SUPER-DREADNOUGHT: Part I: Chapter IV:
The doors at Ticonderoga's end of the gangway opened silently, admitting Kern and his aide de campe. He had only been on one other Federation vessel, and it was immediately clear that this ship was nothing like Picard's Enterprise. Its corridors were narrower, there were gratings onthe floor, not the carpet that covered many of Enterprise's corridors. The structural members looked far heavier, and the over-all air of the ship was decidedly ... military. His attention turned to the tall human who was standing before him.
"Admiral McGinnis, I am Kern, son of Mog, Commander of this constructionfacility. I am honored to meet you."
"Kern, Son of Mog, I am Admiral William McGinnis, and your presence here honors us. ... Welcome to USS Ticonderoga. ... Would you like a brief tour of the vessel?"
"Yes, I would."
"Very well, I am expecting Gouron within the hour, but I shall take you for a brief tour before he arrives."
After his tour, Kern was even more impressed with the ship than he had when it appeared immediately outside his window. Although the computers ran too much of it, making it difficult for a warrior to fight an honorable battle, if the data on the fight with the Romulan ship were true, they had proven themselves worth it.
"Admiral, I am very impressed, I was not certain that the Federation was capable of building a true warship, after James T. Kirk's retirement. It is good to see that it is not as complacent as many would like to think."
"We haven't built many ships with a fully military purpose in a long time, and despite my own successes, I would hope that this ship will be the last. However, I believe that those like Picard had taken Star Fleet too far toward peace and exploration, and had forgotten that we are also supposed to protect and defend the members of the Federation. One wonders whether we would have been able to do so had the Romulans, Cardassians, and Ferengi decided to cause trouble at the same time."
"Personally, I doubt that you could have."
"Fortunately, we won't have the opportunity to find out. With the Cardassian military defeated, and the Ferengi talking peaceful profiteering, those problems should be solving themselves. However, the Romulans are beginning to pose a serious threat to both of us, and the..."
"Yes, The. Is the Federation going to send a larger fleet, now that you have seen The Klingon commitment to defending our people?"
"I haven't gotten a response to my report of your enhanced fleet strength, so I can't say for sure. ... We had better get to the transporter room, Gouron should be here any moment."
At this moment, Data's voice rang over McGinnis' communicator.
"Bridge to Admiral McGinnis."
"McGinnis here."
"Sir, Gouron reports his readiness to come aboard, he also wants to know where Kern is, as he wasn't at the base landing pad to meet him."
"What," said Gouron, ..."He was to beam to this ship, not come by shuttle."
"Well, let's get to the gangway before he waits any more," replied McGinnis, now beginning to understand how Gouron had managed to keep his somewhat difficult seat atop the Klingon Council.
Moments later they arrived at the ship's end of the gangway. The computer sounded honors, and Gouron stepped aboard.
"Gouron, I am Admiral William McGinnis, welcome aboard."
"It is an honor to meet you Admiral, I am pleased to have the responsibility of thanking you for your removal of the Cardassians from space."
"I am glad that they don't pose a threat to us in the current crisis, but their weakened state may make them easy for the Romulans to pick off, should they choose to do so."
"yes, that's true, and if they do, I trust that you will be able to defeat them again."
"Yes, I believe so, assuming that Federation forces aren't weakened by our current operations."
"It will be hard, but honor is never won by men who are afraid to take chances."
"True, but you know that I must tell you that Star Fleet Command would rather that the Klingon Empire wait to launch this offensive, The Federation has many ships under construction, but the fleet construction program won't get into full productivity until next year."
"That may be true for you, but we are ready to get our due revenge, and we would not appreciate it if the Federation refused to help us in our war."
"I am well aware of that, and I am ordered to offer you all possible assistance in your operations."
"I am pleased, we will be launching three days from today, so if you are able to strengthen your forces, you have time to contact your commanders."
"I shall do so immediately after dinner, and our tour. ... Shall we go to the observation deck?"
"Very well..."
After dinner, and the usual conversation that occurs at such occasions, Gouron called for everyone's attention.
"This has been a fine meal. We are quite impressed by the Gach, it is difficult to get food of this quality in the finest restaurants of the Empire. However, our time here is not meant to be spent eating. We are here to see this mighty new star ship and to talk about the final defeat of our common enemy. Admiral, I would like to see this ship of yours, and then to discuss our strategy, understanding that the size of the Federation contribution to our efforts has not been decided."
"An excellent plan, Gouron if you and your staff will follow me."
The party departed the observation bubble, located at the junction of the aft-most support strut and the mega-collimator ring. It proceeded to the weapons control center, which was almost too small to hold the ten Klingon and Federation officers.
"Computer, render a three-dimensional schematic of this vessel, highlighting weapons, defenses, power production, computer and structural items."
The computer immediately brought a hologram of the ship on line, with the specified systems highlighted.
