with the size, I'd say Escort.
To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
- Thread starter OneirosTheWriter
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
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- Tags
- star trek exploration fully automated luxury gay space communism top level canon (canon) #hashtagcontent all-encompassing space amoeba cardassian boy bands cardassian magical girls darkest bureaucracy debate makes the qm cackle like palpatine hoh is an empire quest it has to be foreign infiltrators more ships ship happens singers delenda est starfleet this is not an empire quest ur waifu is collective?
UbeOne
Daydreaming CPU
- Location
- Philippines
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oberth-II stat variants:
1. C3 S7 H2 L2 P3 D2
2. C3 S6 H2 L3 P3 D3
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The third alternative is it doesn't belong in combat if it can be helped.
- Location
- somewhere
The Constellation refit makes for a better stopgap in most use cases than the Constittution refit, because it's significantly cheaper and we have 8 existing ships to upgrade. Even if we didn't want to build any new ones at all the 8 existing ships arguably make the 40 pp worthwhile already. The only real case for the Constitution refit is one-on-one skirmishes with the Cardassians. But why would we want our cruisers to do that? We have Excelsiors for that, and selected Uhura as Commodore in the border zone so that multiple ships will respond to events. And the Constellation refit is much better suited for making up defense numbers in home sectors because its cheaper. Constellations should be further upgradable as well.
More shields is always good.
We could probably get away with sending one of those on a 5 year mission, assuming they're instructed to retreat from combat. Maybe reduce the combat to 2 and add it to hull (I know it doesn't work like that 1 to 1)
Or should we wait until we have something like the Intrepid before we send a science ship on a long term exploration mission?
Omake - Caitian Values - Briefvoice
With the Caitians growing closer to the Federation, I thought it might be worthwhile to spotlight them. Bonus: it's also a tale all the way back from the days of Captain Kirk's Enterprise!
Caitian Values
"Grandpa Sh'aow, Grandpa Sh'aow," shouted the little Caitian girl,
She skidded to a stop as she entered the room, her tail raising up behind her and her ears twitching. There was a human with her grandfather!
"Don't make so much noise when you enter a room, R'Miia. These old ears are deaf enough," her grandfather chided her.
The human made a strange sound and shook his head. "Deaf enough. Deaf he says! This from the man who could tell I had a new knee from the way my joint popped when I sat down. I bet you could still target a phaser while blind, just like on that one mission on, uh... I forget where it was, just remember your phaser flashing in the dark, dropping those critters out of the air."
R'Miia looked at the human. She wasn't an expert on humans, but she was pretty sure their hair turned white as they got older, just like her Grandpa's fur was showing white patches. She was less sure about the wrinkles and folds on his face... a lot of humanoid races came with facial ridges naturally. But no, no she had just been watching that newscast with a lot of humans in it, and it definitely seemed like humans got more wrinkles the older they got.
"Who are you?" she asked.
It was her Grandpa who answered. "This is my old friend Petty Chief Colin Matlock. He and I served on the Enterprise together under Captain Kirk. He ran a security patrol, and I was one of his crewmen."
"Under Captain Kirk's second command. Second! After they demoted him from admiral just so he could run the Enterprise again. And I haven't been a petty chief in more than 20 years," said Mr. Matlock.
R'Miia managed not to roll her eyes, but she knew her Grandpa saw her tail curl up behind her. Of course she knew about her Grandpa's time in Starfleet on the Enterprise. It was all he ever talked about! She was even pretty sure she had heard the name Petty Chief Matlock in one story or another. Still, Grandpa Sh'aow had called this man an 'old friend' and that was important. Even at this young age she knew that friendships and loyalty were important. Were everything.
She stepped forward and her flexible spine executed a rippling bow. "It's nice to meet you Mr. Matlock. I'm R'Miia."
The old man reached out and patted her on the head. Or maybe it was more of a pet? It felt pretty relaxing.
