In ‘The Dark Forest,” the entire Earth spacefleet is annihilated in only a few minutes by a single “droplet” probe from the Trisolarans (a.k.a. San-Ti). This effectively ends the idea of Space Cruiser Yamato-Captain Harlock style fleets of battleships in space, which use tactics that are essentially 3-D versions of World War II sea battles. Is Starfleet any different? If Starfleet encountered a Trisolaran droplet, would the result be any different?
Comments
Reminders for Commenters:
All responses must be A) sincere, B) polite, and C) strictly watsonian in nature. If “watsonian” or “doylist” is new to you, please review the full rules here.
No edition wars or gripings about creators/owners of works. Doylist griping about Star Wars in particular is subject to permanent ban on first offense.
We are not here to discuss or complain about the real world.
Questions about who would prevail in a conflict/competition (not just combat) fit better on r/whowouldwin. Questions about very open-ended hypotheticals fit better on r/whatiffiction.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I don’t believe a San-Ti droplet would be able to penetrate starfleet shielding. Being super hard matter doesn’t necessarily mean you can penetrate an energy shield. Besides they could probably snag it with a tractor beam.
The two universes have very different allowable physics. The three body problem universe doesn’t allow for super luminal travel, and the technology reflects that as well as the concepts of multiple spatial dimensions. The Star Trek universe doesn’t have those limitations, and is almost to the level of magic with their scientific capabilities.
/r/Whowouldwin
This doesnt belong on this sub
The Federation is the ideological opposite of the Trisolarans. Instead of annihilating other species out of fear, the Federation embraces differences.
This is what makes the Federation so good at countering new threats. They leverage many perspectives and ideas. This is why they were able to defeat much more powerful empires like the Dominion and Borg Collective.
The Trisolarans would be at a severe disadvantage when attempting to subdue the Federation.
Data and Geordi fix the entire universe collapsing in dimensions in a single episode with some technobabble.
It’s a bit like asking who would win between and indestructible man with bare fists, or a damned wizard.
Droplet is insanely durable, but it probably doesn’t matter. Star Trek has crazy tech and could probably just put the droplet in a stasis field or tractor beam. Who knows how the energy weapons would interact with the droplet, it’s possible they could bypass the defenses completely.