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Jenolan Dyson Sphere and Omega Particles
mreeves7a
Member Posts: 499 Arc User
So, this has been bugging me since I first ran through A Step Between Stars. We now know that the Solonae Dyson Sphere is producing and storing omega particles for use to fold space and move the sphere. We also know that the Jenolan Sphere moved via a similar method when the Iconian gateway network was reset in Sphere of Influence. The Omega Directive was created sometime after the Lantaru/Ketteract incident in 2269. The Enterprise-D encountered the Jenolan Sphere in 2369.
So, if the Dyson Spheres are powered by omega particles, then why wasn't the Enterprise-D affected by the Omega Directive? Did it take Stafleet over 100 years to create it? Is the Jenolan Sphere not using omega particles? Cryptic overlook a small detail in the story?
Or did I just miss something while taking in the scenery?
So, if the Dyson Spheres are powered by omega particles, then why wasn't the Enterprise-D affected by the Omega Directive? Did it take Stafleet over 100 years to create it? Is the Jenolan Sphere not using omega particles? Cryptic overlook a small detail in the story?
Or did I just miss something while taking in the scenery?
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Perhaps the Jenolan sphere particles were so well shielded from the Ent-D's sensors that it didn't detect them. However, ships in 2409 have better sensors and are able to penetrate the shielding on the spheres, now detecting what was previously hidden.
It would be logical to assume the Jenolan sphere also uses Omgea to move, but it was never explained in the FE how it moved, just that it did.
As for why the Enterprise D did not get an Omega, that might just be a plot hole, or added after the fact. This is not unique to ST, there has been similar unexplained things in the SW universe aswell...
I think we might have to wait for the next part in the FE to find out...
In the Solanae sphere, these structures (or at least some of them) are involved in creating and storing Omega particles, and are what triggered the Omega Directive. But they're not actually using them to perform jumps.
That particular job is handled by a fairly small space station almost touching the star's photosphere. Join Command didn't even detect this station in the Solanae sphere until the Voth went for it, and it's mentioned that sensors are pretty much blind to anything that deep in the star's magnetic field.
For whatever reason, the Jenolan sphere does not have the facilities the other sphere uses to manufacture its own Omega. Perhaps it's a civilian sphere rather than a military one and only has a jump station as a safeguard, or maybe it was incomplete and the megastructures would normally be added later.
As for the station, the one in the Solanae sphere is difficult to detect as it is, and the Jenolan sphere's sun is apparently stronger - it's blasting out enough radiation to render the surface of the sphere uninhabitable and even affect ships inside the sphere, while the Solanae sphere is entirely habitable, with a comfortable M-class environment and a stable atmosphere. The Federation has been studying the Jenolan sphere for a long time, but doesn't appear to be putting a great amount of effort into it - at the time of its initial disappearance, only the USS Gold was actually there.
There's also a second, simpler possibility that occurs to me, that it didn't perform the jump itself. We've seen that Iconian gateways don't necessarily need to be connected at the opposite end, and it's possible the jump drive works the same way.
Maybe it's a regulation, only one starship allowed inside at a time.
It could well be, since the Enterprise did get in trouble inside, keeping ships on a "buddy system," with a second one outside to mount a rescue would be a good idea.
I personally think it might simply be the fact that they always assumed it would be there for a very long time - even dying stars take millions of years to breathe their last breaths so for all intents and purposes they had forever to study the thing. Something that large and complex has an interesting problem with studying it - it will take so long that technology will advance so far that long before you're done, new technology will make all your efforts obsolete. To some extent, you're actually rewarded for the slow and steady method.
All that being said. As noted the Jenolan Sphere is missing tons of design elements of the Solanae sphere. So much so that the gate you come out of looks alien in it.
When the PC resets the gate network and opens all the gates, the Jenolan vanishes from Federations space. And lands in the delta quadrant we find. The Solanae as far as I know they never say where it is as we take a jump gate to it as well. Now there are a few possibilities.
The reset called the Jenolan gate back to a previous location and it landed around the portal gate.
It was stolen by the iconian forces in an effort to reduce understanding of mega structure engineering.
The Undine did it.
Lack of omega particles. All those gate ways we see, seem to be wormholes or similar across incredible distances and make transporters and warpdrives seem quaint and old fashioned as comparing sails to a super sonic jet engine. So who is to say how much power they need? What if the Solanae is the power generation facility for the iconian network and it sends the power needed elsewhere.
Thus there are no Omega particles on the Jenolan or in the gates themselves. Just in the Solanae Sphere.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
I assume the Iconians directed servitors to build spheres but that the power source and much of the design is based on who built it.
