TO:
Sean_McCormick, and everyone else here...
I don't know if you've had a chance to follow the
23rd-century warptug thread in the Trek Tech forum, but my idea for a warptug starship (automated or manned, depending on configuration) bears some resemblance to some of
your series of images earlier in this thread having to do with 22nd-century starships.
The warptug concept is essentially an automated
warp-sled, with places and apparatus for connecting cargo or starliner pods like those FJ envisioned in his 1975 "Tech Manual", as well as a crew pod that would make the ship into a "manned" robot warptug, a la
TOS-R Antares.
I brought this up in this thread because some of your designs for 22nd-century early starships are similar in shape to what I was trying to get with the warptug concept. These ships are designed to be simple, durable, reliable and easy-to-mass-produce robotic interstellar haulers. As such, their appearance would be an exercise in form-follows-function. I wanted this to be an alternative possibility to the TOS-R
Woden, even though Woden was said to be an automated freighter, not a bulk-moving tug. Your Dauntless, Aeneas, and especially your Inazumas are all shaped very similar to my warptug concept.
Here's what I'm getting at for a concept: the warptug is essentially an automated or semi-automated warpsled, built for hauling up to four FJ-style pods, possibly six, at a time. As you'll read in the thread, these tugs (I'll call them the Yellowknife-class, for lack of a better term) can also be fitted with the Antares-style crew module. The submarine-style shape is a logical tribute to the "original" Woden, and to Harry Dodemma's Imhotep. Most of the ship's internal volume is for (1: fuel storage, (2: engines, (3: automated machinery for ship's autopilot, tracking scanners, subspace radio for remote control, etc. There is a small bridge-style control center for personnel to board and take control of the ship if necessary.
I would think a crude, Warp 1.4-capable smaller version of this was in use during the 22nd century for supply-hauling and asteroid mining, whether you factor in ENT or not. When Romulans started raiding, and later booby-trapping some of these robot ships, that's when things started to heat up and set the stage for the Earth-Romulan Conflict. The "modern" Yellowknife design evolved after the Federation was established, between 2161 and 2200.
The submarine-style "conning tower" structure on the topside main hull would be a good place to connect the crew module to the warptug. This would make that structure a kind of "connecting neck". The nose-tip of the main forward hull houses a dish. aft of the dish is the bulkiest part of the forward hull, where the engine compartment (matter/anti-matter reactor) and automation is located. there would be a long, thinner tube back to a bulky aft compartment; the tube houses fuel tanks for long voyages, the aft compartment houses impulse engines. 180 degrees apart on either side of the main hull is a heavy wing-like pylon (think like FJ's Federation-class dreadnoughts' pylons, as opposed to those on Kirk's Enterprise) that leads to the warp nacelles. between the main hull and each nacelle, there is docking apparatus on the top and bottom of each pylon to grapple cargo pods for tugging. The main hull also has pylons extending straight up and down from the main hull to dock two more pods, for a total of six pods maximum capacity.
The overall shape also has similarities to the
NX-Alpha, insofar as the main hull and its orientation to the nacelles would be concerned.
I was wondering if you or anyone else in this thread would like to use the toolkits to give a crack at this warptug concept. If you are, I'd love to see what you could do with it. Versions could be either ENT/22nd century/early Federation or pre-TOS/TOS-era. You're welcome to give it a try.
