[Nate the Great]

On this whole issue of full impulse of interstellar travel, I think the creators imply that the old theory is being obeyed.

You see, going directly into warp from planetary orbit (or even within what I'd call inner stellar systems) creates a great deal of messy gravitational and subspace effects. I got the impression that impulse will be maintained at least past where we'd generally put the asteroid belt, at which point the gravtitational effects of the star start to fall off drastically. Once you start to pass the gas giants you can then kick into warp. That was sort of my impression. They don't intend to stay on impulse the whole distance, just far enough that they're not going to create subspace tidal effects throughout the system whent they warp away. That's what makes these near-warp transports so dangerous, with no margin for error. You have to know PRECISELY where you're going to land and where all the planets are relative to your warpout point as well as their tragectories. In addition, when you warp out after having stopped for only the five seconds of transport, you have to be going such that you're perpendicular to the gravitational field of the planet in question.