Trekkie Central Magazine Special Summer 2010 Staff Editor: Richard Miles Assistant Editors: Alex Matthews and Rick Pike Head Writers: Gerri Donaldson and Eugenia Stopyra Contributing Writers: Gerri Donaldson; Eugenia Stopyra and Brian Childers Communications Department: Rick Pike and Richard Miles Creative Consultants: Michael Hudson and Rick Pike
Special Thanks To: Fan Trek Productions: Robin Hiert; Farragut Films: Michael Struck; Foxtail Comics: Guy Davis; Hidden Frontier Productions: Rob Caves; Intrepid Productions: Nick Cook; Millada Productions Jay Miller; Neo-FX: Michael Struck; Star Trek Aurora: Tim Vining; Star Trek The Romulan Wars: Lee Gartell; Star Trek Grissom: Sean Paul Teeling; Star Trek Valkyrie; Starship Saladin: Kenneth Thomson Jr.; Temporal Studios: Leo Roberts Triple-Fiction Productions: Casey Sullivan; Zero Room Productions: Doug Mirabello; Quotes Taken from: www.quotationspage.com
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Hailing Frequencies nd The 22 Century Precursor to History USS Yorktown Yorktown USS Yorktown rd The 23 Century The Angel of Death USS Azreal Towards a Date with Destiny USS Grissom Helm. Standard Orbit, Please USS Lexington Inside the Saladin USS Saladin Ship of the Line USS Farragut In for the Long Haul SS Aurora To Explore the Unknown USS Lexington Slavers! USS Tamerlane th The 24 Century Batavia USS Batavia An Intrepid Destiny: Chiron IV USS Intrepid
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Voyage of Discovery USS Discovery Down The Rabbit Hole USS Odyssey Engage Transwarp USS Osiris Carrying on the Name USS Excelsior C To Do No Harm USS Cole Chiron’s Port of Call Chiron Station Unlikely Rendezvous USS Federation One and USS Excelsior Ride of the Valkyrie USS Valkyrie In The Patch USS Excelsior and USS Helena The Mirror Universe Ghost in the Mirror ISS Sudrian Ready for Departure ISS Imperium Into the Unknown ISS Sudrian Into the Future A New Hope USS Enterprise Flight of the Phoenix USS Phoenix Captains Log
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Welcome to another Ships of the Line special issue of Trekkie Central Magazine. Once again we want to honour the ships that make the adventures we enjoy possible. These sleek and fast machines take us on journeys to different worlds, different galaxies and even to different times. Made of metal, wiring, plastic and the odd bit of cable when they come together and leave the dock for the first time a new entity is born. These ships may not be sentient but they all come with their own personalities, some are easy to get along with and some need a little coaching. Sometimes they let you down and sometimes they are just what you need even when you don't know it. They provide a stable place to be (well mostly) even when the Universe is spinning all around you. They are your home, your workplace, your school and your Saturday night entertainment some may even have a disco on board! However, whatever they look like and how fast is they go “The Ship� is always there for you, always awake, always listens (well again mostly) and usually never answers back! When you say go-fast they do, when you ask for protection they try and provide it and when you ask for more they try their hardest to give it to you. Join us as we once again give tribute to The Ships of the Line and to those that, design them, build them, draw them, imagine them and then bring them to us so that we can travel with them. Without them how would we know what a star looks like close-up, or what colour is the gas in a nebula, or how a forehead of an alien is different from a humans? So again, we honour them because without them we would just have to stay home! Gerri and Eugenia.
Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. Barry LePatner
Precursor to History: At the time the Yorktown was a revolution in ship design, encompassing many of the design features that generations of Starfleet officers and crewmembers – and generations indeed of Federation citizens – would come to instantly recognize as a Starfleet standard in design. A design best exemplified in the later (and legendary) Constitution Class.
Yorktown Following the success of the NX-01 series vessels - Earth’s first true starships that would first serve in the precursor to Starfleet and the Federation, and later in its fledgling years – plans were made and laid down for a class of starship to take advantage of technological refinements and breakthroughs and to succeed these first starship classes. Like Enterprise, and the Columbia before it, this new ship was to have a name lodged in the annals of history – its own legacy it would pass on to the Starfleet vessel designs that would follow it, as would the legacies of its captain and crew. The ship’s name – was Yorktown.
My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900 - 1965)
The Angel of Death The small Saladin Class Destroyers are usually the subject of much discussion and controversy, its critics pointing out the belief that the plucky little destroyers are simply too small and too outmatched for anything larger than, say, a freighter. This has been proven to not be the case, as the destroyers and their crews have demonstrated time and again with daring actions and quick thinking in the face of adversity. It is perhaps indicative of the ‘can-do’ and never back down attitude that Saladin crews have when the name of their ship is the U.S.S. Azreal – the name for the biblical Angel of Death.
