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Alliance Scout Development Project
brian334
Member Posts: 2,214 Arc User
in Ten Forward
***
Admiral Novak reclined in her chair as the three captains and their first officers entered the briefing room of the ancient hulk which had in its final years acted as the command ship of the flotilla of Romulan refugees. Its engines had long ago been stripped for parts, but the ancient hulk, no longer fit for active duty, had been repurposed as the command center for the makeshift shipyard which had birthed the fleet of the Romulan Republic.
Although other shipyards had come on line since then, the remains of the stripped hulls of the Flotilla had become a monument to the people who had sought refuge from the disaster of the Empire as they searched for a new home. But it was also a working shipyard, and it remained the center of Romulan starship research and development.
As they entered Admiral Novak observed a marked difference from their behavior on their first meeting; now they sat beside one another. Where before they had been wary of each other, they were now relaxed and companionable. The flow of their conversation was no longer impaired by insinuation and innuendo, and even the stoic Orion engineer smiled at the Bolean’s description of a romantic liaison gone awry.
Admiral Novak stood and the six officers came to order. She realized another change: they had come to respect her, not with the automatic respect of military officers for their commander, but with personal respect which was hard to earn but, once earned, absolute.
“Our preliminary test cycle has been completed and our engineers are evaluating the results, but I expect that you already know what conclusions they will reach. Keeping in mind that our purpose is not to create better warships, but to create better scout ships, I’d like each of you to discuss your evaluation of what it will take to improve your own ships. In the next few weeks we will implement upgrades to each of your vessels as prototypes for your own fleets to evaluate and emulate in their conversion of obsolete hulls to modern standards. Following the upgrades we will then repeat the testing program to evaluate the design changes and use that data for our final design of an Alliance Scout, which will be a new class of vessel intended for the exploration of the vast territories now within our reach.”
The admiral sat, saying, “Captain Verin, you have the floor.”
The Romulan captain rose and tapped the table which generated a wire frame hologram of her ship.
“Thank you, Admiral, and thanks also go to my colleagues who have worked to help shape the upgrades I plan for Khellian Ael. As you know, she is a modernized Dhelan class Warbird, which was among the first vessels built here in the Flotilla Shipyard. In her day she was one of the finest exploration vessels ever built anywhere. Sadly, the pace of technological improvements left her behind long before her time.
“Of the three vessels submitted for evaluation, she is the most balanced in terms of protection and firepower, and her hull is more robust, but she is also the largest of the three, with the largest crew compliment.
“Captain Watermaker assures me that our shields can be improved by upgrading the existing shield emitters and installing secondary emitters.” She indicated the proposed changes with slowly pulsing blue dots which traced blue lines back to the ship’s EPS power system.
“I am tempted, now that I have seen what Commander Thott can do with it, to borrow his customizable mission module, but with his help we’ve designed one for the Khellian Ael which mounts ventrally.”
As she spoke the hologram began to include a new outline between the down-swept wings.
“This will mount a secondary deflector located aft of the main sensor array, allowing us to use the deflector as a focus and as a wide angle receiver for the ship’s sensors. Even in passive mode the design offers marked improvements in performance over our current sensor arrays.
“Without a doubt, the impulse drive of the Klingon raider is superior to ours. Commander Set’chk has been instrumental in the redesign of our drives and their supporting power systems.”
This time red outlines formed around the drive and power systems of the hologram. “These modifications will allow us to operate at high efficiencies at both high and low power settings, with a much faster transition time when changing power settings.
“With the assistance of Captain Ulloff, we have designed improvements to our targeting system which take advantage of our enhanced sensors, allowing precision attacks and improving weapons performance at long range. This will require extensive modification of our targeting subroutines and the installation of a bridge station dedicated to the sensor and deflector network, but in so doing we gain very large improvements to our tactical systems.”
Captain Verin returned to her seat with a slight bow of her head to the admiral.
“Thank you, Captain,” said Admiral Novak. “Next is Captain Ullof.”
