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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)

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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest) Starfleet Ship Design Bureau, Refit ("To Boldly Go...")
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[X] Find the other starships

OneirosTheWriter said:
But before a damage report can even be called out, the temporal wormhole flares again and an enormous shape begins to emerge, shrouded in distortions and flame. But even through the obstruction, you can make out comforting shapes: a saucer, long nacelles, a secondary hull. But large, so very large. And further back, from the edges of the temporal storm, you make out a station.
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Well, when you are used to a Constitution being the largest ship in the Fleet, an Excelsior massing over twice as much would seem a bit big.

That is the only mention of the research station. Did it complete the passage through the anomaly? How many people are aboard that platform?

Kirk's Enterprise should be at least the equal of Cheron, the last operational Constitution-A in the Fleet:
USS Cheron, Constitution-class, Veteran, C6 S5 H5 L5 P6 D5

The Mentat's ship is, I assume, one of their Frigates, as none of the known Cruiser and Explorer designs remain operational. So in a one-on-one fight, Kirk's ship should be victorious if the battle is conventional.

So we can safely assume that the Mentat has special weapons of some kind .....
 
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Goat said:
Kirk's Enterprise should be at least the equal of Cheron, the last operational Constitution-A in the Fleet:
USS Cheron, Constitution-class, Veteran, C6 S5 H5 L5 P6 D5
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Kirk's ship is a Connie, no bloody A, B, or C. So this could be a pretty even fight... except that Kirk presumably has a Veteran crew.

Plus, Ent-B could loan a few photons? Maybe do some emergency upgrades?

[X] Find the other starships
 
I know that timetravel is a common (and popular) trope in Star Trek but I have to admit that is probably my least favourite one, especially considering how comparetively easy it is. I just can't understand how the universe works when it is so easy to break it...


That aside I am a bit surprised at how this is once again a "science" race with a government similar to the previous Two.
 
OneirosTheWriter said:
The Fleet of the Caldonian Science Directorate
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Hoo boy, the Caldonians don't exactly operate the most efficient space navy in the galaxy, do they?

The Caldonians operate five of these Science Cruisers, and another six obsolete escort craft, and make use of their ships with an eye for research first, and defence second. This has led to grave difficulty putting down uprisings and rebel factions in some of their colonies. The Federation Council and the Diplomatic Service have expressed some concerns about the protection of orthodoxy practiced by the Directorate, however, the Caldonians point to the fact that many of the rebel groups espouse views that are, once you get past the surface, deeply unscientific, often cargo-cult like in their approaches, as evidence that their system of review is functional and necessary, not stifling.
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One hopes that the Federation will offer something of a pressure relief valve for their system, providing a parallel structure for publication and peer review outside the control of the Directorate. If the Directorate's review system won't consider your paper, you can always see what the Vulcan Academy of Science has to say.

Caldonian Science Cruiser
C3 S4 H3 L3 P3 D2
939,000t mass, 316m length
Period of Service - 2299-Now
2 Officer, 3 Enlisted, 4 Technician

The Caldonian Science Cruiser is a respectable ship that has been giving respectable service for nearly two decades now, and has completely replaced previous cruiser designs. Superior to other equivalents, such as the unrefitted Constellation, the Caldonians are proud of their cruiser, which has performed many surveys of local space, including on the Klingon side of the border. It may not have great speed, but it has sufficient firepower and durability to ward off opportunistic Birds of Prey. Each Science Cruiser is named for a famous Caldonian scientist, and placed under a dual command of Ship Senior Research Master, and Ship Commander. While on scientific missions, the Research Master will be responsible for the overall mission, with the Ship Commander there to carry out their requirements. In other situations, however, including emergency responses, the Research Master will return to their labs and the Ship Commander will take over.
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Respectable, but far from impressive. It is interesting that they've done a lot of surveys on the Klingon side of the border. While Federation membership will likely bring that to an end, those survey records could provide a valuable source of intelligence on the near-Federation part of the Klingon Empire. Maybe they've even seen a Gorn!

Caldonian Escort
C2 S2 H1 L2 P1 D1
391,000t mass, 186m length
Period of Service - 2268-Now
1 Officer, 2 Enlisted, 2 Technician

Unlike with the Science Cruiser, there is no Research Master on an escort - it is purely an operational command team. By now all agree that the Caldonian Escort is hopelessly outdated, and that in the event of any manner of war, she would be of very little utility. However, getting the ball moving on a non-science ship has proven difficult. A number of attempts have been made, however in almost all circumstances, feature creep has taken over, until the project collapses, usually with the design now resembling a bleeding edge research explorer rather than a useful fleet escort. However, the rise of "Cults of Science" in some of the Caldonian colonies has served to focus the mind admirably, and a new design for escorts is on the design console now.
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In fairness it's a small ship meant to go in their 500kt berths. One the other hand, might as well build an Oberth. I'd suggest building Centaur-As, but they're kind of resource-hogs. Get these people a Miranda-A design.