"Nice to meet you sweetheart. Guess you're wondering what I was doing here. I was doing some consulting work for a xenopsychology outfit, my second career I guess you'd call it though it's less of a career and something to keep me busy. Uh, what was I saying? Oh yeah, the rumors started to leak out that Cait was finally doing the next level with the Federation. So I figured, hell, I should look up my old pal Sh'aow and celebrate. Managed to talk my way onto a trip the outfit was planning here; a lot faster than putting in for an interstellar transportation allocation- I'd still be waiting! Of course they worked me like a dog once I got here. I been on planet for five days, five of your long days too, and this is the first chance I had to get away. Not that the work is boring, we've been doing some comparative studies to suss out why the friend versus comrade translation is so tricky and-"
Grandpa Sha'ow interrupted him. "Colin, you aren't making a minor rhythm of sense to her." He petted R'Miia himself, scratching to top of her head between her ears. He continued, "Colin heard that Cait is going to the next level of Federation affiliate status, and I'm his best Caitian friend, so he came here to celebrate. Now what were you so excited about that you ran all the way here?"
"The Federation! Mamma says we might join the Federation by the time I'm grown up, and everybody is talking about it and I can see Federation people all over the news. I know you know all about them because you were in Starfleet." R'Miia suddenly stopped and frowned.
"Hold the note, how were you in Starfleet, Grandpa? I never thought about it before, but they're saying we might start sending people into Starfleet now... but you were in Starfleet years and years and years ago. How? How?" Her tail twitched in agitation. R'Miia hated it when things didn't make sense.
Mr. Matlock chuckled. "Oh, never told her that one did you? Come on Sha'ow, you got to let me tell this one. It's a great story!"
Grandpa Sha'ow stroked his own face and looked slightly pained. "It's not- in my culture my actions are questionable, Colin. I think I did the right thing, but it was... it was harder than you understand." He shrugged. "I suppose she may as well know. I'll tell the story up to the part where the Enterprise comes in, and then you can finish off the rest."
Grandpa Sha'ow turned and spoke directly to R'Miia. "Starfleet is a very open organization. The usual path onto ships is to be from a Federation world and then go to the Academy, but someone from any species can go there on a recommendation, and it's even possible to join a ship's crew directly if you have the skills and the senior officers are impressed by you. That is how I came aboard the Enterprise.
"Now to back up, when I was as young as you I dreamed of the stars. I didn't dream alone, either. A very good friend of mine who I will not name, she I and pledged to go to space together. We both trained and eventually joined the crew of a research station around a world that had once been inhabited by a very advanced race. Even their leftovers could do things that Caitian science didn't understand. But my friend, she... she wasn't content to be in space like I was. She wanted more, her own starship maybe, and she fell in with some bad people who she thought could help her get it. She started smuggling the artifacts to- Well, I was never quite sure who, but I knew about it and I begged her to stop. She wouldn't listen."
R'Miia gulped. She knew it wasn't a good sign that Grandpa refused to say the name of his old friend.
Mr. Matlock took over the story, but he didn't sound as confident or as eager to ramble as before. Though a human, he seemed to have read the mood enough to understand this was a sensitive topic for Grandpa.
"It was one of the first missions after Captain Kirk took back command. We had been directed to Sh'aow's station because of the value of the artifacts and a lot of suspicious warp signatures in the vicinity. Commander Spock, he went straight to the station's collection and started cataloging the artifacts. It didn't take him long to realize there were a lot of them missing. Spock wouldn't take a guard exactly, but Lieutenant Chekov knew I had a xenopsych background and convinced the Commander that I could help him with the artifacts... and if I happened to be packing a phaser pistol, well that couldn't hurt, right?
"The minute Commander Spock transmitted back his suspicions, all hel- that is, everything went wrong. The smugglers had a ship out there, no match for the Enterprise normally but they had one of those artifacts bolted into the warp core somehow and were able to nearly knock the Enterprise out of orbit. Meanwhile, Spock and I get ambushed and held at phaser-point. I was ready for a few smugglers, but half the damn station turned out to be in on it! Their leader was this Caitian lady with black fur named-" Mr. Matlock paused and shot a look at Grandpa.
