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Author's Acknowledgements

I got the idea for the EHB Stenos from the unofficial USS Khai Tam Technical Orientation Manual by Kevin McNulty . However, in the interest of copyrights, I have extensively modified the Stenos with my own ideas to make it less 'Tam -like.
I would like to thank my good friend Ross Meyer , commander of the Starship Mason , in hopes that one day he will find his notebook so that I might make a technical manual for that ship too.
I also want to thank the crew of the Stenos , some of whom I like more than others <grin>: Joe Caruso, Mike Aarsvold, Rachelle King, Edward Allgeyer, Miles Crawford, Chris Petersen, Andy Gabatino, and Mark Rapacz. I want to thank my parents for supporting my love of Star Trek, and the one who I gathered my inspiration from most of all in making a fen-filled ship, Laka , at Sea Life Park in Hawaii. Were it not for her, the Stenos would be very empty. She makes a great tactical officer, too.
And finally, I want to thank Gene Roddenberry for coming up with this incredible universe to play in.
I apologize to any whom I may have forgotten, as the Stenos is a mix of ideas which I have gathered for over the past five years.

-Kris Johnson

1 History and Development

The Stenos was conceived early in the Qapla ' class design project as the PCU Relentless. The Qapla ' class project had quite a different beginning from other Federation design projects like the Mason and Smiley .
The battle at Wolf 359 taught the Federation a very painful lesson. A determined and resourceful enemy with superior technology was able to decimate a large portion of the fleet with a single ship. The Federation, long being the one to lag behind in tactics, finally decided to get its act together and stop relying on its treaty negotiations, for they too desperately wanted a ship which could decimate a large portion of an enemy's fleet.

Mission Objectives

Starfleet began realizing its starships were long outdated about five years prior to the completion of the late USS Enterprise-D . They hastily assembled a new class of ships which they felt could carry the Federation into Stardate 50000 and beyond. They were wrong.
This 'new class' was in reality a souped-up version of the old Daedalus class science vessel. The first ship of this class was named the Smiley, and under the command of Ian Stewart, proved to be a waste of deuterium. Starfleet looked on helplessly as seemingly benign races like the Bajorans began turning out massive amounts of escort fighters far beyond anything the Federation had ever conceived.
In a nutshell, the one directive by which the Federation wanted a ship built was:

1. Incorporate an intimidating design, large mass, unmatched weaponry, and Federation cunning into a starship capable of Borg-like wrath and destruction.

Starfleet dubbed this new proposal the Relentless Class Project. Their long and loyal allies, the Klingons, got wind of this undertaking and said, essentially, 'If this new class of ships can provide us with unmatched power in the quadrant, then our Empire will gladly assist the Federation in this project.' The Federation couldn't resist, but some felt the Klingons had a hidden agenda.
For their help, the Federation agreed on a new name for this elite class of vessels: Qapla ', Klingon for 'success'. The two powers quickly agreed on a few parameters:

Propulsion
Sustainable cruise velocity of Warp Factor 9.8. Ability to maintain speeds of up to Warp 9.95 for periods of up to ten hours.

Federation fifth-phase dilithium controlled matter/antimatter reactor providing primary power. This recommendation was made largely due to the better crystal efficiency and flow regulation of the Federation design.

Klingon warp drive nacelles. This recommendation was an acknowledgement of the more powerful driver coils and better lobe design of the Klingon nacelles.

Sustainable field output to exceed 2000 cochranes, peak transitional surge reserve to exceed 5000% of nominal output.

Warp field geometry to incorporate modified 55 Z-axis compression characteristics on forward warp lobe for increased peak transitional efficiency.

Klingon impulse drive systems to provide flank speeds in excess of .95c.

Bi-redundant multiport reaction control system to provide maneuverability.

Mission/Tactical
Ability to operate independent of starbase refurbishment for extended periods. Independent patrol mode of one Standard Year at nominal Warp 6 velocity.

Ability to execute tactical and strategic analyses including charting and mapping, full biological and ecological studies, and full physical science analyses.

Support facilities for high number of auxiliary spacecraft including at least two independent launch, resupply, and repair bays.

Ability to modify all weapons systems to a high degree including variable frequency phasers, multi-mode photon torpedoes, variable pulse-width disruptors, and variable geometry defensive shields.

Provide for stealth technology including variable intensity cloaking device (intended to be installed in only Klingon variants of the design), sensor absorbent hull coatings, and a wide range of countermeasures.

Environment/Crew
Tri-redundant environmental systems conforming to Starfleet Regulatory Agency (SFRA) standard 102.19 for Class M environment with no less than 5% habitable space of variable environment control.

Ability to support 800 crew and 1000 non-crew personnel for mission-specific embarkation.

All habitable volumes to be protected to SFRA standard 347.3(a) levels for electromagnetic (EM) and nuclear radiation. Subspace flux differential to be maintained within .02 millicochranes.

Developing an Answer

With these parameters, shipyards began fabricating a promising saucer-wing design early on.
The initial design was seen as too large by the engineers at the New Aberdeen Naval Yards, and, since two Galaxy class primary hull modules were available, the design was modified slightly to incorporate these hulls. Due to the finished hull, the ship would be completed in record time.

Changing Threat - New Mission

When the Borg didn't attack any other outposts, Starfleet saw them as being no longer a threat. As such, the Qapla ' class design became more exploratory in nature, modifying things such as eliminating additional fighter squadrons and two disruptor cannons, converting two torpedo tubes to probe launchers, and replacing the unused space with sensor equipment.
With these new parameters, the Federation variants became classified as an entirely new category: heavy cruiser-exploratory (HC-E). The Klingons, agreeing to the new mission outline, decided to retain the strike cruiser designation for their variant designs.
Two of the four ships were completed. The PCU Khai Tam was to be tested for space readiness, as was the Klingon Qapla '. Neither had yet been officially commissioned.
The Khai Tam was on her initial shakedown cruise in sector 29300 when Romulans stole her right under Starfleet's nose. Starfleet sent the USS Dauphin-A to get her and the President back. Captain Kris Johnson on the Dauphin was ultimately successful; however, both the Khai Tam and Dauphin-A were destroyed.
Now it got interesting. The Klingons had broken the treaty by attacking the USS Defiant and station Deep Space Nine at the same time the Dauphin-A had confirmed the Khai Tam destroyed, and they attacked the Dauphin and the USS Mason too. Delivery of the IKV Targ & Qapla ' was immediately suspended, and dismantling began that very week.
But the Federation had one Qapla ' left: the Relentless . Now, with no real allies, the Federation got smart. They used parts from the completed Qapla' , modified them for a Federation crew, and rushed completion to 7 months of non-stop work. They reinstalled the outboard torpedo tubes, eliminated half the Federation shuttles and all the Klingon ones and replaced them with 2 Amicus fighter squadrons and some escort fighters, added a cloak, ablative armor, interphase device, planetary landing capabilities, tachyon scanning grid, three more torpedo tubes under one wing, and an X-A1 phaser cannon under the other. Now they were the ones to be feared.
Then they thought, 'Hey, here's our chance to try our Neo-fen in a command structure.' They were talking about 75% of the Stenos crew, the Neo-dolphins. Including the second-in-command, Commander Hwiii, its incredible tactical officer, Commander Laka, and Lieutenant-Commander Mankanee, the ship's chief medical officer. They gathered the best and brightest, brought them to the Stenos , and converted three-fourths of the crew quarters to fin environments,
The fen hated the name 'Relentless '. They wanted something fearsome. Lieutenant K'tha-Jon suggested 'Stenos', from his species, Steno bredanesis, rough-toothed fen. Johnson loved it, and the name stuck.
Yes, Starfleet pretty much said 'screw the Romulan treaty' when they fitted the Stenos with a cloaking device. But they were tired of getting their butts kicked by Zibalian Freighters.
Now all they needed was a captain. For Johnson's recovery of the President the Federation was eternally grateful. So, they decided that it was only fair to offer him the command. He took it immediately.

