Pattern buffer

Thepattern buffer was the part of atransporter system that held the information or material compromising the subject being transported.

When theUSSJenolin crashed on the surface of aDyson sphere,Montgomery Scott rigged the pattern buffers of the ship to hold the patterns of himself andMatt Franklin until they could be rescued; such a rescue took seventy five years until theUSSEnterprise-D discovered them. By that point, one of thepattern inducers had failed, and Franklin's pattern was too degraded to rematerialize. (TNGepisode: "Relics")

In analternate timeline whereMontgomery Scott rescuedJames T. Kirk before he could be absorbed into theNexus, it was discovered that the proper flow of space-time could only be restored by returning Kirk to the energy ribbon. His pattern was dematerialized and stored in the pattern buffer before the ship approached the Nexus in order to reduce the time necessary. (Star Treknovel:Engines of Destiny)

See Also[]

Pattern buffer article atMemory Alpha, the wiki for canonStar Trek.