Star Trek Lost Destiny

By Hemaccabe

Book I: Race of Death

Chapter 11 First Meeting

(Authors Note: I'm a big fan of the Star Fleet Technical Manual and Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, both of which are available as pdf downloads easily free on line. MSGE's is the most important but is still not perfectly canon to Lost Destiny. The Enterprise is the first Constitution class to be refit but does not become a new Enterprise class. No new, keel up Constitutions are built, but some other surviving Constitutions DO get the refit, like the Saratoga.

The Enterprise was not the first ship to get Leeding engines. We saw a certain Miranda class vessel and Oberth class vessels that already had Leeding engines.

There are some other minor variances, but I would recommend readers peruse the MSGE as it could help them visualize what I'm writing here.

One of the issues I struggle with as I write Lost Destiny is what to do about technology. How true do I stay to what we saw in STII: TWOK and how much do I change it to reflect something more likely to what it would be?

A related issue is division of duties. To some extent, these are mixed in the OS, reflecting a Star Fleet philosophy that pretty much any trained officer should be able to jump into any seat. Still, that left Mr. Spock pretty busy, as he was responsible for being the Chief Science Officer, apparently also the Chief Ship's sysadmin, in charge of Scanners, Shield Control, Damage Control and then other duties which would fall to him. At the same time, Uhura spent her life as a glorified pre-auto switched telephone operator. This reflected certain sixties era prejudices. I plan to change this. I hope it doesn't hurt your feelings.)

It seemed just as I closed my eyes, Peter was gently nudging me and quietly saying, "We're here. You need to wake up."

I quickly pulled myself together and stood up. Of course, an amenity like a mirror wouldn't be needed in the rough and ready, ever so masculine Star Fleet. The same Star Fleet that would judge an Officer, particularly a young, female officer, harshly if there was so much as a hair out of place.

I also knew that it would not possibly be good for discipline for me to board my first command looking muzzy.

I looked at Peter and said simply, "One moment."

I had long since sorted this problem out and produced a small mirror. Using the mirror and with quick practiced movements, movements I had been taught once upon a time by Becky, I had my appearance back to it's normal crisp and ready.

Then I said, "Now, and please bring my bags."

Peter nodded as he hit the appropriate switch and the hatch swung open. Then he picked up my bags.

I strode up the short airlock tunnel and saw, just across the threshold, another familiar face. It was Rachel Crater! I knew Rachel, I had met her on visits to her grandfather's home. Her grandfather was Doctor Leonard McCoy. Rachel's Mother, Joanna, had apparently been something of a hellraiser and a political dissident in her younger days. Then she had settled down and had gotten her Doctorate in Mathematics. On my visits, mostly to see Dr. McCoy for checkups, Joanna would tutor me on math. Rachel would sneak me out of the house late at night to have adventures, like teaching me how to build a snowman.

Rachel had just been graduated from the Academy as I was entering. I noticed by a glance at her cuff that she was a Lieutenant Commander, the rank I had jumped. I also knew she had gone into Comms.

Rachel snapped me a very formal salute which I returned and began the ritual, "Permission to come aboard?"

Rachel smiled as she replied, "Permission granted."

I passed the threshold and was pleased to be piped aboard by the boatswain.

Being piped aboard is somewhat optional, it reflects the crew wishing to be welcoming to their new captain. I was grateful.

As soon as I passed the threshold I announced, "Ship's Log, let it show I, Commander Saavik, take command of this ship, as of right now, Stardate 9589.7"

On Enterprise, they had been able to use the whole torpedo bay for this ceremony. On Ticonderoga, there was barely an alcove. Still I looked around to see who else was present.

There was a group of modestly disreputable Engineers in their well worn but clean uniforms. I noticed one Engineer was Tellarite. That was just a bit surprising, most crews were still species homogenous. I knew Star Fleet was trying to break that down, but it could be a lot more comfortable to be among one's own species if one was going to be otherwise disconnected from civilization for an extended period. Still, I was pleased. I was pretty sure she was a female Tellarite, but like most non-Tellarites who had not spent a great deal of time around them, it was difficult to tell with just a glance, especially as she was wearing the bulky Engineer's uniform.

I looked further and saw Dr Kiki! Dr Kiyori "Kiki" Sulu had been my gynecologist, pretty much since I had needed one. She was the daughter of another of Ambassador Spock's friends, Captain Hikaru Sulu. I knew from chatting with Dr. Kiki that Captain Sulu and his Spouse, Mike had used a normally reliable service that would take and mix their genetic contributions equally to create a child. The child her parents had specified was to be male and follow their gender preference. Instead, the vagaries of nature had reared their heads and they had gotten a daughter. The fact that I knew her preference was male made for an amusing question as to whether the service had gotten her preference right or wrong.

