I took the opportunity to design a contemporary take on the Crossfield Refit by using design elements pulled from ships such as the Merian, Friendship, Mars and Constitution (Kirk subclass) classes of ships.
Technobabble about the ship is at the bottom of the post for those interested in the 'hows' and 'whys' of the ship itself.
Model is finished and I'm not open to making any changes but feedback is still welcome.
Wanderer II-class Starship Design:
The intent of the design is to use the Crossfield Refit layout but ensure the whole ship is made up of 31/32c parts and design elements. There is NO spore tech in the ship at all, she is entirely conventional and she has a Pathway Drive as well as the standard Warp/Transwarp/QSD package that most ships of the era have (including civilian ships).
You may notice:
Images:
3D View:
Technobabble:
Transwarp Velocities vs. Transwarp Coils/Drives
In the late 24th Century, Starfleet dedicated significant resources to reverse-engineer Borg Transwarp Coil and Transwarp Gate technologies. While ultimately successful endeavors, Starfleet discovered significant limitations present with both technologies:
In the late 24th Century, Starfleet developed the highly-classified Premonition-class as its first transwarp coil testbed. The U.S.S. Premonition had a top-mounted third nacelle which housed a dedicated set of transwarp coils, the intent being to spread the burn-out across 16 coils instead of one and slow the process, increasing the lifetime of each coil. While partially successful, testing revealed that this "transwarp nacelle" would require replacement on an annual basis with routine use, and could burn out in as little as 96 hours if pushed to maximum capability, the same limit as a single coil used at standard power levels.
However, it was alongside this testing that Starfleet published an updated Warp Speed Chart, extending it into the Transwarp range. The chart expansion added increments starting at Transwarp 11 and continuing upward. It is with this chart that Starfleet standardized extreme-velocity speeds that were then applied to various other FTL technologies such as Quantum Slipstream and Protowarp. This chart remains in use across much of the galaxy to this day (33c).
During the 25th Century, Starfleet and the Federation eventually 'broke' the Warp 10 barrier and pushed into Transwarp velocities while using a "standard" warp drive thanks to innovations provided by Dominion engineers and reverse-engineered technology from the Solanae. 26th Century ships like the Theseus- and Universe-classes had maximum speeds between Transwarp 13 and 14, allowing them to cross an entire sector (20 light-years across) in under 2 hours.
By the time of the 33rd Century, several ship classes have a maximum safe velocity pushing Transwarp 24 using their conventional warp drive, however the cost comes at the lifetime of the dilithium crystals used to regulate the drive's matter/antimatter reaction. Throughout the 31st and 32nd Centuries, the effects of the 'Burn' and the scarcity of dilithium necessitated ships staying under the Transwarp threshold for fear of stranding themselves without the ability to reach high warp velocities. [Note: Standard warp drives can achieve just above Warp 5 without the use of dilithium to regulate intermix levels, but that also significantly increases travel times from hours to months or years, depending on the distances involved.]
Pathway Drive
The pathway drive is a novel propulsion technology developed by Starfleet beginning in 3190. By 3192 the basic drive hardware and systems had been installed on the U.S.S. Voyager (NCC-74656-J) for initial trials and testing. A long-distance full-power test of the drive was conducted in 3193 when the U.S.S. Voyager completed a round-trip mission to Deep Space 47 in the Ocampa System of the Delta Quadrant. This ~160,000 light-year round trip was completed in just 4 weeks of travel time, achieving the fastest recorded sustainable speed in the galaxy. [Note: The Protowarp Drive developed in 2379 attained higher velocities but could not be maintained over a distance of greater than 4,000 light-years, making it an inelegant, brute force propulsion solution.]
