Cuyahoga class (32nd century)

STARSHIP CLASS
Cuyahoga-class

Affiliation:	Federation, Starfleet
Type:	Exploratory cruiser
Service period:	32nd century
Dimensions
Length:	337.82 meters
Width:	133 meters
Height:	66 meters
Mass:	325,000 metric tonnes
Specifications
Decks:	14
Crew:	300 (standard crew complement) 10 (minimum operating capacity)
Speed:	Warp speed Transwarp quantum slipstream
Armaments:	Phase cannons Phaser arrays Quantum torpedoes
Defences:	Deflector shields

The Cuyahoga class is a technologically advanced type of starship operated by Starfleet within the 32nd century.

History[]

One such class reported seeing Emerald Chain starships in the Sigma Draconis system to Admiral Vance.

Another vessel of this type was stationed at Federation headquarters where they assisted in powering the distortion field and later fired at the Osyraa controlled USS Discovery-A.

As of 3190, this class became retired from everyday large scale duty and active production with the remaining vessels of this class reduced to normally lesser missions.

One Cuyahoga class vessel was docked at UEDF Headquarters during the exchange of dilithium as a gift from the United Federation of Planets. Another vessel encountered a binary star system in the Beta quadrant and conducted extensive sensor readings by diving into the corona of the two stars - one at each time, protected by Metaphasic shields.

The existing Cuyahoga class fleet was extensively retrofit after the resolution with Species 10-C. The refit took place in dockyards throughout Federation space. Many of these ships were upgraded in orbit above Earth while others were docked in Archer spacedock.

Technical data[]

Mission objectives[]

The class is designed for long-range exploration and cartography of uncharted space inside the Milky Way Galaxy, carrying experts in science, medical, engineering, and security departments.

Some vessels of the class also served as a frontline support vehicle for the edge of space held by the Federation as border territory and as a platform for extended scientific survey and scouting missions.

Following the Burn, Cuyahoga class vessels or what remained of this specific fleet, were recalled and no longer experienced the luxury of five year long discovery missions. Post Verubin Nebula, some Cuyahoga class vessels were redirected back to 5 year long missions to explore the unknown, seek out new civilizations, and go where no one has gone before.

Propulsion[]

FTL[]

Transwarp[]

Vessels of this class are fitted with a Transwarp coil allowing the formation of a Tri-quantum conduit rift. It utilized a combination of the traditional warp drive, navigational deflector and deflector shields as its components with the ship having to be taken to warp factor 2.3 to generate the initial required subspace field before the navigational deflector used a tachyon matrix to emit tachyonic bursts on a high-energy band. The deflector shield of the ship was used to emit the tachyon bursts into space at the resonant transwarp frequency level. The subspace field of the conduit then formed in front of the ship.

The Transwarp coil design utilized solid trilithium that retains integrity for workable periods of time and a process of extreme refinement of standard dilithium allowed the use of the advanced compacted flow of energy required by the transwarp drive. Generated transwarp conduits radiate high neutrino emissions accompanied by an intermittent graviton flux and a chroniton field is projected throughout a Cuyahoga class ship interior in order to compensate for temporal stress.

The maximum speed is known to be 1,000,000 – 10,000,000 times the speed of light allowing for extremely rapid travel to any of the four quadrants of the Milky Way galaxy.

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 Cuyahoga 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 Cuyahoga 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.

Warp[]

Cuyahoga 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 concealed 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.

It's cruising speed is warp factor 9.9975 which is 17,446.47 times the speed of light or 1 light year/per 0.5 hours. The maximum velocity is warp factor 9.99973523079 which is 87,600 times the speed of light or 10 light years per hour. Post-retrofit, the fuel flow rate into the intermix chamber was increased by a factor of .28%, a .003% efficiency variance in the warp injector assembly was rectified by adding a neutron coherence filter, and the field stabilisers had a new inversion threshold of 0.986 microns. All together, this resulted in maximum velocity being increased by a factor of 56%, now rated at 136,749.6 times the speed of light or 15.6 light-years/per 1 hour.

