A site-to-site transport was a special type of transport in which an object or person was transported from one site directly to another, neither site being a transporter platform. A site-to-site transport was accomplished by first transferring the transporter's target from the site of origin to the pattern buffer of the transporter, in the same manner as the usual "beam in" procedure; instead of being routed to a transporter platform, however, the matter stream was diverted to a second site, in a similar procedure to a conventional "beam out". (TNG: "Brothers")
Notable uses[]
- While on Earth in 1986, Montgomery Scott utilized site-to-site transport capabilities on board a Klingon Bird-of-Prey to transport an away team directly from the elevator of a hospital facility to just outside where the ship was parked. Technically, this was the chronological first known utilization of this technology. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
- In 2256, Gabriel Lorca transported himself and Michael Burnham directly from his ready room to engineering aboard USS Discovery. (DIS: "Context Is for Kings")
- In 2268, Montgomery Scott transported Tepo directly from his headquarters to those of Bela Okmyx. (TOS: "A Piece of the Action")
- While on Deneb IV in 2364, Data and William T. Riker transported directly from the mall at Farpoint Station to an underground cavern below the facility to join the rest of their away team. (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint")
- While on Angel I that same year, Data, Deanna Troi, and Natasha Yar transported directly from their planetside accommodations to Ramsey's camp. (TNG: "Angel One")
- Miles O'Brien disabled the site-to-site transport function to stop Data from beaming off the bridge in 2367. The android was able to reactivate it. (TNG: "Brothers")
- Wesley Crusher created what alleged to be a site-to-site transport program in 2368 to avoid being captured by the crew, who were under the influence of a Ktarian game. However, the program transported him to a transporter pad in Transporter Room 3. (TNG: "The Game")
- Captain Benjamin Sisko used site to site transport in 2369 to beam an Embryonic lifeform into space after Vash brought the creature onto Deep Space 9 when Q told her not to after they returned from the Gamma Quadrant. (DS9: "Q-Less")
- Tom Paris used a site-to-site transport in 2374 to surprise B'Elanna Torres with flowers in a Jefferies tube junction after telling The Doctor he was delivering his helm report to Chakotay. (VOY: "Scientific Method")
- Torres used site-to-site transport to get to her quarters in 2377, to avoid being accosted by a group of Klingons gathered outside engineering who believed her unborn child to be the kuvah'magh . (VOY: "Prophecy")
- In 2378, The Doctor beamed himself from another part of Voyager to sickbay after Commander Chakotay contacted him with his combadge and asked him to report there. (VOY: "Renaissance Man")
- Seven of Nine used site-to-site transport to avoid being seen while she entered Chakotay's quarters with flowers. (VOY: "Endgame")
- Captain Picard used site-to-site transport to beam over to the Scimitar from the bridge of the USS Enterprise-E in 2379. However, it caused such a strain on the already severely damaged ship that all transporter functions shorted out immediately afterwards. He was only able to beam back after Data gave him a prototype emergency transport unit shortly before the Scimitar's destruction. (Star Trek Nemesis)
- In the 32nd century, site-to-site transports could be triggered via tricom badges to move around ships faster rather than relying on turbolifts or even walking. (Star Trek: Discovery)
- Captain Michael Burnham and Commander Rayner used a site-to-site transport to beam from the USS Discovery bridge to the ready room to argue in private about his attitude towards the crew. When they tried to beam back to the bridge, it shielded them from the activation of the time cycling by the time bug. Thereafter, the two were unable to beam around the ship due to being transported to different time periods. (DIS: "Face the Strange")
Site-to-site transport was also utilized to get rid of bombs.
- In 2366, when Ansata terrorists boarded the USS Enterprise-D and planted a bomb on the warp core, Captain Picard ordered preparations to be made for a saucer separation. Fortunately, Lieutenant Commander La Forge was able to remove the device and beam it into space before it detonated. (TNG: "The High Ground")
- In 2373, Arne Darvin used the Orb of Time to go back to 2268 to smuggle a tricobalt bomb aboard Deep Space Station K-7 at the exact moment that Kirk was covered by tribbles. Captain Sisko and Dax discovered the bomb inside a tribble and beamed it out, restoring the timeline and leading to the arrest of Darvin and his 23rd century self. (DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations")
- That same year, infiltrators from the Orion Syndicate smuggled a bomb onto the runabout USS Rio Grande to prevent Quark and Odo from testifying against them. Odo beamed the bomb out in time but the blast heavily damaged the ship and forced them to crash land on a Class L world. (DS9: "The Ascent")
The term "site-to-site transport" originates from the Star Trek: The Next Generation fourth season episode "Brothers". In the commentary for the episode on the TNG Season 4 Blu-ray, Michael Okuda states that Rick Berman called Rick Sternbach and him, wanting a term for direct beaming. Either Sternbach or Okuda came up with the term "site-to-site transport," which stayed with the show.
In a deleted scene from DS9: "In the Pale Moonlight", Benjamin Sisko and Senator Vreenak used site-to-site transport to transport from the wardroom to a holosuite. [1]