Engineering Officers! What ship do I need?

[Kuri]

Hullo again,

So I'm trying to find the right ship for a proposed series of stories. Working title is ST: Pioneers.

Setting is around Enterprise Era. IE mid-late 2100s.

Theme is space exploration (duh) with more focus on first contacts (perhaps with more non-sentient lifeforms), but also looking for suitable planets for human colonization. A more NASA-like mission, if you see what I mean. I have a neat crew of 4 ready. But that's rather small, I know. I need a small scout/surveyor ship that also has long range.

I have searched the webz and come up with these candidates:

1. Bonaventure-class
This is perfect, description-wise. It's a follow on from the NX-series, described as big a step forward as the Phoenix. I'm thinking it can do Warp 6 (7?), so perfect for a longer reach to find bits of the galaxy not yet explored.

PROBLEM: It looks a bit too big to me. I may need to expand the crew, complicating storylines. If anyone knows the crew complement for this ship, I'd be grateful if you could share (nothing on Memory Alpha or Beta). It looks a bit like an Archer-class, so maybe I can get away with 8 - or even just 6? I'll be honest; I was also hoping to find something a bit more contemporary in look, rather than the saucer+nacelles again.

2. The NX-Epsilon
Aha, this doesn't really exist in canon. I'm basing it on the very sleek NX-Alpha & Beta. These look perfect for my needs and theme of the era. Perhaps I can say this is pre-NX-01 so only Warp 2 capable? I'm thinking then that it takes a lot longer for them to get to the target area of exploration (maybe cryo-sleep on the way?). OR it's a prototype after NX-01 that can go Warp-7 or something.

PROBLEM: These might be too small. I think it just has a cabin for 1-2 pilots. The rest is all rocket and nacelles. So it's not really suitable for long-range missions.

3. My own hybrid.
I'm toying with the idea of trying some amateur photo manipulations, sticking warp nacelles on a contemporary NASA shuttle (I can say it's a bit more advanced than the NX-Alpha rocket, yes?). The Dream Catcher concept ship might work too.

PROBLEM: It's always best to use rather than subvert canon where possible. Plus, I don't really have the PC tools to do this manipulation very well.

If you have any ideas of other ships I may have missed please let me know. I don't like the Neptune-class that much (the look OR size). The older Daedalus do look kind of fun but I'm reserving that for a more classic TOS-style story.

With many thanks as always,

K.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

There is the 'Delta-Type' ship that was seen in a few episode of ENT (I believe two were seen in "The Expanse" fighting Klingons and one also helped defend the human refugee colony in "Twilight"). It's smaller than the Intrepid-Type but would be big enough for a crew of a couple of dozen, so might be a little too big if you just want a crew of 4.

There is also the Arctic One, it was a small warp-capable scout ship (there could be subtypes to allow for other operations and not just extreme cold, so you could replace the skies with sensor pods).

 

[Kuri]

Many thanks as usual @Bry_Sinclair those are both good suggestions which I shall consider. I also found this obscure little beauty:

...which looks built for speed to me, and hits the right era.

In the meantime, I've discovered a controversy involving the Enterprise era!

They use "phase pistols" in the series, but some are saying these a) contradict the "lasers" from a TOS episode set in that era, AND b) are too far advanced for 100 years before Kirk's day.

So, what say you, BBSers? Lasers or Phasers?

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

That was the colony ship glimpsed in historical records in "Terra Nova", but there's nothing to say that the design wouldn't be retained and adapted over time. There was also a weird looking transport from one of the S4 episodes (think it might've been "Daedalus", that is a break from all the other Earth ship designs we've seen up to that point). Also, it might be worth considering that Earth could've gotten a loan of an obsolete Vulcan ship (such as the transport from "Fusion").

'Lasers' were just from "The Cage" (if memory serves), so there are a few things in there that are contradicted in later episodes/series (though going by STD none of that ever happened). If you're going with the ENT era then I'd say stick with what they used, or you could always have your crew use the sidearms the NX-01 had before upgrading to phase pistols (I think they were called EM-33s and fired small pulses instead of beams).

 

[DavidFalkayn]

Bry's correct. Lasers were just from "The Cage." I'd think that using phase pistols would work just fine. As for using DSC or STD or whatever the current acronym for 'Discovery" is concerned, I'm not using it for my continuity and as far as I know no one in United Trek is using it for theirs, but as always, you should go with what works best for you.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Bry's correct. Lasers were just from "The Cage." I'd think that using phase pistols would work just fine. As for using DSC or STD or whatever the current acronym for 'Discovery" is concerned, I'm not using it for my continuity and as far as I know no one in United Trek is using it for theirs, but as always, you should go with what works best for you.

I think the series fans prefer "DIS" or "DSC", but seeing as how it is the herpes of Trek (something you wish would go away but will always linger) then I opt for STD

 

[Kuri]

OK I'll go with ENT continuity as that's the era I'm setting in. Though there won't be too many pew-pew-pew beam fights anyway. The EM-33 sounds interesting maybe I'll look that up and consider how it can be used plotwise.

