Starship Design Bureau

[Sayle]

Order -> Spaceframe -> Warp Core/Nacelles -> Tactical -> Internals -> Prototyping -> Certification -> Final Review​

[X] Trial a new saucer design.

Technology has marched on since the Excelsior was first designed, with new materials allowing new brace and truss designs for a spaceframe. Given the emphasis on cargo space for this design the team ends up designing a saucer with a pronounced ventral bulge, appearing more like an oval from the side than a plate. This has the advantage of providing much more internal space, and ribs reinforced with superior manufacturing techniques can prevent the larger mass from deforming under thrust. Elevated dorsal sections in a staggered rise provide space for the main bridge and potentially some useful areas down the line.

You actually believe you might be able to fit in all the systems you need without butchering other elements of the ship. This optimism doesn't last when it becomes clear that to keep the required crew below the maximum that some sacrifices are going to have to be made. Case in point is the secondary hull, which contains most of the engineering spaces in traditional design plans. The simple reality is that to keep the crew count down you need less mass, less systems to maintain, and more automation.

Whatever you decide, the secondary hull will have to be seriously truncated to meet your design targets. But fitting the deflector, impulse drive, warp conduits, and torpedo systems all in the same space is impossible. You're going to have to do some surgery on the saucer section and put at least one of those systems in the primary hull. The design team takes a few weeks to put together some proposals, and upon returning the most promising are further refined.

Surprisingly enough the main sticking point becomes a shuttlebay, which is undeniably useful when ferrying cargo and attempting transit when transporters are unavailable. While the team agrees that some shuttle capability is necessary, there is a sharp division between the camp that wants a full bay installed and those that would prefer an emergency shuttle only. Given the lack of aft spaces available for the impulse engines, a shuttlebay would represent serious competition for the same space.

Adding a shuttle bay will require a larger secondary hull, but also move the impulse engines to the rear of the saucer section. Keeping the design small and on-target for crew complement would leave a vertical launch bay the likes of which hasn't been seen for a hundred years. The only proposal that would resolve this is to split the thrusters either side of a recessed shuttle bay entrance, but given the complexity of the task doing so with unproven technology would be reckless to the extreme and you can kiss any engine improvements goodbye. You'll probably also end up ditching any chance of aft-facing torpedoes, although the engines should be powerful enough that you can get away with forward tubes only.

[ ] Build out a larger secondary hull to fit a shuttle bay and main deflector, displacing the impulse engines to the saucer section. (Less Crew Available for Optional Internals)

[ ] Stick to a smaller secondary hull with an integrated engine and scrap the shuttlebay, implementing a vertical-launch shuttle bay on the ventral side of the saucer for emergency use only. (No Shuttlebay)

[ ] Carve a divot into the aft hull behind the bridge and split a pair of Avidyne thrusters around the entrance. (No Impulse Prototypes/Aft Torpedoes)



Project Ferdinand
The ship should have sufficient tactical armament for convoy duty and responding to distress, as well as sufficient cargo space to act as a bulk hauler. It must have a crew of 100 or less.

Minimum Tactical Rating: C


Two Hour Moratorium on Voting, Please.

 

[Sayle]

Order -> Spaceframe -> Warp Core/Nacelles -> Tactical -> Internals -> Prototyping -> Certification -> Final Review​

[X] Build out a larger secondary hull to fit a shuttle bay and main deflector, displacing the impulse engines to the saucer section. (Less Crew Available for Optional Internals)

In the end the team decides that a shuttlebay is probably too vital to leave out of any design and begins to revise the planned secondary hull to fit. The new internal brace design prefers rounded shapes wherever possible, and you keep a concerned eye on the mass profile of the ship as it further expands. You comfort yourself with the thought that the difference between the Renaissance and what you have been commissioned to create is largely one of role, and if there is plenty of cargo space and you lean into automation savings you can still meet your crew targets. She probably won't be carrying science labs and advanced medical facilities, after all. The new isolinear computers will help too.

The shuttle bay is finalised with a double-wide rear door in the style of the Constitution-class, but with the addition of a flat landing guide area with an integrated tractor beam. It leaves just enough space for the planned deflector dish, at which point the warp core and antimatter pods should take up the rest of the secondary hull.

With the overall frame decided minus the nacelles, the nitty gritty work of deciding what internal components to integrate has entered full force. Which of course has a lot of interested parties keen to get a test run on their latest inventions. Case in point, Avidyne is pioneering the use of a single integrated impulse engine with increased power output, rather than the classical double design that's been used in most starships since, well, forever. It doesn't take up less space than what they are trying to displace, but it does have improved performance metrics.

The second major proposal is for an enhanced deflector dish. Being substantially larger than the standards currently in service will necessitate redesigning the front of the secondary hull, but the improved performance and efficiency promises to make a Warp 7 cruise viable without upgrading the warp core. Unless a miracle happens then a warp core compatible with the nacelles on the Renaissance won't be available by the time it comes to outfit the Ferdinand, so that might be your only shot at hitting a high cruise factor.

[ ]
-- [ ] Type-5 Avidyne Dual Impulse Thrusters
-- [ ] Type-7 Avidyne Impulse Engine (Prototype)
--- [ ] Recessed Navigational Deflector
--- [ ] Enhanced Deflector Dish (Prototype)



Project Ferdinand
The ship should have sufficient tactical armament for convoy duty and responding to distress, as well as sufficient cargo space to act as a bulk hauler. It must have a crew of 100 or less.

Minimum Tactical Rating: C


Two Hour Moratorium on Voting, Please.

 

[Sayle]

Order -> Spaceframe -> Warp Core/Nacelles -> Tactical -> Internals -> Prototyping -> Certification -> Final Review​

-[X] Type-5 Avidyne Dual Impulse Thrusters
-[X] Recessed Navigational Deflector

You eventually decide that trying to reinvent the wheel one such a small chassis with limited options for remediation can be saved for another day, especially when there are choices in future where pushing a new system could be more impactful to the mission profile.

As a result engines are stock standard, though lacking the space to install both you elect to centralise the thruster with only a small build-back to help focus the drive emissions. You ease your worries about potential performance shortfalls by running the numbers and confirming that even with the expanded secondary hull the ship is projected to mass around 400,000 tons to the Renaissance's 600,000. Her saucer measures 173 meters across to your last work's 219 meters, after all. Given the Renaissance was overpowered for her mass, the Ferdinand won't be seen as underperforming with half the thrust.

With the most urgent ship-altering decisions out of the way, the only business that remains now is deciding on the placement of the nacelles. With the latest designs unavailable until the new warp core design comes down from Yoyodyne or another research group, that leaves the same fundamental arrangement as the Excelsior-class. Might be fewer or smaller warp coils, but call a spade a spade. The first option is to pull the nacelles close to the primary hull and keep the ship compact in much the same way as the Miranda-class. The tighter warp field would let you fit a smaller warp core, preserving some internal space for other systems.

The other option is to do the opposite, and mount a pair of trailing nacelles that elongate the warp field into a distended oval. While you can't do anything about the cruising speed at this point, introducing a natural imbalance to the field gradient like that will allow greater compression of normal space at high power loads, and with it a substantially faster sprint. Could be handy for distress calls or emergency situations.

[ ] Underslung catamaran nacelles. (More Internal Space)
[ ] Underslung trailing nacelles. (Faster Warp Sprint)




Project Ferdinand
The ship should have sufficient tactical armament for convoy duty and responding to distress, as well as sufficient cargo space to act as a bulk hauler. It must have a crew of 100 or less.

Minimum Tactical Rating: C

 

[Sayle]

Order -> Spaceframe -> Warp Core/Nacelles -> Tactical -> Internals -> Prototyping -> Certification -> Final Review

[X] Underslung trailing nacelles. (Faster Warp Sprint)

The long pair of nacelles look almost undersized next to the Renaissance, but they'll do just fine. By altering the warp field in this unbalanced way you're enabling the Ferdinand to push up to Warp 9. More realistically few commanders are going to push it past 8.5 given the kind of strain that puts on the system, but it's a good option to have. Given the necessity of placing the nacelles at the far edges of the ship the struts have become quite long, hooking into the nacelles from the top and joining it to the secondary hull just above the deflector. It's not the most elegant thing, but it works and that's what matters.

