Star Trek Encyclopedia
R-Z
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
| RCS: | Acronym for Reaction Control System, also referred to as maneuvering thrusters. The RCS is a low-power propulsion system for low-velocity attitude and translational control. Depending on the starship type, the system consists of a number of thrusters mostly located at the edge of the saucer hull. Although the Star Trek RCS is based on a fusion reaction, its principle has not changed since the early days of space travel in the 1960's, and similar thrusters were attached e.g. to the hull of the Apollo spaceship. |
| Raktajino: | Klingon coffee |
| Ration: | a prepackaged meal, typically stored in case of emergencies. |
| Reflex-quintronics: | Computer technology incorporating duotronic drivers, isolinear optical chips, bio-neural gel packs and advances in Cytherian computer technology. This artificial intelligence-technology responds to external stimulae on an instinctive level. One of the consequences of RQs is auto repair of damaged systems. However the computer is equipped with artificial intelligence, the computer cannot make his own decisions; he's still restricted to his programs. Defiant-class starships are equipped with reflex-quintronic computers. |
| Regenerative shielding: | Shielding technology first employed for the prototype USS Prometheus, NX-59650, and later included on the Sovereign Class. |
| Relativistic speed: | Speed at which relativistic effects such as mass increase and time dilation become evident. While the warp drive is inherently free of such effects, they have to be considered if the ship is powered by the impulse drive only. According to Einstein's Special Relativity Theory, a movement at a speed v leads to a mass increase by the factor (sqrt(1-v^2/c^2))^-1. For small v values, this increase is negligible, however, for 0.25c it yields 6.7% and increases strongly for higher speeds. Finally, at v=c mass would become infinite if c could be achieved without warp drive. Actually, this effect prevents a starship from being accelerated to high speeds with conventional propulsion, because such a ship would virtually consist of nothing but fuel. Star Trek solves this problem with a subspace field that lowers the effective mass. Time dilation is another relativistic effect that occurs if two objects have relative speeds to each other. For instance, a starship moving at a speed v from the perspective of an observer is assumed. The observer will perceive time in the starship slowed down as if time were stretched by the factor (sqrt(1-v^2/c^2))^-1. Fundamentally, vice versa the starship passengers will see the observer's time dilated, as long as both stay in their respective frames of reference. However, as the traveler accelerates and decelerates their starship and reverses its course, their frame of reference is changed. This explains the often discussed twin paradox. The traveling twin does actually age slower than the one who stays on Earth. |
| Relay station: | station used to boost the signal strength of communications messages traveling through subspace. |
| Replicator: | Device which is capable of creating matter from raw matter. The working principle of this device is related to the transporter. The replicator disassembles and assembles matter in a similar way, the main difference is that its resolution is limited to the molecular level. Compared to the transporter, the requirements for a replicator are rather simple, and it is not plausible why it has been invented about a century after the transporter. The replicator works on a molecular base, which is sufficient to create food or articles for daily use. It is necessary to store suited raw matter, i.e. matter with the molecular composition required. Usually waste is employed for this purpose. Up to 87% of waste on a starship can be recycled to consumables. |
| Retinal scan | Method of confirming a person's identity by scanning the pattern of the eye's retina. |
| Ringball: | Full-contact Bajoran sport similar to handball. |
| Ring singularity: | Quantum singularity, which doesn't exists as a 0 dimensional point, but as a ring. The ring structure is 1 dimensional, in other words: it has only a length, no thickness and width. A wormhole has ring singularities. |
| Romulan ale: | blue alcoholic beverage with a very high alcohol content. |
| Romulan Senate: | Romulan legislative body. |
| Rotating phaser frequency: | Method of changing the phaser frequency employed by the Federation, so as to prevent adaptation of Borg shielding. |
| Rotating shield frequency: | Method of changing the deflector shield frequency at random to avoid penetration by enemy weapons. |
| Runabout: | Vessel of small size, slightly larger then a shuttlecraft, mainly used for mid-range personnel transport. Danube Class Runabouts are equipped with warp and impulse drive, shields, phasers and optional photon torpedoes, while Repulse and Black hawks have improved shielding and weapons. They are used for many purposes where a shuttlecraft is too slow and uncomfortable, while a starship is either not available or is supposed to perform more important tasks. |
| S | |
| Safety protocol: | Subroutine that prevents a holographic projection system from creating harmful objects, substances or situations which may cause a user's injury or even death. |
| Saucer Section: | The saucer of a starship. It has the bridge in it. |
| Saucer separation: | Disconnection of engineering hull and main hull (saucer) of a Galaxy-class starship. Saucer separation is employed in emergency situations, e.g. in order not to endanger civilians in a battle or in case a warp core breach is inevitable. A number of other starship classes can perform saucer separation as well, however, in most cases reconnection is not possible. |