Sorry, I didn't explain that ship I found. It's a discovery-class scout/explorer from mid 2200s - right smack bang in NX-01 time. It's noted on Memory Beta as being particularly fast, especially when extra power is diverted to the engines. SO, I'm thinking this is my "pioneer" trying already to do better than the NX-01's Warp 5, and push further the frontier. I want it to be human-only (pre-Federation); they're trying to show what they can do without a Vulcan on board.

The prototype was called Discovery, but I'm avoiding that name now lol.

K

 

[SolarisOne]

I think the series fans prefer "DIS" or "DSC", but seeing as how it is the herpes of Trek (something you wish would go away but will always linger) then I opt for STD

I don't even like the show very much, but people using "STD" drives me nuts for some reason.

 

[SolarisOne]

So, what say you, BBSers? Lasers or Phasers?

Simple. Unless you're looking to intentionally deviate from canon: phase pistols. Being beholden to anything in early TOS is kind of ridiculous, if you ask me.

 

[Sgt_G]

Theme is space exploration (duh) with more focus on first contacts (perhaps with more non-sentient lifeforms), but also looking for suitable planets for human colonization. A more NASA-like mission, if you see what I mean. I have a neat crew of 4 ready. But that's rather small, I know. I need a small scout/surveyor ship that also has long range.

I'm sorry, but I think a four-man crew is waaaay too small for extended missions into unexplored territory. Personally, I think you need at least a dozen, and more like twenty to twenty-five, in your crew.

 

[Kuri]

Thanks Serg, and no apologies please - you've done lots of work on crews that I have seen before, so I value your opinion.

In practical terms I concur, but I'll lean toward canon and NASA missions as comparison on this occasion.

K

 

[Sgt_G]

The funny thing is, I just posted a set of deck plans I designed twenty years ago (20!!!) to the Star Fleet Battles board for a 2-4 man "space truck", something that someone like Cyrano Jones or Harry Mudd might fly.

The difference being, people flying a truck typically don't go that far off the beaten path. They probably join ad-hoc convoys whenever they can. If they have a mechanical issue or otherwise get in trouble, help isn't that far away.

Your crew/ship's mission ... not so much. It's anything but safe. Yes, I suppose it'd be like the Apollo missions to the Moon and (hopefully near-future) missions to Mars. They're beyond any possible rescue, but at least those had/will have technical support via radio (e.g., Apollo Thirteen). Your crew won't even have that luxury.

Can it be done? Sure. And you're right, it's probably what will happen, real life in the not-too-distant future. Not that I would want to go on such a mission. Sounds like a one-way trip with a sad ending to me. But you know, Vladimir Komarov knew the dangers and went up anyway. Lovell, Swigert, and Haise knew exactly what they were signing up for. I presume your fictional crew does, too.

 

[Kuri]

You got it @Sgt_G , these are self-sufficient pioneer types. The captain is one of those humans that sees a mountain and has to climb it, "because it's there". He leaves behind a distraught wife & son - but actually I'm having him hold the belief he'll come back in five years and all will be fine. He genuinely believes in his ability to overcome any adversity.

This belief shall be tested to the limit in the series.

The other crew members have their own quirks.

I haven't decided the ending yet.

I'm thinking about increasing to 6, at the moment. A question arises which may deserve a thread of its own: Why are there no robots in ST? I don't mean super-androids like Data, but AI is certainly around; why not have some of these incredibly useful things on ships that can interact verbally with crew members and execute difficult external repairs etc?

K

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

In the episode of VOY where they find the two robot sides embroiled in a war, Torres mentions about how Starfleet does use robots but they're not advanced/sentient, so there would be robots in use for some aspects but nothing akin to astromechs or the like. As for why we've not seen them...DRAMA! We have to witness our heroes in perilous situations.

@Sgt_G love the idea of space trucks

 

[DavidFalkayn]

Also, remember that, for the most part, encounters with sentient AI's rarely went well in the Star Trek universe: Nomad, V'ger, Landru, Vaal, the M-5 are just a few examples. Leaving aside the dramatic aspect of having the heroes in dangerous situations brought up by Bry, you could probably easily put in a cultural/social/political/legal justification for opposition to sentient AI in the Trek verse that's plausible based on those experiences and others.

 

[Kuri]

Thanks guys that makes sense - I think there was even an entire episode of TOS with a ship's AI going wrong.

However, ship's computers still exist, like they are huge robots in themselves. So, logically, they are of use.

Dramatic rule-of-cool of course is always the overriding Directive and I shall go with that.

But how about this? Rather than a full AI android, my engineering officer (who is much more comfortable communing with machines) has a robot "friend" who does the routine patrols / checks and perhaps has tools for repairs. Something like a Roomba haha. While it is not really a character, she can pretend it is.

Actually, that is sort of like an astromech. Hmmm. Back to the drawing board.

EDIT: Having researched the interwebz a bit for discussions on this I'm getting the impression that while AI androids are a no-no, simpler Roomba-type devices are expected and OK (especially in 22nd C), but actually the Federation has gone beyond even these things - and all the clever robotic functions are nicely hidden within starship design - like replicators.

K