That leads to the tactical systems. Your choice to expand the secondary hull has left room for a pair of aft launchers, but the forward torpedoes prove more vexing. Eventually you elect to abandon the midline principle and put one launcher halfway to starboard and the other to port. It reminds you a little of the old system on the NX-class, but ultimately there was nothing wrong with that. It's just that the torpedoes need individual guidance solutions, which is something every ship has done for the last fifty years anyway. The Ferdinand's isolinear computer core won't have any issues.

That leaves the phasers. Starfleet is agitating for the new phaser strips again, although there's no way you are going to fit a complement of six on something the size of the Ferdinand. Still even a quartet should cover most of the important saucer-based firing arcs, and you'll see if you can fit one somewhere to cover aft. Alternatively the Type-8 is tried and true. Six for the saucer, one aft, job done with no mess.

[ ] 7 Type-8 Dual Phaser Banks
[ ] 5 Type-9 Phaser Arrays (Prototype)



Project Ferdinand
The ship should have sufficient tactical armament for convoy duty and responding to distress, as well as sufficient cargo space to act as a bulk hauler. It must have a crew of 100 or less.

Minimum Tactical Rating: C

 

[Sayle]

Order -> Spaceframe -> Warp Core/Nacelles -> Tactical -> Internals -> Prototyping -> Certification -> Final Review​

[X] 5 Type-9 Phaser Arrays (Prototype)

The prototype phaser arrays are installed without issue, although their trial by literal fire will come later. With the primary systems complete it's now a matter of managing the internal components. While you have plenty of space for some systems, the unique challenge of factoring in crew count rather than capability has forced you to use a different metric. As it stands, your choice to add a shuttlebay has both increased the mass of the system (necessitating more engineers and technicians) as well as the addition of shuttle pilots, tractor beam operators, etcetera, so you have less to play with than you would like. Fortunately cargo bays do not inherently demand specialist attention and so you can rely on the enlisted personnel to take care of that.

Having judged that you need a minimum of six modules of cargo space to meet your mission mandate, you quickly determine that if anything you are going to exceed it by some degree. You'll have to consider carefully what will help with the mission profile, but the primary factor is at present you need eighty crew to man and maintain all the existing systems. That gives you twenty crew to add with extra systems. Unallocated crew can be added to the engineering roster and make maintaining the ship that much easier while out of dock.

One decision at least is straightforward: you can add communal crew rooms and an extra recreational area or another large cargo bay.

[ ] Better Quarters
[ ] More Cargo


Project Ferdinand Ratings: (Class Rank/Absolute Rank)
Ease of Maintenance: B
Ease of Manufacture: B
Tactical Score: C+/C
Scientific Score: C/D
Comfort Score: C


Crew Available: 20

Science/Technical
Extra Transporter Rooms: -5 Crew
Expanded Sickbay: -5 Crew
More Antimatter Pods: -5 Crew
Underfloor Shuttle Storage: -5 Crew
Multidisciplinary Science Labs: -10 Crew



Two Hour Moratorium on Voting, Please.

 

[Sayle]

Order -> Spaceframe -> Warp Core/Nacelles -> Tactical -> Internals -> Prototyping -> Certification -> Final Review​

[X] Plan Save them All (15/20 Crew)
-[X] Better Quarters
-[X] Extra Transporter Rooms: -5 Crew
-[X] Expanded Sickbay: -5 Crew
-[X] Underfloor Shuttle Storage: -5 Crew

The ship gradually takes shape over the coming months, systems slowly coming online as they are installed through empty hull panels and nestled into the interior. Despite the new spaceframe design most of the internal elements are essentially the same as standard, so it's more of a challenge in routing and arrangement than anything else, something your team is well accustomed to managing. When the warp drive and vital systems are confirmed ready the hull is temporarily sealed and the Ferdinand leaves drydock for a short jump to the Sol asteroid belt.

