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An explanation of the 'Galactic Highways: Throughout the episodes of Star Trek, dating back to The Original Series, the ships have been able to cross incredible distances in days or hours, when they should have taken years or months. The Daystrom Institute Technical Library (DITL) details some theories as to why this happens. I am calling these highways 'Warp Highways', and they are essential pathways of Federation (and other races') travel. They are included in the map as white dotted lines.As per the DITL article, a speed multiplier of 25 exists along those highways, but travel returns to normal as soon as a ship leaves the highway. For easy reference, I have already worked out the travel times for the following destinations (with the help of a Warp Speed Calculator) below. Included is the average Starfleet cruising speed of Warp 6, and the London's maximum sustainable speed of Warp 9.9. All calculations have been rounded | | With Warp Highways | No Warp Highways | | Start location | Destination / Light Years | Warp 6 | Warp 9.9 | Warp 6 | Warp 9.9 | Slipstream | | Earth | Bajor / 125 | 15 days | 2 days,
14 hours | 4 mths | 6 days,
13 hours | 2 days,
9 hours | | Earth | Klingon homeworld / 200 | 18 days | 3 days | 6 mths | 9 days | 3 days,
19 hours | | Earth | Romulan Neutral Zone / 100 | 3 days,
18 hours | 11 hours* | 3 mths | 12 days | 1 day,
21 hours | | Earth | Deneb (Farpoint
Station) / 3200 | 4 mths | 15 days | 8 yrs,
2 mths | 5 mths | 2 mths,
1 day | | Bajor | Klingon homeworld / 250 | 1 mth | 4 days | 7 mths,
20 days | 1 mth | 4 days,
18 hours | Caretaker,
Gamma Quadrant | Earth / 70,000 | | 178 years,
6 mths | 22 years,
11 mths | 3 years,
8 months |
* In Star Trek: First Contact, it seemed that the Enterprise-E went from the Romulan Neutral Zone to Earth to fight the Borg cube within only a few hours at the most. Using the highway and traveling at emergency speed of Warp 9.99, it would have only taken 4 hours to arrive at Earth.Using the map above, and the Warp Speed Calculator, you too can work out how long it will take to get from one area of the quadrant/s to another. Don't forget to take into account the distance between the highway and departure and destination points, as there are likely to be around 3 distance calculations you will need to take into account. Eg. it is around 12 light years from Bajor to the highway, 200 light years along the highway to the Klingon homeworld, and then another 12 light years from the highway to the actual planet. Have fun!
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