Sub-light[]

Cuyahoga class ships can travel through space at sub-light speeds via nuclear fusion engines in which the plasma from the fusion reactor powers a massive magnetic coil to propel the ship. It is a form of a magnetohydrodynamic drive called the Hyper-Impulse engine that is capable of propelling the ship at speeds just under 0.75 percent/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, ships of this type are equipped with a Newtonian-thrust-based reaction system 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.

Life support/Crew support systems[]

Cuyahoga 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, Cuyahoga 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, Cuyahoga 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 Cuyahoga 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. Furthermore, it has one industrial replicator capable of fabricating new Shuttlecraft and et cetera. It was entirely self-recycling as any leftovers would be deconstructed back into bulk matter and all metabolic waste produced by the crew would be stored as well for future replication.

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.

Design[]

Cuyahoga class ships utilise a departure from virtually all other Starfleet vessels instead possessing ring-like engines resembling torii as their nacelles. It's design is described as a prototype built to accommodate a swiffer speed with improved maneuverability in combat or sub-light flight without using magnetic detachment. Furthermore, the warp field generated by these vessels are slimmer and more "rippled" compared to other ships accomodating a smoother ride for extended periods of time.

Vessels of this class are 337.82 meters in length, 133 meters wide, and 66 meters tall with each deck being 4.5 meters high (on average) making for a total of fourteen decks boasting 237 habitable areas/rooms and a metric tonne mass of 325,000.

Upgrades[]

Massive cosmetic and design layout changes to almost every section of the ship occurred during the retrofit. Engineering was overhauled entirely, corridor panels were swapped out from the synthetic fiber model to a more durable synthetic metal, the mess hall was redesigned, the sickbay was outfitted with newer technology, the exterior space-frame was reinforced, and internal lighting and consoles were modified. The bridge was also slightly changed. Design and implementation of an enhanced astrophysics laboratory for engineering and science personnel was also included.

Deck layout[]

Deck 1 - Bridge, captain's ready room, first officer's office
Deck 2 - Arboretum, airponics bay
Deck 3 - Crew quarters, airlocks, communal bathroom (no sonic showers), communal bathroom (with sonic showers), briefing room
Deck 4 - Observation deck, mess hall, cargo bays 1 through 3,
Deck 5 - Shuttlebay, science laboratories, main engineering first floor
Deck 6 - Main engineering second floor, computer core, antimatter generator & storage
Deck 7 - Main engineering third floor, dilithium vault
Deck 8 - Holodeck, captain's quarters, educational classrooms, counselor's office
Deck 9 - Communal bathroom (no sonic showers), astrometrics lab, emergency sickbay, cargo bay 4
Deck 10 - Brig, primary armory, chief of security office, gym
Deck 11 - Unknown
Deck 12 - Deuterium fuel storage
Deck 13 - Unknown
Deck 14 - Cetacean ops navigation

Starship section design[]

TBA

Materials[]

The exterior frame of the ship, also known as the hull, is partially comprised out of reinforced duranium composite but also contains neutronium alloy fibres thus making the ship highly durable even without shields.

All windows and glass on board a Cuyahoga class uses transparent aluminum with programmable matter underlays for near instant regeneration if damaged as well as to facilitate the release of blast shutters in the event of an emergency.

Tactical[]

Tractor beam: A Cuyahoga class is equipped with five tractor beam emitters that project a attenuated beam of gravity outward thus allowing the manipulation of an object's trajectory either attracting or repelling or even acting as a laser if concentrated enough. They are positioned as following: 1 on the ventral, 2 forward facing and 2 rear.

Weapon systems[]

Phaser cannons[]

Primarily, the class boasts dual cannons that fire pulses of high energy rapid-nadion particles toward targets via optronically regulated guidance systems which were enhanced post-retrofit. They are described as more precise than the standard torpedoes, able to make precision strikes against potentially strategic points on an enemy ship, but are limited in their destructive capability being generally used to drain the target's shield system or overload it with sustained and concentrated barrage. During its upgrade cycle, there was an observed 20% increase in energy output.