2 Design and Construction

Being the first - and possibly the last - Qapla ' class vessel ever commissioned, the Stenos is a unique blend of two cultures' technology, designed to bring out the best of both worlds. With the Federation and Klingon Empires being on almost exactly opposite ends of the Science/Tactical spectrum, the forces united to make a ship of unrivaled versatility, beauty, and power.
Although cloaking devices are prohibited on Federation vessels according to the Treaty of Algeron, Starfleet decided that, with the Klingons as no longer aligned and the enemy threat building, instillation of a cloak was warranted over breaking the treaty. The agreement of no cloaks would have probably never been made, had the Federation not had as strong an alliance with the Klingons as they did when the treaty was signed.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Stenos is its crew. Comprised of over 75% cetaceans, the Stenos is a test bed for the Federation's newest members: Neo-fen. The Neo-fen on the Stenos , otherwise known as Neo-dolphins, are cetaceans in Starfleet who requested a starship assignment rather than staying on planetary colonies such as Alast and performing research tasks. There were hundreds signed up for a ship, and Starfleet decided this was a good chance for them, as they had been waiting so long (one fin had been on the list for 13 years) and Starfleet was short on crew for the Qapla ' class project.
A dolphin's natural 3-D sense made them perfect for a tactical duty. As such, special fighters were developed just for them. Two squadrons of two different types of fighters and a detachment of escorts are carried on board. See Chapter 11 for more information.

General Physical Arrangement

The Stenos is huge, intimidating, and powerful; all of which come together in one, smooth, flowing design.
The Qapla ' is built around a standard Galaxy class primary hull, with two folding wings extending outwards from the saucer, each approximately one-quarter of a kilometer wide, giving the Stenos an overall width of just over one kilometer, easily the broadest ship in either Federation or Empire history.
The saucer-wing design was extremely successful in the early Romulan Bird-of-Prey in the mid 2200s. One of the reasons it was popular with the Romulans is in the design's unique warp field geometry. This design also presents numerous benefits, as well as some disadvantages.
Among the benefits are the widely spaced warp nacelles, giving the Stenos an energy signature more akin to two scout ships flying in formation rather than an advanced warship. The thin bow & stern profiles also present problems with long-range enemy sensor scans, as the ship is nearly invisible if it is not within much more than 100 kilometers. The ship also has incredible roll and yaw maneuvering response.
The flip-side of the Stenos's maneuverability is lower pitch maneuverability. The Reaction Control System (RCS) is vital in maneuvering as loss of part of the system would lead to violent yaw and roll stresses.
The width of the ship makes it prone to torsional stress, the very reason for the large structural ring assembly. Related to the ring assembly is the reason for the lack of the originally planned third disruptor in its center; computer schematics showed that plasma tubing to the third disruptor would be extremely vulnerable to damage, and would have to be routed through the center of the ship, potentially exposing a large volume of the interior to highly toxic and volatile plasma. Therefore, it was decided to forego the third disruptor, as well as the one on the separable hull, due to the limited size of a plasma storage unit.
The separable hull, called the 'dorsal fin' of the ship by the Neo-fen, contains decks one through four, including the main bridge. This hull was originally planned to be detachable in battle to carry families and non-combatants to safety, but Starfleet decided that families on the Stenos would be at too great a risk, and the dorsal fin would be used to give the Stenos a tactical edge against a single enemy.
Other major exterior features are the large shuttlebay doors on the underside of the ship. These open into one of the largest shuttlebays on any ship, short of a shuttlecarrier. The Stenos is also the only ship which carries Amicus class fighters. See chapter 11 for more on them.

Construction Chronology

The PCU Relentless was begun about a year later than the Khai Tam and Qapla ' because, while Galaxy class hulls were available for those ships, the one for the Relentless had to be hand-made. The project was scheduled for completion around 2379, but when the parts from the Klingon variants became available after the treaty was broken, construction rapidly increased and the ship was finished a full 5 years ahead of schedule.

2367

Relentless Class Development Project officially approved. Main directive to build around is Borg threat.
Klingons join project, renamed the Qapla ' class. Many new ideas are fabricated, including the saucer-wing design, by the Klingons.

2368

Galaxy class hull idea submitted, accepted. Work begins on Khai Tam and Qapla ' at New Aberdeen Yards at Aldebaran. Ideas for building scratch hulls for the Relentless and Targ reviewed.

2369

Materials ordered for Relentless and Targ . Construction on other vessels continues smoothly.

2373

Keel laid for Relentless in August. Problems delay Qapla's commissioning by almost a year. Khai Tam undergoes first testing, is stolen by Romulans, and destroyed. Klingons break treaty by attacking DS9. Delivery of Klingon variant designs canceled. Dismantling begins.

2374

Components from Qapla' are modified and installed into Relentless frame at Hikahi Ship Yards orbiting Kithrup. Ship is completed in 7 months.

July 4, 2374

PCU Relentless is officially commissioned as the Experimental Heavy Battlecruiser Stenos . Disarray between Klingons and Federation increases steadily.

Figure 2.1

The EHB Stenos's insignia. The three Qapla' class ships represent the human crew, dolphin crew, and ship working together to defend the Federation, symbolized by the dolphin in the center.

3 Command Systems

The Stenos could be almost thought of as being two ships, in the fact that she has two almost identical bridges: a normal bridge on deck one, and a highly secure Combat Information Center (CIC) on deck 8, in a similar position to the Battle Bridge on a Galaxy class vessel. But the CIC is much more than a battle bridge; it is the core of tactical intelligence on board the Stenos . In some intense Red Alert situations, the captain has the option of transferring command over to the CIC.

Main Bridge

If the sensors of a ship are its eyes and the communications system is its voice, then the bridge can be thought of as its 'guiding intelligence'. The bridge is located at the very top of the separable hull on deck one. It serves the captain and senior officers as the main control center of the Stenos . Heavily influenced by Klingons in its design, both the main bridge and the CIC reflect this in their angular walls, high captain's chair, and superior tactical efficiency.

Workstations

The main bridge's stations are, from the captain's position, in front of him from left to right: Ops, Tactical, and Conn, and to his left and right are the second and first officers, respectively. On the far left wall are the Science I and II stations, and on the opposite wall, Engineering and Mission Ops. All stations use the standard Galaxy touch interface, though the interface on the Stenos is slightly more sensitive to eliminate errors and retries.
All three command chairs have small displays built into the foot rest and arm rest, of which the arm rest display can be folded out and over the lap of the seat occupant. This serves three purposes: it restrains the seat occupant in case of violent maneuvers, it serves as a table, and it presents a larger screen than the armrest of the Galaxy does.

