Gilgamesh Class

Design by Robert Heckadon

Affiliation: Starfleet (alternate universe)
Type: Dreadnought
First commissioned: 2258
Length: 309m
Width: 157m
Height: 87m
Decks: 30
Displacement: 1700000t
Complement: 72 officers + 428 crew, evacuation limit: 1000
Speed: Warp 6 (cruise), Warp 8 (max.), Warp 9.4 (max. emergency)
Sublight speed: 0.15c (max.)
Armament: 16 phasers, 4 photon torpedo launchers
Defense: Cast rodinium shields, polarized hull plating
Embarked craft: MACO hoppers

“If we die, then we were born to die this day.” – Kahless the Unforgettable

In 2233 while escorting 600 colonists through the neutral zone en route to Tarsus 4, the USS Kelvin was attacked and subsequently destroyed by an unknown starship, of incredible size and formidable weapons, that emerged from what could only be described as a lightning storm in space that the Kelvin was investigating.

An analysis of the Kelvin’s sensor logs and records that were downloaded to the escape shuttles indicates that the attackers were Romulan. This was based upon evidence such as the ship’s warp signature, reverse linguacode translation, and traces of a molecular decay detonator on the hull of medical shuttle 37. The discovery of the Romulans altered Starfleet’s priorities which subsequently lead to a decade long delay of the Constitution class exploration cruiser in favour of the development of the Gilgamesh class dreadnought.

Often being called a Constitution class on Venus drugs**, the Gilgamesh class dreadnought was designed to respond to any aggression against the Federation. However since the mysterious Romulan ship that attacked the Kelvin has neither been seen nor heard in over 3 years, construction of the dreadnought didn’t begin until 2258 following the destruction of the Vulcan. And even after the mysterious ship was reportedly destroyed the USS Enterprise under the command of the ship’s acting captain, Lt. James T. Kirk, Starfleet didn’t want a repeat of the Vulcan incident.

The Gilgamesh is armed with 16 phasers, 2 banks each, 4 photon torpedo launchers, dicobalt ordinance and what is simply referred to as “special ordinance.” The ship’s maximum warp speed is about 15% greater than the Constitution class’s maximum rated speed. The phasers are also designed to fire in steady stream or pulse beams, but only have a kill setting. The ship is capable of transporting nearly 1000 MACOs to a planet requiring their services.

Though the Gilgamesh class is a Starfleet vessel, which is a branch of the armed forces like the MACOs, the dreadnought and other designated tactical vessels (DT-XXXX)*** are not under the command of the Earth Space Probe, the Bureau of Colonization, nor any other non-military organization and takes orders directly from Starfleet and the Federation Defence Directorate, which stirred up significant controversy of making a Starfleet vessel a pure military ship.

Originally, the dreadnought was designed to have a tertiary nacelle on top of the saucer section in an effort to give the ship a maximum speed of warp factor 10. However practicality and tactical reasons placed a tertiary hull on top of the saucer instead. This section contains the ship’s secondary warp core and its own antimatter fuel which is used to power the ship’s weapons, shields and tactical systems. This then allows the ship’s primary warp core in the secondary hull to concentrate its power for warp drive and primary systems. As well in the event of primary warp core failure, the ship can still remain an effective combat ship. Due to the robust nature of the dreadnought, the power of the 2 warp cores do not cross connect.

The tertiary hull also contains the fore and aft photon torpedo launchers. In extreme circumstances the tertiary hull can separate and be used as a missile and detonate its warp core and remaining ordinance at the enemy. In the event of emergency hull separation, the ramscoop on the tertiary hull collects high energy plasma from a nearby star to augment the saucer’s energy reserves until a rescue ship can arrive.

Critics have often called the tertiary hull as the ship’s power top. This term originated in the early 22nd century when skyscrapers use to carry wind turbines on the top 5-10 floors to generate power within its open structure. However a few corporations have placed executive offices and suites over the turbine floors to somehow symbolically be atop unlimited power.