The Klingon captain stood and looked at each officer before she spoke. “It is no secret that Klingons build the best fighting ships in the Alliance, but our purpose here is exploration, not conquest. I have come to see, with the help of my new friends, that there is yet much that I can learn about scouting beyond the infiltration of enemy fleets and strongholds.”
As she spoke her Orion first officer manipulated a PADD and the wireframe hologram was replaced with a much smaller bird of prey.
“As with the Dhelan class, the Qul’Dun class is poorly shielded in comparison to the Federation vessel, and significant improvements can be made.”
With Commander Set’chk manipulating the PADD, the wireframe of the Bird Of Prey added emitters and power conduits as she spoke.
“Also, we have adapted the customizable mission module to mount dorsally just forward of our warp nacelles. Ventral mounting would be more compact, but it would interfere with our weapons systems. To accommodate the module’s location, we would also have to install additional sensor arrays on the aft dorsal surface of the bridge module, which would give us synergy with the secondary deflector as Captain Verin has described.”
The secondary deflector module and additional sensor nodes appeared in the holograms.
“Incorporating the sensor data with our weapons systems on the Qul’Kerrat is significantly easier than Captain Verin’s task, but to make the best use of it we will be required to install a bridge control station for that purpose.
“Finally, reinforcement of the hull and armoring of the power systems will allow us to passively mask the increased power signature of the ship and make the vessel more resistant to battle damage. Captain Verin has proven her worth in devising a protection scheme which maximizes the ship’s defensive capabilities without adding so much mass that she loses maneuverability.
The klingon sat, saying, “When these upgrades are completed the Qul’Kerrat will once again prove to be the finest scout vessel in any quadrant.”
The admiral said, “Thank you, Captain Ullof. Captain Watermaker, if you would?”
“Thank you Admiral. The hospitality we have enjoyed since our arrival in the flotilla rivals that of Risa, and it is an honor to be here in corridors so rich with history.”
Captain Watermaker rose and stepped to the foot of the table, tapping embedded controls to erase the bird of prey and replace it with a holographic modernized Nova class science vessel.
“Matto Grosso is a modernized Nova class science vessel of the Rhode Island series. Unlike your vessels which are primarily warships, the Nova class was purpose built as exploration vessels. Our shield systems are unmatched, and our sensors are the model from which your upgrades will be built; however, we lack the firepower and stealth which both your vessels offer.
“With Captain Ullof’s assistance we have designed a shielded EPS grid to power upgraded weapons, and she designed modifications to our weapons emplacements to support dual cannons in the forward arc.
“Commander Set’chk was of great service in improving our electroplasma generation and distribution systems allowing for faster power transfer, and in designing the modifications which will allow us to maintain engine efficiency across a range of power settings.
“Finally, I would like to thank all of our partners for their help in the design of our intrinsic stealth technology which, Commander Thott assures me, will result in passive reduction of our ship’s signature. We in Starfleet have far more experience in detecting stealthed vessels than in building them. Commander Ahst was particularly helpful in identifying and devising ways to mask the energy signatures of our various subsystems.”
The human captain returned to his chair and tapped his first officer’s shoulder as he sat. With a rapid hand the Bolean keyed the device and the hologram of the ship shrunk, then was joined by the warbird and bird of prey which began to circle an empty point each following the others slowly around the orbit.
“Thank you Captain Watermaker,” Admiral Novak said. ”And thanks to you all we now have a foundation upon which to build. In the next week as your vessels begin their upgrades I want you each to review the designs of your fellows and the plans of our engineers with an eye to refining and improving them.
“As your ships are retrofitted to the new designs, you will each begin preliminary designs for the new Alliance Scout. Captain Verin will take the lead on hull design, Captain Ullof will be in charge of weapons, Captain Watermaker the shields. Commander Thott will design the sensors, Commander Ahst the stealth systems, and Commander Set’chk the engineering. As you are no doubt aware, these designs must conform to one another, so collaboration will be required. After your ships are completed and tested, your preliminary designs will be finalized and submitted to the evaluation board for approval.
“Does anyone have anything to add before we adjourn?”
“I do,” said Commander Thott.
“Very well,” sighed the Admiral.
