What have ships done without warp cores?

[Mikey]

At least they'll be working at all. I'd rather have that than to make sure the sun lamps are on in the arboretum and the thermostat set at 72 in the middle of a fight for my life.

[Tsukiyumi]

I'll add that the E-E's warp core was "taken out with the first shot" in Nemesis, but they continued fighting for several minutes before running out of phaser power.

[Captain Seafort]

Not only that, but the E-nil was operating without main power for most of ST2, and phasers remained operational throughout. The only limitation seemed to be that operating on batteries the phasers were limted to "a few shots", which would have been ineffective against the Reliant's shields. The shots themselvs, however, appeared as damaging as usual, even after main power was once again disabled during the Mutara battle.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

I'll add that the E-E's warp core was "taken out with the first shot" in Nemesis, but they continued fighting for several minutes before running out of phaser power.

I thought it was the actual warp drive that was disabled. But if the core was offline that would explain why the phasers seemed to run out of energy so fast.

[Tsukiyumi]

I thought it was the actual warp drive that was disabled. But if the core was offline that would explain why the phasers seemed to run out of energy so fast.

I recall Geordi saying "warp core", plus we catch a shot of the new core shielding failing and the little colored bands stopping. I think they were running on reserve power for the whole battle (which makes the E-E's performance pretty impressive, IMO).

[Captain Seafort]

Overall, I'd say that the E-nil's loss of phasers in TMP wasn't caused by loosing main power, but by the malfunctioning engines buggering up the power feed. Availability of power doesn't seem to have anything to do with it.

Furthermore, we've seen several examples of effective phaser fire without a M/AM power source, in DS9. The station is powered by fusion reactors, not M/AM, but it is capable of holding off fleets of dozens or hundreds of ships.

Finally, there are multiple statements, or implications, that starship power output is in the low TW range. This is well within the capability of nuclear fusion, suggesting that M/AM sources are not used because of their output, but because of their energy density, easing the burden on the fleet train.

[Mikey]

A fusion reactor would have to be huge compared to the equivalent M/AM reactor, as well. The more limited scope of impulse engine reactors is probably what limits the number of available shots with the phasers when the WC is offline. But yes, the common sense answer, suported by numerous canon incidents, is that weapons don't go offline just because the WC does.

[Teaos]

How long could you store warp energy for? Maybe there is a reserve of power put due to its unstable nature you only have a few hours to use it before it disperces.

[Duskofdead]

I thought it was the actual warp drive that was disabled. But if the core was offline that would explain why the phasers seemed to run out of energy so fast.

I recall Geordi saying "warp core", plus we catch a shot of the new core shielding failing and the little colored bands stopping. I think they were running on reserve power for the whole battle (which makes the E-E's performance pretty impressive, IMO).

If we're being fair, shouldn't we be putting the Sovereign over the cheese grater for how easy it was to disable its warp core? I smell a serious design flaw!

[Duskofdead]

A fusion reactor would have to be huge compared to the equivalent M/AM reactor, as well. The more limited scope of impulse engine reactors is probably what limits the number of available shots with the phasers when the WC is offline. But yes, the common sense answer, suported by numerous canon incidents, is that weapons don't go offline just because the WC does.

But this is feasible in the case of DS9. Several Galaxy-sized starships could comfortably dock at the same time at DS9, the thing is rather large when you think about it. It could fit a fusion power generation system equal to the entire size of a medium sized starship.

[sunnyside]

We never see a ship really using it's full weapons systems without a core do we? Just a few phaser blasts right?

@Teaos The mention capacitors regularly. But also they've been shown to move warp plasma around in big magnetic bottles. So it can be kept reasonably well.

[Teaos]

I believe it is canon that DS9 has many fusion reactors not one big one. This may be due to wanting multiple ones incase of failure or because they have a upper limit to size.

[Duskofdead]

I believe it is canon that DS9 has many fusion reactors not one big one. This may be due to wanting multiple ones incase of failure or because they have a upper limit to size.

I think this is true also because I think extra power generation was added later. It was flat out stated pretty much in the season 3/4 cliffhanger "The Jem'Hadar" that DS9 had a flat, limited available power supply and that O'Brien doubted any serious defense could be mounted given the power supply. With all the weapons added later and how long DS9's shields held out in several largescale attacks, it stands to reason they must have added more power generators.

[Teaos]

Or they could have just replaced the crappy Cardassian ones with Federation ones.

[Duskofdead]

Or they could have just replaced the crappy Cardassian ones with Federation ones.

WHAT?! Cardassian crafted goods are top of the line!