The Star Trek universe has many faster than light methods of travel and I’ve already
done a series of videos that cover many of these from Borg Transwarp to a Null Space
Catapult but today’s video is on some more of the smaller scale, but equally impressive
ways to cross interstellar distance. Hi, Ric here and today were going to look at these
and their potential for Starfleet and Federation application, or why they were never followed
up on. The most famous of these smaller scale cross-system
transport systems are the Iconian Gateways. Built by an advanced empire 200,000 years
old the Iconians were referred to by other ancient species as demons of air and darkness
as they would simply appear out of thin air and could disappear with equal brevity. These
gateways were first confirmed to exist by the USS Yamato NCC-71807. NCC-1305-E? 24383?
Woooo…. Trek consistency… It was also of interest to the Romulan Star
Empire with Commander Taris of the IRW Haakona credited with the discovery of the formerly
lost and now desolate planet, Iconia on behalf of the Empire. The gateways are practically
a complete unknown to both the Federation and Empire in terms of how they operate due
to the limited time they were able to study them. The gateway on Iconia was destroyed
and a subsequent one in the Gamma Quadrant was too, in both cases to deny the advanced
technology to anti-Federation powers. The first hurdle seems to be any automated
defences around such installations such as the probe that attempted to download software
of some kind to any ship in orbit of Iconia. It could have been a virus but a Galaxy class
Starship suffered extensive and escalating malfunctions in 2365 after it was scanned
by the probe. It may also have simply been a computer program that was attempting to
communicate with the incompatible Starfleet system of LCARS and the Romulans both.
So there’s the biggest hurdle, Iconian software, even if unintentional is pretty aggressive
and interferes with Starfleet’s. So studying it if fraught with risks. But the true issue
is its rarity, the gateway network during the height of the Iconian Empire was expansive,
covering a known 70,000 lightyears but it has had at least 200 millennia to decay and
be destroyed by civilizations fearful of the Iconians.
In theory, a gate such up scaled to Starship size would function as an instantaneous network
of travel, but nothing is known as to how they worked. Until more are discovered, only
speculation remains. In 2371, the crew of the USS Voyager NCC-74656
encountered the Sikarians, natives of the Delta Quadrant. (Voyager sure did encounter
a lot of these technologies, it’s like something about their situation meant that they were
actively looking for them). These relatively peaceful people had developed a form of folded-space
transporter that worked in a similar way to a coaxial warp drive combined with a transporter.
It would actively select the destination coordinates and warp space-time to then beam a person
across to the new location without crossing the distance. It had a range of at least 40,000
lightyears. This was a remarkable technology and one the
Federation has been experimenting with, at least theoretically since the mid-23rd century,
with the “Elway Theorem”. The inhabitants of Rutia 4 had developed this technology and
thanks to its very nature of bending space, it could bypass force fields and shield. The
technology was not pursued by the Federation as it caused irreversible cell damage with
every use, however the Sikarian version was far more powerful and produced no ill effects.
The core components of this technology was the Spatial Trajector that the crew of the
USS Voyager acquired through black market trade after being denied officially. Once
implemented on the Starship, the crew discovered that it was simply incompatible with Federation
tech. Alright, so it wouldn’t work for the ship without an entire system built around
it, but surely it’s something to keep an eye on? Well it turns out that the extreme
range of the Sikari Spatial transporter was accomplished by using the unique quartz crystalline
mantle of Sikari itself as an amplifier. So it would only work with such amazing range
and capacity on a similar planet. If ever the federation discovers a planet
of identical structure, a staggering rarity, maybe they could revisit the technology but
for now, there are more promising alternatives with problems that are far easier to solve.
There also exists a form of standard transporter tech that beams matter through subspace as
opposed to regular space, increasing its range to several lightyears which is an impressive
feat for a system that only requires existing Trek technologies as of 2370. This was not
a frequently used device however as it was difficult to maintain the transporter pattern
in this strange realm and had a high risk of failure and was only on a personal level.
There was also the Kalandan Transporter that could relocate entire vessels in an instant
over vast distances almost 1000 lightyears but this technology was a complete unknown.
From the brief description given it seems more akin to a transporter but could also
rely on some form of folding space. The computer system that governed this technology was destroyed
by the crew of the Enterprise in 2268. It should also be pointed out that many forms
of time travel, such as the Guardian of Forever, the Bajoran Orbs, the Red Angel Flight suit
and 26th century Federation timeships, also seem to be able to cross great distances but
have a primary function of time travel so I’d rather save those for a different list.
Same with wormholes, artificial or not. So thanks for watching this video on these
less traditional technologies for crossing the interstellar void. I’ve been Ric and
until the next video, I’ll see you again later, goodbye!