Star Trek musing

        I've just been reading the Trek posts, and while doing so I was
reminded of something from the old "Manual of the Planes" book.  Those of
you who have that book, brush off the dust and turn to Appendix I, the bit
about Prime Material Planes.

        I don't want to go into detail here, but described in this passage
is a way of measuring differences in magic, physical characteristics of a
prime plane, and so forth.  A typical AD&D universe is given a rating of
"zero," in that every other type of world is measured agains this fixed
point.  A twentieth-century world is shown as being several notches away.  A
23rd or 24th century world like that of Star Trek would be further still.
        This system was designed to work with parallel prime material
planes, but I don't see why I couldn't also be applied to crystal spheres.
In fact, we've seen a few examples of where physical laws behave a little
differently from one sphere to the next.  Smoke powder, for example, works
fine in Realmspace, but in Greyspace it often fails, while in Krynnspace
it's sometimes amplified.  (Remember Gomja's little mishap with his pistol
when he landed on Krynn?  That must have hurt...)
        So, even among the "normal" AD&D worlds, variations in physical laws
exists.  That being said, a crossover could start with having the starship
thrown into a crystal sphere with physical characteristics similar to that
of a 24th century "physical" universe.  Once they encounter the flow,
however, all bets are off.  Their equipment may work normally, and the hull
of a starship is thick enough to avoid being dammages by all the most
devistating flow-fire, but their sensors won't know what to make of the
stuff.  I imagine they would interpret each sphere is a sealed,
mini-universe, but the flow would baffle them.
        Furthermore, as they go from one sphere to another (opening portals
is another problem), they may find their equipment suddenly stops working,
or works differently.  They may suddenly find themselves adrift when they
find out their warp core stopped running.  They then have to find "new
technologies" that are native to this new universe.  If this keeps up long
enough, the starship will eventually have an impressive arsenal of equipment
        The crew members may suddenly find themselves showing new skills.
For example, a betazed may evolve into a type of psionicist.  The crewman
who used to do "magic" card tricks in the crew lounge is now able to create
fireballs by reciting a few select words.
        I'm oversimplifying things, but hopefully you get the idea.  Having
a "scientific" ship suddenly thrown into a "fantastic" universe could make
for all kinds of interesting results.

        Now I have a question for you all.  What kind of helm would you need
to power a starship?  A runabout is easily 25 tons.  If the starship in
question is something like a Constitution class or Intreped class, we're
easily talking about enhanced major helms.  If you're thinking of an
Ambassador, Soverign, or Galaxy class... Ultimate Helm, no other way.


Richard
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|Richard J. Pugh, MLS      | PUGH.RICHARD@???????.???.gov         |
| rjpugh@???????.net       | http://www.patriot.net/users/rjpugh/ |
| rjpugh@???.com           |                                      |
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