Dr Kiki snapped me a second formal salute when I walked up to her and asked, "Are you to be our Chief Medical Officer?"

"Yes I am." She replied with a smile. Dr Kiki was, like Rachel, older than me. She had gone through the very demanding Academy Medical Program. Personal experience and her long list of accomplishments, especially for one her age, which I had researched before I selected her to be my physician, told me she was an excellent doctor.

Ticonderoga was lucky to have her. Many ships this small only got a "Pharmacist's Mate." For example, Grissom only had a Pharmacist's Mate. Of course, David had been there, and he was an MD along with all his other degrees.

"Well, that will be convenient." I said with a smile.

"I hope so." She replied.

It took all our discipline not to hug right there.

(Author's Note: I know Sulu has another daughter, Demora, who shows up in ST: Generations. Nothing is to say he couldn't have had two. Kiyori is definitely not Demora. While the opening scene of ST: Generations is canon to Lost Destiny, it takes place far in the future to events depicted here.)

Right then Peter emerged with my bags.

I looked at Peter and said, "Please have a yeoman deliver my bags to my quarters."

Peter put the bags down and said, "Aye Aye Sir. I imagine the Captain would now like a tour and explanations about ship's systems and capabilities?"

"The Captain would." I replied just slightly sardonically.

Peter smiled and replied, "Actually, this works out well. If you had been awake, you probably would have wanted me to start with a fly about. I'd really prefer to start with a visit to Engineering which is right through there."

As Peter finished, he said something to one of his Engineers and then he gestured to the opening from the alcove to the ship.

"I accept, lead on." I replied.

With that, Rachel announced, "Company dismissed!"

With that, the company dispersed, and Peter led me through to Engineering.

The Engineering space was small, which I remembered from Grissom. It was also moved back. On Grissom, like most Star Fleet vessels, Engineering had been at the front of the secondary hull. Here it had been moved back to dominate the belly of the secondary hull. The reason was clear, Engineering was in turn dominated by a massive warp reactor that barely fit in the space.

"Captain, let me introduce you to the Leeding Engines TCX-1 warp reactor." Peter announced with a grand flourish.

The warp reactor was very pretty, a shiny metallic chrome with just a hint of gold. It had the normal beehive shape. Based on her size, I would imagine she put out a lot more power than the weak put-putter in Grissom which was, perhaps two meters in diameter and one in height, which this one dwarfed. Still, I wasn't terribly familiar with specific warp reactors so this one meant very little to me.

"It seems pretty." I remarked, showing that I was not impressed.

Peter did his best not to roll his eyes while at the same time his jaw dropped in disappointment.

He then nodded in acceptance that I might have one or two other things to do than keep up with warp reactor models.

"The TCX-1 is the latest warp reactor from Leeding Engines. It is also unusually compact. She has a belt of K-alloy around her bottom level that allows her to operate at substantially higher pressures than any other warp reactor available. That means she has the highest energy output of any warp reactor available to the Federation, both in volume and density." Peter explained, clearly expecting that last bit to be impressive.

"Ahh," I said. "That is good."

Peter's explanation had explained some things for me.

Starships had gained the ability to fly faster than light, or FTL, by developing the ability to create a bubble of warped space around themselves. In that warp bubble, different laws of physics would apply which included that the speed limit of light could be broken. The more intensely the ship warped space, the faster she could go.

The speed of a given ship through space was determined by a handful of variables. The more energy a warp reactor could produce, the more it could deliver to the ship's warp engines, which could then use the energy to warp space.

Our current understanding of warp did include an understanding of how much engine was necessary to convert available warp energy into warped space, so engines were generally sold now as part of a set with the warp reactor or core. The engines would have some capacity headroom to accept more energy, just in case a way to increase the output of a given warp core was found or there was some sort of surge.

Since the basic processes governing what happened in a warp core were well understood, that meant the bigger the warp core, the more energy it produced, the faster a ship could go. This had resulted in a size race among major powers in the quadrant to build bigger ships. Hence the Excelsior continuing even though transwarp had not panned out.