Renaissance
After a technological exchange agreement with the Federation, the Caldonians have begun construction of a Starfleet design, the Renaissance-class cruiser. Their intention is to build a second ship after this one is complete, and these will provide the necessary combat backbone to their science fleet.
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Having a couple of Rennies to form a core combat fleet will definitely add a lot of punch to their fleet. A task force of two Rennies, say four of their Science cruisers, and some escorts would be... well, not great, but at least something an enemy fleet would have to take seriously. But wow, given the comments on their crew income below, those Rennies are going to gobble up huge portions of their available crew. They might have to retire some escorts.

Personnel

Caldonian officers and technical staff are drawn from graduates of the five Bluestone Universities, the venerable and elite institutions of Caldonia, while their enlisted spacers are drawn from graduates of the Vocational Science Education system, who offer a two year diploma. This leads to a certain strain on their crew intake that is difficult to overcome, however, from the ship's galley manager to the tactical officer, everyone is capable of running a research lab. The inefficiency of this has been pointed out to the Directorate, and politely ignored each time.
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On the plus side, this means good things for their potential Starfleet crew income. There might be a lot of would-be spacers who couldn't get into a Bluestone for one reason or another, but who could do well in Starfleet Academy.

Officers
Well trained scientists from first to last, the officers of the Caldonian Science Directorate Fleet are all graduates of a university with a minor in starship operation, graduating courses that last between six to eight years. This does leave the Caldonians having grave difficulty increasing their intake to address developing threats, but as a result they operate a carefully maintained Space Reserve, where all officers who leave the service are still liable for call-up in perpetuity.
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They have a "minor" in starship operation. Uh-huh.

The Admiralty
The most experienced and well-connected officers are promoted into the Admiralty. The Caldonians extremely rarely operate as a combined fleet, and have no permanent fleet structures. They do have fleet plans prepared for emergencies, should it become necessary, but by and large ships operate independently to fulfil the Admiralty's orders. As a result, the Caldonian Admiralty is not well known as a bastion of competence, and in fact is known more as a reward for long service, even a sinecure.
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In the event of a crisis, we're going to need these guys to keep out of the way.
 
Oh, do we have any details on the Indorians? That'd be nice, too.

And the Orion Union, provided they still have an extant space force these days.

Hell, I kinda wanna know in general what's been happening over there since the start of the Completion of the Revolution.

(also someone could probably run a very interesting Shadowrun-like game in late 23rd century Alukk/Celos, I feel)
 
OneirosTheWriter said:
The bridge crew pause, taking in a breath for the first time since the frantic exchange of fire began. Ahead of you, the storm dissipates and reveals a vessel, totally unfamiliar yet undeniably Starfleet. And the words written clearly across the hull: "USS Enterprise" and "NCC-1701-B".

"Impossible," you hear Spock of all people whisper, easily heard over the silence of the bridge.
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Perhaps it's the lack of coffee, but why is Spock saying "impossible"?
 
How about exposition on the Honiani fleet? At least they're different from their more science-inclined neighbors.
 
I imagine an Orion Navy write up would have been most interesting during the start of the quest, back when they were hyper cyberpunk. Now I imagine they've centralized things to a relatively normal "I can't believe it's not the United States Navy." Although maybe the USN with more of a late 19th century Hat.

One idea is they may be centralized but a bit like NASA, they end up running a lot of corporate contracts. So occasionally your best cruiser is out deploying space-billboards but you get sweet, sweet cash/br/sr in return. Too bad they outlawed slavery or they could get crew income too, am I right? Hahaha! Oh wait, no sorry that's terrible
 
The caldonians are much weirder than I thought. How does an entire interstellar society become so monomaniacally focused on science, to the point where literally everyone has to be a scientist to get any sort of job? Its enough to make me wonder if those pseudoscience cults are an inevitable reaction to what their culture is doing to itself.

Like, the gaeni actually make some kind of sense. They're a society ruled by an oligarchy of scientists. The caldonians are a society of nothing BUT scientists, which is much harder for me to wrap my mind around.
 
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Leila Hann said:
The caldonians are much weirder than I thought. How does an entire interstellar society become so monomaniacally focused on science, to the point where literally everyone has to be a scientist to get any sort of job? Its enough to make me wonder if those pseudoscience cults are an inevitable reaction to what their culture is doing to itself.

Like, the gaeni actually make some kind of sense. They're a society ruled by an oligarchy of scientists. The caldonians are much harder for me to wrap my mind around.
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Isn't their mono-focused society 'just' a variant of Vulcans?
 
Say, could someone give me the rundown of the decision process for why we wouldn't be re-jiggering the ship designs and the doctrine for that sexy sexy shield burn-through, as a long term thing? That was decided, yes?
 
Leila Hann said:
The caldonians are much weirder than I thought. How does an entire interstellar society become so monomaniacally focused on science, to the point where literally everyone has to be a scientist to get any sort of job? Its enough to make me wonder if those pseudoscience cults are an inevitable reaction to what their culture is doing to itself.

Like, the gaeni actually make some kind of sense. They're a society ruled by an oligarchy of scientists. The caldonians are much harder for me to wrap my mind around.
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Like, have you seen their heads? All that extra braaaaaaaaain. You can't stop that brain. That brains gotta brain, ya know, and no common sense is getting in the way!
 
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