Transwarp drive Transwarp drive was a term applied to some types of propulsion technologies that overcame the limitations of conventional warp drive s . ( ) Technology . Federation transwarp drive . The Great Experiment . The was employed by Starfleet to test the Federation ' s version of the transwarp drive in the 2280s . ( ) By the following decade , however , the ship used a standard warp drive . ( ) Dilithium used in all Federation warp core s becomes unstable at the high warp frequency essential in the Federation transwarp design . Achieving warp 10 was never possible on the " Excelsior " . ( ) Flight of the " Cochrane " . In 2372 , a new form of dilithium was discovered from an asteroid field in the Delta Quadrant by the crew of the , which stayed stable at high frequencies . In transwarp simulations at speeds exceeding warp 9 . 7 , tritanium depolarization created a velocity differential between the nacelle s and fuselage of the ship . Lt . Tom Paris of the " Voyager " managed to adapt the quantum warp theory and the multispectral subspace engine design by setting up a depolarization matrix around the fuselage of the craft . In this design , the craft was first taken past warp 8 with traditional warp drive , and then switched over to transwarp drive for the warp 10 acceleration . The Class 2 shuttle " " was taken on the first manned flight through the warp 10 threshold into subspace . Piloted by Paris , he described the time he spent in infinite velocity as for a moment being everywhere . The crew of the " Voyager " hoped to return home earlier than expected , but navigation inside infinite velocity was something that remained untested . The first test flight returned the " Cochrane " into the exact same spot in space where it had crossed the barrier . Unfortunately for Paris , the effects of crossing the transwarp threshold on a Human soon became apparent , as Paris went into cellular mutation . His DNA began to rewrite itself within a day through what appeared to be possible future Human evolutionary stages over the coming millions of years . Even killing Paris with high levels of radiation , while trying to stop the transformations , failed to stop the mutation that quickly revived him to life again . Finally becoming mentally unstable , Paris kidnapped Captain Kathryn Janeway and took her on another transwarp journey ; this time , he was able to navigate the ship and emerge near a jungle planet . By the time the " Voyager " found them , they had both mutated into amphibian - type creatures and reproduced . The offspring were left in their new environment . Highly focused antiproton radiation was used in controlled five - second bursts to deteriorate all mutated DNA in the bodies ; thus forcing all mutated cells to revert to the original DNA coding that was still present in small traces in the amphibian bodies of Paris and Janeway . Their original genomes stabilized three days after treatment . ( ) Borg transwarp drive . The Borg had established a whole transwarp conduit network , that allowed any type of craft , or even a simple probe such as a log buoy , to travel at transwarp velocities . Even though such networks existed , Borg starships were also equipped with transwarp drives that generated conduits when pre - existing conduits were not available . ( ) This type of transwarp drive utilized a combination of the traditional warp drive , navigational deflector and deflector shield s as its components . The ship was taken to warp factor 2 . 3 to generate the initial required large subspace field . The navigational deflector was modified to use a tachyon matrix within it to emit tachyon burst s on a high - energy band . The deflector shield of the ship was used to emit the tachyon bursts into space at the resonant transwarp frequency level . The subspace field of the conduit then formed in front of the ship . A Federation propulsion system , such as the class 9 warp drive of an starship , however would experience erratic power fluctuations during the transwarp frequency emission . The fluctuations lead to a core pressure increase . This in turn resulted in an unstoppable flood of tachyons to the core and ultimately a core breach , unless the core was ejected . The Borg used transwarp coil s as the power source during the generation of transwarp conduits and did not experience this problem . Any warp - capable Federation ship could also utilize Borg transwarp coils . ( ) When a ship was generating a conduit it was traveling within transwarp space and could easily detect the residual and active transwarp signature s of other ships that were generating conduits or had generated conduits . The area of normal space within a conduit was called a matter stream . ( ) When a huge vessel such as a Borg cube used a conduit , it encountered extreme temporal stresses . To maintain a temporal sync inside the ship , a chroniton field needed to be projected throughout the hull from specially - designed conduits in the vessel . Using a recalibrated warp core to generate the field from chroniton - infused bio - neural circuitry , the same effect could be achieved on a Federation ship . However ships like the USS " Voyager " and the were small enough to stay in temporal sync without this modification . ( , ) A ship as large as a Borg cube was also subject to extreme gravimetric shear once it entered the conduit it was generating . To compensate , the cube projected a structural integrity field in front of it using navigational deflectors . Smaller vessels did not experience this problem . ( ) Once a conduit had been generated , both of its apertures could be re - opened from the outside with a high - energy tachyon pulse emission on a specific tachyon frequency matrix that alternated between the low and secondary bandwidth frequencies . In this way the conduits could be utilized by any type of craft . A ship as large as a starship would experience a slight power drain during conduit travel . When exiting a transwarp conduit the exit aperture opened automatically . ( ) Voth transwarp drive . The Voth have also perfected their own transwarp drive design . Each starship was equipped with a transwarp drive . This technology produced no harmful effects to DNA or an expansion of awareness . Voth ships could also move between regular warp and transwarp . As a ship exited transwarp , a spatial displacement was registered if the ship was not cloaked . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The seen in " Threshold " was reused as set decoration in a episode " Revelations " of the science fiction series . In the script of , the warp drive of the alternate reality is called trans - warp at one point by . Though the line from the script : " " By recommending a full stop in trans - warp in the midst of a rescue mission ? " " was changed to " " By recommending a full stop mid - warp during a rescue mission ? " " for the final cut of the film . Canonically it has never been stated that the " Excelsior " did not achieve limited transwarp flight , only that it did not achieve infinite velocity . The " " ( p . 14 ) states that the Transwarp Development Project was simply unable to surpass the " primary warp field efficiency barrier " in the early 2280s . It is not clear what this barrier actually was . According to the , the project was deemed unsuccessful by Starfleet Command to the degree that the " Excelsior " was refitted with a standard warp drive . An editor ' s note in the " Chronology " speculates the line by Data : " " There has not been a systems - wide technological failure on a starship in 79 years " " , in , was a reference to the result of the failure of the " Excelsior " s transwarp drive in 2287 . According to " Mr . Scott ' s Guide to the Enterprise , " as stated on page 112 , the Federation transwarp drive designed for the " Excelsior " was based on a partial re - creation of the interphasic rift encountered by the , in 2268 , in the episode . During the escape from the Tholian tractor field through the brief drop into the interphase , it was recorded by sensors that time would move over 5 times faster inside the interphase for a ship traveling at warp . After the incident , research began on the possibility of creating artificial interphases for travel purposes . With the use of an intricate warp and transporter field matrix , it was possible to open entry and exit points . As the interphase space is completely devoid of matter and energy ( and has a subspace fabric ) , the ship can cruise inside it on a direct heading to its destination . While time passes for the crew as it would during normal warp travel , upon emerging from interphase a shorter period of time has passed in normal space . The advantage of this type of transwarp , which should then probably be called " interphase warp drive , " is therefore only relative . This explanation would not be entirely consistent with what has been canonically established about travel in spatial interphase , or " interspace " as it was also called . In " The Tholian Web , " the " Enterprise " was , however , able to cross 2 . 72 parsecs ( almost 9 light years ) in an instant , making some link with that tear and the Federation transwarp design plausible . Also the fact that the Borg use interspatial manifold s to support the structure of a transwarp hub s seems to suggest a link . Bridge graphics created by Michael Okuda for the bridge set of the in also suggest that the " Enterprise " - A had at that time a transwarp drive installed . These graphics include a transwarp subsys screen that was visible on camera ; and transwarp geometry and transwarp interphase / field stress screens that were not . Legible versions of these bridge graphics were published in the " Mr . Scott ' s Guide to the Enterprise " ( pp . 122 – 123 ) . The " Spaceflight Chronology " ( p . 181 ) introduced a similar concept as " superwarp " , where the warp factor formula is raised from a cubic formula to the fourth power , based on mathematics of higher dimensions and data on parallel universes . As the " Chronology " displays two proposed test ships that bear no resemblance to the " Excelsior " , it is possible this is a completely unrelated technology . Apocrypha . According to DC Comics Who ' s Who in Star Trek issue 1 , the Federation transwarp drive was initially an invention by Zefram Cochrane . Cochrane ' s notes on transwarp drive were found on the Gamma Canaris N planetoid on a follow - up visit by the in the 2270s . According to the Pocket Books novel " Battlestations ! " , instead of the dilithium crystals the Federation transwarp drive engine design utilized solid trilithium that retains integrity for workable periods of time . Created in a process of extreme refinement of standard dilithium , it allowed the use of the advanced compacted flow of energy required by the transwarp drive . The Federation transwarp drive was researched for over eight years by Perren , a specialist in interspace physics . In the mid - 23rd century , Professor Ursula Mornay perfected the theory for transwarp , though Perren was responsible for constructing the actual hardware for the engine . According to a short story in " The Lives of Dax " , the Federation transwarp drive was jointly developed by Starfleet and the Daystrom Institute . It was first tested by Trill pilot Torias Dax in 2284 on the shuttlecraft . The resulting shuttlecraft accident was referenced in , but not its connection to transwarp drive . In " Star Trek Online " , the Federation and the major powers of the Alpha Quadrant operate a Transwarp conduit network , and most starships have been fitted with transwarp drives capable of accessing it by 2409 , as well as through the use of . The network enabled near - instantaneous access to a number of destinations , including the Only ships had advanced transwarp drives that did not require a gate , but their use had the chance of not working . In recent updates to the game , the use of transwarp without a gate was made a skill that Vice Admiral ranks and higher had access to and could be used with any starship . The locations that could be accessed were limited and gates were still needed to access certain areas of the galaxy .