Voyagers path II

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:29 am

So I just ripped this right from Memory Alpha:

At the beginning of its journey, Voyager was approximately 70,000 light years from Earth. As the Milky Way has a diameter of approximately 100,000 light years, one side of a galactic quadrant equals 50,000 light years. The Sol system including Earth, is about 25,000 light years from the galactic center; thus, we can conclude that the Caretaker's Array and Voyager's starting point was on the far edge of our galaxy. At maximum warp, it was estimated that Voyager would take 75 years to get back to Earth. However, there were various factors which substantially shortened Voyager's stay in the Delta Quadrant:
â€¢ 2374 - Kes uses her new and more powerful psionic abilities to push Voyager 9,500 light years closer to Earth, simultaneously pushing them out of Borg space. (VOY: "The Gift")
â€¢ 2374 - Using the new astrometrics lab, Ensign Harry Kim and Seven of Nine plot a new course to the Alpha Quadrant that takes 5 years off of Voyager's journey. (VOY: "Year of Hell")
â€¢ 2374 - Quantum slipstream drive technology is discovered aboard the USS Dauntless, which brings Voyager 300 light years closer to home. (VOY: "Hope and Fear")
â€¢ 2375 - Within a region of space called The Void, Voyager discovers a wormhole which brings them 2,500 light years closer to Earth, also having the bonus of sending them out of the dark region they had been trapped in for the last few months. (VOY: "Night")
â€¢ 2375 - Voyager attempts to use quantum slipstream drive again. The ship travels 10,000 light years before the slipstream collapses due to intervention from an alternate future. (VOY: "Timeless")
â€¢ 2375 - Voyager raids a Borg sphere and manages to steal a transwarp coil. After using it on a rescue mission in the Delta Flyer, the coil allows the ship to travel 20,000 light years closer to home. (VOY: "Dark Frontier")
â€¢ 2376 - Voyager accidentally enters the Vaadwaur species' underspace corridors, which propel the ship 200 light years from its entry point. The direction, however, was not mentioned. (VOY: "Dragon's Teeth")
â€¢ 2376 - Voyager uses a graviton catapult designed by an alien called Tash to travel 600 light years closer to Earth. (VOY: "The Voyager Conspiracy")
â€¢ 2377 - Grateful for her assistance with his son, Q provides Janeway with a map containing a shortcut to the Alpha Quadrant that would shorten Voyager's journey home by "a few years"; whether they used this route before they managed to reach home wasn't revealed. (VOY: "Q2")
â€¢ 2378 - Voyager concludes its trip home by using the Borg transwarp network to return to the Alpha Quadrant, while destroying it with the help of an alternate future-timeline Admiral Kathryn Janeway. (VOY: "Endgame")
Combining these distances, Voyager was able to cover 48,100 light years in addition to that covered by normal means at warp speed. As a result, in only seven years the ship was able to cover at least the first half of its journey before it finally reached Earth in a Borg transwarp conduit. Furthermore, it is safe to say that Voyager must have been very close to the Beta Quadrant, and might have even already crossed its borders during the last months of its journey.

I didn't realize they were that far home when they jumped into the Borg hub. They were pretty much right next to the center of the Galaxy and on/near/past the delta/beta quadrant boarder.

They could have done some cool story lines with that. Getting closer to familiar territoty, running into some weird shit near the galaxy core.

Hell if they had given them another boost of 20,000 light years somewhere in series six they could have had series 7 be about them having to negotiate right of passage through Romulan or Klingon space.

So many missed opportunities.

Duskofdead · Post by **Duskofdead** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:21 am

Personally I always thought the galactic map showing Borg space was inaccurate. Is there any canon I am missing to demand that J-25 was Borg space? The Borg having passed an assimilation-worthy planet and completely asbsorbing/destroying it need not necessarily mean they were in Borg space, or had expanded right up to that point. We only saw one vessel and none of the usual "Borg hardware" floating around or on the planet like we tended to see in actual Borg space. For as widely as the El-Aurians had spread themselves, even by the 1800's, it's plausible that the Borg had simply become aware of them or even assimilated a few of them and learned the location of their planet, and sent some ships to assimilate them.

