| STARSHIP CLASS | |
|---|---|
| Inquiry class | |
 Squadron of Inquiry-class starships led by Zheng He | |
| Affiliation: | Federation, Starfleet |
| Type: | battleship |
| Service period: | 2394-2410s |
| Specifications | |
| Armaments: | Phasers |
| Defences: | Deflector shields |
| Auxiliary craft: | Federation shuttlecraft |
| |
- "Right now I'm on the bridge of the toughest, fastest, most powerful ship Starfleet ever put into service. And I got a fleet of them at my back."
- — William T. Riker, 2399
The Inquiry-class was a type of Federation starship, first entering Starfleet service in 2394. It was classed as either a battleship or an exploration cruiser. (ST video game: Star Trek Online; Star Trek Adventures module: Utopia Planitia Sourcebook)
History and specifications[]
One ship of the line of this class was the USS Zheng He, which served as flagship of the 1st Devron Heavy Response Squadron under the command of Captain William T. Riker in 2399. That task force was the first large-scale deployment of Inquiry-class vessels. (PIC episode: "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2"; Star Trek Adventures module: Utopia Planitia Sourcebook)
In 2401, five ships of this class were sent by Starfleet to join an armada opposing a unknown Borg vessel. The Borg liaison sent to the USS Stargazer briefly commandeered this vessel and others, before the crew managed to engage their auto-destruct system. (PIC episode: "The Star Gazer")
The Inquiry class was heavily armed and armored, a departure from previous exploration cruisers, as Starfleet faced renewed aggression from the Gorn, Kzinti, and splinter factions of the former Romulan Star Empire. The class was equipped with ablative armor systems that had limited regenerative capabilities reverse-engineered from Borg nanites, quantum torpedo launchers with an on-board manufacturing planet capable of slowly replenishing the magazine, and dual phaser systems for area saturation fire from mark XV arrays and pinpoint fire from mark VII-OF phaser banks. The class' propulsion systems were the most advanced of the era, improving upon the design of the earlier Vesta-class, with a sustained cruising speed of warp 7.5. (Star Trek Adventures module: Utopia Planitia Sourcebook)
While unable to use mission pods like the Nebula-class or Luna-class ships, the Inquiry class was still considered a modular design as large sections of its superstructure could be removed and replaced, allowing for the installation of mission-specific equipment. (Star Trek Adventures module: Utopia Planitia Sourcebook)
Initially seen as adaptable enough that variant designs were deemed unnecessary, nonetheless, by the 2410s, the Inquiry class would have two major subclasses, the Avenger-class and the Arbiter-class. (Star Trek Adventures module: Utopia Planitia Sourcebook; ST video game: Star Trek Online)
Inquiry-class starships were mostly named after explorers from Federation member worlds, though Starfleet's rapid expansion during the 2390s resulted in many different naming traditions. The class' lead ship, the USS Inquiry had the registry NX/NCC-86500, and all other vessels of the class had higher numbers. (Star Trek Adventures module: Utopia Planitia Sourcebook)
Technical data[]
Inquiry-class ships featured the saucer section / engineering section / warp nacelle layout common to most Starfleet vessels. The class contained two variations of warp nacelles. (PIC episode: "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2")
As of 2399, Inquiry-class ships were the fastest and most tactically capable ships in the Federation fleet. They were equipped with phasers and deflector shields. (PIC episode: "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2")
Interior design[]
The main bridge was located on deck one, with a central command chair for the commanding officer, and a computerized transparent window-viewscreen. (PIC episode: "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2")
Known vessels[]
- USS Inquiry (NCC-86500)
- USS Magellan (NCC-86509)
- USS Nathan Hale (NCC-86501)
- USS Rustazh (NCC-86503)
- USS Shackleton (NCC-86517)
- USS Marcy Wu (NCC-52221)
- USS Zheng He (NCC-86505), flagship
- unnamed Federation starships (squadron vessels)
- A large number of unnamed Federation starships of this class were shown onscreen in squadron formation, but not otherwise identified. (PIC episode: "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part II")
Background information[]
The Inquiry class was identified by name by Michael Chabon. He identified the class as "a heavy cruiser: the Inquiry-class. That's the Zheng He." Originally, when asked by fans on his Instagram account, he identified the USS Zheng He as a Curiosity-class ship, but he later amended the classification of the ship.
According to the Star Trek Universe collection gift issue 6 magazine (pp. 6-7), three additional starships were named and may have been among those that appeared in the class' first appearance: USS Maui (NCC-96761), USS Toussaint (NCC-87111), USS Varian Fry (NCC-87883). While not confirmed in canon, all contents therein is compiled from valid background information provided by the production staff. The Zheng He, Toussaint, Varian Fry and Maui incidentally, each received its own individual model/magazine outing in the collection, as a regular, gift, and two bonus issues respectively. The latter three vessels may well have been part of Riker's fleet in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2", as class designer John Eaves is known to habitually provide his producers with additional back-up names/registries when requested to come up with one. It is for this reason that the USS Inquiry is not listed here, as no mention of this vessel was made in the Universe publications.
CGI model[]
The class was designed by John Eaves, who in turn based it off one of the three starship designs he had originally submitted for Perpetual Entertainment's ultimately abandoned 2007 version of the Star Trek Online computer game. (Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection, issue 2, p. 9) Eaves' designs were not labeled with names or registries, but he was asked at the eleventh hour to submit one endowed with the name Zheng He and a corresponding registry, which Eaves decided upon as "NCC-86505", even though they remained indiscernable on the production-used CGI model (constructed in Autodesk Maya at Pixomondo by Tobias Richter as seen onscreen in the episode. (Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection, issue 2, p. 14)
A publication version of the model became prominently featured in several issues of the Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection, the first of which released in the Spring of 2021 and each accompanied by a physical display model based off the production CGI model. The model had to be re-rendered in LightWave 3D, as that was the software package of choice for the publisher of the publication, Eaglemoss Collections. The re-rendering was done by publisher mainstay Fabio Passaro, who also created the corresponding CAD files needed for the construction of the master from which the display models were produced. After its debut in the Universe publication, the publication version became also prominently featured in the August 2021 second edition of the Star Trek: Shipyards - Starfleet Ships 2294 to the Future reference book.
Apocrypha[]
The (current) Star Trek Online game features the USS Inquiry (NCC-86500) as the class-vessel. The notion was also adopted in the Shipyards - Starfleet Ships 2294 to the Future second edition book.