Tom saw a few familiar faces as he walked to the front of the room, Captain McDonald, Captain Sanchet, Captain Picard. He also saw a number of admiral uniforms and a good number of civilians there too. He turned to face the crowd, and everyone became quiet.
"Good morning," he said, "and thank you all for coming. I'm sure all of you are familiar with Starfleet's Egret. Egret flight-testing was completed at Starbase 1194, which also happened to be the site of its first combat mission. Its performance has been impressive, and there is now no doubt as to the usefulness of fighters. The engineers who designed and built the Egret closely watched as the Egret completed flight-testing and began to fight in real battles, both in space and in planetary atmospheres. We liked what we saw, but we still thought we could do better. Now, fourteen months after the first production Egret left the construction yards just north of San Francisco, we have." He stood aside to allow the crowd to see the large screen on the wall behind him. It became illuminated with a computer-generated picture of an Egret, but it looked different somehow.
Azalea had taken quite an interest in the Egret program since she first heard about it from someone at Starfleet Headquarters. She was no engineer, but she enjoyed learning about the Egret whenever she could. She watched the screen closely. That Egret did seem different, but she couldn't quite tell what about it had been changed. Then she noticed that the tail fins were different. Instead of the vertical configuration that was used on the existing Egrets, these were sort of at an angle. The body also looked different. It seemed a bit bigger, but not enough to stand out a lot; it was only apparent after looking at the picture for a while. The picture was a plan form view, with the nose in the bottom right corner of the screen and the tail in the upper left, so the whole thing wasn't visible. She wondered what other changes had been made that she hadn't noticed. That's what Tom was here to tell her.
"Presenting the new B-model Egret," Tom said. The screen switched to a schematic of the Egret. "We took the existing Egret design and made it better. To start, we increased the size of the body slightly to accommodate a larger warp core and bigger engines. We have installed new shield technology that has been adapted to fit the role of fighters. At full power, the shields are stronger than most other small craft, including runabouts. Normal, non-combat operation of the shields is at a much lower power level so as not to consume too much energy. While the existing Egret can only reach a maximum velocity of warp six, the new version can hit a full warp nine. Use of the upsilon device does not deplete the warp core as much as in the existing fighters. A new propulsion system and a newly designed control system greatly improve atmospheric operation." While he was talking, the screen had been scrolling through various views of the systems that he had mentioned.
"But we didn't stop here. In a galaxy dominated by starships, the Egret will frequently have to face enemies larger than itself. In fact, the existing Egret already has, with the results being less than what we would have hoped. The B-model Egret has four phasers instead of two, still mounted in the leading edge of the wing. These phasers are also two to three times as powerful as the existing Egret weaponry. They also feature two different modes of operation. All four guns can be automatically targeted at the same point for maximum effectiveness. In this mode, they all fire at once. However, a fairly good lock is necessary for this to work. In combat with other fighters, this is a luxury our pilots seldom enjoy. In order to stay useful in this situation, the phasers can be operated without being targeted. Here the firing order is one, three, two, four, And they fire in rapid succession," he indicted to respective labels on the diagram currently being displayed on the screen. The guns were numbered from left to right. "The recharge rate is approximately point seven seconds, which is possible through the use of a sophisticated power grid. The actual time between firing is one point three seconds to avoid overheating the guns. In space, this is automatically reduced to one point zero seconds, since space is significantly colder than most planetary atmospheres where the Egret is likely to be deployed.
We increased the size of the weapons bay so that it can hold up to eighteen photon or quantum torpedoes and twenty anti-fighter missiles that we designed specifically for the Egret. These are more effective at destroying enemy fighters since they are more maneuverable than photon or quantum torpedoes. They are also optimized for atmospheric use and can destroy an enemy with one or two hits. They haven't been tested at close range yet, though, since we've been putting all our efforts into the new Egret. We advise pilots to use the phasers against close targets; they will be more than sufficient." The screen changed to another computer-generated picture of an the Egret flying over Mars-like terrain. "That concludes our presentation of the new B-model Egret. Any questions?"
This was her chance to learn something about the brand new Egret that was not even in service yet. Azalea put her hand in the air.
"Yes, Captain Sanchet," Tom said. He didn't want to use her first name in front of everyone. Some of the people in the crowd wondered how he knew her.
"Will Starfleet alter the mission of the Egret considering these new capabilities?" she asked.
"Well, we haven't given gotten into specifics on that yet, but it will allow Egrets to be more liberal in their missions. Starfleet will be able to send Egrets on a much wider variety of missions. Up to now, Egrets have been used for precision strikes against key targets while trying to avoid enemies whenever possible. Now we won't have to worry about that as much. Perhaps even attacking them directly may be in store for the B-model Egrets. Anyone else?" He waited for a few moments and no one said anything. "Thank you again for your time. We hope you enjoyed this presentation of our new fighter." Tom left the front of the room and walked out the door. The people began to get up and leave their seats.