It was considered to channel power directly from the secondary warp core into the ship’s phaser banks. Unfortunately the charge from the secondary warp core is too high for the phasers to safely harness directly. As a result, 8 high energy sarium fuel cells are used power the phasers directly, and the warp power is used to rapidly recycle the spent sarium reactants in a high output recharging coil. This also gives an added tactical advantage by giving nearly 1 minute of full phaser power should the secondary warp core be rendered unavailable.

Due to the amount of bulk added to the ship, 2 impulse engine units were designed to draw power directly from the secondary warp core at a matter/antimatter ratio of 40:1 to maintain pace with the Constitution class.

The dreadnought has had its fair share of rumours. Many of these include:

• The ship was built with die cast construction.
• The ship produces food using transporter duplication.
• The ship is controlled by an artificial intelligence with an android avatar*.
• Energy from the sudden compression of the interstellar gases at warp is collected by the ramscoops to power the warp drive.
• The ship is driven by an “antigravity” warp drive.

Though many rumours were easily dismissible, 2 rumours have been troublesome for not only conspiracy theorists, but for debunkers as well.

• The ship is equipped with some form of “transwarp transporter” whose range is measured in AUs rather than hundreds of kilometres.
• The ship’s “special ordinances” are actually the missiles fired from the massive Romulan ship in Earth orbit and captured by Starfleet.

What made it more troublesome is that the investigation to simply debunk such claims was halted by Starfleet charter - article 14, section 31.

* Based upon Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda
** "Mudd’s Women"
*** http://www.shipschematics.net/startrek/faq.php 
Does not conform to “official” ILM figures.

Kestrel Class

Design by Nixon's Head

Affiliation: United States Air Force
Type: Spaceplane
First commissioned: 2036
Length: 17.6m
Width: 12.1m
Height: 5.7m
Decks: 1
Displacement: 15t
Complement: 2
Armament: 6x MS-22 missiles

The Kestrel-class spaceplane was developed in the 2030's as part of the US Air Force's long-running programme to create a responsive, flexible and economical means to access low Earth orbit. Building on the successful unmanned X-47B spaceplanes of the 2010s, the Kestrel took advantage of advances in propulsion and thermal protection to provide a high-performance spacecraft for launch, retrieval and on-orbit inspection, repair, reconnaissance, or search-and-destroy missions.

One of the most important and controversial new technologies included in the Kestrel was the Cooper-Nowitzki antimatter-catalysed fusion engine. This revolutionary powerplant introduced small quantities of anti-hydrogen into a reaction chamber and mixed it with hydrogen, releasing enormous amounts of energy, both directly and via secondary hydrogen-hydrogen fusion reactions. This gave the Kestrel a phenomenally high performance compared to previous rockets. Theoretically capable of a direct single-stage launch from the ground into orbit, public concern over the hazards of antimatter powered flight meant that standard practice was to use a conventional chemical rocket for the initial ascent, only activating the Cooper-Nowitzki drive at altitudes of more than 20km. Obsolete Titan II missiles (sometimes erroneously identified as Titan V's by the press) were often used, due to their cheapness, and several former missile bases found themselves hosting Kestrel squadrons.

Once on-orbit, Kestrel missions typically lasted a few days to a week. Although capable of operating as far out as the Earth-Moon Lagrange points, most missions took place in low Earth polar orbits. In the year before World War III, Kestrel launches peaked with over 200 sorties flown by a fleet of 17 planes. Though usually unarmed, there were several occasions when MS-22 “Starscream” missiles were loaded into the Kestrel's payload bay. Tested against defunct US satellites throughout the late 2040's, the first operational use of the Kestrel's ASAT capability came in the first hours or World War III, when a Kestrel of the 4th Space Control Squadron destroyed an Eastern Coalition early warning satellite in a Molniya orbit, before itself coming under attack by a ground-based laser from Sary Shagan.

A total of six Kestrel's survived the war., including one that was undergoing a maintenance overhaul at Malemstrom Air Force Base, Montana. The base escaped nuclear destruction, but was abandoned after the war in the general chaos surrounding the rise of Colonel Green. The Kestrel remained in its hanger, largely undisturbed for almost a decade before being salvaged by Zefram Cochrane and Lily Sloane. The powerplant was modified by Cochrane to act as the power source for his warp engine prototype, whilst Sloane was able to make use of much of the airframe and avionics in constructing the Phoenix warp ship.

