| STARSHIP CLASS | |
|---|---|
| Apogee-class | |
| |
| Affiliation: | Federation, Starfleet |
| Type: | Scout ship Transport freighter Escort/patrol |
| Service period: | 32nd century |
| Dimensions | |
| Length: | 344 meters |
| Width: | 225 meters |
| Height: | 33 meters |
| Mass: | 400,000 metric tonnes |
| Specifications | |
| Decks: | 10 |
| Crew: | 60 (standard crew complement) 500 (standard evacuation capacity) |
| Speed: | Warp speed Impulse Quantum slipstream drive |
| Armaments: | Isokinetic pulse cannons Photon torpedoes Phasers |
| Defences: | Deflector shields Stealth technology |
| |
The Apogee class is a technologically advanced type of starship in service by Starfleet in the 32nd century.
History[]
Technical data[]
Mission objectives[]
The Apogee class was designed to fill several roles in the fleet including acting as scout ships, to patrol Federation space and escort convoys but they also acted as freighters transporting goods as needed.
Life support/Crew support systems[]
Apogee class vessels utilise an artificial gravitational field generator facilitated through Duranium sheets lined in the interior deck plates. The levels of gravity produced were modulated by a graviton stabilizer and typically produced Earth standard gravimetric forces: 0.99 g.
To protect from damage caused by approaching a star or entering the atmosphere of a planet, this type utilised a standard Federation heat shield consisting of a thermal deflector unit. This is seperate from the vessels deflector shield.
To mitigate radiation damage to both the crew and ship systems, Apogee class ships have a seperate protective system independent from the main deflector shields which use a double lattice layer consisting of semi-fluidic material designed to safely absorb the energy of the radiation.
Like all FTL capable vessels, Apogee class ships require the use of an advanced inertia dampening system to counter the effects of rapid acceleration and deceleration by sustaining and absorbing the natural inertia of such a vessel as it moved through space in sub-light or warp velocities.
The structural integrity system is an application of EM field technology allowing the mechanical integrity of the physical space-frame of a Apogee class starship to be augmented. This system provides a network of polarised forcefield segments that compensate for propulsive and other structural stress factors that otherwise exceed the design limits of the space-frame or to assist in the compensation of weapon fire. EM field generation for the SIF is provided by a number of field generators.
The ship has a recycling oxygenation system that used a synthetic fiber-based technology creating an artificial ecosystem of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and other gases, while taking in carbon dioxide exhaled by the crew and purifying it.
All vessels of this class are provided with current Federation standard replicator systems/hubs as a means of producing necessary items such as food, clothing, medication and virtually anything else required. The menu is only limited by the programming but cannot replicate certain material such as Latinum, programmable matter, antimatter or Dilithium. Additionally, biofilters automatically screen out all contaminants before alerting the ship's computer and then use programmable matter to break down the harmful element unless otherwise ordered. Replicators are fueled by the vessel's bulk matter supply described as the base material which is then deconstructed on the atomic level and then reformed using magnets and matter-energy-matter conversion technology. It used Nitrium in the construction of components for the replicator hubs.
Ship transporter systems functioned via matter-energy-matter conversion meaning a person or object is reduced into an energy pattern, then sending ("beaming" - possibly through quantum entanglement) it to a target location or else returning it to the transporter, where it is re-converted into matter. In doing so, the target matter is discorporated into a vibrant blue particle facsimile and the entire process takes less than a second. When used, a transporter left residual ionization in the air that can be isolated and traced. Additionally, transporters have bio-filters to remove contagious microbes or viruses from an organic subject mid-transport. The maximum range was 70,000 kilometers which was a 75 percent increase from the 24th century limit and was 172 percent greater than the range of 25,749.504 kilometers during the 23rd century.
Materials[]
- Hull
- The exterior space-frame of ships of this type is comprised out of Neutronium-Duranium composite panels making it highly resilient even unshielded.
Tactical[]
- Tractor beam generators: The class features four tractor beam emitters: one aft, one ventral, and two forward, which project an attenuated beam of gravity outward from multiple potential angles in order to manipulate the trajectory of a target, either to repel or attract.
Weapon systems[]
Despite their small size, Apogee class vessels are well armed, boasting formidable armaments.
Phasers[]
Like most Federation starships, the Apogee class possesses three phaser arrays consisting of strip emitter segments. Specifically, it has four: one ventral and one that covered the entire rim of the dorsal section providing 360° cover with another two higher up on the dorsal side close to the middle on both the port and starboard sides. Each of these arrays cover 180°. They all fire pulsed coherent beams of directed tetryon plasma particles at a target utilising automatic frequency rotation to combat enemy adaption. Maximum effective tactical range is 300,000 kilometers.
Torpedoes[]
Apogee class ships are secondly armed with several swivel-mounted torpedo launchers mounted on the ventral surface of the primary hull. The swivel-mounted launchers allow for easier tracking of targets at shorter ranges where torpedoes launched from traditional fixed-focus launchers where often unable to track due to the lack of space for course corrections.