| Saurian brandy: | Potent liqueur originating from within the United Federation of Planets. |
| Scalpel: | There are three varieties to choose from, traditional cutting blades with a monomolecular edge, laser scalpels that cauterize as they cut, and nanotech scalpels that separate tissues along cellular lines without damage. Each has different uses. Laser scalpels help the surgeon because of bloodlessness, but can dazzle anyone unwary enough to look into the beam, even though the scalpel can only cut within its focal length. Monomolecular blades require no power supply and quickly slice through most matter with minimal effort. Finally, Nanotech scalpels cause minimal disruption of tissue but operate slowly. There is current research in an experimental scalpel that utilizes Transporter technology. |
| Secondary Hull: | Other name for the Star Drive section on a starship. |
| Self-sealing stem bolt: | Mysterious device that even O'Brien does not know what it is useful for. |
| Self-replicating mine: | Explosive device, equipped with a matter/antimatter warhead and a replicator system. Deployed in a shell, the self-replicating mines are able to fill in gaps by replicating new mines. |
| Sensor: | Collective name for a variety of devices for gathering data about electromagnetic radiation and particles and for chemical, biological and medical analysis. External sensors are attached to the outer hull of a starship. Among them are navigational sensors which determine the ship's position and velocity and scientific sensors for astronomical observation, planetary surface analysis and remote lifeform analysis. Internal sensors are used to control life support and detect hazardous environmental conditions as well as to track potential intruders. Finally, sensors are also included in tricorders and other hand-held devices which can perform similar tasks, however, their range is limited. |
| Shield frequency: | Value that represents the energy of a deflector shield. Expressed in Hertz (Hz). An object can penetrate the shield when it has the same frequency as the shielding. |
| Shield nutation: | Technique that is used to make it more difficult to penetrate shielding. The mechanism after shield nutation is a randomly changing shield frequency. |
| Shuttlebay: | Facility on a starship where shuttlecrafts can land, be stored and maintained. The space door is usually closed, and is replaced by a forcefield when a shuttle is about to land or to be launched. This forcefield can be penetrated by the shuttlecraft itself, while it prevents decompression of the shuttlebay. Each shuttlebay is equipped with a tractor beam generator in order to facilitate the landing procedure |
| Shuttlecraft: | Small space vessel for short-range transport with a typical capacity ranging from 2 to 10 persons. Shuttlecrafts are equipped with impulse drive, some types also with warp drive. |
| Sickbay: | Medical facility aboard a starship or space station. Also known as an Infirmary on a space station. |
| Sickbay Overhead Sensor Cluster: | This is a circular arrangement of sensors located above the primary Bio-Bed in sickbay. It augments the sensors of the Bio-Bed, and also provides an emergency containment field to prevent contamination. |
| SIF: | Acronym for Structural Integrity Field, a system of forcefields built up around and within a starship in order to counterbalance acceleration forces and gravitational forces. The SIF actually keeps the spaceframe in one piece. |
| Slingshot effect: | Time travel that occurs if a starship approaches a star at high warp and then turns round again. |
| Soliton wave: | Method of warp travel without shipboard warp drive. The soliton wave is generated by a stationary generator on a planet and directed towards the ship in order to accelerate it to warp speed. A second wave generator at the destination is required to dissolve the wave generating a counterwave with matching frequency, phase and amplitude. The concept of the soliton wave seems to be quite similar to conventional warp propulsion, considering that a wave is nothing but a traveling field. Notwithstanding the simpler ship construction, soliton wave propulsion is questionable, since the ship is dependent on at least two wave generators, so it would only be useful for frequently used trade routes. |
| Spaceframe: | Skeletal structure of a starship. The spaceframe of a large vessel is usually designed to provide sufficient mechanical stability while the ship is at rest in orbit or open space. Stability during acceleration by propulsion systems or gravity can only be accomplished through the SIF. Mechanical stability is a decisive obstacle when designing large structures such as a Galaxy-class starship. Simply inflating all dimensions of a smaller starship by a constant factor is not possible, considering the fact that the volume will increase by the third power and the cross-section only by the second power. Hence, a strength deficit occurs if an object is scaled up, and a strength surplus if it is scaled down. |
| Spacesuit: | Pressurized garment for work in open space. |
| Space-time: | The 4 dimensional continuum of which our universe exists. Space-time has 3 space dimensions (length, size and depth) and one time dimension. Space-time can be bend, turned, expanded, contracted, dented, etc. Space-time is often shown as a 2 dimensional plane |
| Standard orbit | Term for the orbit a Federation starship usually assumes around a planet, not necessarily a synchronous orbit. |
| Starbase: | Extensive Starfleet facility which serves for maintaining and resupplying starships, for recreation and exchange of ship crews, for research, for medical supply, as a military base, as a place for interstellar trade and for administration as well as a base of operations for the sector. Starbases are either partially located on a planet surface, huge space stations. |