When it comes time to conduct live fire tests, the tactical design team and representatives from Starfleet crowd around the sensor displays in the half-completed bridge as the phaser arrays slowly rise to full power. Then you watch in awe as phaser beams lance out from the primary hull in short bursts, seeming to effortlessly switch from angle to angle in a way the old phaser banks never could. It takes split-second bursts to destroy the smallest range targets and then several seconds of a sustained beam to fully disintegrate the selected meteoroids. When the test concludes with a record score for most targets engaged in a set time the entire bridge bursts out in applause.

The type-9 phaser arrays have surpassed your wildest expectations as to their effectiveness. Not only is the underlying technology sound but with such stellar results work is already under way to further extend the maximum size of a combined array.

The Ferdinand returns to dock to finish fitting out, but it's all smooth sailing from there. After a few more months the only business left is the final certification.


Project Ferdinand Mission Certification

The Ferdinand design specification requires sufficient tactical armament for convoy duty and responding to distress, as well as sufficient cargo space to act as a bulk hauler. It must have a crew of 100 or less.

It is the judgement of this report that the Ferdinand meets these requirements. Details follow.

The Ferdinand has a short operational range at a cruise of Warp 6 with a maximum speed of Warp 9. As such the Ferdinand is certified to operate four months from the nearest refuelling depot at standard cruise. Crew lodgings are noted to be comfortable and recreational spaces allocated. Standard complement of 100 crew.

The Ferdinand is equipped with a Type-6 shield matrix, five Type-9 phaser arrays, two forward torpedo launchers, and two aft torpedo launchers. Its armament is notable and sophisticated for a vessel of its size. The Ferdinand is equipped with an Avidyne Type-E impulse thruster mounted on the midline for propulsion and demonstrates nominal manoeuvrability for a ship of her mass. As such the Ferdinand is certified to engage hostile vessels.

The Ferdinand is equipped with a standard navigational array and primary deflector system. Her isolinear computer system is capable of rapidly collating data and is linked to a single basic laboratory space. It otherwise has no dedicated spaces for storage and analysis of scientific samples.

The Ferdinand is equipped with a shuttlebay with an underbay storage area, managing a total of four Type-5 shuttlecraft. This increased capability makes this ship well-suited to responding to disasters on colony worlds where transporters are unreliable. The design carries one large cargo bay in the central saucer equipped with a cargo transporter and facilities for storage of oversize and hazardous containers. The Ferdinand is therefore certified to carry out medium-capacity bulk cargo deliveries.

The Ferdinand has advanced medical facilities aboard and can see limited use as a hospital ship in times of emergency. It is not certified to analyse or treat level-2 or above biohazards. Three transporter rooms are capable of transporting 36 persons per minute in optimal conditions.

The success of the tactical armament during testing leads this report to the recommendation that type-9 phaser arrays should become regulation standard. It represents a major increase in combat effectiveness that is unfortunately not backwards compatible with existing power interlinks. All future designs should carry phaser arrays wherever possible.

Given the larger scientific spaces aboard the Miranda-class, existing production infrastructure for replacement parts, and the increasing demand for small vessels to respond to local missions in Federation space, this report recommends the Ferdinand-type be used to supplement existing starships rather than produced as a replacement for the Miranda.

In concordance with the findings of this review and in consultation with Starfleet Command, Supervisor San Francisco Fleetyards authorises one (1) production run of twenty vessels, further orders to be reviewed after a performance analysis in five years.


It isn't quite the glowing recommendation that the Miranda-class be immediately retired and replaced with the Ferdinand that you might have secretly hoped for, but it's also true you didn't substantially push the envelope with this ship except for the tactical systems. It was nice to work with the raw material rather than building off an existing hull, though, and you get the feeling you'll be seeing more ships with the visual style of the Ferdinand in the near future.

The most important thing for now is giving her a name. She's a proper starship now, one that will have plenty of sisters.

[ ] USS Tempest, for the play that gave the Miranda and Ferdinand their names.
[ ] USS Reliant, to redeem the name and reference its role as a cargo carrier.
[ ] USS Ferdinand. Shakespeare has plenty of characters to lend names to the rest.


