Starfleet Design Bureau

[Sayle]

[X] Blister Forward Deflector (200,000 -> 220,000 Tons)

The deflector isn't entirely housed in the new, cylindrical blister that you build out from the primary hull - there are concerns that adding another three decks below the rim of the saucer section would impinge on the effectiveness of the navigational array. Instead the an extra two decks are added, with the forward rim cut out to allow line of sight for the main dish. The lost internal space is then reclaimed by stretching the cylinder of the deflector housing back towards the main bulge of the saucer, offsetting any losses that the admittedly very large deflector apparatus causes by its encroachment on the existing areas.

But with the deflector now dealt with you need to figure out the arrangement of the nacelles. The lack of a dedicated secondary hull has removed some options and added others, with varying effects on the ship's warp envelope. Some of these can be mitigated with the proper adjustments, while others will translate into actual changes in performance.

Option one is to use the same style as the Thunderchild-class, drawing out a short secondary hull to act as a nacelle strut and integrated shuttlebay. From there you can pull the nacelles themselves out to the sides in a sprint configuration that will likely allow the Brahe to break the Warp 7 barrier. Alternatively you could lay the nacelles parallel with the main saucer instead, as there are suggestions this might be a viable configuration with the new and more powerful warp coils and provide a minor boost to both cruise and sprint speeds. It's not quite a proven technique, but not especially risky - the challenges are in implementation rather than theory.

The final option is a touch more radical. Instead of adding a secondary hull at all, the nacelles could be mounted along the vertical plane both above and below the main saucer. With no line of sight between them you'll be playing with a much more complex warp field, but if it works you should get increased cruise velocities and no extra mass from the secondary hull. It's worth considering.

[ ] Sprint Configuration (+0.4 Maximum)
[ ] Parallel Configuration (+0.2 Cruise/Maximum) (Prototype) [1 Success Check]
[ ] Vertical Configuration (+0.4 Cruise) [Experimental] [2 Success Checks]

Nacelles	Mass	Advantages	Disadvantages
Sprint	50,000 Tons	+0.4 Sprint Speed/Shuttlebay	Mass
Parallel	50,000 Tons	+0.2 All Speeds/Shuttlebay	Prototype
Vertical	20,000 Tons	+0.4 Cruise Speed	Experimental

Two Hour Moratorium, Please.

 

[Sayle]

[X] Parallel Configuration (+0.2 Cruise/Maximum) (Prototype) [1 Success Check]

The new nacelles are quite large, but look even more so next to the comparatively small Brahe. The hope is that these will break the Warp 7 barrier, though a Warp 5 cruise would be an edifying result given that this configuration should give the field efficiency an extra boost that could push it over that hurdle. The warp engine and shuttlebay take up most of the secondary hull, the engine especially, but you've done as much as you can to preserve the saucer section for later installations.

With the warp drive completed, there's only a few major pieces left to install before moving onto the auxiliary systems. First is the impulse engines, where you are faced with the choice of either using a midline engine above the shuttlebay or a pair mounted to the nacelle struts. These are being produced by the newly established Avidyne Systems, a consolidation of the mix of suppliers that existed before the Romulan War.

Then there are the torpedoes, with a proposal for either a pair of dual launchers in the ventral saucer or none at all. While torpedoes are useful to punch up, they are less likely to be helpful if the ship is so slow it cannot usefully aim them at a manoeuvring target. Of course torpedoes are useful for putting damage on a variety of targets, from hostile ships to natural obstacles, but it's important to design from a tactical perspective. The space may be better used for other systems as well, so forgoing the launchers entirely wouldn't be a controversial deicsion.

Finally there is the choice between phase cannons or the new phaser prototypes. Unlike the phase cannons which deploy on a gimballed mount in their entirety, the new phasers use a fixed emitter that fires a nadion stream into a ball-mounted particle lens. While lacking the free targeting of the phase cannons thanks to their position closer to the hull, they still have a reasonable arc of fire and a substantially more potent kick. In either case, the planned arrangement is for the minimal armament to be a pair of weapons on the ventral saucer that can fire in multiple arcs, with the maximal loadout cloning this to the dorsal saucer. There might be blind spots, but the Brahe won't be entirely toothless.

