Shield
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A shield was a type of force field which could be projected around a starship, starbase or even planet to protect said body from various forms of radiation and matter.
All starships were fitted with deflector shields, often projected from a deflector dish, to protect them from particle impacts which, particularly at high velocities, could cause huge amounts of damage. Whilst these basic deflectors could provide minimal protection from weapons fire the majority of advanced starships were also fitted with more powerful shielding which could be activated in tactical situations. However these shields were sufficiently powerful that they also blocked out transporter beams. (TNG movie: Star Trek: First Contact, et al.)
Shields could be configured in two forms; ellipsoid form shielding, common in Federation starships in the 24th century, which projected a shield bubble around a starship. Or contour-conforming shielding which was projected much closer to the ships hull providing more specifically localised protection. Some shielding systems also allowed shielding over specific areas of a ship to be activated or deactivated to provide protection for a specific area only and presumably reduce power consumption not protecting the entire hull. (TNG movie: Star Trek: First Contact, et al.)
Horta were seemingly invulnerable to even very powerful shields, being capable of passing straight through them with very little effort. (DS9 novel: Devil in the Sky)
While conducting operations in the Badlands in the early 2370s, the Maquis discovered a way to apply regenerative tuning techniques in order to keep their shield's operative in the extreme magnetic and radiation flux of the region. In early 2372, the USS Enterprise-E applied some of these techniques to their shields while inside the Pantera Nebula. (TNG eBook: A Sea of Troubles)
In addition to standard deflectors there a number of other shielding technologies were developed including:
- Regenerative shields, used by the Borg, analyze weapons fire and adjust shield frequencies to better resist oustide forces. Other races have subsequently adopted this technology but presumably have had less success than the Borg, not having the collective's processing power to analyze incoming weapons fire. (TNG episode: The Best of Both Worlds, et al.)
- Metaphasic shields, developed by the Ferengi Dr. Reyga, are capable of withstanding the pressure, radiation and energy of a star's corona. (TNG episode: Suspicions)
- Multi-adaptive shielding, developed by Erin and Magnus Hansen was a shielding system used to mask a vessel from Borg sensors. (VOY episode: Dark Frontier)
[edit] Connections
- See also: Polarized hull plating | Ablative armor