It's not that I disagree the Borg were capable of that level of expansion on a purely technological/combat/transwarp level. I do however think that if Borg space were such a huge portion of the Milky Way, EVERYONE would know of them, everyone would have seen or encountered them, and most major non-Borg space-capable races would be on the verge of assimilation. The Borg never seem to be in any particular hurry and it seems that if they had already fully assimilated that much of the galaxy it would not be tremendously hard to just finish off the job.

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:29 am

The size of Borg space isnt really n issue here.

I to think Graham made it far to big, I think it should be far more patchy. A blob here and there where the Borg have gone and assimilated a planet and then not spread out. If the Borg had got Earth we woiuld have been another blob.

The Borgs ever near pressence in VOY shows that they are very mobile.

But just because thet are large doenst mean everyone would know. The Galaxy is a big place and information just doesnt travel by its self.

The Federation know far more about the Borg than (probably) than any other of the local powers.

Duskofdead · Post by **Duskofdead** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:39 am

Well in answer to what you brought up... to be honest I think that was avoided on purpose. People don't like that but sometimes it's a case of be careful what you wish for. They wanted a full out exploration, new encounters series set away from the familiar scenes and familiar foes. I can think of several dozen things I would have liked to see, or see more of, or see continued on in greater detail. But I think watching one or two seasons of Voyager travelling through Romulan and Klingon space would have been rather dull... getting tangled in local politics, betrayal, plotted against, captured, etc. We've seen those foes in every other series.

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:35 am

Wow they were well on their way home by then. How'd it take the twenty-some more years that Admiral Janeway said it took? They must have been in another void or something that took up a vast amount of time.

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:34 am

The only reason they got so far in the first place was because of a lot of extra help. If the rest if the journey only had a few small jumps it could well take a long time.

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:14 am

yeah but it almost stands to reason that they'd find help along the road. How much sense does it make for all that help to be located in the first 7 years of the journey?

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:30 am

A lot of those things were one offs that would be hard to duplicate. Raiding the Borg more than once is tempting fate, the slipstream drive is unworkable.

They obviously did make a few jumps but nothing like those massive ones.

Duskofdead · Post by **Duskofdead** » Fri May 02, 2008 9:11 pm

Monroe wrote:Wow they were well on their way home by then. How'd it take the twenty-some more years that Admiral Janeway said it took? They must have been in another void or something that took up a vast amount of time.

Or the ship took some form of permanent damage and was never able to maintain top speed again, or they encountered things similar to past anomalies which forced them to go roundabout on the way home. Several of the big hazardous clouds they encountered would have taken extra YEARS to go around.

Post by **Teaos** » Sat May 03, 2008 1:16 am

The time taken to go home is pretty much constant with a trip with only a few small jumps. Very reasonable.

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Sun May 04, 2008 11:04 pm

Duskofdead wrote:
Monroe wrote:Wow they were well on their way home by then. How'd it take the twenty-some more years that Admiral Janeway said it took? They must have been in another void or something that took up a vast amount of time.
Or the ship took some form of permanent damage and was never able to maintain top speed again, or they encountered things similar to past anomalies which forced them to go roundabout on the way home. Several of the big hazardous clouds they encountered would have taken extra YEARS to go around.

Wouldn't Q's help to cut them some years off their time have worked its way around that?

... unless Q directed them in a direction to run into the Borg transhub to send them home... that would take some years off their voyage.

Post by **Teaos** » Mon May 05, 2008 1:09 am

Sounds like something he would do.

stitch626 · Post by **stitch626** » Tue May 06, 2008 2:46 am

Does anyone remember how long they said the trip would take at maximum warp?
I believe Janeway said it at the end of Caretaker.

Post by **Teaos** » Tue May 06, 2008 2:54 am

The trip was supposed to take about 70 years.

stitch626 · Post by **stitch626** » Tue May 06, 2008 3:01 am

And they were about halfway through?

So the rest of the trip should have taken (without extra boosts) around 35 years.