Settlement

[Teaos]

Okay we've said before that given the almost impossible task infront of them that it might have just been easier for the crew to throw it in find a M class planet and throw up camp.

So assuming that the crew and Janeway decided to do this, they found a M class planet like earth, hot bits, cold bits and nice bits.

Now for that sake of the mission we assume the Kazon and other local nasties leave them alone,infact they dont have any trade or contact with anyone.

What level of developemtn do you think they would be able to produce, Voyager was heavily damaged (assuming they odnt have the magic repair botton they used for 7 years.

They wouldnt have been out fited with much more than 6 months to 1 years worth of supplies and only a limited number of crew, quite a few of who hated each other.

So do you think they would be able to produce a nice comfortable settlement or just bare survival.

[Coalition]

For Voyager, they'd be in survival mode before too long. They need power supplies to maintain their tech base, replicator raw stock to feed the replicators (let lone the stuff that cannot be replicated), and genetic diversity to avoid inbreeding.

Power supplies on a planet are going to solar, geothermal, and similar. All of which require raw materials and effort to manufacture. Food will become important after 1 year, meaning they need to set up farming within a few months of landing. Their repair materials will run out, and until they get a refinery set up going, they have no way of manufacturing new items.

Using a replicator will not be as effective. DS9 showed that it was cheaper to purchase components from another star system, than to go up to Federation personnel on DS9 and requisition it from the replicators. True Q showed (improperly secured) containers in a cargo bay for Enterprise, so even the flagship needed literal space parts and supplies.

Voyager's biogel packs began running out soon, so their computing capacity will be degraded badly. Once it gets low enough, the doctor can't run, and they have no advanced medical capability.

For the genetic inbreeding, look up the 50/500 rule. Voyager had (IIRC) about 150 crew, meaning they would be able to aovid short-term inbreeding, but not long-term inbreeding.


Now what would have been a nice set of images would have been Voyager trading astronomical data to a planet (with several billion people on it), and getting massive amountf of raw materials in return. Food for 150 people for one year is only ~126 tons, easily affordable to a technic society. The billions of people allow for specializations in a variety of fields, allowing for a variety of resupply options. If nothing else, the planet would provide raw materials and hydrogen to Voyager so Voyager can use its internal engineering sections to make the end products needed, burning hydrogen for power.

[Reliant121]

They key will be as much location as it is natural resources. They need to be as close to kind, reasonably benevolent society as is possible just to maintain some level of protection AND to keep options for external trade open. I think they are going to need to build trade relations via shuttlecraft/delta flyer so they can find a way of supporting their manufacturing base/power systems. Voyager in her landed state would have to serve as an initial colony base but over time it might have to be broken up to help construct materials. The replication facilities are critical however. If they can set up geothermal or solar power generation they are safe (ish). Ultimately, if they can farm or refine materials that a given colony needs, they can support themselves.

[Teaos]

From what we see scanning an whole planet is only a matter of minutes for federation ships so I am assuming they will place themselves near resources and good climate.

I think it is massivly dependent on the first 6 months while the replicators and power last, If they can set up small hold farms, herds of local animals and either build massive stock piles of native raw materials or set up effective quarries.

To me the biggest hurdle they have in engineers. The vast majority of the crew are used to living a pampered life, they only have a half dozen engineers, one of them being a hormonal hlaf Klingon who most of the crew hate.

If they manage to train people up and set up a basic infrastructure I think they could survive, if not... I would be suprised if any lasted more than 10 years.

[Mikey]

If they're willing to cannibalize the ship, I think the lack of diverse gene pool is the limiting factor. The dead-end would be the late 2nd generation, while physical resources would hold out at least that long in a thriving - if not luxurious - manner.

[Teaos]

While the majority of the crew is Human there are some aliens which further limit the gene pool.

[Captain Seafort]

While the majority of the crew is Human there are some aliens which further limit the gene pool.

Not particularly, given the Trek propensity for crossbreeding. Even Humans and Ocampa can breed successfully and produce fertile offspring.

[Teaos]

True, that would lead to some messed up 10th generation people. Although I'm not sure if its canon or not but often other species need medical aid to breed.

[Captain Seafort]

Although I'm not sure if its canon or not but often other species need medical aid to breed.

Depends on the species. Humans and Vulcans need help, if Enterprise is anything to go by, and Klingons and Trills certain do. Humans and Klingons, on the other hand, apparently need no such help. I'm not sure about Human/Ocampa.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

How much longer can a warp core and/or fusion plants run without having to power warp fields or move the ship around? Would the fuel last longer?

[Teaos]

Probably, although I would imagin there is a minimum level you need to run it at to keep it gong and maintain confinment feilds for the AM.

[Mikey]

With (what I suspect is) the state of superconductor technology in the late 24th century, I doubt those confinement fields would require much power at all... if they used power at all and weren't the SOTA of permanent magnets.

