Hang on a mo (Post DS9 Tech)

[Captain Leana Craig]

To answer C5 query, The anti-matter/transporter problem is mentioned in the TNG TM.

Its bacically states that anti-matter CAN be transported using special containers and some serious mods to the transporter.

The blurb for this is on page 68 para3.

[Weyoun11]

Despite the loss of the Dominion vessel Sisko obtained from Torga IV ("The Ship") consequently crashing and sinking in "Rocks and Shoals" there were far more oppurtunities to study Dominion vessels further due to the war. The loss of the Chin'toka system for all we know or other Federation/alliance victories may have produced opportunites to gather wreckage or even capture ships (although at least as far as the Dominion crews of the fighters/attack ships we know would sooner ram their ship in suicidal kamikazie like tatics). Also what about all those Dominion/Breen vessels at Cardie Prime ("What You Leave Behind Part I")? At the end of hostilities were they all just permitted to leave Cardie space or would the defeated powers be forced to surrender or decommission/dismantle a number of vessels to reduce their ability to further wage war?

[tonyg]

The anitmatter/transporter problem exists so that some clerver starfleet officer can't do something like transport a cup antimatter onto to bridge of an enemy ship, san's magnetic bottle; or a cup of Earl Grey into the Warp Core.

As for Dominion Tech,. Who knows? Even if Federation Engineers can figure it out (and by the way figureing out how to use something isn't the same thing as figuring out how and why it works. Try it with a car), there may be reasons why is isn't practical for the Federation. Perhaps there are side effects. I doublt the founders would care if Long Range transport could cause Long term cellular damage to Jem"hadar. Most don't live that long anyway.

[Pete]

The Federation not taking advantage of this mega long range transporter technology could be explained by lots of things. One possibility is that there's a significant risk to the transportee of not materializing in exactly the right spot, or that the signal may get slightly scrambled, producing some serious transporter bloopers.

Like TonyG said, the Founders would do that to the Jem Hadar in a second. But I doubt a Starfleet captain would be enthused about having such a system installed on his ship, especially if the possibility of an accident were greater than ten percent.

I don't think I would ever use 3 lightyear transporters in any of my games, though... unless under very special circumstances.

[Owen E Oulton]

The plans for all these things are locked away beside a crate with burned-off Nazi markings, somewhere in a warehouse in Washington.

Seriuosly, though, It would probably be several years at minimum before full testing was completed on any of these bits of tech. Some of them may not reproducible - for instance, that 3-light-year transporter might be failsafed so that it self destructs when anyone tries to disassemble it. Sure, they know it can be done, but with a lump of molten slag, it's anyone's guess how it was done. That BoP of Chang's that could fire when cloaked? The engineer who designed the system was on board when Kirk and Sulu blew it away. Slipstream drive? Well, we're still trying to solve the problem of it blowing out the rest of the drive systems on the ship when it's used (or whatecer...)

This is the problem of introducing the Deus ex machina of the week - you have to dispose of it or live with the consequences of having it permanently available.

[tonyg]

And TREK traditon, dating back to TOS is to to use and discard it.

And it is easy enough to rationalize this.

For example, maybe (in fact almost certianly) the relaiblity of transporters drop off with range (all radio and other elctromagnetic enegy drops off in strength based on the square of the distance). So what works nearly 100% at 40,000km, might be down to 15-25% (or less) relaiability at 3 light years.

Acceptaible for the Dominion who treat Jem'Hadar like Doritos (no problem, we'll make more), but not too appealing to the Federation. I certainly wouldn't volunteer.

Now, more signal would boost the chance of success, to a point, but it might not be practical, or possibly only practical between places that prodce lots of power like DS9 (which is exaclty what Dukat did with Kira).

