Mr. Scott's Guide to The Enterprise pt.2
Atomic189
Keeping with Starfleet tradition, E Deck houses the senior officers’ quarters.
These staterooms are quite similar to the V.I.P. units on D Deck, with only a
few differences.
The sleeping are holds a single large bed which can double as a sofa during
off-duty relaxation.
The rooms corner circular nook, normally occupied by a dining booth, can be
modified at the officer's request before leaving drydock. Several corner
modules are available, including a lighted display alcove, an electronic game
booth, a personal workout machine, an altar platform for personal religious
use, and a hobbycraft work area, among others.
The majority of F Deck is occupied by crew's quarters. These staterooms are
structured as double suites, with private sleeping areas sharing a common,
central bathroom. A three-drawer dresser/wall mirror unit is mounted near the
bed, as in the junior officers quarters. Crew members are invited to decorate
their staterooms in whatever manner they wish, as long as Starfleet standards
of decorum are met.
The crew's messrooms are located in the center of the deck. These are open
continuously, as the crew operates in three shifts around the clock and usually
eat when they please. Those who wish to do so may eat in their rooms or even at
their duty stations, if their workload allows.
On the aft centerline of F Deck is the impulse engineering section. This area
is similar in layout to warp engineering on O Deck, but has additional parts
shops and a standby engineering computer system to be used in the event of
primary hull separation. The massive impulse deflection crystal dominates the
upper center of the room, throwing a display of light patterns across the
compartment. Energy carrier shafts connect the crystal to the impulse engines,
which translate the intermix power into forward thrust for the vessel.
Five large fusion reactors are mounted between the impulse engines. Should
hull separation occur, these furnaces take the place of the intermix system and
drive their combined energies into the deflection crystal. In the unlikely
event of a reactor failure, overload or meltdown, the five fusion reactors are
independently ejectable from the ship.
A turbolift maintenance shop is located just forward of the impulse deck.
Personnel hatch airlocks are located at various points on F Deck. These rooms
allow direct access to the primary hull's upper surface by utilizing small lift
platforms which rise until flush with the outer hull.
Gangway access to Enterprise while in dry dock is provided by a special hatch
on the saucer rim, at the port centerline. This main hatchway, by ramp, allows
direct entry into F Deck, and crew members are urged to board the ship in this
manner whenever possible. The hatch is provided with an airlock, though it is
not normally used for EVA purposes.
Often referred to as the “main deck,” G Deck houses the majority of
Enterprise’s personnel support systems.
At the midpoint of the level, surrounding the computer core, is the ships
auxiliary control room. Sometimes called the “emergency bridge,” this room
assumes all functions the main bridge should that A Deck primary fail. Normally
unmanned, auxiliary control differs in configuration from the main bridge but
all duty stations are present, as is a large main viewing screen. Designed for
use in extreme combat situations, this room, deep within the primary hull, is
the best protected aboard ship.
The improved sickbay complex forms an aft half-ring near the center of G Deck.
All of the latest developments in Federation medical technology are represented
here, many of which were only a theory a few years ago. New micro-diagnostic
tables are capable of fully analyzing at the sub-cellular level all the parts
of the human body, affording the physician a total understanding of the
patient's status. A closed-circuit mini-transporter system, installed various
locations throughout the medical section, allows tissue samples and cultures to
be sent to or from any lab aboard ship.
A new addition, utilized first in land-based Federation hospitals, is the
medical stasis unit. In this room, patients whose conditions are considered
immediately life-threating can be placed into suspended animation until the
proper cure can be established. This unit is also used, if necessary to stop
deterioration of a patients condition until an outside medical facility can be
reached. Use of stasis unit takes place solely at the discretion of the
attending surgeon or physician; cases where physical body damage is considered
to be irreparable and terminal are not generally candidates for stasis, for the
device is not intended for the prolongation of certain death.
The transporter rooms on this level have been rearranged somewhat. Those
units that had been located on level eight have been moved up one deck, and the
majority of Enterpise’s standard and emergency transporter rooms now form a
centalized complex at G Deck’s forward center. One transporter features a
single, large pad (much like a cargo transporter) and adjoins and is devoted
solely to the medical section; in this way, injured personnel on strechers or
who are otherwise lying prone may be beamed aboard.