[ ] 0: Midline Engine (Maneuverability: Low)
[ ] 0: Dual Engines (Maneuverability: Medium) [+2 Civilian Industry]

[ ] 1: No Torpedoes
[ ] 1: Two Forward Photonics (+7.5 Burst Damage) [+6 Starfleet Industry]

[ ] 2: Two Phase Cannons (+1.25 Average Damage) [+4 Starfleet Industry]
[ ] 2: Four Phase Cannons (+2.5 Average Damage) [+8 Starfleet Industry]
[ ] 2: Two Phaser Emitters (+2 Average Damage) [+6 Starfleet Industry] [Prototype]
[ ] 2: Four Phaser Emitters (+4 Average Damage) [+12 Starfleet Industry] [Prototype]



Two Hour Moratorium, Please.

 

[Sayle]

[X] 0: Dual Engines (Maneuverability: Medium) [+1 Civilian Industry]
[X] 1: No Torpedoes
[X] 2: Two Phaser Emitters (+2 Average Damage) [+6 Starfleet Industry] [Prototype]

In the end you decide to eat the cost of duplicating the thruster assembly, pushing more work to Avidyne Propulsion. While strictly speaking personal money is no longer a 'thing' in the New World Economy, the Terran Credit (soon to be Federation credit) is still the main unit of exchange for major industrial work and access to United Earth owned manufacturing utilities. By that measure Avidyne is going to come out of the Brahe a little bit more able to accomplish its goals and Starfleet a little bit less, but sometimes that's the price you have to pay for performance.

The torpedo system, on the other hand, is scrapped entirely. While it's a nice function to have for any starship, the need for the Brahe is not quite so pressing. It's already prototyping a pair of the new phasers, which you hope will give it the teeth it needs to dissuade any of the unlikely but entirely possible opportunism it might face out in the stars. With the major fixed systems installed, you are now able to turn your attention towards the internal utilities. There are plenty of ideas for what to put there, some that provide new capabilities for the ship and some that simply synergize with its design goals. Now you just have to walk that line between making the ship capable of multiple tasks and making it good at its primary role.


[ ] 1: Astrometrics (+2 Science)
[ ] 1: Antimatter Pods (1 -> 3 Year Range) [+2 Civilian Industry]

[ ] 2: Secondary Computer Core (+1 Science) [+1 Civilian Industry]
[ ] 2: Biological-Rated Transporter Room (Transporter Capability)

[ ] 3: Science Labs (+2 Science)
[ ] 3: Medium Cargo Bay (+2 Engineering, Cargo Capability)

[ ] 4: Biosciences/Medical Laboratory (+2 Science)
[ ] 4: Deflector Array Sensor Analysis (+1 Science, Advanced Scanners)

Current Scores:
Science: 2
Engineering: 2 (+Shuttle Capability)



Two Hour Moratorium, Please

 

[Sayle]

[X] 1: Astrometrics (+2 Science)
[X] 2: Biological-Rated Transporter Room (Transporter Capability)
[X] 3: Science Labs (+2 Science)
[X] 4: Biosciences/Medical Laboratory (+2 Science)

In the end there isn't enough space to fit everything you want, but you nonetheless manage to add some extra capability to the Brahe as well as the investigative systems it needs to carry out its missions. Astrometrics will be useful for analysing stellar phenomenon and general cartography, while the science labs will be able to handle general examination and investigation. The biological-rated transporter will allow the crew to deploy from the ship without the use of shuttles and the remote retrieval of samples from promising targets, while the biosciences lab will allow in-depth analysis of alien biomes, flora, fauna, and microbiology. In the worst case scenario it is also equipped with an isolation and decontamination chamber, which will hopefully be a source of security rather than actually being utilised. But the crew will nonetheless be equipped.