Captain's Ready Room & Other Facilities

Abaft the senior officer's chairs is the captain's ready room. This room contains a convertabed, desk with three chairs, a head, ward, replicator, and bookshelves. In a crisis the captain could spend several days and nights on the bridge, and the ward contains space for several fresh uniforms.
Abaft this room is the Command Conference Room 1, a half-deck below the bridge. Other facilities on the bridge includes two turbolifts each with standby cars, emergency rations and a replicator, a head, emergency turbolift to the CIC, and the standard Galaxy viewscreen.

Main Bridge Operations
Whenever possible all positions on the main bridge are occupied, save the rear Science I and II, Engineering, and Mission Ops stations, except during the night watch, which only requires two officers of lieutenant rank or higher. All positions (actually, throughout the ship) have removable command chairs (via transporter) due to the fact that any position may be manned by fen at any time.
Whenever any station except First or Second Officer is unoccupied, a Yeoman will man them temporarily. This setup in the command chain is quite different from the one originally conceived by the Qapla' design team. Then again, the Stenos is quite different from the design originally planned, too.

Combat Information Center

The CIC is one of the best protected areas of the ship - and for good reason. The CIC is a more tactical-oriented version of the main bridge. Its nearly identical design makes it easier for crew and crewfen who regularly switch between the bridge and CIC. All positions are identical, with the addition of four behind the captain, from left to right: Tactical Sensors, Intelligence, Fire Control, and Shuttle Ops.

CIC Operations
The CIC was originally planned to be the bridge whenever a Red Alert was called. However, this practice proved to be extremely time consuming in moving half of the bridge crew on a turbolift to deck 8 every time an enemy ship appeared. As a result, the CIC is now used as the main bridge for the primary hull when the separable module is detached, and as a backup if the main bridge is disabled. The CIC is manned by one officer or fin of lieutenant rank or higher at all times.

Main Engineering

In case both bridges are disabled, the Engineering section can handle most vital ship functions. However, if the CIC is inoperable, there would likely be not much of a ship left to command, as it is in nearly the center of the ship.

Impulse Engineering

In separated flight mode, Impulse Engineering is the backup to the Main Bridge. In docked configuration, Impulse Engineering is a backup to Main Engineering.

4 Computer Systems

The Stenos uses the new Intrepid software architecture, which means that the standard interfaces are identical to those on an Intrepid class ship. The Federation-designed LCARS (Library Computer Access and Retrieval System) makes the Stenos's computer system extremely user-friendly.

Cores

Although the Galaxy class made use of only two computer cores in its primary hull, the Stenos has three: two main cores located exactly opposite each other, and a 'mini-core' in the separable hull. Although any one of the cores is capable of running the entire ship by itself, most non-essential functions, such as holodecks, would be shut down to conserve speed. For the mini-core, all holodecks and some replicators, turbolifts, and library terminals would have to be shut down.

Core Memory & Processing Capability
The Qapla' class has newer, marginally faster (3400 millicochranes versus 3350) cores, which translates into enormous increases in FTL (Faster Than Light) processing. Additional tweaking resulted in extra memory space, which was utilized immediately for the Klingon software.

Subprocessors & Slave Processors

One of the reasons the Stenos is so much faster in processing speed is by the use of Klingon slave processors. Slave processors are processors which perform dedicated tasks, reliving the main system of vital but mundane actions, which translates into a logarithmic increase in FTL processing speed. Additionally, due to the Stenos's smaller mass compared to a Galaxy class, the Stenos uses only 200 quadritronic optical processors, 180 less than the Galaxy .

Datalinks

The cores, subprocessors, slave processors, and I/O devices are all linked via the Optical Data Network, or ODN. The ODN is a network of fiber optic cables run throughout the ship, processing data from all of the above mentioned areas at FTL speeds. (See chp. 7 for ODN information.)
Redundancies are abundant. One is a dedicated Radio-Frequency (RF) network, which provides emergency data access to vital areas such as the Main Bridge, CIC, Engineering, Sickbay, Main Engineering, and Impulse Engineering. The network is made complete with dedicated links to all Tricorders, PADDs, Comm Badges, and Fin Harnesses.
One last redundant system is a network of damage-resistant wires which carries digitized electrical impulses. This system is very slow, but has proven its worth many times on Klingon ships over the years.

5 Propulsion

One of the most difficult - and most rewarding - integration of two designs would probably be the Stenos's propulsion system. Combining Klingon hardware with Federation software was no simple task. But in the end, the marriage paid off.

Warp Propulsion

The Warp Propulsion System (WPS) could be considered the heartbeat of the ship. Without it, the Stenos wouldn't be able to fulfill its primary mission: to defend the Federation at whatever cost. But then, it probably couldn't do it without any of the other systems, either.
The original problem: how to fairly combine both civilizations' technology into a reasonable propulsion system. In the solution to this problem the Daystrom Institute's Propulsion division (DIP) played an integral part in the design of the WPS. DIP started with a basic saucer-wing design model, and built up a feasible mix of the two technologies around it. The final product, with some minor adjustments by the Qapla ' class design team, showed to be the most viable solution.
There were still other problems, however. The warp dynamics proposed by the DIP model was not feasible by either technology alone. The design team worked on this problem for hours, when finally, the Klingons came up with a solution: Romulans.
The Klingons helped introduce warp propulsion into the early, and highly successful, Romulan Bird-of-Prey. Also a saucer-wing design, the Klingons gained intimate knowledge of warp dynamics and saucer-wing ships, not to mention the cloaking device, from helping the Romulans. They came to a conclusion that, with some major changes, the basic framework of the B.O.P. warp dynamics could be transferred over to the Qapla' class. After almost 4 months of trial-and-error testing, the solution was finally reached.
One of the problems that was actually created by solving this one was how to move a ship that was only slightly less massive than a Galaxy class vessel (4.43 million metric tons to the Galaxy's 4.96 m.m.t.) at warp speeds significantly higher than a Galaxy class was capable of. This not only required a more rigid and secure hull, but a larger power plant as well. This instance succeeded from integrating both technologies.
The Klingons, lacking dilithium crystals as pure as the Federation had, developed more powerful driver coils to offset this. On the other hand, the Federation had higher quality dilithium, but as a result, less powerful driver coils. Combining these strengths and weaknesses led to a super-powerful and super-effecient warp drive for the Qapla ' class.
Perhaps something good came out of an apparently bad situation: the first vessel of this class, the Klingon Qapla' , was delayed in commissioning because the ship could only reach warp 5.2 before resonance from the driver coils exerted violent vibration stresses on the ship. Overcoming this problem delayed the Qapla's commissioning by almost a year. But if she had been commissioned as scheduled, the Klingons would have had her to attack DS9 and whatever else they wanted to. The Federation got lucky.
Another good thing to come out of the warp field design was the large empty space under the ship's hull. While not exceptionally large, this space would allow the Stenos to carry a deployed runabout or shuttle within her own warp envelope. This theory remains to be tested.