By 3202, the Pathway drive had entered standardized production and integration. The newly-designed Wanderer II-class U.S.S. Wanderer (NCC-325177) would be the first purpose-built ship with the Pathway Drive at its heart, though it still maintained Starfleet's standard warp drive design and included Quantum Slipstream integration. [Note: Use of the Quantum Slipstream feature of Starfleet drives requires benemite crystals to regulate the quantum matrix. Benemite is exceedingly rare and difficult to artificially synthesize, however the inclusion of QSD capability has become a standard feature of almost all FTL packages on all ships (civilian vessels included) of the 29th Century onward]
The Pathway Drive operates in a manner indicative of its name. Through sophisticated subspace field manipulation, the drive creates a "pathway" in subspace for the ship to travel through. As the ship enters the pathway field, the laws of physics are altered to those of subspace, where there is no theoretical upper limit to how fast matter can travel, the only known limit coming from the requisite power-to-mass ratio of the object in question. As such, it is a relatively simple matter for most ships to utilize a Pathway Drive, with smaller ships requiring far less power to traverse the pathway. For larger ships such has the Courage- and Angelou-classes, use of a Pathway Drive can be prohibitively power-intensive, but is still possible for short periods.
Multiplicative Covariant Shields
First tested on the U.S.S. Protostar (NX-76884), the multiplicative iteration on standard Starfleet covariant shields didn't see widespread adoption until after the conclusion of the Temporal War and the active ban placed on all temporal technology, including temporal shielding. Starting in the late 30th Century, Starfleet returned to the use of covariant shielding and took a second look at the multiplicative version of this technology, beginning wide-spread adoption as its temporal fleet was decommissioned.
Based on a section-projection concept, this type of shield consists of hexagonal "tiles" that can be projected either directly over the hull or as a spheroid shape around a ship. This gives the shield boundary a unique appearance but doesn't change the basic function of the shields themselves, in that they still radiate incoming damage over a greater area away from the point of impact.
The multiplicative nature of the shields comes into play when placed under strain. As a section of the shields takes damage from impacts, energy is diverted to the shields' regenerators in an effort to harden them against further damage in that area. This results in the shield barrier remaining intact for longer under strain and recharging faster when not under fire. Additionally, automated frequency tuning algorithms, built into the shield generators, allow the shields to be tuned in such a way as to provide the maximum possible resistance to an enemy's weapons fire, completely negating up to 10% of the incoming energy transfer damage. Finally, the standard configuration of these shields is set up to channel incoming energy damage into specialized capacitors that can then be dumped into the ship's own subsystems, providing a temporary boost to the ship's own power in a pinch.
Type XXXIV Variable-Output Phaser Emitters
The Type XXXIV Phaser Emitter builds upon its various predecessors to create as comprehensive a weapons package as possible, giving Starfleet ships the ability to adjust to almost any tactical situation they may come across.
Learning from the dual-emitter designs of the 23rd Century, as well as pulling from the standardized array designs of the 24th and 25th Centuries, the Type XXXIV is configured as a single emitter emplacement with 4 field manipulation manifolds that have programmable matter natively integrated into the design. The inclusion of programmable matters makes instantaneous reconfiguration possible, allowing any of the emitter hardpoints on the ship to fire in beam or pulse mode and swap between the two modes within 1 second.
Automatic frequency tuning is built into the phaser emitters themselves, similarly to Multiplicative Covariant Shields, allowing the emitter to tune its output for maximum damage based on interactions with a target's shields. As a phaser beam/pulse impacts a target's shield barrier, the ship's tactical sensors automatically communicate impact data to the phaser emitters, tuning the emitter's frequency range for greater effect. In rare instances, given enough clear sensor data, it is possible for the emitters to tune into a frequency that allows them to pierce a target's shields, but given the general advancements of technology in the 33rd Century this is a rare occurrence.
Lastly, if a phaser emitter is unable to discharge completely during its firing sequence, the emitter will cycle any remaining charge back into the bank's local capacitor, resulting in reduced recharge times for successive firing cycles.
The Type XXXIV system was initially tested on several Intrepid-class ships in 3189 and was adopted fleet-wide by 3201, replacing multiple previous phaser emitter variants.