"Uh, I don't recall her name. Anyway, they were talking about how we would have to be 'disposed of' and I was sweating bullets- panting as you might say- when your Grandfather Sha'ow pops out of nowhere swinging this crowbar like a maniac! He brains two of them right off, and in the confusion Spock's able to nerve pinch another one and I get back my phaser and take most of the rest down. It's not good enough, though, because the leader lady has the drop on us again. Sha'ow steps in the way, though. They're friends, and he tries to talk her down, but I could see from her eyes she had made up her mind that if he stood in her way then he could die with us. Just as she fires at him, though, Spock manages to shift this pile of boxes and they tumble down at her. Beam comes close enough to shave off some of your Grandpa's hair."
R'Miia couldn't remain silent any longer. "Grandpa, you betrayed a friend? You stood against her with strangers? That's... that's terrible!"
Her Grandpa sighed. "R'Miia, sometimes things are more complicated than what we learn as children. There is friendship and loyalty, but there is also right and wrong. I had to stand for what is right, even if it meant betrayal. I promise you, it was the hardest thing I ever did."
"Harder than having a broken leg for an entire day and not letting Captain Kirk know so he wouldn't send you away?"
"Yes, harder than that." Grandpa gestured for Mr. Matlock to continue.
"Well, uh... to cut the story little short, we make our way to the station lab and are able to get a line opened to the Enterprise. They transmit the frequency of the beam that has them trapped, and Spock is able to tap into some of the ancient alien systems under study and pull out a shutdown code. I may have, uh, helped a little. After that the Enterprise is free and everything wraps up pretty quickly. Spock talks to your grandfather for a while, then comes back and asks me if I could use an extra crewman on my security detail. I tell him I've got room for anyone with that kind of guts. And that's how Sh'aow joined the crew."
Grandpa Sh'aow spoke. "Commander Spock knew that my actions, however justified, would not be viewed as admirable back home. By offering me a posting he prevented me from being permanently grounded from space.
R'Miia thought for a moment, her tail twitching. "I guess... sometimes you have to do something kind of wrong to stop something that's really wrong. I know it wouldn't have been right to let your friend hurt Mr. Matlock." She stepped forward and hugged her Grandpa. He hugged her back.
"Grandpa?"
"Yes?"
"Do you think I could joint Starfleet someday?
"I'm sure you could, and a lot more normally than I did now that Cait is becoming closer to the Federation."
"Why you could even be an Admiral!" said Mr. Matlock.
---
Sh'aow – "In 2273, Sh'aow was part of the security force on board the USS Enterprise."
Colin Matlock – When the Enterprise staged a raid against a Romulan space station in orbit of Levaeri V, Colin Matlock was one of the hundred-odd crewpeople chosen to participate.
R'Miia – In 2355, R'Miia served on the panel for the court martial of Captain Jean-Luc Picard regarding the loss of the Stargazer.
Caitian Values
"Grandpa Sh'aow, Grandpa Sh'aow," shouted the little Caitian girl,
She skidded to a stop as she entered the room, her tail raising up behind her and her ears twitching. There was a human with her grandfather!
"Don't make so much noise when you enter a room, R'Miia. These old ears are deaf enough," her grandfather chided her.
The human made a strange sound and shook his head. "Deaf enough. Deaf he says! This from the man who could tell I had a new knee from the way my joint popped when I sat down. I bet you could still target a phaser while blind, just like on that one mission on, uh... I forget where it was, just remember your phaser flashing in the dark, dropping those critters out of the air."
R'Miia looked at the human. She wasn't an expert on humans, but she was pretty sure their hair turned white as they got older, just like her Grandpa's fur was showing white patches. She was less sure about the wrinkles and folds on his face... a lot of humanoid races came with facial ridges naturally. But no, no she had just been watching that newscast with a lot of humans in it, and it definitely seemed like humans got more wrinkles the older they got.
"Who are you?" she asked.
It was her Grandpa who answered. "This is my old friend Petty Chief Colin Matlock. He and I served on the Enterprise together under Captain Kirk. He ran a security patrol, and I was one of his crewmen."
"Under Captain Kirk's second command. Second! After they demoted him from admiral just so he could run the Enterprise again. And I haven't been a petty chief in more than 20 years," said Mr. Matlock.
R'Miia managed not to roll her eyes, but she knew her Grandpa saw her tail curl up behind her. Of course she knew about her Grandpa's time in Starfleet on the Enterprise. It was all he ever talked about! She was even pretty sure she had heard the name Petty Chief Matlock in one story or another. Still, Grandpa Sh'aow had called this man an 'old friend' and that was important. Even at this young age she knew that friendships and loyalty were important. Were everything.
She stepped forward and her flexible spine executed a rippling bow. "It's nice to meet you Mr. Matlock. I'm R'Miia."
The old man reached out and patted her on the head. Or maybe it was more of a pet? It felt pretty relaxing.
"Nice to meet you sweetheart. Guess you're wondering what I was doing here. I was doing some consulting work for a xenopsychology outfit, my second career I guess you'd call it though it's less of a career and something to keep me busy. Uh, what was I saying? Oh yeah, the rumors started to leak out that Cait was finally doing the next level with the Federation. So I figured, hell, I should look up my old pal Sh'aow and celebrate. Managed to talk my way onto a trip the outfit was planning here; a lot faster than putting in for an interstellar transportation allocation- I'd still be waiting! Of course they worked me like a dog once I got here. I been on planet for five days, five of your long days too, and this is the first chance I had to get away. Not that the work is boring, we've been doing some comparative studies to suss out why the friend versus comrade translation is so tricky and-"
Grandpa Sha'ow interrupted him. "Colin, you aren't making a minor rhythm of sense to her." He petted R'Miia himself, scratching to top of her head between her ears. He continued, "Colin heard that Cait is going to the next level of Federation affiliate status, and I'm his best Caitian friend, so he came here to celebrate. Now what were you so excited about that you ran all the way here?"
"The Federation! Mamma says we might join the Federation by the time I'm grown up, and everybody is talking about it and I can see Federation people all over the news. I know you know all about them because you were in Starfleet." R'Miia suddenly stopped and frowned.
"Hold the note, how were you in Starfleet, Grandpa? I never thought about it before, but they're saying we might start sending people into Starfleet now... but you were in Starfleet years and years and years ago. How? How?" Her tail twitched in agitation. R'Miia hated it when things didn't make sense.
Mr. Matlock chuckled. "Oh, never told her that one did you? Come on Sha'ow, you got to let me tell this one. It's a great story!"
Grandpa Sha'ow stroked his own face and looked slightly pained. "It's not- in my culture my actions are questionable, Colin. I think I did the right thing, but it was... it was harder than you understand." He shrugged. "I suppose she may as well know. I'll tell the story up to the part where the Enterprise comes in, and then you can finish off the rest."
Grandpa Sha'ow turned and spoke directly to R'Miia. "Starfleet is a very open organization. The usual path onto ships is to be from a Federation world and then go to the Academy, but someone from any species can go there on a recommendation, and it's even possible to join a ship's crew directly if you have the skills and the senior officers are impressed by you. That is how I came aboard the Enterprise.
"Now to back up, when I was as young as you I dreamed of the stars. I didn't dream alone, either. A very good friend of mine who I will not name, she I and pledged to go to space together. We both trained and eventually joined the crew of a research station around a world that had once been inhabited by a very advanced race. Even their leftovers could do things that Caitian science didn't understand. But my friend, she... she wasn't content to be in space like I was. She wanted more, her own starship maybe, and she fell in with some bad people who she thought could help her get it. She started smuggling the artifacts to- Well, I was never quite sure who, but I knew about it and I begged her to stop. She wouldn't listen."
R'Miia gulped. She knew it wasn't a good sign that Grandpa refused to say the name of his old friend.
Mr. Matlock took over the story, but he didn't sound as confident or as eager to ramble as before. Though a human, he seemed to have read the mood enough to understand this was a sensitive topic for Grandpa.
"It was one of the first missions after Captain Kirk took back command. We had been directed to Sh'aow's station because of the value of the artifacts and a lot of suspicious warp signatures in the vicinity. Commander Spock, he went straight to the station's collection and started cataloging the artifacts. It didn't take him long to realize there were a lot of them missing. Spock wouldn't take a guard exactly, but Lieutenant Chekov knew I had a xenopsych background and convinced the Commander that I could help him with the artifacts... and if I happened to be packing a phaser pistol, well that couldn't hurt, right?