Matter/Antimatter Reaction Assembly

Unique to the Stenos is the mounting of the Matter/Antimatter Reaction Assembly (M/ARM). Because of the ship's shallow draft, mounting the M/ARM vertically would cause it to stick out about 10 feet above or below the hull, which would not be a good thing. The solution was to mount it horizontally, entirely on deck 12, with the dilithium crystal assembly accessible only from the mezzanine catwalk in Main Engineering.
One of the problems with this design was how it would be ejected in an emergency. The solution was to install an explosive ejection mechanism which would expel the M/ARM through the bottom of the hull in an extreme emergency, and the antimatter pods would be blown out the back.

Power Transfer Conduits

The Power Transfer Conduits (PTC) run down from the M/ARA and then split between decks 13 and 14 to run out to the wings, and then to the nacelles. The PTCs are also equipped with explosive shear-plane joints directly below the ends of the warp core, allowing for complete ejection of the entire M/ARA-PTC assembly in an extreme emergency.
The only change in the PTC system from its Galaxy class counterpart is in the EPS taps. The Stenos has four, rather than three on the Galaxy , the fourth being connected to each disruptor at the 'elbow' joint of each wing. This showed to be the easiest place to connect the EPS feed to the disruptor, and proved not to affect the weapon's effectiveness.

Warp Field Nacelles
The Stenos's nacelles are identical in design to those on the Klingon Vor'cha craft, although much, much larger. Each nacelle also features an explosive ejection routine to propel the nacelle away at a rate of 25 meters/second.

Impulse Propulsion

One of the most improved designs on the Stenos from other Federation ships is its impulse systems. The system not only gives flank speeds in excess of .95 c., but uses a complex matrix of spatial distorters and flux matrices to eliminate the time dilation effect common to high-speed impulse flight.
This high speed required a Klingon Impulse Propulsion System (IPS) to propel the Stenos . The huge IPS assembly on a Vor'cha class vessel, for example, would be more than adequate to replace all three IPS engines on a Galaxy, even though the Vor'cha is half the size of the Galaxy .

IPS Engine Configuration
The IPS design called for two large IPS assemblies, consisting of three Klingon TT420 impulse engines each for the primary hull, and 2 smaller ones on the separable hull consisting of a single TT420 each.
Use of careful thrust vectoring is crucial to maintain straight and level flight whether the separable hull module is docked or not. On the separable hull itself, the impulse engines must be carefully vectored to cancel each other's directional vector out due to their placement on either side of shuttlebay two.

IPS Engine Control
The one thing the Klingons lacked was engine control. Their engine controllers were crude and inaccurate, leading to acceleration lag and inexact speeds. This was unacceptable on a Federation ship.
Four million lines of code written by Federation engineers solved the problem by rewriting the Klingon engine controller subroutines. Fuel efficiency for the Impulse Reaction Chambers (IRC) was poor on the original Qapla' class design, but has been improved in the Stenos by use of more precise IRCs.
Low Velocity Maneuvering
Initially, the design team looked at several thruster designs to provide low-sublight maneuvering capability to the Qapla' class. The team finally settled on a Federation package that would utilize existing impulse engine Vectored Exhaust Directors (VEDs) to distribute maneuvering thrust. A design using the IPS as thrusters was considered, but dismissed, due to the high energy consumption when the Stenos was assigned to missions longer than one year.

6 Weapons

The Stenos's weapons system is the reason for which she was built. Utilizing multiple weapon designs and state-of-the-art sensors to guide them, the Stenos has one of the most advanced weapons system of any ship ever encountered by the Federation.

Torpedoes

The Stenos carries six types of torpedoes, eleven tubes forward, and six tubes aft. This allows the firing of up to 220 torpedoes out of all forward tubes at the same time!
The Stenos's torpedo stock consists of four types of Klingon torpedoes and two types of Federation torpedoes, including the Mark V, specifically designed for the Qapla' class project.

Klingon Torpedoes
The four types of Klingon torpedoes carried by the Stenos are the type one, a standard Bird-of-Prey round with a fixed yield, the slightly larger type two, and the types three and four. Type threes and fours are guided, while ones and twos are unguided once they leave the tube.

Federation Torpedoes
Two types of Federation torpedoes are carried; the Mark IVq, a standard Starfleet torpedo fitted with a sabot for more effective launching from the new rounded tubes, and the Mark V, a five-part torpedo which splits into four torpedoes after launch. Each small torpedo carries a warhead roughly 75% of a type one.

Mines

The Stenos carries two types of mines: the Klingon Gravitic Mine, and the special Qapla' class Energy Attractant Static Explosive-1 (EASE-1), otherwise called the 'Exploding Leech'. The EASE-1 can attach itself to the shields or hull of an opposing ship, and explode when the shields drop or when signaled to.
The standard Gravitic Mine is extremely small and hard to detect. It uses whisper-jet propulsion and can explode on contact, perimeter, or manually detonated. Mines cannot be used at warp speeds.

Phasers

Phasers on the Stenos are the identical Type X phaser arrays used on the Galaxy . Emitters are located on the dorsal and ventral sides of the primary hull, on each nacelle, and on both sides of the rear of the separable hull.
The Stenos's phasers have benefited from Borg encounters in that they now automatically change frequency. Beam width, intensity, and the actual target can also be set to random. The phasers can be fired as a beam or pulse.
The computer's phaser system is 'intelligent', in that it learns what frequencies do the most damage, which ones do the least, the best intensity to use on various ships, etc. This makes it so the Stenos improves its firepower after each encounter.

Disruptors

The Stenos carries two forward GLG-20 disruptors, one under each wing. The GLG-20 is a larger version to the popular GLG-17, used on all Klingon Bird-of-Prey designs.
Disruptors fire bursts of energetic plasma at rapid intervals. They are more powerful than phasers at close range, but this advantage quickly lessens over range. They are also nowhere near as adaptable as phasers to counter a Borg-like threat.

The Phaser Cannon

The Stenos carries one phaser cannon under the starboard wing. The cannon is frequency-adjustable like phasers, but is 5 to 10 times more powerful. It does, however, use a tremendous amount of energy, and it takes 10 seconds to power up for each blast. The advantage is clear when one shot at full power disintegrates a Klingon Bird-of-Prey.

Deflector Shields

Essential for defense, the deflector shields on the Stenos use a twin-shield design that drastically shortens the regeneration time. Like any energy shield, the deflectors must be periodically regenerated to maintain intensity. The Stenos utilizes two shields to make this period when the shield is weakened before regeneration as short as possible. This prevents the possibility of a transporter beam being insinuated through the shields.
The Stenos also has metaphasic shielding which feeds off of Electromagnetic (EM) Radiation, like that found inside a star's corona, to strengthen the shield. They are invaluable for hiding a ship inside the corona of a star, but are also useful for studying stellar phenomena closely, the reason for which they were developed.

Cloaking Shields

The Stenos contains a cloaking shield which renders the ship invisible on command. In fact, the ship is so wide that three cloaking generators were required to hide the entire ship. Cloaking shields prevent the firing of weapons or the use of deflector shields, but transporters can still be used.

Interphase Device

Integrated into the cloaking device is an interphase generator. The generator/cloak is identical to the one which was unsuccessfully tested on the Pegasus over 15 years ago.
The interphase device, when activated, causes the ship to vibrate out of sync with normal matter. This allows the ship to effectively go through anything, including weapons and other ships. The cloaking device and interphase device are integrated with each other, and neither can be used independently.