Programmable Matter
Programmable matter is matter which has the ability to change its physical properties (shape, density, moduli, conductivity, optical properties, etc.) in a programmable fashion, based upon user input or autonomous sensing. First named and theorized as early as the year 1991 by computer scientists Toffoli and Margolus, sufficient advancements in semiconductors, nanotechnology, and limited self-replicating machine technology have made the development and use of programmable matter possible.
Working within it's own pre-programmed limits, programmable matter is in widespread use across Starfleet, the Federation, and within most known galactic powers of the Milky Way. Present in almost all systems from weapons to computers to damage control, programmable matter has become an integral part of daily life on most civilized worlds, to the point that most people's homes are furnished internally entirely in programmable matter constructs (including furniture and small appliances). While more complex technologies still have to be fabricated and assembled by hand or through the use of replicator technology, programmable matter is capable of either constructing or functioning as multiple different devices or items as needed.
Critical to use in the safety systems of Starfleet vessels, a not insignificant amount of programmable matter is used in the fabrication of starship hulls. When a ship's hull takes damage, internal systems such as emergency force fields activate instantly to protect the crew from exposure or decompression, giving time for programmable matter to conduct rudimentary repairs to the hull itself, sealing most smaller breaches or creating a supporting lattice over larger ones to help preserve structural integrity. Programmable matter is also present in starship weapons systems to allow them to reconfigure on the fly, as well as in a ship's main computer core where they can perform multiple functions from information processing to creating or replacing system links and connections.
Technobabble about the ship is at the bottom of the post for those interested in the 'hows' and 'whys' of the ship itself.
Model is finished and I'm not open to making any changes but feedback is still welcome.
Wanderer II-class Starship Design:
The intent of the design is to use the Crossfield Refit layout but ensure the whole ship is made up of 31/32c parts and design elements. There is NO spore tech in the ship at all, she is entirely conventional and she has a Pathway Drive as well as the standard Warp/Transwarp/QSD package that most ships of the era have (including civilian ships).
You may notice:
- The saucer is now 1 deck thicker, which allowed me to give it a 2-deck rim instead of the Crossfield's 1-deck rim
- I added escape pods, transporter emitters, phaser emitters and tractor beam emitters, things that a lot of the "future" ships from DIS are clearly 'missing'
- The saucer has about 1/2 the negative space of the Crossfield Refit, giving it more internal volume
- There is no bridge window. The windows on Deck 1 belong to spaces such as the ready room, conference room, and the XO's office
- The torpedo tubes are in standard starship locations (base of the neck and underside rear of the hull beneath the shuttlebay)
- The hull is 2 decks thicker than the Crossfield Refit and has been structured to provide a clearer distinction between "hull" and "pylons
- The pylons are 1 deck thicker, which can be seen on the 3D view as there are 2 decks of windows inside the pylon cutouts instead of 1
- Nacelles are based on the Merian's nacelles, with new custom design elements and a continuous 360' warp field 'grille' that splits around the attachment point
- The Starfleet Pennant is based on the 33c Commbadge seen in the DIS S5 Epilogue
Images:
3D View:
Technobabble:
Transwarp Velocities vs. Transwarp Coils/Drives
In the late 24th Century, Starfleet dedicated significant resources to reverse-engineer Borg Transwarp Coil and Transwarp Gate technologies. While ultimately successful endeavors, Starfleet discovered significant limitations present with both technologies:
- Transwarp Coils are expendable, having a time/distance/energy lifetime limit that results in the coil burning out, becoming entirely unusable and requiring replacement.
- Transwarp Gates are large, stationary pieces of critical infrastructure necessitating the presence of a fleet-grade starbase or planetary defense force to secure. The sheer amount of resources needed to produce a single gate, as well as power it, also makes them cost prohibitive, limiting their potential placement.
In the late 24th Century, Starfleet developed the highly-classified Premonition-class as its first transwarp coil testbed. The U.S.S. Premonition had a top-mounted third nacelle which housed a dedicated set of transwarp coils, the intent being to spread the burn-out across 16 coils instead of one and slow the process, increasing the lifetime of each coil. While partially successful, testing revealed that this "transwarp nacelle" would require replacement on an annual basis with routine use, and could burn out in as little as 96 hours if pushed to maximum capability, the same limit as a single coil used at standard power levels.
