Romulan Technology
This page is
about Romulan technology like the cloaking device and
quantum singularity drive. Those two technologies
are the greatest
achievements of Romulan scientists.
The articles were taken
directly from the cited websites and corrected for grammar.
Pictures from http://www.ditl.org and http://www.startrek.com
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Disruptors
mid 24th Century disruptor pistol
Also known as a Phase Disruptor, these weapons are in common use throughout the alpha quadrant.1 They follow the same basic principle as the Federation Phaser in that they cause the target to transition violently out of this continuum. But the Disruptor uses slow nadions rather than rapid nadions in generating the energy beam. This gives the disruptor a considerably lower energy conversion efficiency than the Starfleet phaser. This is partially offset by a moderate reduction in the size of the hardware required for the weapon itself - the space freed up by this allows a higher power weapon to be installed in the same space. The Federation phaser is therefore considered to be more sophisticated and generally more effective than the disruptor, which relies on brute power to overcome its efficiency failings.
Late 24th Century disruptor rifle
Like phasers, disruptor weapons can fire sustained beams or pulses depending on the exact configuration of the hardware.1 One major drawback to this type of weapon is that no user has been able to develop the efficiency of the system to a point where individual emitters can be linked via force coupling. This makes it virtually impossible to construct a linear disruptor array along the pattern of Starfleets phaser arrays. Since these weapons entered Federation service on board the Ambassador class there has been massive investment by the Klingons and Romulans to overcome this deficiency, but neither power has been able to field such a weapon. Recent warship designs by these two powers have instead concentrated on building ever larger and more powerful single emitter weapons, culminating in the two giant disruptor cannon fitted to the Klingon Negh'Var class. The linear phaser array thus remains a significant advantage for Starfleet.
Cloaking Device
On Stardate 1709.1 the Bonhomme's sensors
picked up
a ship in Romulan
Space. Suddenly, it vanished from the sensors, reappeared directly in
front of the outpost and fired what later came to be called a
"plasma torpedo". The torpedo obliterated the outpost's
deflector screens, nearly destroying it. A second shot finished the
intruder's job. Then the ship simply disappeared from view.
That was the first encounter with the Romulans after almost a century
since the battle of Cheron. The vessel that destroyed S-4023 (and also
S-4024 and S-4025) was a Romulan P-1A Bird of Prey
with a first generation cloaking device. Later, a third generation cloaking device
was obtained by the
U.S.S. Enterprise in an espionage mission.
The Klingons gained the technology from their alliance with the
Romulans in exchange for their D-6 Raxor and D-7 Klolode battle
cruisers. Thus the three major powers in this part of the galaxy came
to posses what proved to be one of the most formidable weapons ever.
Star Fleet, which used the cloaking device on its vessels in the late
2200's and early 2300's, has decided that the peaceful (mostly)
mission definition of the Explorer type of starships precludes its
use. Further- more, the overall shape and hull materials used in the
Galaxy, Ambassador, and Oberth class starships would interfere with
the cloaking device. Although it is still possible to cloak them, the
energy necessary increases beyond reasonable limit. Today, only
specialized scouting, stealth, and battle ships use cloaking devices.
The Klingon Empire has used the cloaking technology ever since their
technology exchange with the Romulans in 2263, and continues to do so.
Nearly all of its Bird of Prey type ships are equipped with it as are
the D- 6, D-7, D-8 (K'T'Inga), and the new K'Vort class battle
cruisers.
Our Empire naturally still uses the cloaking device. Although much
about them is now unknown due to the fifty-year contact breach after
the Tomad incident, it is certain that their newest vessels, the D'Deridex class warbirds, are equipped with a new generation of cloaking
devices which have so far defied all Federation attempts at detection
without the use of tachyons.
Our cloaking device is an energy screen generator used to render a ship or object invisible to the eye and to most sensor systems. This is accomplished by gravitational lensing, the creation of a distorted image of an object when it's light is focused by gravity. In the case of a cloaking device, the light is focused so that the object's index of refraction (the phase velocity of radiation in free space divided by the phase velocity of the same radiation in a specified medium) matches its surroundings, making the object transparent. Cloaking a ship requires precisely balancing the radiative emissions from the warp drive nacelles, dissipating all electromagnetic radiation, gravitational fields and other energy emissions emanating from the ship, and distorting space in such a way that electromagnetic radiation and energy emissions are directed around the ship through subspace at velocities faster than light.
