Jaunts Through the Jefferies Tubes

When Dal R'El and his friends sought to access the U.S.S. Voyager-A's mysterious Shuttlebay Three in 's second-season premiere episode, "Into the Breach, Part I," they utilized the starship's Jefferies tubes to make their way into the restricted area.

These multi-purpose passageways have been incorporated into Federation vessels for centuries, allowing Starfleet personnel to traverse their ships, conduct essential repairs, and even play key roles on a variety of missions. Break out your schematics and prepare to crawl through an intricate history of Jefferies tubes as we chronicle the unique ways that crews have utilized these technical tunnels.

Hide and Seek

Hoping to destabilize the Alpha Quadrant by igniting a war between Starfleet and the Tzenkethi in 's "," a Changeling posed as a Federation ambassador and sabotaged the U.S.S. Defiant's controls.

Captain Benjamin Sisko organized two-person teams to gradually sweep the ship with phaser fire and try to expose the Dominion operative. As Sisko and his subordinates searched the Defiant, the Changeling hid in the Jefferies tubes and used them to attack the Starfleet officers. The game of cat-and-mouse ultimately turned in the Federation's favor, as Odo managed to track down, confront, and kill the Founder in Engineering. Once Chief O'Brien restored the starship's controls, the vessel was able to leave Tzenkethi space and avert a renewed conflict.

Evading the Enemy

With mercenaries aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise-D and the ship's primary power offline in 's "," Captain Jean-Luc Picard turned to the Jefferies tubes as a means to elude his foes and foil their plot to steal trilithium resin from the vessel's warp core.

One of the would-be thieves chased Picard through the crawlspace, but the presence of a deadly baryon sweep prevented the captain from continuing on his path. Picard chose to escape through a section of the passage's flooring, placing his jacket over the opening to conceal it from his pursuer. The trick distracted his opponent long enough for him to be caught by the baryon sweep. Shortly thereafter, Picard also cut the ladder rungs from other tubes to delay the remaining mercenaries.

An Anomalous Experience

In 's "," the U.S.S. Voyager was enveloped by a spatial phenomenon that threw the entire ship into chaos. The well-mapped corridors became an indecipherable maze, so Captain Kathryn Janeway and Ensign Harry Kim attempted to reach the bridge via the Jefferies tubes.

An electromagnetic reading on the other side of a hatch gave way to a stunning sight — the rest of the tube appeared to be in a state of structural flux. The anomaly drew the captain in, distorting her arm until the ensign aided in pulling her back. Although the distortion ring ultimately passed through the ship and left it unharmed, the experience bolstered the Jefferies tubes' storied resume with yet another beneficial use for shipboard life.

Proving Ground

Lieutenant Commander Data turned one of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D's Jefferies tubes into an impromptu testbed in The Next Generation's "," as a run-in with an experimental device known as an convinced him that the diminutive repair units might have actually evolved into sentient lifeforms.

Designed to learn from every task it completed, an exocomp appeared to exhibit survival instincts when it purposely burned out its control interface to avoid a dangerous situation. In order to test his theory, Data placed an exocomp into a Jefferies tube and arranged a simulated plasma cascade failure that would have led to an explosion. Initially, it seemed as if the exocomp did not react with an act of self-preservation. Upon further testing and analysis, Data discovered that the exocomp had deduced the scenario was only a simulation. The exocomps were alive!

Concealing Contraptions

Seven of Nine found herself on a very unique away mission on Voyager's "," as Captain Braxton of the 29th Century Federation timeship Relativity recruited the ex-Borg drone for the dangerous task of being transported through time to prevent a saboteur from destroying Janeway's starship.

On a journey back to the 24th Century, she located a temporal disruptor capable of fracturing space-time secreted away behind a panel in one of Voyager's Jefferies tubes. The weapon was out of phase at that moment, so Seven had to be brought to a different period to stop the unknown culprit from setting it in the first place. As it turned out, a future version of Braxton had concocted a plan to wipe Janeway and Voyager from the timeline so his own temporal psychosis could be averted! Luckily, Seven intervened in time to arrest future Braxton and halt his clock-based caper.

The Perfect Harmony

In The Next Generation's "," Captain Picard's budding relationship with Lieutenant Commander Nella Daren hit a high note when the pair learned that they both had an affinity for music. An unscheduled duet in the captain's quarters struck a chord with the prospective couple, as Daren's talent for the piano and Picard's attachment to his Ressikan flute resulted in a harmonious bond between them.

They followed their jam session up with a trip through the Jefferies tubes to a junction which Daren believed to be the most acoustically perfect spot on the ship. Daren stated that the intersection acted as a resonance chamber, and the two played melodies that permeated the tubes and found their way around the Enterprise-D. In an interesting twist, the performance did not truly crescendo until the music itself stopped and the couple shared a passionate kiss.

A Risky Rescue

When non-corporeal criminals commandeered the bodies of Counselor Troi, Chief O'Brien, and Data in The Next Generation's "," the trio of interstellar escapees chose to hold the patrons of 10 Forward hostage. Deducing that causing the officers' pain receptors would push the anionic energy controlling them out of them, the Enterprise-D crew set out to utilize a plasma inverter to generate a non-lethal-yet-painful plasma shock.

Geordi La Forge and Ro Laren took to the Jefferies Tubes above 10 Forward, lugging the necessary equipment through the cramped access tunnel and employing a micro-optic drill to cut through the ceiling. The well-executed plan hit a snag at the end, as Data stepped away from their targeting before all three captors were struck, but it proved that the Jefferies tubes had one more innovative attribute.

Liberating the Ship

Another hostage crisis emerged in "," as Ferengi marauders boarded and asserted control over the Enterprise-D soon after a transporter mishap transformed Captain Picard, Ensign Ro, Keiko O'Brien, and Guinan into children.

The young crew members were not perceived to be a threat by the Ferengi, yet they were still equipped with their adulthood experience and knowledge. The group of four escaped their confinement through the Jefferies tubes, dispersing throughout the vessel. Picard and Keiko secured phasers, while Ro and Guinan stationed themselves near Engineering. When the time was right, they began affixing combadges to the Ferengi guards and beaming them into a security field. As Ro noted in the episode, this was the rare occasion when the Jefferies tubes did not seem cramped!

Torpedo Technicians

Typically, an excursion to the Jefferies tubes was an indication that you'd be performing maintenance on your own ship, but that was not the case in Voyager's "."

Courtesy of the Krenim, an undetonated chroniton torpedo had penetrated the hull and become lodged in one of the maintenance tunnels. Seven and Tuvok sought to contain the still-active warhead with a force field, but Seven's valiant effort to gather data from the weapon so she could perfect Voyager's temporal shielding led to an explosion that blinded the Vulcan officer. As was often the case with time-related catastrophes, Captain Janeway and her crew were fortunate enough to have a second chance to avoid the tragedy by correcting the timeline.

Meet and Greet

demonstrated that the Jefferies tubes need not necessarily be used for professional reasons, as they could also be a great spot to get to know new people… at least on occasions when you're hoping there are not any Borg drones lurking around the corner.

With the Borg establishing a foothold throughout the U.S.S. Enterprise-E, both Captain Picard and Lily Sloane sought refuge within the Jefferies tubes. Confused by the situation, the 21st Century civilian reacted defensively and held the captain at phaser point when the two stumbled across each other within the passageways. Picard's understanding demeanor — along with an excellent orbital view of Earth — eventually convinced Lily that things were not as they seemed and he was an ally rather than an adversary.