| Stardate: | The system for time measurement commonly used in the Federation, yielding a continuous date instead of e.g. DD:MM:YY format. The stardate obviously serves as a common standard within the Federation, taking into consideration different day and year durations on different planets that would make such references useless if applied to other planets. The system of stardates has been the subject of extensive discussions throughout the years. Originally, the stardate possibly refers to the Julian Date, which was introduced for easy calculation of time differences for astronomy and consists in a continuous day count. The stardate used in Star Trek, however, exhibits many inconsistencies, in particular concerning the differences between the new 5-digit stardates in the 24th century and the 4-digit scheme in the 23rd century. The 24th century system is quite easy, because an increase of 1000 corresponds to one year or one season of a TNG, DS9 or Voyager production, but the TOS stardates do not fit into this system. Most likely we have to accept the fact that a new system has been introduced in the 24th century. |
| Stardrive section: | The section of a starship in which Main Engineering and the propulsion systems are located. Also called the Engineering Hull or Engineering section. |
| Starship: | Designation for a large type of space vessel with warp drive. A starship typically consists of more than one deck and has separate departments such as the bridge, engineering or sickbay. |
| Stasis Field Generator: | This device is used in emergencies when a patient cannot be stabilized and requires treatment that is not immediately available. It significantly slows all biological activity within the perimeter of the field, placing the patient in a sort of suspended animation. The patient will not be aware of any passage of time while under the influence of a stasis unit, since the biochemical activity of the patient's brain is effectively halted. |
| Static warp shell: | Symmetrical subspace bubble, often toroidal or spherical in 3-dimensional perspective. Static warp shells cannot be used for propulsion applications - warp propulsion requires an asymmetrical field. |
| Stellar cartography | Scientific department aboard a starship that maps the stars. |
| STL: | Acronym for slower than light. |
| Sub-impulse speed: | Another term for sublightspeed. The term 'sub-impulse raider' is used for Bajoran raiders without warp capabilities. |
| Sub light speed: | Speed lower than lightspeed. |
| Subspace: | A domain outside the normal three-dimensional space, rather than another dimension. Effects of mass/energy transition to subspace allow apparent FTL velocities and are used by the warp drive, computer system and subspace radio. Although subspace is probably the most frequently used Treknology term and seems to be involved in almost any 24th century technical device, it is not further explained, neither in the show nor in official publications. Subspace has to be accepted as a basic concept necessary to enable the miraculous 24th century technology. According to the ingenious subspace field theory by the physicist Jason Hinson, subspace is "a continuum that exists in conjunction with our own space-time continuum. Every point in our universe has a corresponding point in subspace. Also, at every point in our universe, subspace has a particular frame of reference." |
| Subspace barrier: | Line that divides subspace and normal space-time. |
| Subspace compression: | Phenomenon caused by differential field-potential values in nearby positions of the same warp field. It causes different parts of an object in a warp field to have different inertial densities, resulting in structural strain on the object. It can even cause subatomic disintegration, tearing an object apart. |
| Subspace field: | Special type of forcefield that extends into subspace and is able to change its structure or geometry. A subspace field facilitates propulsion and signal transfer. The subspace field strength is measured in cochrane units. Above a subspace field stress of 1 cochrane, the subspace field becomes a so-called warp field, allowing FTL travel of starships and signals. |
| Subspace interphase pocket: | Region of space where subspace intrudes normal space-time. A subspace interphase pocket intercepted by the Mekong accidentally removed an expanding protouniverse from its place |
| Subspace inversion: | Phenomenon in which the subspace near a wormhole becomes fragmented. The Bajoran wormhole undergoes subspace inversion every 50 years |
| Subspace radiation: | Form of radiation, apparently emanating from subspace |
| Subspace radio: | Form of ship-to-ship or interplanetary communication that takes advantage of subspace physics and allows faster-than-light (FTL) signal transmission. The maximum possible velocity of signal propagation is Warp 9.9997, which is significantly faster than any starship. A network of subspace relays within the Federation territory ensures that no inadmissible signal decay occurs in case of long distance communication. |
| Subspace resonator: | Field-manipulation device that is apparently capable to create warp fields. A subspace resonator was given by the Enterprise-D crew to a disabled Romulan science vessel to make it possible for the ship to return home, although slowly. |
| Subspace rift: | Intrusion of subspace into normal space. Subspace rifts can be formed by cumulative exposure of warp field energy to certain areas of space. |
| Subspace rupture: | Large anomaly that attracts matter into a central vortex, in much the same way as a black hole does |
| Subspace sandbar: | Location where the barrier between subspace and normal space (subspace barrier) is unstable. This causes subspace distortions which drain energy, and gravimetric forces which immobilize spaceships |
| Subspace shockwave: | Powerful energy front caused by massive discharges of energy, like in explosions. The explosion of Klingon moon Praxis formed a subspace shockwave, causing severe damage to the Klingon homeworld |
| Subspace transporter: | Transporter type which transfers patterns through the subspace domain. Although their operation range may cover many light-years and they are able to penetrate shields, subspace transporters are not reliable and therefore not employed by the Federation or other major species. |
| Subspace vacuole: | Short-living wormhole-like phenomenon that linked the Vhnori homeworld to an area of space near a ringed planet in the Delta Quadrant |
| Subspace weapon: | Weapon whose destructive force is based on the disruption of subspace. Subspace weapons are outlawed by the Federation because of their irreparable damage to subspace. |
| Super light speed: | Speed above lightspeed, also known as FTL travel. |
| Supernova: | Star that explodes. Only stars that are approx. 3 times heavier than our sun go supernova. |
| Surgical Support Frame: | Surgical Support Frames attach to Bio-Beds providing aid and assistance during surgery and emergency life support. Littered with biosensors, the SSF has a large display of the surgical area. |
| Synthehol: | alcohol substitute created by the Ferengi. It give the intoxicating effects of alcohol, but allows the drinker to regain complete control with a bit of effort. |
| T | |
| Tachyons: | Any particles that travel faster than light. Predicted in the 20th century by professor Arnold Sommerfeld, tachyons are significant part of the Star Trek universe. General relativity says that anything with positive mass cannot travel at lightspeed or above, because the mass of an object increases when it approaches lightspeed. However, if an object has a negative or imaginary* mass, the mass becomes more negative. Thus, as a tachyon loses energy, it gains speed, and exceeds lightspeed. When it would break the lightspeed barrier, it would give off a radiation known as Cerenkov radiation. This would take energy away from a tachyon and cause it to go faster and faster, continually giving off more and more energy. The lowest velocity of a tachyon is slightly above lightspeed, but it can never go at lightspeed, like normal objects can not travel at lightspeed. |
| Tactical Display Unit: | The T.D.U. can be added to your standard tricorder. This unit will relay information from the tricorder to a monocular eye piece that covers the user's eye. The information presented to the monocular lenses is a direct feed from the tricorder which would be attached to the waist line of the user. Attached to the user's weapon is a targeting laser. This laser will be represented on the monocular lenses as a red crosshair. The tricorder offers no more information than it's setting is capable for. The lenses has a slight green tint to it. Other than that it does not hinder the natural vision of the user. The TDU can be used with any Federation Phaser Rifle. It is not standard to use with a type II phaser. However, versions can be adapted to function with the type II. |
| Tanium: | Material used in starship hulls. Different forms of tanium are encountered in Star Trek. The Federation uses tritanium in their starship hulls, and a Delta Quadrant race called the Hirogen uses monotanium. |
| Targ: | Klingon animal native to Qo'noS. it is furry and similar in size and stance to a large pig. |
| Temporal: | referring to or regarding time. |
| Temporal explosion: | Massive discharge of energy, disrupting our time continuum. |
| Temporal incursion: | Method of altering history by erasing a target object from space-time in a way that it has never existed. Temporal incursion is equivalent to traveling back in time and removing or destroying the respective object. The Krenim scientist Annorax carried out countless incursions in order to restore the Krenim Imperium. |
| Temporal rift: | Time displacement in the space-time continuum. |
| Temporal shielding: | Starship shielding that prevents chroniton torpedoes from penetrating the ships deflector shields. |
| Temporal transceiver: | Communication device which sends transmissions back or forward through time. |
| Temporal vortex: | Connection between two different times within the same universe. It is produced by chroniton emission (chronitons). |
| Teraforming: | Generic term for technologies employed to convert a desert planet into an inhabitable Class-M world. |
| Tetryons: | Particles which are stable in subspace but unstable in normal space. |
| Thorons: | Particles. Thorons are used to treat burnings. |
| Thrusters: | Newtonian starship propulsion system based on chemical reactions - just like 20th century rocket propulsion. Federation thrusters use hydrazine as fuel. Thrusters are much slower than impulse drive and are used, for example, at docking procedures. |
| Time dilation: | General or special relativistic effect that occurs either in the vicinity of a mass concentration (see black hole, event horizon) or at high relative speeds (see relativistic speed), respectively. |
| Time travel: | Usually any movement through time that is not equivalent to the normal course of time, in particular a person's travel leading to the past or faster as usual to the future. Time travel to the past may be connected with paradoxes or causality loops, if an effect becomes apparent before the cause exists. Traveling at relativistic speeds will allow time travel to the future, however, with no return. A kind of time travel to the past is evident in the case of two correlated photons, when one photon immediately changes to a certain state, once the state of the other photon is determined. This is only possible with an FTL signal transfer or a wave function traveling to the past. |
