Warp Drives and Dilithium

This was written for one of my Bonaventure submissions on DeviantArt. Unless proven impracticable, this will be incorporated into the game canon in order to explain why warp speeds remained stagnant for so long between Enterprise and TOS.

A (Very) Brief History of Dilithium Use in the Federation

In 2009, the historic inaugural mission of the Grand Tours was begun, when the Lewis and Clark, an Aventeur exploration craft—sublight in propulsion—was launched from Earth in a joint mission of two of the planet’s space agencies. The ship was crewed by the (now) famous Commander Shaun Geoffrey Christopher, Dr. Marcus O'Herlihy, and Mission Specialist Alice Fontana and staffed by 12 scientists of varying specialties. Their mission was to visit and explore the planetary systems of both Jupiter and Saturn, landing and mapping the moons and rings of both, where suitable. It was one of six planned missions to the outer worlds, intending to put Human explorers where only robotic ones had gone before.

However, unrevealed (by mission commander decree) until the mission’s return to Earth in 2039, the teams discovered something that changed the heliocentric view of Humanity, at least within the scientific community: at landing sites on the Saturnian moons of Enceladus and Dione existed clear and unmistakable signs of mining operations. And these were not the remains of Khan’s Augments, as the equipment and other detritus recovered by Lewis and Clark were clearly not of Earth origin. There were even examples of compounds and traces of elements seen never before, including numerous samples of something later identified (on Earth) as ununennium, with the atomic number 119 and an atomic weight of 87, a previously theoretical element. However, to the crew of the explorer, the samples were simply referred to as “the red coral crystals.”

The existence of an alien presence—even if in the past—was not released to the general public. However, select scientists, both individuals and teams of labs, were brought in on the discovery, in order to best understand what Christopher and his team had retrieved. In 2049, an extremely young (but post-doctoral) Zefram Cochrane had the opportunity to examine one of the red coral crystals at length, whereupon he realized this sample of ununennium was exhibiting attributes of the (extremely) theoretical hypersonic series. After a number of open and then covert experiments, he decided his hypothesis was correct and began researching applications of the element, leading to his now famous invention of the continuum distortion propulsion engine, or warp drive. The historic testing of the drive in 2063, of course, led to first contact by a Vulcan geologic survey expedition.

The Vulcans had been using the coleopteric (aka, ring) warp drive since the 19th century (upon their post-Time of Awakening return to space), achieving warp 7 (on the OCU scale) by the mid-22nd century. However, their drive was built for the speeds necessary to traverse large distances—during a time with far less aggressive space-going species—and were less maneuverable as a result. They, also, had not found a reliable, natural source for dilithium, concluding it was of artificial manufacture, and had restricted the use of the limited procured samples to their few combat cruisers. Their slower vessels, including the explorers, utilized fusion reactors, which were bulkier and restricted to the slower speeds.

When the Humans and the Tellarites simultaneously met each other in their respective systems in 2073, the traders were very open (with reasonably “bartered” exchanges, of course) with their technology, though far less advanced than that of the Vulcans. Plasma derived from fusion power was the preferred energy source for their warp coils and the porcine fleets made up for the slow attributes of their drives with sheer quantities of smaller trade ships flitting about known space.

The territorial Andorians were less open with their technological prowess. Forcefully introducing themselves to Humanity in 2151, they clearly had the ability to stand face-to-face with Vulcan combat cruisers, with their own battle cruisers of similar size. They, too, used only fusion reactors, but were able to increase the efficiency through the use of variable compression nozzle technology, which utilized peristaltic forcefields to increase the energy output of the plasma.

