Transwarp

Multiple realities
(covers information from several alternate timelines)

Voth ship traveling at transwarp speeds

Transwarp is a term associated with some technologies that allow the utilization of speeds that exceed traditional warp drive limits. (TNG: "Descent")

History

The Federation developed transwarp beaming by 2387. This transporter technology allowed the instantaneous beaming of living beings between planets and distant star systems, or even onto a starship traveling at high warp. The theory was postulated and perfected by Montgomery Scott. But was only effective at a few dozen light years and only a limited amount of mass could be transported.

The complete transwarp beaming technology was introduced to the alternate reality in 2258 by Ambassador Spock. In 2259, John Harrison implemented this technology to a portable transwarp beaming device. (Star Trek; Star Trek Into Darkness)

The Federation also attempted to develop a transwarp drive in the USS Excelsior in 2285, termed "The Great Experiment". However, the effort was ultimately unsuccessful. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)

The Borg used transwarp signals for communication and the Borg transwarp drive was based on generating transwarp conduit through transwarp space. (VOY: "Unimatrix Zero") This technology was first encountered by the Federation in the 2350s by the crew of the USS Raven. This encounter remained unreported at the time. (VOY: "Dark Frontier")

In 2370, the ship used by the rogue Borg that were under the control of Lore used a conduit during an attack on Federation space. Geordi La Forge of the USS Enterprise-D likened going through a transwarp aperture to "falling into a fast-moving river and getting swept away by the current." (TNG: "Descent")

The Cochrane reaching transwarp speed

In 2372, Tom Paris of the USS Voyager managed to break the transwarp threshold in the shuttlecraft Cochrane after discovering a new form of dilithium. Although this form of travel was found to have severe, unanticipated side effects, Paris was the first person in Starfleet to cross the transwarp threshold. (VOY: "Threshold")

The Voth employed ships that were equipped with transwarp drives. In 2372, the USS Voyager encountered the Voth. (VOY: "Distant Origin")

In 2374, the USS Defiant studied a rare subspace compression anomaly in the hopes of collecting data relevant to the development of transwarp corridors, which are approximately 50 times faster than highest warp of starfleet ships. (DS9: "One Little Ship")

In 2374, Seven of Nine attempted unsuccessfully to modify the systems of the Federation starship USS Voyager to create a transwarp conduit. Instead, it came through flowing tachyons almost to a warp core breach. (VOY: "Day of Honor")

In 2375, USS Voyager used a transwarp coil stolen from a Borg sphere to create a transwarp conduit to traverse 20,000 light years closer to the Alpha Quadrant, thus cutting about fifteen years off of its journey. (VOY: "Dark Frontier")

In 2376, the Pathfinder Project wasted 6 months attempting to develop a transwarp probe, based on simulations made by Reginald Barclay. (VOY: "Pathfinder")

In 2377, Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres participated in a Boray conference on transwarp theory in the Delta Quadrant. (VOY: "Flesh and Blood")

In 2378, the USS Voyager discovered a transwarp hub in an unnamed nebula in the delta quadrant. First, the presence of a wormhole is suspected, as neutrinos and intermittent graviton flux emanated from the transwarp hub, which normally indicates a wormhole. After the ship had penetrated into the nebula, it was attacked by Borg. Then the crew decided to abandon the attempt to use the hub and continue to travel with warp. However, after a future Janeway emerges from a time travel from an alternate timeline, the crew decided to destroy the transwarp hub. Before the hub explodes, however, it was possible for the Voyager to enter a transwarp corridor to Earth and complete the journey home. The ship covered a distance of more than 30,000 light years within a short time. (VOY: "Endgame")

Similar concepts

There are other propulsion concepts that are not explicitly referred as transwarp, but which operate on similar principles or are much faster than conventional warp:

• Artificial wormhole
• Coaxial warp drive
• Displacement wave
• Geodesic fold
• Quantum slipstream drive
• Spore drive
• Subspace corridor
• Subspace vortex
• Tash's catapult
• Underspace

Transwarp speeds

The following is a list of transwarp speed values that have been given a relativistic speed equivalent on screen. Average speeds are typically calculated from given values for travel time and distance. Some figures were depicted in charts and others given as statements in dialogue.

Travel method	Average speed (×c)	Distance traveled	Travel time	Reference
Transwarp conduit	~40,000	Geordi calculates, based on the distance the Enterprise covered while using the conduit, that this type of transwarp was about 20 times faster than the highest warp factor (9.8, equals ~2000 ×c) of the Enterprise.	n/a	TNG: "Descent"
Transwarp corridor	~104,000	The USS Defiant studied a rare subspace compression anomaly in the hopes of collecting data relevant to the development of transwarp corridors, which are approximately 50 times faster than highest warp of starfleet ships (9.9, equals to 2083 ×c)	n/a	DS9: "One Little Ship"
Transwarp coil	1,000,000 – 10,000,000	The USS Voyager traveled 20,000 ly by using a stolen transwarp coil from Borg.	some days	VOY: "Dark Frontier"
Transwarp network Transwarp hub	> 250,000,000	The USS Voyager used a transwarp conduit from a transwarp hub to travel 30,000 ly from Grid 986 in Delta quadrant to Earth.	between some minutes till a few hours	VOY: "Endgame"
Transwarp threshold	infinite	infinite	n/a	VOY: "Threshold"

Appendices

See also

• Hyper-subspace

Background information

In TOS: "The Changeling", set in 2267, the term "multiwarp speeds" was attributed to the velocity of approximately Warp 15. This was obviously before Warp 10 was a reference to infinite velocity. Warp 15 was at that time beyond the limitations of the conventional warp drive of the Enterprise. Multiwarp may be a synonym, or rather an older term, for transwarp.

In TNG: "Where No One Has Gone Before", The Traveler used the energy of his thoughts to move the USS Enterprise-D through space at a speed that appeared to surpass warp 10. According to Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual (p. 55), the ship didn't actually achieve warp 10 or go beyond, but it did travel at the speed of about Warp 9.9999999996. This would be confirmed in VOY: "Threshold", where Tom Paris becomes the first Human to travel at warp 10, eight years after the events of "Where No One Has Gone Before".

According to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual (p. 14), the Cardassian Union predicted a breakthrough in energy-field stability for transwarp computation speeds in computer core technology, during the 2370s.

In the script of the 2009 film Star Trek, "trans-warp" was used to refer to the condition of currently being at warp. [1] The term is replaced, on-screen, with "mid-warp" used instead.

Apocrypha

As a result of the events of the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy, the entire Borg transwarp conduit system had collapsed. Voyager confirmed this in the novel Unworthy.

According to the Star Trek Online video game, the Federation established the first links of its own system of transwarp conduits in 2399.

External link

• Transwarp at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works