| Time stream: | A temporal inversion fold in space time which is spread across the galaxy. Anyone entering the time stream appears in an alternative timeline. |
| Tongo: | Ferengi betting game involving cards and a wheel at the center of the table. |
| Torpedo: | Starship weapon that exists as a 'box', charged with a high-energetic charge and is used to disable enemy ships. Torpedoes can, not like phasers, also be fired at warp speed, because torpedoes have a warp-sustaining engine. The Federation uses multiple sorts of torpedoes; photon, quantum, hellfire, and tri-cobalt. |
| Tox Uthat: | Device which can halt fusion reactions in a star, making the star die in a nova or supernova. |
| Tractor beam |
Device used by Federation starships to tow other
vessels. Apart from the main emitter and optional auxiliary emitters located
around the hull, a small tractor beam emitter is located in each shuttle bay to
control the landing procedure. Tractor beams are based on a subspace field
assisted emission of gravitons, their direction can be reversed so as to push
away an object. |
| Transceiver: | Long-range communications device. |
| Translocator: | Nyrian device to transport objects or persons across distances as great as 10ly. Nothing more is known about the device, but it may work similar as the subspace transporter. |
| Transparent Aluminum: | An invisible metal that is artificially generated. |
| Transporter: | Device that is able to dematerialize, transmit and reassemble an object. Cargo transporters have limited resolution and are employed for transport of inanimate objects. Personnel transporters work on the quantum level and employ Heisenberg compensators <treknology1.htm> to enable secure transport of lifeforms. A transporter room typically consists of an operator console, a transporter platform and an overhead molecular imaging scanner, primary energizing coils and phase transition coils. A pattern buffer with a biofilter is located on the deck below. The outer hull of a starship incorporates a number of emitter pads for the transporter beam. A typical transport sequence for the beam-down of a person begins with a coordinate lock during which the destination is verified and programmed. Next, the lifeform to be beamed is scanned on the quantum level and simultaneously converted to a matter stream. This process is determined by an annular confinement beam (ACB). The matter stream is briefly stored in the pattern buffer tank and then transmitted through an emitter pad. Finally, the person is reassembled at the destination. Transporters cannot be used while the deflector shields of the ship are active. The transporter is the most questionable regular device in Star Trek, and some of its many oddities are discussed on the page. |
| Transporter suspension: | Technique which involved suspending the transporter patterns of people, used by the crew of Voyager to hide telepaths for Devore inspection teams (the Devore are a race with a great disaffection of telepaths, banning them out of their society). The patterns of the telepaths were suspended in tanks with contaminated antimatter, which blocked the Devore sensors. Unfortunately, the suspension had a bad side-effect: cumulative cellular decay. |
| Transtator: | Basic device of Federation technologies, including transporters, phasers and communicators. |
| Transwarp: | Fundamentally a generic term for technologies that overcome the limitations of conventional warp drives, in particular an experimental propulsion principle tested with the USS Excelsior NX-2000. The experiment failed, and the Excelsior as well as subsequent ships were equipped with a standard warp drive. Transwarp technology is also used by the Borg. |
| Transwarp conduit: | Transwarp drive used by the Borg. They're like custom-made wormholes that, once created, stay in place and can be used repeatedly. The conduits are opened by broadcasting a tachyon signature which sucks the ship in. The first step is bringing the ship on any speed higher than warp 2, using 'classic' warp drive. Then a subspace field forms. The second step is to emit tachyons, which will open the 'subspace wormhole'. They're beyond the ability of the Federation to create. |
| Transwarp speed: | Speed higher than achieved by conventional warp. It is said that transwarp speed are speeds above warp 10 (warp factor), but a better approximation of this term is to say that transwarp speeds are all speeds above Federation warp speeds. |
| Treaty of Algeron: | Around the year 2160 the Romulan Wars between Earth and The Romulan Star Empire ended with the signing of the Treaty of Algeron. This treaty established what is known as the Romulan Neutral Zone, an area of space approximately one light year across. The treaty was negotiated by sub space radio and stated that entry into the zone by either the Federation or the Romulans would constitute an act of war. Throughout the years, the Neutral Zone has been invaded several times by both sides but diplomacy has prevented conflict. The signing of the treaty also prevented the Federation from developing or using cloaking technology on Federation Starships. This began to change in the early 2370s. With the Dominion becoming a threat, the Romulans 'loaned' a Clock to the Federation ship Defiant for use in the Gamma Quadrant. |
| Tricobalt device: | Explosive device used on the planet Eminiar VII and later adopted for Federation starships. Tricobalt devices seem to be rather old-fashioned, yet efficient weapons, if they are employed to destroy targets with limited or no defense |
