how about thinking of her as an Aircraft carrier?I love the Aker-Class but thinking about it any other way than saucer fore or aft makes my head hurt, it looks too symmetrical to move sideways, crab style, for me. I'm in no way flagging the design off, it's amazing, it's my brains fault for not allowing me to visualise it moving 'sideways'.
Saucer is like the carrier's "Island" suprestructure off to the side, while the hull and intergrated nacelles are analogous to the "landing deck"