They each fire self-propelled torpedoes equipped with variable payloads and is capable of preloading six torpedoes for rapid fire in a single salvo. The complement of which is thirty eight class 10 photon torpedoes with a matter x antimatter warhead delivering a explosive yield of 200 isotons roughly equalling 496 megatons, about 8 times more powerful than the type 7. Maximum effective tactical range is 3 million kilometers, 1.5 million km less than the Dauntless class or the Friendship class.
Pulse cannons[]
Inspired by the pulse phaser cannons of the earlier Defiant class and the isokinetic cannon developed by the Entharan civilization of the Delta Quadrant during the 24th century, these ships are equipped with two energy pulse cannons located near the forward nacelle tips that fire isokinetic pulse-burst projectiles of hard-photonic energy at a target.
The reflective crystals combined with rapid-discharge EPS capacitance banks and high-speed beam-focusing coils, allowed the discharge to be stored temporarily within the coils and then released as a layered pulse structured something like an onion and is able to penetrate heavy shielding and dense material.
For maximum effectiveness, all sets of cannons fire several bursts at the same time in the same direction at the same target, resulting in a large amount of energy impacting a relatively small location. This tactic has been proven to pierce the shields of threat vessels without having to collapse the entire grid.
The cannons were a drain of 15 percent of the EPS power supply and required a two-three second recharge period before re-firing after shooting a full volley. Maximum effective tactical range of this weapon was quite short at around 150,000 kilometers.
Defensive systems[]
- Deflector shields: It boasted a high-capacity shield grid to protect itself from various threats, such as impacts from bolides and debris, various space-related and energetic phenomena and hostile weaponry. They are self-regenerative so long as their backup isolinear cores are intact.
Stealth systems[]
- Cloak screen: The ship is equipped with a highly advanced cloaking device that was proclaimed "perfect." It emitted no tachyons and left no residual anti-protons, the two ways that a cloaked ship could be tracked and located. Thus, when cloaked there is no known way to locate a Apogee class vessel though they generally have beacons marking their location for high enough Starfleet clearance.
Propulsion[]
Sub-light[]
The class boasts a magnetohydrodynamic drive called the Hyper-Impulse engine that is essentially a massive magnetic coil to propel the ship at speeds just under 0.75 percent of the speed of light. This magnetic system also utilizes the Space-Time Driver Coil to operate effectively at sub-light speeds which produce a non-propulsive symmetrical subspace field that helps the ship to accelerate, decelerate, and maneuver by effectively lowering it's apparent mass.
Furthermore, it has a Newtonian-thrust-based reaction system in the form of several assemblies of vectored thrust nozzles aligned on the aft section - one quad is on the port side and another on the starboard side. They are powered by fusion reactors using deuterium fuel to create helium plasma. These rocket-like engines are typically employed for a boost of velocity, specialised maneuvering, et cetera. A known speed of the Impulse thrusters is 0.17 percent of the speed of light and are generally used to bolster the magnetic drive bringing the total sub-light speed up to 0.92 c which is 0.8 percent less than that of Warp 1 AKA the speed of light.
FTL[]
Warp[]
Apogee class starships possess a Federation standard warp drive that functions through running highly energised plasma through the unique composition of the warp coils thereby creating a subspace field ie; a discrete bubble of subspace is temporarily merged into normal space around the exterior of the craft. To explain the phenomena, under normal circumstances subspace and normal space do not interact, but the high amount of energy and the unique properties of the warp coils contained in the nacelles allows a "blending" of the dimensions, surrounding the ship in the aforementioned subspace field. By manipulating the way plasma is moved through the warp coils, they alter the nature of the subspace field, such as causing it to move in a specific direction therefore actually accelerating the subspace "bubble" to faster-than-light velocities without violating laws of relativity as the ship contained within the field is technically stationary.
The maximum speed of these vessels is Warp Factor 9.99975 which is 91,768.69 times the speed of light or 10 light years/per 57.6 minutes which is 1.04687075063 times the maximum speed of most Starfleet vessels including (at least) the Crossfield class, Worf class, Janeway class, California class, and Cuyahoga class. The cruising speed for Apogee class vessels was Warp Factor 8.5 which is 1,253.32 times the speed of light and is 73.22 times slower than its maximum speed at around 1 light year/per 6.99 hours.
Quantum slipstream[]
Similar to Transwarp conduits, the Federation Quantum slipstream drive is a narrowly focused, directed quantum field that is initiated by manipulating the fabric of the space-time continuum through routing energy into the Apogee class starship's navigational deflector array. This creates a subspace tunnel, which is projected ahead of the vessel, allowing said vessel to penetrate the quantum barrier. Once a ship has entered this tunnel, the forces inside propel it at incredible speed. To maintain the slipstream, a ship has to constantly modify the quantum field with valid phase variance codes or the slipstream would collapse, violently throwing the ship back into normal space.