Cloaking devices have been classified into
the following categories according to their overall effectiveness:
Mk 1 Cloak: Original usage, early Warbirds only. Used electromagnetic
radiation shielding quite effectively to cloak only visible and
near-visible radiation. Can instantaneously cloak and decloak, but
required large amounts of power.
Mk 2 Cloak: A major improvement on the Mk 1, this device cloaked all
electromagnetic radiation, except high energy Gamma rays. Can
instantaneously cloak and decloak, but was remarkably inefficient.
Craft: Romulan Scouts and Warbirds, also Klingon D-7 Cruisers, and
later the joint Romulan/Klingon scout and Bird Of Prey.
Mk 3.0 Cloak: The first gravity distorting cloak. The early prototype
craft had problems with energetic effects occurring inside the cloak
as a result of trapped spurious thermal emissions within the cloaking
field. This was overcome by giving the craft a green coloration. This
tuned the thermal energy to a frequency where it could leak very
slowly through the cloak without revealing the ships presence, still
common practice on most cloaked vessels. This early Mk 3 had only the
spherical field setting and could not be effectively wave mapped. It
could not instantly cloak and decloak, but saw much use on most
Romulan craft and the Bird Of Prey.
Mk 3.1 Cloak: This improved device featured instantaneous propagation
of the spherical cloak, and first saw use of the wave mapped cloak. It
is reported to have been used as above and as an upgraded cloak for
D-7 Cruisers. A green coloration was still necessary.
Mk 3.2 Cloak: This version saw the creation of the fine tuned cloak,
using the special dedicated computers. This device was perhaps first
created by the Klingons, but required large power reserves. The
Romulans later reworked the idea into a more efficient form
(officially designated the Mark 3.2a). The old cloak is still in
active service on older Klingon craft.
Mk 3.2a Cloak: Romulan reworking of the 3.2. No special coloration of
the craft is necessary, although the nullifier cores require less
energy when the ship has a green color. The cloak is still extensively
used by Romulans and Klingons alike.
Mk 3.3 Cloak: This latest version allowed powering down of all
non-finely tuned cloaks instantly. It is only fitted, as far as is
known, to Romulan Warbirds. Klingons claim to still use the 3.2a.
Experimental Mk 4 Cloak: There is an experimental cloaking device
which utilizes a highly-wave mapped, adaptive, asymmetrical dispersion
pattern. This cloaking device's cloaking generator coils are equipped
with field actuators that change the dispersion pattern, to be most
efficient in any interstellar condition, considering many variables,
such as gas density, electric and magnetic fields, and fluctuations in
the subspace domain. These field actuators compensate for any of these
variables or active scans if the vicinity of the cloaked ship is being
probed. There is no danger of a spatial ripple occurring. This would
render a ship undetectable, except with a tachyon heterodyne detection
grids, which, if powerful enough, could detect a ship that was cloaked
in this manner.
Cloaking Device History
On Stardate 1709.1 the Bonhomme's sensors picked up a ship in Romulan Space. Suddenly, it vanished from the sensors, reappeared directly in front of the outpost and fired what later came to be called a "plasma torpedo". The torpedo obliterated the outpost's deflector screens, nearly destroying it. A second shot finished the intruder's job. Then the ship simply disappeared from view.
That was the first encounter with the Romulans after almost a
century since the battle of Cheron. The vessel that destroyed S-4023
(and also S-4024 and S-4025) was a Romulan P-1A Bird of Prey with a
first generation cloaking device.
Later, a third generation cloaking device has been obtained by the U.S.S. Enterprise in an espionage mission.
The Klingons gained the technology from their alliance with the Romulans in exchange for their D-6 Raxor and D-7 Klolode battle cruisers. Thus the three major powers in this part of the galaxy came to posses what proved to be one of the most formidable weapons ever.
Star Fleet, which used the cloaking device on its vessels in the late 2200's and early 2300's, has decided that the peaceful (mostly) mission definition of the Explorer type of starships precludes its use. Further- more, the overall shape and hull materials used in the Galaxy, Ambassador, and Oberth class starships would interfere with the cloaking device. Although it is still possible to cloak them, the energy necessary increases beyond reasonable limit. Today, only specialized scouting, stealth, and battle ships use cloaking devices.
The Klingon Empire has used the cloaking technology ever since
their technology exchange with the Romulans in 2263, and continues to
do so. Nearly all of its Bird of Prey type ships are equipped with it
as are the D- 6, D-7, D-8 (K'T'Inga), and the new K'Vort class battle
cruisers.