Also on G Deck, near the transporter complex, is the main briefing room. It is
used primarily by command and medical personnel for disscusion puropes, but
also serves a debriefing facility for newly-returned landing parties. The
briefing room features a large viewing screen which can be controlled either by
from a console at the screen’s base or at the science officer’s computer panel
at the table.
Adjoining the briefing room is the ship’s armory. Here, hand-held weponry and
other small arms are distributed for landing party or security use. This room
is guarded at all times.
At the starboard rear is the two-level rec deck. This large room furnishes
off-duty personnel with electronic games and library facilities, as well as a
multi-screen display area which a pictorial history of Starfleet and all
earlier vessels named “Enterprise.” Public relations events are held here, as
are political gatherings; for this reason, the rec deck restrooms are marked
“male” and “female” in order to accomodate non-crew personnel. Bowling and
racquetball facilities adjoin the rec deck on the starboard side.
The vessel’s chapel is found on this level. Weekly services are held here by
the ship’s chaplin, as are weddings, funerals, and other customary gatherings.
Much of G Deck, in a wide area encircling the level, does not attain full
celing hieght. This is due to the underside concave structure of the primary
hull. This area houses cargo, the food systhesis system, the saucer’s life
suppourt, air conditioning, and battery systems, pump machinery, and the ship’s
sanitary wastes recovery unit.
It is also this area in which Enterpise’s four massive emergency legs are
mounted. These units are stowed retracted, filling a bay which carries up to F
Deck. Extension of the landing legs allows the primary hull to saftley make
planetfall following hull seperation.
Science labs, the main brig, and the ship’s gymnasium lie around the outer
perimiter of G Deck.
CORRIDOR REDESIGN
In order to maximize the use of space aboard ship, the Enterprise corridor
system has been designed to provide more than simple acses from room to room.
Several saftey and survival features are built in to the walls and celings.
The corridors are of two types: radial (those which run outward, pointing
toward the outer hull) and concentric (those that lie in rings interconnecting
the radial corridors). The angled surfaces of each conceal differnt suppourt
structures.
Radial corridors are angled on either side. Thier walls conceal a variety of
supply lines and conduction systems, data networks, and power trunks. These
systems are accesable by removal of the snap-locked panels which cover them,
and all are clearly marked.
The ship’s concentric corridors house personnel suppourt systems. In each
corridor segment, there exists an emergency survival compartment which provides
atmosphere, food, communications, and waste manegment facilities for one crew
member; this provision is to be used should sudden decompression of the ship
interior occur due to hull damage or life suppourt failure. A zip-seal pressure
bag folds up out of the compartment’s padding, allowing the user to be
transported to saftey by spacesutied personnel.
Beneath the surviavl compartment, accsesable by a separate wall panel, is a
survival suit locker. These suits, more compact than standard spacesuits, slip
on quickly and provide air and heat for two hours. Each locker contains two
suits.
Above, near the celing, is an emergency equipment locker. Here can be found
additional life suppourt units for survival suits, cutting tourches, emergency
beacons, communicators, tether lines, and other equipment.
Each segment has, mounted to the celing, a personnel locator display. This
unit shows the number and placement of persons in the adjoing corridor section.
The corridor pannels on D, E, and G Decks are covered by a layer of padding to
help protect against injury during any unlikly sudden ship movement.
The corridors on each deck are color-coded for easy-idetification of deck
level. Colors are as follows: D, brown; E, red; F,silver; G, white; H, light
blue; l, yellow. All secondary hull corridors are silver.
TRANSPORTERS/ EQUIPMENT
The Enterprise's transporter system is the result of more than nine years of
intensive research and development, and is the most powerful yet efficient in
use today. Safe beaming range has been increased from 16,000 to 19,500 miles,
with a greater object-mass/beaming-distance ratio than in past models.
All transporter system machinery is now housed within the floor of the room.
This design allows for easy access when repair or adjustment is necessary, and
frees up adjoining rooms for use as habitable space. Aluminum grate flooring
provides access to the transport platform and control pod.
