I’ve been unable to talk myself into continuing to texture the last ship I built, so I started another one. For a long time now, I’ve wanted to do a ship in the style of the NX-01, but with a single hull extending aft, as opposed to the dual hull (catamarans.) Originally, I wanted the ship to be from roughly the same time frame as the NX, but I decided instead to make it an earlier vessel.
The following information will be posted ONCE. If people ask me about some or all of it later, I will simply point back to this post.
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Fact: For those who don’t know, Alpha Centauri is a binary solar system just under 5 light years from Earth. A third star, Proxima Centauri, is actually the closest star to ours, at 4.24 light years from Sol and is often considered to be part of the Alpha Centauri group, though it’s not a true trinary star system due to the distance of Proxima from Alpha Centauri AB. (Proxima Centauri is not visible from Earth) At least one Earth-sized planet may exist, orbiting Alpha Centauri B.
Fiction: In the Star Trek universe, Alpha Centauri is considered a trinary and there are three habitable planets in the system, each of which has been colonized by human settlers. These colonies were founded sometime in the late 21st century and still exist in the 24th century.
My story:
Under the command of the United Earth government, (UEG) the United Earth Space Probe Agency (UESPA) has established three colonies in the Alpha Centauri solar system. Due to the success of these colonies, humans began flocking to them in large numbers. There were a few mishaps along the way, but most of the trips were successful. Due to the few issues encountered and growing knowledge of other species in the galaxy, the UEG knew that they would have to start defensive patrols between Earth and the Alpha Centauri system and around the Alpha Centauri system. Even the Vulcans couldn’t find fault in the logic of that idea. Thus, they began to design a series of small armed vessels to keep the space between Earth and Alpha Centauri safe.
My ship’s specs:
Launched: 2121
Length: 110 meters
Width: 60 meters
Height: around 20 meters (it will keep changing until I’m done adding the bridge and sensor domes)
Deck count: 4
Crew: around 40
Max speed: Warp 1.95 (see the episode First Flight for when the first warp 2 flight took place)
Cruising speed: Warp 1.7
Impulse Rockets (see the episode Where No Man Has Gone Before) at approximately 1/6 the speed of light
Armaments: 3 or 4 plasma cannons, possibly a torpedo launcher or two
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That’s what I have so far. This ship predates Starfleet by over a decade. We know this from plot devices in the series Enterprise. Jonathan Archer said in one of the episodes that he graduated from college and was going to go into the merchant fleet about the time Starfleet was founded, and he decided to go into Starfleet. Since he was a child in the year 2121, (the beginning of the episode Broken Bow) he obviously would have gone to college in the 2130s. Memory Alpha guesstimates that Starfleet was founded around 2134 to 2136. (that works for me) So, this ship would be directly under command of the UESPA. I think it’s safe to assume that, for a military-type ship such as this one, they would recruit personnel from Earth’s various armed forces and give them special training to crew the ships (much how NASA recruits astronauts.)
Design wise, I want the ship to be reminiscent of the NX, but more primitive looking. It may not look so now, but many of the finishing details will be aimed at this goal. (things like bell-shaped impulse engines) The engineering section (central structure) was designed with the NX catamarans in mind. Originally, I had it flipped and the shape was slightly different, but I refined and rebuilt it. Then I paneled it and, after doing so, I realized I had made it too low poly. Fortunately, I’m using the “save incremental” feature in Lightwave, so I went back to pre-paneling and subdivided it.
Anywho, without further ado, here are the pictures:
It’s very rough right now, but you get the idea. While it’s mostly my design, I’m getting influences from the various ships from Enterprise, other Star Trek ships and even some fan designs. As Doug Drexler did when he designed the NX-01, I’ll be putting in plenty of “classic” elements, such as the round TOS-style deflector that I’ve already built. I think it’s important to have some “nods” to the series and ship that started it all.