The Romulan Empire naturally still uses the cloaking device. Although
much about them is now unknown due to the fifty-year contact breach
after the Tomed incident, it is certain that their newest vessels, the
D'Deridex class warbirds, are equipped with a new generation of
cloaking devices which have so far defied all Federation attempts at
detection without the use of tachyons.
The events surrounding the Khitomer conference, classified until recently, have brought to attention the fact that one of the main disadvantages of the cloaking device, the inability to fire a photon torpedo, has been nullified by the renegade Klingon vessel Dakronh. Although it was destroyed, and it's schematics have not survived, it appears that the cloaking device would be useless today due to the vast improvement of sensor devices used by Star Fleet. The vessel was designed reduce the cloaking power shortly before firing, just enough to fire a specially designed high-velocity photon torpedo thorough it. However, this resulted in a momentary emission of radiation from the ship and the leak of impulse engine products (plasma) through the cloak. The vessel was destroyed by homing a photon torpedo on those plasma traces. The momentary radiation burst from the ship as the cloaking power was reduced was too small to be detectable by the instruments of that era, but would be sufficient to pinpoint the ship's location today.
from the former site: http://members.aol.com/jgrinter/pages/history.htm
Quantum Singularity Drive
Romulan ships do not make use of matter/antimatter reactors like most vessels but instead of that they make use of an quantum singularity drive. The Quantum Singularity Reactor is one of the greatest Romulan achievements.
Quantum singularity is the same anomaly that powers a black hole. This so called artificial gravity well can generate a tremendous amount of energy that gives the ships their thrust. A quantum singularity reactor can only be shut down at a docking station due to the fact that it cannot be restarted in space.
The reactor itself houses a singularity: a point in space where the laws of physics supposedly break down. Matter is continuously fed into the singularity. The gravity from the singularity pulls the matter together, forcing it to not only fuse, but to bump into each other, etc. This creates an enormous amount of energy, and fuel sources are unlimited. It is not only more efficient than matter/antimatter drive but also much more powerful.
One of the problems that Federation scientists have had with artificial singularity reactors is that they simply cannot understand how the ship can move with this massive gravitational anomaly within the heart of the ship. The solution is that Romulans use the same device that the Federation uses to control gravity: they place a Inertial Dampening Field around the reactor. Thus the ship’s computer is unaware of the reactor. This process releases the equivalent of a standard Federation Matter/Antimatter Reaction Assembly.
adapted from: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/5288/cloaking.htm
Mind Control Device
A telepresence device was used as early as the 22nd Century to force Aenar Andorians to pilot a drone ship. (Enterprise: the Aenar). It tapped into the telekinetic powers of telepaths.
It is assumed that both devices are based on the same technology. Use of the device is painful for the subject and requires a long recovery period.
That the Romulans have lost most of their telepathic abilities over the last two millennia has encouraged them to find other means of enhancing innate telepathic abilities. Of course these devices have led to nefarious uses such as mind control.
adapted from www.ditl.org
Thalaron Generator
A
type of radiation which was the Federation considered to be theoretical until
2379, when it was detected aboard the Reman vessel Scimitar. Shinzon had managed
to develop a method of producing and controlling thalaron for weapon purposes.
The unique properties of thalaron make possible a "cascading biogenic
pulse", an energy discharge which can expand almost without limit depending
on the radiant intensity of the radiation. Any living being caught within the
discharge undergoes a rapid and catastrophic change, becoming almost rock-like -
a process which is of course instantly fatal. Non-living material is not
affected.
Shinzon developed at least two different versions of the device; one was a small and highly portable unit which could be easily carried by a single person. It produced a discharge capable of enveloping a large room. The Romulan Senator Tal'aura, an ally of Shinzon, smuggled one of these devices into the Romulan Senate chamber to assassinate the entire senate as part of Shinzon's coup.
The second version was built into the Scimitar - indeed the ship was in large part a flying thalaron generator weapon intended to be capable of enveloping an entire planet. Shinzon intended to use the device against Earth, but was forced to try and capture Captain Picard first in order to gain the transplant material he needed to correct his own genetic defects. When the Scimitar was disabled during a battle with the Enterprise-E, Shinzon tried to use the thalaron weapon against the Starship.
The device was destroyed before it could fire when Lieutenant Commander Data fired his phaser into the thalaron generator.
adapted from www.ditl.org