“I thought,” the commander said, “That we might want a project patch.”
“A what?” asked Captain Verin.
“A project patch,” the Bolean repeated. “In Starfleet, the design team for a new class of ship is entitled to wear a uniform patch commemorating the project, and everyone involved in the project is entitled to carry a challenge coin with the project logo.
The commander took a palm-sized medallion from his tunic pocket and passed it to Captain Verin. “That one is from the Battle of the Breach. I carry it to remember the many heroes we lost there.”
Admiral Novak said, “I am aware of the custom, but I had not considered it when assembling this team. I neglected to include a logo designer.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” said Commander Thott. He tapped his PADD and the orbiting starships were replaced with a circle. The starfield of the United Federation Of Planets filled the circle, inside of which was the trifoil emblem of the Klingon Empire, over which was the Raptor of the Romulan Republic.
“I hope this isn’t offensive to anyone; I placed them so no one image would obstruct another,” he said. Tapping the PADD again created a ring of letters around the edge of the circle: Alliance Scout Development Project. After a moment the lettering changed to Romulan glyphs, then to Klingon script.
Captain Watermaker passed the challenge coin back to Commander Thott as the rest studied the holographic image. Finally Captain Ullof said, “Klingons celebrate great deeds with monuments, not coins or patches, but we have never commemorated the design of a ship.”
“It is not a Romulan tradition either,” said Captain Verin, “But I do not object to uniform patches or coins.”
Admiral Novak asked, “Captain Watermaker?"
“Oh, Starfleet will probably issue something. It’s tradition,” said the human.
“I have no objection either,” said the Admiral. “Captain Ullof?”
“Make all the patches you like,” she said, smiling at the Bolean.
“I’ll submit the design for approval, but…” He drew another coin from his pocket and passed it to the admiral, “I took the liberty of replicating this.”
It was a gold coin with the symbol raised on its surface, the lettering in Rihannsu. On the coin’s reverse were dorsal images of the three ships, Dhelan, Qul’Dun, and Nova, each pointing outward from the coin’s center separating three words: TO… BOLDLY… GO…
Admiral Novak reclined in her chair as the three captains and their first officers entered the briefing room of the ancient hulk which had in its final years acted as the command ship of the flotilla of Romulan refugees. Its engines had long ago been stripped for parts, but the ancient hulk, no longer fit for active duty, had been repurposed as the command center for the makeshift shipyard which had birthed the fleet of the Romulan Republic.
Although other shipyards had come on line since then, the remains of the stripped hulls of the Flotilla had become a monument to the people who had sought refuge from the disaster of the Empire as they searched for a new home. But it was also a working shipyard, and it remained the center of Romulan starship research and development.
As they entered Admiral Novak observed a marked difference from their behavior on their first meeting; now they sat beside one another. Where before they had been wary of each other, they were now relaxed and companionable. The flow of their conversation was no longer impaired by insinuation and innuendo, and even the stoic Orion engineer smiled at the Bolean’s description of a romantic liaison gone awry.
Admiral Novak stood and the six officers came to order. She realized another change: they had come to respect her, not with the automatic respect of military officers for their commander, but with personal respect which was hard to earn but, once earned, absolute.
“Our preliminary test cycle has been completed and our engineers are evaluating the results, but I expect that you already know what conclusions they will reach. Keeping in mind that our purpose is not to create better warships, but to create better scout ships, I’d like each of you to discuss your evaluation of what it will take to improve your own ships. In the next few weeks we will implement upgrades to each of your vessels as prototypes for your own fleets to evaluate and emulate in their conversion of obsolete hulls to modern standards. Following the upgrades we will then repeat the testing program to evaluate the design changes and use that data for our final design of an Alliance Scout, which will be a new class of vessel intended for the exploration of the vast territories now within our reach.”
The admiral sat, saying, “Captain Verin, you have the floor.”
The Romulan captain rose and tapped the table which generated a wire frame hologram of her ship.
“Thank you, Admiral, and thanks also go to my colleagues who have worked to help shape the upgrades I plan for Khellian Ael. As you know, she is a modernized Dhelan class Warbird, which was among the first vessels built here in the Flotilla Shipyard. In her day she was one of the finest exploration vessels ever built anywhere. Sadly, the pace of technological improvements left her behind long before her time.