With that done, the Brahe is now officially fitted out. Some of the nuts and fasteners still need tweaking and tightening, but the core elements of the ship and its functions are all present and accounted for. With the ship now spaceworthy the systems can be properly tested. Of particular interest will be the new Warp 7 engine and tactical systems.

As the Brahe engages warp it quickly becomes clear that the warp field is not responding optimally, and the ship is underperforming compared to expectations. The problem is traced to the coils themselves, with the polyceramics unable to effectively overcome the intervening mass. The problem is unlikely to be solved without a generational improvement in material sciences. The result is disappointing as the ship tops out at a maximum of Warp 6.9, just short of the Warp 7 barrier. But that's still pretty damn fast, you must say, so maybe it isn't quite so disappointing after all. Only two weeks to Proxima Centauri at standard cruise is a substantial jump in capability.

The current generation of warp coils can only maintain a +0.1 warp factor increase to cruise and maximum velocities when in a parallel configuration.

With the primary systems test complete, the Brahe undergoes a short tactical assessment at Ceres. The new phasers perform adequately, the deep scarlet beams a darker colour than what you would associate with a phase cannon. With their primary assembly safely contained within the hull rather than the entire apparatus deploying during combat they are also less vulnerable to incidental damage. All told there are congratulations to be made for performing as promised to the design teams, who are now hard at work improving the fundamentals of the weapon.

The Type-1 phasers perform to specification, dealing 60% more damage than the pulsed phase cannons with only a 50% increase in cost.

The final point of business is a name, one that will hopefully hold it in good stead as it expands the boundaries of scientific knowledge.

[ ] UES Brahe. Named after astronomers and astrophysicists.
[ ] UES Newton. Named after philosophers of the natural sciences.
[ ] UES Curiosity. Named after robotic probes.
[ ] Other



Project Brahe [2163]
Tactical Rating: 5
Multi-Target Rating: 1
-Average Damage: 2
-Max Sustained Damage: 8
-Alpha Strike Damage: 8
-Coverage: 37.5%
-Maneuverability: Medium
Defense Rating: 32
Engineering: 2 (Shuttles, Transporter)
Science: 8
Warp (Cruise): 4.9 (117c)
Warp (Max): 6.9 (328c)
Industrial Cost: 19 (Civilian) + 12 (Starfleet)

 

[Sayle]

[ ] UES Curiosity. Named after robotic probes.

Jane's Federation Starships: 2151-2200
5th Edition, 2344.

The Curiosity-class cruiser was United Earth's first dedicated survey ship, designed to investigate safe areas of space for potential colony sites and points of scientific interest. First launched in 2163 with a crew of seventy two, it proved capable of doing just that. The first ship of the class, the UES Curiosity, was sheathed in a tritanium composite over a duratanium alloy spaceframe. While her hull materials were becoming antiquated, the remainder of her systems were state of the art.

Curiosity was the first human-built starship to integrate deflector shields from day one, using high-polarity shield emitters in a Jameson-Korolev lattice, each capable of outputting two hundred gigawatts of harmonically attuned gravitons. Her offensive weaponry was a pair of the newly developed Type-1 phasers out of Starfleet Tactical in cooperation with Andorian advisors, providing the ship enough firepower to fight off pirates and some utilities uses, but the Curiosity-class rarely saw combat and only one was lost to hostile action during their service history.

But the Curiosity was effectively outfitted for her primary mission, with a basic but well outfitted laboratory capable of engaging with most scientific investigations, which was supplemented by a dedicated astrometrics lab, the first modern human-rated transporter system, and a highly sophisticated biosciences section. This naturally lent the ship to close range surveys of stars with spectra and orbital elements conducive to the the presence of habitable planets. While the Curiosity herself never discovered an M-class planet, two of her sisters from the first production run did: Spirit and Sojourner. What Curiosity did find in her first ten years was several class-L planets that are now home to Andorian populations in the tens of thousands as of 2280.