The official process when the QSD is initiated is; energy is routed from the starship’s main power source into the QSD core’s quantum matrix initiator where a quantum field forms around the Benamite crystals that are the source of the gravitons required for slipstream. The graviton particle actuators begin stripping gravitons from the crystals and then through exposure to the quantum field the gravitons become charged with quantum energy into a uniform flux state. Once enough particles are charged, they are fed through graviton transfer conduits to the modified components in the navigational deflector dish. Then, it projects the charged gravitons out in front of the ship creating a very narrow subspace field that splits the subspace domain open just long enough for the ship to enter.
Once the drive is deactivated, it cannot be reactivated until at least 36 hours has passed (longer or shorter depending on the state of the drive). The benamite crystals require a cool-down cycle due to exposure to the quantum field. Any attempt to warm-up the drive before the cool-down cycle has completed could result in an unstable slipstream or severe damage to the drive itself.
The speed of the drive is inversely proportional to the time and distance as long term slipstream is slower than a short jump as discovered by the USS Voyager crew during the 24th century. This problem has remained to the 32nd century. Based on the three hundred light year trip, the average speed of a quantum slipstream drive calculates out to 2.63×106 times the speed of light meaning 75,000 light years/per 10.4 days, assuming it didn't require significant shutdown time for maintenance or refueling. Additionally, a Apogee class starship in slipstream velocity could cover fifteen light years in just three minutes, or 300 light years in one hour (~300 times faster than warp 9.99, and ~900 times faster than warp 9.975). This calculates out to 9,467,280,000 x the speed of light.
Among the known components of the quantum slipstream drive are; the quantum matrix initiator which is tied in to the starship’s main power, Benamite crystals, core control sensors, graviton particle actuators (6 columns surrounding core perimeter), graviton transfer conduits, modified navigational deflector, slipstream initiator, slipstream control sensors, and QSD central control matrix which is a dedicated computer core for attuning and modulating graviton stream.
Energy generation[]
Ships of this class are powered via multiple sources including; an antimatter x matter drive which generated enormous amounts of power through explosive collisions releasing pure light (energy) which is then harnessed directly into FTL as well as several other major systems. It is regulated through a matrix of magnets and Dilithium.
Furthermore, Apogee class vessels also utilise a series of impulse systems comprised out of a network of eighteen spherical fusion reactors that are fueled by Deuterium which make use of a nuclear fusion process to generate energised plasma that is then distributed throughout the ship via a polaric conduit managed EPS grid.
Design[]
The Apogee class was a starship consisting of three detached components, a triangular primary hull flanked by curved warp nacelles on either side. The primary hull narrowed to a round section at the bow, with the ship's name and registry number displayed around windows or lights.
Detachment was used as a construction method when building the ship where components lacked a physical connection with one another but remained a unit through magnetic seals using a super conductor.
The ship's sleek and streamlined structure, as well as relatively substantial propulsion subsystems, evolved from attempts to reduce warp bubble footprints, and otherwise facilitate the ship's travel using theoretical subspace propulsion techniques.
Auxiliary complement[]
- Thirty escape pods capable of holding 2-4 individuals
- Eleven Worker bees
- Two Type 38 shuttlecraft
Support probes[]
A probe is a device that contains a number of general purpose or mission specific sensors and can be launched from a Apogee class starship for closer examination of objects in space or long range reconnaissance independent from the ship's main sensor array. This class makes use of nine different classes of probes, which vary in sensor types, power, and performance ratings. The standard equipment of all nine types of probes are instruments to detect and analyze all normal EM and subspace bands, organic and inorganic chemical compounds, atmospheric constituents, and mechanical force properties.
- Class IX long-range multi-mission probe - This probe featured a dilithium powered warp drive capable of speeds up to Warp Factor 9.99 and had an ultimate range of 7.6 x 10^2 light-years (760 light-years) thanks to its 54 day supply capacity.
- Class 5 intelligence probe - These probes are said to be fully autonomous in executing their missions and can be modified for tactical application as they are designed to monitor FTL traffic and subspace communications. Uniquely, this is the only probe type equipped with a cloaking device.
- Multi-spatial probe - Apart from incorporating multi-spatial technology, it was equipped with unimatrix shielding for entering environments with particularly dense atmospheres, such as gas giants or underwater. Furthermore, the probe possessed limited defense capabilities as it could fire a polaron burst designed to disrupt tractor beams and had a low level deflector shield grid.
- Class 1 probe - The probe is designed to specifically scan for the piezoelectric subspace readings of Dilithium crystals while operating under full impulse speeds.
- Class 3 probe - Employing deflector shields, the class 3 had better resilience toward weapon fire compared to Multi Spatial probes but lacked its versatility and polaron system. Secondly, it featured refractive shielding making them nearly undetectable to sensors unless calibrated to scan for them.
- Class 4 probe - A probe with multiphasic shielding for subspace radiation, metaphasic shielding for intense plasma/pressure, and temporal shielding for space-time abnormalities. Overall, the class 4 was designed to study spatial and/or temporal anomalies including wormholes.
- Warning buoy - A type of space buoy that could be deployed to maintain position in space and transmit a repeating message warning about something nearby. They are not shielded nor equipped with sensors.
- Unknown
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Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Apogee class is one of the smallest starship types in Starfleet as of the 3180s.