- "I guess those Cali-class ships can hold their own longer than people think."
- — William T. Riker, to Carol Freeman, 2380
The California class, nicknamed the Cali class, was a 24th century Federation starship class, a workhorse-type vessel specialised in different mission profiles, including second contact, in Starfleet service in the 2380s decade. They were support ships designed for second contact missions.
Despite being sent on relatively simple missions, this class suffered disproportionately high loss rate. During the course of 2380, at least three ships of this class were destroyed. The USS Merced was destroyed during a mission to tow an alien generation ship, when terraforming fluid erupted, resulting in the ship being completely destroyed.
Later that year, the USS Rubidoux was overtaken by an alien feeding on energy. The alien later grew large enough as to destroy the ship.
Some time after that, the USS Solvang encountered a Pakled ship, and was completely destroyed, with all hands lost.
History[]
Two California-class ships in 2381
By the 2380s, the California class had been in service for a long time, such as that some examples of the class were beginning to "fall apart". However, new ships of the class continued to be commissioned. Starfleet Command was reluctant to change the senior staff of California-class starships.
At least three ships of this class were lost in 2380: the USS Merced was critically damaged from exposure to terraforming emulsion that leaked from an ancient generation ship, the USS Rubidoux was subsumed by a space-dwelling lifeform, and the USS Solvang was destroyed with all hands by an enhanced Pakled vessel. The Merced was eventually repaired and returned to service by the end of 2381.
In 2381, Vice Admiral Les Buenamigo advocated decommissioning the California class and replacing them with his new Texas-class automated starships. Protesting that the Texas-class had not been tested, Captain Carol Freeman of the USS Cerritos convinced Starfleet Command to hold a "second contact race" between her ship and the USS Aledo. Though the Aledo won the race, it was later discovered its artificial intelligence not only blatantly disregarded the Prime Directive by planting its deliveries without regard of the possible ecological consequences that the organic competitors accounted for in their mission, but the AI's programming was fatally flawed due to possessing similar code to that used by Badgey, a homicidal hologram.
The entire California-class fleet arrives to defend the Cerritos
Unwilling to countenance a problem that could set his pet project back decades, Buenamigo switched the Aledo to independent control and ordered it to destroy the Cerritos. Instead, its AI went rogue, killing him and attacking Douglas Station alongside its sister ships. The Cerritos crew managed to bait them away and destroyed two of them by detonating its warp core between them. Meanwhile, Beckett Mariner had rallied all thirty-two other active ships of the California class to aid the Cerritos, and together they destroyed the Aledo.
Technical data[]
Physical arrangement[]
Ventral fore view highlighting the California-class configuration
Its design consisted of a saucer section and a wide secondary hull positioned below and aft of the saucer between two elongated nacelles. The nacelles connected via pylons to the saucer, while separate pylons connected the secondary hull between them. The pylons contained turbolift access in their aft-most section. The navigational deflector dish was located on the forward face of the secondary hull.
The ship also carried an embarked captain's yacht.
Propulsion systems[]
Unlike Galaxy-class starships, the warp engine of this class incorporated inverted plasma distributors. It was believed that these caused the sound of their warp engines to be a little bit higher pitch, however, other sources maintained that the unique sound was caused by the vibrations in the dilithium dispersement manifold.
Tactical systems[]
The California-class was armed with phaser arrays and photon torpedoes. The shield array of this class was capable of auto-repair, which was regulated by an isolinear core. If the core were removed, the shields would be drained faster than normal when under attack. (LD episodes: "Terminal Provocations", "Strange Energies")
Interior design[]
The saucer section contained eleven decks, as per the master systems display. Among the noted shipboard facilities was Cetacean Ops.
Main bridge[]
The bridge is located on Deck 1. The basic layout of the bridge was almost similar to bridges aboard Galaxy-class starships (specifically the bridge of the USS Enterprise). The captain's chair at the center, flanked by chairs for the first officer to the right, and an additional officer to the left. Unlike the bridges aboard Galaxy-class starships, the additional seats did not include side consoles. Behind the seats was the security station.
Ready room[]
The captain's ready room was located off the bridge, with a single room-wide window to space. The room featured shelving and framing built into the walls, a desk and chairs, a replicator, and bench-style seating along the wall opposite the desk.
Conference room[]
There were several conference rooms, including a senior conference room, executive conference room, and Conference Room 5.
Main engineering[]
Shuttlebays[]
Two main shuttlebays were at the aft of and to either side on the saucer section, spanning Decks 5 and 6 with further room for shuttlecraft storage deeper into Deck 6. The ship carried a complement of at least five Type 6A shuttlecraft and had at least four Argo-type ground vehicle stored on Decks 5 and 7 adjacent to the shuttlebay. An additional shuttlebay was located aft and center of the engineering secondary hull. This permitted engineering supplies, hazardous materials, and non-hazardous cargo to be separated from one another during shuttlecraft operations. The MSD also depicted several Type 8 shuttlecraft.
Repair bay[]
This class contained a number of repair bays. Repair Bay 5 was located on Deck 11, close to the upper hull.
Storage bay[]
The class had at least seven storage bays.
Transporter room[]
This class is known to have at least eight transporter rooms.
Sickbay[]
Sickbay was located on Deck 8. The chief medical officer's office was room 08.019.
Brig[]
The brig contained three prisoner cells, secured by force fields that could withstand the blast of a type 2 phaser set to kill. The brig was also equipped with a replicator.
Recreation facilities[]
Upper decks of the saucer section had a bar where the crew could socialize. The mess hall was equipped with several large replicators and where the crew typically had their meals, breakfast in particular, but the bar also had two replicators imbedded within the two pillars on either side of the bar that could provide food. (LD: "Second Contact", "Room for Growth") Deck 9 had squash courts near the crew quarters. (LD episode: "Second Contact")
The ship included at least three holodecks available for crew use. (LD: "wej Duj")
The ship had a gym with treadmills, weight training equipment, and an anbo-jyutsu area. There was also a large, padded room for martial arts practice. (LD episodes: "Mugato, Gumato")
There was a gift shop where one could obtain ship-branded merchandise such as T-shirts and baseball caps. (LD episode: "The Spy Humongous")
Holodecks[]
The ship included at least one holodeck available for crew use.
Crew quarters[]
The primary crew quarters for lower-ranking members were barracks-style, with bunk beds lining the walls in a shared living space at the lower aft portion of the saucer section. Each bunk had its own assigned compartment beside it, which could be extended out from the wall and the bunk occupant could use as a closet to store a few extra uniforms or other items. This area, known as a residential hallway, also featured a large aft-facing viewing window overlooking the secondary hull.
Higher ranking crew members were afforded their own quarters.
Sonic showers[]
Located off of the ld sleeping quarters were communal sonic showers.
Ships commissioned[]
- USS Alhambra
- USS Anaheim
- USS Burbank
- USS Carlsbad (NCC-73110)
- USS Cerritos (NCC-75567)
- USS Culver City
- USS Eureka
- USS Fresno
- USS Inglewood
- USS Merced (NCC-87075)
- USS Mount Shasta
- USS Oakland (NCC-75012)
- USS Pacific Palisades
- USS Redding
- USS Riverside
- USS Rubidoux (NCC-12109) - destroyed
- USS Sacramento
- USS San Clemente
- USS San Diego
- USS San Jose
- USS Santa Monica
- USS Sherman Oaks
- USS Solvang (NCC-12101) - destroyed
- USS Vacaville (NCC-72707)
- USS Vallejo
- USS West Covina
- USS Saticoy (NCC-75404)