The Jenolan sphere was built by another species, I assume.
Maybe the Tal Shiar will start building their own Romulan themed sphere powered by an enhanced singularity core.
My character Tsin'xing
correct, but this is now STO we're talking about, which in 2013/2014 has reconned to add the concept of a Dyson sphere using those Omega particles to jump. So STO needs to come up with an explanation as to why the Jenolan sphere jumped when 40 years of Fed research didn't show anything Omega, but a brief scan of the Solanae sphere revealed a lot.
They'll also need to deal with the subspace damage caused by the Jenolan sphere if indeed it did use Omega particals to jump. There should be a path of destruction in its wake (which we won't know about yet since we've not exited the door).
Y'all have mentioned differences in the spheres. STO may intend this to play out over the next missions as the reasons why Omegas were never detected before. It could be they intend to show different builders or different designs.
Now, assuming subspace destruction, what does that mean for the Iconian gate system? Or does it not use subspace in some way? It may be the story will show subspace destruction, but the gate system will keep portions of the Delta Quadrant connected.
The damage would be (or at least also be) at its former location, which apparently had a Federation presence there at the time, since they'd managed to notify Starfleet Command fast enough for them to realize it happened when the gateway network reactivated, and inform the teams on site on New Romulus before we even made it back.
However, as Tuvok points out, the act of jumping itself will not destroy subspace. The tiniest screwup would, but if everything went without a hitch, you might not even realize it moved (the crew of the USS Gold was still pretty much baffled, and they'd been stuck there for months).
Whatever jumped the Jenolan sphere did so either intentionally or automatically in response to or as a result of reopening the gateway network. Regardless of which, it was still done (either in person or set up far ahead of time) by somebody who knows the technology - either the Iconians or (more likely) a servitor race.
The Voth, on the other hand, have a woefully incomplete understanding of the Sphere's technology. Joint command barely understands it and won't risk using the jump drive, and we aren't laboring under the false assumptions dictated to the Voth by Doctrine. The Voth are pretty likely to TRIBBLE something up trying to jump the sphere themselves, and worse, even if they're successful, now they're out of allied reach and still sitting on enough Omega to destroy subspace over most of the galaxy, and still being really, really irresponsible about it, meaning sooner or later, they're probably going to TRIBBLE something else up.
cryptic might have a story explanation about the differences yet to be reveled but the fact remains , its been admitted that the omega particle is used to power the jumps so creates a inconsistency . IMO
The ONE time the Federation experimented with Omega, they broke a sector... Sooo....
Because they weren't able to stabilise the omega. But the aliens who were making lots, had a way to use it for power semi safely. And seven thought she could stabilise it fully. Plus this sphere has been doing its thing formaybe over 300,000 years.
That said, i think it would be fascinating to have the jenolan sphere have jumped into the deadzone voyager made detonating thousands of omega molecules. If the undine fluidic rifts open near it, defense will be rather tricky. Plus cryptic have full freedom to do anything with the relationship between warp speed, fluidic space and subspace, as that was never defined in canon. I dunno, nor care what any books might have said.
So maybe the Solanae Sphere was built for power generation and the Jolean sphere for some other mysterious purpose.
I'm looking forward to learning more in Season 9..
My character Tsin'xing
But the Jenolan Sphere jumped just like the Solonae Sphere has the capability of. And there is a Solonae/Iconian Gate in the Jenolan Sphere. The logical implication is that Jenolan Sphere's Space Fold/Jump engine is fueled by Omega Particles. So the challenge is to explained why the Enterprise-D didn't sense the Omega Particles in the Jenolan Sphere. The easiest explaination is that the Jenolan Sphere wasn't activaly producting Omega Particles and that those Omega is did have where in a storage cell which renderned them undetectable to Federation sensors.
You'e just fallen into a logical fallacy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_fallacy
The Solanae sphere activated the Omega Directive because there was Omega being produced and stored on the sphere's surface. The station that performed the jump is nearly invisible to sensors because it's so deep in the star's magnetic field. Joint command and the Voth weren't even initially aware of it, and it sounds like Joint Command only found out when the Voth made a move for it.
If the same station or one based on the same Iconian technology is present in the Jenolan sphere, it would also be very close to the star's photosphere. The Jenolan's sun is far more active than the Solanae's, enough to make the surface uninhabitable and pose a hazard to ships inside. The station would be even harder to detect than the one in the Solanae sphere. Normal scans likely can't detect it and a visual telescope could find it but wouldn't activate the Omega Directive. The much higher activity of the star probably prevents a closer examination by a Starship or boarding crew, as well.