Throughout Star Trek, warp drive has not been the only method of attaining faster than light
travel and in several instances, technologies have been developed that do not require the
use of a Warp Core, Singularity Reactor or Subspace Generator to propel the vessel, at
all. In this video, we’re looking at the Trek technologies that have existed that can
catapult a ship into FTL speeds that do not require power from the vessels end.
A “soliton wave” is simply a wave that retains its form and energy as it travels
and is a real term applied to this phenomena. In the universe of Star Trek, this term was
applied to Doctor Ja’Dar’s alternative to the warp drive. In effect the energy ribbon
would undulate across space at faster than light speeds and carry with it any object
within 2 kilometres of the wave. A series of 23 field coils would generate the wave.
As field coils are routinely used to transmit subspace emissions it’s possible the wave
is a controlled form of subspace ripple. This wave would be fired off from its starting
location and upon reaching its destination, a countering scattering field would be emitted
from the opposing station, dissipating the wave and dropping whatever was riding it out
of warp. The wave proved to be 450% more efficient than the warp drive of the USS Enterprise
and reached an initial speed of warp 2.35. However it produced subspace distortion at
one point which destroyed the test ship proving that although promising, the wave, once underway
was difficult to maintain stability. The distortion also accelerated the wave which began to accumulate
energy from subspace and proved a danger to its destination.
The advantages of the Soliton Wave seem to be in its efficiency when compared to a warp
core and the notion that anything could be transported in this fashion. Vessels and Cargo
could all be transported with little effort or even entire vessels theoretically could
generate their own wave and ride it. This technology was not revisited within the show
but there are practical applications should it become functional.
The Caretaker array was a station created by the Nacene. It was capable of using its
powerful tetryon reactor to generate a displacement wave that could scoop up a vessel and transport
it across the galaxy. The nature of this technology was never studied by Starfleet as Captain
Janeway disposed of the array in order to prevent the local Kazon from abusing its power.
This wasn’t the end of Tetryon-based FTL travel though. In 2376, the USS Voyager then
encountered a catapult constructed by Tash. A graviton surge was supplied through a series
of emitters that then locked onto a nearby vessel. It would then catapult the vessel
into Null Space, a realm of space recently discovered by the Federation in 2368 but apparently
well known by Tash’s species. This dimension had strange and damaging effects on a vessel’s
energy grid, sometimes draining, other times overloading it and was created in temporary
pockets. Travelling through this Null Space seemed subject to different laws of reality
and a ship could cover 5,000 lightyears in several hours.
The similarity in technologies as observed by a paranoid Seven of Nine led to the conclusion
that it was in fact based of the very same Caretaker array. This proved merely coincidental,
but points that perhaps Null-Space travel was what the caretaker array also utilised.
This system was developed in both situations by beings outside of Federation jurisdiction.
The Array was destroyed and the catapult was a one way trip, although the data gathered
could someday be used to replicate the device. The biggest hurdle seems to be the relatively
new discovery of Null-Space and the Tetryon Reactor, which is advanced, even for Federation
standards. In the 16th century, while Earth was sailing
the seas to map out the globe, the Bajorans were already making sail ships to try to explore
their solar system. Ancient tales tell of a time when the Bajorans even reached Cardassia,
a feat that would have required FTL travel and something that the Cardassians denounced
as even remotely possible. As this feat wasn’t recreated for hundreds of years, the truth
of this claim was frequently contested. The Bajoran lightship would surf on the solar
winds and be propelled throughput the system using is large solar sails. With no engines
to provide motivation, such vessels continued to see use until the 22nd century, possibly
as recreational ships as this method of travel was a very quiet and relaxing one. In 2371,
Captain Benjamin Sisko replicated a lightship and during a cruise to the Denorios Belt the
vessel was suddenly propelled into warp speeds. Its trajectory carried it into the Cardassian’s
space and inadvertently proved that such a feat was indeed possible.
The method behind the jump was eventually pinned down to tachyon currents which flowed
faster than light by themselves. The solar sails and relative little mass of the lightship
meant that the vessel caught these currents and was pulled into warp. There must be more
to it that this however, as if it were a simple acceleration into lightspeed, then Sisko and
Jake would be pancaked from the force with no on-board inertial dampeners. Also a warp
bubble must have somehow been generated to prevent the vessel from succumbing to relativistic
effects. Anyway, it was a beautiful ship and a good
story so, let’s gloss over all that and point out that the speeds attained were nothing
special by warp standards, so it makes for more of a curiosity of FTL travel than any
true breakthrough in propulsion meaning it’s unlikely to revolutionise warp travel like
the hopes of others on this list. Are there any other instances of FTL travel
that didn’t use any ship-side power sources? I couldn’t think of any but, I wouldn’t
be surprised if I missed some, The Vadwaar “Underspace” Corridors might count as
we see debris within the corridor that obviously doesn’t have power, but it’s also not
going anywhere and I’d argue that a ship needs to traverse the corridor under its own
power so it doesn’t quite fit the description. Thanks for watching this video and until the
next one, I’ve been Ric thanks again and goodbye!