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Endorfinator
Awkwardly Social
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- He/Him
I think we were discussing either doing a diplomacy ship, I had also floated the idea of a engineering focused heavy frigate but the traction for that vanished quickly.
- Location
- Seattle, Washington
We could do a replacement for the Cygnus-class? They are 40 years old at this point. Honestly though, to replace them, just take our new science ship, add more engines and some torpedoes, replace most of the science stuff with cargo and workshops, maybe add new prototype shields, and it would give us a good compliment to the Selachiis while still being cost-efficient, and would then have the benefit of sharing a lot of parts with the Science Cruiser we just finished designing.
One other option could be to design an actual hospital ship?
We obviously value them pretty highly since the ability for interior-service science ships to pull that role off in a pinch was pushed pretty hard in both designs, succeeding in the Curiosity and only narrowly losing the med bay expansion while the Biosciences won an overwhelming victory with this design. And the Starfleet Medical branch should have been around for a few decades at this point IIRC.
Knowing that we've got a bunch of dedicated and well equipped medical ships in service could also open up some more possibilities in the internals. We can ask ourselves "do we want biosciences and to expand the medical bay because we think this class in particular needs it" when the answer to "does the Federation as a whole need a ship with them" becomes a resounding "they already have some."
We obviously value them pretty highly since the ability for interior-service science ships to pull that role off in a pinch was pushed pretty hard in both designs, succeeding in the Curiosity and only narrowly losing the med bay expansion while the Biosciences won an overwhelming victory with this design. And the Starfleet Medical branch should have been around for a few decades at this point IIRC.
Knowing that we've got a bunch of dedicated and well equipped medical ships in service could also open up some more possibilities in the internals. We can ask ourselves "do we want biosciences and to expand the medical bay because we think this class in particular needs it" when the answer to "does the Federation as a whole need a ship with them" becomes a resounding "they already have some."
My only comment on the whole idea of an unarmed diplomatic ship is that in Star Trek, thats the equivalent of cursing the gods in the middle of a storm while standing on top of a hill while flying a metal kite.
Nobody does that shit for good reason. Not even the Federation.
There's a reason Starfleet has capital ships do that sort of thing.
If you are a diplomat going into space to negotiate with a potentially hostile counterparty, who might get up to shenanigans, its comforting to know your security is guaranteed by some of the biggest guns in known space.
Nobody does that shit for good reason. Not even the Federation.
There's a reason Starfleet has capital ships do that sort of thing.
If you are a diplomat going into space to negotiate with a potentially hostile counterparty, who might get up to shenanigans, its comforting to know your security is guaranteed by some of the biggest guns in known space.
- Location
- Australia
So so close to the "The Colour of Magic" quote that I'm probably going to go re-read the book just for fun now.
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I'd love the chance to do this. There's so many possible design routes we could take, from pure hospital ship to a hospital focused disaster relief ship and so on, to say nothing of the various medical specialisations could take/would have to debate over.
Endorfinator
Awkwardly Social
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I think Hospital & Diplomacy have a lot of overlap/synergy.
Medical aid and disaster relief is pretty much the gold standard for diplomacy points.
Both ships benefit from fast warp speeds to respond to either medical or diplomatic crisis.
Heck having botanical gardens and arboretums are good for diplomacy and for pharmaceutical plants and recovering patients.
Medical aid and disaster relief is pretty much the gold standard for diplomacy points.
Both ships benefit from fast warp speeds to respond to either medical or diplomatic crisis.
Heck having botanical gardens and arboretums are good for diplomacy and for pharmaceutical plants and recovering patients.
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Maybe? I think you're imagining something smaller than I am. I still want that big arboretum, I just don't want it to be the whole saucer.
Absolutely have balconies open up on/into it though, behind heavy forcefield protections. And your idea of parking so a planet just hangs above the dome is genius.
Hang on, doodle time:
darkstarling
Brilliantly Crazed
- Location
- Columbus, Ohio
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I think they have synergy but should be separate ships. The hospital ship arrives and is the best hospital in the sector, and does disaster relief for a whole system. And the Diplomatic corps shows up in a flying embassy.
I really like the idea of Starfleet having a dedicated disaster relief corps though. Both medics and for other things like earthquakes and other crazy stuff. Fabrication, cargo transporters, cargo shuttles for when the transporters don't work, that kind of thing.
Have a two dedicated ships and then it's less of a priority for the rest of the fleet.
Endorfinator
Awkwardly Social
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They work well enough together to combine into a single ship. Our development cycle is so glacial and the resources are tight enough I don't think we can justify two separate designs.
Also internal diplomacy is a thing. When disasters strike senators and congress members visit to increase their public reputation.
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LunaMoth
Wings of Kynareth is my comfort song...
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I don't think anyone's saying that, the dome is transparent aluminum, a canon material used in ship construction from the star trek movie where Kirk and co go back in time to save the wales. Scotty is the inventor, as he gives the blueprints for the material to the company that originally comes up with the material (yay paradox?).
- Location
- Earth
I prefer two separate ships as well. Whenever a medical ship/vehicle/org/person doubles as another role, they get accused of using medical neutrality for nefarious purposes. In the case of a medical/diplomatic ship, it could be seen as using medicine to cover for secret political deals.
Endorfinator
Awkwardly Social
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Yeah that really doesn't compute for me. You don't send the flying embassy for shady back door deals, that would be too obvious.
[X] UFS Europa
[X] UFS Kea
NexusEye
Aspiring God
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- She/Her
We could have a hospital/cargo ship as another Cygnus descendant, give it loads of cargo capacity and an expanded sickbay, under normal circumstances it works as a cargo ship and whenever you need it to work as a hospital ship you pack it full of medial supplies you send it to the nearest epidemic or other major medical crisis.
A handful of med ships could likely stay busy. Colony support, disaster relief, supporting injured during a war, rehab for rescued people, and also new alien planet vetting. As the federation grows the number increases though I'm not sure if they'd ever outnumber a class of explorers.
- Location
- USA
Hospital ships will also stay in service far longer than most designs. For simple virtue of not being as effected by advances in technology. A hospital bed is a hospital bed. And the medicine cabinet can be restocked as needed with the new shit.
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Transparent aluminum is actually a real material. It's sapphire, and the natural stone actually picks up color from impurities. When it's pure it actually makes an almost perfectly clear material that's extremely hard, almost as hard as diamond, but not prone to burning like diamond.
It's used to make high precision optics and extreme armored glass in the real world.
The only thing Star Trek uses it in a scifi way is that they build big panes of it rather than tens of thousands of dollars buying you a plate measured in inches as it is in our time. That makes sense. Star Trek has industrial replicators and it's just aluminum and oxygen atoms.
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darkstarling
Brilliantly Crazed
- Location
- Columbus, Ohio
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Sure you do. The embassy contains The Room Where It Happens. Or rooms plural. And the ability to move people in and out discretely, it's hard to beat a combination of transporters and the control of corridors and internal sensors on a starship for that. Just come up with a pretext for the embassy to be there - or actual text for that matter. Being spies everyone knows about is half the point of an embassy.
Another potential subsystem we may need to trade off for - internal security systems and a floorplan that allows discrete travel vs something more open that has more open space. Also choose between spy equipment, diplomatic security guards, lavish replicator facilities, extra sensors, communications room...
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Though amusingly, if I remember correctly the real world material was named after the ST material. Citation needed on that though, it could just be an internet story I ran into.