Project Ferdinand:
Ease of Maintenance: B+
Ease of Manufacture: B
Tactical Score: B
Scientific Score: C-
Comfort Score: B
Warp 6/9

Expected Results (Starfleet Frigate)
Ease of Maintenance: B
Ease of Manufacture: B
Tactical Score: C
Scientific Score: C
Comfort Score: C
Warp 6/8

 

[Sayle]

Order -> Spaceframe -> Warp Core/Nacelles -> Tactical -> Scientific -> Internals -> Prototyping -> Certification -> Retrospective
​

Captain Edward Jellico
The Cardassian War

It was in 2357 that I got my first look at how the Cardassians conducted their border operations. I was commanding the USS Tikal responding to a distress call from an outlying colony that they were under attack. I think we all expected that it was probably the Cardassians, and when we dropped out of warp there she was - one of their shiny new Galor-class cruisers. They had control over the high orbitals and had forces on the ground sacking the colony. On paper there was no way the Tikal was a match for a ship that outmassed her by three times.

Of course we weren't going to just sit back and do nothing. I detached a shuttle on the edge of the system to sweep down to the other side of the planet as quietly as possible, aiming to land my entire security team and smuggle a photon warhead into the supplies they were looting from the colony. I'm told it was an eclectic supply of power modules and replicators they were after, both examples of Federation technology that surpassed Cardassian standard. Everything went according to plan, and as soon as their shuttle made a delivery back to their ship I brought the Tikal out of the system Oort cloud and pulled out of maximum warp right in front of them.

The Cardassians have a reputation for efficiency, but it's a lie. They just have a fear of failure, and that drives them to do stupid things when you have them on the back foot. When I hailed them and demanded they withdraw from Federation space or I'd detonate the warhead in their cargo bay, they refused even after confirming that the threat existed. In their eyes the ideals of the Federation were simultaneously fakery designed to keep our people docile and a demonstration of our weakness. Nevermind that these two conclusions were mutually contradictory. In short, they thought I was bluffing. Either the warhead was some sort of trick or I wouldn't actually pull the trigger and shoot first.

They were wrong. The explosion took out their main cargo bay and all the technology they had stolen, then blew out their entire ventral power network. With their shields fluctuating they still decided to fight rather than beam up their troops and limp off, despite my offer to do so. I'd like to say it was a short fight, but we were still outmatched. The Galor might not be a match for most starships nowadays, but it was a different story thirty years ago. I played the long game, keeping the Tikal moving and hitting their shields with everything we had from our phasers. When our shields dropped to half strength, I ordered my tactical officer to stage a power fluctuation in the grid.

Even a Klingon wouldn't have bought that so early in the battle, but they actually respect Starfleet. The Cardassians took the bait and swooped in to fire a torpedo right at us. It's not common knowledge how accurate and responsive the early Type-9s actually were, with the more advanced arrays sacrificing some of that rapidity for major power increases. But the second that torpedo left their shield envelope it met a phaser beam coming the other way. The photonic detonation was the last straw for their shields, and the two torpedoes we put into their engineering section right after blew their antimatter containment.

Part of me wishes that we could have sent the Galor's black box back to Cardassia as a lesson not to underestimate a Federation starship. Maybe they'd have changed their approach and they wouldn't have been shooting on sight in a few years. Fortunately the next time we met the Cardassians it was on much more equal terms…



When one project is over, another begins. There are three requests to consider: the first request is for a complement to the Oberth-class, which is restrained to short-range investigations. It's a very good science ship, but the Federation Science Council is interested in if a longer-range ship is viable. The second request is for a new heavyweight cruiser with modular capabilities, so it can quickly transition between roles with only a couple weeks in dock.

Last is a capital ship to exceed the size and capability of the Excelsior-class, which is now being outclassed by its competitors in the Klingon Empire. The days of it being able to fight off multiple Birds of Prey are slipping away. That's Starfleet's concern, anyway. The Federation Council would quite like a new diplomatic ship that can show off the latest advancements in Federation technology.