Of particular note was the role of the starship Pioneer in the response to an epidemic of Bendal Fever on Terra Nova, where she was instrumental in safely isolating and synthesising an antigen to the outbreak that saved thousands of lives. The Curiosity-class would eventually consist of twelve vessels built from 2162 to 2174 and conducted the first in-depth surveys of over two thousand systems in the Federation interior, identifying over thirty habitable planets.

As the ship aged into the twenty-third century its increasing shortfalls in sensor and mapping technology became too great to justify the general astrometric missions it had been undertaking for Starfleet, despite its onboard laboratories. It instead transitioned to a biological collection and planetary survey cruiser, in which role it continued until 2220 when the Curiosity-class was recalled for decommissioning over the next five years. The majority were broken up for scrap, though three of the starships were distributed to private interests. Of these the sole surviving example in 2340 is the Sojourner, currently housed in the Andorian Fleet Museum.



With the Curiosity out of your hands and now the responsibility of her captain, your next marching orders come down from the top: Starfleet needs a utility cruiser, one capable of both internal policing actions against pirates and basic cargo runs. They will also be called up as a combat vessel in times of war, so they ideally shouldn't be only capable of taking on pirates - though the Orions do essentially qualify as running military-strength operations in their own right. In any case the more capabilities the better for accomplishing its mission of general helpfulness. Significantly this also comes with a preferred budget attached, as Earth has now returned to more standard industrial footing after the conclusion of the war. This budget covers both the Federation Credits issued to civilian suppliers and the industrial capacity of Starfleet itself. While going overbudget on the civilian side is excuseable if you produce a ship worth the extra expense, going overbudget on the allowed budget from Starfleet will likely see substantially fewer ships of your design produced and a reputational hit.

With that in mind, you have been provided a short cost sheet of the current prices.

Tritanium Hull: 100 Federation Credits per 100,000 Tons.
Avidyne Type-1 Impulse Thruster: 200 Federation Credits
Type-2 Warp Coils: 200 Federation Credits per Standard Nacelle
Antimatter Pod: 100 Federation Credits

Type-1 Jameson-Korolev Shield Emitters: 1 Industry per 50,000 Tons.
Type-1 Phaser Emitter: 3 Industry per Weapon
Photonic Torpedo Launcher: 3 Industry per Weapon

Accounting for elements that will inevitably be included in the ship for minimum functionality (one thruster, one Warp engine, one deflector, a minimum of two warp coils, one antimatter pod, and a central computer), you have a remaining budget of eight hundred credits to spread between additional impulse thrusters, extra nacelles (unlikely, but possible), antimatter pods for extra operational range, additional computer cores, and the cost of the hull. Though of course you can go overbudget, but if you do there will be great expectations of the design that you may not be able to meet if the decision is ill-judged. If you come in under budget though, the ship might be viewed very favourably - again, provided it performs adequately.

On the Starfleet side you have a budget of twenty four industry to spend on the shield emitters, phaser emplacements, and photonic torpedo launchers. You'll have to consider the tactical layout carefully to best synergize with the strengths of the ship as a whole. But that will come later, towards the end of the build. First you have to decide on a hull format.

[ ] Saucer (200kt)
[ ] Half-Saucer (150kt)

Hull Shape	Mass	Cost (Credits)	Industry	Torpedo Slots	Phaser Slots	Phasers Required	Internal Auxiliary Slots	Engine Layouts	Secondary Hull
Saucer	200,000	200	4	4	7	4	4	1, 2	Inline/Ventral
Half-Saucer	150,000	150	3	2	6	2	2	1, 2, 3, 4	Ventral

Two Hour Moratorium, Please.

This is purely experimental, and may not survive in this form (or any) after this ship. We're trying to find a place that introduces cost-aversion while also not increasing complexity too much. This probably swings more towards complexity, and will likely be pruned back if parts of it are carried forward.

