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Judging by this map: http://ucip.org/sims/science/newmaps/quadrants.jpg if Voyager had made a deal with the Turei or the Vaadwar for passage through the conduits or just hopped straight in then they would only have about 25,000 ly to travel once they had left. At warp 9.9 they could have gotten home in about 1.2 years and giving extra time because they could not sustain warp 9.9 it should only take about 2 years. Why didn't they do this?

Two major problems:

1) Gaining access to the corridor network. The Turei were disinclined to let them use it and the Vaadwaur were nowhere near strong enough to grant them access.

2) Your numbers are seriously out of whack. 25k light years is a trip of a quarter of a century at Voyager's consistent long-term average speed of 1000c. 21kc is her designed speed flat out, which she was a) not designed to sustain for long periods and b) no longer capable of seven years into her trip - Scorpion, for example, puts her top speed at about 3000c.

I worked out the speed from "The 37's". Paris stated that warp 9.9 was about 4 billion miles per second.

alexmann wrote:I worked out the speed from "The 37's". Paris stated that warp 9.9 was about 4 billion miles per second.

I'm aware of where the figure comes from. The problem, as I said, is that that is the Intrepid's design maximum, not what she's capable of sustaining long-term, nor what Voyager was capable of after six or seven years without proper maintenance.

Voyagers designed max was 9.975 not 9.9. Even though they probably couldn't sustain it i did add time for repairs after bursts.

alexmann wrote:Voyagers designed max was 9.975 not 9.9. Even though they probably couldn't sustain it i did add time for repairs after bursts.

Not enough time. We have consistent evidence that Voyager averages 1000 ly/year over long distances (an improvement over the E-D, which was expected to average 700 ly/year). Ergo she will take a quarter of a century to travel 25k ly.

That's at warp 9.6. That speed was the optimal considering the distance that they would have to travel.

alexmann wrote:That's at warp 9.6. That speed was the optimal considering the distance that they would have to travel.

It's nowhere close to 9.6 - that's probably in the region of 9kc. Voyager was probably travelling at about warp 6, plus stops to refuel, restock, carry out maintenance and take detours to goggle at the anomaly of the week.

...and take detours to goggle at the anomaly of the week.

Voyager's biggest fault. IMO.

stitch626 wrote:Voyager's biggest fault. IMO.

*cough*timer*cough*

You have to remember that top speed for anything, cars, planes, ships, starships is a energy/fuel drain than the cruising speed. Crusiing speed is usually the best combination of speed and endurance possible. The 1,000c is probably Voyager's crusing speed. That and usually, going full out usually will damage something.

It is also possible that Voyager can no longer do her top speed anymore and may not be as efficient as when she was shiny new.

Perhaps if Voyager stocked up and did not visit every single fucking thing that they see or mess with the Borg Queen every week they could make it in less than 21 years.

There's going to be a degree of interpretation in what people say, as well. For example in Caretaker, it was said that "Even at maximum speeds, it would take seventy five years to reach the Federation." It's pretty obvious that Janeway meant that something like "the maximum speed we can maintain long term". Really she should have said "At average speeds..."

But writers are loathe to confuse audiences with such details.

True. I always took that as maximum sustainable cruising speed. But you would have to also consider how often they stopped too to explore. So maybe 1,000x a year is not the speed of the ship but the distance. Perhaps the ship is traveling faster than that on average.

McAvoy wrote:True. I always took that as maximum sustainable cruising speed. But you would have to also consider how often they stopped too to explore. So maybe 1,000x a year is not the speed of the ship but the distance. Perhaps the ship is traveling faster than that on average.

Typical speeds between systems would have to be considerably higher than 1000c because of all the stops - the necessary ones as well as all the unnecessary nonsense.

Agreed.

For a crew that wanted to go, they sure took their time.