Towards A Date With Destiny: The Oberth Class may be a small class of vessel, but they are powerful scientific platforms. Amongst the Oberth Class the name Grissom is remembered for its fatal encounter with the Klingon Captain Kruge over the Genesis Planet, but the little ship commanded by J.T. Estaban has its own share of tales of adventure, even as it cruises towards an inexorable date with destiny.
Helm. Standard Orbit, Please. As much as deep space exploration is the bread and butter of Starfleet’s mandate of discovery, the prospect of setting foot upon strange new worlds is always counted amongst the greatest adventures – and among the most difficult challenges, that a crew can face. Here the U.S.S. Lexington puts into standard orbit whilst her landing party prepares to beam down to the surface below.
Inside The Saladin: Although small in comparison to their larger cousins, the single-nacelled destroyers of the Saladin Class are no less complex in their design, and often, as this schematic shows, are far more complex than engineers from larger classes of vessels may well be prepared for!
Ship of the Line: Of all the ships in Federation history, perhaps none has more stories and legends to their credit than the ships of the Constitution Class. The U.S.S. Farragut and Captain Carter certainly have seen their share of adventures and the proudly take their place in the few vessels of this famed class of explorers.
In For The Long Haul. If Starfleet ships are the defenders and explorers of the Federation, then it is the trader ships that are its backbone and lifeblood – hauling goods, supplies, and colonist from one end of the frontiers of the Federation to the other. Here the S.S. Aurora and the S.S. Lone Star cruise close aboard to each other.
To Explore The Unknown. Starfleet has always had the spirit of exploration close to their hearts, their ships range far and wide across the known galaxy seeking out those places that none have gone before in journeys of discovery. The U.S.S. Lexington, like her sisters of the Constitution Class, have been upgraded time and again for just this purpose, and as she cruises the stars the Lexington and her crew uphold this grandest of Starfleet traditions.
Slavers! Even in age of technological wonder and enlightenment there is still the capacity for evil and malice to be done to others. Out on the fringes of the Federation there are groups who wage war for profit, and gain from the misery and suffering of innocents, these predators ply the spacelanes and remote planets on the lookout for their latest victims. Starfleet officers are sworn to uphold the values of the Federation, and to prevent these acts whenever possible. It often falls to patrolling ships such as the U.S.S. Tamerlane to respond to these acts of piracy and villainy as the Tamerlane and her crew engage an Orion slaver ship!
I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale. Marie Curie (1867 - 1934)
Batavia The Nova Class was originally designed as a planetary survey and scientific research vessel, and ships of this class, like the U.S.S. Batavia, excel in their role. The Batavia emerges from the darkness of the planetary night side into the breaking light of its sun, having completed yet another successful survey missions and having pushed Starfleet’s knowledge of the galaxy around them ever further.
An Intrepid Destiny: Chiron IV. To some in the Federation it may only exist as a name and number that designates one of the Federation's newest and farthest flung colonies, but to those colonists who set foot out into the stars Chiron IV is home. The assignment to the Chiron IV Colonial Convoy as its escort was seen by many in the U.S.S. Intrepid's crew as a 'cupcake mission' and 'babysitting' duties at first. But between entanglements with Orion pirates, tensions between Starfleet and the Federation Merchant Service, and the appearance of the mysterious organotechonological race known as the Surai, the crew of the U.S.S. Intrepid and her commanding officer - Captain Daniel Hunter - have quickly discovered that life out at this frontier colony has yet to be anything but an easy mission. Here the U.S.S. Intrepid cruises out from orbit of Chiron IV, carving out her legacy - fulfilling her destiny - in this far-flung region of space.
Voyage Of Discovery. Years ago the U.S.S. Voyager returned from a perilous trip through the Delta Quadrant. Now, in the present day, the U.S.S. Discovery – the first of her class - is going back on an expedition to return to the Delta Quadrant. Her travels will take her to the furthest reaches of our galaxy, into territories barely touched by the travels of the U.S.S. Voyager. Her captain and crew knowing that this is what it means to be Starfleet.
Down The Rabbit Hole: In a daring mission to stop the Archein invasion of our galaxy, the Klingons and the U.S.S. Odyssey – utilizing experimental quantum slipstream technologies, to go down the rabbit hole and cross the chasm between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxies. It is a mission from which only the Klingon vessel will safely return and the U.S.S. Odyssey, trapped in the Andromeda Galaxy with the untested Lt. Commander Ro Nevin as it Captain, makes a daring journey of its own to find its way back home.