 

[Sayle]

[X] Half-Saucer (150kt)

Given you have a perfectly good up-to-date saucer section just lying there you elect to reuse the Curiosity-class primary hull as a starting point for Project Khufu, so named after the impressive work of construction that is the Great Pyramid at Giza. While it isn't quite as helpful as starting from scratch when it comes to modifications, it does mean you don't need to waste time on most of the spaceframe scaffolding and hull plating, which is a surprising amount of work at the start of a project. By cutting the saucer a third of the way back from the midpoint and retaining parts of the outer rim you provide lots of aft-facing space for potential engines and cargo hatches. Up to four engines, as well - midline, twinned thrusters to starboard and port, twinned thrusters with the midline, or two dual engines either side.

The disadvantage, of course, is that you can't add an inline secondary hull without mostly negating the whole point of the half-saucer as a concept. As a result you begin drawing down a neck so you can place the engineering section below the saucer and navigational array. Since a cylinder will give you the best space-to-surface area ratio while maintaining the existing aesthetics and warp envelope, you begin building out from there. Notably this provides the perfect place to put the forward deflector, in much the same way as on the NX class. But you are then faced with a quandary: how much secondary hull do you want?

The first option is to keep it simple. It's called the engineering section, after all. Does it really need more than the main deflector and the warp core? It would provide just enough space for any spare parts or minor auxiliary functions that are usually associated with the warp engine and main engineering and nothing more, which is perfectly fine.

But there is another school of thought in the bureau that a shuttlebay is such a useful piece of the ship that there is no excuse not taking the opportunity to add one to the aft of the secondary hull. This would add an extra twenty-five meters of space for the shuttles, bay doors, control systems and so on.

Then there are the extremists, who point out that while the extra deck running beneath main engineering is certainly useful for providing plenty of closets and monitoring systems as per usual, adding an extra deck beneath would allow those functions to be concentrated nearer to the relevant areas rather than spread across the secondary hull. It would also allow the extra space to be consolidated enough to free up an area for an auxiliary section like a cargo bay. But of course it does add extra mass, so there's that to take into account.

[ ] 50-Meter Hull
[ ] 75-Meter Hull (+Shuttlebay)
[ ] 75-Meter Hull, 4 Decks (+Shuttlebay, +Auxiliary Slot)

Mass: 150,000 Tons
Credits Remaining: 650
Industry Remaining: 21

Secondary Hull	Length	Decks	Mass	Cost (Credits)	Industry	Phaser Slots	Advantages
Ventral	50 Meters	3	40,000	40	0.8	0
Ventral Shuttle	75 Meters	3	60,000	60	1.2	Dorsal	Shuttlebay
Ventral Engineering	75 Meters	4	80,000	80	1.4	Dorsal + Ventral	Shuttlebay + Aux Slot

Two Hour Moratorium, Please

 

[Sayle]

[X] 75-Meter Hull, 4 Decks (+Shuttlebay, +Auxiliary Slot)

The larger hull is eventually selected as the ideal choice: not only will it provide a shuttlebay, but also an extra set of internal spaces for auxiliary systems. It does leave the ship looking a little back-heavy, but you're sure that you'll put out stranger looking vessels. At some point. Probably. But to be fair most designs look a little peculiar before you add the nacelles, and that's next on the agenda.

Here you have the two obvious choices: cruise or sprint. For a ship designed to spend most of its time in motion, the cruise-based nacelle geometry seems the obvious choice, but you shouldn't neglect the possibility that a rapid response time could be vital during emergencies. After all, you can always build more ships but you can't build more people. The logic behind the actual construction is fairly simple, with a more spherical warp field producing higher efficiencies and a longitudinally stretched warp field providing greater maximum velocities. But then there is an interesting and unconventional proposal: what about only one nacelle?

The suggestion is sound in theory, though some computational work will need to be done to find the best position for the warp coils. One nacelle is less effective to be sure, and the weaker warp field would reduce speeds across the board. But it would also be substantially less expensive, allowing you to potentially swap out the cost of the second nacelle for another impulse thruster. Or even keep the design as and present the Khufu as less expensive than projections. It's something to consider.

