5.0 Transwarp

Federation scientists initially researched Starfleet Transwarp technology approximately a century ago, however rather unsuccessfully. The theory was that there existed a second 'warp domain' beyond that of warp 10 - which at the time was the speed thought to occupy every point in the galaxy at the same time. However decades of researching revealed that not only did speeds beyond warp 10 exist, but that they were also achievable.

Transwarp was first put into test in 2285 aboard the USS Excelsior. Equipped with the latest in technology, the Excelsior was not supposed to be tested for some months, however when the USS Enterprise-A under the command of James T. Kirk broke free from confinement, the Excelsior was ordered to pursue and was about to test its experimental Transwarp Drive for the first time, were it not for the deliberate sabotaging of its engines by Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott prior to her launch.

Looking back on the incident, it was only a deliberate act of sabotage by Mr. Scott that prevented a catastrophic nacelle implosion on the first flight, which would have resulted in the Excelsior blowing up. Despite years of further work on the engines, the Excelsior was branded a failure- having never made a successful test flight, and never having broke the transwarp barrier. Starfleet abandoned the Excelsior transwarp project altogether in 2287 and refitted the ship with a standard warp drive.
The 'TNG Warp Scale' which was constructed by Professor Terrance and Doctor Neltorr, had calibrated the scale so that the velocity of an object - under ideal conditions - would be given by raising the warp factor it was traveling at to the power of 10/3, up to warp factor nine. Beyond warp nine the exponent increased gradually, then sharply as warp 10 was neared. At warp 10 itself the exponent became infinite - an object reaching warp 10 would thus achieve infinite speed, passing through every point in the universe simultaneously. However, standard warp drives required infinite power to achieve warp 10 - naturally this seemed an impossible task. Scientists of the day were quite confident in proclaiming Warp 10 as the ultimate impassable barrier.

In 2269, scientists working for the Daystrom Institute took the theoretical models of subspace created by Terrance and Neltorr one step further. It was realized that the mathematics allowed for a second subspace region stretching from the warp 10 barrier up to another, similar barrier at warp 20 - a region which a public relations officer in the Daystrom Institute press office dubbed the "transwarp domain", a name which has stuck despite its inaccuracy.

In 2270 it was realized that even this theoretical transwarp domain was only part of the whole structure. The theory allowed for an infinite number of such domains, each separated by a warp barrier. Throughout the early 2270's there was a huge effort to discover whether these transwarp domains where just theoretical constructs, or where actually real. In 2273 the Starfleet science vessel USS Wanderer conducted a subspace particle dissipation experiment which proved conclusively that not only did transwarp domains actually exist, but that under certain circumstances it was possible for matter to circumvent the warp barrier and pass into the transwarp domain.

Theoretical and practical studies quickly established that at a point infinitesimally past Warp 10, the warp factor exponent fell from infinity to zero and then began to gradually rise again. By Warp 11 the exponent reached 12/3, after which it mirrors the behavior of the normal warp curve. At Warp 19 the exponent begins to climb, again reaching infinity at warp 20 to form the next warp barrier. The whole process is repeated again in the second transwarp domain, and again in the third, and so on. In each domain the 'steady' central value of the exponent increases exponentially - from 10/3 in the warp domain to 12/3 in the first transwarp domain, 16/3 in the third, then 24/3, 40/3, and so on.

The power required to hold a given warp factor is generally given in Megajoules per Cochrane per second. Within the warp domain the power requirements follow a sawtoothed curve, rising towards infinity at warp 10. Once into the first transwarp domain the basic shape of this curve repeats itself, although it is shifted upwards relative to the first by the higher energy requirements involved in transwarp drive. In general, transwarp factors require much higher engine power to maintain than the equivalent warp factor - for example holding Warp 13 requires 50,000 times as much power as holding Warp 3 does. But in terms of the power required to hold a specific speed, transwarp is far more efficient. The power needed to hold Warp 13 with a transwarp drive could maintain Warp 9.82 with standard warp drive, but while Warp 9.82 equates to 2,530 times lightspeed, Warp 13 is 28,561 times lightspeed - an increase in speed of almost 1,130%.

