this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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Risa
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Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
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Also humans: If we eject the warp core behind us, we could use it like a mine and take out the persuing ship.
Yes and now we have no engine power and 1 hour of life support left before we suffocate. Everyone except the EMH who doesn't require oxygen.
How can they still run the EMH if they don't have power for running a few fans?
They can't but it doesn't die either. If you think about it, more than a few crew could survive on a crippled starship. Maybe some go into a protective stasis or an Android officer like Data could be retrievable.
The warp core isn't the only source of power on the whole ship; it's just the biggest and electroplasmiest. Starships also have fusion power plants. Y'know, those old-fashioned atom-smashing machines? They're crude, like the power-plant equivalent of two cavemen swinging wooden clubs at each other, but they power the impulse drives, and nobody's going to complain about at least being able to go somewhere when the anomaly of the week turns the warp core into a flower pot or something.
For some reason, nothing bad ever seems to happen to the fusion reactors. I guess it's because the reaction fizzling out and shutting down quietly isn't very dramatic. Fusion reactors aren't all explodey like antimatter is.
Of course it did. It's an antimatter reactor. It goes boom like a giant photon torpedo. Trouble is, warp cores don't exactly grow on trees, neither does the antimatter fuel, and you have to somehow get clear of the huge explosion without a working warp drive.
Not a problem, divert power from everything, backwards facing shields to maximum then surf the wave.
Then you just gotta' deal with wherever the fuck you end up in the middle of space without a warp core.
One wonders how exactly a shield generator, generally portrayed as one of the most power-intensive components of a starship after the warp drive, still has enough power to function with only the fusion reactors and no warp core.
The shields are powered by plot armour in an emergency. It's an incredibly powerful force.
It's a common mistake that the warp core is the primary power plant for the whole ship. That'd be wasteful, as they use fusion plants to make antimatter in the first place.
TNG tech manual states that starbase antimatter production is around 25% efficient. Starships can make their own, but it implies that it's even less efficient than a starbase.
Most of the ship gets power from fusion. Those can't dump enough energy at once to power higher warp factors (limit is maybe warp 3), though, so you use energy while not at warp to make antimatter, which can then be dumped into the warp core later.
Shields will work fine with just the fusion plants.
And ride the explody wavey thing, hang ten, bro!
Bajorans and humans fist bumping in front of an exploding warp core
You got this, Shaxs!