Phasers[]

Secondly, these vessels are armed with four phaser arrays consisting of strip-style emitters that fire directed tetryon plasma particles at a target. Additionally, the phasers utilised a automatic frequency rotation program to continuously and periodically alter the vibrational component thereby combating adaptation.

Torpedoes[]

Cuyahoga class vessels are lastly armed with a total of six torpedo launchers that are capable of launching self-propelled shells armed with variable warheads: 2 are located aft parallel with its shuttlebay and four on the ventral side of its main hull.

Standard complement consists of twenty two quantum torpedoes of the class 8 variety using a zero point energy detonation to deliver a massive isoton yield of approximately 690 gigatons which is 1,391.129 times as powerful than a class 10 photon torpedo. Maximum effective tactical range is 4.5 million kilometers. During the retrofit, there was an observed 30% increase in torpedo capacity bringing the total complement up to 28 quantum torpedoes.

Defensive systems[]

Deflector shields: Vessels of this class boasted a high-capacity deflector shield grid to protect itself from various threats, such as impacts from bolides and debris, various space-related and stellar phenomena as well as hostile weaponry. The deflectors are comprised out of multi-layered energetic distortion containing a high concentration of graviton particles and are equipped with multi-spectrum, metaphasic, metaphysic, and geodesic shielding technology. They possessed regenerative sub-routines to rapidly restore points of compromised integrity. Additionally, the magnetic harmonic resonance is self-modulating therefore making it harder to determine the static frequency of the shield perimeter. During the retrofit, the Cuyahoga class' deflector array was updated to increase energy capacitance of the outer grid making it more resilient toward impacts.

Energy generation[]

Ships of this class are powered by an antimatter x matter warp core which generated enormous quantities of electricity through controlled explosive collisions releasing pure light (energy) which is then harnessed directly into FTL as well as several other major systems. This is specifically accomplished via annihilation of equal parts matter and antimatter using a combination of deuterium (a hydrogen atom containing a proton and a neutron in its nucleus) and anti-deuterium (essentially a deuterium atom, whose atomic properties are exactly reversed from those of a normal deuterium atom). It is regulated through a matrix of magnets and Dilithium. Cuyahoga class vessels employ recrystallization technology in the form of a theta-matrix compositor which used high-energy photons and gamma radiation.

Furthermore, Cuyahoga class vessels also utilise a series impulse cores comprised out of a network of twelve 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 reinforced polaric conduit managed EPS grid.

Auxiliary complement[]

One Delta flyer class
Four Landing pods
Four Type 38 shuttlecraft
Unknown number of escape pods

Computer systems[]

Vessels of this class are equipped with the universal standard viewscreen which is typically used to display images of the area immediately around or in front of the starship, the viewscreen could provide views from all directions, as well as call up data from the library computer. It was also essential in ship-to-ship communication, allowing face-to-face conference if so desired, utilizing subspace and other communications systems. Uniquely, like most other 32nd century vessels, Cuyahoga-class ships feature integrated programmable matter allowing for a computerized overlay to display images in three dimensions rather than two.

The class utilises a combination of nano-gel and organic circuitry with new generation isolinear chips used as quantum data storage hubs. It has a holographic communications system capable of simulating a pair of individuals and transmitting a high definition light replica thousands of light years away.

The computer contains an open-access cultural library containing information of the cultures of various species as well as a direct uplink to Federation archives both classified and open-access. After successful contact with Species 10-C, the communications and navigational array was overhauled and the forward sensor array was recalibrated and the lateral sensor array was completely gutted and replaced. A transverse stabilisation armature was also installed in the rear sensor arrays primary servo pallet, increasing precision. A micro-shear dampener was installed in tactical operations command resulting in improved response time for weapons and shields. Sensory and molecular resolution in holodecks was increased by 63% via orthogonal multiplexing.