| Tricorder: | Hand-held sensing, computing and communication device for use by Starfleet personnel. The tricorder incorporates sensor and computer systems in a miniaturized version with limited capabilities, yet, sufficient for away missions. Considering the ongoing miniaturization of computer as well as sensor elements, it will soon be feasible to design a fully functional tricorder. However, it is questionable if there will be a need for such a device, at least in the near future, for it would be too sophisticated for a consumer product and not specialized enough for a scientific apparatus. |
| Trilithium: | Substance used as an explosive. Trilithium is also used in Romulan Plasma Torpedo warheads. |
| Tritanium: | Material, form of tanium. Used in Federation starship hulls. Tritanium is 21.4 times as hard as diamond. |
| T Tauri: | T Tauri is a very young star, that fluctuates in brightness. It's at a distance of 300 light-years on Earth. T Tauri has intrigued astronomers already since the 20th century. Later is discovered it has only one planet. T Tauri is the prototype of a class of young variable stars, and its planetary system is the prototype of a class of planetary systems. T Tauri planetary systems have only one planet and are very rare. |
| Turbolift: | Transportation system within a starship. The turbolift system consists of a network of turboshaft and the single turbolift cars. A turbolift is driven by linear motors. Acceleration up to 10m/s^2 is possible and can be partially compensated for the passengers by damping fields within the car. The turbolift is a nice example for real world technology adapted for Star Trek. Linear motors have actually been developed for transportation purposes, for instance in the German Transrapid project. Fundamentally, such a motor works in a similar way as a conventional cylindrical electric motor, where a rotor is located inside a stator. The linear motor has the stator unrolled, and the rotor can be replaced by a simple magnet in the car that is free to move along the stator in the roadway. Propulsion is achieved by powering the stator so as to generate a traveling field. |
| U | |
| Ultrasonic shower: | Personal cleaning system in crew quarters aboard Federation starships. Besides ultrasonic showers, old-fashioned bathtubs are usually available as well. Ultrasonic cleaning is widely employed in dental laboratories, precision mechanics or semiconductor manufacturing, where a detergent or pure water is employed as the transducer for the ultrasonic vibrations (>20kHz) and also serves to solve and carry away dust or grease particles. |
| Universal translator: | Computer program employed for communication among persons who speak different languages. The universal translator performs a pattern analysis of an unknown language based on a variety of criteria in order to generate a translation matrix. It is obvious that the universal translator will never work the way shown in Star Trek. First of all, an exactly simultaneous translation is definitely impossible, considering that grammar is significantly different for human languages, let alone alien forms of communication. So a delay of up to several seconds until the end of the respective sentence is required before it can be properly translated. Second, the translator voice would be superimposed to the original voice and, if both are located in the same room, result in a confusing babble. |
| Uridium: | mineral substance that is unstable and highly volatile. |
| Varon-T disruptor: | Weapon which disrupts the body from inside out, making it an extreme painful way to die. Because of this, Varon-T disruptors are banned in the Federation. |
| Vedek: | Bajoran religious leader. Often in charge of a particular region or religious office. |
| Vedek Assembly: | Bajoran religious congress with 112 members. Among their responsibilities is choosing the next kai, when the seat is vacated. |
| Verdions: | Particles, generated in the cores or surfaces of white dwarf stars. |
| Verteriumcortenide: | Material of which the inner and outer surface of both the warp coils and impulse driver coils (impulse drive) are made. Veteriumcortenide produces subspace fields when interacting with plasma. |
| Verterons: | Particles associated with subspace interactions. Appears to inhibit the formation of subspace fields, damaging or rendering devices which use subspace useless. |
| Viewscreen |
Screen used for navigation, communication and
various other purposes, most notably as the main viewscreen in bridge designs of
most races. |
| Vinculum: | Borg device, serving as central processing unit in Borg ships. It's responsible for the neural links between drones, which forms the Collective. It also searches actively for signs of individuality among Borg drones, wiping it out, bringing order in chaos. The vinculum also identifies Borg drones who left the Collective (like Seven of Nine) and re-assimilate in the Collective by creating a subspace link with the neural implant of the drone. The neural patterns of the drone are then adjusted. The link cannot be severed without chronical neural damage. The vinculum is hard to de-activate. The vinculum has the ability to re-route its internal circuitry |
| Viscosity: | the property of a liquid that rates how easily it flow. A thick liquid would be considered viscous. |
| VISOR: | Acronym for Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement, a device Lt. Cmdr. Geordi LaForge used until 2373 to overcome his blindness. The VISOR was not only sensitive to the visible spectrum, but to a wide range of electromagnetic radiation. By 2373, the VISOR has been replaced by bionic eye implants. |
| W | |
| Warp: | Form of FTL-travel that is used by many species around the galaxy. It covers 'classic warp', that is used by the Federation, and 'transwarp', that is lot faster and is used by civilizations one step higher than Federation. |
