Defiant-Class Impulse Engines

[Bry_Sinclair]

According to the Defiant-Class MSD, the ship's impulse engines take up the whole aft section of the ship:

However, on the ship itself the impulse engines are off to the side, just next to the warp nacelles:

Looking at the ship that way, there is far more internal space available.

 

[Tiberius]

Those little dots are where the exhaust may be, but who says that's where the reactors are?

 

[Timo]

Well, Rick Sternbach does, in the DS9 Tech Manual - they are a sneaky, stealthy and invisible sort right at the stern...

Personally, I think he's engaging in some misdirection that the Men In Black With Denial-Colored Shoulders from Starfleet pay him for. Yes, those red circles are the nozzles (and not, say, lifeboat ejector chutes), but quite possibly the big honking reactors are situated well aft of the nozzles.

Although of course that MSD is somewhat suspect in showing just four decks when the dialogue credits the ship with at least five and a turbolift Okudagram with six, and in a few other details. But then again, the ship is so small that the heroes often have to invite their enemies, captives or the like to the bridge (rather than to the guest accommodations on the missing Deck 5 or the brig in the even more missing Deck 6, as the above sources would indicate). It only makes sense to present them with a misleading MSD...

Timo Saloniemi