Category: Deep Range Explorer – Experimental Platform
Expected Duration: 120 years
Time Between Resupply: 10 years
Time Between Refit: 5 years
Personnel
- Officers: 160
- Enlisted Crew: 500
- Passengers: 100
- Emergency Capacity: 7,000
Dimensions
- Length: 672 metres
- Width: 195 metres
- Height: 88 metres
- Decks: 25
Speed
- Cruise: Warp 9.3
- Maximum: Warp 9.995
- Emergency: Warp 9.999 (36 hours)
- Quantum Slipstream: 4 days cruise, 7 days cooldown
Auxiliary Craft
Shuttlebays: 1
Runabouts:
- Danube Runabout: 2 (Daisho and Kimono)
- Arrow Class Runabout: 1 (Gyllir)
Shuttles:
- Hunley Shuttle: 1 (Sakura: cherry blossom)
- Type 11 Shuttle: 2
- Type 9 Shuttle: 2
- Type 8 Shuttle: 2
Transports:
- Argo Transport: 1 (Hatsuyuki: first snow of the season)
Workpods:
- Brunel: 2
Armament
Phasers:
- Type XII Array: 10
- Mark XII Phaser Cannon: 2
Shielding Systems:
- Regenerative Shielding
- Auto-Modulating Shields
- Metaphasic Shielding
- Quantum Focus Field Controller
- Redundant Symmetrical Subspace Graviton Field
Defensive Systems:
- Ablative Armour
Torpedoes:
- Burst-Fire Torpedo Launcher: 4
- Photon Torpedoes: 560
- Quantum Torpedoes: 240
- Rapid-Fire Quantum Turret
- Quantum Torpedoes: 150
Description
When the long-delayed and highly experimental quantum slipstream drive was finally ready for testing beyond the lab, it quickly became obvious that the new drive brought with it some very specific spaceframe and warp geometry requirements. The Sovereign was considered briefly, as it came the closest to meeting those requirements, but it would have been an imperfect solution at best.
In the end, and after a retrofit scheme of existing ships that achieved mixed results, Starfleet deemed it necessary to design an entirely new class of vessel – the Vesta. In this way, engineers were given the leeway they needed to design and built the ideal platform to get the most out of the new propulsion system.
Taking cues from the Sovereign and Excalibur classes, as well as learning the lessons from previous attempts at a QSD-capable Starfleet vessel, the Vesta’s designers took full advantage of the opportunity they had been given. The Vesta Class was designed to be cutting edge in every way, from the shipwide holo-emitters to a completely redesigned sensor array and self-modulating Type XII phase arrays. Other experimental technologies to be found aboard the Vesta Class include:
- Quantum Field Focus Controller – Allows the Vesta class to retain shields and communications during slipstream travel.
- Multidimensional Wave Function Analysis Module – Can detect interdimensional rifts in subspace and temporal distortions in normal space up to 15 light years away.
- AC-20 Bioneural Super-Series Computer Core – A significant upgrade to the AC-16 model currently in use on the Sovereign class.
- Redundant Symmetrical Subspace Graviton Field – A still experimental regenerative shielding system designed specifically for QSD-based starships.
Due to the way slipstream is initiated and then maintained through the deflector dish, the Vesta Class was designed with an oversized dish, with with an additional quantum field projector built into it, to allow for more minute control of quantum phase variances. Given the need to compute the phase variances in real time while transiting, the Vesta was designed to use three computer cores operating in conjunction for the best results. Additionally, to combat the fact that a ship within slipstream is unable to communicate during travel, a new technology was designed and implemented on the Vesta to allow it to maintain its connection with Starfleet at all times- the quantum field focus controller. Yet another technology invented for the Vesta programme was the benamite recrystallization matrix. Similar to the dilithium recrystallization matrix, the benamite recrystallization matrix is designed to keep the benamite crystals required for quantum slipspace speeds from fracturing.
While Starfleet had hoped the Vesta would be able to run the quantum slipstream drive like a standard warp core, with long runs at high warp of up to a month before issues arose, it was discovered during space trials that the drive generated massive amounts of heat that proved difficult to vent while at slipstream velocities. Furthermore, the drive seemed to hit a point where the benamite recrystallization matrix wasn’t able to keep up with the power demands and fractures in the crystals began to occur.
Following tests, it was determined that slipstream velocities could be maintained for a week at most before fracturing of the crystals forced a stop, with a four-hour layover before QSD velocities could be resumed. Theoretically, the Vesta’s drive could function at the equivalent of a QSD cruising speed for nine days, three hours and fifteen minutes, but such usage wouldn’t leave enough benamite crystals for subsequent slipstream journeys.
This led to protocols of “hopping” where a Vesta could move along for three to four days at a time at high slipstream velocities, return to normal space and continue at high warp for a week or so, allowing the matrix time to rebuild itself. While this does not allow the Vesta the fastest travel at all times, it ensures the crew do not become stranded during long journeys. The computer core specifically responsible for the QSD is programmed to automatically start this procedure, unless someone interferes with it.
In the beginning, the Vesta Class operated largely within Federation space due to its highly experimental nature. In the time since its wider deployment, however, it has proven itself a powerful and viable addition to the fleet. For that reason, Starfleet has begun sending its few Vesta Class ships on many more long-range exploratory and patrol missions, including the now legendary first contact mission with the Pasha’Mak people of the planet Gilean in the Gamma Quadrant and the Hiroshima’s own excursion into the Cestus Protectorates to test its efficacy in fleet deployments in the field.