Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I wouldn’t be surprised if most ships received this call several times. Specially exploration ships.
Except for the one at sector 001, I think they were pranked.
Edit: had to redact my comment to not waste the excellent reference someone made below.
People make fun of 40k for how outlandish some of the scale is, but I think it’s the only canon that understands the massive amount of resources a galactic-wide empire would have at their disposal. Doubly so when it’s willing to genocide any alien races, strip mine the planet they were on, and ignore even a pretense of caring about human rights. But even a more benign empire should have ridiculous amounts of ships and weapons and people available to it.
While not a 40k nerd by any stretch, what I’ve been exposed to absolutely tracks with this assessment. The writers behind it very clearly did some deep thought-exercises about the possible ramifications of such mind-boggling scale. Including what values might be normalized if you toss out the idea that mankind itself has such an inconceivably enormous headcount that extinction isn’t even a consideration, no matter what happens.
It’s so mind numbingly large that light, which would encircle the equator 7 times in a second, takes 8 fucking minutes to get to us from the sun. And 4 years to get to us from the nearest star.
If we shrunk down the universe so that the sun was about the size of a grain of sand, the nearest star would be 10,000 miles away and there would be nothing but emptiness between us. A few scattered atoms floating about, so rare and distant that hitting one would be less likely than winning the lottery twice in a row while being struck by lightning.
This was the thought experiment of why ships aren’t constantly crossing paths in Star Trek. It’s not like you and 3 people running around in a Walmart parking lot. It’s you and only 3 other people driving around in the entire country.
The fact that they cross as often as they DO is insane.
In Voyager 7 finds a Star Fleet ship at something like 60,000 light years away, in an episode that would have been great if not for one unfortunate guest appearance.
Yes, BUT a Federation starship can travel at the equivalent of many, many times the speed of light, such that it could cross our solar system from the Sun to Pluto’s orbit in half a minute without breaking a sweat.
Sure, at that speed it still takes a few days to reach the next nearest star system, but most of these incidents take place in or near the Sol system, where you would think Starfleet would have a number of ships stationed at any given moment. Even if they’re hobbled, they should be able to respond to a threat to the solar system within a couple of hours at most.
Even if you were able to travel from one side of the galaxy to the other, you’ve have to travel that exact length about 25 more times just to reach the edge of the closest galaxy, Andromeda.
Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I wouldn’t be surprised if most ships received this call several times. Specially exploration ships.
Except for the one at sector 001, I think they were pranked.
Edit: had to redact my comment to not waste the excellent reference someone made below.
You might think it’s a long way down to the shops, but that’s just peanuts compared to space.
People make fun of 40k for how outlandish some of the scale is, but I think it’s the only canon that understands the massive amount of resources a galactic-wide empire would have at their disposal. Doubly so when it’s willing to genocide any alien races, strip mine the planet they were on, and ignore even a pretense of caring about human rights. But even a more benign empire should have ridiculous amounts of ships and weapons and people available to it.
While not a 40k nerd by any stretch, what I’ve been exposed to absolutely tracks with this assessment. The writers behind it very clearly did some deep thought-exercises about the possible ramifications of such mind-boggling scale. Including what values might be normalized if you toss out the idea that mankind itself has such an inconceivably enormous headcount that extinction isn’t even a consideration, no matter what happens.
It’s so mind numbingly large that light, which would encircle the equator 7 times in a second, takes 8 fucking minutes to get to us from the sun. And 4 years to get to us from the nearest star.
If we shrunk down the universe so that the sun was about the size of a grain of sand, the nearest star would be 10,000 miles away and there would be nothing but emptiness between us. A few scattered atoms floating about, so rare and distant that hitting one would be less likely than winning the lottery twice in a row while being struck by lightning.
This was the thought experiment of why ships aren’t constantly crossing paths in Star Trek. It’s not like you and 3 people running around in a Walmart parking lot. It’s you and only 3 other people driving around in the entire country.
The fact that they cross as often as they DO is insane.
In Voyager 7 finds a Star Fleet ship at something like 60,000 light years away, in an episode that would have been great if not for one unfortunate guest appearance.
Who was the unfortunate guest appearance?
Andy Dick. He was the EMH mk2. He just gives a really bad performance.
Oh I thought you were referring to the episode Equinox as the ship 7 finds.
Yes, BUT a Federation starship can travel at the equivalent of many, many times the speed of light, such that it could cross our solar system from the Sun to Pluto’s orbit in half a minute without breaking a sweat.
Sure, at that speed it still takes a few days to reach the next nearest star system, but most of these incidents take place in or near the Sol system, where you would think Starfleet would have a number of ships stationed at any given moment. Even if they’re hobbled, they should be able to respond to a threat to the solar system within a couple of hours at most.
the borg is a joke to you? nah fuck this guy, I lost people at wolf 359 !
The borg are cold calculating killer machines, no laughing matter!
ngl I’d watch a mr bean x borg crossover.
Even if you could travel at Lightspeed, it would still take forever to get most places.
You can travel for 8+ billion years at light speed and still not hit the end.
Even if you were able to travel from one side of the galaxy to the other, you’ve have to travel that exact length about 25 more times just to reach the edge of the closest galaxy, Andromeda.