[CmdrBluejeans]

IMC, the single non-SF PC, a Cardassian criminal working as an advisor to the captain on underworld matters rather than serve time at a penal colony, has a small transport ship (like a Captain's Yacht, or a Ferengi Pod) which was, during the War, modified with 'Dominion Tech'. It's been established in our game that this transporter works out to *about* a 1LY range reliably and with only the usual risks of transport, but that it has less interference-penetration power than shorter range transporters. And when in this long-range mode, Starfleet pattern enhancers won't work, as the harmonics of the ACB are funky enough that there would be a substantial risk of field backlash. The Starfleet PCs don't officially 'know' about these modifications, of course. Or they'd want to take it apart for the same reason.

In short, I'll add my two quatloos on the side of balancing the range with safety, penetration, long-term side-effect considerations.


BJ

[pathstrider]

Hmm. All very good reasons for why it wouldn't work. Thanks guys.

For myself, I'm about to start a game set in 2379, and I'm probabley going to throw in most of the stuff that has been seen.

Quantum Slipstream Drive, 3 LY transporters, Hull Armour, etc....

It should be... interesting (But a lot of work )


Mark

[PYD]

TNG Tech Manual states you have to have special containers for transport of anti matter. I can't see how the container can make the slightest bit of difference when it's been reduced to its constituent molecules though.

TNG season 2. "Peak Performance". Wesley Crusher transports a small amount of anti-matter from the Enterprise D to the USS Hathaway.

[Owen E Oulton]

Well, I suspect that it's more than just a special box... It's likely a highly sophisticated computerised containment device which interacts with the transporter 's control computer to synchronise the transport sequence, making certain that the A/M dematerialises, then the container, and vice versa for the rematerialisation.

[Imagus]

That's pretty much my take.

I had to come up with it, because in an old FASA game (where shields up was an act of war), the players' habit was to beam a photon torpedo on to the bridge of encountered vessels. They'd arm it so that it would go off if shields went up, or it stopped receiving a specific signal from their own ship.

All well out of genre of course, but that was the players in question...

[Dan Gurden]

You see... Thats funny...

As a player and a Narrator, and a Trek fan, I would consider that Beaming a torpedo onto an enemy ship cause for raising the shields... After all the first offensive reaction had already been taken.

As a Narrator alone I would have done 1 of several things.


1 - Busted them down to just below the authority of the chicken soup vending machine technician.

2 - Had the ship warp away with this new technology, to create a new superpower elsewhere with an understanding and protection against the Federation.

3 - When the torpedo was beaming aboard, and they were unsure if it was a weapon or boarding party, they would have blown the players ship out from under them while the players ship had its shields down for transport.

4 - Had an Admiral/rest of the fleet find out about it, and move the game on several years to the end of their long boring, no skill advancemnet tedium punishent of charting a Nebula... While the ship dealt with their well deserved reputation...

Or, and the more I think about it the more this seems likely.

5 - After the first few times have the transporter activiyt detected, and (As I am sure such a group would have attempted themselves) Raise shields while transport occured... Thus blocking the signal and thwarting the plan.

Again the players took the first hostile action and should have that bite them in the arse latre, but also the plan fails and could even cause a feedback that could blow the partially re-formed torpedo wherever it may be.

Pray they wern't beaming direct from the storage area... I bet they wouldn't try that more than once... Even if they did stop a massive catastrophy.

After all, whats good for the goose, is good for the gander!

[Imagus]

Agreed - 100%!

Although my first reaction would be to point out that it is well out of genre.

Luckily it wasn't my game - these are what you might call precautions... Sometimes you get those kind of players, and it's wise to be prepared

[GARY ENSMINGER]

You can transport anti-matter but you half to do it in a specific order from what I can remember. I believe first you dematerialize the anti-matter then dematerialize the containment vessel then rematerialize the containment vessel and last rematerialize the anti-matter so their is no chance of it being exposed to matter

[Cmdr. Maddox]

As far as I remember there was an episode in tng where Captain Picard was transportet over a long distance!!!! :borg: