To: 
From: "Steve Oostrom" 
Reply-To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com

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>Here I disagree.  Most ships have some kind of armament.  Space is dark,=20
deep, and very vast.  It is possible to drop a ship from warp.  So no=20
one is immune.

My question is how would one ship force another out of warp.  The following=
 pretains to
Steve-Trek, and so other interpretations might differ.  These are the rules=
 as I use them.

Exactly how would one ship force another out of warp?  What kind of weapons=
 would
be used?  What kind of weapons would a typical pirate have that might
accom= plish this?
In Steve-Trek, phasers are speed-of-light weapons and so are useless at
war= p, as are
all other directed-energy weapons (like disruptors, polaron-beam weapons
an= d so on).
Photon torpedoes would require some kind of warpfield to be used at warp. 
= In Steve-
Trek, one of the rules is that nothing with mass can cross the warpfield in= terface
without being enclosed within a warpfield of its own that matches in
charac= teristics
with the overall warpfield.  What this means is that if a ship fires a
phot= on torpedo
at warp and the torpedo has its own warpfield, then when the torpedo leaves=
 the ship,
it cannot travel significantly faster or slower than the ship itself.

If the torpedo has its own warpfield, then there are two ways to generate i= t, a=20
"sustainer" field generated by the ship's warp drive which would
then match=
 the warpfield
of the ship and pass through.  However, unless replenished, the warpfield w= ould
erode, and as a consequence, the torpedo would slow down.  Torpedoes with
sustainer fields could not be fired forward, but only backwards.  With
sust= ainer fields,
any course correction would come at the expense of the warpfield, slowing t= hem down
further.  They would not be very manoeuvrable, and any pursuing ship could = easily
avoid them.

The second way would be a fully functional "warp torpedo," that
is, basical= ly a shuttle-
craft warp drive system with a photon torpedo warhead attached to it.  This=
 would be a
more manoeuvrable weapon since it could accelerate and be controlled, eithe= r from
the ship or an on-board guidance system.  One disadvantage of such a weapon=
 is that
it could only be launched at relatively the same speed as the launching
shi= p, and only
accelerated and directed at the target once it leaves the ship's warpfield.=
  Because no
ship that is going to be a target is going to be anywhere close to the
atta= cking ship,
the target ship will have a lot of time to see the torpedo coming.  To be
t= ruely useful,
the warp torpedo would have to be cloaked and fired from a distance.  Even
= then, as the
torpedo approaches, its deflectors would still give it away.  If a target
s= hip sees a
warp torpedo approaching, and if it is sufficiently fast, then it can
simpl= y outrun the
torpedo.  Ships like the Destiny-class starliners go as fast as a ship
coul= d possibly go,
and the torpedo is not going to outrun it.  Warp torpedoes of this type are=
 rather
expensive weapons and not likely to be in the arsenal of any pirate group. =
 Besides,
if you hit a ship with one, you will likely destroy it, which is hardly the=
 objective of the
pirate.  They won't work to force a ship out of warp so that it can be boar= ded.

There is also the question of simply hitting a ship at warp.  I did some
ca= lculations
(can't actually find them right now, though) that suggests that if a ship
i= s going around
500 c, and executes a random course change of upto one degree in any direct= ion
and a random velocity change of one percent, certainly abilities within the=
 range of
any decent Star Trek-era ship, one second later that ship would be anywhere=
 in a volume
of space that measures several billion cubic kilometres.  In other words,
a= t the incredible
speed of warp travel and with the demonstrated manoeuvrability of the ships=
, it would
be hard to not only hit a ship travelling at warp, but even to track it
whe= n it engages in
effective evasive manoeuvres.

For these reason, pirates generally do not attempt to attack starships at
w= arp.  They have
to use other techniques, such as shadowing a ship and waiting for it to
dro= p out of warp
at its destination, or to have agents on board working with the pirates to
= force the ship
out of warp in open space.  Because most destinations are secure, pirates b= asically
aren't going to risk themselves attacking big passenger liners moving betwe= en major
worlds.  Their targets are more likely going to be remote mining operations=
, small colonies
or weaker or corrupt planets, or they will attempt to lure the gullible or
= the curious into a
trap.

Steve
The Universe Unbounded.

