I know from reading the L.I.C.C. backlogs that you groovy people who created that phenomenon once considered switching over to non-Trek terminology in case you wanted to publish something without copyright breach.

I myself have had to make that change when I switched my own sci-fi project hobby from a subset of the Trek universe to one of my own making.

I would be interested to hear the comments of the posters here on the alternative technobabble I've invented (see below, and please don't use any of these without asking - Enterprise already did that [for real!!]).

Here are some of them:

Universal translator = auto-interpreter

Replicator = auto-synthesiser

Transporter = teleporter (yeah, I know, amazingly unoriginal; I'm thinking of changing to something better like GalaxyQuest's "Digital Conveyor")

Isolinear [anything] = Cybercomp [anything]

Omega = Xhxia

Warp drive = flux drive, or Graham drive, or Daljyn drive (named after human and alien inventors of it respectively)

Quantum slipstream drive/transwarp: Hypergates and hyperflash drive.

Photon torpedoes = mapulse torpedoes (short for Matter/Antimatter PULSE).

Phasers = a tricky one, but I adopted Frank Herbert's method of modifying 'laser' to 'lasgun', 'lasrifle' etc., producing a number of variants along the lines of phasgun, phasrifle, phaspistol, phascannon, phasdrill, phasblaster, phasweapon, phasturret and phasbattery. NB 'phas' is pronounced 'fazz'.
Advanced forms are referred to as fluxers and fluxdomes.

Disruptors = I decided to leave this one as it is, as it's a pretty generic term also found in Star Wars referring to something else.

I also have something called a fluxsword which, to the uninitiated (*ahem*) might look a bit like a lightsaber...

Some good ones there, Thande. I especially like the idea of calling a non-Trekkian warp drive by the name of its inventor.

cf. Alderson Drive in the Pournell Co-Dominium novels, named for it's inventor (at CalTech).

Yes. However, my (human) inventor of flux drive, Seth Graham (eqv. of Zefram Cochrane essentially) has some strange quirks. For one, he has a desire to name absolutely everything after himself. So ships using Graham drive accelerate to 400 kiloGrahams using their Graham engines powered by their Graham reactor, and the first human colony is on a world called Planet Graham, with cities named Grahamopolis, Grahamsk, Grahamberg, Grahamabad etc...

auto-interpreter & auto-synthesiser would get to be a mouthful after a while. I think people in the story would probably shorten them to interpretor & synthesiser.

Of course translator predates Star Trek so it's not really a problem to call it that. Just don't claim that it's Universal. ;-)

Transporter = teleporter (yeah, I know, amazingly unoriginal; I'm thinking of changing to something better like GalaxyQuest's "Digital Conveyor")
How much thought have you put into the science of how it works? There might be something there that can provide a name. Or you could just make up a name like Energy Beam Delivery Process or something and just shorten it to less of a mouthful (a clever acronym or something).

Isolinear [anything] = Cybercomp [anything]
As near as I can figure isolinear means a line that is equal or similar to another line. Nothing specifically computerific about it. I think some Trek writers thought it sounded neat & just started using it thinking it meant something else. Get a dictionary of computer terminology, you'll probably be better off.

Omega
The Greeks used this long before Star Trek. (Unless you're refering to the Omega Molecule from that Voyager episode.)

Xhxia
Say what?

Warp drive
I seem to think that SF writers used Warp before Star Trek.
Personally I think warp should only be used when refering to the actual warping of space rather than as a speed like Trek used it.

Quantum slipstream drive/transwarp
Personally I think these were rather meaningless Trek terms to begin with.

Hypergates
Places where you can buy coffee. ;-)

hyperflash
A superhero who's had too much coffee. ;-)

Despite my making jokes those aren't bad names.

mapulse torpedoes (short for Matter/Antimatter PULSE).
Isn't it more of an explosion than a pulse? I'd probably go with something like MA torps, or MATs or something ("Big, honkin' space bombs!")

Phasers
Stay away! Stay away! Since it's just a made up term ignore it.

phasgun, phasrifle, phaspistol, phascannon, phasdrill, phasblaster, phasweapon, phasturret and phasbattery
What did I just say?

I think Roddenberry said the term was a phased energy something or other, but I think he had the name first & the definition second. Just ignore it and make up your own term. Putting phas in front of other words will just make it obvious that it's Trek-based.

flux drive
fluxers and fluxdomes
fluxsword which might look a bit like a lightsaber
So I take it that flux is synonymous to light in your scientific lexicon?

Seth Graham (eqv. of Zefram Cochrane essentially) has some strange quirks. For one, he has a desire to name absolutely everything after himself
Sounds like he went Graham crackers. ;-)

Maybe he invented, or owned the company that invented, your tranporter system & you can call them TeleGrahams.

Yes, Xhxia is supposed to be loosely based on the Omega molecule. Obviously I don't replace Greek letter terms, unless we're talking about aliens.

Flux is essentially equivalent to warp: fluxers are supposed to be "phasers tied in to the warp drive", but the concept's a bit more complicated then that and kind of hard to explain in a paragraph.

