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Where was the Botany Bay going?

Myasishchev

Myasishchev

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Okay, so when Khan was toppled from power in South Asia, he fled aboard the Botany Bay into outer space, using suspended animation technology to preserve his and his followers' lives during the long sublight journey.

Where was he journeying to?

The only real possibilities are planets in near-Earth star systems, like Alpha Centauri. Obviously, however, the Botany Bay never reached any intended destination.

Did "1990s" humanity realize that Alpha Centauri held a habitable planet? This is a possibility, as we're approaching the point where we can determine the chemical makeup of extrasolar rocky planets. But what happened? Did the Botany Bay miss her target somehow, and careen off into the black?

Or was the BB much closer to Earth than is immediately obvious. Even at the generous speed of .01c, she would be 3.6 light years away from Earth--not even at Alpha Centauri yet.

This would also explain a little bit about how Enterprise got to Regula, apparently nearby Ceti Alpha, so quickly.
 
Years ago, I read an essay someone wrote - non-canon, of course - that speculated that on occasion an object could get pulled into a passing ship's warp bubble, and pulled out into space somewhere. This, to me, would explain how non-warp objects, such as Pioneer Probe in TFF, the cryogenic satelite in TNG The Neutral Zone, and the Botany Bay could have gotten so far into space, or just not being detected in what must be the heart of the Federation.
NOw, this doesn't answer the question WHERE was the Botany Bay heading, so I'll just say Disneyland.
Seriously, it's possible, I suppose, that out of an act of pure desperation, it launched in an effort to escape destruction, with no actual destination in mind.
 
sbk1234 said:
Years ago, I read an essay someone wrote - non-canon, of course - that speculated that on occasion an object could get pulled into a passing ship's warp bubble, and pulled out into space somewhere. This, to me, would explain how non-warp objects, such as Pioneer Probe in TFF, the cryogenic satelite in TNG The Neutral Zone, and the Botany Bay could have gotten so far into space, or just not being detected in what must be the heart of the Federation.
NOw, this doesn't answer the question WHERE was the Botany Bay heading, so I'll just say Disneyland.
Seriously, it's possible, I suppose, that out of an act of pure desperation, it launched in an effort to escape destruction, with no actual destination in mind.
Click to expand...

If I had a suspended animation ship, but with no known planetary destination outside the solar system, and a whole planet wanting me for genocide...

I'd launch, and before going into the freeze tubes, I'd put the ship on a long cometary orbit, one that would return to Earth in 500-1000 years or so, after the brouhaha had died down.
 
sbk1234 said:
Years ago, I read an essay someone wrote - non-canon, of course - that speculated that on occasion an object could get pulled into a passing ship's warp bubble, and pulled out into space somewhere. This, to me, would explain how non-warp objects, such as Pioneer Probe in TFF, the cryogenic satelite in TNG The Neutral Zone, and the Botany Bay could have gotten so far into space, or just not being detected in what must be the heart of the Federation.
NOw, this doesn't answer the question WHERE was the Botany Bay heading, so I'll just say Disneyland.
Seriously, it's possible, I suppose, that out of an act of pure desperation, it launched in an effort to escape destruction, with no actual destination in mind.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. With the distortion that would inevitably create, the best laid Newtonian plans of Khan's navigator might be thrown disastrously out of whack by a Vulcan starship passing light years away. This would also explain why warping inside a star system is considered incredibly bad form, because of all the little sublight craft that could get carried fatally off course by a starship's warp wake, but, for example, in an uninhabited/uncivilized system, or during a crisis like in In Purgatory's Shadow, they do it anyway.

Of course, if Khan's exile was pure desperation, why not suicide? The 1 in a million chance of recovery versus the certainty of death, I suppose.

I wonder how much of the Earth space program is owed to the Augments, anyway. It appears they spearheaded the first deep-space colonization efforts, inasmuch as they presumably built that DY-100. Interestingly, Voyager 6 and NOMAD would have come from roughly the Augment era.

The Laughing Vulcan said:
If I had a suspended animation ship, but with no known planetary destination outside the solar system, and a whole planet wanting me for genocide...

I'd launch, and before going into the freeze tubes, I'd put the ship on a long cometary orbit, one that would return to Earth in 500-1000 years or so, after the brouhaha had died down.
Click to expand...

Now that's a decent plan.
 
Myasishchev said:
Did "1990s" humanity realize that Alpha Centauri held a habitable planet?
Click to expand...

Deep thrust telescopic probes conclusively established a planet circling Alpha Centauri was indeed capable of supporting human existence, therefore Jupiter II took off for that planet on Oct. 16, 1997. ;)


They didn't have any better luck than Khan.
 
I'd launch, and before going into the freeze tubes, I'd put the ship on a long cometary orbit, one that would return to Earth in 500-1000 years or so, after the brouhaha had died down.
Click to expand...

Perhaps Khan attempted that, but mis-set the controls somehow.

Or perhaps he had a different plan on that same vein. Remember that his ship had a beacon that rather actively emitted familiar Earth CQ signals. And his first question after waking was not "Who are you?" or "Where am I?" but "How long?", as if the first two questions were irrelevant or their answers already known.

So, a possible plan: head out into space, silently at first, and then after a few centuries turn on the beacon so that gullible starfaring Earthmen will pick you up and subject themselves to a hijacking. Proceed to rebuild your empire, or perhaps another empire, with this upgraded space vessel.

Timo Saloniemi
 
That sort of plan does depend on future humanity not thinking Khan is the root of all evil. I wonder, what would we do if Genghis Khan reappeared in a spaceship. Would he be a historical curiosity? Tried for war crimes? Become a frozen caveman lawyer?
 
Well, if that was the plan, it panned out wrt our heroes: Kirk, Scotty and even McCoy seemed to be big fans of Khan.

For all we know, he was always considered one of the good guys. We have no solid support for the idea that he fled a mundie revolution; it could just as well be that he fled from an (evil) superman competitor of his, just before the mundies did in all the remaining (evil) supermen.

I guess Genghis Khan today would enjoy the protection of an endangered species - and that many political powers would find it advantageous to join the Mongols in their undoubtedly unwavering support of ol' Genghis, especially if other political powers decided to prosecute Genghis for what was merely the norm of things for his barbaric day and age. Then again, I doubt Genghis would be in a position to rebuild his famous empire, whereas Khan had some built-in features for doing exactly that.

Timo Saloniemi
 
Both: Delta Vega Vulcanis and Delta Vega Extremis. And the nearly forgotten Delta Vega House
 
maybe they got trapped in one of those faster then light magnetic space storms like the one that valient got caught up in.

but considering that in trek verse space flight was more advanced they may have known that alpha centari had habitable planets.
 
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