For the following decades, a workable, practical transwarp drive remained beyond the reach of Confederation science and although some efforts to develop this technology were still being made, no progress was achieved until later in 2392. Professor Klenmier, taking over from the work of Terrance and Neltorr successfully refined a Transwarp Drive that used dilithium. However after testing the drive for another 2 years, further research into the transwarp drive found that by using the Dilithium chamber that powered 'conventional' warp cores created such a drain, that the useful life of the Dilithium was a year at most. Although still a 'experimental' technology, this was found to be vastly inefficient to operate, and so a new source of power had to be found for the transwarp drive.

In 2396, such a fuel source was found accidentally during a trial of the conventional warp propulsion systems in use by current Federation Starships. Cryogenic Deuterium was the proposed new source for current warp engines, replacing the Dilithium which had been in use even before the first Galaxy Class was constructed. However tests revealed that engine performance in conventional warp cores only increased slightly, but nowhere near enough to warrant overhauling the fleet. Professor Klenmier noticed though that were no spikes in the power outage that was associated with the typical warp core element of Dilithium each time a ship increased to a higher warp factor. Putting his theory to the test, the Professor replaced the Dilithium Transwarp core with the new Deuterium in its Cryogenic state and began several warp speed models. The signs were encouraging, upon entering the transwarp domains, there appeared no sign of any spiking in the power outage of the Deuterium, and what's more, the Deuterium was actually able to sustain increases in the Transwarp Domain. The discovery of Cryogenic Deuterium marked a huge step warp in warp propulsion technology - while it didn't increase speeds of the conventional warp cores - which was what the research was for - the spin off was that it sustained current top speeds for extended periods, as it did with the Transwarp Speeds. The puzzle to Transwarp had finally been solved, or at least it was thought so.

Not being able to believe the good fortune of his discovery, the Professor ran a multitude of tests on the Transwarp power systems only to discover that over the course of the testing, it was revealed that there was a 8% chance of a energy spike in the deuterium exceeding that of containable levels - thus resulting in the destruction of the drive. Further tests brought up zero, the Cryogenic deuterium wasn't stable enough on its own and the United Confederation Labs would never approve the technology for use on Starships until the figure of 8% was decreased. New catalysts and elements were mixed with the deuterium but only created worse results, until it was discovered that by mixing the deuterium with anti-deuterium (in cryogenic state) added stability to the fueling system of the Transwarp Drive and allowed for much safer travel, with the margin of error reduced to 0.0891%.

There are two sets of scales... one for Transwarp factors involving 3 sets of 1-9 in separate domains, and the other set involving a unified 1-30; it matters not which are used, speeds are very similar. Transwarp scale standards mimic those already in use.
(
Where W is Warp Factor, V is velocity, and -LN is Negative Log Natural - or just Log Natural multiplied by -1)
---------------------
Domain 0

Warp scale for factors 1-9:
W^(10/3) + (10-W)^(-10/3)=V

Warp scale for factors 9.xxx:
W^((((-LN(10-W))^1.791275)*.03684678)+(10/3))=V
---------------------
Domain 1

Warp scale for Transwarp factors 1-9:
(W+10)^(12/3)+(10-W)^(-10/3)=V

Warp scale for Transwarp factors 9.xxx:
(W+10)^((((-LN(10-W))^1.791275)*.03684678)+(12/3))=V
---------------------
Domain 2

Warp scale for Transwarp factors in the second domain, 1-9:
(W+20)^(16/3)+(10-W)^(-10/3)=V

Warp scale for Transwarp factors in the second domain, 9.xxx:
(W+20)^((((-LN(10-W))^1.791275)*.03684678)+(16/3))=V --------------------- Domain 3

Warp scale for Transwarp factors in the third domain, 1-9:
(W+30)^(24/3)+(10-W)^(-10/3)=V

Warp scale for Transwarp factors in the third domain, 9.xxx:
(W+30)^((((-LN(10-W))^1.791275)*.03684678)+(24/3))=V
---------------------
Base scale for all Transwarp Domains:
(Where W is Transwarp factor, D is domain, and S is steady exponent value)

1-9:

(W+10xD)^(S)+(10-W)^(-10/3)=V

9.xxx:

