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USS Voyager firing tri-cobalt device

USS Voyager firing tricobalt devices

A tricobalt device, also known as a tricobalt charge or tricobalt warhead, was a type of tricobalt explosive device utilized as a missile. (DS9: "Blaze of Glory") At extremely high yields, they were capable of producing disruptions or even ruptures in subspace. (VOY: "The Voyager Conspiracy").

While, according to "The Voyager Conspiracy," the high yield tricobalt explosives could cause subspace ruptures to form, they were presumably not considered to be subspace weapons, as such weapons were banned by the second Khitomer Accords according to Star Trek: Insurrection.

Uses[]

In 2152, a cloaked Romulan mine with tricobalt explosives damaged the Enterprise NX-01 as it entered Romulan space. (ENT: "Minefield")

In 2155, in the mirror universe, the Tholians detonated a tricobalt warhead inside the gravity well of a dead star and successfully created an interphasic rift to the parallel prime universe of 2268. (TOS: "The Tholian Web"; ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly")

Tricobalt devices were not standard issue weapons on Starfleet starships, but were sometimes carried in addition to photon torpedoes. A pair of tricobalt devices, with a yield of 20,000 teracochranes, twice the necessary yield, were used by the USS Voyager in order to destroy the Caretaker's array in 2371. The explosion destroyed the station, leaving only particulate dust, vapors, and metallic fragments. The double yield, coupled with the unusual nature of Voyager carrying the weapons, led a malfunctioning Seven of Nine to reason in 2376, that Voyager expected to find the Caretaker's array and destroyed it to establish a Federation military presence in the Delta Quadrant. When questioned, Commander Chakotay admitted that he was unaware of the reason why Voyager was carrying these weapons, despite them not being normal ordnance on Starfleet vessels. (VOY: "Caretaker", "The Voyager Conspiracy")

Tricobalt devices were relatively ineffective when used against shielded targets due to the slow expansion of energy from the explosion. It was primarily used as a demolition weapon, most notably against space stations and ground targets. (VOY: "The Voyager Conspiracy") However, when shields were weak, tricobalt devices could disable the shields. (VOY: "Blink of an Eye")

By 2373, the Maquis had been able to procure tricobalt explosives. In that year, Captain Benjamin Sisko theorized that they could be used in cloaked missiles that were supposedly on their way to Cardassia Prime. (DS9: "Blaze of Glory")

In 2376, inhabitants of Kelemane's planet utilized a tricobalt device to disable Voyager's weakened shields. (VOY: "Blink of an Eye")

The USS Voyager-A was usually equipped with tricobalt devices. However, in its rescue mission to save Chakotay, the starship did not carry these devices. (PRO: "Into the Breach, Part I")

Appendices[]

See also[]

Apocrypha[]

In Star Trek: Armada and Star Trek: Armada II, tricobalt torpedoes are used as primary weapons for in-game artillery ships such as the Federation Steamrunner-class and Romulan Raptor-class.

In Star Trek Online, tricobalt devices are a purchasable weapon for starships. They do the most kinetic damage of any torpedo in the game out-damaging quantum torpedoes several times (if used with the correct skills), but at the cost of a very long recharge and being destructible in flight.

External link[]

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