Happy belated Waitangi Day, BTW.

[Tyyr]

I don't think power's an issue. In the early going the warp core is going to be functional but you won't need anything approaching max output. The real issue is the huge quantity of anti-matter you're hauling that is worse than useless, actually dangerous, once the warp core fritzes out. What I'd do is have the replicators, especially the industrial ones, running full out making anything and everything we could possibly need in order to use up all the anti-matter you possibly could. When the warpcore fries I'd see what I could do about using the shuttle's warp cores to do the same either with their onboard replicators or hooking them into Voyager's grid. When I no longer had a functioning warp core or at least not one I'm willing to run into the ground (probably save the Delta Flyer) I'd jettison the remaining anti-matter and either use it Operation Plowshare style to do a little mountain moving/harbor building on my world of choice.

Step two is a bit different. You still have a large number of fusion reactors onboard the ship and a large supply of dueterium to fuel them. Now there are two real options I can see. The first relies on a question, "Can Voyager support itself in a gravity field without the structural integrity field?" If the answer is yes then I land the ship. There's no good reason not to. The thing is a ready built shelter that can withstand the rigors of interstellar travel. No reason to expend energy building a shelter/settlement when you've got one already. Take a look at the size of that thing and remember that only 150 people live in it. Everyone already has a room and plenty of spaces on the ship will have no function once you land and can be used as additional living space. At the very least it'll get you through your first generation or two before you have to start expanding out from the ship.

If the ship would crumple like wet newspaper without the SIF then I cannibalize it. Once it lands I strip it of the reactors and build a power station not to far away. A single reactor would more than power basic survival gear and you'd have a half dozen or more spares you can have waiting around to replace the first one when its shot.

Long term I'd have replicated a bunch of solar cells and have them ready to go for when the fusion reactors crap out. You won't have the amount of power but with enough of them you can more than light your shelters, heat them, and cool your food. Hopefully.

Overall power isn't a real issue. So long as they choose an appropriate world food won't be either especially if the dedicate ten or fifteen people to a serious expansion of the airponics set up and twenty or thirty to start looking into traditional farming. So you've got power, food, shelter (either the ship or something built from it's cannibalized skeleton), and water (unless you're letting Neelix pick the site). You're more than set for basic survival long term. In the short term you've got the ship's computer to help you start learning the basic skills and trades you'll need once your replicated stocks start to take a dive or the power plant gives out, etc.

So I don't see any real restriction on them surviving. At that point it becomes an issue of propagation and with only 150 people in the gene-pool there's no real chance of long term survival without an injection of fresh DNA. In fact at second glance I'm not certain they could avoid the short term issues with inbreeding either. Think about it, we're assuming 75 breeding couples but what if the gender balance is skewed? What if you've got some people like Tuvok who are married and might refuse to take another partner? What if some of your crew is too old? Janeway can't be far from menopause if she's not already there. What if some of the crew either wants no kids, wants no more kids, or got themselves sterilized? You could lose half your potential breeding couples to other factors which would put you in danger of short term breeding problems. Hell, we've got one pair of confirmed sisters on board which is a reduction in genetic diversity. While a bit on the anti-PD side it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to land near native populations you could start to try and integrate into their burgeoning society increasing the breeding population.

So yeah, the breedings the real issue here. This is a bit out of my normal post-apocalypitc style of prediction becasue in this case the crew has two things most groups in post-apocalyptic scenarios don't have, number over a hundred as opposed to one or two doze, and time thanks to the ship and the storehouse it can be. You've got the time and the numbers in order to retrain people into new specialites like blacksmith and farmer.

[Teaos]

Wow intersting thoughts. I think the biggest problem in your senario apart from the genetic divercsity is the training up in different fields. There is only so much you can learn from reading, so unless they did carpentry 101 in the holodeck I think they would have trouble getting skilled up.

As for the diversity of genes, inbreeding is only an issue because it brings our recessive genes due to a higher frequency, but we dont know if in Trek future if they have done gene therapy to remove most of the nasty genes elemenating this danger. So all you really need is for people to hump enough to just make anough people.

[Tyyr]

Yeah, there's certainly only so much you can learn from reading but you'll have a wealth of information that will put you on the right path. For instance you won't have to learn crop rotation all over again. Again, this set up works out much better than the usual post apocalyptic one because thanks to the ship they'll have time to screw up, learn, and try again before they are in a position to either farm or die. Also, you've got Kes along who knows about airponics who could move you in that direction if you have issues doing it in the dirt.

Trek has shown a pretty serious aversion to genetic tampering, a stupid one frankly. What they've done about recessive genes we don't know and I'm tempted to err on the side of caution in those assumptions. Given the low number of reproducing pairs they'd have to be dealing with some really clean jeans to make it last.