Ablative Armor

The Stenos also has one more defensive system, though it is generally thought of as a backup system only: ablative armor. Ablative armor has reflective properties to energy, and when hit with, say, a phaser, the armor will reflect approximately 75% of the energy, absorbing some. The armor tested well on the USS Defiant , and it was decided to apply it to the Stenos as well.

7 IWS Operations

The weapons systems on board the Stenos are extremely important. As such, we're going to take a detailed look into all of them, starting with the most complicated, the Photon Torpedoes.

Torpedo Operations

Being the most complex system by far, the torpedo system is even more complicated with the addition of five tubes forward.
The Main Torpedo Bay (MTB) includes all forward tubes, save the wing mounted ones. Torpedo bays 2, 3, and 4 are on the aft portion of the ship, numbered from starboard to port, tubes 9-14. Torpedo bay 5 is the underwing bay consisting of three tubes.

Main Torpedo Bay
The MTB includes, from port to starboard, the port outboard tube 1, tubes 2 and 3, 4 and 5, and 6 and 7 arranged in pairs, and the outboard tube 8 on the starboard side.
Tubes 1-3 and 8 are for type 1 torpedoes only, while the other tubes may be loaded with any type.

Torpedo Bays 2 and 4
Located on the aft section of the primary hull, bay 2 contains tubes 9 and 10, while bay 4 contains tubes 13 and 14. They are identical in function to the rack system used in the MTB, except they contain 50 gravitic mines instead of type 2 torpedoes, and 10 EASE1 mines in place of type 3 and Mark V torpedoes.

Torpedo Bay 3
A unique case in the separable hull, tubes 11 and 12 in TB3 hold only type one torpedoes, intended to be a defense-only affair.

Torpedo Bay 5
TB5 is located under the port wing, and contains tubes 15-17. These tubes operate exactly the same as the multi-round tubes on the front of the ship.

Torpedo Loading
The type one-only tubes (1-3, 8, 11 and 12) have simple, fast, reliable sequential loaders that hold 20 torpedoes each.
The remaining tubes have complex rack system loaders instead. The racks are five levels deep (3 at tube, 1 & 2 below, 4 & 5 above), and each rack holds one type of torpedo. The type two rack is 20 torpedoes deep, the type 3 and Mark IVq racks are 15 torpedoes deep, and the Type 4 and Mark V racks are 10 torpedoes deep.
Within 30 seconds any type of torpedo can be chambered into the tube and prepared to fire. In one minute a round can be removed from the chamber, re-racked, and a new round chambered to produce any ordinance load desired.

Targeting Data
Each torpedo receives sensor information while in the tube via a collar affixed to each torpedo. While en route to the chamber, every torpedo receives a steady flow of targeting information, updated continuously up until the moment the torpedo leaves the tube. The information usually includes the location of the target/target area, best course and speed to intercept, and safety range. The safety range is to prevent the torpedo, if it misses the target, to continue on indefinitely until it hits something. When the torpedo exceeds the range, it will self-destruct.

Launch Modes
Each torpedo has various options in which to be launched:

Snapshot

- When there is no time to assemble Target Mode Analysis (TMA), a torpedo is simply launched on the bearing of a suspected weapon or contact. This is the least desirable launch mode as it has a high degree of failure.

Bearing-Only Launch (BOL)

- A torpedo is launched on a known target bearing. The range is unknown, so if the safety range is set to closer than the target is, the torpedo may actually self-destruct before it would have hit the target.

Range-Bearing Launch (RBL)

- An RBL is when a range and bearing is known. This mode has five variations:

1) RBL-Dead

Is when a target's exact range and position is known. The TMA has calculated the exact firing solution in an RBL-Dead launch as well.

2) RBL-Small

Is the mode in which the general area of the target is known, but the torpedo will need to undertake a short search to lock on exactly.

3) RBL-Large

requires the torpedo to perform a larger area search than the RBL-Small mode. TMA may be faulty or rapidly changing.

4) RBL-Autonomous

Is used when a target is not in the expected position when the torpedo arrives. If the target is not located within the safety range or programmed time allotment, the torpedo will self-destruct.

5) RBL-Reacquire

Is for the big torpedoes when the ship wishes for the torpedo to reattack a target it missed on an RBL launch.

Figure 7.1

This chart shows the ideal launch modes for each type of torpedo.

-: Acceptable +: Optimal

Mine Operations

The mine system of the Stenos is both efficient and cost-effective. Although many races simply state that there are mines in a given area in order to close it to traffic (including the Federation), the Stenos is equipped to both confirm these 'press releases' and to remove mines, if any are found.

Mine Laying
The mine-laying equipment is so efficient that the entire ship's compliment of mines can be laid in just under ten minutes. As each mine is laid, its position is carefully recorded for retrieval later.
All mines must be laid from a low initial velocity; their small propulsion systems would be incapable of stopping them if they were launched at high sublight speeds. Warp speed mine laying is extremely risky and never performed.

Minesweeping
Any ship, like the ill-fated USS Denver , can be a minesweeper...once. But the Stenos is specifically suited to minesweeping operations. Active sensors are used and low-level phaser bursts detonate the mine a safe distance from the ship.
When recovering her own mines, the Stenos can send a triple-layer encrypted signal, deactivating the mine, and beam the mines back on board to re-rack them for later use.

Disruptor Operations

Less complex than phasers, disruptors are the weapon of choice for fast maneuvers and space dogfights. The Stenos's twin GLG-20 disruptors can be fired together or individually.
Disruptors operate something like the following: plasma from the EPS tap is fed into the weapon's artery, just behind the firing chamber. When the order to fire is given, the plasma is drawn into the chamber through a breech, the breech is closed, and the plasma is fired at a speed around .9c. The chamber is cleaned of plasma residue by a low-level magnetic charge and the weapon is reset for another round. The entire operation takes only milliseconds.

Phaser Operations

The phasers are the Stenos's most configurable weapon, with crews able to control beam frequency, width, intensity, etc. (See Chapter 6 for more info on phasers).
To fire, the phaser energizes its emitters by drawing EPS energy and fires its beam. If a steady beam was called for, the EPS tap is kept open.

Phaser Cannon Operations

Like the phasers, the phaser cannon uses EPS energy to energize its emitter. Unlike the phasers, however, the phaser cannon has one monstrous fifteen-meter diameter emitter and it stores the EPS energy drawn until it reaches the amount requested. The tap is then closed, and the emitter is energized, sending out one huge burst of energy. The charge time is five to fifteen seconds, depending on setting, and is very power-intensive.

8 Utilities & Auxiliary Systems

Utilities

All of the Stenos's stores, including water, organic food stock, energetic plasma, and gravitons must be distributed to all parts of the ship. This is accomplished by a complex network of conduits and Jeffries' tubes.

Major Utilities Networks (MUN)
The utilities included in the MUN are:

Power: Two major networks with several redundant backups handle power distribution. Most major systems rely on the EPS system for power. The energetic plasma produced by the WPS, IPS, or aux. fusion generators i carried by a series of waveguides or conduits to the systems which require them.

Optical Data Network (ODN): A new Intrepid class ODN carries data throughout the Stenos. Five redundant ODN trunks serve the ship, and any one is capable of handling the load which is usually equally distributed among all five.
The secure communications ODN lines are run through neutronium compartments and are protected by crypto-lock security to prevent tampering.