(W+10xD)^((((-LN(10-W))^1.791275)*.03684678)+(S))=V

----------------------------
Transwarp Theoretical Scales:

Based on scales utilizing Warp factors 1-40
Transwarp Domain 1-4, Factors at and below Warp 19,29,39,49:
TW^(12/3) + (20-TW)^(-11/3)=V
TW^(16/3) + (30-TW)^(-11/3)=V
TW^(24/3) + (40-TW)^(-11/3)=V
TW^(40/3) + (50-TW)^(-11/3)=V

Transwarp Domain 1-4, Factors above Warp 19,29,39,49:
TW^((((-LN((20-TW)))^1.791275)*0.03684678))+(12/3))=V
TW^((((-LN((30-TW)))^1.791275)*0.03684678))+(16/3))=V
TW^((((-LN((40-TW)))^1.791275)*0.03684678))+(24/3))=V
TW^((((-LN((50-TW)))^1.791275)*0.03684678))+(40/3))=V


______________________
[First Transwarp Domain]
[Value][ Cochranes ]
[ 1 ][ 14641.0007]
[ 2 ][ 20736.0010]
[ 3 ][ 28561.0015]
[ 4 ][ 38416.0025]
[ 5 ][ 50625.0047]
[ 6 ][ 65536.0098]
[ 7 ][ 83521.0257]
[ 8 ][ 104976.0092]
[ 9 ][ 130322.0000]
[ 9.1 ][ 133343.4204]
[ 9.2 ][ 136906.7850]
[ 9.3 ][ 141156.9017]
[ 9.4 ][ 146370.1941]
[ 9.5 ][ 153035.3539]
[ 9.6 ][ 162083.1496]
[ 9.7 ][ 175540.1355]
[ 9.8 ][ 198937.8619]
[ 9.9 ][ 256219.6545]
[ 9.99][ 875576.8202]
[9.999][ 5397245.9877]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

As you can see, the values increase sharply as they approach Transwarp 9 and 9.9, as well its corresponding .9x value. This is because, like normal warp, you're approaching the power limitations of obtaining Warp 10 (Infinite velocity requires infinite energy). The curve slowly rises towards the top, but again falls back down as you enter another domain. The next domain has corresponding values of mega-cochranes (millions of times light speed).

Currently UCIP is in the second domain, somewhere between Transwarp 7 and 8. At Transwarp 9 it would take you about 3/4 of a year to go from point to point across the galaxy, 100,000 light-years, assuming average EM flux and subspace density values. In the second domain, travel is much, much quicker, taking some 13 hours to traverse the galaxy at Transwarp 9 speeds. In the third domain, travel is nearly instantaneous - taking nearly half a second to cross the galaxy's arm-span of a 100,000 light-years!

Though it might still be some great amount of time before UCIP develops its propulsion to the point where it will be able to travel well into the second or even break the third domain, but our current speeds and technology capabilities are well into realization of the second. The Gamma and Delta quadrant are only about half a year's travel at Transwarp 9 currently, and may become a realization in the future as we break into the 9.9xxx speeds or the second domain.

A note of caution, however. Transwarp speeds at and above Transwarp eight are extremely dangerous to normal ships. Hull stress, IDF and SIF field strength, and our current field geometry are not capable of sustaining the great speeds beyond Transwarp 8 for very long. If these speeds were attained, the ship could be torn apart in mere seconds. It should also be noted that Transwarp speeds are non-Newtonian, as warp is too. Without a constant influx of energy a ship would loose speed and fall into the previous domain very violently.

If the speed is too high, and too much energy is lost at one time, the ship will fall out of the Transwarp domains very violently tearing the ship apart. A very precise field geometry, dependent upon the size and shape of a ship, and warp coil configuration must be utilized precisely or else too much radiation will be given off at one time and the subspace fields will become too violent to safely traverse subspace. The faster one goes, the stronger the ship's subspace field has to be to protect subspace from being torn open into large fissures.

As with other forms of warp travel, in areas of space where the subspace density and EM fluctuations are much greater, even faster speeds can be attained with less power. In areas of space where very dense subspace exists, such as areas of space where tears in subspace exist and realspace is closer to subspace, Transwarp speeds are nearly instantaneous at even the smallest Transwarp velocities.