As for phasguns, I know it sounds derivative but nearly everything else does too: I tried using 'blaster' for a while and it feels overdone, like 'laser cannons'. And I don't feel like doing the old avoid-copyright scam of changing Ss to Zs (ever seen blatant rip off toy "energy guns" called Phazers or Fazers? I have!)

Seth Graham did not invent teleporters, only flux drive. I think it gets a bit unbelievable to have one genius invent everything after a while.

kiloGrahams could get confusing....

It's usually truncated to kiloGs or just kGs, Scott Neugroschl (which I believe is German for New...uh..."Groschl" ).

Re the phas- debate, I have a lot of other possible names for energy weapons:

beamer (nicked from Diane Carey novel)
bolter (nicked from Warhammer 40K)
pulser (nicked from Peter David novel)
blaster (too generic)
disruptor (ditto)
streamer (quite pleased with that one, invented it myself)

Thande, my understanding is that it's a corruption of "groeschen", or a small coin.

Family history: Back in the day, when the Empress Maria Theresa Hapsburg gave names to the Jews, the man Wolf was a banker, and hence the name.

Frankly, ScottN, I think your family got off quite likely with "Neugroschl"...it may be impossible to spell, but the Germans in the 18th and 19th centuries were quite fond of giving pretty insulting surnames to Jews such as "Gelsswasser" (if I recall correctly) = Goldwater, i.e. "Urine". One of the reasons why the Jews coming into Ellis island immigrating into the United States were so ready to take new surnames was because the ones they already had had only been given to them maybe 50 years before, and were usually insulting or at least patronising.

But you probably knew all that.

Does Mr. Obvious or Mr. Absurd want to venture an opinion on my alternative energy weapon names?

(Did that sound patronising? I wasn't intending to be but sometimes it just comes out that way )

Thande, I always tell people, "it's pronounced just the way it's spelled; it's just not spelled the way it's pronounced".

Excellent logic.

Alternative enregy weapon names.

Mr Absurd: Welll.... have you considered
Zapper
Frier
Frickaseer
;-)

Mr. Obvious: On the other hand how do we refer to guns & rifles in this day & age? Usually by the manufacturer: Colt, Winchester, Beretta... Why not just refer to the weapons by the company names. (Actually I think Space For Hire by William F. Nolan did such a thing.) Or alterations of the company name. Tommy Gun is short for Thompson Sub-Machine Gun.

Mr. Absurd: For instance, the Zumach Automatic Phased-pulse Energy Rifle could be easily reduced to its initials... Z.A.P.P.E.R.

KAM (whoever he is): Just because Star Trek did things one way is no reason why you should be handcuffed to the same way of naming things. Look around at how things are named now.

IIRC terms like laser, maser, & saser are anagrams of Light/Microwave/Sound Amplified Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
Taser on the other hand is Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle.

fluxers are supposed to be "phasers tied in to the warp drive"
As in STTMP?

streamer (quite pleased with that one, invented it myself)
So they use water pistols? ;-)
Based on a stream of energy, I assume.

Xhxia is supposed to be loosely based on the Omega molecule.
I do wonder why, especially since that's rather specific to Trek rather than generic to SF in general. Something like that could make a Copyright Infringement case easier to win for Paramount. (True, you're not published yet, but if you hope to be it's something to consider.)

BTW I think the generic term for what transporters do is called Matter Transmission. So you could call them Matter Transmitters.

KAM, I accept your (and your alter egos' ) comments. I do intend to alter and refine the Xhxia business so it's not clear it's derived from Omega (which they never used again after that one VOY episode, I might add).

Streamers are a tight-beam version of [whatever the standard energy guns are called], which only do a tiny amount of damage but can punch through three walls and kill a target if aimed correctly. They're usually used as sniper rifles and cutting beams.

Acronyms ARE a good idea for weapons etc. Actually, a running joke in my stories is that the secret military projects' funding are decided solely on the basis of which has the coolest acronym, hence the cancellation of the Plasma Hadron/Laser Energetic Magnifier development project.

"Taser" was invented by Swift? Really? That must have been really influential, 'cause the people actually developing electrical stunguns now call them tasers.

Kraj! That should have been Plasma Hadron/Laser Energetic Gravitational Magnifier!

You can't call kiloGrahams "kiloGs" or Quaker will sue. ;)

can punch through three walls and kill a target if aimed correctly.
And if aimed incorrectly can punch through three walls and kill an innocent bystander. ;-) Use carefully.

"Taser" was invented by Swift?
No, as I understand it the inventer was a fan of the Tom Swift series of books (Tom Swift & his Flying Saucer, Tom Swift & Something Something Something, Tom Swift & the Electric Hooker, or something like that) & thought of it when coming up with a name for his invention. I don't know if the Swift books ever featured an electric rifle, never read them myself.

I was rereading Marvel Comics version of The Micronauts (based on a toy line by Mego) & the ships there used Photon Torpedoes & Phaser Flares. Hmmm...

Also in the indicia it was stated that Mego had Trademarked the term Battle Cruiser. (Whether the Trademark still stands or not I don't know, but I thought it was interesting since it sounds like such a generic term.)