"As you can see, we have fifty-seven rapid-fire particle phaser batteries, each is powered by separate fusion reactors, capable of providing all the energy that these systems can use. The reactors can also be used as secondary power supplies for the ship, should main or auxiliary power be knocked out. The ship has seven contained-plasma torpedo tubes, each has fifty missiles, whose range is twice that of the standard Federation photon torpedo. The plasma in the warheads powers the warp sustainer coil, so at maximum range, the torpedoes have half as much destructive potential as at launch. At launch, they have eighty megatons standard yield. The ship has four phaser collimators located on each face of the engineering hull, each is as powerful as a Galaxy-class star ship's main phaser collimators. The main weapon of this ship, as with the-class defender, is the phased collimator ring that surrounds the main hull. The ring has three times the destructive potential of the-class ships' main weaponry, making it nearly twenty times as powerful as a galaxy-class ship's weapons. The ship has triple shielding, which is operable in a two-layered configuration, meaning that we can maintain shielding if the should break one layer. We can make repairs while the other layers are being worked over by enemy weapons. The system is energy-expensive, and we have installed a new main energizer with greater output than has been seen previously to support this added energy demand. There is also an experimental short-duration forced quantum core for emergency power generation, should the main systems and the secondary fusion reactors be over-taxed. It can provide fifty percent of main power for four hours, and with all of this power production, we can operate every single weapons and defensive system aboard the ship at the same time. The benefits of such a multi-redundant scheme have always been obvious, but until recently, there has not been incentive to build such vessels. As you are aware, we also carry the new Federation phase-cloaking technology, which precludes use of our weapons while operational, simply because we can't hit anything while under phase-cloak. We also carry computer-control systems, power distribution systems, and communications relays. that are more redundant than anything previously seen in a Federation star ship."
"This is a very impressive design, how do you manage to fit so much into a hull this size?"
"Quite simply, crew quarters are extremely tight, and we use robotic systems to do as much work as is technically possible. This saves us nearly a thousand crew members, with all of the support systems that they require. The crew is only 400 strong."
"I assume that you have a internal defensive plan similar to that aboard the defender-class ships?"
"Yes, if life forms of a type designated as "enemy" by the command staff invade the ship, the computer has the ability to use force fields and phaser collimators to neutralize any boarding party."
"Admiral, this is the greatest development in military technology in the last thirty years, and I commend you on the fact that the Federation chose you to command it in its first, and most honorable mission."
"Thank you, I was much honored by their decision to wave the rules against flag officers commanding single unit ships. My orders state that this vessel is to act independently of the main fleet when I feel necessary. The remainder of Federation forces will be under the command of your fleet, as our only other fleet-rank officer has only recently received his admiral's commission."
"Excellent, I would like to see your other facilities."
"If you will follow me, ... Computer, end holo simulation."
As they left, the schematic of the ship disappeared. After traveling through the sick-bay, bridge, and engineering deck the party arrived at one of the holodecks.
"We use these for training, simulation, and research, more than recreation, although limited recreational programming is available. I believe that there is a simulation running here that you may be interested in. ... Computer, access holodeck thirteen, open doors."
The group was met with a particle blast from a blue-suited security member, whose bolt had just barely missed a soldier attempting to access one of the slots common in the corridor walls of their ships. The reason for the miss became obvious as another soldier slammed the security man aside. The security began using their grenade launchers, destroying soldiers right an left. The sonics couldn't be used aboard Ticonderoga, even in self-defense, they were simply too powerful. However, since the simulation was of a landing on a ship, anything went. The simulated grenades destroyed huge chunks of material, killing the soldiers as they approached. Finally simulated force fields came up, which kept the grenades from doing much damage. The security party then dropped a small "package", and called for emergency beam-out. The package was a kilogram of antimatter, and the blast from this destroyed a huge chunk of the vessel.
McGinnis watched the proceedings, thinking to himself that at this point the ship would be moving toward the ship in hopes of breaking through the subspace field in order to come out of phase-cloak in this huge cavity and rip the cube apart from the inside.
"An impressive battle Admiral, what was its purpose?" said Gouron, reminding him of the presence of the Klingon observers.
"We hope to send landing parties aboard vessels and then open a large enough cavity to allow a star ship to enter and blow the ships apart from the inside. The armor and shielding that the security troops wear will hopefull allow us to survive for periods of time aboard the ships. our simulation runs suggest that the armor will also allow us to repel large parties of boarders, should they break our shielding. We will, of coursse, destroy the ship before its capture, but if we can live to fight another day..."
"Yes, an admirable philosophy," replied Gouron. "Can you produce suits like these for our warriors?"
"No, but I can send the specifications to your manufacturing people so that you can build them yourselves, should this be acceptable."
"That is fine, I shall tell them to expect the information."
"Very well, shall we adjourn for this evening, I must confer with Star Fleet Command, and you doubtless have preparations to make."
"Very well, however, we must talk about strategy tomorrow, as soon as you know how many ships the Federation can contribute."
"Then I shall take you back to the gangway, and we will see each other tomorrow. I will await your transmission as to what time is convenient for you."
The party returned to the gangway, and Gouron turned to salute the ship as he left. His departing words to McGinnis were:
"I shall contact you tomorrow, I look forward to another meeting."
