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WORMHOLES REF. [#7 EYE OF THE NEEDLE]
AND [#47 FALSE PROFITS] |
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Something of course that was introduced on [Star Trek: Deep Space 9] was this wormhole that extended all the way from the Alpha Quadrant over to the Gamma Quadrant, and it was a wormhole that spanned something like 50,000 light years, and by travelling through it you could literally in thirty seconds cross half the distance of our galaxy, which was an astonishing thing.
a Starfleet runabout discovers and enters the first known stable wormhole, [DS9: Emissary]
| But if there were a wormhole on the appropriate scale big enough to fly a spaceship through you could in fact do something like that. Wormholes are theoretical objects in physics right now, but something that Einstein and a couple of colleagues first proposed back in the 1930s. We've not detected one as of yet but most physicists agree that they probably exist, at least on small scales. Whether or not you could build one, create a wormhole big enough to fly a spaceship through artificially, that's a subject of some debate; it's mostly speculation. |
Bormanis' illustration of a starship the size of USS Voyager inside a wormhole |
But we encounter various interesting kinds of phenomena like wormholes in [Voyager].
telemetry from a microprobe sent through a microwormhole discovered by Ensign Kim, displayed on the main viewscreen of Voyager's bridge, [#7 Eye Of The Needle] | Chakotay: "If that's a wormhole it must be the smallest one on record."
Janeway: "Mr Kim, are you able to analyse it?"
Kim: "Aye, Captain. It's virtually microscopic. The aperture's only about 30 centimetres in diameter."
Paris: "I guess it's a little too small for us to fly through." |
Voyager at one end of the Barzan Wormhole: the Voyager crew hope to travel through it to reach the Alpha Quadrant, [#47 False Profits]
 
[#47 False Profits]
| In Voyager's science lab Torres and Kim inform Janeway of their "very exciting news".
Kim: "We've been able to confirm that the wormhole does lead to the Alpha Quadrant."
Torres: "The problem is that on this end it's moving from point to point so quickly that even at maximum warp by the time we reached its next probable location it would be gone."
Kim: "So we were thinking that if you can't bring the ship to the wormhole, bring the wormhole to the ship. We've detected a subspace instability at our current location that's a result of the wormhole's last appearance here."
Torres: "If we could somehow amplify and polarise that instability we might be able to get the wormhole to re-appear."
Janeway: "Sort of like using a magnet to move a compass needle. Question is: how do we polarise the instability?"
Kim: "Er, we haven't figured that part out yet."
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And we would sometimes come up with different terminology for them. I think Robert Wolf, one of our writer-producers on [DS9] said once that the Eskimos have something like 237 different words for snow; in Star Trek we've got 237 different words for wormholes. So some of the things we encounter like 'spatial flexures' and other kind of phenomena is essentially just another way of saying 'kind of wormhole'.
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Kashyk (on the left), an officer of the telepath-hating Devore Imperium, fails to capture the group of Brenari telepaths whom he knows Voyager has kept on board hidden from his inspection teams. While Janeway occupies his attention, the Brenari telepaths are in fact escaping through a spatial flexure, i.e. wormhole. [#104 Counterpoint] |
The existence of wormholes which can be travelled through is an accepted fact in the 24th century.
[#89 The Omega Directive] | Kim to Tuvok as they customise a photon torpedo: "I think there's a type-6 protostar out there. and the Captain's planning to detonate it and open a wormhole to the Alpha Quadrant. In theory, it's possible. And because she doesn't want to get our hopes up, she's not telling anybody."
Tuvok: "Then I wouldn't suggesting getting your hopes up." |
 
[#171 Endgame, Part One]
| On the bridge, Seven, Captain Janeway, Chakotay, Paris and Kim look at Seven's data. She reports: "The emissions are occuring at the centre of the nebula. There appear to be hundreds of distinct sources."
Kim: "Which could translate to hundreds of wormholes!"
Seven: "The radiation is interfering with our sensors, but if Ensign Kim's enthusiasm turns out to be justified it would be the most concentrated occurrence of wormholes ever recorded."
Captain Janeway: "Any idea where they lead?"
Kim: "Not yet, but if just one of them leads to the Alpha Quadrant...!"
Paris: "Who knows, Harry? Maybe it'll take us right into your parents' living room."
Captain Janeway: "Alter course, Mr Paris. Ensign Kim, when you speak to your mother, tell her we may need her to move the sofa." |
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