Molniya Class

Design by Rich Rogers

Affiliation: Eastern Coalition (Earth)
Type: Experimental warp ship
First commissioned: 2062
Length: 22.8m
Width: 6.8m
Height: 5.9m
Decks: 1
Displacement: 62t
Complement: 1
Speed: Warp 0 (cruise), Warp 1.06 (max.), Warp 0 (max. emergency)
Sublight speed: 0c (max.)
Armament: nil
Defense: nil
Embarked craft: nil

April 5th 2063, the day that mankind took its place amongst the stars, the day when Zefram Cochrane first broke through the light barrier, the day of first contact. Or, at least, that is what the history books would tell us. In the dark, post-apocalyptic days on the mid 21st Century, the records of mankind’s darkest hour are somewhat shaky to say the least. Yet the recent discovery of historic documents from the period have revealed a truth that will rock the very foundations of the Federation, and shed new light on how faster than light travel was really achieved.

Born in 2013, Zefram Cochrane’s name has become legendary for his ground-breaking flight that was to set in place the chain of events that would lead to the formation of the United Federation of Planets. Yet surprisingly little in known of Cochrane up until the launch of the Phoenix in 2063, or to how he developed his pioneering warp engine. 

The development of faster than light travel began with the formation of the first theories postulated by acclaimed theoretical physicist, Miguel Alcubierre Moya. Alcubierre is best known for his paper "The Warp Drive: Hyper-fast travel within general relativity", published in 1994. In this, he describes the Alcubierre drive, a theoretical means of travelling faster than light that does not violate the physical principle that nothing can locally travel faster than light. In his paper, he reversed the regular way general relativity is applied; instead of going from massive objects to space-time curvature, he constructed a model that could transport a volume of flat space inside a "bubble" of highly curved space, much like a crease in a sheet. This bubble is driven forward by a purely local expansion of space-time behind it, and an opposite contraction in front of it. In this way, a spaceship could be pushed away from the Earth and pulled towards a distant star by space-time itself. Faster than light velocity would be possible because the starship would be, strictly speaking, stationary (relative to the space of its bubble) while space-time itself would be moving. The key to generating a distortion of spacetime like that is the so-called "exotic matter". Exotic matter has the provoking property of having negative energy density. (While two "normal" particles would attract each other by their gravity, an exotic particle would repel a "normal" particle.)

Buiding on Alcubierre’s work, Cambridge astrophysicist, Christopher Bayer refined the mathematical model underlying the concept of space warping to create a field in which an object could travel at superluminal speeds. However, the vast amounts of power required to generate such a field rendered Bayer’s calculations little more than a theoretical possibility. During the early 2030s, one of Bayer’s post-graduate students was Zefram Cochrane, who had won a scholarship to Cambridge following his first degree. Cochrane formed part of Bayer’s research team that worked on trying to create a practical warp field generator, but with little success, cut short by the unexpected death of Bayer in 2036. Cochrane returned to the US soon after, gaining his doctorate at MIT for his research on Heim theory. Little is known of Cochrane until well in to the war in the early 2040s. By this time, Cochrane had been recruited by a branch of the National Security Agency, employed on covert special operations around the globe. Although shrouded in secrecy, it is likely that Cochrane was involved in counter-espionage, and the misappropriation of technology from foreign powers. It is during this time that Cochrane was exposed to the horrors of the war leading to bouts of depression and alcohol abuse. On one such mission into the heart of Eastern Coalition territory to steal weapons technology, Cochrane stumbled upon reports and schematics relating to a viable warp engine design, powered by a matter/antimatter reactor. Recognising the material for what it was, thanks to his earlier work with Bayer, Cochrane seized the opportunity to acquire the designs for himself – knowing full well that such information would be extremely valuable. 

Sadly, the reality of Cochrane’s alcohol dependency and growing depression led to him being dismissed from the NSA. In the early post-war years, a penniless, homeless Cochrane found himself on the streets in Bozeman, Montana begging for money to feed his addiction. It was here, that he found salvation in the form of his former NSA colleague, Lily Sloane. Together Cochrane and Sloane assembled a team of scientists and engineers at an abandoned missile silo in Bozeman, and began the development of the warp engine. Progress was slow, partly as they were working with stolen technology, and also because the resources required were in short supply.

Meanwhile, on the far side on the planet within the Eastern Coalition, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Government scientists were also working on a practical warp engine. The team was headed by Vladimir Alexeyov who, like Cochrane, had also been a student of Bayer at Cambridge, and whose warp engine technology Cochrane had acquired. By 2055, just as Cochrane was starting work on his engine in Bozeman, Alexeyov was already bench-testing his fusion reactor. Furthermore, the Russians were at a distinct advantage, with state funding and greater resources, whereas Cochrane was little more than a privateer, using only the resources he could beg, borrow or steal. Unbeknown to each other, the two teams were involved in a race to the stars, just like Wernher von Braun and Sergei Korolev had enjoyed a Century earlier.

In 2057, with plans to launch an unmanned warp ship, the Russian team suffered a major setback when their test-bed reactor failed. Alexeyov and three other scientists on his team were killed in the blast. The programme stalled as a lengthy investigation into the cause of the explosion was conducted. The board of inquiry revealed that the crystalline rubidium structure was far too brittle and fractured under the extreme stresses in the reaction chamber. The team recommenced their research in early 2058, with Dmitri Vasiliev taking Alexeyov’s place as head of the team. The disaster had set them back at least 2 years.

By 2060, the Russians began construction of the new Shishka class rocket that would be used to launch their warp capable ships. By now, Vasiliev’s team had developed a lithium based fusion reactor, similar to the one Cochrane was building in the US. The Russian programme was now geared towards an unmanned flight in early 2062, followed by a series of manned flights commencing six months later. Cochrane had also begun construction of the Phoenix, using a Titan V rocket as his launch vehicle. With Titanium in short supply, much of the delays for Cochrane was obtaining sufficient material to build his starship. He grew intensely frustrated by the process, seeking solace in the bottle, and would often go missing for days on end in the forests of Montana.

On the 19th December 2062, over four months before Cochrane’s “historic” flight, mankind’s first ever faster than light starship was launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The launch was a resounding success, and the unmanned Molniya II (meaning “Lightning”) warp space-vehicle departed Earth’s orbit. Fourteen minutes later, mission control was given the go-ahead to bring the reactor on-line and accelerate to superluminal speeds. The test was a complete success, as Molniya II achieved a speed of 1.02c (approx 306000kms-1). Approval was granted to proceed with a manned flight, early the following year.

On the 9th January 2063, Eastern Coalition Cosmonaut, Gregor Pavlovich became the first man to break the light barrier. In a 2 minute flight, he took the warp-ship Molniya III to a speed of 1.06c. However, on return to Earth, Molniya III suffered a core breach killing Pavlovich. Within the Eastern Coalition, the flight was heralded a great success, for which Pavlovich was awarded the Star of Putin and became a national hero. Sadly, the Coalition’s isolationist policy following the war, meant that no-one outside ECON ever heard about his achievement. Plans were afoot for an extensive flight programme, but the scheduled second flight, slated for June 2063 never took place. The team never got to the root cause of the core failure and the state executive became unwilling to fund any further tests. By then, Cochrane had already established first contact with the Vulcans, and their arrival had already begun to establish a dialogue of conciliation amongst the factions. The Russian’s instead eventually became collaborative partners with the US-led development programme. All records of the Molniya programme were lost when hostilities briefly re-ignited in 2074, such that the common knowledge was that Cochrane had led the way…

The Shishka class rocket was a development of the earlier Soyuz and Vostok class rockets from Russia’s pioneering space programme. The Molniya warp ship was integrated into the rocket, much in the same way the Phoenix had been integrated into the Titan V rocket.