"Good morning," he said, "and thank you all for coming. I'm sure all of you are familiar with Starfleet's Egret. Egret flight-testing was completed at Starbase 1194, which also happened to be the site of its first combat mission. Its performance has been impressive, and there is now no doubt as to the usefulness of fighters. The engineers who designed and built the Egret closely watched as the Egret completed flight-testing and began to fight in real battles, both in space and in planetary atmospheres. We liked what we saw, but we still thought we could do better. Now, fourteen months after the first production Egret left the construction yards just north of San Francisco, we have." He stood aside to allow the crowd to see the large screen on the wall behind him. It became illuminated with a computer-generated picture of an Egret, but it looked different somehow.
Azalea had taken quite an interest in the Egret program since she first heard about it from someone at Starfleet Headquarters. She was no engineer, but she enjoyed learning about the Egret whenever she could. She watched the screen closely. That Egret did seem different, but she couldn't quite tell what about it had been changed. Then she noticed that the tail fins were different. Instead of the vertical configuration that was used on the existing Egrets, these were sort of at an angle. The body also looked different. It seemed a bit bigger, but not enough to stand out a lot; it was only apparent after looking at the picture for a while. The picture was a plan form view, with the nose in the bottom right corner of the screen and the tail in the upper left, so the whole thing wasn't visible. She wondered what other changes had been made that she hadn't noticed. That's what Tom was here to tell her.
"Presenting the new B-model Egret," Tom said. The screen switched to a schematic of the Egret. "We took the existing Egret design and made it better. To start, we increased the size of the body slightly to accommodate a larger warp core and bigger engines. We have installed new shield technology that has been adapted to fit the role of fighters. At full power, the shields are stronger than most other small craft, including runabouts. Normal, non-combat operation of the shields is at a much lower power level so as not to consume too much energy. While the existing Egret can only reach a maximum velocity of warp six, the new version can hit a full warp nine. Use of the upsilon device does not deplete the warp core as much as in the existing fighters. A new propulsion system and a newly designed control system greatly improve atmospheric operation." While he was talking, the screen had been scrolling through various views of the systems that he had mentioned.
"But we didn't stop here. In a galaxy dominated by starships, the Egret will frequently have to face enemies larger than itself. In fact, the existing Egret already has, with the results being less than what we would have hoped. The B-model Egret has four phasers instead of two, still mounted in the leading edge of the wing. These phasers are also two to three times as powerful as the existing Egret weaponry. They also feature two different modes of operation. All four guns can be automatically targeted at the same point for maximum effectiveness. In this mode, they all fire at once. However, a fairly good lock is necessary for this to work. In combat with other fighters, this is a luxury our pilots seldom enjoy. In order to stay useful in this situation, the phasers can be operated without being targeted. Here the firing order is one, three, two, four, And they fire in rapid succession," he indicted to respective labels on the diagram currently being displayed on the screen. The guns were numbered from left to right. "The recharge rate is approximately point seven seconds, which is possible through the use of a sophisticated power grid. The actual time between firing is one point three seconds to avoid overheating the guns. In space, this is automatically reduced to one point zero seconds, since space is significantly colder than most planetary atmospheres where the Egret is likely to be deployed.
We increased the size of the weapons bay so that it can hold up to eighteen photon or quantum torpedoes and twenty anti-fighter missiles that we designed specifically for the Egret. These are more effective at destroying enemy fighters since they are more maneuverable than photon or quantum torpedoes. They are also optimized for atmospheric use and can destroy an enemy with one or two hits. They haven't been tested at close range yet, though, since we've been putting all our efforts into the new Egret. We advise pilots to use the phasers against close targets; they will be more than sufficient." The screen changed to another computer-generated picture of an the Egret flying over Mars-like terrain. "That concludes our presentation of the new B-model Egret. Any questions?"
This was her chance to learn something about the brand new Egret that was not even in service yet. Azalea put her hand in the air.
"Yes, Captain Sanchet," Tom said. He didn't want to use her first name in front of everyone. Some of the people in the crowd wondered how he knew her.
"Will Starfleet alter the mission of the Egret considering these new capabilities?" she asked.
"Well, we haven't given gotten into specifics on that yet, but it will allow Egrets to be more liberal in their missions. Starfleet will be able to send Egrets on a much wider variety of missions. Up to now, Egrets have been used for precision strikes against key targets while trying to avoid enemies whenever possible. Now we won't have to worry about that as much. Perhaps even attacking them directly may be in store for the B-model Egrets. Anyone else?" He waited for a few moments and no one said anything. "Thank you again for your time. We hope you enjoyed this presentation of our new fighter." Tom left the front of the room and walked out the door. The people began to get up and leave their seats.