However, it was alongside this testing that Starfleet published an updated Warp Speed Chart, extending it into the Transwarp range. The chart expansion added increments starting at Transwarp 11 and continuing upward. It is with this chart that Starfleet standardized extreme-velocity speeds that were then applied to various other FTL technologies such as Quantum Slipstream and Protowarp. This chart remains in use across much of the galaxy to this day (33c).
During the 25th Century, Starfleet and the Federation eventually 'broke' the Warp 10 barrier and pushed into Transwarp velocities while using a "standard" warp drive thanks to innovations provided by Dominion engineers and reverse-engineered technology from the Solanae. 26th Century ships like the Theseus- and Universe-classes had maximum speeds between Transwarp 13 and 14, allowing them to cross an entire sector (20 light-years across) in under 2 hours.
By the time of the 33rd Century, several ship classes have a maximum safe velocity pushing Transwarp 24 using their conventional warp drive, however the cost comes at the lifetime of the dilithium crystals used to regulate the drive's matter/antimatter reaction. Throughout the 31st and 32nd Centuries, the effects of the 'Burn' and the scarcity of dilithium necessitated ships staying under the Transwarp threshold for fear of stranding themselves without the ability to reach high warp velocities. [Note: Standard warp drives can achieve just above Warp 5 without the use of dilithium to regulate intermix levels, but that also significantly increases travel times from hours to months or years, depending on the distances involved.]
Pathway Drive
The pathway drive is a novel propulsion technology developed by Starfleet beginning in 3190. By 3192 the basic drive hardware and systems had been installed on the U.S.S. Voyager (NCC-74656-J) for initial trials and testing. A long-distance full-power test of the drive was conducted in 3193 when the U.S.S. Voyager completed a round-trip mission to Deep Space 47 in the Ocampa System of the Delta Quadrant. This ~160,000 light-year round trip was completed in just 4 weeks of travel time, achieving the fastest recorded sustainable speed in the galaxy. [Note: The Protowarp Drive developed in 2379 attained higher velocities but could not be maintained over a distance of greater than 4,000 light-years, making it an inelegant, brute force propulsion solution.]
By 3202, the Pathway drive had entered standardized production and integration. The newly-designed Wanderer II-class U.S.S. Wanderer (NCC-325177) would be the first purpose-built ship with the Pathway Drive at its heart, though it still maintained Starfleet's standard warp drive design and included Quantum Slipstream integration. [Note: Use of the Quantum Slipstream feature of Starfleet drives requires benemite crystals to regulate the quantum matrix. Benemite is exceedingly rare and difficult to artificially synthesize, however the inclusion of QSD capability has become a standard feature of almost all FTL packages on all ships (civilian vessels included) of the 29th Century onward]
The Pathway Drive operates in a manner indicative of its name. Through sophisticated subspace field manipulation, the drive creates a "pathway" in subspace for the ship to travel through. As the ship enters the pathway field, the laws of physics are altered to those of subspace, where there is no theoretical upper limit to how fast matter can travel, the only known limit coming from the requisite power-to-mass ratio of the object in question. As such, it is a relatively simple matter for most ships to utilize a Pathway Drive, with smaller ships requiring far less power to traverse the pathway. For larger ships such has the Courage- and Angelou-classes, use of a Pathway Drive can be prohibitively power-intensive, but is still possible for short periods.
Multiplicative Covariant Shields
First tested on the U.S.S. Protostar (NX-76884), the multiplicative iteration on standard Starfleet covariant shields didn't see widespread adoption until after the conclusion of the Temporal War and the active ban placed on all temporal technology, including temporal shielding. Starting in the late 30th Century, Starfleet returned to the use of covariant shielding and took a second look at the multiplicative version of this technology, beginning wide-spread adoption as its temporal fleet was decommissioned.