The Molniya had a similar fusion reaction chamber to Cochrane’s; the principle difference was it fed four nacelles as opposed to the Phoenix’s two. There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that all subsequent four-nacelle starships are based upon the system employed by the Molniya. The other thing to note is that the warp drive was considerably more sophisticated than Cochrane’s, simply because greater resources had been put into its development. Indeed, it is likely that had the Russian’s led warp drive development in the latter half of the 21st Century, then far greater progress would have been made. It would take mankind another 100 years to develop a practical warp five engine. Whereas using the greater efficiency and potential for growth from the 4-nacelle Molniya as a basis for future development could have enabled a warp five system to be realised in half the time. Cochrane had “lucked in” to a working solution, but to the detriment of mankind, but it proved to be only a temporary set-back. As it was, Cochrane for a time lost interest in developing his warp drive further, leaving the mundane tasks to less able scientists, whilst he sought fame and glory on the world stage. Dmitri Vasiliev, the last of the great Russian racket Scientists died in 2065, and his ideas died with him. It wasn’t until the likes of Henry Archer (b. 2077)and Doctor Takasi came along at the turn of the century that any major advancements in warp technology were made. 

At every pivotal point in history in the development of flight and space flight, they have been defined by the rivalries of competing persons, determined to be the first. It struck me that Cochrane would not have been the only person developing warp drive in the mid 21st century - just as both the Russians and US had been in a space race in the 1950s. What if during those uncertain post-apocalyptic times, that someone else had launched a Warp ship before Cochrane, unknown to the rest of the world, yet it was Cochrane who was credited with the first flight - simply because of the establishment of first contact with the Vulcans. History is written by the winners... 

Sheffield Class

Design by Steve Justice

Type: Heavy Destroyer
First commissioned: 2315
Length: 304.3m
Width: 142.1m
Height: 66.3m
Decks: 16
Displacement: 650000t
Complement: 25 officers + 225 crew, evacuation limit: 510
Speed: Warp 7.2 (cruise), Warp 8.4 (max.), Warp 9.0 (max. emergency)
Sublight speed: 0.75c (max.)
Armament: RIM-16C twin mount phasers (9), 'Rapier' phaser cannons (4)
Defense: EMD-6 primary deflector shield, CSCS-13E countermeasures system
Embarked craft: 2

As Star Fleet entered the 24th century, destroyer development was at it lowest level in the history of the Federation. Improving relations with the Klingon Empire and the abundance of "Constitution style" destroyers, frigates, and other escorts combined to place new destroyer development at a low priority. Beginning in 2290, destroyer development was limited to several twin-nacelle fast destroyer prototypes with an average production of less than one ship per year.

However, by 2310 many older destroyers were reaching their design lives. The majority of the single nacelle destroyers were thoroughly worn-out as they were originally launched prior to 2250 and were later modified with linear warp drives in the 2270's. In spite of expanded SLEP, the total number of available escorts began to rapidly decrease until the total number of available destroyers numbered less than 50 in 2310. In response, Star Fleet transferred frigates into the traditional destroyer roles of fleet escort and border patrol, which reduced the number of ships available for exploration.

In 2311, the Tomed incident between the Romulan Empire and the Federation highlighted the need for a strong destroyer force as a border 'trip-wire'. The forward Romulan attack force of destroyers were able to use their superior acceleration, maneuverability and numbers to quickly neutralize the frigate border patrol force to allow a rapid Romulan thrust into Federation space. A strong destroyer force, while not able to defeat the stronger attack force, could have slowed the attackers enough to allow the Federation Rapid Response Force to intercept the Romulan attack force short of Federation space lanes. The lack of destroyers also caused some difficulties for the Federation task force in the final battle.

After the Tomed incident, Star Fleet set out on a 'crash' program to add 50 new destroyers and heavy destroyers to the fleet in a ten year period. In light of limited credits, and to reduce development time, the new designs developed in the program used a maximum of existing, in-production, and replacement starship components and systems.