The transporter platform features six pads, which are numbered clockwise,
beginning with the right front. Pad number one is used when only one person is
to beam to or from the ship. A redesigned field generator matrix is mounted
into the rear wall of the chamber, which operates with less waste heat than was
experienced in earlier configurations.
The transporter operator stands within an enclosed control pod, which has a
floor-to-ceiling transparent aluminum panel through which he or she may view
the transport platform. This panel serves to shield the operator from the
effects of any cumulative radiations emitted by the new transporter machinery,
a side effect of the more powerful system. Persons on the platform are
protected by an invisible force field which automatically activates and
functions until the end of the beaming process. Any such radations are
negligible, but could be harmful with prolonged exposure.
In the new system, transporter energies are transmitted and received from any
of several transmission points on the outer hull. These points, less than two
feet across, are protected by separate deflector shield units which allow
beaming to take place while the remainder of the ship is fully protected. This
feature is particularly valuable during combat situations.
A door in the standard transporter room wall leads to a staging area where
landing parties prepare for transport. Four spacesuit lockers line one wall;
each contains one suit, providing enough to clothe a standard party of four. A
small, locked arms cabinet holds phasers, which must be registered and assigned
before use. Communicators, tricorders, translators, and outerwear are contained
in a separate cabinet on another wall.
Large double doors lead from the staging room into a twenty-two man
transporter facility. This is reserved for emergency use, such as when the crew
must abandon ship.
There are four standard six-man transporters and four emergency platforms
within the transporter complex. One small cargo unit allows precious cargo to
be beamed up from the secondary hull before emergency hull separation takes
place.
The range of the standard communicator has been increased to twenty thousand
miles. This device is an updated version of the flip-grid unit which has proven
so successful. A wrist communicator was also utilized until recently, but
repeated failures after relatively minor impacts have evoked a discontinuance
of the unit.
Tricorders now used are similar in function and appearance to the black
flip-top model still in use throughout much of the Federation, with a
retractable memory head replacing the microdisc system used on older models.
Maximum range for the sciences tricorder is 3900 feet; the medical version can
scan objects up to 490 feet away.
ARMORY/ PHASERS
Enterprise's main armory is located adjacent to the main briefing room on G
Deck. Here, weaponry for security personnel and landing party duty use is
stored within a locked phaser resistant chamber. All armory bulkheads are lined
with diburnium-osmium alloy, the same metal which the deflectors are based.
Access to he weapons storage chamber is furnished via a reinforced door on one
wall of the armory foyer. The clearance desk outside the door is manned at all
times by two security officers, whose duty it is to check in and out all
weaponry. Palmprint identification insures that no unauthorized personnel check
out equipment at any time.
A wide range of weapon types and sizes are stored within the armory chamber.
Phasers Three, Four, and Five are stored in quantity, as are the newer Phaser
One-B and Two-B units. Photon grenade mortars, gas grenades, timed explosives,
communication lasers, phaser power packs, restraining cuffs, utility belts,
subcutaneous transponders, and portable force field projectors are all stored
here. Enough phaser pistols, stored in racks, are contained here to arm the
entire crew, if necessary. Security armor hangs on against one wall. One phaser
cannon, stored disassembled, is provided for planetside use.
The chamber door is unlocked by punching a preset code into a panel beside the
door. This security code is changed at the beginning of every duty shift, and
is known only to the ship's Captain, First Officer, Chief of Engineering, and
Security Chief, and to those security agents guarding the room.
October 2274 marked the tenth anniversary of Starfleet’s use of Phasers One
and Two. Useful and reliable allies, these pioneer weapons of phaser technology
made possible the expansion of the Federation boundaries during that decade of
discovery. Following the discovery of Transtator II physics in 2267, the
Federation Security Council determined by majority vote that these basic arms
should be updated.
