If the transporter really worked they would just transport people out of caves all the time. Saying they can’t do that makes zero sense that rocks would block a subspace transmission. It’s not going through the rocks, it’s circumventing them through another dimension.
They try to hand wave it away by saying that they can’t get a sensor lock, but wouldn’t you in that case just lock onto the entire interior of the cave, and beam all of it to the surface. You’ll probably transport a lot of useless boulders as well but who cares. It’s not like you have a weight capacity.
If the transporter really worked they would just transport people out of caves all the time. Saying they can’t do that makes zero sense that rocks would block a subspace transmission. It’s not going through the rocks, it’s circumventing them through another dimension.
They try to hand wave it away by saying that they can’t get a sensor lock, but wouldn’t you in that case just lock onto the entire interior of the cave, and beam all of it to the surface. You’ll probably transport a lot of useless boulders as well but who cares. It’s not like you have a weight capacity.
Maybe they tried that but discovered a small problem with beaming the away party plus 2000 tons of unsupported rock above their heads.
They just have such ridiculously OP tech that you can solve virtually any problem with ease. For instance:
You could even automate the process. Automatically purge rock from the pattern, since obviously no part of the away crew are made of rock.
Until you transport a Brikar ensign and they materialize without their skin 💀
Beam them into a cargo hold, with gravity disabled