Based on a section-projection concept, this type of shield consists of hexagonal "tiles" that can be projected either directly over the hull or as a spheroid shape around a ship. This gives the shield boundary a unique appearance but doesn't change the basic function of the shields themselves, in that they still radiate incoming damage over a greater area away from the point of impact.
The multiplicative nature of the shields comes into play when placed under strain. As a section of the shields takes damage from impacts, energy is diverted to the shields' regenerators in an effort to harden them against further damage in that area. This results in the shield barrier remaining intact for longer under strain and recharging faster when not under fire. Additionally, automated frequency tuning algorithms, built into the shield generators, allow the shields to be tuned in such a way as to provide the maximum possible resistance to an enemy's weapons fire, completely negating up to 10% of the incoming energy transfer damage. Finally, the standard configuration of these shields is set up to channel incoming energy damage into specialized capacitors that can then be dumped into the ship's own subsystems, providing a temporary boost to the ship's own power in a pinch.
Type XXXIV Variable-Output Phaser Emitters
The Type XXXIV Phaser Emitter builds upon its various predecessors to create as comprehensive a weapons package as possible, giving Starfleet ships the ability to adjust to almost any tactical situation they may come across.
Learning from the dual-emitter designs of the 23rd Century, as well as pulling from the standardized array designs of the 24th and 25th Centuries, the Type XXXIV is configured as a single emitter emplacement with 4 field manipulation manifolds that have programmable matter natively integrated into the design. The inclusion of programmable matters makes instantaneous reconfiguration possible, allowing any of the emitter hardpoints on the ship to fire in beam or pulse mode and swap between the two modes within 1 second.
Automatic frequency tuning is built into the phaser emitters themselves, similarly to Multiplicative Covariant Shields, allowing the emitter to tune its output for maximum damage based on interactions with a target's shields. As a phaser beam/pulse impacts a target's shield barrier, the ship's tactical sensors automatically communicate impact data to the phaser emitters, tuning the emitter's frequency range for greater effect. In rare instances, given enough clear sensor data, it is possible for the emitters to tune into a frequency that allows them to pierce a target's shields, but given the general advancements of technology in the 33rd Century this is a rare occurrence.
Lastly, if a phaser emitter is unable to discharge completely during its firing sequence, the emitter will cycle any remaining charge back into the bank's local capacitor, resulting in reduced recharge times for successive firing cycles.
The Type XXXIV system was initially tested on several Intrepid-class ships in 3189 and was adopted fleet-wide by 3201, replacing multiple previous phaser emitter variants.
Programmable Matter
Programmable matter is matter which has the ability to change its physical properties (shape, density, moduli, conductivity, optical properties, etc.) in a programmable fashion, based upon user input or autonomous sensing. First named and theorized as early as the year 1991 by computer scientists Toffoli and Margolus, sufficient advancements in semiconductors, nanotechnology, and limited self-replicating machine technology have made the development and use of programmable matter possible.
Working within it's own pre-programmed limits, programmable matter is in widespread use across Starfleet, the Federation, and within most known galactic powers of the Milky Way. Present in almost all systems from weapons to computers to damage control, programmable matter has become an integral part of daily life on most civilized worlds, to the point that most people's homes are furnished internally entirely in programmable matter constructs (including furniture and small appliances). While more complex technologies still have to be fabricated and assembled by hand or through the use of replicator technology, programmable matter is capable of either constructing or functioning as multiple different devices or items as needed.
Critical to use in the safety systems of Starfleet vessels, a not insignificant amount of programmable matter is used in the fabrication of starship hulls. When a ship's hull takes damage, internal systems such as emergency force fields activate instantly to protect the crew from exposure or decompression, giving time for programmable matter to conduct rudimentary repairs to the hull itself, sealing most smaller breaches or creating a supporting lattice over larger ones to help preserve structural integrity. Programmable matter is also present in starship weapons systems to allow them to reconfigure on the fly, as well as in a ship's main computer core where they can perform multiple functions from information processing to creating or replacing system links and connections.
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