Two separate contractors were commissioned to produce their own versions of
the new weapons. Atalskes Phaser Corporation, a newcomer to the field,
translated the new technology into a sleek, bluegray component system combining
a palm-sized module (named Phaser Three) with a pistol mount which forms a more
powerful unit (referred to as Phaser Four). Phasers Three and Four were first
introduced in 2270, and slowly began to replace Phaser One Two units aboard
Starfleet vessels. A touchkey panel on the back of the Phaser Three unit
allowed the device's internal mico-computer to be programmed for a variety of
functions.
Sestra Weapons, the creator of the original Phaser One/Two system, produced
three separate phaser instruments during the eight-year period following thier
commisiong. The first of these was an advanced pulse-beam mining unit created
for the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Then, in 2273, came a new ship-mounted
phaser bank configuration which also utalized Transtator II technology to
operate at temperatures twenty-seven percent cooler than those generated by
earlier designs.
Sestra’s most recent development, first issued by Starfleet this past year, is
the Phaser B series. These wepons, quite similar to Phasers One and Two,
feature a few minor changes which accomodate new internal cooling and control
systems. The One-B and Two-B units have a much simpler “speed setting” system
of beam force selection, which in tests proved invauluble during personal
combat situations.
REC DECK
Enterprise's rec deck is the largest and best equipped of any in Starfleet.
Off-duty crew members will find a variety of games and pastimes from which to
chose within its walls.
At the front of the room is an immense, wall-mounted viewing screen, the
largest aboard ship. This three-dimensional imaging device can be programmed to
display any one of thousands of twentieth-, twenty-first, or twenty-second
century movies, and also holds in its memory a lesser number of twenty-third
century releases. Live sporting events, carried by subspace video comlink, can
be displayed as well. On rare occasion, the unit is used to display Starfleet
Personnel Address broadcasts for crew assemblies.
Beneath the viewing screen is an information display alcove. Five small
screens exhibit, upon request, a choice of pictorial histories, including those
of Starfleet, the Federation, the countries on Earth, Vulcan, Alpha Centuri,
and all the other Federation worlds, and all vessels which have borne the name
“Enterprise.”
Reading lounges and snack bars line the port and starboard bulkheads.
Restrooms, designated “male” (portside) and “female” (starboard) for the
convince of non-crew visitors, are located near the rec deck's rear wall on the
lower level. Two turbolifts on the forward of the end of the room provide
access to F Deck and the rec deck's balcony around. This upper area houses
smaller rooms where three-dimensional chess and checkers may be played, as well
as cards, backgammon, and other non-electronic games.
A raised platform in the center of the lower floor features a diversity of
electronic entertainments. Games such as Concentrex, Challenge, Eye-Q, and
Phaser Duel are programmed into consoles which stand within sunken seating
areas. A shufflelight board in the middle of the floor may be used for
tournament play.
Eight immense viewports in the rec deck's outer wall give crew members an
unspoiled view of the ship's secondary hull and warp nacelles, and are useful
for planet observation while Enterprise is in standard orbit.
H Deck is often referred to as the “docking level” for it features the primary
hull's two main docking port complexes. Each is fully equipped to handle any
extravehicular need.
Two huge sliding doors, flush with the outer hull when closed, conceal each
docking bay. These doors, are composed of reinforced trititanium and are
controlled from a console within the complex.
A staging area provides access to both a personnel airlock and a standard
docking port. Here, crew members leaving the ship may don spacesuits, when
necessary. Four suits are contained in wall-mounted lockers, which also feature
recharge systems for the suits’ life support and power units.
The personnel airlock runs alongside the main docking airlock, and opens via a
hatchway into the docking bay. This room allows spacesuited EVA crews to enter
and exit the ship while a craft is docked to the main port.
A radial corridor provides direct access to the staging area of each complex.
A safety door located at a point along the corridor closes automatically should
catastrophic pressure loss somehow occur. A safety circuit prevents the inner
and outer airlock hatches from both being opened when no craft is mated to the
port.
Docking procedures are monitored and controlled from a small room to one side
of the complex. Double-paned reinforced windows allow the docking supervisor to
view the staging area and the interior of the personnel airlock.
An equipment storage bay contains EVA gear and hull repair materials. Nearby
maintenance shops handle the repair and upkeep of spscesuits and small
equipment.
A departure lounge just off to the staging area provides comfort for
passengers while shuttlecraft or travel pods make their final approaches.