[ ] Cruise Configuration (+0.4 Cruise)
[ ] Sprint Configuration (+0.4 Maximum)
[ ] Single Nacelle (-0.4 Cruise/Max) [Prototype]

Credits Remaining: 570
Industry Remaining: 19.6

Nacelles	Mass	Cost (Credits)	Industry	Stats	Other
Cruise	40,000	40	0.8	0.4 Cruise
Sprint	40,000	40	0.8	0.4 Sprint
Single	20,000	-180	0.4	-0.4 All	Prototype

Two Hour Moratorium, Please

 

[Sayle]

[X] Cruise Configuration (+0.4 Cruise)

The nacelle struts aren't quite the match of the monsters on the Thunderchild-class, but having to span that much distance is still a significant engineering challenge. But your team is up to the task and a new internal brace system around the warp transfer conduit gives it the necessary stability, and before long the Khufu is bestowed with its nacelles. In this configuration the ship will be able to hit Warp 5.2 at cruise, equal to what was considered maximum warp a decade ago. The difference that collaboration with other species makes, pooling knowledge for the greater good. With faster-than-light speeds taken care of, that leaves the question of how many sublight engines to fit along the generous external space of the aft saucer.

Engine performance is a continuum without known breakpoints given the uncertain nature of any foes that the Khufu would be expected to engage with, as opposed to knowing the precise performance of a Romulan warbird and angling for superior maneuverability. So you know immediately that going overbudget with the fourth engine would not provide "more" utility than any of the other three. That said, given the limited armament the ship will be mounting (six systems, at this point), going 3% overbudget for a major emphasis on the few weapons it will be mounting could be worth it for the increase in single-target lethality. That said, if you do so, the weapon layouts will have to be overwhelmingly focused forward to take advantage of this.

So it's a tactical question. With that in mind, you do some back-of-the-envelope math. Adding the extra engine could increase firepower-on-target by…twelve to fourteen percent. Sadly you have to conclude it really isn't worth it unless you genuinely believe a conflict is likely in the next twenty to thirty years and these ships will all be stripped down to the bolts for a weapon retrofit. The reduction in the expected budget might be useful, on the other hand, providing you a small bit of padding and the potential for another computer core.

[ ] Midline Impulse Thruster (Maneuverability: Low) [Free]
[ ] Dual Impulse Thrusters (Maneuverability: Medium Low) [200 Credits]
[ ] Triple Impulse Thrusters (Maneuverability: Medium) [400 Credits]
[ ] Quad Impulse Thrusters (Maneuverability: High) [600 Credits]

Credits Remaining: 570
Industry Remaining: 19.6



Two Hour Moratorium, Please

 

[Sayle]

[X] Triple Impulse Thrusters (Maneuverability: Medium) [400 Credits]

Installing three impulse thrusters is certainly going to let the Khufu dance compared to what you might expect from a ship of her size. The first goes along the midline of the ship, stretched out to provide a balanced thrust profile. The other two flank it on either side, avoiding the flared back points of the saucer section and sticking to the broadest part of the aft section. It takes up quite a lot of space when all is said and done, but the ship has room there for a reason.

Which brings you to the weapon systems. With a limited budget you have a few choices to make that will drastically impact the tactical capabilities of the ship as a whole. The first is whether to include the photonic torpedoes or forgo them entirely. The technology is understandably outdated compared to the new phasers, although it does provide nearly twice the punch when it fires. Now if it didn't fire three times slower, that would be great, but it does. If you put in two forward tubes then you'll have four phasers, and if you leave the space empty that gives you six. So perhaps the question you should be asking yourself what you can do with the phasers.

