How did the Phoenix get to warp without dilithium?
A bad title, as he discusses the alternative materials and the possibility that Earth has dilithium in the first place.
My bigger problem is how Certifiably Ingame acts like dilithium is the only possible regulator of matter/antimatter engines and then dismisses it. I'd be okay with the notion that an engine only designed to get barely past Warp One could get by without dilithium since the matter/antimatter streams would be small enough to allow regulation by other means.
For that matter, for ages SF writers have theorized ships powered not by continual propellants, but by periodic "kicks" with nuclear devices. The Phoenix never had to go very far, just break the Warp One barrier and generate an accompanying subspace disturbance for the Vulcans to notice.
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