| Warp 5 speed limit: | Speed limit introduced by the Federation, after the discovery that intensive warp drive use can cause severe damage to space-time, causing subspace to manifest in normal space-time at a macroscopic scale. In 'Force of Nature' (TNG) it is discovered that in the Hekaras Corridor, a region of space where warp travel is hindered except for a narrow path, the intense use of warp drives in an already sensitive area can (over time) cause subspace rifts to form, where subspace manifests itself in real space on a macroscopic scale. The speed limit says that the cruise speed of starships may not exceed warp 5, unless Starfleet Command gives permission to go faster. Since the limit went into effect, new technology has been introduced that eliminates the damage to subspace, allowing ships to freely travel faster then Warp 5 again. |
| Warp 10 barrier: | The upper warp velocity limit. In the warp velocity scale, warp 10 is infinite speed. However, some transwarp drives allow traveling faster than warp 10, thus at infinite speed. Tom Paris traveled at warp 10.0 in 'Threshold' (VOY), which made him remember every part of the universe (5 billion gigaquad of information). As you approach a position on the graph corresponding to warp 10, your power requirements increase astronomically compared to your increase in speed. But you can keep speeding up forever, unlike the light barrier, which keeps you from getting to the speed of light. So the warp 10 barrier is just a barrier of energy. (warp factor) |
| Warp coil: | Toroid or split toroid element that generates a subspace field, when energized by a plasma stream. A set of several warp coils is combined in a warp nacelle. Plasma injectors serve to adjust the activation sequences of the single warp coils in a way that a propulsive, asymmetric warp field is formed. Concerning the technical plausibility, the warp coils are the most critical part of the propulsion system. It is not exactly defined what a warp field actually is, let alone how it can be generated. |
| Warp core: | Part of the warp drive in which power is generated through a controlled annihilation of matter and antimatter, also referred to as matter/antimatter reaction chamber (M/ARC). The complete warp power generation system including the warp core, matter and antimatter injectors and constriction elements, is called matter/antimatter reaction assembly (M/ARA). Matter and antimatter stream are combined in the dilithium crystal inside the warp core, resulting in a (warp) plasma stream. A failure of antimatter containment is commonly referred to as warp core breach. In this case antimatter can get in contact with matter, leading to a disastrous explosion that most probably destroys the ship. In case of a containment failure, the warp core offers the possibility of an emergency shutdown. If the shutdown does not work, it is possible to eject the whole M/ARA. It is a quite optimistic assumption that in case of a pending warp core breach there is enough time left to try the emergency shutdown and finally eject the M/ARA and that the remaining time can even be exactly determined. Moreover, the breach would probably be stimulated by the vibrations during the ejection. On the other hand, it is disturbing that such an extremely dangerous technology is employed in starships, considering that life in the 24th century is nearly free of risks. The problem of containment seems to be especially severe in Galaxy-class ships, three of which have already been destroyed by warp core breaches, though they were supposed to have a lifetime of 100 years. |
| Warp drive: | (Continuum Distortion Propulsion Drive) Non-Newtonian propulsion system used by the Federation to travel at speeds higher than lightspeed. A powerful, asymmetric subspace field is established around the ship by the warp nacelles. The field is composed of nested layers, each pushing against the one beyond it. This drives the ship forward, at a speed faster than light. First, matter and antimatter react with each other in the warp core. The annihilation produces very large amounts of high energetic gamma radiation. The radiation then is 'condensed' into a plasma state, which carries the full energy (matter is easier to conduct than radiation). The power transfer conduits transfer the plasma to the nacelles. Injectors feed the plasma into warp field coil segments. The coils generate subspace fields by the interaction of the exotic materials of it (verterium- cortenide) with the plasma. The coils are energized at specific time intervals, creating multiple field layers. This pulses also cause the push of the nested fields, moving the ship forward. The warp field wraps around the ship in a two-lobed bubble, as seen below at warp field. The shape of the ship determines the efficiency of the field, explaining why the Enterprise has such a sleek design. Meanwhile, the subspace field reduces the inertial mass of the ship, aiding in maneuvering. In fact, a small subspace field is kept around the ship at impulse speeds, so the impulse drives have less mass to push around. However, this is only a side effect and is NOT the mechanism used to allow FTL travel. |
| Warp factor: |
Unit less figure that describes the speed of a ship
or signal traveling faster than light. In the 23rd century, the warp factor WF
was calculated as follows: WF=(v/c)^1/3, where v is the speed of the signal or
starship, c=3*10^8m/s the light speed and ^1/3 denotes the cubic root. At Warp
1, a starship reaches c, at Warp 6 it reaches 216c. In the 24th century, a term
was added to the above equation that caused the speed to be infinite at Warp 10
(see revised warp speed table. The ratio v/c at a given warp factor is equal to
the corresponding cochrane value that describes the subspace distortion.