The first two are a fairly simple decision to place a pair along the ventral bow with overlapping fields of fire. That way they can combine their output dead-ahead while still each covering their respective sides. But the next two stir up something of a debate. The obvious choice is to mirror the ventral positioning on the dorsal surface, providing the same advantages in the second field of fire. But a major suggestion is instead to double up on the ventral axis, placing the next pair of emitters below the deflector dish. They would be exposed there, yes, but they would also have a commanding field of fire over the entire ventral hemisphere and could combine with the firepower of the bow phasers.

You label them as the forward focus and full-coverage plans, respectively. Now the situation becomes a little more complex if you decide on six phasers instead of four and the torpedoes. With six phasers you can mirror the ventral saucer emitters anyway, then place the remaining two aft. But here again the team is divided between putting the aft phasers both on the ventral engineering section for that boost in forward firepower or splitting them so that one phaser covers the ventral hemisphere while the other sits above the shuttlebay and covers the Khufu's remaining blind spot. That would mean the ship could fire in every direction at the sacrifice of forward power. It's a moot question if torpedoes are installed, but still worth considering.

[ ] 4 Full-Coverage Phaser Emitters and 2 Torpedoes (Average Damage: 4.6, Max Sustained Damage: 10.5) (Alpha Strike: 23) [75% Coverage]
[ ] 4 Forward-Focus Phaser Emitters and 2 Torpedoes (Average Damage: 4.6, Max Sustained Damage: 18.5) (Alpha Strike: 31) [50% Coverage]

[ ] 6 Full-Coverage Phaser Arcs (Average Damage: 6.5, Max Sustained Damage: 12) [100% Coverage]
[ ] 6 Forward-Focus Phaser Arcs (Average Damage: 8, Max Sustained Damage: 16) [87% Coverage]

Credits Remaining: 170



Two Hour Moratorium, Please.

 

[Sayle]

[X] 1: 4 Full-Coverage Phaser Emitters and 2 Torpedoes (Average Damage: 4.6, Max Sustained Damage: 10.5) (Alpha Strike: 23) [75% Coverage]

Given that war is not expected and the potential for a further evolution of torpedo technology is certainly possible in the predicted lifespan of the vessel, the addition of photonic torpedoes feel more like future proofing than an immediately practical armament. With the hope of further tactical increases, the phasers have been arranged to cover the most important angles of attack that the Khufu is expected to face, with only the aft sections lacking any defensive weapons. The satisfactory manoeuvrability of a ship of this size will hopefully render that unlikely.

With the vital systems finished it now becomes a question of how to use the internal sections to greatest effect. The first area under consideration is the space below main engineering, which could be used as a cargo bay or as a workshop space. The cargo is a vital part of the Khufu's mission profile, while the workshop would give her the ability to fabricate materials and take on a support role for other starships, as well as potentially providing the kind of adaptability that is sorely missed when needed.

The second space is next to the primary computer core. The Curiosity-class has already demonstrated the usefulness of a hyper-modern transporter system, even with all the additional complexity and largely unseen equipment that goes towards supporting the deceptively small piece of equipment. On the other hand a secondary computer core could give the ship a computational edge and capacity that could prove useful.

Finally there is the forward section of the bow. The first and most obvious choice is a large cargo bay for shuttling materials to and from outlying colonies. On the other hand a biosciences and medical space in the same vein as those on the Curiosity-class could be helpful in the event of emergency in the Federation Interior, to which these (hopefully) common vessels would be well placed to respond to.


[ ] 1: Cargo Bay (+1 Engineering, Capability: +2 Cargo)
[ ] 1: Engineering Workshop (+2 Engineering, Capability: Fabrication Suite)

[ ] 2: Biological-Rated Transporter Room (Capability: Transporters)
[ ] 2: Secondary Computer Core (+1 Science, -100 Credits, Capability: Advanced Computers)

[ ] 3: Large Cargo Bay (+1 Engineering, Capability: +3 Cargo)
[ ] 3: Biosciences/Medical Laboratory (+2 Science, Capability: Advanced Medical)

Engineering: 2 (Shuttles)
Science: 2



Two Hour Moratorium, Please.