"The minute Commander Spock transmitted back his suspicions, all hel- that is, everything went wrong. The smugglers had a ship out there, no match for the Enterprise normally but they had one of those artifacts bolted into the warp core somehow and were able to nearly knock the Enterprise out of orbit. Meanwhile, Spock and I get ambushed and held at phaser-point. I was ready for a few smugglers, but half the damn station turned out to be in on it! Their leader was this Caitian lady with black fur named-" Mr. Matlock paused and shot a look at Grandpa.
"Uh, I don't recall her name. Anyway, they were talking about how we would have to be 'disposed of' and I was sweating bullets- panting as you might say- when your Grandfather Sha'ow pops out of nowhere swinging this crowbar like a maniac! He brains two of them right off, and in the confusion Spock's able to nerve pinch another one and I get back my phaser and take most of the rest down. It's not good enough, though, because the leader lady has the drop on us again. Sha'ow steps in the way, though. They're friends, and he tries to talk her down, but I could see from her eyes she had made up her mind that if he stood in her way then he could die with us. Just as she fires at him, though, Spock manages to shift this pile of boxes and they tumble down at her. Beam comes close enough to shave off some of your Grandpa's hair."
R'Miia couldn't remain silent any longer. "Grandpa, you betrayed a friend? You stood against her with strangers? That's... that's terrible!"
Her Grandpa sighed. "R'Miia, sometimes things are more complicated than what we learn as children. There is friendship and loyalty, but there is also right and wrong. I had to stand for what is right, even if it meant betrayal. I promise you, it was the hardest thing I ever did."
"Harder than having a broken leg for an entire day and not letting Captain Kirk know so he wouldn't send you away?"
"Yes, harder than that." Grandpa gestured for Mr. Matlock to continue.
"Well, uh... to cut the story little short, we make our way to the station lab and are able to get a line opened to the Enterprise. They transmit the frequency of the beam that has them trapped, and Spock is able to tap into some of the ancient alien systems under study and pull out a shutdown code. I may have, uh, helped a little. After that the Enterprise is free and everything wraps up pretty quickly. Spock talks to your grandfather for a while, then comes back and asks me if I could use an extra crewman on my security detail. I tell him I've got room for anyone with that kind of guts. And that's how Sh'aow joined the crew."
Grandpa Sh'aow spoke. "Commander Spock knew that my actions, however justified, would not be viewed as admirable back home. By offering me a posting he prevented me from being permanently grounded from space.
R'Miia thought for a moment, her tail twitching. "I guess... sometimes you have to do something kind of wrong to stop something that's really wrong. I know it wouldn't have been right to let your friend hurt Mr. Matlock." She stepped forward and hugged her Grandpa. He hugged her back.
"Grandpa?"
"Yes?"
"Do you think I could joint Starfleet someday?
"I'm sure you could, and a lot more normally than I did now that Cait is becoming closer to the Federation."
"Why you could even be an Admiral!" said Mr. Matlock.
---
Sh'aow – "In 2273, Sh'aow was part of the security force on board the USS Enterprise."
Colin Matlock – When the Enterprise staged a raid against a Romulan space station in orbit of Levaeri V, Colin Matlock was one of the hundred-odd crewpeople chosen to participate.
R'Miia – In 2355, R'Miia served on the panel for the court martial of Captain Jean-Luc Picard regarding the loss of the Stargazer.
I'm not really that concerned with "making up the Defense numbers". I'd rather have a better ship in the one-on-one, which is the vast majority of encounters of any sort, much less the Cardassians. (And Uhura means that we a roll to see if multiple ships show up on a singular type of event.) If there are no Excelsiors around, I'd feel pretty comfortable about a Constitution-B. Not so comfortable with a Constellation, even a refitted one.
UbeOne
Daydreaming CPU
- Location
- Philippines
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Adding to the hull makes it overweight.
No, it's not suited for 5YMs. The Oberth is for follow-up excursions, not blazing trails which full-size Explorers are made for.
- Location
- somewhere
So why not just forget about cruisers for now and just build more Excelsiors? Making up defense numbers is something like 90% of the case for building any cruisers in the first place. Ignoring the reason why not having an adequate cruiser is a problem in the first place when arguing about how to fix that doesn't make all that much sense.
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- Location
- Central Standard Time
More like ~27 percent. Yearly.
