[Jonathan Reynolds]

just looking at a star trek map today with a friend and we worked out that it is actually a much shorter distance to the gamma quadrant terminus of the Bajor wormhole than it is the 75,000 light years to earth for the USS Voyager. AND heading to the bajor wormhole would cut out the borg, krenim kazon everything, Just 6 months in a small section of dark-space known as the void (from the episode void, the void is actually a break in the galactic disc where no stars reside.) and they would be in dominion space (who at the time weren't considered much of a threat) and of to the alpha quadrant through the bajor wormhole. SO WHY THE HELL DID JANEWAY TAKE THE LONG WAY ROUND!!!!

[Sharpkiller]

So they could explore a different part of the galaxy in Voyager than what they explored in Deep Space 9.

[Tiberius Smith]

Is there a link you can share?

[Sharpkiller]

Is there a link you can share?

That's just a guess seeing as the two series were running concurrently for a while, and it would probably be less interesting to watch two shows that weren't very unique for the wider audience.

[Adster94]

Very interesting, she was probably going the most direct route home and besides by the time voyager got to the Gamma Quadrant the Federation would be at war with the dominion so Voyager never would have made it to the wormhole, intact.

[Cat]

Because Brannon Braga told her the wormhole was shut down for resurfacing and re-striping.

[Jonathan Reynolds]

Well actualy the federation had never heard of the dominion in 2371 the doctor first heard of them in the episode message in a bottle

[Tiberius Smith]

To rephrase: does anyone have a link to images of the relevant maps? My research indicates the Gamma Quadrant end is somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the Gamma Quadrant proper, not near the Delta Quadrant border.

[Jonathan Reynolds]

Well on offical maps from the tech guidesnit shows the wormhole's terminus not quite in the center of the gamma quadrant but over towards the delta quadrant border. Either way it still works out quicker to go via the gamma quadrant than to go via conventional warp. The map I used was from a book so I'll try and find a duplicate somewhere on the Internet

[Jonathan Reynolds]

Oh and please note that acording to the book there is one of those transwarp hubs the Borg use just a few parsecs from where voyager landed in the delta quadrant. So again danger ally. I'm actualy supprised the Borg didn't assimilate talax after the metrion cascade. That's advanced warfare and talax isn't to far from the caretakers array

[Adster94]

The Borg probably thought nothing of the talaxians because they weren't really that sophisticated, and besides they had already assimilated a talaxian frieghter so they did know about them. Yes they didnt know about the dominion, but it would still takes several years to get to the wormhole and in a couple of years the dominion war was well under way.

[Christopher Halsey]

I don't think there is any actual Canon map of the Star Trek universe, also consider the fact that space is 3D and as far as I am aware all the maps of the Star Trek universe that have been produced are 2D so although something might look a shorter distance in 2D in 3D it could be further.

Personally I don't see why Janeway didn't just get Voyager home in the first episode. Tuvok apparently was able to configure the Caretaker's array to send them back to Federation Space, Janeway decided to destroy the array so the Kazon wouldn't get the technology, that is why God or possibly someone else invented the bomb.

Configure array to send Voyager home.
Plant bomb with time delay.
Go home.
Array blows up.

Obviously you could say Janeway wanted to be sure the array was destroyed, well they knew the force that would be required as Tuvok programmed the Tricobalt yield to about double what it needed to be. Given the fact that the Kazon had no transporter technology they could not beam aboard the array and could only board it by either cutting through the hull or finding a docking port. The array took less than 1 minute to send Voyager from the Badlands to the Delta Quadrant, therefore a time delay of 2 minutes would allow for plenty of time yet not too much time that the Kazon could find a way aboard and disarm the bomb. Given the fact that the Kazon were a rather inferior species technologically speaking that even the Borg weren't interested in seeing them disarm a Federation weapon at all would be quite a feat (Especially considering that in Dark Frontier part 1 the Borg were unable to disarm a Federation photon torpedo that was on a time delay).

Janeway did obviously miss a few short cuts as demonstrated in Equinox where the crew of the Equinox took a clearly different route to Voyager and covered as much space in a similar amount of time, the crew also avoided Borg space completely which Voyager only managed thanks to Kes moving them past Borg space.

[Adster94]

That is a good point but the bomb would have ended a series before it began.

[Christopher Halsey]

That is a good point but the bomb would have ended a series before it began.

Must build time machine

[Adster94]

LOL even better