Excelsior Technical Manual - Revived!

Discussion in 'Trek Tech' started by Praetor, Mar 23, 2009.

  1. Praetor

    Praetor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ...Which has always been the thing I liked about it. I just didn't understand why for a long time. ;)
     
  2. EmperorTiberius

    EmperorTiberius Captain Captain

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    great. Thanks for finding that for me.
     
  3. Cid Highwind

    Cid Highwind Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Re: "square parsecs" etc. - somehow, the whole quote didn't survive

    That description pulled me out of an otherwise good read, too. What I'd suggest would be either

    "...had increased the volume of known space by a good million(*) of cubic parsecs."

    or

    "...had increased the volume of known space by hundreds(*) of sectors."

    or

    "...had shifted the borders of known space by dozens(*) of parsecs in all directions."

    (*) - exact figure would depend on your personal model of Federation space. Just for comparison, a volume of 1 million parsec^3 would be a cube with a side length of 100 parsec and correspond to ~4300 sectors of 20^3 lightyears each. :)
     
  4. Praetor

    Praetor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I shall go with the second. Thank you!

    Anybody want the next chapter (4 - Construction) yet? :)
     
  5. kitsune

    kitsune Captain

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    I think the TNG Tech Manual used cubic light-years instead of cubic parsecs.

    I always hated the parsec because it's akin to using feet and inches in an otherwise metric world.
     
  6. Praetor

    Praetor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    That might be a better alternative.

    'Cubic light years'... Hm. I'll think on that between now and my next post.

    How does this compromise work for everyone?

     
  7. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    HI,
    Great writeup so far of my favorite ship class. Just one small comment. Chapter one, paragraph one, sentence five.

    "her comparably shining safety record"

    Doesn't ring true for me. It sounds like something an OSHA representative would say at the union meeting. The red shirts on board would probably laugh at the statement as well.

    Maybe change it so something like:

    "her knack for survival"

    or

    "her penchant for beating the odds"


    Just a suggestion. thanks.
     
  8. BolianAuthor

    BolianAuthor Writer, Battlestar Urantia Rear Admiral

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    Praetor,

    I don't know if this has been asked yet, but are you going to mention the speed measure of "rigiknots", as was stated in TUC? I know a lot of people didn't like that term, but I thought it was a nice touch and nod to nautical heritage.
     
  9. Cid Highwind

    Cid Highwind Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    One single sector (again assuming a side length of 20 light years) would already contain 8000 cubic light years, so the two numbers you gave don't exactly match. Replace "thousands" with "millions", and I think you're good to go.

    Other than that, keep the chapters coming! :)
     
  10. Praetor

    Praetor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Well, it was meant as somewhat ironic, but I see what you mean. I shall choose the latter. Thanks. :)

    Where in TUC was that mentioned? I never caught it. I tried a Google search and couldn't find it. If you can explain, I'll try to work it in. :)

    Done and done. Thanks! :)

    Here's the next chapter. It may be a bit more controversial than the previous chapters, or at least may generate more responses/suggestions. :)

     
  11. BolianAuthor

    BolianAuthor Writer, Battlestar Urantia Rear Admiral

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    In the scene directly after the Excelsior emerges from the Praxis shockwave, you can hear one of the female crewmembers at the aft stations utter the words "12.5 rigiknots", as the crew begins to settle back down... put the scene up, and crank up the volume, and you'll hear it. It's quick, but it's there. :)
     
  12. Praetor

    Praetor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Oh, I know what you mean now. I always thought that was a couple of background lines blurring together. :shifty:
     
  13. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    Doesn't that line refer to the intensity of the blastwave? Much like our present day Richter scale? I didn't think it was referring to speed.
     
  14. BolianAuthor

    BolianAuthor Writer, Battlestar Urantia Rear Admiral

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    IDK... I always assumed the officer was referring to the ship regaining a stable cruising speed, after emerging from the wake, settling back into normal speed.
     
  15. CuttingEdge100

    CuttingEdge100 Commodore Commodore

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    LCARS-24,

    Where did you get 718 meters from?
     
  16. EmperorTiberius

    EmperorTiberius Captain Captain

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    In order to have them appear more advanced, you could say that they added new modules to existing dry dock 7 instead of constructing a whole new one just because a ship is a bit longer than usual.
     
  17. Praetor

    Praetor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The reason I had them building Drydock Seven from scratch was the assumption on my part that they didn't have one big enough to slap an Excelsior together in. I was thinking that this probably replaced an older Drydock Seven. I'll mull over the enlargement notion while I prepare to post the next chapter.

    Any other thoughts so far?
     
  18. Plecostomus

    Plecostomus Commodore

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    You could replace the term "subspace" with a real word in the paragraph about the initial intermix issues during flight testing. Subspace is too generic and stinks of lazy handwavium.


    "Subspace" and "Particle Of The Day" ruined technobabble during Voyager's run. I try to avoid using it in my babbles during RPG sessions and when I work as an "engineering consultant" on fan-works like these.

    Of course it's just a suggestion... I'm liking the direction you are taking this so far. :techman:
     
  19. Praetor

    Praetor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    You're right of course. I have changed accordingly. Thanks for keeping me from being lazy, and thanks for the appreciation.

    The next chapter:
     
  20. Plecostomus

    Plecostomus Commodore

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    Now, the pending refit.... Are the issues with the core or the nacelles or both?

    One fan-version of the "failure" that I worked on had the problem confined to the nacelles, what took so long refit wise was the construction standard warp nacelles in that size, essentially the delay was retooling the assembly line to make "standard" warp coils instead of "transwarp" coils. The revolutionary "warp-core" design stayed the same, and allowed the refit Excelsior with it's "Extra Beefy Standard Warp Drive" to actually set some of the promised speed and endurance records that Transwarp failed to achieve.

    That's just one possible idea... another idea had them using "transwarp coils" reverse engineered from Borg technology and while it worked as promised, it attracted the attention of a Borg Sphere which was intercepted in the Tomed system by a joint Federation/Romulan taskforce. The Federation was forced to abandon that particular mode of Transwarp because it seemed to attract boogymen.

    Seriously though, amazing work so far. Can't wait for the next installment. :D