To:
From: "Steve Oostrom"
Reply-To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com
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Please note that the following opinions are my own and reflect the views
th= at I take when
writing "Athena" stories and others in the Steve-Trek universe,
and should = in no way
reflect positions that others take.
Anyway, here goes...
>I have an entirely different take on the Sovereign-class than either Garry
or Jay.
>In my opinion, she is the queen of the fleet, taking that position from th=
e
Galaxy after that vessel type had held the throne only for a decade or so.
>The Galaxy-class was conceived and constructed during a very different
period of Federation history: The Klingons were allies; the Romulans were
quiescent; the Dominion and even the Borg still future terrors
(pre-ENTERPRISE, that is). She's a vessel designed primarily to showcase
th= e
Federation's wealth, affluence and congeniality: "One big happy
fleet," as Khan might say.
The Galaxy-class ships rarely appear in my stories, and not because I have = to pay
royalties to some guy who designed it (you would have thought Paramount wou= ld
have put into the contract a clause giving it the right to use the design i= n any
further shows, but I digress). The Galaxy represents a different philosoph= y. It
represents a period in which the Federation thought it had achieved its goa= ls. It
was largely at peace. The Romulans were still in their prolonged period of=
isolation
(which ended in "The Neutral Zone"), the Klingons were allies and
the war w= ith the
Cardassians was over. There was no Borg, and no Dominion. Starship design
reached the Galaxy-class, which was a large, multifunction ship designed
mo= re
as a floating community rather than a military-style vessel. The Galaxy-cl= ass had
lots of space, and huge quarters that were like apartments. Families were = on
board, along with such things as schools, recreation facilities and even,
i= f I remember
correctly, a gift shop. I do not subscribe to the idea that the Galaxy was=
very
modular and could be readily upgraded. Systems like the warp core and the = phasers
were essentially built in and not readily upgradable. Of course, newer sh=
ips in the
class could get new technology as it became available, but older ships were=
stuck
with what they had. Of course, that technology was cutting-edge when it wa= s built.
The Galaxy-class ships were showcase ships, showing not only what the Feder= ation
was capable of, but some of its philosophy too. Space was not so dangerous
anymore. Anybody could go into space, and live in space, and live in a
com= munity
that travelled at warp and carried out the good work of the Federaton in
de= ep space.
It was a noble idea, but it did not work.
I recall watching the episode "The Contagion," and seeing the
Yamato explod= e. There
were civilians, families, children on board that ship, and it showed that s= pace was
not yet safe. In "Jem'Hadar," non-essential personnel had to be
off-loaded=
on Deep
Space Nine before the Odyssey went into the Gamma Quadrant to rescue Sisko = and
his group. Undoubtedly, for the Galaxy-class ships and others that had
civ= ilians and
non-essential personnel on board had to off-load them before going after
th= e Borg cube
at Wolf 359. This was not exactly the most efficient way to do things, and=
certainly
not the safest way either.
Basically, this concent of the Galaxy-class ship as a floating community
wa= s a failure.
Space was not yet safe enough for this sort of thing. As a result, the Fed= eration
put its efforts into using developed Galaxy technology into related classes=
, like the
Nebula-class ship, and they removed the extras. Thus, on the Athena and th= e other
Nebula-class ships I have used, there are no provisions for families, no
sc= hools, no
gift shops and the rest. There is also not the need for the same interior = volume.
On the Athena, the crew size is around 660, although the ship can accommoda= te
1000 crewmembers, given its size. This gives the crew lots of room, and gi= ves the
ship some flexibility as well, but without the drawbacks of the Galaxy. In=
fact, most
mission profiles that the Federation used could be assigned to Nebula-class=
ships,
and the Galaxy-class ships that remain could be used in those areas of spac= e that
were still relatively safe. That's why they have rarely appeared in my sto= ries.
With this changing role of the flagship class, the Federation saw the need
= to design a new
flagship class.
>The Sovereign-class is something very different.
