Red alert (Star Trek)

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Red Alert is the highest state of alert for Starfleet in the Star Trek fictional universe. Red alert may be called on starships, installations, regions, or the entire fleet. Aboard Starships, it is similar to a call to General Quarters aboard real-life U.S. Navy vessels.

When Red Alert is called, a loud warning klaxon begins blaring, accompanied by flashing red warning lights. All Starfleet personnel are required to report duty stations. In addition to this, there are a number of things that occur once a red alert is sounded:

  • All crew members are to report to duty, whether that be their primary duty station or a secondary duty station within five minutes. Those crew members asleep at the time are to report to duty within fifteen minutes.
    • Secondary stations can include medical duty. On larger ships, a good portion of the crew receive training as medical technicians. Much of the crew is used as "damage control", where the crewmembers presumably help to fix minor damage to the ship and perform basic engineering tasks, under the direction of the primary engineering team.
  • The defensive shields are brought to full power and raised.
  • On starships that have the ability to separate the saucer section, the crew prepares for possible separation.
    • Backup crews for the main bridge standby in the event separation is called for.
    • Crews for the battle bridge also go on standby status in case separation is called for.
    • Non-essential crew and other individuals (such as civilians and mission specialists) are moved to the saucer section.
  • The security division also makes a number of preparations.
    • They make sure escape pods access ways are clear, so that if crewmembers and civilians need to evacuate the starship they can get to the escape pods without any interruption.
    • Security teams are stationed at key areas throughout the ship.
    • Sensors record and track the locations of all individuals aboard the ship. This is used to determine if unauthorized access by an intruder occurs. (The ship's computer also helps with this function)
    • All security teams are placed on standby status.

A rarely used variation of this alert is the "double-red alert", which is only used in extreme, time-critical situations. In "The Conscience of the King", Captain Kirk declared a "double-red alert" when a phaser set to overload was planted in his cabin in a failed assassination attempt.

On space stations such as Deep Space Nine, red alert procedures are similar to those of starships. Civilians either return to their quarters or are placed in special shelter areas. Public areas are closed down for the duration of the crisis.

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[edit] Other states of alert

[edit] Yellow Alert

A Yellow Alert or Condition Yellow is a raised state of alertness, which can be started via a command by an officer or automatically by the ship computer upon detection of a threat. Additionally, Starfleet can issue a fleet-wide order placing all ships on Yellow Alert, as was done in The Defector, a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. Furthermore, the Enterprise-D is the only starship shown that signifies yellow alert using tall yellow lights (that flash red during red alert).

[edit] Blue Alert

A Blue Alert, also known as Code Blue or Condition Blue is an alert signal status used on the fictional television series Star Trek to indicate a situation on a starship or outpost such as docking maneuvers, separation maneuvers, landing, or an environmental issue.

  • Star Trek: The Next Generation used this alert for an environmental system disruption in the episode Brothers.
  • A Prometheus-class starship goes to blue alert when it activates multi-vector assault mode.
  • The USS Voyager used blue alert when landing on a planet in the Star Trek Voyager episodes The 37s and Demon.
  • The USS Defiant went to blue alert when engaging its cloaking device.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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