From: jwindley%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Jay Windley)
Subject: Re: Shield transport
Date: 16 Dec 92 15:16:26 MST
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept

jjaslow@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Jason (Jazzie) Jaslow) writes:
>
>How about this for a possibility.  The Genoan was a pretty old ship,
>from around the time of STV or VI I'd gather.  Maybe transporter
>technology has advanced enough to be able to beam out of these old
>shields, but not newer, stronger shields.  

Perhaps, but in the same episode Geordi told Scotty that transporter
technology had not changed since TOS times.

The key is to look at the only other time the shields were penetrated
-- namely, O'Brien's trick in "The Wounded."

The Tech Manual tells us that tactical deflectors are modulated to new
random frequencies at random intervals.  During the brief windows in
coverage, EM and subspace energy can pass through the shield
perimiter, because after all the shield is effectively down.  This
provides for communications and remote sensing while the shields
operate, while keeping enemy energy weapons out.  Transporters, we are
told, require too much bandwidth to exploit these short breaks.

So how did O'Brien do it?

I've always looked at the bandwidth problem as a timing problem.
Suppose the windows are very short.  Let us assume that the sensors
are able to detect another ship's sensor windows, but the latency in
the control systems prevents anything from being done before the
window closes.

Since these are random events, predicting them is not easy.  If you
try to connect the sensors to the transporter, the sensors say "the
window is open" but before the transporter can get this information,
spool up its emitters, and begin transmitting, the window closes
again.

But O'Brien had been a tactical officer.  It's reasonable to assume
that he would know the algorithm that randomized the shields.  Since
most random number generators actually pick numbers from a very long
repeating sequence, O'Brien could program his computer to watch for a
pattern of modulation in the other ship's shield which matched a known
subsequence produced by the algorithm.

He could then synchronize an identical random number generator on his
computer with that running on the other ship.  His computer would then
be able to predict the shield windows of the other ship.

He could use this predictive power to command the transporter to
transmit data through the windows without waiting for the sensors to
tell him when the windows are open.

Okay, now Geordi and Scotty knew that their shields only had to hold
open the mass of the door, not deflect enemy weapon energy.  And they
also considered the possibility that they would need to be transported
out.

So they programmed the shields to modulate at a steady frequency,
probably with larger windows in coverage.  O'Brien noticed that the
shield windows were easily predictable and allowed ample time to
transport and performed a similar trick as he had in "The Wounded."
Geordi and Scotty, of course, made it very easy to do.  O'Brien
probably discussed this problem with others after the events in "The
Wounded."

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         Jay Windley  *  University of Utah  *  Salt Lake City
                    jwindley@asylum.cs.utah.edu
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Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech