NationStates Jolt Archive

Preface: With IDF's growing starfleet came new classes of starships. The Nebula class was the first of a new generation of starships. The ships had shown off some of the major technological advancements made by the people of IDF. Unfortunately, the Nebula class explorers were found to have limited abilities in their exploration tasks due to the fact they didn't have enough room for labs. There had also been phaser blindspots that made the ships vulnerable when they came under attack.

The Nebula class was a great step forward, but its design flaws made it clear to Starfleet Command that a new class of explorers was needed to facilitate the growing demands of the fleet. For the past 5 years, engineers had been developing new technologies that were mainly developments off of Nebula class components. There was still a lot of work left to do.

http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/images/e/ea/UtopiaPlanitiaFleetYards.jpg
Utopia Planitia, in synchronized orbit over Primus IV.

Captain Jean Luc Picard stepped out of his Type 15 shuttle and entered the shuttlebay of the large orbitting facility. The facility he was in was a part of the massive Utopia Planitia Shipyards. He hurried as he was running about 10 minutes late for his meeting with Admiral Leyton.

"Greetings Admiral," he said as he walked through the sliding door into the Admiral's office.

"Pleasure to see you Jean Luc," responded the Admiral.

"What is it you wanted to see me for?" asked the Captain.

"Jean Luc, you are one of the best Captains in my fleet. I want to give you the opportunity to command what will be our newest most advanced starship. It won't all be fun. It will be at least a decade away. Until that time, I want you working with our engineering teams to help design the ship and oversee the construction of her along with the trial runs. It will be a demanding task. The next decade will not be a fun time for you, but once completed with that time, you will have a job envied by the rest of the Captains in the fleet. It's up to you to decide if you want this job or not."

"I'll have to think about it," responded Picard. "I will probably have to take you up on this offer Sir."

OOC: Tag to see what happens.

ISS Pegasus dropped out of warp at the edge of the Primus system. She was under the temporary command of Commander William Riker. The oberth class vessel had had most of its internal science labs removed during a brief refit at DS9. The ship was now carrying a skeleton crew as it moved under impulse power to Utopia Planitia.

Riker was what could be considered a cowboy. He had been assigned to what would now be known as Project 501 for the registry number of what would be the first ship of the class.

Riker had never met Captain Picard before so he took the time during the voyage to read his personel file. He seemed to be almost a polar opposite of Riker's personality. He could understand why 2 completly different minds would be assigned to such a project.

"Geordi!" he called to his temporary helmsman. "How much longer until we arrive?"

"We will be at the shipyards in about an hour at impulse speed commander," responded LT Geordi LaForge.

"Very well."

Captain Picard was sitting at his office in an orbital office complex that was a part of the massive orbitting shipyard. He had been awaiting his new 1st Officer, who was now late. Picard got up and walked to the replicator. "Tea, Earl Grey, hot," he said as he got his 3rd cup of the morning.

Just then, the door chime rung. "Come in," he called. Riker then entered the room.

"CDR William Riker reporting for duty, Sir," said Riker.

"Thank you Commander," began Picard. "I am Captain Jean Luc Picard. You have been briefed on this project so we don't need to waste time on the details of it. I trust you brought the Pegasus."

"I have Sir," responded Riker. "The engineers are stripping most of her secondary hull along with other portions of the primary hull. I must let you know it will be some time until we can take her out and test the new systems."

"I must say I would've liked to have another ship for the testbed," responded Picard. "I just don't think that this Oberth class vessel is suited for this role."

"I must agree Sir," responded Riker. "We will be able to carry out all of our experiments with her. The problem with Pegasus is that her size will mean that the project will take longer htan it should."

"Very well," responded Picard. "I haven't had a chance to see the schedule on the components we are testing. Have you been informed of what will be the first part of the ship we test?"

"Sir, I have been informed that the fusion generators and impulse engines are being removed as we speak," responded Riker. "We will hopefully be testing a new impulse drive and fusion generators system that can propel a starship at .75c in sublight conditions."

"Really?" inquired Picard showing shock in the speed the impulse drives were supposed to supply.

"I was shocked too, Sir," responded Riker. "It will be a few months until we can take the Pegasus out. I have seen the engines and generator. They have been nearly completed. Just to let you know, the Pegasus should exceed the design speed on the engines. She is afterall much smaller than the 5,000,000 metric tons that this system is built to propel."

"I figured that much," responded Picard. "I'm going to let you go right now and get acquainted with the facilities. Be back in my office by 1600."

OOC What exactly is this about? Can we also be our own race?

OOC What exactly is this about? Can we also be our own race?

OOC: This is about the development of a new generation of starships. The title, specifications, and characters involved should make it clear to the reader that the new ships in question are the Galaxy class starships.

http://www.ans.com.au/~gsuter/Enterprise-D_Moon.jpg

Later on in the thread, I will likely be buying some technology to fix flaws in the ship that will come up.

The ISS Pegasus complete with her new impulse engines and fusion generator was ready to move out for the first test of this system.

By now Picard's entire senior staff for this project had been put together. His XO was Commander William Riker. Data, an android, was his Science Officer. Georgi LaForge was his chief engineer. Ro Laren was the Conn Officer. Tasha Yar was the Tactical Officer. Dr. Beverly Crusher as the Chief Medical Officer. This was th group that Picard would lead in the coming years.

"Ensign, ahead 1/4 impulse power," ordered Picard as the Oberth class scout left the shipyard. The ship slowly increased to 1/2 impulse power. At this speed, the ship was now at .125c. After 6 hours at this speed to give the engines some callibrations, the ship accelerated to full impulse. At this speed, the ship was moving at .25c.

This wasn't even close to the ship's maximum impulse speed. After 2 horus at full impulse, Picard decided it was time to fully unwind the engines. "Alright Ensign, ahead maximum impulse." The ship accelerated to past .5c and continued accelerating until it stopped around .75c.

The engines were running well, but some other tests had to be made. The inertial dampeners had to be adjusted to compensate for impulse maneuvering at this speed. "Ensign, conduct evasive maneuvers," ordered Picard. After the first series of turns, most of the crew was on the floor. The Pegasus straightened her course out and then Geordi went down with Data to main engineering to work on the inertial dampeners.

Once this work was done, the Pegasus resumed her maneuvers and performed well at her speed. The ship turned around and headed back towards Primus IV and Utopia Planitia. The ship continued at impulse. It would be useless for the point of the test to run at warp since the Pegasus was still using the standard warp drive used by Oberth class vessels.

The ship slowed as she approached the shipyards and came to a stop inside the orbitting drydock. The test was a success. Picard and his crew left as a team of engineers came aboard the ship to modify her for her next test run, which was 3 weeks away.

The ISS Pegasus was once again underway and now at the asteroid field surrounding the Primus system. During the past 3 weeks, Starfleet engineers had placed a single Type X phaser array on the dorsal saucer of the ship. The ship was now tracking numerous asteroids which would serve as targets for the phaser.

First, Tasha Yar manipulated the phaser controls and a single wide beam was launched at an asteroid 5,000 km away. The powerful phaser burst destroyed the asteroid after 10 seconds.

The ship still had her original warp core so it took over a minute to reacharge. Once the phaser recharged, the single array was given 4 targets at ranges averaging 10,000 km. Four seperate beams shot out from the single array simultaneously and destroyed the targets. It took longer as the energy was equally divided among the beams.

The ship continued firing phasers at various ranges and with different beam intensities. If the Type X continued to be successful, it would find itself on the new class of starships being developed.

The ISS Pegasus had once again been refitted and was now back on the targetting range. Today's testing would be for a new photon launcher.

Previous launchers used on all Starfleet ships could only launch 2 torpedoes per tube. The new photon launcher would be too large for normal usage on an Oberth class vessel. As a result, the Oberth class vssel's secondary hull had the launcher attached to the dorsal side on the exterior of the ship.

"Ensign Ro," called Picard. "All stop. Maneuvering thrusters +10 on the z axis. Alright Mr. Data, scan for targets. Lietenant Yar, arm a spread of 4 photons from the new launcher."

The orders were all followed as the crewmembers acknowledged. Finally Tasha Yar stated torpedoes were armed and locked on a single target.

"Fire!" called Picard. With that order, 4 torpedoes were launched from the single photon tube. All 4 torpedoes struck the asteroid and it exploded.

The Pegasus continued torpedo exercises for 4 hours and then stood down from Red Alert. The test was a success and the Pegasus returned to the shipyards. The ship would go through a lot more testing, but the weapon systems for the NX-501 project had now been fully cleared for use on the new class.

The ISS Pegasus had now been working as the test-bed for the NX-501 project for 24 months. During that time, she underwent over 35 various refits to test components for the still unnamed class of explorers that would come from these groundbreaking experiements. The Oberth class vessel was now being stripped of all of most of her extra fittings. She would remain and Planitia Utopia and be refitted for her next mission.

She would be heavily modified to carry out the role of a long ranged science vessel.

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While the part of the Pegasus on this project was completed, Picard and his senior staff now had no ship to use and were once again stuck at desks.

Picard didn't care, the schematics for the new class had been finalized. He was in awe as he looked over the figures for his new command.

642.5 meters long
463.7 meters wide
195.3 meters tall
4,975,000 metric tons
42 decks
Duranium hull with tritanium plating

Her new warp drive had a maximum sustained speed of warp 9.2. She could maintain 9.6 for 18 hours

The new ship's impulse engines could power the ship up to .72c. This speed could be attained through the use of 3 impulse engines whereas most ships had 2. A new fusion generator also helped.

The saucer and engineering hulls could be seperated while on a mission. The engineering hull had a secondary bridge for such instances.

The ship's weapon system was nothing short of amazing. Most of her Phaser arrays were Type X arrays with a range of 300,000 km. She had 3 dorsal phasers on her primary hull. These included 1 main phaser array that covered almost all 360 degrees. The area around the shuttlebay on decks 3-4 was covered by 2 smaller Type IXphaser emmiters. There was one ventral array on the primary hull that covered a 320 degree arc. The only blindspots were due to the ship's secondary hull.

There were 5 phaser arrays on the secondary hull. One was below the deflector on the bottom of the ship. This covered the hole in the forward ventral arc and also covered most of the ship's aft ventral arc. Two more ventral arcs on the rear of the ship provided some rear firepower against targets under the vessel. Two identical phaser arrays were situated on the dorsal portion of the ship's aft section of the secondary hull.

Her warp nacelles each mounted a phaser array on both the dorsal and ventral side of the vessel. Her pylons each mounted a lateral array to cover the port and starboard firing arcs.

The NX-501 class had suceeded in meeting the design criteria of covering every phaser arc on the X,Y, and Z axis.

The NX-501 class was to be equipped with 3 of the new rapid fire launchers. Two launchers were positioned forward with a 3rd positioned aft. Each launcher could fire 4 torpedoes in a single salvo. The ship was to carry a complement of 500 photon torpedoes.

The NX-501 also had a new deflector shield system. There were 12 seperate shield generators to ensure that the enemy couldn't target a single one to collapse the shields around the entire vessel.

The ship had 6 transporter rooms. Each had 10 pads. There were also 4 large cargo transporters and 6 emergency transporters.

The ship was equipped with a primary shuttlebay and 2 auxiliary shuttlebays. The ships were to be able to carry a large assortment of shuttlecraft.

The ship would also be equipped with a trio of powerful tractor beams.

While all of these systems were important, they only were a part of the vessel. Much of the secondary hull was devoted to various science labs that were crucial to the ship's primary mission.

A year had passed and the skeleton of the first class of the NX-501 was now complete. Durable duranium rods were used as the skeleton of the new class of starships. Starfleet Command had tentatively decided to name the ship Galaxy.

Picard and his crew was working around the clock helping supervise the construction of their new ship. Decks 39-42 had their duranium hull plates already bolted to the skeleton. Crews were working on fitting those sections out.

The engineering and saucer sections were merged just a week ago after being assembled seperately. This was necessary as they were designed to seperate in emergencies.

Geordi was on deck 42 supervising the installment of anti-matter storage pods, which would be used for powering the reactor. Deck 41 was also going to contain such pods. Decks 39 and 40 were being supervised by Data as they were being built for cargo bays.

The rest of the on duty officers were supervising the placement of hull plates on upper decks.

Another 2 years had passed and the ISS Galaxy, NX-501 was now complete. The 642 meter long starship majestically orbited over Primus IV. She was now attached to the smaller McKinnley Station as her crew got their gear aboard and got settled in for her first flight.

The ship's beautiful warp nacelles lit up in red and blue. lights were shining across the saucer and engineering hulls of the Galaxy class vessel.

Inside of the massive ship, crewmembers marveled at the comfort that was unknown on any other vessel in the fleet.

The Galaxy may have had the look of a peaceful ship, but she was geared for war too. Her hull was lined with phaser arrays and 12 torpedo tubes were hidden under muzzle doors.

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"Wesley, unclamp from station," ordered Picard. "Ahead 1/4 impulse power, engage!"

The ship moved under her own power for the first time as her fusion generators pushed her onward as she began her first shakedown cruise.