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There
are numerous families of FTL references in Star Trek, including a
number of closely related estimates. As seen in the series-specific
pages, each series has its own distinctive treatment of FTL drives.
In general, 23rd-24th century Starfleet ships can be expected to cruise
at speeds around 1,000-10,000c,
and to hurry at speeds of 100,000-1,000,000c. Milage may vary, however.
FTL speed citations may be divided into five major groups.
First, ambiguous references. These
are, for a variety of context-specific reasons, compatible with most
warp scales. These occur in every series.
Second, outliers. A handful of estimates are difficult to fit with any
consistent warp scale.
Third, references to craft achieving FTL speeds while at impulse or
another non-warp drive.
Fourth, the TOS warp paradigm,
which has its firmest foundation in the Enterprise's travels to the edges
of the galaxy and occasional thousand-light year sprints.
Fifth, the VOY warp paradigm, which is based on the idea that the
fastest ship the Federation has to offer would take a lifetime to cross
the galaxy.
The primary basis for comparing these is consistency across the series.
Discarding the first three groups, we find that support is split fairly
narrowly.
In favor of the TOS paradigm, we have all of TOS, ENT, about 80% of
DS9, ~50% of TNG, and VOY. Standing for the VOY paradigm and against
TOS, we have almost all of VOY, 20% of DS9, and 50% of TNG. Although
TOS has broader support, the total number of examples across the entire
franchise is fairly close.
While the Voyager warp paradigm is central to the story arc of Voyager,
it has serious consistency issues even within Voyager, and the
treatment of speeds in TOS is the singularly most consistent of any
Trek series. The contradictions also tend to be more striking; Voyager is not simply outpaced by
the Enterprise in its faster
moments, but also by runabouts and primitive 22nd century vessels.
We may best mitigate the contradiction between the two systems by
assuming that Federation ships have fuel economy issues at higher
speeds.
On the low end, there exist a series of estimates made from TNG, DS9,
and VOY regarding a
return from a 70,000-75,000 light year trip across the galaxy into
uncharted territory; these and a few other references place cruising
speed at ~1000c.
For Federation vessels, we come upon the following set of speeds by
reference:
Series
|
Slow Ship
|
Cruise
|
Supercruise
|
Sprint
|
Maximum |
ENT |
15
|
100
|
1,600
|
15,000
|
76,000-100,000
|
TOS
|
N/A
|
1,200-12,000
|
100,000-300,000
|
776,000
|
100,000,000+
|
TNG
|
39-243
|
643-9000 |
2,700-40,000
|
240,000+
|
99,999,999,999+
|
DS9
|
250-52,600 |
913-130,000
|
N/A
|
215,000 |
37,000,000,000+
|
VOY
|
N/A
|
1,000
|
4,000-9,000
|
21,000
|
∞ |
STV
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
~50,000,000
|
N/A
|
It is difficult to determine what the speed of Federation vessels ought
to be. TNG, for example, is extraordinarily inconsistent within its own
lights. TOS suggests high speeds over distances of 1000-2000 light
years. DS9 doesn't even display any ships of the line, but suggests top
speeds in the neighborhood of 50,000-215,000 for assorted
smaller/slower
vessels.
There is one consistent element: With minor modifications by more
advanced civilizations, truly insane speeds are readily achieved with
an otherwise ordinary warp core and parts on hand.
References to travel to the other side of the Federation in TNG and DS9
are clarified by STVIII, in which the Federation is discerned as 8,000
light years across. Circumnavigation of the Federation in three months
("Valiant") can be suggested as being around a 100,000 sustained
cruising speed by a vessel that has trouble reaching warp five. Cestus
III being two months' off and two weeks by subspace suggests a range of
6,000-48,000c for a normal
cargo ship. The "other end of the Federation" suggests a similar
transit
speed for Riker hitching his way along.
So we have a problem. In TOS, the galaxy is freely and easily
travelled. STV gives us an Enterprise that can hop 50,000-60,000 light
years' round trip before Kirk's vacation time runs out. Voyager, along
with some supporting references in TNG and DS9, suggest it would take
an
entire human lifetime to travel a similar distance. On the flip side,
it's easy to travel around the Federation, and most of the quadrant is
open for business - easy to reach, easy to talk about. Actual speeds
are all over the place.
The TOS paradigm is the one most consistently applied within a single
series. It's compatible with most of TNG and almost all of DS9. DS9 by
itself would give us faster short-haul, cruising, and slow-ship speeds
than TOS, but suggests slower top speeds, long haul speeds, and very
poor speed through unexplored territory (TOS gives us speeds through
unexplored territory that are every bit as fast as speeds through
charted territory.) TNG gives us one thing: Confusion. STV gives us an
insane speed that we can't use. Voyager gives us speeds consistent with
most of TNG, but inconsistent with TOS and most of DS9, and seems
unbelievably close to a ship two centuries and 4.975 warp factors
slower
in ENT.
The fact of
relativistic shielding on modern UFP ships - cited in STVIII - forces "Best of Both Worlds" (TNG) to
be implicitly FTL impulse; it cannot be denied that impulse drives are
capable of FTL speeds, albeit slow FTL speeds.
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