“Of the three vessels submitted for evaluation, she is the most balanced in terms of protection and firepower, and her hull is more robust, but she is also the largest of the three, with the largest crew compliment.
“Captain Watermaker assures me that our shields can be improved by upgrading the existing shield emitters and installing secondary emitters.” She indicated the proposed changes with slowly pulsing blue dots which traced blue lines back to the ship’s EPS power system.
“I am tempted, now that I have seen what Commander Thott can do with it, to borrow his customizable mission module, but with his help we’ve designed one for the Khellian Ael which mounts ventrally.”
As she spoke the hologram began to include a new outline between the down-swept wings.
“This will mount a secondary deflector located aft of the main sensor array, allowing us to use the deflector as a focus and as a wide angle receiver for the ship’s sensors. Even in passive mode the design offers marked improvements in performance over our current sensor arrays.
“Without a doubt, the impulse drive of the Klingon raider is superior to ours. Commander Set’chk has been instrumental in the redesign of our drives and their supporting power systems.”
This time red outlines formed around the drive and power systems of the hologram. “These modifications will allow us to operate at high efficiencies at both high and low power settings, with a much faster transition time when changing power settings.
“With the assistance of Captain Ulloff, we have designed improvements to our targeting system which take advantage of our enhanced sensors, allowing precision attacks and improving weapons performance at long range. This will require extensive modification of our targeting subroutines and the installation of a bridge station dedicated to the sensor and deflector network, but in so doing we gain very large improvements to our tactical systems.”
Captain Verin returned to her seat with a slight bow of her head to the admiral.
“Thank you, Captain,” said Admiral Novak. “Next is Captain Ullof.”
The Klingon captain stood and looked at each officer before she spoke. “It is no secret that Klingons build the best fighting ships in the Alliance, but our purpose here is exploration, not conquest. I have come to see, with the help of my new friends, that there is yet much that I can learn about scouting beyond the infiltration of enemy fleets and strongholds.”
As she spoke her Orion first officer manipulated a PADD and the wireframe hologram was replaced with a much smaller bird of prey.
“As with the Dhelan class, the Qul’Dun class is poorly shielded in comparison to the Federation vessel, and significant improvements can be made.”
With Commander Set’chk manipulating the PADD, the wireframe of the Bird Of Prey added emitters and power conduits as she spoke.
“Also, we have adapted the customizable mission module to mount dorsally just forward of our warp nacelles. Ventral mounting would be more compact, but it would interfere with our weapons systems. To accommodate the module’s location, we would also have to install additional sensor arrays on the aft dorsal surface of the bridge module, which would give us synergy with the secondary deflector as Captain Verin has described.”
The secondary deflector module and additional sensor nodes appeared in the holograms.
“Incorporating the sensor data with our weapons systems on the Qul’Kerrat is significantly easier than Captain Verin’s task, but to make the best use of it we will be required to install a bridge control station for that purpose.
“Finally, reinforcement of the hull and armoring of the power systems will allow us to passively mask the increased power signature of the ship and make the vessel more resistant to battle damage. Captain Verin has proven her worth in devising a protection scheme which maximizes the ship’s defensive capabilities without adding so much mass that she loses maneuverability.
The klingon sat, saying, “When these upgrades are completed the Qul’Kerrat will once again prove to be the finest scout vessel in any quadrant.”
The admiral said, “Thank you, Captain Ullof. Captain Watermaker, if you would?”
“Thank you Admiral. The hospitality we have enjoyed since our arrival in the flotilla rivals that of Risa, and it is an honor to be here in corridors so rich with history.”
Captain Watermaker rose and stepped to the foot of the table, tapping embedded controls to erase the bird of prey and replace it with a holographic modernized Nova class science vessel.
“Matto Grosso is a modernized Nova class science vessel of the Rhode Island series. Unlike your vessels which are primarily warships, the Nova class was purpose built as exploration vessels. Our shield systems are unmatched, and our sensors are the model from which your upgrades will be built; however, we lack the firepower and stealth which both your vessels offer.
