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Jefferies tubes, in the Star Trek fictional universe, are small tunnels or corridors that provide access to critical starship systems. They can be vertically or horizontally oriented, and form a network that allows travel throughout large volumes of a starship even when the turbolifts are not functioning.

The term "Jefferies tube" was originally an inside joke among the original Star Trek production staff, a reference to Original Series art director Matt Jefferies, the man who designed the original starship Enterprise. This was incorporated into the fictional universe in Star Trek: Enterprise, when in "Home" Captain Archer says "I had an argument once with Captain Jefferies; he was one of the designers of the NX class" (another inside joke), presumably referring to the inventor of the eponymous tubes.

Another in-joke reportedly appearing in the Jefferies Tube sets on the original Star Trek series (although written so small as to be invisible to the audience) are labels on the pipes marked "G.N.D.N.". This stands for "Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing."

The term quickly caught on among fans, becoming an official part of the show's lexicon, and has begun being used informally in some real-world situations to refer to similar access passages. In the Next Generation series the Jefferies tube is mentioned in the episodes "Quality of Life", "Lessons", and others. It is also mentioned in the Voyager series in the episode "Twisted", "Macrocosm", and others.

Additionally, the US Air Force has taken the term for use within the Space Command community whereby any small or confined space is called a Jefferies Tube.

External links

• Jefferies tube article at Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki