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Full Circle fleet and quantum slipstream drive

SicOne

Commodore
Commodore
Are the individual ships other than Voyager (which has been modified for slipstream with longer nacelles and deflector dish addenda) and the two Vesta-class ships with the Full Circle fleet able to create and maintain their own slipstream corridors?

An early section of Unworthy discusses the fleet entering a quantum slipstream corridor that Voyager formed, which would seem to suggest that the other individual ships may not be able to pull that off...or it could simply be the preferred method to use and I'm just overthinking it.

The idea that they cannot is further impressed by the prescence of the two Vestas; since it had been stated that there are only nine in existence (and probably one of the nine is kept back as a test bed for new technologies) and Starfleet would almost certainly have many other things to do with the remaining ships rather than send a valuable pair of them to the far reaches of the Delta Quadrant for a projected three-year abscence, so I am thinking that the Vestas are required if the Full Circle fleet is going to be able to quantum slipstream their merry way to the DQ.

Additionally, I am wondering if the reason that two Vestas are there is to have one on point to open the slipstream corridor and the other ride drag to help keep the corridor open between the two ships, with Voyager's own slipstream-producing capability somewhere in between to help expand and maintain the corridor. IIRC, three ships (including a Vesta) were going to go on their own to check something out several thousand light-years away from the rest of the fleet first before linking up with the fleet later.

Finally, a blurb in Memory Beta says that there are two Nebula-class ships in the FC fleet (Hawking andCurie), but I don't recall reading those ship classes anywhere in Full Circle or Unworthy. Did I miss that in the books, or was that just out-of-book speculation? Without significant modifications to a Nebula, it would seem to contradict the discussions that a quantum slipstream corridor is fairly narrow and thus not suited to larger, wider vessels.

I know the overall answer to these topics is going to be something along the lines if, "Wait and read Children Of The Storm!", but in the interim have these topics been discussed somewhere in Unworthy or on the BBS and I've just overlooked them?
 
Additionally, I am wondering if the reason that two Vestas are there is to have one on point to open the slipstream corridor and the other ride drag to help keep the corridor open between the two ships, with Voyager's own slipstream-producing capability somewhere in between to help expand and maintain the corridor.

No. Keep in mind that all nine ships aren't usually together. Once they got to the DQ, they split up into groups of three, each spearheaded by one capital ship (either Voyager or one of the Vestas).

My impression is that all nine ships have their own slipstream capability, but it saves benamite if multiple ships share a corridor. I don't remember exactly, though.


Finally, a blurb in Memory Beta says that there are two Nebula-class ships in the FC fleet (Hawking andCurie), but I don't recall reading those ship classes anywhere in Full Circle or Unworthy. Did I miss that in the books, or was that just out-of-book speculation? Without significant modifications to a Nebula, it would seem to contradict the discussions that a quantum slipstream corridor is fairly narrow and thus not suited to larger, wider vessels.

My understanding is that it's speculation -- that some earlier, unrelated work had used those names for Nebula-class ships and so the MB editors assumed they were the same ships. Mark Rademaker (Clawhammer), who designed the Vesta-class ships and is working on designs for the Voyager fleet, has stated that those two are not Nebulas.
 
Finally, a blurb in Memory Beta says that there are two Nebula-class ships in the FC fleet (Hawking andCurie), but I don't recall reading those ship classes anywhere in Full Circle or Unworthy. Did I miss that in the books, or was that just out-of-book speculation? Without significant modifications to a Nebula, it would seem to contradict the discussions that a quantum slipstream corridor is fairly narrow and thus not suited to larger, wider vessels.
My understanding is that it's speculation -- that some earlier, unrelated work had used those names for Nebula-class ships and so the MB editors assumed they were the same ships. Mark Rademaker (Clawhammer), who designed the Vesta-class ships and is working on designs for the Voyager fleet, has stated that those two are not Nebulas.

From what little the information on Memory Beta has, it would appear that the only basis we have for calling these two ships Nebula-class comes from video games, which have almost never been in the same continuity as the books.
 
Well, Memory Beta does try to tie much of the expanded continuity together, and since there's nothing specifically stating that Hawking is not a new ship, why not tie it to the Bridge Commander Hawking? The Nebula-class does seem to have gained a reputation as a science vessel, and I tend to default to picturing Nebula-class vessels for generic science vessels anyways (such as the pre-assimilation Einstein).
 
Only one; Galen is specifically described as a prototype ship. (I assume that this would end up being the Galen-class if it went into production.)

Personally, I had a mental picture of the Hawking, Curie, and Planck as Nebula-class ships and the Achilles & Demeter as Excelsior-class ships. The Excelsior spaceframe seems one of the most likely of Starfleet's older classes to be able to withstand the stresses of quantum slipstream drive, perhaps even more so than the Galaxy or Nebula classes since this is what the Excelsior class was designed to do.

Obviously, others disagreed, and I look forward to seeing the fleet designs.
 
It wasn't really necessary, and didn't detract from the book at all. Whether Hawking is a Nebula, Nova, Miranda, or some new class of vessel didn't matter to the story; it was a Starfleet ship designed for scientific research. The Galen, on the other hand, was a totally new concept and needed much more explanation than the science vessels.
 
It wasn't really necessary, and didn't detract from the book at all. Whether Hawking is a Nebula, Nova, Miranda, or some new class of vessel didn't matter to the story; it was a Starfleet ship designed for scientific research. The Galen, on the other hand, was a totally new concept and needed much more explanation than the science vessels.

It matters to me when im trying to picture the fleet in my head.
 
I thought Mark said on his blog or in a post here that he was working on, or thinking of working on, a slipstream-capable Nebula-class variant.

Also, I doubt any of the ships in the DQ fleet are older ships like Excelsiors. Ir's doubtful their spaceframes would be able to handle the extreme stresses of slipstream. A Luna-class ship would be ideal, built for long-range, long-term exploration. Another Intrepid maybe, a couple of Novas, perhaps even a Sovereign.

Intrepid x 2
Vesta x 2
Luna x 1
Unknown (Galen) x 1
Nova x 2
Sovereign x 1

9 ships.
 
Someone with the actual book (which has an appendix in the back listing each ship, registry number, and class name) PM'd me with that information in response to another thread...the other ship classes were brand-new and nothing we've ever seen before. I would imagine there may be another thread in due time where the drawings/schematics of the ships will be presented to us, or a link available to a designer's website.

I wasn't thinking Novas at all for the science ships; they're pretty small compared to the Vesta-class. Rather, I was thinking that they were more like the Olympic/Hope-class (think the USS Pasteur from the final Next Gen episode) in terms of size and capabilities, while the other ships were somewhere in size between this and the Vesta.

It will be interesting to see schematics of the new ships when, in the fullness of time, they are made available to us.
 
I thought Mark said on his blog or in a post here that he was working on, or thinking of working on, a slipstream-capable Nebula-class variant.

He's stated that the science vessels are Miranda-class variants. Inspired by the Miranda, I should say. His actual designs are for a new class.
 
U.S.S. Voyager
Class: Intrepid
Registry: NCC-74656
Status: Idle

U.S.S. Esquiline
Class: Vesta
Registry: NCC-82614
Status: Awaiting modifications

U.S.S. Quirinal
Class: Vesta
Registry: NCC-82610
Status: Awaiting modifications

U.S.S. Hawking
Status: Awaiting modifications

U.S.S. Curie
Status: Awaiting modifications

U.S.S. Planck
Class: Merian
Registry: NCC-81894
Status: Ready

U.S.S. Achilles
Status: idle

U.S.S. Galen
Status: Brainstorm/Sketching Complete (The 2D concepts of Galen are actually done by the artist called Galen.)

U.S.S. Demeter
Status: Modeling starts this week.

The next book of Kirsten Beyer will feature an appendix with the class names and registry numbers.

Excelsior, Nova and Sovereign class ships are not currently active in this fleet.
 
Are the individual ships other than Voyager (which has been modified for slipstream with longer nacelles and deflector dish addenda) and the two Vesta-class ships with the Full Circle fleet able to create and maintain their own slipstream corridors?

QUOTE]

I know that part of forming a slipstream involves having a chroniton integrator mounted on the navigational deflector but Voyager formed corridors in the show without physical modifications. Have the books said Voyager has outward visible modifications now?

I know Voyager was beat to hell in the Azure Nebula and salvaged parts but does it have new nacelles? I don't remember reading this but she could use bigger nacelles, always thought the Intrepids were too small (not that we judge by size).
 
^We've already established that they're not Nebulas in the books -- Memory Beta just says that because the same names are used in some computer game for ships of that class.
 
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