboard use. Traditional warp remains the main means of interstellar transportation for the galaxy.
Transwarp dynamics
Transwarp is accomplished through the use of a folded-space method, passing a starship through a hole between two points. This field essentially creates a temporary, artificial wormhole. Transport through the field is one-way, as a ship must first pass through the transwarp fields event horizon and not the terminus.
A transwarp field must be generated externally from the starship, due to the energy requirements to create and ensure event horizon stability. Starships must harmonize their warp fields to the gate, and pass through the event horizon at exactly warp 1.
Transwarp fields can theoretically send a starship anywhere in the galaxy, though specific spatial coordinates are required at transwarp field creation.
Though ship-mounted systems have been tested, all systems to date have failed due to the energy requirements to generate a stable transwarp field.
Transwarp gates
These square gates are 1,000 meters across with curved corners. These gates require at least four matter/anti-matter cores to generate enough power to create the transwarp event horizon. Attached to one side are small operational bases staffed with minimum 20 Star Fleet personnel.
Due to the size of the gate’s event horizon area, and the nature of the precise synchronization, gates are generally only used to transit one vessel at a time. In rare cases, two vessels very close together and precisely synchronized may pass through the gate together, but this practice is very high-risk.
Due to the delicate harmonics of the gates, they must be located at minimum one light year from any star.
Star Fleet currently operates six gates, with more being built.
- TW-1 is located one light year from Sol.
- TW-2 is located 50 million kilometers from Star Base Bravo.
- TW-3 is located 50 million kilometers from Star Base Delta.
- TW-4 is located one light year from Bajor and Star Base Charlie.
- TW-5 is located in the Gamma quadrant, near the Delta quadrant border (approximately 65,000 light years from Sol).
- TW-6 is located 1 light year from Andoria.
- TW-7 is located 1 light year from Pioneer Outpost
Gate Operation
Transwarp Gates have two modes of operation:
- Transwarp Tunnel: Two transwarp gates are connected, and the ship travels between them at many hundreds of thousands of times the speed of light. Regardless of distance to be travelled, the transition from departure to destination takes only 10 seconds. Because of the quantum properties of transwarp, biological life experiences a 'frozen time' while transiting. This means that the ship and non-bio items experience those ten seconds, but people and organic matter do not. This is the most efficient form of transwarp travel.
- Transwarp Slingshot: The gate is aligned to a set of co-ordinates that are at least one light-year from a star, which is the transiting ship's destination. The ship travels at forty thousand times the speed of light to its destination, and arrives having spent minutes at most in transit, under the same frozen time principle as a two-gate jump.
