(10-04-2022, 08:08 AM)FaceInTheCrowd Wrote: Earth in the TOS universe was more advanced than we are in the real world. They were launching interplanetary sleeper ships in the 1990s, Zephram Cochrane launched his warp ship and made first contact with the Vulcans in the 2060s, and we are nowhere near to achieving FTL within the next 40 years. The Vulcans won't start helping Earth build warp 5 ships until the 22nd century, so the Valiant could have made warp 3 or 4 at best. It's 26,000 light-years from Earth to the edge of the galaxy, so depending on which of the several inconsistent speeds Trek has quoted over the years for warp factors it would have taken the Valiant anywhere from 120 to 900 years to reach the outer edge, unless that magnetic storm swept it into a wormhole. We know very little about wormholes in either the real or Star Trek universes, but we do know that even in Star Trek's 24th century they don't know how to create them on demand. So I would say there's no way the Valiant deliberately set out to be anywhere near where it ended up (and no way they were ever going to make it home again, either). So Kirk's opening log entry, made before they received the signal from the Valiant's recorder, makes sense; they had no expectation that any Earth ship had ever been where they were going.
This is interesting, and it also tells me that the Enterprise could not have reached the force field as quickly as it did. I found a chart in the Memory Alpha wiki that gives some detail on warp speed. When the Enterprise heads out of the galaxy, Kirk tells Mitchell to set the Enterprise at warp level one. I'm going to have to approximate here because I didn't see anything that indicated how far ahead this force field was. Also, math was never my strong suit, so my figures will undoubtedly be off.
The only clue I had was when Spock indicated that the Valiant was swept past the point where the Enterprise was stopped. The Valiant continued for about a half light year out of the galaxy at which point they were thrown clear, turned, and headed back into the galaxy, "here". (Wherever "here" is, the force field had already caused problems because they were looking, frantically, according to Spock, for information on esp). So I'm using the half light year as the point where the Valiant encountered the force field.
Warp 1 is the speed of light. Assuming the field is half a light year away, would it take 2 years for the Enterprise to make it to the field at warp 1? Yet the Enterprise almost crashes into it instantaneously.
But then there's the return trip. Warp speed is gone, so they must travel at impulse. What I found is that impulse speed is one quarter light speed. So if it takes a few light days to reach Delta-Vega, once in the galaxy, how long would it take the Enterprise to first get to the galaxy, then to Delta-Vega? Not a couple of days, that's for sure. I'm thinking years. Even Kirk confirms a similar thought in his log.
The Valiant would be in worse shape than Enterprise, so how long would it have taken them to get back to the galaxy? I can't even harbor a guess. Yet they do make it back because the trouble starts around that time.
Question: does it sound to you like the Valiant may have somehow missed the force field going out, but flew into it coming back? Their warp engines were undoubtedly impacted by the force field, so it would have taken them years to get back on impulse power.
I know different ships have different warp speeds. Maybe they do for impulse as well. Star Trek never seemed to take the warp speed crutch very seriously.
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