Voyager would have had some minimal information about the Dominion, it was mentioned as Gamma quadrant's 800 pound gorilla for over a year at that point. They would not have anything detailed though since the Federation didn't know much about it at that time.
The first real encounter with the up until that time mysterious Dominion instead of just its vassal states was in late December 2370, While the episode The Jem'Hadar, (the last episode of the season), did not mention a stardate it took place after Tribunal (the 25th episode) which does give a stardate that translates to December 11th 2370. At that point they had contact with exactly one Vorta (Eris) a handful of Jem'Hadar ground troops, and one squadron of the light attack "bug" ships.
On March 19th 2370 Sisko takes the Defiant on her first mission, a stealth recon further out from the wormhole and manages to get captured the next day. From there it is unclear how long they were actually held during the virtual response modeling psychological research sessions or when they finally got back from the mission.
During that time they encounter real Founders, some Vorta technicians and medical personnel, and a few more Jem'Hadar, though most of the latter were virtual instead of real so any information on their forces, tactics, etc. is suspect since the Dominion probably did not want to reveal anything they didn't absolutely have to in order to run the tests. That makes it iffy as to whether Starfleet Intelligence would have released a general report to Fleet ships and stations about it at that point.
A month later, (and only three months after the destruction of Odyssey) on the afternoon of April 26, 2371, Voyager left to hunt down the Val Jean. Voyager's computer would have limited profiles of the Dominion bug ships based on sensor data of the skirmish, probably what little was known about the Vorta and Jem'Hadar at that point, and data about the founders mainly based on what was known about Odo's physiology.
Most of the Federation's attention at that point was on the Cardassian/Marquis conflict, problems with the Klingons, and a diplomatic nightmare caused by the Federation's breach of the Treaty of Algeron by developing the cloak tested on the Pegasus. The Dominion was treated as little more than a sideshow at that point, Sisko had to pull all the strings he could get his hands on to get Starfleet to pay much attention to it, and that consisted mainly of just pulling Defiant out of hot storage and assigning it to DS9.
> @phoenixc#0738 said: > Voyager would have had some minimal information about the Dominion, it was mentioned as Gamma quadrant's 800 pound gorilla for over a year at that point. They would not have anything detailed though since the Federation didn't know much about it at that time. > > The first real encounter with the up until that time mysterious Dominion instead of just its vassal states was in late December 2370, While the episode The Jem'Hadar, (the last episode of the season), did not mention a stardate it took place after Tribunal (the 25th episode) which does give a stardate that translates to December 11th 2370. At that point they had contact with exactly one Vorta (Eris) a handful of Jem'Hadar ground troops, and one squadron of the light attack "bug" ships. > > On March 19th 2370 Sisko takes the Defiant on her first mission, a stealth recon further out from the wormhole and manages to get captured the next day. From there it is unclear how long they were actually held during the virtual response modeling psychological research sessions or when they finally got back from the mission. > > During that time they encounter real Founders, some Vorta technicians and medical personnel, and a few more Jem'Hadar, though most of the latter were virtual instead of real so any information on their forces, tactics, etc. is suspect since the Dominion probably did not want to reveal anything they didn't absolutely have to in order to run the tests. That makes it iffy as to whether Starfleet Intelligence would have released a general report to Fleet ships and stations about it at that point. > > A month later, (and only three months after the destruction of Odyssey) on the afternoon of April 26, 2371, Voyager left to hunt down the Val Jean. Voyager's computer would have limited profiles of the Dominion bug ships based on sensor data of the skirmish, probably what little was known about the Vorta and Jem'Hadar at that point, and data about the founders mainly based on what was known about Odo's physiology. > > Most of the Federation's attention at that point was on the Cardassian/Marquis conflict, problems with the Klingons, and a diplomatic nightmare caused by the Federation's breach of the Treaty of Algeron by developing the cloak tested on the Pegasus. The Dominion was treated as little more than a sideshow at that point, Sisko had to pull all the strings he could get his hands on to get Starfleet to pay much attention to it, and that consisted mainly of just pulling Defiant out of hot storage and assigning it to DS9.
I don’t buy your assessment that Starfleet wasn’t giving the Dominion much attention. 1) They lost a Galaxy with all hands. They’re gonna feel some type of way about that. 2) They felt strong enough to send Sisko into the Gamma Quadrant to recon. 3) They felt strongly about the recon mission that they asked a favor of the Romulan Empire so they could get a cloak on the Defiant.