Atmosphere: The several safeguards built into this systems include three major independent ducting networks, all capable of handling the entire habitable volume of the ship individually, but usually two are kept online at all times.
Smaller systems handle the areas of the ship converted to class H, K, L, N, and N(2) environments, but there are currently no personnel on board the Stenos who require these special atmospheric settings.
The ones on board who do require a change in atmosphere are the fen. Their quarters are specially designed to be water-filled, and reconfigured for them. The water is kept inside when the door is opened by a low-power forcefield.
The Amicus fighters also have water-filled fin pods. See chapter 11 for more information.

Water: Water is transferred through standard reinforced pipes from tanks located between the main structural members in the forward area of the structural ring. Running parallel to these are the return waste water conduits.
The fin quarters have dedicated water in and out tubing running off the main lines. These recycle the complete volume of the quarters every 15 minutes of so to keep them clean.

Waste Disposal: Solid wastes are transferred to recovery systems (Chp. 13) through linear induction conduits. Due to the conduit bulkiness, they have no backup. If the system is down crew members must hand-carry wastes to the processors.

Transporter Energy: Klingon-designed highly reliable conduits interlink the transporters to their pattern buffers and emitters. This is a highly interconnected system to ensure safety.
Replicator & Food Service Energy : The food replicator system is bi-redundant and connected via this system to the raw-storage areas throughout the ship. Emergency food supplies are located in lockers and storage compartments around the ship in case the system goes offline.

SIF/IDF Power: The Stenos has eight redundant Structural Integrity Field (SIF) systems, two each in the primary hull, separable hull, and each wing.
Any one system can handle the entire ship's SIF, but normally it is shared among all eight. The Inertial Dampening Field system (IDF) is usually arranged in pairs with the SIF. Without these systems stress from warp speed would literally tear the ship apart, so naturally all the SIF and IDF systems are highly redundant and safeguarded.
Due to the permanently installed underwing packages, each hardpoint which can be equipped with an SIF/IDF generator is. The generators are beamed in and hooked up within an hour. They compensate for the immense stress the packages place on the wings.

Gravity : The Stenos's synthetic gravity is controlled by hundreds of small generators located throughout the deck plates. These generators are interconnected to allow the conservation of gravity is one or more should fail.

Cryogenic Fluids: Required for scientific and engineering purposes, cryogenic fluids are transferred by individual piping conduits. Cryogenic transfer of atmospheric components is accomplished through two redundant systems which connect the storage tanks with the atmospheric processors.

Deuterium : Fuel for the WPS, IPS, and auxiliary fusion generators is stored as slush deuterium in conformal tanks throughout the ship - the main tank just above the M/ARA matter injector on deck 11. They are connected to the end-use device by two independent insulated conduit networks.

Reserve Utilities Network (RUN)

The RUN is a limited, low capacity utilities network which can supply atmosphere, power, data, and water for a limited period, usually up to 40 hours. When in use, supplies are only used for critical uses and turbolift use is restricted to command authorization.

Protected Utilities Network (PUN)
The PUN is the last-ditch emergency backup network for atmosphere, data, power, and water. It supplies only critical systems and emergency shelter areas.

Independent Emergency Systems (IES)
The Main Bridge, CIC, Sickbay Complex and certain other critical areas have independent power, data, and atmosphere systems which can operate without any utility network. These systems can be engaged at any time, but are usually only after failure of the PUN. The only exception to this policy is in Sickbay, which is engaged when the ship goes to red alert. This frees the computer of running Sickbay and allows the Sickbay to run without interruption in its systems. The Sickbay IES can run for up to 100 hours, while other systems can only run for up to 30 hours.

Additional Utilities Systems
Jeffries Tubes: These tubes are used for emergency access to systems and when turbolifts are down.

Corridor Access Panels: Access to non-secure utilities is also available through corridor access panels. These are located behind removable wall panels in most corridors.
The panels are electromagnetically sealed under normal cruise mode, requiring a special engineering tool to decouple the lock. Under alert conditions, the locks are disabled and any crew member may detach the panel simply by pulling up and out.

Emergency Lockers: Water and emergency food rations are stored in emergency lockers under the Corridor Access Panels at every major corridor junction. They usually also contain environmental suits and emergency supplies. Usually they are enough for crew members to stabilize casualties and/or to get to an emergency shelter or escape lifeboat. A small locker of this type is also located in every stateroom.

Exterior Connect Hardpoints

The Stenos has two sets of exterior connect hardpoints, replenishment and service. A third set of ordinance hardpoints is located on the wings, but it was decided to permanently attach two units to them, therefore preventing anything else from being attached to them.

Replenishment Hardpoints
A series of six hardpoints on the top of the separable hull allow goods to be transferred onto the ship when they are exhausted, including organic food, water, oxygen, etc.

Service Hardpoints
Service hardpoints include hardpoints designed for service and docking. Examples are the three gangway/docking hatches located on the forward centerline, port and starboard sides of the primary hull. Due to the long wings gangway umbilicals are almost always connected to the forward hatch.
Turbolift pass-throughs are located at the top of the main bridge. Also located at the top of the separable hull are two large elliptical personnel transfer tunnel connectors. Bulk cargo is loaded mainly through the two shuttlebays and the replenishment hardpoints.
Below the replenishment hardpoints and forward of shuttlebay two is the ship's Main Cargo Complex with ten holds of varying size and configuration. Most cargo bays are in the separable hull so they may be used as emergency shelters in case of hull separation.
Other cargo bays are placed around the hangar deck on Deck 17, and various smaller specialized holds which utilize cargo transporters to move goods are located on Decks 8 and 11. The large bunk rooms on Deck 11 can also be configured for small cargo use.

Ordinance Hardpoints
The Qapla' class design included four exterior ordinance hardpoints to which a multitude of offensive weapons, defensive weapons, and accessories could be attached. However, when the Stenos's mission became one that called more for firepower than versatility, a phaser cannon and three auxiliary torpedo tubes were permanently attached to the hardpoints. These still can, however, be ejected in an emergency.

Auxiliary Power

Main power is usually produced by the WPS or IPS. There is, however, a system of auxiliary fusion generators around the ship to provide additional power in case of main power failure or all WPS/IPS power is needed for their respective propulsion systems. The generators themselves are small replicas of Federation IPS reaction chambers and are located in areas of the ship least likely to sustain battle damage.
In case of total generator failure, key areas of the Stenos are equipped with sarium krellide power cells (like the ones used in communicators, though much larger) for reserve power capacity. They are kept at a constant charge of nearly 100% charge via the EPS connections during normal cruise mode. Without applied charge, their power level will degrade to about 50% after 5 week of non-use. Under heavy use, the cells will typically last 30 to 60 hours, depending on active systems.

