JPH>         In my RPG scenarios, the Federation is smaller because I stick
JPH>   to the 1 or 3 light years per day speed of the starships.  That mean
JPH>   a useful distance at about 100 lightyears and a potential globe abou
JPH>   600 light years across.
MM>Hum.  According to the TNG:TM, isn't the maximum flat our flank speed of
MM>Starfleet ships around 2000 times th speed of light?  That would equate
MM>to traveling three light years in around 13 hours.  Many ships couldn't
MM>travel quite so fast, so your speed rule of thumb doesn't seem so far
MM>off.
As per the ST Encyclopedia, The Enterprise-D's maximum speed is warp
9.6, which equals 1909c.  She can keep that up for 12 hours.
The next question is "then what?"  How long does the Enterprise have to
shut down for? To what degree? Does she have to perform any repairs?
Does this damage the engines?
Warp 6 supposedly equals 392c or just more than 1 light year per day.  I
liked that.  It made travel time round, even though it makes some things
hard to explain (How come the Eneterprise-D runs into problems every
seven light years?).
The Voyager (Darn them) supposedly was able to maintain a warp 9.975
cruising speed.  This annoys me.
My ST: Encyclopedia is old and I can't figure out how they computed the
warp speed scale. (Mind you, i *like* it for story telling purposes).
Warp 9.9 supposedly equals 3,053c.
According to my calculations (Admittedly rough) 3,285c roughly equals 9
light years per day.
That's a nine fold increase in speed.  That is also hard to deal with.
Assuming an interstellar society based on 1 ly per day starships
introducing 3 ly per day starships equals a massive change in the
society.  But to go from 1 per day to 9 per day throws everything
perfectly ga-ga.
At least IMHO.
MM>> As to speed, we know that some Starfleet people assimilated in the
MM>> Battle of Wolf 359 have been in the Delta Quadrant for some time now.
MM>> That means speeds far in excess of what Starfleet can manage.
JPH>         AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH.  Sometimes I hate what Voyager does to th
JPH>   continuity.
MM>They don't think they should have to conform to previous continuity.
MM>Maybe the series finale will show Janeway exiting a shower, getting
MM>ready to leave for the Badlands to look for that Maquis ship.  And her
MM>dog waking up from a dream.  :-)
ROFL!
Dog:  "No more beautiful bean footage for me."  
Jay P. Hailey
Chief Editor
THE UNIVERSE: TREK
 * OLX 2.1 TD * COFFEE AND DONUTS: Unitarian communion.
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