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So it was only a few months between the loss of the Odyssey and the deployment of Voyager.
Also I think it wasn't that hard to get the Defiant, as Sisko was one of the guys who designed the ship. Flawed as she was at the time, she had teeth. Something that was needed at DS9. And with the growing Dominion threat, I doubt Starfleet was in a position to say no, especially since they probably couldn't spare any other ship and full crew at the time. Not only that, work on Defiant at DS9 actually made the class viable for production, as they fixed a lot of the issues the design originally had.
So it was only a few months between the loss of the Odyssey and the deployment of Voyager.
Also I think it wasn't that hard to get the Defiant, as Sisko was one of the guys who designed the ship. Flawed as she was at the time, she had teeth. Something that was needed at DS9. And with the growing Dominion threat, I doubt Starfleet was in a position to say no, especially since they probably couldn't spare any other ship and full crew at the time. Not only that, work on Defiant at DS9 actually made the class viable for production, as they fixed a lot of the issues the design originally had.
True, and just over three years before that (in 2367) they lost the entire inner worlds mobile reserve at Wolf 359 trying to stop the Borg, and were having some difficulties replacing them quickly, which definitely would not help in being able to cover the various potential threat areas well.
For instance the Intrepids were taking longer than expected to build, which is probably why Voyager left without her wave rider (and a few other lower priority systems according to throwaway dialog), so they probably pulled what they thought they could afford to off of the frontier to cover the inner worlds until they got enough replacements built.
I always thought Voyager did leave before the Dominion announced itself, but if it left after, it seems very likely that it was a big reason to avoid the Gamma Quadrant. The Dominion was clearly hostile to people crossing their space, and it seems unavoidable that they would have to do so.
Of course, the other thing might be - the voyage would take decades unless they found another shortcut (which they did). Relying on a "stable" wormhole that is decades away seems risky. How stable is that wormhole really? There are apparently some kind of intelligence living inside that wormhole. What if that intelligence changes its mind about people passing through the wormhole? What if someone decides to destroy or blockade the wormhole in the mean time?
And in fact, the wormhole was attacked - the Romulans tried, and even Starfleet considered it as a defense against the Dominion. Heck, wasn't there also some Bajoran terrorists that tried to do it? And the intelligence inside the wormhole did in fact block or hinder travel a few times. The conflict with the Pagh Wraiths closed it for a while.
Even if it's stable compared to most wormholes, it was till not as stable as the direct route from the Delta to the Alpha Quadrant.
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If you're talking about the danger of the Dominion as the main motivation, remember that Janeway knowingly chose the route through Borg space.
Counterpoint: It was pointed out that going around would have been a MASSIVE detour and added much more time to their journey as they skirted the edge.
Comments
The first real encounter with the up until that time mysterious Dominion instead of just its vassal states was in late December 2370, While the episode The Jem'Hadar, (the last episode of the season), did not mention a stardate it took place after Tribunal (the 25th episode) which does give a stardate that translates to December 11th 2370. At that point they had contact with exactly one Vorta (Eris) a handful of Jem'Hadar ground troops, and one squadron of the light attack "bug" ships.
On March 19th 2370 Sisko takes the Defiant on her first mission, a stealth recon further out from the wormhole and manages to get captured the next day. From there it is unclear how long they were actually held during the virtual response modeling psychological research sessions or when they finally got back from the mission.
During that time they encounter real Founders, some Vorta technicians and medical personnel, and a few more Jem'Hadar, though most of the latter were virtual instead of real so any information on their forces, tactics, etc. is suspect since the Dominion probably did not want to reveal anything they didn't absolutely have to in order to run the tests. That makes it iffy as to whether Starfleet Intelligence would have released a general report to Fleet ships and stations about it at that point.
A month later, (and only three months after the destruction of Odyssey) on the afternoon of April 26, 2371, Voyager left to hunt down the Val Jean. Voyager's computer would have limited profiles of the Dominion bug ships based on sensor data of the skirmish, probably what little was known about the Vorta and Jem'Hadar at that point, and data about the founders mainly based on what was known about Odo's physiology.
Most of the Federation's attention at that point was on the Cardassian/Marquis conflict, problems with the Klingons, and a diplomatic nightmare caused by the Federation's breach of the Treaty of Algeron by developing the cloak tested on the Pegasus. The Dominion was treated as little more than a sideshow at that point, Sisko had to pull all the strings he could get his hands on to get Starfleet to pay much attention to it, and that consisted mainly of just pulling Defiant out of hot storage and assigning it to DS9.