>The Federation was now under siege. The devastation of Wolf 359 had remind=
ed
a complacent Starfleet that some foes were not only implacable, but near
indomitable as well. While the Defiant-class was clearly a partial response
to this, I think something changed philosophically between the advent of
th= e
Galaxy- and Sovereign-classes.
>The Sovereign-class is also a statement vessel, but the statement itself h=
as
changed. Now, what's being said is, "You want a piece of us, boys and girls=
?
Well, this is what we can do when we actually decide to build a ship
designed predominantly (not exclusively) for combat. Don't fuck with us, or
you'll see 700 of them instead of seven."
>She's the best-built, best-protected, best-armed and fastest ship any of t=
he
great powers have been able to mass produce. The Scimitar clearly outguns
her, but constructing a single one of those is obviously a prodigious
effort. I assume the Romulans, dismayed at the Sovereign's tactical
capabilities (she would, in my opinion, easily dice one and with great
difficulty even a pair of D'Deridex-class warbirds), created the
Valdore-class as a response... and were dismayed to learn that their best
i= s
not the equal of the Federation's best.
>A confederation of disparate peoples, exercising their creativity and
determination to be free, will always best a paranoid totalitarian regime
when it comes down to it.
The Sovereign-class ships are the current flagship class in Steve-Trek. Wh= en
plotting out "The End Game," one of the scenarios I had was that
the Athena would be destroyed in the end, and Thorpe and crew would get a
new, Sovereign-class Athena. I did not do this for a couple of reasons.
One is=
that
I really did not like the bridge set, and the second is that I was too lazy=
to
redo all the ship graphics and technical stuff I had already done. Neverth= eless,
the Sovereign-class ships are all over my stories, and they get the prestig= e
names, like Atlantis and Solaris (the one appearing in the story I'm curren= tly
working on, "Confidence Man") and Alexandria (which appears in
the next story, with a redesigned bridge).
The Sovereign-class contains all the latest technology, but it is still a f= lagship
class and so is not the absolute best in everything. In Steve-Trek, Epic-c= lass
ships are faster (that's their purpose, to get somewhere fast), and the sma= ller
warships like Defiant and Akira contain more firepower in terms of ship siz= e.
The Sovereign, though, contains the best package of this technology (minus
Riker's joystick control from "Insurrection," that definitely
does not appe= ar in
Steve-Trek). Essentially, the Sovereign is like the Galaxy but modified fo= r the
changing times. The crew size is almost Enterprise-0 like, perhaps around
400-500. There are no families or other civilians on board as regulars,
an= d no
schools and civilian recreation facilities and gift shops. It still shows = what the
Federation is capable of, but also recognizes that space is a dangerous pla= ce,
and that a ship must be prepared for even dangerous and deadly moments. On
the other hand, the Sovereign-class ships built are locked in with their
te= chnology
and are not readily upgradeable. In time, the Sovereigns will be replaced = by a
new ship with more new and advanced technology, but clearly, by 2377, they
have replaced the Galaxy as the prestige ship in the fleet.
How long did the Galaxy-class run? I know when "The Next
Generation" start= ed,
the Enterprise-D was new, but how old was the class when the Enterprise-D
was built. The reference materials might say one thing, but what canon
sou= rces?
>The main difference here between us is how fast we see the firepower level
climbing. I keep it incremental and slow. Your view (I.E. the Soverign
dicing up two D'Deridex class Warbirds) is somewhat different than mine, as
is the progression of firepower in Joe-Trek.
The firepower difference between the Galaxy and Sovereign class ships is
no= t all that
great. The Sovereign has upgraded weapons,. but not significantly more. S= tarfleet
is not going to send a fleet of these ships into battle, but will use the w= arpships
instead.
>So the big question is *why* Why such a ship? It's very very large, twic=
e
as long as a Galaxy class starship.
>Well in Jay-Trek the D'Deridex is the Romulan Star Empire's answer to an
Imperial Star Destroyer. She's designed to enter a system and intimidate
the hell out of it. When meeting a Federation or Klingon ship, she's
designed to intimidate them and buffalo them with heavy fire power and
maximal shielding
I like this. The D'Deridex-class ships probably were built during the
fift= y-year isolation
period, when the Romulans were more concerned with re-establishing control = over
their empire which was disrupted during the Arosian war (Steve-Trek, explai= ns what
happens to the Romulans), and so they had big, intimidating ships to work l= ike
Imperial Star Destroyers. They might have contained a lot of firepower opt= imally
designed to fire on stationary targets, and might have not been as effectiv= e in
starship combat. They were not designed for that. One of the factors in t= he=20
Cardassian/Romulan invasion of the Dominion in "The Die Is Cast"
that led t= o the
defeat was that the D'Deridex-class ships simply were not up to starship co= mbat
against larger numbers of smaller, more manoeuvrable ships. Afterall, even=
in the
Star Trek universe, inertia applies. In the real world, I doubt that
navie= s actually
formulate battle plans that see aircraft carriers get involved in naval
bat= tles. Ideally, they
are kept away from any such action. In the Dominion war, the combat
failin= gs of the
D'Deridex-class ships became evident again, forcing the Romulans to design = smaller,
more effective ships (the ones seen in "Nemesis"). As for the
Scimtor, I t= ake that as a one-off
ship, something built to suit the ego of one man and not as a class prototy= pe.
>The D'Deridex class ships run off a quantum singularity engine core. Thi=
s
quantum singularity is going to weigh as much as mount everest, so the
D'Deidex class is never going to be light on her feet.
Actually, for the purposes of Steve-Trek, all Romulan ships use the forced
= quantum singularity,
and it is nowhere near the mass of Mount Everest. It does not have to be,
= since that would
consume too much energy to support, and the nature of the drive does not
re= quire it to be that
large. The actual singularity is quite small, just a few atomic diameters
= in size. This is not
a factor in the manoeuvrability of the Romulan ships.
>Federation tactical analysts immediately saw the weakness of a D'Deridex
class starship. It could take a non-upraded Galaxy Class. But a Galaxy an= d
a New Orleans class could defeat a D'Deridex and would still be cheaper to
produce, man and operate.
>This realization immediately shot Starfleet's "Bigger is
better" school o=
f
Starship design in the head.
I find this idea kind of silly actually, predicting matchups and outcomes
l= ike this. Starship combat
is far more variable than that, as also factors could well be the
commandin= g officers, the crew,
and even blind, random luck. Also, statements like "cheaper to
produce, ma= n and operate"
are irrelevant, especially for the purpose of writing stories. The outcome=
of the story will be
whatever the writer chooses it to be, and the readers will have to decide
i= f that outcome is
believable. Could a Defiant-class ship defeat a Nekvahr-class (or whatever=
the big Klingon
ship is called)? Some might find that hard to believe, but it if the
write= r says it can in a scene
and pulls it off convincingly, why not? Another aspect of this is the idea=
of using the same amount
of resources and personnel to build various numbers of various classes of
s= hips and deciding
which is best. Again, the writer will use the ships necessary to tell his
= story. If he wants to
write believable stories, he's not going to introduce a fleet of 9000
Sover= eign-class ships to battle
the Borg or whatever. However, he can use whatever ships he needs to tell
= the story while
remaining realistic, and not worry about fleet, resource and personnel
limi= ts. Afterall, the story
being told is a very tiny part of a very large organization. If Starfleet
= has a 100 Sovereigns in
service, and a story I am writing requires six of them, it's not a stretch
= to imagine that I can use
those six.
>Well, I endeavor to remain within canon, and it seems to me that many
of the vessels built after the Defiant-class program (i.e., her and the
new-fangled Akira-, Norway-, Saber- and Steamrunner-class vessels we see
attempting to overwhelm the Borg cube in FIRST CONTACT) are much less the
"conventional" Federation starships to which we're accustomed and
more attempts to make certain Starfleet is ready for whatever military
threat is on the horizon. They were hurting the Borg cube still, even after
hours of combat.
I don't stick that closely to canon, but I can imagine Starfleet starting
t= o split into two wings, an exploration wing using ships like the Galaxy,
Nebula, Ambassador and some others in exp= loration and diplomatic=20
missions, while Defiant, Akira, Saber and so on are more militarily
oriente= d. Their mission is defense,
and they are designed and crewed with that purpose in mind. Things like
ba= ttling the Borg and the
Dominion war have seen improvements in military technology, which is
applie= d to new classes, like
the Sovereign, and where possible, added to older ships that still have a
r= ole. Although the exploration
classes can take upgrades, they can't be upgraded to the extent that they
c= an in Jay-Trek or Garry-
Trek (in Steve-Trek, of course, other writers have different opinions on th= is).
>The Sovereign lacks the saucer separation capacity, it is sizably=20
smaller. Ergo it's a cheaper ship to build as it isn't as complex,=20
isn't as big. Thus state the scaled models.
Actually, I think that the Sovereign-class has separation capability, but
t= his is more like the old-style
Enterprise separation in that it was a one-time deal and the two sections
c= ould not rejoin. The
dockable configuration of the Galaxy was seen as a way to possibily keep
th= e civilians and non-
essential personnel out of the way, but the design is fatally flawed in
tha= t the saucer section does
not have a warp drive. This was perhaps another design flaw in the
Galaxy-= class and limited the
effectiveness of saucer separation. If the stardrive section were to move
= away from the saucer
section, the latter would become very vulnerable. I'm surprised the
design= ers did not take this into
account. When they designed the modified Nebula-class ships like the
Athen= a, the separable lander
was provided with full warp drive, so that both sections could travel at wa= rp.
>With smaller mass comes smaller crew and less flexibility. The=20
Sovereign is either a more limited multifunction ship with shorter legs,=20
or it is a heavy frigate with similar legs to the Galaxy and a less=20
flexible mission profile.
I disagree with this statement. The Sovereign-class retains the
flexibilit= y of the Galaxy-class, and
can conduct the same range of missions with the same effectiveness. Heavy
= reliance on
replicators and the related recycling technology and remote resupply
techno= logy, and in Steve-
Trek, on-line matter-to-antimatter convertors (which are present in
Soverei= gn-class ships, but not
Galaxy-class) gives the Sovereign-class ships very long legs. In addition,=
being the prestige ship,
the best personnel and the best command officers tend to move towards this
= class (some exceptions,
like in my stories, but then they started when the Sovereign-class just
cam= e into service). These
attributes make the Sovereigns as effective in terms of multifunction
missi= ons and mission flexibility
as the Galaxy-class.
>She'd also have more and better
torpedo launchers, and is the only ship, along with the Defiant-class, that
we've ever seen fire a quantum torpedo.
Actually, the difference between the photon torpedo and the quantum torpedo=
is in the torpedo itself
and not in the launch and ship-support systems. In Steve-Trek anyway,
quan= tum torpedoes are
fired from the same tubes as the photon torpedoes, so any ship that can
fir= e the latter can fire the
former. Voyager just never had them provided, but in my stories, the
Athen= a has quantum torpedoes,
and I imagine all the battleship classes (like the Akira) have them.
>Power plant? The reaction that powers a starship takes place in an
area less than the size of your fist. The Defiant is an expression of this= .
Big ship power plant, big ship shields, big ship weapons, no big ship. So
the Sovereign has more power? There is no reason to suggest it.
I would imagine that the reaction that powers a starship is slightly larger=
than that. I would assume a
volume of at least a cubic metre, which, on a starship scale, is still
smal= l. However, the supporting
machinery would be quite extensive. Smaller warships would have the big
po= wer plant, since its
abilities are concentrated into those aspects necessary for battles. I
wou= ld not be too surprised
if a Defiant can hold its own against a Sovereign-class ship, but the one
a= ttribute the Sovereign would
have is that the longer the battle went on, the more the odds would be in
i= ts favour. That is where
size would matter more.
Okay, so this was rather long-winded...
Steve
The Universe Unbounded.
Visit "Star Trek: Athena" at http://ussathena.iwarp.com
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Please note that the following
opinions are my own
and reflect the views that I take when
writing "Athena" stories
and others in the
Steve-Trek universe, and should in no way
reflect positions that others
take.
Anyway, here
goes...
>I have an entirely different take on the Sovereign-class
than either
Garryor Jay.>In my opinion, she is the
queen of the fleet, taking
that position from theGalaxy after that vessel type had held the
throne only
for a decade or so.>The Galaxy-class was
conceived and constructed during a very differentperiod of
Federation history: The Klingons were allies; the Romulans
werequiescent; the Dominion and even the Borg still future
terrors(pre-ENTERPRISE, that is). She's a vessel designed
primarily to showcase theFederation's wealth, affluence and
congeniality: "One big happy fleet," asKhan might
say.
The Galaxy-class ships rarely appear in my
stories,
and not because I have to pay
royalties to some guy who designed
it (you would
have thought Paramount would
have put into the contract a
clause giving it the
right to use the design in any
further shows, but I
digress). The Galaxy
represents a different philosophy. It
represents a period in which the Federation
thought
it had achieved its goals. It
was largely at peace.
The Romulans were
still
in their prolonged period of isolation
(which ended in "The Neutral
Zone"), the Klingons
were allies and the war with the
Cardassians was over.
There was no Borg, and
no Dominion. Starship design
reached the Galaxy-class, which was a large,
multifunction ship designed more
as a floating community rather than a
military-style vessel. The Galaxy-class had
lots of space, and huge quarters
that were like
apartments. Families were on
board, along with such things as schools,
recreation facilities and even, if I remember
correctly, a gift shop.
I do not subscribe
to
the idea that the Galaxy was very
modular and could be readily
upgraded.
Systems like the warp core and the phasers
were essentially built
in and not readily
upgradable. Of course, newer ships in the
class could get new technology as it became
available, but older ships were stuck
with what they had. Of
course, that
technology was cutting-edge when it was built.
The Galaxy-class ships were showcase ships,
showing
not only what the Federation
was capable of, but some of its philosophy
too. Space was not so dangerous
anymore. Anybody could
go into space, and
live in space, and live in a community
that travelled at warp and carried
out the good
work of the Federaton in deep space.
It was a noble idea, but it did not
work.
I recall watching the episode
"The Contagion," and
seeing the Yamato explode. There
were civilians, families, children
on board that
ship, and it showed that space was
not yet safe. In
"Jem'Hadar," non-essential
personnel had to be off-loaded on Deep
Space Nine before the Odyssey went
into the Gamma
Quadrant to rescue Sisko and
his group. Undoubtedly,
for the Galaxy-class
ships and others that had civilians and
non-essential personnel on board
had to off-load
them before going after the Borg cube
at Wolf 359. This was
not exactly the most
efficient way to do things, and certainly
not the safest way
either.
Basically, this concent of the
Galaxy-class ship
as
a floating community was a failure.
Space was not yet safe enough for
this sort of
thing. As a result, the Federation
put its efforts into using developed Galaxy
technology into related classes, like the
Nebula-class ship, and they removed the
extras. Thus, on the Athena and the other
Nebula-class ships I have used, there are no
provisions for families, no schools, no
gift shops and the rest.
There is also not
the need for the same interior volume.
On the Athena, the crew size is around 660,
although the ship can accommodate
1000 crewmembers, given its
size. This gives
the crew lots of room, and gives the
ship some flexibility as well, but
without the
drawbacks of the Galaxy. In fact, most
mission profiles that the
Federation used could be
assigned to Nebula-class ships,
and the Galaxy-class ships that
remain could be
used in those areas of space that
were still relatively
safe. That's why they
have rarely appeared in my stories.
With this changing role of the
flagship class, the
Federation saw the need to design a new
flagship class.
>The Sovereign-class is something very
different.>The
Federation was now under siege. The devastation of Wolf 359 had
remindeda complacent Starfleet that some foes were not only
implacable, but nearindomitable as well. While the Defiant-class
was clearly a partial responseto this, I think something changed
philosophically between the advent of theGalaxy- and
Sovereign-classes.>The Sovereign-class is also a
statement vessel, but the statement itself haschanged. Now,
what's
being said is, "You want a piece of us, boys and girls?Well,
this is what we
can do when we actually decide to build a shipdesigned
predominantly (not exclusively) for combat. Don't fuck with us,
oryou'll see 700 of them instead of
seven.">She's the best-built,
best-protected, best-armed and fastest ship any of thegreat
powers have been able to mass produce. The Scimitar clearly
outgunsher, but constructing a single one of those is obviously a
prodigiouseffort. I assume the Romulans, dismayed at the
Sovereign's tacticalcapabilities (she would, in my opinion,
easily dice one and with greatdifficulty even a pair of
D'Deridex-class warbirds), created theValdore-class as a
response... and were dismayed to learn that their best
isnot the equal of the Federation's
best.>A confederation of disparate peoples,
exercising their creativity anddetermination to be free, will
always best a paranoid totalitarian regimewhen it comes down to
it.
The Sovereign-class ships are the
current flagship
class in Steve-Trek. When
plotting out "The End
Game," one of the scenarios
I
had was that the Athena
would be destroyed in the end, and
Thorpe and crew
would get a new,
Sovereign-class Athena.
I did not do this
for
a couple of reasons. One is that
I really did not like the bridge
set, and the
second is that I was too lazy to
redo all the ship graphics and
technical stuff I
had already done. Nevertheless,
the Sovereign-class ships are all
over my stories,
and they get the prestige
names, like Atlantis and Solaris (the one
appearing
in the story I'm currently
working on, "Confidence
Man") and Alexandria
(which
appears in the next
story, with a redesigned
bridge).
The Sovereign-class contains all the latest
technology, but it is still a flagship
class and so is not the absolute best in
everything. In Steve-Trek, Epic-class
ships are faster (that's their
purpose, to get
somewhere fast), and the smaller
warships like Defiant and Akira contain more
firepower in terms of ship size.
The Sovereign, though, contains
the best package
of
this technology (minus
Riker's joystick control from
"Insurrection," that
definitely does not appear in
Steve-Trek).
Essentially, the Sovereign is
like the Galaxy but modified for the
changing times. The crew
size is almost
Enterprise-0 like, perhaps around
400-500. There are no
families or other
civilians on board as regulars, and no
schools and civilian recreation
facilities and
gift
shops. It still shows what the
Federation is capable of, but also
recognizes that
space is a dangerous place,
and that a ship must be prepared for even
dangerous
and deadly moments. On
the other hand, the
Sovereign-class ships built
are
locked in with their technology
and are not readily
upgradeable. In time,
the
Sovereigns will be replaced by a
new ship with more new and
advanced technology,
but
clearly, by 2377, they
have replaced the Galaxy as the
prestige ship in
the fleet.
How long did the Galaxy-class
run? I know
when "The Next Generation" started,
the Enterprise-D was new, but how
old was the
class
when the Enterprise-D
was built. The reference
materials might say
one thing, but what canon sources?
>The main
difference here between us is how fast we see the firepower
levelclimbing. I keep it incremental and
slow. Your view (I.E. the Soverigndicing up two
D'Deridex class Warbirds) is somewhat different than mine, asis
the progression of firepower in
Joe-Trek.
The firepower
difference between the Galaxy and Sovereign class ships is not all
that
great.
The Sovereign has upgraded weapons,. but not significantly more.
Starfleet
is not going
to
send a fleet of these ships into battle, but will use the
warpships
instead.