There was one other limiting feature on warp speed, and that was the shape of the warp bubble. One of the reasons for the odd shape of the Enterprise was the goal of fitting the ship into the irregular oblong shape of the warp bubble. The warp bubble that a ship generated was not a sphere or cube, it was an irregular oblong. If you had a bad ship design with an awkward shape, it wouldn't fit in the minimum sized warp bubble. If a ship didn't fit in it's warp bubble, the ship could still expend valuable warp energy making the bubble bigger, but that meant there would be less warp energy available to actually warp space and more space to warp, greatly reducing the maximum intensity of warp. Yes, this was a principle that was not well understood in many of the ship designs that proceeded the Four Years War, hence the Ptolemies. It was why the neck on Excelsior class ships had been thickened as it allowed for more internal ship's space well within the bubble.

Of course, a smaller ship had the potential advantage that since it could generate a smaller warp bubble, it could devote more energy to bubble intensity which would allow it to go faster than a larger ship with the same warp reactor. Which encouraged placing the largest possible warp core that a ship could carry. The Excelsior's warp core was a behemoth several times larger than the one here on Ticonderoga. Still, in Dreadnought's Engineering section where I had worked for the last three years, there were stately walkways and plenty of space around the warp core. Here on Ticonderoga, this warp core they had selected clearly had only just barely been shoehorned in.

As if reading my thought, Peter piped up, "Yeah, we had to add two meters of length to the normal secondary hull size to fit her and we were still only able to get her in by welding the hull around her."

While bigger was clearly better for a warp core, technology would also have it's say. The basic processes happening in all warp cores were the same, but better engineering and technology could get more from less.

What was really dazzling was when Peter described using K-alloy in the warp core. One of the many ways warp core designers and engineers sought to make their cores more efficient was strengthening their shell. That external beehive of metal wasn't there for show, it contained a matter/anti-matter reaction more energetic than the core of a star.

For almost a century, the Federation had depended on diburnium for it's high-strength tools, like warp cores. Diburnium, like steel before it, had developed over that century into a practically infinite number of versions and alloys. Engineers and designers would research endlessly looking for the best possible alloy recipe for their application. For warp cores, this search was as intense as it was frantic. For warp cores like Excelsior's, the alloys chosen would not simply be melted in a mold, but placed down atom by atom, creating lattices and crystallization to absolutely maximize strength.

K-alloy was a recent introduction to the galactic economy. One of the many accomplishments of Captain Kirk and the Enterprise during their Five-Year Mission was that he had made first contact with the Kelvan civilization. The exact details of what happened had not all been released. What I could tell and surmise from different sources was that Enterprise had been lured in with a distress call. They had been quickly overcome by the handful of surviving Kelvans, probably all that was left due to a war or some other disaster. Still the Kelvans possessed extremely advanced technology. Apparently, the Kelvans had planned to take the Enterprise and conquer known space. Somehow, Kirk had convinced the Kelvan leader it would be better to just settle down on a nice M class world they promptly renamed "New Kelva," whose chart location remains top secret, and the Federation would help them build a new colony and they could begin to trade with the rest of the Federation for their needs.

The first product the Kelvans had exported was K-alloy. K-alloy came in one variety and that variety was a chore for Federation technology to work with because it was so amazingly strong and hard. At first it had come in only very small amounts, a few grams at a time with an astronomical price. It was only used in highly exotic applications, like anti-matter injectors, where the super-performance would be most worthwhile.

The quantities had slowly grown, and the applications had become a bit more widespread.

For example, Constitution refits and Excelsiors had some areas where the hull had lattices of K-alloy supporting the diburnium. Still the lattice alone made the hull vastly stronger and better armored.

With the K-alloy belt, a first for a warp core as far as I was aware, I was not surprised at the TCX's high performance. For a new generation warp core to be even one percent more efficient than the previous generation would be considered a major accomplishment. I suspected the TCX had much more than a one percent improvement.

Part of what told me the TCX would be such an improvement was that it had the best energy density in both mass and volume. Even in current construction, it was not uncommon for a warp core to be optimized for mass or volume. Star Fleet generally spec'ed in top-of-the-line warp cores, at least for their important vessels, but would optimize depending on whether they had more mass or volume available. Freighter builders, depending on the ship's intended cargo, might economize with a high-volume or high-mass core.

Normally a ship like Excelsior would be the fastest, with her bigger warp core. However, with her small warp bubble, large warp core to ship size ratio and high energy density, Ticonderoga might just have something to say about ship speed.

Peter then added, "It was seeing that this warp core had been released that gave me the idea for this ship."

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