In Threshold, Lt. Tom Paris, Lt. B’Elanna Torres, and Ensign Harry Kim work on a risky experiment in trans-warp speed, in the hope of finding a way “home” for Voyager. As a strategic gambit to deflect criticism by serious scientists, and as a symbolic concession to the reality of the Einsteinian laws of physics, Star Trek introduced its own categorical speed limit of warp factor ten for its faster-than-light warp speed technology. The goal of Lt. Paris and his engineering colleagues is to reach and exceed the longstanding warp speed barrier. Warp factor ten is a theoretical impossibility or speed limit, analogous to Einstein’s absolute limit of the speed of light. At warp factor ten or higher, “strange things” would happen, testing the edge of the spacetime continuum.
Acting on a new trans-warp drive conjecture, powered by a newly-acquired dilithium alloy taken from an asteroid belt, and shielded by a fuselage-protecting depolarization matrix, Lt. Tom Paris and the shuttlecraft Cochrane surpass the warp factor ten barrier in an “historic” feat of aviation.
Just after the test flight, Paris seems to be unharmed. But this impression is short-lived. Reminiscent of the extreme phenomena like gaining nearly infinite mass that are associated with approaching light speed (according to Einstein’s equations), Paris enters a multi-dimensional state. He is “everywhere in the universe at the same time.” He returns from the trip with “five billion gigaquads” of sensoring data scanned into the shuttlecraft’s computer. Paris’ physiology and biochemistry endure radical changes. His cell membranes degrade, parts of his body fall off, and his DNA “rewrites itself.” A desperate and apparently dying Lt. Paris escapes from sick bay, abducts Captain Janeway, steals the shuttlecraft, and embarks on a second transwarp flight. After accelerating to warp factor twelve, Paris sets down the Cochrane in an equatorial jungle on a Delta Quadrant Class M planet.
Lt. Paris is not dying. He is experiencing hyper-accelerated genetic mutations simulating the future biological evolution of the posthuman species. He and Captain Janeway undergo millions of years of coming posthuman evolution in a few hours. They transmute into slimy, ground-hugging amphibian creatures. They procreate a tribe of salamander-like offspring. After weeks of searching, the Voyager crew locates the metamorphosed Paris and Janeway. Using anti-proton radiation extracted from the ship’s main warp engines, the Emergency Holographic Doctor, played by Robert Picardo, restores their DNA and brings them back to “normal form.”
