Star Trek

I recently read a book that told about using tractor beams and shuttles, which gave me some ideas:

The Galaxy-class ship has 11 shuttles and other craft, plus 400 escape pods.  Therefore, I think you could stretch out a lifeline of shuttles and runabouts, each using their tractor beams to support the next-farthest-out vessel, all anchored by the main ship.

If needed, you could beam people from the threatened ship into the shuttlecraft and escape pods.

To be able to do this efficiently in an emergency, your crew should practise periodically (in nonthreatening drills, that is).

That does sound rather interesting. However, would it work? My copy of the TNG tech manual (p. 89) indicates that the tractor beam works by manipulating the focal point of an artificial subspace/graviton field. Without going into too much detail, I don't think it is possible to emit a tractor beam while you are being held by one.

-Jesse

Good points, Jesse.  But, what about hovering just-beyond the tractor-beam range until your craft had used its tractor beam or transporter beam, then you could move (back) into the range of the supporting craft's beams?  Such series of maneuverings would be complicated, but could be done, with sufficient practice.

That would probably work. In fact, you could just wait until the people were transported to the shuttle and then engage the tractor beam to save energy. Although, I'm not certain I see the point of making a lifeline of shuttles if you could just pilot the starship closer to a damaged vessel. Nonetheless, I think it is a very interesting and practical idea.

The idea came to me after reading a book in which the main ship was having problems and seemed to be unable to help a stranded craft.

Although the captain of a large ship must weigh the safety of his/her crew against the risk, I would prefer to face death by trying to save someone else's life, rather than go through the rest of my life, always wondering if I could have done more.

I'm confused, So the main ship remains distant and the shuttles are deployed to beam people onboard like chain beaming?

the escape pods? do they have a transporter? i dont think they do but i could be wrong.

what is the tractor beam being used for?

The escape pods do not have built-in transporters. The general idea is that shuttles are deployed in a chain. Once the last shuttle has rescued the crew of the stranded vessel, the next to last pulls it in with a tractor beam. Then, the one before it repeats the process. It continues until all the shuttles are docked to the starship. The transporter really is just to make it easier to evacuate the stranded vessel.

That would work, wouldn't it?

As far as I know, yes!

While there may be better ways to accomplish the mission than this, I thought it would be a good addition to the possible deployments available to the captain and his/her staff.  Conditions would vary, depending upon the situation, so several variations could be tested, during nonstressful periods.  Then, the best option for that particular situation could be chosen.

Hopefully, the crew of each Starfleet ship could practise these and similar maneuvers, so they would have as many options from which to choose as possible.

Is there a point to this?

I like to visualize myself in various scenarios in Star Trek, and I had just read a book where I think something like this could have been very helpful.

Who knows?  Maybe, someday, an author might put one of my ideas in a book, too.

One can always dream!