“With Captain Ullof’s assistance we have designed a shielded EPS grid to power upgraded weapons, and she designed modifications to our weapons emplacements to support dual cannons in the forward arc.
“Commander Set’chk was of great service in improving our electroplasma generation and distribution systems allowing for faster power transfer, and in designing the modifications which will allow us to maintain engine efficiency across a range of power settings.
“Finally, I would like to thank all of our partners for their help in the design of our intrinsic stealth technology which, Commander Thott assures me, will result in passive reduction of our ship’s signature. We in Starfleet have far more experience in detecting stealthed vessels than in building them. Commander Ahst was particularly helpful in identifying and devising ways to mask the energy signatures of our various subsystems.”
The human captain returned to his chair and tapped his first officer’s shoulder as he sat. With a rapid hand the Bolean keyed the device and the hologram of the ship shrunk, then was joined by the warbird and bird of prey which began to circle an empty point each following the others slowly around the orbit.
“Thank you Captain Watermaker,” Admiral Novak said. ”And thanks to you all we now have a foundation upon which to build. In the next week as your vessels begin their upgrades I want you each to review the designs of your fellows and the plans of our engineers with an eye to refining and improving them.
“As your ships are retrofitted to the new designs, you will each begin preliminary designs for the new Alliance Scout. Captain Verin will take the lead on hull design, Captain Ullof will be in charge of weapons, Captain Watermaker the shields. Commander Thott will design the sensors, Commander Ahst the stealth systems, and Commander Set’chk the engineering. As you are no doubt aware, these designs must conform to one another, so collaboration will be required. After your ships are completed and tested, your preliminary designs will be finalized and submitted to the evaluation board for approval.
“Does anyone have anything to add before we adjourn?”
“I do,” said Commander Thott.
“Very well,” sighed the Admiral.
“I thought,” the commander said, “That we might want a project patch.”
“A what?” asked Captain Verin.
“A project patch,” the Bolean repeated. “In Starfleet, the design team for a new class of ship is entitled to wear a uniform patch commemorating the project, and everyone involved in the project is entitled to carry a challenge coin with the project logo.
The commander took a palm-sized medallion from his tunic pocket and passed it to Captain Verin. “That one is from the Battle of the Breach. I carry it to remember the many heroes we lost there.”
Admiral Novak said, “I am aware of the custom, but I had not considered it when assembling this team. I neglected to include a logo designer.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” said Commander Thott. He tapped his PADD and the orbiting starships were replaced with a circle. The starfield of the United Federation Of Planets filled the circle, inside of which was the trifoil emblem of the Klingon Empire, over which was the Raptor of the Romulan Republic.
“I hope this isn’t offensive to anyone; I placed them so no one image would obstruct another,” he said. Tapping the PADD again created a ring of letters around the edge of the circle: Alliance Scout Development Project. After a moment the lettering changed to Romulan glyphs, then to Klingon script.
Captain Watermaker passed the challenge coin back to Commander Thott as the rest studied the holographic image. Finally Captain Ullof said, “Klingons celebrate great deeds with monuments, not coins or patches, but we have never commemorated the design of a ship.”
“It is not a Romulan tradition either,” said Captain Verin, “But I do not object to uniform patches or coins.”
Admiral Novak asked, “Captain Watermaker?"
“Oh, Starfleet will probably issue something. It’s tradition,” said the human.
“I have no objection either,” said the Admiral. “Captain Ullof?”
“Make all the patches you like,” she said, smiling at the Bolean.
“I’ll submit the design for approval, but…” He drew another coin from his pocket and passed it to the admiral, “I took the liberty of replicating this.”
It was a gold coin with the symbol raised on its surface, the lettering in Rihannsu. On the coin’s reverse were dorsal images of the three ships, Dhelan, Qul’Dun, and Nova, each pointing outward from the coin’s center separating three words: TO… BOLDLY… GO…
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Comments
However, I should point out that the Dhelan already has a T6 variant in the form of the Hathos.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.