USS Pioneer (NCC-63)

The USS Pioneer was an Intrepid class United Earth starship in Earth Starfleet service during the mid-22nd century. The ship became part of the Federation Starfleet under Captain Malcolm Reed.

History
In the year 2162, the Pioneer underwent major refits at San Francisco Navy Yards Orbital Facility, and newly promoted Captain Reed took command of the ship.

By February 2163, the Pioneer was dispatched to Hansen's Planet to investigate. First officer Travis Mayweather led an away team to the planet, to observe the native lifeforms. The locals became aggressive and attacked the away team. Due to the newly found dangers of the transporters, Captain Reed detonated a photonic torpedo in the planet's atmosphere to scare off the attackers.

A month later, the Pioneer returned to Earth, to be the testbed for Tobin DaxTemplate:'s experiments to solve the problems created by mixed technologies from Federation members. During a trial run for the warp drive, the the deflector shield interfered with the warp field, creating an unstable wormhole and throwing the disabled Pioneer on a collision course with a super-Jovian planet.

The Pioneer was rescued by intelligent Jovian whales that lived in the upper levels of the planet's atmosphere. Using their own bodies, the whales kept the ship from sinking into the depths of the gas giant and being crushed.

Dax's team and engineers on the Pioneer were able to use the data gathered while in the wormhole to design a much more robust warp field. This allowed Federation starships to use warp engines at full power, while deflector shields were engaged. Once the warp drive was repaired, the crew of the Pioneer were able to take their findings back to the Federation and the lessons learned were applied throughout Starfleet.

On October 2163, Pioneer picked up a distress call in the Kandari sector. A Lorillian freighter was attacked by a Klingon privateer ship, but by the time Pioneer arrived the Klingons left with the freighter's cargo and killed most of it's crew. However a group of engineers survived and were rescued. After rendering proper medical attention the survivors were droped off on a safe location.

Senior officers

 * Commanding officer:
 * Captain Malcolm Reed (from 2162)
 * First officer:
 * Lieutenant Commander Travis Mayweather (from 2162)
 * Chief engineer:
 * Commander Alan Sheehan (2162-2163)
 * Doctor Tobin Dax (from 2163)
 * Science officer:
 * Lieutenant Reynaldo Sangupta (from 2162)
 * Tactical officer/armory officer:
 * Lieutenant Valeria Williams (from 2162)
 * Communications officer:
 * Ensign Bodor chim Grev (from 2162)
 * Helm officer:
 * Ensign Regina Tallarico (from 2162)
 * Chief medical officer:
 * Doctor Therese Liao (from 2162)