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I've just finished reading the novel Star Trek: The Next Generation 'Cold Equations: The Persistence of Memory' (great book by the way). On page 358 of my edition (the start of Chapter 31), Picard says the following:

Picard resisted the urge to curse the docelerite that kept his ship mired at impulse, and which made it impractical to fire photon torpedoes and shift to evasive maneuvers.

(my emphasis)

I know that this book can't be considered canon, nevertheless I went to the Memory Beta page for the book and it does say it refers to docelerite, which is apparently an 'element', but there is no page explaining what it is. This docelerite sounds like its pretty important and I was just wondering if there is any reference elsewhere in Star Trek materials that explains what this is.

(For those of you who haven't read the book, this is set on the Enterprise-E)

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    Google says you just need to re-read chapter 6.
    – KutuluMike
    May 29, 2015 at 0:12
  • As a fyi, the ite suffix means it couldn't be an element. Ite typically signifies a rock or mineral, or relative oxygen in a chemical compound.
    – user16696
    May 29, 2015 at 1:40
  • @cde cheers. I thought it would be an element and that was what the memory beta page said, but I wanted to known whether it was like part of the ship in terms of structure and prevented warp in solar systems or something ;)
    – Often Right
    May 29, 2015 at 4:34

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There are no mentions of this element in the TV shows, film or supplementary materials. I can find no reference of it in the official encyclopedia, nor in the technical manuals. I can find no mention of it in any of the other 1200 star trek novels than the one you've referenced where this mystery element is described in more detail;

Docelerite was an exceedingly rare compound not normally encountered near main-sequence stars. Its most troublesome property was that, when found at levels as high as these, it impeded warp travel by making subspace fields dangerously unstable.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Cold Equations: The Persistence of Memory: Chapter 6

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  • Whoops. I was reading it sort of stop-start. I need to add that to Memory Beta!
    – Often Right
    May 29, 2015 at 0:14

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