Visit "Star Trek: Athena" at http://ussathena.iwarp.com




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>Here I disagree.  Most ships have some kind of
armament. 
Space is dark, deep, and very vast.  It is possible to
drop a ship from
warp.  So no one is immune.
 
My question is how would one ship
force another
out
of warp.  The following pretains to
Steve-Trek, and so other
interpretations might
differ.  These are the rules as I use them.
 
Exactly how would one ship force
another out of
warp?  What kind of weapons would
be used?  What kind of
weapons would a
typical pirate have that might accomplish this?
In Steve-Trek, phasers are
speed-of-light weapons
and so are useless at warp, as are
all other directed-energy weapons (like
disruptors,
polaron-beam weapons and so on).
Photon torpedoes would require some kind of
warpfield to be used at warp.  In Steve-
Trek, one of the rules is that
nothing with mass
can cross the warpfield interface
without being enclosed within a
warpfield of its
own that matches in characteristics
with the overall
warpfield.  What this means
is that if a ship fires a photon torpedo
at warp and the torpedo has its
own warpfield,
then
when the torpedo leaves the ship,
it cannot travel significantly
faster or slower
than the ship itself.
 
If the torpedo has its own
warpfield, then there
are two ways to generate it, a 
"sustainer" field
generated by the ship's warp
drive which would then match the warpfield
of the ship and pass
through.  However,
unless
replenished, the warpfield would
erode, and as a consequence, the
torpedo would
slow
down.  Torpedoes with
sustainer fields could not be
fired forward, but
only backwards.  With sustainer fields,
any course correction would come
at the expense of
the warpfield, slowing them down
further.  They would not be very
manoeuvrable,
and any pursuing ship could easily
avoid them.
 
The second way would be a fully
functional "warp
torpedo," that is, basically a shuttle-
craft warp drive system with a
photon torpedo
warhead attached to it.  This would be a
more manoeuvrable weapon since it
could accelerate
and be controlled, either from
the ship or an on-board guidance
system.  One
disadvantage of such a weapon is that
it could only be launched at
relatively the same
speed as the launching ship, and only
accelerated and directed at the
target once it
leaves the ship's warpfield.  Because no
ship that is going to be a target
is going to be
anywhere close to the attacking ship,
the target ship will have a lot of
time to see the
torpedo coming.  To be truely useful,
the warp torpedo would have to be
cloaked and
fired
from a distance.  Even then, as the
torpedo approaches, its deflectors
would still
give
it away.  If a target ship sees a
warp torpedo approaching, and if it is
sufficiently
fast, then it can simply outrun the
torpedo.  Ships like the
Destiny-class
starliners go as fast as a ship could possibly go,
and the torpedo is not going to
outrun it. 
Warp torpedoes of this type are rather
expensive weapons and not likely
to be in the
arsenal of any pirate group.  Besides,
if you hit a ship with one, you will likely
destroy
it, which is hardly the objective of the
pirate.  They won't work
to force a ship
out of warp so that it can be boarded.
 
There is also the question of
simply hitting a
ship
at warp.  I did some calculations
(can't actually find them right
now, though) that
suggests that if a ship is going around
500 c, and executes a random
course change of upto
one degree in any direction
and a random velocity change of one percent,
certainly abilities within the range of
any decent Star Trek-era ship, one
second later
that ship would be anywhere in a volume
of space that measures several billion cubic
kilometres.  In other words, at the incredible
speed of warp travel and with the
demonstrated
manoeuvrability of the ships, it would
be hard to not only hit a ship
travelling at warp,
but even to track it when it engages in
effective evasive
manoeuvres.
 
For these reason, pirates
generally do not attempt
to attack starships at warp.  They have
to use other techniques, such as
shadowing a ship
and waiting for it to drop out of warp
at its destination, or to have
agents on board
working with the pirates to force the ship
out of warp in open
space.  Because most
destinations are secure, pirates basically
aren't going to risk themselves
attacking big
passenger liners moving between major
worlds.  Their targets
are more likely going
to be remote mining operations, small colonies
or weaker or
corrupt
planets, or they will attempt to lure the gullible or the curious into
a
trap.
 
Steve
The Universe
Unbounded.
 
Visit "Star Trek: Athena" at http://ussathena.iwarp.com;">http://ussathena.iwarp.comhttp://ussathena.iwarp.com">http://ussathena.iwarp.com;
 







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