The ship's auxiliary fire control center is situated at the center of the
level, surrounding the computer core. From this location, all shipboard weapons
systems can be controlled manually.
At the rear of the deck is the ship's laundry. Here, all soiled crew uniforms
are broken down into their base components and reassembled as fresh clothing.
Articles to be cleaned may be placed in the appropriate carrier tubes on each
deck.
Enterprise's fabrication facility is also found on H Deck. A number of
Chiokis-built, computer-controlled material synthesizers manufacture tools,
hardware, clothing, small devices, repair parts, and any other objects which
can be programmed into the fabricator matrix, using a stock of raw materials
much as the ship's food synthesizers do. Similarly, an adjoining reclamation
facility reduces discarded items down to their component elements for later
use.
Six viewports, arranged in pairs, are located along the level's outer
concentric corridor. Also, the primary hull's lower phaser banks are mounted in
hardpoints at the bow, port, and starboard positions, behind the outer
bulkheads.
Should emergency hull separation ever become necessary, the H Deck level of
the connecting dorsal is designed to perform several major functions. Couplings
in the vertical intermix shaft disconnect at this level, and explosive bolts
beneath the floor sever the primary hull from the rest of the ship. Once the
saucer has safely landed on a planet surface, the forward floor of the H Deck
dorsal level drops down, becoming an ingress/egress ramp.
Three viewing lounges are located on I Deck. Each of these features four small
viewports, which are built into the flooring beyond a protective handrail. The
remainder of the level is occupied by the M-6 computer's backup memory banks
and super cooling system.
J Deck consists entirely of the primary hull circuit breaker room. From here,
power to all of the saucer's internal systems is monitored both manually and by
computer, insuring that unexpected energy surges do no damage to shipboard
equipment.
K Deck, also a single room, is the main sensor array monitoring station. Two
science specialists man this facility. A stairway up leads to the turbolift
door on J Deck, the bottom of the elevator shaft.
Housed within the connecting dorsal, between H and I Decks, is a three-feet
thick hull seperation system layer. This unit uses magnetic repoulsers to widen
the gap between the seperating hulls.
Specailized passenger staterooms are found within the I-K Deck dorsal levels.
These cabins are capable of maintaing the enviroments often required by
non-humanoid passengers. Atmospheric variations, including ammonia, hot
methane, and seawater fulfill the life support requirments of any member
species of the Federation. These specially insulated compartments require, on
the average, four hours of preperation time before occupancy.
A small, transparent aluminum platform, like those found on the warp
engineering levels, encircles the intermix shaft on each of the dorsal levels.
Accessed by one-man lifts, these mointoring stations are manned by engineering
personnel.
A turbolift shaft runs vertically, in semi-stairstep fashion, near the back of
the connecting dorsal. Enterpise’s newly designed Jefferies tube connects the F
Deck impulse engine room with the upper level of warp engineering on N Deck.
Vital power and propulsion circuitry is accsessed within this angled shaft,
which runs along the entire back of the connecting dorsal. The Jefferies tube
is diburnium-osmium reinforced for added saftey during combat situations.
A vertical ladder tube connects the I Deck dorsal level with N Deck in the
warp engineering section. This passageway, provides acsses between the primary
and secondary hulls in the even tof turbolift failure.
All primary hull-to-dorsal openigs (turbolift shafts, ladderways,
piping/wiring trunks, and Jefferies tube) seal off automatically at the
seperation line prior to emergency disconnection.
PHOTORP LAUNCH SYSTEM
The foundation levels of the connecting dorsal, L and M Decks, contain the
photon torpedo launch system. This two-story facility handles the storage,
arming and loading of the ships twenty photon torpedos (or “photorps,” as they
are sometimes called).
When originally refitted during her time in drydock, Enterprise was equipped
with a fully automated photorp launch system. All loading and firing procedures
were handled at the wepons staion at the bridge; this agrangment shortened the
firing order-to-launch time by twenty percent over common manual launch
systems. However, an unforeseen problem overheating problem plauged the
auto-arming system, aborting seven percent of all atempted launchings. This
design utalized the Morris Magtronics Model FP-4 torpedo, the same type used by
Enterprise during her years as a Constituation class starship.