Determined to stand on their own collective feet, Humanity sought to break free of the Vulcans’ technological and sociological restrictions by going further out than their present fleet was capable, and to do that they needed velocity. To break the warp 5 barrier, the United Earth Starfleet worked to develop their own non-Vulcan dilithium-focus annihilation core, which was the primary and key component of the Archer Warp Five engine. However, the equipment was complex, prone to mis-alignment with any significant jostling of the vessel, and maintenance-intensive. The USS Enterprise, the first vessel to go forth outside the radius of Earth’s colonies, appreciated the speed, when it was available, but Captain Archer would not be the last to describe it as temperamental. Nonetheless, dilithium crystals were acquired, at considerable expense, to moderate the other ships, both within the Enterprise/Columbia class, and in the classes that followed shortly thereafter.

Yet, Starfleet was soon to realize another cost associated with the dilithium-focused annihilation core. Despite the range and speed the engine allowed, the time needed in workups for ships following construction was extremely prolonged. Within a few years, when Earth was embroiled in conflict with the enigmatic Romulans, getting combat-equipped vessels within the warzone was critical. Be that as it may, the admiralty was realizing newly constructed ships were being delayed by months, just in order to enable their Warp 5 drives to get them to the battlespace. Once there, the same ships were being lost at a higher rate than slower vessels and with less damage, and there was more than enough evidence that failure of the antimatter containment within the chamber was the cause. The fleet soldiered on, persevered, and then took stock: dilithium was too difficult to keep focused in a way that made it more viable than typical fusion-derived plasma or the Andorian method of using complex forcefields to enable greater plasma pressure.

In 2169, following the full consolidation of the founding fleets into the UFP’s Star Fleet, the collaborative leadership team decided to shut down the dilithium reactors. Newer classes, such as the Almeida cruisers, were given a grace period—to expire in 2188—while other ships, such as the Columbias, were used as testbeds for the Andorian fusion-driven peristaltic warp drives, until war-era ships too were stood down in 2192. Star Fleet struggled with patrol ranges and response times, while desperately reviewing any and all research areas for answers to regain the advantages that came with warp 5 capabilities. The self-protective Andorians had opened themselves to the greater altruistic philosophy of the Federation and were providing greater insight into their forcefield advancements. Propulsion experts throughout the Federation began exploring the use of antimatter fed into conversion warp reactors, by the same large and complex peristaltic forcefields previously used on Andorian fusion warp reactors. Repeatable warp milestones were being met again, and even broken, with warp 6 a reliable achievement no later than 2194, at conversion rates that moved steadily down to 10:1, then 5:1, and finally 1:1, after 2207. Antimatter was now the standard “fuel” for the entire fleet and rapidly being adopted by the larger shipping lines, as well.

Then, in 2222, the discovery of dilithium as a natural resource was made, and the first source proved to be extremely convenient: the Federation colony world of Deneva. The Federation realized now how the unrefined element presented as; all that had to be done was to set up infrastructure for mining, refining, and surveys for discovering additional sources. While the lode on Deneva was relatively substantial, when compared to dilithium’s presence within Federation territory prior to the discovery, it was well understood that one source was not enough. A complete revolution of spaceflight was about to occur and it would not be limited to the UFP.

Synopsis

• 2063: Earth primarily uses fusion reactors to provide the plasma to warp coils; Vulcans use both fusion reactors for their slower vessels and dilithium-focus annihilation cores for their larger combat vessels. Tellarites use fusion reactors exclusively, as do Andorians, though theirs also make use of peristaltic forcefields to increase plasma pressure to allow greater warp speeds.

• 2151: Earth introduces their own design of a dilithium-focus annihilation core, with a large number of safety and reliability issues.

• 2169: the UFP Star Fleet decides to withdraw ships using dilithium-focus annihilation cores from service and instead utilize the Andorian fusion reactor drives enhanced with peristaltic forcefields, transitioning into antimatter drives using the same peristaltic forcefields to force conversion.

• 2207: the goal of total conversion (1:1 m/am) is achieved, allowing for greater speeds (if not smaller warp cores).

• 2222: unrefined dilithium discovered on Deneva proves the element does occur naturally, leading to the development of reliable dilithium-focus annihilation cores.