> Voyager would have had some minimal information about the Dominion, it was mentioned as Gamma quadrant's 800 pound gorilla for over a year at that point. They would not have anything detailed though since the Federation didn't know much about it at that time.
>
> The first real encounter with the up until that time mysterious Dominion instead of just its vassal states was in late December 2370, While the episode The Jem'Hadar, (the last episode of the season), did not mention a stardate it took place after Tribunal (the 25th episode) which does give a stardate that translates to December 11th 2370. At that point they had contact with exactly one Vorta (Eris) a handful of Jem'Hadar ground troops, and one squadron of the light attack "bug" ships.
>
> On March 19th 2370 Sisko takes the Defiant on her first mission, a stealth recon further out from the wormhole and manages to get captured the next day. From there it is unclear how long they were actually held during the virtual response modeling psychological research sessions or when they finally got back from the mission.
>
> During that time they encounter real Founders, some Vorta technicians and medical personnel, and a few more Jem'Hadar, though most of the latter were virtual instead of real so any information on their forces, tactics, etc. is suspect since the Dominion probably did not want to reveal anything they didn't absolutely have to in order to run the tests. That makes it iffy as to whether Starfleet Intelligence would have released a general report to Fleet ships and stations about it at that point.
>
> A month later, (and only three months after the destruction of Odyssey) on the afternoon of April 26, 2371, Voyager left to hunt down the Val Jean. Voyager's computer would have limited profiles of the Dominion bug ships based on sensor data of the skirmish, probably what little was known about the Vorta and Jem'Hadar at that point, and data about the founders mainly based on what was known about Odo's physiology.
>
> Most of the Federation's attention at that point was on the Cardassian/Marquis conflict, problems with the Klingons, and a diplomatic nightmare caused by the Federation's breach of the Treaty of Algeron by developing the cloak tested on the Pegasus. The Dominion was treated as little more than a sideshow at that point, Sisko had to pull all the strings he could get his hands on to get Starfleet to pay much attention to it, and that consisted mainly of just pulling Defiant out of hot storage and assigning it to DS9.
I don’t buy your assessment that Starfleet wasn’t giving the Dominion much attention. 1) They lost a Galaxy with all hands. They’re gonna feel some type of way about that. 2) They felt strong enough to send Sisko into the Gamma Quadrant to recon. 3) They felt strongly about the recon mission that they asked a favor of the Romulan Empire so they could get a cloak on the Defiant.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
Also I think it wasn't that hard to get the Defiant, as Sisko was one of the guys who designed the ship. Flawed as she was at the time, she had teeth. Something that was needed at DS9. And with the growing Dominion threat, I doubt Starfleet was in a position to say no, especially since they probably couldn't spare any other ship and full crew at the time. Not only that, work on Defiant at DS9 actually made the class viable for production, as they fixed a lot of the issues the design originally had.
True, and just over three years before that (in 2367) they lost the entire inner worlds mobile reserve at Wolf 359 trying to stop the Borg, and were having some difficulties replacing them quickly, which definitely would not help in being able to cover the various potential threat areas well.
For instance the Intrepids were taking longer than expected to build, which is probably why Voyager left without her wave rider (and a few other lower priority systems according to throwaway dialog), so they probably pulled what they thought they could afford to off of the frontier to cover the inner worlds until they got enough replacements built.
Of course, the other thing might be - the voyage would take decades unless they found another shortcut (which they did). Relying on a "stable" wormhole that is decades away seems risky. How stable is that wormhole really? There are apparently some kind of intelligence living inside that wormhole. What if that intelligence changes its mind about people passing through the wormhole? What if someone decides to destroy or blockade the wormhole in the mean time?
And in fact, the wormhole was attacked - the Romulans tried, and even Starfleet considered it as a defense against the Dominion. Heck, wasn't there also some Bajoran terrorists that tried to do it? And the intelligence inside the wormhole did in fact block or hinder travel a few times. The conflict with the Pagh Wraiths closed it for a while.
Even if it's stable compared to most wormholes, it was till not as stable as the direct route from the Delta to the Alpha Quadrant.
If you're talking about the danger of the Dominion as the main motivation, remember that Janeway knowingly chose the route through Borg space.
Counterpoint: It was pointed out that going around would have been a MASSIVE detour and added much more time to their journey as they skirted the edge.