Reaction Control System (RCS)

Fine maneuvering is accomplished through the use of the ship's RCS which consists of 22 engine emplacements, each of which houses a primary and back-up RCS engine.
The great maneuverability of the Stenos is due to two factors: the high number of RCS packages, and the distance between them. The wingtip RCS packages, for example, use the wings as levers and the center of the primary hull as their distant fulcrum. Because of this, with full SIF/IDF output, the ship can accomplish a snap-roll maneuver in a matter of seconds that would normally present over 20g of force on the ship. Similar yaw performance is also available. However, due to the Stenos's relatively short length, pitch maneuverability is slightly lower than a Galaxy class vessel.
RCS packages are located on each warp nacelle hardpoint, as well as on each wing on the leading and trailing edges near the disruptor cannon. Larger Galaxy/Nebula class RCS packages are used on the 'corners' of the primary hull. Four smaller packages are used around the aft end of the separable hull, and two units are on the port and starboard sides of the front of the separable hull. These forward units are covered by the primary hull in docked configuration and therefore are not used in normal operation (they therefore carry a limited fuel supply).
The individual units are Federation-standard gas-fusion/magnetohydrodynamic trap devices with mooring/docking tractor beam emitters. Since Federation & Klingon RCS designs are coincidentally similar, Federation RCS systems were the natural choice due to the finished Galaxy class hulls, and this design carried over to the Stenos's hand-built frame.

Navigational Deflectors

The Qapla' class's narrow vertical dimension did not permit the installation of the standard Federation dish (not only that, it would look god-ugly). The Klingons, who never used the dish in their designs, came up with an elegant wing-mounted systems that made use of thin, phased-array deflectors. Located in the leading edge of each wing, each deflector projects an elliptical deflection field which overlaps on the primary hull, the inhabited area of the ship.
The separable hull has a similar but smaller phased-array unit in its forward end. It is covered by the primary hull in docked configuration and is not used in normal operations.

Long-Range Sensor Considerations
Due to the subspace and EM interference generated by the navigational deflector, long-range sensors must be able to 'see' through the deflector field or else they are blinded by the interference. In a Federation 'dish' deflector, this is accomplished by placing the sensors behind the dish on its axis. With the phased array configuration of the Stenos's deflectors, however, a much simpler approach is used.
Long-range sensors are embedded along the leading edge of each wing. The sensors are simply calibrated to be out of phase with the deflectors so that they are looking between the deflector beams. The deflector cycles in picoseconds, and the sensors cycle in the picoseconds in between. It all happens so quickly that to a humanoid or fin observer they appear to be simultaneous and steady beams. This technique is not quite as effective as the Federation equivalent because of the residual fields left behind by the deflectors even in the picoseconds between cycles, but it is sufficient to give the Stenos roughly 80 to 90% of the Nebula class long-range sensor capability.

Tractor Beams

The tractor beams on the Stenos are identical to those used on the Galaxy class, with smaller secondary emitters like those used on Klingon Birds-of-prey. Tractor technology has changed little in the past four decades, and nothing was seen to be gained by combining the two technologies into a new tractor system. The only combination was in combining the Klingon software for the secondary emitters.

Replicator Systems

Again, little original design effort was placed in the Qapla' project. The replicators on the Stenos are identical to those used on the Galaxy class. They were chosen because of their higher software adaptability and lower single-bit error rates.

Planetary Landing Capabilities

The Stenos was upgraded from the previous Qapla' class design with the ability to land on planetary surfaces. This required a modification to the wings to allow them to fold up (otherwise a longer and therefore less stable landing apparatus would be required) and the addition of four landing legs to evenly distribute the ship's weight when on the ground. The ship's SIF/IDF generator were also slightly upgraded.

Figure 8.1

The catastrophic resource contingency plan (CRGP) for the Main Bridge's environment supply. Each utility network has its own CRGP.

9 Communications

Communications fall into two general categories: internal/intraship, and external, including ship-to-ship and ship-to-base.

Internal Communications

Internal communications aboard the Stenos are handled in a similar fashion to those on board a Galaxy class vessel. The most notable difference is simply an extra layer of protective redundancies.
Although most communications are automatic, the Stenos has a communications center which monitors the automated functions and runs diagnostics, performs periodic maintenance, and sets up and operates any special communications equipment required. It is located just aft of the CIC on deck 8.

Intraship Communications
Intraship calls may be placed in one of three ways: the most common way is to access the ship-wide intercom simply by addressing a message verbally. The second method, when a person is in a room with many talking people or not close to an intercom pick-up (like in a cargo bay) is to use the personal communicator. The last, least used method is to use a keyboard on any of the ship's many comm panels.
To initiate a voice or data call, a crew member simply states the destination of the call, like 'Johnson to Hwiii' or 'Bridge, Engineering'. If no modifiers are used, such as in the last example, the default is 'destination, origination'.
Another type of intraship communication is the public address. Using the standard communication hardware as above, messages can be broadcast in one or several areas of the ship. In a similar method messages with video can be broadcast on any number of viewscreens. All-hands addresses, which must be authorized by a senior officer, is broadcast over the entire ship. The computer may make all-hands announcements, such as when sounding a red alert.

Personal Communicators
All crew and crewfen carry personal communicators. For the humans, the comm badge is a third generation pin worn on the chest. For the fen, comm units are enclosed in all harnesses. The harness communicator and comm badge work in the same way, except a fin does not 'tap' his or her comm badge to insinuate a communication.
Each comm badge also serves to identify individual persons or fen throughout the ship. Each comm badge and harness communicator is coded to respond only to its owner. No other crew member may use that communicator.

Ship-wide Media Publication
Keeping over 800 crew and crewfen up-to-date is no easy task. But the task is made easier thanks to two electronic publications: The Stenos Bulletin and The Federation Bulletin .
Both are weekly newsletters designed to keep the crew up-to-date on recent developments. The Stenos Bulletin is published by the Communications Center on board the ship and includes information about current missions, ship status, and upcoming events on board the Stenos . The Federation Bulletin is a Federation-wide newsletter published by Starfleet. It contains breaking news around the quadrant and information, facts, and individual columns with editorials. Both of these publications may be called up on any PADD.

Secure Communications-Internal
All communications aboard the ship are encrypted as a standard means of security. However, when a secure channel is requested, more extensive measures of security are taken.
When a secure call is placed, the distance of the communications line (be it the ODN or radio frequency [RF] pickup) is noted by the computer as is the time to send an integrity pulse down the line. Every 10 milliseconds the computer does this. If the pulse returns later or weaker than it should, the line is being compromised and both ends of the line, Communications, and Security are notified of the tap.
To access a secured channel, the caller simply asks the computer for a secure channel. If the voice is not recognized, the computer will request the caller's security code. All crew are assigned such a code, input only via keyboard, never spoken. Any attempted unauthorized access results in an alert sent simultaneously to both Communications and Security, showing the identity of the caller if known, and the calling location.

External Communications

One of the most sensitive areas of ship operations is in external communications. A broadcast signal could easily give away a ship's position, potentially endangering the ship and crew, especially if the ship is cloaked. On the Stenos standard RF and Federation subspace communications are used.

Voice Communications
A message from one person to another is considered a voice call, be it voice-only, voice-and-visual, and voice-and-data. They are most often handled by the Comm center.
Non-secure calls are sent to the addressee. If they are not available, the call is shunted to their message buffer where it can be heard and then deleted, replayed, saved, etc.
Outgoing calls are approved by the Signal Officer on duty in the Comm Center. In tactically sensitive situations, the Signal Officer must receive clearance from the OD before transmitting. Under quick-quiet, silent-running, or while cloaked, only the CO may initiate an outgoing call.
'Squirt' transmissions are messages recorded, compressed, and sent one-way in a much shorter period of time. They are then decompressed and read. This is useful in tactically sensitive situations when radio silence is crucial, yet communication must be made.