At Warp 9, the speed is 729c for the old and 1516c for the new scale. Above Warp
9, the two scales diverge significantly, and the old Warp 10 speed is 1000c,
whereas it is infinite for the new warp table. So any velocity is possible in
the new scale, only the values of 9.99... are not easy to handle for the
starship crew. The change could also be attributed to the introduction of
transwarp. While apparent speed and cochrane value continuously increase with
the warp factor, the power expenditure exhibits remarkable peaks at each full
warp factor. Explaining these peak transitional thresholds leads to a reasonable
definition of the old as well as of the new warp scale. warp factor velocity(c) comment 1 1 Speed of light 2 10 3 39 4 102 5 214 Federation speed limit 6 392 7 656 Cruising speed of standard Galaxy Class 8 1024 9 1516 Maximum speed Class 8 and 9 probes 9.2 1649 Maximum cruising speed of Galaxy Class 9.6 1909 Maximum speed of standard Galaxy Class 9.9 3053 9.975 6667 Maximum of Intrepid Class 9.99 7912 9.9997 198696 Subspace communications speed 9.9999 199516 Subspace communications speed boosted, relayed 10 infinite |
| Warp field: | Subspace field with a subspace distortion of at least 1 cochrane. A starship enveloped by a warp field is able to travel faster than light, without relativistic limits being violated. The asymmetrical warp field used by Federation starships is propulsive itself without an additional exhaustion necessary. This is accomplished by sequentially activating the warp coils. A symmetrical, non-propulsive warp field is used for 24th century starship computer cores, where it allows FTL travel of electrons or photons within the field limits. A warp field does not seem to be much different from a subspace field, and the transition from one to the other is continuous, as is indicated by the energy vs. warp factor diagram. |
| Warp nacelle: | Part of the warp drive that holds the warp coils, plasma conduits and injectors, usually in a separate housing. Almost all Federation starships employ an even number of nacelles, arranged symmetrically to the longitudinal axis. While most vessels have two nacelles, a number of starships (for instance Constellation class, Cheyenne class, Europa, and the USS Prometheus) are equipped with four of them. The Freedom class, on the other hand, is one of the very few ship classes with a single nacelle and the Galaxy Dreadnought and Intimidator classes sport three. Support pylons connect the nacelles to the ship's hull and supply the warp coils with plasma through power transfer conduits (PTC). Usually, a Bussard collector is attached to the front end of each warp nacelle. Romulans and Klingons use warp nacelles similar to the Federation type. An even number of nacelles symmetrical to the ship's centerline obviously serves for better stability and maneuverability. With such a configuration the ship's flight path can easily be changed or corrected through different firing sequences for the two sets of warp coils, thereby generating an angular momentum (the ship's "rudder"). This does not work well with a single, symmetrical nacelle, where only the plasma stream can be regulated in order to steer the ship. Warp nacelles are usually not directly attached to the engineering hull so as to provide an optimum shape of the warp field. The blue glowing in the warp nacelle's centerline could be attributed to excess energy flowing back from subspace which potentially replenishes the warp plasma. Besides, the plasma glowing can be used to distinguish the ships of the various civilizations: Federation - blue, Romulans - green, Klingons - red, Cardassians - yellow, Ferengi - orange, Dominion - purple. |
| Warp propulsion system: | Propulsion system of starships that allows faster-than-light (FTL) travel, also referred to as warp drive. The main components of a Federation warp propulsion system are matter and antimatter storage, injectors, constriction segments, warp core (M/ARC), warp plasma conduits (power transfer conduits, PTC) and warp coils. The controlled annihilation of antimatter and matter inside a dilithium crystal in the warp core generates the energy necessary for a warp field and also supplies most of the ship's systems. The propulsive warp field is generated by the warp coils. The warp drive was first successfully tested by Zefram Cochrane in 2063, however, other civilizations such as the Vulcans had discovered warp drive a long time ago. |
| Warp signature: | Specific property of the warp field of a starship. Races are often identified because of their warp signature. Ferengi ships are identified of their single-lobed warp field. Federation starships have double-lobed a warp field. |
| Warp speed: | Speed obtained by warp drive. Warp speed is usually higher than lightspeed. See Warp Factor for more information. |
| Warp sustainer engine: | Propulsion system of a photon, hellfire, quantum, and tri-cobalt torpedoes, allowing warp flight for a short period after the launch. |
| Watt: | unit of power (energy per time). Abbreviated W. 1 W = 1 Joule second. |
| Weather net: | System that controls and modifies the weather on Federation planets. |
| Wolf 359: | Star located 7.8 light-years from Sol. It was the location of the major battle (massacre), where the Borg with a single cube, first encountered a federation fleet. All Starfleet ships were lost, the Borg cube left relatively unscathed. |
| Wormhole: | Space-time anomaly that connects two points that may be far away from each other within normal space. Wormholes are either natural phenomena, or they have been constructed by superior lifeforms or accidentally generated because of warp drive malfunctions. Only one stable wormhole is known, leading from the Bajoran system to the Gamma Quadrant, allowing starships to cross the distance of 90,000 LY in an instant. This wormhole has been artificially constructed by supernatural beings whom the Bajorans refer to as Prophets. Although they are related to black holes, wormholes have not been sighted yet, but they are theoretically possible. |
| X | |
| Xenophobia: | fear of other races besides that of the person. |
| Y | |
| Yonada: | Huge asteroid-like starship world, carries the survivors of the Fabrina nova. |
| Z | |
| Zero-point energy: | Quantum fluctuation effect that is employed to enhance the explosion of Federation quantum torpedoes. Zero-point energy (ZPE) is a real theory which assumes that there is a significant amount of energy below what we use to measure as the zero level, because of quantum fluctuations. It was believed that there is no practical use of ZPE, since it should not be possible to transfer this energy to a higher level. However, if two metal plates are put very close together, the range of possible waves of the quantum fluctuations between the plates can be restricted such that the zero-point energy is smaller than in the surrounding area. The result is an attractive force between the plates which will move towards each other. This is known as the Casimir effect. |
| Zhian'tara: | Trill rite of closure. The ceremony allows the current host to meet the symbiotes previous host, who are embodied in friends of the host for a short period of time. |