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Communications lags seem to be one of those things that vary hugely. We've seen lags of weeks, we've seen instantaneous communication, and everything inbetween. I don't find it improbable that there could have been a lag long enough that they couldn't call home.

Mikey and myself aren't talking about communications (which won't be 100% secure in any event), but about physically sending someone out to the Cardassian border to take charge of the negotiations. We know from DS9 (most notably "Paradise Lost") that it's only a few days travel from Earth even on the Defiant, so travel time really isn't a factor.

Well they wouldn't know to send somebody until a message got home!

Travel times are an even worse mess than communications. One of the sillier aspects of DS9 was how the "wild frontier" was suddenly a day or two from Earth, when the plot needed it. Grrr.

GrahamKennedy wrote:Well they wouldn't know to send somebody until a message got home!

Travel times are an even worse mess than communications. One of the sillier aspects of DS9 was how the "wild frontier" was suddenly a day or two from Earth, when the plot needed it. Grrr.

... and Klingon and Romulan fleets could get all the way to DS9 in no more than a week!

I'm guessing that was when the 'speed limit' was still in place. At warp 5 it takes 8 or 9 days to travel a mere 5 light years. 34 days to cross a single sector(20 light years). If earth was 50 light years away it would take almost three months at warp 5. At Warp 9 it would take two weeks, or a week at warp 9.8. Civilian ships probably have to go slower because they have to worry more about fuel.

Other way round - the DS9 numbers were after the speed limit was instituted, while "Chain of Command" came before it. Also, the numbers you're using are unofficial ones - cannon episodes suggest sustainable speeds of several thousand times lightspeed.