>So the big
question is *why* Why such a ship? It's very very
large, twiceas
long as a Galaxy class starship.>Well in
Jay-Trek the D'Deridex
is the Romulan Star Empire's answer to anImperial Star
Destroyer. She's designed to enter a system and
intimidatethe hell out of it. When meeting a Federation
or Klingon ship, she'sdesigned to intimidate
them and buffalo them with heavy fire power andmaximal
shielding
I like
this. The D'Deridex-class ships probably were built during the
fifty-year isolation
period, when
the Romulans were more concerned with re-establishing control
over
their empire
which was disrupted during the Arosian war (Steve-Trek, explains
what
happens to the
Romulans), and so they had big, intimidating ships to work
like
Imperial Star Destroyers. They might have contained a lot of
firepower optimally
designed to fire on stationary targets, and might have not been as
effective in
starship combat. They were not designed for
that. One of the
factors in the
Cardassian/Romulan invasion of the Dominion in "The Die Is
Cast" that led
to the
defeat was that the D'Deridex-class ships simply were not up to starship
combat
against larger
numbers of smaller, more manoeuvrable ships. Afterall, even in
the
Star Trek
universe, inertia applies. In the real world, I doubt that navies
actually
formulate
battle plans that see aircraft carriers get involved in naval
battles. Ideally, they
are kept away
from any such action. In the Dominion war, the combat failings of
the
D'Deridex-class
ships became evident again, forcing the Romulans to design
smaller,
more effective ships (the ones seen in
"Nemesis"). As for the
Scimtor, I take that as a one-off
ship, something built to suit the ego of one man and not as a class
prototype.
>The
D'Deridex class ships run off a quantum singularity engine
core. Thisquantum singularity is going to
weigh as much as mount everest, so
theD'Deidex class is never going to be light on her
feet.
Actually, for the
purposes of Steve-Trek,
all
Romulan ships use the forced quantum
singularity,
and it is nowhere near
the mass of Mount
Everest. It does not have to be, since that
would
consume too much
energy to support, and the
nature of the drive does not require it to be
that
large. The actual
singularity is quite
small,
just a few atomic diameters in size. This is not
a factor in the manoeuvrability of
the Romulan
ships.
>Federation
tactical analysts immediately saw the weakness of a
D'Deridexclass starship. It could take a non-upraded
Galaxy Class. But a Galaxy anda New Orleans class could
defeat a D'Deridex and would still be cheaper toproduce, man and
operate.>This realization immediately shot
Starfleet's "Bigger is better" school
ofStarship design in the
head.
I find this
idea kind of silly actually, predicting matchups and outcomes like
this. Starship combat
is far more
variable than that, as also factors could well be the commanding officers,
the crew,
and even
blind,
random luck. Also, statements like "cheaper to produce, man
and operate"
are
irrelevant,
especially for the purpose of writing stories. The outcome of the
story will be
whatever the
writer chooses it to be, and the readers will have to decide if that
outcome is
believable. Could a Defiant-class ship defeat a
Nekvahr-class (or whatever the big
Klingon
ship is
called)? Some might find that hard to believe, but it if the
writer says it can in a scene
and pulls it
off convincingly, why not? Another aspect of this is the idea of using the
same amount
of resources
and personnel to build various numbers of various classes of ships and
deciding
which is
best. Again, the writer will use the ships necessary to tell his
story. If he wants to
write
believable stories, he's not going to introduce a fleet of 9000
Sovereign-class ships to battle
the Borg or
whatever. However, he can use whatever ships he needs to tell the
story while
remaining
realistic, and not worry about fleet, resource and personnel
limits. Afterall, the story
being told is
a
very tiny part of a very large organization. If Starfleet has a
100 Sovereigns in
service, and a
story I am writing requires six of them, it's not a stretch to imagine that
I can use
those six.
>Well, I
endeavor
to remain within canon, and it seems to me that manyof the
vessels built after the Defiant-class program (i.e., her and
thenew-fangled Akira-, Norway-, Saber- and Steamrunner-class
vessels we seeattempting to overwhelm the Borg cube in FIRST
CONTACT) are much less the"conventional" Federation
starships to which we're accustomed and moreattempts to make
certain Starfleet is ready for whatever military threat ison the
horizon. They were hurting the Borg cube still, even after hours
ofcombat.
I don't stick that
closely to canon, but I
can imagine Starfleet starting to split into two wings, an
exploration
wing using ships like
the Galaxy, Nebula,
Ambassador and some others in exploration and diplomatic
missions, while
Defiant, Akira, Saber and so
on are more militarily oriented. Their mission is
defense,
and they are designed
and crewed with that
purpose in mind. Things like battling the Borg and
the
Dominion war have seen
improvements in
military technology, which is applied to new classes,
like
the Sovereign, and
where possible, added to
older ships that still have a role. Although the
exploration
classes can take
upgrades, they can't be
upgraded to the extent that they can in Jay-Trek or
Garry-
Trek (in Steve-Trek, of course,
other writers have
different opinions on this).
>The Sovereign lacks the saucer separation capacity, it is sizably
smaller. Ergo it's a cheaper ship to build as it isn't
as complex,
isn't as big. Thus state the scaled models.
Actually, I think that the
Sovereign-class has
separation capability, but this is more like the old-style
Enterprise separation in that it
was a one-time
deal and the two sections could not rejoin. Thedockable
configuration of the Galaxy was seen as a way to possibily keep the
civilians and non-
essential personnel out of the
way, but the design
is fatally flawed in that the saucer section does
not have a warp drive.
This was perhaps
another design flaw in the Galaxy-class and limited the
effectiveness of saucer
separation. If the
stardrive section were to move away from the saucer
section, the latter would become very
vulnerable. I'm surprised the designers did not take this
into
account. When they
designed the modified
Nebula-class ships like the Athena, the separable lander
was provided with full warp drive,
so that both
sections could travel at warp.
>With smaller mass comes smaller
crew
and less flexibility. The Sovereign is either a more
limited multifunction ship with shorter legs, or it is a heavy
frigate with similar legs to the Galaxy and a less flexible
mission profile.
I disagree with this
statement. The
Sovereign-class retains the flexibility of the Galaxy-class,
and
can conduct the same
range of missions with
the same effectiveness. Heavy reliance
on
replicators and the
related recycling
technology and remote resupply technology, and in
Steve-
Trek, on-line
matter-to-antimatter
convertors
(which are present in Sovereign-class ships, but
not
Galaxy-class) gives the
Sovereign-class ships very
long legs. In addition, being the prestige ship,
the best personnel and the best
command officers
tend to move towards this class (some exceptions,
like in my stories, but then they
started when the
Sovereign-class just came into service). These
attributes make the Sovereigns as
effective in
terms of multifunction missions and mission flexibility
as the
Galaxy-class.
>She'd also have more and bettertorpedo
launchers, and is the only
ship, along with the Defiant-class, thatwe've ever seen fire a
quantum torpedo.
Actually, the difference between the photon
torpedo
and the quantum torpedo is in the torpedo itself
and not in the launch and ship-support
systems. In Steve-Trek anyway, quantum torpedoes
are
fired from the same tubes as the
photon torpedoes,
so any ship that can fire the latter can fire the
former. Voyager just
never had them
provided,
but in my stories, the Athena has quantum torpedoes,
and I imagine all the battleship
classes (like the
Akira) have them.
>Power plant? The reaction that powers a
starship takes place in
anarea less than the size of your fist. The Defiant is
an expression of this.Big ship power plant, big ship shields, big
ship weapons, no big ship. Sothe Sovereign has more
power? There is no reason to suggest it.
I would imagine that the reaction
that powers a
starship is slightly larger than that. I would assume
a
volume of at least a cubic metre,
which, on a
starship scale, is still small. However, the
supporting
machinery would be quite
extensive. Smaller
warships would have the big power plant, since its
abilities are concentrated into
those aspects
necessary for battles. I would not be too
surprised
if a Defiant can hold its own against a
Sovereign-class ship, but the one attribute the Sovereign
would
have is that the longer the battle
went on, the
more the odds would be in its favour. That is
where
size would matter
more.
Okay, so this was rather
long-winded...
Steve
The Universe
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