Engage Transwarp! Ships of the Amun Class, like the U.S.S. Osiris, were designed to take advantage of the newly redesigned transwarp drive – capable of accelerating the vessel to tremendous speeds. With her destination set, the Osiris prepares to engage her transwarp – hurtling off into the unknown.
Carrying On The Name Amongst Federation starships, the Excelsior has a long and storied history: From the dubiousness of the ‘Great Experiment’ to famed ship commanded by the equally famed Captain Hiraku Sulu. It became the class ship of the Excelsior Class, a workhorse of Starfleet for decades. Now, in the modern age, the Sovereign Class NCC-2000C carries on the name, and the legacy, of Excelsior!
To Do No Harm. Starfleet vessels are designed for a variety of purposes ranging from combat to exploration. The ships of the Olympic Class, however, are designed to be spacegoing hospitals and medical research center. They are welcome ships of mercy for those who need their services as they uphold the ancient physicians oath to ‘Do No Harm.’
Chiron’s Port of Call Outpost, Research Station, Defender of the Chiron IV Colony, and Port of Call. Chiron Station is all of these things and more. Home base to the Starfleet operations in the Charybdis Sector and home port of the U.S.S. Intrepid commanded by Captain Daniel Hunter, life at Chiron Station is usually anything but dull thanks in part to its prominent role in this frontier sector.
Unlikely Rendezvous With the threat of the Archein growing, the Federation Presidential starship Federation One and the Galaxy IV Class U.S.S. Excelsior rendezvous with a powerful Warbird of the Romulan Star Empire to discuss the future of the galaxy!
Ride of the Valkyrie: In any time, in any universe, Starfleet stands to explore and protect Federation citizens, the dagger shaped primary hull of the U.S.S. Valkyrie and swarm of small craft leave no doubt to the ship’s foes that she is well prepared to carry out missions of peace as well as missions of combat with equal prowess as she cruises near the cradle of humanity – Earth.
In The Patch: Before its dissolution the ‘Briar Patch’ was an unpredictable area of space even for the experienced Starfleet officers and ships that were assigned there as part of the contingent of space station Deep Space 12 in the orbit of Ba’ku. Here the Galaxy III Class U.S.S. Excelsior and the U.S.S. Helena cruise together against the crimson swirl that is the currents and eddies of ‘The Patch.’ Little did anyone know that in a few short years the Helena and her crew would be on the run from Starfleet and the Excelsior would be leading the fight against invaders from another galaxy.
The outcome of the war is in our hands; the outcome of words is in the council. Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Iliad
Ghost In The Mirror Wherever beings put to space, much like the seas, there are stories of derelict ships, ghost ships, and legendary vessels lost to the stars or to the waves. One such ship is this, the I.S.S. Sudrian, orbiting a dead world – its fate unknown, unrevealed, and its hull entombing its secrets – until now.
Ready for Departure: The cradles of orbital and deep space spacedocks serve the purpose of providing a starship with a place to repair, rearm, and possibly allow the weary crew to travel for shore leave whilst their ship’s needs are tended to by a small army of technicians, laborers, and support and supply vessels. And across the mirror in this Dark Frontier it is no different. But, the time always comes when the call to put to space is sent out, and these mighty ships once more come to life as if awakening. Here the I.S.S. Imperium begins to power up for another mission.
Into The Unknown Exploration can be a dangerous business at times, even when that exploration takes place on one of your own vessels! Here a Terran Empire Runabout is on approach to the long lost I.S.S. Sudrian – and its mysteries.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Alan Kay
A New Hope: Far into the future – after the detonation of Omega Molecule devices leaves large swaths of space impassable to warp drives - the Federation has turned from its mandate of exploration to one of fierce isolationism. In this new reality young Captain Alexander Chase and his crew serve aboard the heavily armed patrol cruiser U.S.S. Enterprise. But in every generation’s darkest hour there is hope, and the yearning to once again be out amongst the unknown stars, to rediscover the universe, to carry on the legacy of exploration and discovery that their vessel’s name has been so long associated with in the past – to boldly go where no one has gone before.
Flight Of The Phoenix: At nearly 1400 meters long and with nearly 10,000 crew aboard her, the enormous U.S.S. Phoenix is a striking sight whether viewed from space, or from the planet she cruises over as this gargantuan starship, commanded by Captain Avari, pushes back the boundaries of Federation technology
Starships, be they large or small, play an important role in any Star Trek series whether they be canon series or fan films. From the Enterprise through to the Excelsior or even the Defiant without them no crew of a Star Trek series would be able to ‘Bold Go’. So I’ll finish this Captains Log by quoting one of the best known paragraphs in Star Trek history: ‘Space, the final frontier, These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise, It’s continuing mission, To explore strange new worlds, To seek out new life and new civilizations, To boldly go where no one has gone before’