Very cool! Does it have a sister ship, the John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt? I always like your designs for stubby nacelles (again, that could be a character name ).
It is what it is. Vektor used what the author wrote for the ship's registry. As for why it is so high, remember that How Much for Just a Planet is one of those novels that came before the Next Generation hit the air (1987), while in fact that series was in production. There was no prior existing convention on what governed the NCC registries, or if in fact they were sequential over another numerical system. So it's likey Ford just strung the characters together for whatever reason he liked... but at the time there was no Trek "canon" to contradict him. At least nothing canon about anything controlling those NCC numbers. Still interested in what the rest of the ship looks like, and how she compares to Masao's Vangaurd-Archer.
I love the ship, I really do. However the windows perturb me. They seam like they are from another ship from another show, not Star Trek. There is something, I just can't put my finger on it.
Always love your art @Vektor! EDIT-Sorry just saw this was a zombie thread........apologize. I haven't really been in the art thread much since 2005ish.