Enterprise was brought into a newly-completed space dock facility in November
2278 for replacment of the entire photorp system. It was decided that the
vessel be equiped to handle Beltestha Missle Systems’ new Mark VI torpedo,
which had tested so succsefully at the Arcturus Deep Space Firing Range.
L and M Decks were modified to house a two-level complex of photorp storage
and launching machinery. A backup firing computer was installed on L Deck, just
aft of the turboshaft.
Enterprise’s photorp launch bay is manned at all times, though firing is
normally controlled from the bridge. Storage racks for the photorp casings are
loacted on L Deck; a loading arm magnetically clutches each casing to be fired
and inserts into an arming recpeticle, where a matter/antimatter charge is
injected and primed.
Once the explosive payload is in place, the casing travels aftward by overhead
rail then down to the M Deck launch system. There, the laoding arm releaes the
armed photorp, and it is carried into the launch tube by magnetic carrier.
The torpedo launch tube is U-shaped, creating two ejection points form which
photorps may be fired. Each side of the tube is cabable of holding fou armed
torpedoes at ready, for rapid-fire situations. The vertical intermix tube is
mounted between the arms of the launch tube, as in the dorsal’s emergency
ladderway.
At the rear of L Deck, surrounding the Jefferies tube, is the photon exhoust
system. Whenever a torpedo is fired, this mechanism forcefully ejects
superheated gasses aftward through a vent matrix in the outer hull, this
countering the inertail forces created by the departing photorp. While these
forces are quite small, they can disrupt the kinetic balance of a vessel in
motion or even propel a ship as it attempts to keep staion.
M Deck also features port and starboard docking ports. The portside hatch
opens into an airlock, through which one may enter either the torpedo bay or
the turbolift lobby. The starboard port gives accsess to a small airlock and
storage room. An observation lounge is contained on the port side, just forward
of the main airlock.
The rear porition of M Deck houses the photorp auxilary fire control room and
toilet facilities.
WARP ENGINEERING
Enterprise's warp engineering section is lodged on N and O Decks. All thrust
and power systems are primarily controlled from this site, as is the ship's
life support and gravity control equipment.
N Deck is the uppermost level of the secondary hull. It serves as the
structural support strongback of the ship, and is the anchoring framework for
the connecting dorsal and the warp pylons. On the forward end of the level is
the engineering computer monitoring room, which encircles the vertical intermix
shaft and opens, to the rear, into the engineering computer bay. The rear
bulkhead of the computer bay contains an emergency section door which lowers to
O Deck and separates the warp engine room from the extended horizontal intermix
area; the door drops down automatically in the event of radiation leak or
pressure loss.
A narrow corridor bypasses the computer bay on the port side and leads aftward
down the center of the level. On either side of this passageway are mounted the
four maneuvering thrusters which rest beneath the upper hull of the secondary
hull strongback. These thrusters are used for vessel course control when within
close proximity of drydock facilities. A turbolift accesses the starboard side
of the corridor.
At the aft end of N Deck, is the bottom of the Jeffries tube.
Ceiling height in the monitoring room and the computer bay is twelve feet (the
standard height for each level in the secondary hull); the remainder of N Deck
has a higher floor level and a ceiling height of nine feet.
O Deck is often simply referred to as “engineering.” Enterprise's warp engine
room, forward on this level, is the result of more than nine years of intensive
research and development. Every aspect of its layout contributes to a faster
crew member reaction time, with each control panel duplicated in some manner on
the main bridge for improved command monitoring and interaction capability.
Located in the center of the room, and extending for many levels above and
below the deck, is the vertical linear intermix chamber. This complex,
radically new design in intermix technology provides operational power for the
impulse drive system and furnishes enough additional energy to power all other
shipboard systems. Both matter and antimatter for the chamber are contained in
a series of magnetic bottles, which are housed in pods at the base of the
intermix shaft. These pods may be ejected from the ship in case of extreme
emergency via two large blow-away panels in the outer hull. Extending aftward
from the