- Location
- United States
because they are too costly in crew and resources for us to build as many as we may want (ie: have all ships be excelsiors).
we can realistically put out 1 a year and still have some room left over. we will need more then that for our defense requirements.
AKuz
Been Better
- Location
- A Rising Tide of Horrors
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hello, yes, I am a normal Hunam. Please tell me more about how things are kept safe from, what did you call them? The "Tal Shiar?" was it. Yes tell me your secrets. For, uh, science?
UbeOne
Daydreaming CPU
- Location
- Philippines
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I need to see your levels of design techs.Huh, playing with the spreadsheet, I'm sure I fucked something up. Can someone point to me what I did wrong and why this shouldn't work like it says it does? Otherwise you guys have been doing strange things to get your rennie builds...
ClawClawBite
Mad Engineering!
- Location
- Seattle, WA
If you go by the Novels, the first mission of the Enterprise (which was the prototype Constitution Class) was when Kirk was a early teenager, so about 20 years old for the show, but that still makes it a solid 60 years.
(I only read about 50 of the classic era star trek novels...)
- Location
- United States
oh, that. yea. we hide our really shiny things just inside the event horizon of blackholes. we keep the crews and facilities safe via plenty of super-top-of-the-line anti-gravity and subspace manipulation devices.
you just have to get close, transmit the secret code (Open Sesame) on all frequencies (though make sure its short range comms only) and then move into the pull of the black hole and shut down engines. the facility will guide you in to dock safely via automatic systems, systems which may fail if the ship produces any motive force of its own.
Oh! one more thing. there will be a lot of shaking, maybe some stress to the hull and all that entails, but that's perfectly normal. it is a black hole after all. Even Federation Top Secret technology can only do so much.
Driven by Apathy
Formerly known as Brain_Caster
After playing with the ship designer for a while, I believe I may have found a solution to the Centaur's unreasonably high sr requirements.
Defender (working title) [315m 840k t]
C3 S1 H3 L3 P1 D3
Cost[70br, 35sr, 2 years], Crew [O-?, E-?, T-?]
No militarisation cost. 143 kt available for future upgrades. 99.7% reliability. Developing the design requires just 2 extra techs, so swift implementation should be possible.
I'm rather new to google docs. How do you guys make pngs out of your designs to upload on imgur?
Defender (working title) [315m 840k t]
C3 S1 H3 L3 P1 D3
Cost[70br, 35sr, 2 years], Crew [O-?, E-?, T-?]
No militarisation cost. 143 kt available for future upgrades. 99.7% reliability. Developing the design requires just 2 extra techs, so swift implementation should be possible.
I'm rather new to google docs. How do you guys make pngs out of your designs to upload on imgur?
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I could be very mistaken, but tonnage isn't what drives future upgrades, it's spare warp core strength.
UbeOne
Daydreaming CPU
- Location
- Philippines
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Personally, I make a screenshot of it, paste it on Paint, crop the image a bit, save it, then upload it to Imgur and post it here.
Driven by Apathy
Formerly known as Brain_Caster
With enough space, can't we rip out the warp core and replace it with a new one?
I considered using a warp core with some excess power, but that would have increased the sr cost, and I was trying to keep that as low as possible.
- Location
- Australia
I use Snipping Tool, comes as part of Windows to make it nice and easy.
UbeOne
Daydreaming CPU
- Location
- Philippines
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Snipping Tool? Can you elaborate?
You dropped its Science and Presence to 1 each. That's the sort of thing that gets ships destroyed.
Driven by Apathy
Formerly known as Brain_Caster
Thanks.
Can you clarify if we can install a new warp core as part of a refit?
It's a no-frills escort, designed for high defensive value at minimal cost. It's function is basically to garrison our planets and escort the ships with all the Science and Presence.
I don't propose replacing our explorers and cruisers with ships like that, have no fear.
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- Location
- Australia
It's a standard Windows utility, named Snipping Tool. Use it to copy images of chunks of your screen really easily.
Yes, you can. Unsurprisingly, it is one of the more resource intensive systems to rip out and replace (after all, just look at the BR/SR cost on that line).Thanks.
Can you clarify if we can install a new warp core as part of a refit?