What is the fastest star ship in Star Trek, as of Star Trek: Nemesis?

Question

I did some research, the Sovereign-class, the Enterprise-E, has a maximum speed of Warp 9.9, it's top-rated speed is Warp 9.99 for about 12 hours, the Intrepid-class, the U.S.S. Voyager, has a maximum speed of Warp 9.975, and a top-rated speed of Warp 9.9875 for 12 hours, since the Intrepid-class has a higher maximum speed than the Sovereign-class, why wouldn't it have a higher top-rated speed than the Enterprise-E?

Are these the fastest warp speeds in the fleet, as of Nemesis.

Also, what happens if a star-ship such as the U.S.S. Enterprise-E were then to go faster than their top-rated speed or sustain it longer then what would happen?

If they take their top-rated speed to the limit, and play it safe, do they shut down? If so, for how long? Is the warp core fried? Do they drop to a lower warp speed?

Sorry, to bother you with these nerdy questions.

Answer 1

Interesting questions. I don't have much details on the specific details on the warp drive. I do know that Voyager can handel warp 9.975 for up to so many hours I forget the number. Voyager was a smaller vessel and sleeker to probably handel the stresses of warp. The Enterprise-E though is newer and being a Sovereign Class I would think it's structural integrity can handel the stresses better then Voyager. With the whole warp thing It gets confusing. In the movie era the Excelsor class was fitted with a transwarp engine but, the experiment didn't last long. I don't know if it was because in Star Trek III Scotty screwed around with Excelor's engines which probably caused the experiment to shut down, or it was another reason. In TNG the Enterprise-D I think in a couple of times it went beyond warp 9 I think one was when the travaler was onboard. In TOS I think the Enterprise went beyond their limit as well. To answer you second question I think if the ship were to go beyond its limit technically the ships hall wouldn't sustain the stress and explode. I say technically because the writers seem to do that and come up with b.s so the ship wouldn't blow up. On Voyager Tom Paris (aka idoit lol) apperently was the first crossed the warp 10 barrier and then turned into a lizard. I really think the Enterprise-D went beyond warp 10 and they didn't get credited. As I stated before it gets complicated, it seems like everyone broke records.

Answer 2

Yours is not a nerdy question at all but interesting. I believe the Excalibur class was the fastest in the series as it was the first to have "trans warp" capability but it makes sense that the later ships in the NXGen era would have been faster or at least improved.

Here's a little I read about Roddenberry's idea for warp speed.  Warp 8 is not 8 times the speed of light but the speed of light (c) to the eight power, or the speed of light times itself 8 times. c8 or c to the eighth power.  At warp 5.2 we could send a ship to our nearest star in eleven days.

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Here's a page at wikipedia that makes for some interesting reading on the subject and it mentions different Enterprise models during the series and movies.  

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp_drive

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Answer 3

I think the Prometheus from Star Trek Voyager was the fastest ship ever.  It was going to be able to get them home in like a month. Unfortunatly, while it was a real ship, it wasn't where they thought it was from.  I don't want to say any more, but it's a great ship.  

Answer 4

In Star Trek Voyager Tom Paris took the delta flier to warp 10 and disappeared he was everywhere and everyplace in the universe at the same time, as a matter of fact he was in every time as well, needless to say trans-warp conduits are a short cut through space & time in the known Star Trek universe the only race of being who could travel faster were the iconions who could teleport to anyplace within the galaxy.

Answer 5

I was gonna answer similarily to the first answerer, however id like to explain why the Intrepid has a higher top speed but a lower top-rated speed.

The fact is that warp travel puts a bit of stress on the vessel, and the Intrepid, being rated as a light-cruiser class simply cant take the punishment that the Sovereign can, being that the Sovereign is rated as a Battleship class.