[ ] A new science ship capable of long range exploration and intensive analysis. (Light Cruiser)
[ ] A new workhorse starship with modular capabilities for varied mission parameters. (Heavy Cruiser)
[ ] A new flagship vessel for exploration and diplomacy. (Capital)

 

[Sayle]

 

[Sayle]

Constellation-class Light Cruiser [2282]
Ease of Maintenance: C
Ease of Manufacture: A
Tactical Score: B
Scientific Score: D
Comfort Score: D
Final Score: 40/100

[One Production Run of Twelve Ships - San Francisco Fleet Yards, 2282-2287]


Excelsior-class Heavy Cruiser [2285]
Ease of Maintenance: A
Ease of Manufacture: B
Tactical Score: S
Scientific Score: A
Comfort Score: B

[Nine Production Runs of Nine Ships - All Fleet Yards, 2290-2335]


Renaissance-class Light Cruiser [2337]
Ease of Maintenance: B
Ease of Manufacture: B-
Tactical Score: B
Scientific Score: B+
Comfort Score: B

[Two Production Runs of Twelve Ships - Utopia Planitia, 2337-2347]


Reliant-class Frigate [2339]
Ease of Maintenance: B+
Ease of Manufacture: B
Tactical Score: B
Scientific Score: C-
Comfort Score: B

[One Production Run of Twenty Ships - San Francisco Fleet Yards, 2339-2344]


Ambassador-class Heavy Cruiser [2341]
Ease of Maintenance: C
Ease of Manufacture: D+
Tactical Score: S
Scientific Score: A
Comfort Score: A-

[Three Production Runs of Six Ships - Utopia Planitia, 2341-2356]


Ushaan-class Light Cruiser [2368]
Ease of Maintenance: B
Ease of Manufacture: B
Tactical Score: A+
Scientific Score: C
Comfort Score: B
Warp 8/9.4

[Three Production Runs of Thirty Ships - Utopia Planitia, 2368-2383]


Endeavour-class Science Ship [2369]
Ease of Manufacture: B-
Tactical Score: B+
Scientific Score: A
Comfort Score: B
Warp 8.6/9.9

[Three Production Runs of Eight Ships - Utopia Planitia, 2369-2389]


Century-class Explorer [2371]
Ease of Manufacture: D
Tactical Score: S
Scientific Score: B+
Comfort Score: A
Warp 8/9.985

[Three Production Runs of Four Ships - Utopia Planitia, 2371-2384]
[Five Production Runs of Six Ships - Utopia Planitia, 2385-2410]

 

[Sayle]

Order -> Spaceframe -> Warp Core/Nacelles -> Tactical -> Internals -> Prototyping -> Certification -> Retrospective​

[X] A new flagship vessel for exploration and diplomacy. (Capital)

With the directive to develop a new capital ship for Starfleet comes a lot of expectations. The Excelsior was such a massive success and this new design will surely be the "face" of the Federation for a little while after it launches. Disasters are best avoided, but caution will get you nowhere. Just do what you always do: start at the beginning. That beginning is the saucer section. It's going to be big, there's no getting around that. You can't use anything based on the Excelsior, either, since it will need to integrate the new phaser arrays.

So you set the teams to work on their vision for what the ship might look for and are soon faced with two choices. The first option is to expand on the principles used in the Reliant-class, maximising internal space with a bulky saucer section. Give it a large central bulb, thinning out towards the edges but nonetheless providing a great deal of internal space. The second option is to push a sleeker design with less height, aiming to create a more efficient warp bubble and faster maximum speed.

[ ] Plan for a thick saucer section with plenty of internal space.
[ ] Plan for a sleek saucer section with excellent warp dynamics.


Project Ambassador must be capable of long-range exploration and independent scientific investigation. It must be able to provide diplomatic amenities and appropriate quarters for dignitaries. It will ideally be capable of engaging on equal terms the Klingon Vor'cha class.

Minimums:
Tactical Score: A (Requested)
Scientific Score: B+ (Required)
Comfort Score: A (Required)