New destroyer, the Fletcher class, and heavy destroyer, the Sheffield class, designs were developed to augment the Excelsior and Constellation class cruisers then in production. The designs utilized "Constitution style" main hull, which was still in production, combined with refurbished warp nacelles and subsystems salvaged from replacement stocks and retired cruisers, frigates, and destroyers. The Fletchers and Sheffields represented a rebirth in destroyer development after a lull of over 20 years.

Sheffield class overview The lead ship of the class, the USS Sheffield, was designed by the Star Fleet Division - Office of Naval Construction and constructed in 2315 at the Star Fleet Division Singapore Yards. Production contracts for subsequent ships were evenly split between Star Fleet Division Singapore Yards and Avondale Group Saturn Yards. Production was initially planned for 25 units, but production was cancelled after only 8 units to allow Starfleet to move forward with new technology designs using Ambassador class technology.

In service, the Sheffield class demonstrated good all-around capabilities and were excellent command and control units which served in many "hot spots" along the Federation borders. All Sheffield class ships were engaged in numerous combat situations over their 40 years of service with no losses. The last Sheffield class ship was reluctantly retired by Starfleet in 2359.

Design The requirements for the Sheffield design included a design range and speed to match Excelsior and Constellation cruisers, improved phaser and torpedo firepower, and the ability to act as the flagship for a destroyer squadron. The requirements for the warp power, fuel storage, and torpedo capability along with command, communication & control systems forced the designers to adopt several features not previously seen on destroyer class ships.

In order to meet the power and warp speed requirements, a cruiser type matter/antimatter reaction assembly (M/ARA) was required along with warp engines capable of generating a 100% greater warp field density than in previous destroyers. Since no production warp engine existed to meet the requirement using two nacelles, and funding was not available for development of a new warp engine, the designers adopted the four nacelle configuration first used in the Constellation class. The engine pairs were located aft of the main hull on dorsal and ventral support hulls. The M/ARA was contained in the support hull along the Z-axis of the ship.

Previous destroyer designs accommodated the matter/antimatter storage in the ventral support hull or the aft portion of the main hull (saucer). The Sheffield became the first destroyer type to utilize a separate engineering hull. The large capacity engineering hull, along the general lines of the Excelsior, provided ample volume for all specified mission systems and increased fuel storage that provided the Sheffields with exceptional endurance.

The Sheffields utilized a "Constitution style" main hull design taken from the Belknap strike cruiser class with replaceable computer core and bridge modules. A new destroyer class bridge module was developed for the Sheffields to fully interface with the Excelsior and Constellation class ships

Engineering systems The Sheffield design utilized LN-64 series linear warp engines in a four nacelle configuration pioneered in the Constellation class exploratory cruiser. The ventral and dorsal engine pairs were partially cross-linked to dampen warp harmonic effects between each engine pair. The ship also employed a Constellation class M/ARC to reach the maximum warp field output available from the four nacelle layout.

Impulse engines were standard Belknap strike cruiser units to compensate for the increased ship mass and to provide superlative sub-light acceleration required in a destroyer. Life support and other auxiliary systems are derived from earlier Belknap systems.

Command, communication & control systems Command, Communication and Control (C3) systems on the Sheffields were a mix of explorer and battle cruiser systems to meet long range patrol and tactical requirements. The design team utilized modified Constellation and Excelsior class systems to meet the severe development time and cost requirements for the new destroyer design. However as compared to the contemporary Fletcher class, the Sheffield doubled the capacity and throughput of those systems to fit the command and control role of the heavy destroyer.

Weapon systems The Sheffields had four torpedo tubes located in the engineering hull and nine RIM twin phaser turrets located strategically to provide a full field of fire. The Sheffields also employed a dorsal mounted strut with two Standard Mission Modules (SMM). The original design featured fore and aft torpedo modules on the dorsal strut. When operational experience revealed that phaser capability was more important than torpedo capability in close quarters combat; the SMMs were changed to twin megaphaser cannon type 4 modules which provided the Sheffields with unmatched phaser striking power.

Due to the high probability of engagement with multiple opponents, the shielding capabilities of the Sheffields were designed to exceed that of other contemporary class one ships. Total shield energy rejection capability exceeded the Excelsior class by 20%.

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	Last modified: 17.03.12