Data Communications
Data calls are usually very large and are handled by the datalink specialists. Data calls are usually completed with little or no crew intervention. Examples include library files, software upgrades, or batch news.

Secure Communications-External
External communications are secured in two ways. First, the computer will 'frequency hop', changing frequencies over 500 times a second during a transmission in a psuedo-random order called a hop set. This set it chosen at random at least every other month. It is sent to the receiver in the hailing package preceding the transmission so sender and receiver will frequency hop in sync.
The communication can be further secured by using one of several encryption algorithms (changed along with the hop set keys).The algorithm for a call is chosen at random by the computer from the preselected list and the variable that completes the algorithm is chosen at random from the first 1000 prime numbers. No one knows what algorithm or crypto variable will be used. The information is sent in the hailing packet.
If the exact position of the receiver is known, a compressed tachyon beam or light-speed digitized laser. The transmission is protected because an enemy would have to be in direct line-of-sight to intercept the transmission, as well as knowing the algorithm and crypto variable to be used.

Figure 9.1

An example of a hailing packet preceding a transmission.

RVT81002.49848.00029

From: Commander, EHB Stenos

To: Commander, USS Mason

Stardate: 49848

Time Index: 1355.454

Classification Level: UNC

---------------------

MESSAGE WAITS

"

RVT' indicates that this is a 'Real-time Voice Transmission'. The next numbers are Registry.Stardate.Messages sent this Stardate. The Time Index is when the message was received. 'UNC' indicates that this message is unclassified. 'Message Waits' indicates that the sender is waiting for a response to his hail before continuing the message.

10 Transporter Systems

The transporter systems of the Stenos are similar to those used on Intrepid class vessels, except that the original design advantages were kept from the original Klingon/Federation design.

Personnel Transporters

The Stenos contains nine personnel transporter systems; 1 through 8 are paired off, sharing a pattern buffer. Rooms 1 & 2 are located on deck 3, just forward of the bridge. These are the only transporters in the separable hull, and the ones typically used for normal transport. Rooms 3 & 4 are on the port side of deck 7, and rooms 5 & 6 are opposite on deck 10, starboard side. The final pair, 7 & 8, are located just forward of main engineering on deck 12. transporter 9 is located in sickbay, and is an emergency two-person pad.
Operational range of the transporters is just more than that of a standard Federation transporter, approximately 45000 kilometers.

Cargo Transporters

Mass cargo transport is accomplished by four molecular-level transporters located in the Main Cargo Complex on deck 3, and by two transporters in Cargo Bay 5 on deck 8, and Cargo Bay 9 on deck 11. These transporters could only be used for personnel transport (quantum-level) through a severe reduction in the transporter's payload capacity.

Escape Transporters

Escape transporters, four on the Stenos , have a limited 20000 kilometer range and can only be used for beaming off the ship, but are extremely frugal in their power usage and therefore are invaluable for escaping from the ship in an emergency.
The low number of escape transporters may seem ludicrous on a Federation ship, but one must remember that the Klingons heavily influenced the design, and they felt it was honorable to 'go down with one's ship'. Therefore, a compromise was reached between the Klingon and Federation engineers and four were installed. More were planned when the Stenos's mission changed, but it was decided that it would be too difficult to integrate more transporters into the design.

Pattern Buffers

Each pair of personnel transporters share their main pattern buffer tank, located one level below the transport chambers themselves. The transport buffers for the emergency transporters are routed through these main pattern buffer tanks in emergency situations, as in the Galaxy class vessel, if the primary buffer tanks are operative. The medical transporter is the lone exception; it has its own dedicated buffer tank. This tank can be used by other transporter, but medical emergencies have immediate priority.
If the primary buffers are not operating, the escape transporters will still operate, but at a reduced efficiency and slower rate.

Transporter Emitters

The Stenos has sixteen emitters on the outside of the hull, allowing the ship omnidirectional transport capability even if 37% of the emitters are offline.

Transporter Components

Each of the major components is listed below, along with improvements /changes:

Transporter Chamber: On the Stenos , the transporters are standard Federation designs, reinstalled after the Klingons broke the treaty. Each chamber has six pads, with a large one in the center.

Operator Console: The console is the standard Federation designed console used on all Federation starships.

Transporter Controller: This system is identical to a standard Federation transporter.

Primary Energizing Coils: The Annular Confinement Beam (ACB) has been increased in intensity and frequency modulated to allow it to be used as a forcefield for incoming transportees. As an additional effect, this has reduced the danger of ACB disruption leading to energy discharge during transport.

Phase Transition Coils: Their only modification is to accommodate the intensified ACB and improved imaging scanners.

Molecular Imaging Scanners: These scanners have an improved resolution through and increased penetration of hostile environments such as high radiation fields and intense electromagnetic fields.

Pattern Buffer: This system has not undergone any major design changes.

Biofilter: Other than combining the known biohazards to Federation and Klingon personnel, this system has also not been changed much.

Emitter Array: This assembly has had it emitter capacity increased for more accurate lock-on to target in hazardous situations. The emitters have been increased in size by 15% to accommodate the enhanced molecular imaging scanner and upgrades.

Targeting Scanners: These scanners have been upgraded to ensure lock-on in the harshest conditions.

Operation Sequence & Duty Cycle

The entire transport sequence takes approximately five seconds, plus an average of 93 seconds for cool-down and reset. This results in an average of 2.28 six-person transports per minute, or a system capacity of just over 800 persons an hour.

Transporter Evacuation

Transporters are the primary means of getting onto and off of the Stenos , and therefore make a convenient two-way evacuation system.

Evacuation To Ship
In an emergency, all transporters, including the cargo transporters (reconfigured for quantum-level) would be used. The personnel transporters would provide a maximum capacity of approximately 800 persons an hour, while the modified cargo transporters would contribute an additional 250 persons/hour, leading to a total of 1050 people to be beamed up to the Stenos in an hour. The medical transporters would be used to bring up the most seriously wounded.
Evacuation From Ship
Beam-down operations can be accomplished much quicker than beam-up, due to the addition of the emergency transporters, capable of transporting 22 people at one time. This brings the total beam-down to 2300 per hour.
You must note that, if only the primary hull was threatened, that the separable hull and shuttlecraft would more than quadruple the persons per hour evacuation.

11 Auxiliary Spacecraft Systems

The Stenos embarks more shuttlecraft than any other Federation starship, short of a shuttlecarrier. She is also the first starship to carry the new Amicus class fighters.

Shuttlebays

The Stenos carries a regular compliment of 95 shuttlecraft. Maintaining all of these shuttles is an enormous responsibility for Shuttle Ops.
Most shuttle operations take place out of the Main Shuttlebay in the primary hull. Shuttlebay 2, on the separable hull, holds only passenger shuttles and a couple of cargo shuttles.
The Main Shuttlebay is oriented quite differently from the rest of the ship; it is upside-down. However, bulbous personnel walkways around the Flight Deck (Deck 18) to the Hangar Deck (Deck 17) and complicated gravity orientation ensure a smooth transition, physically if not visually.

Shuttlecraft

The Stenos embarks eleven different types of Federation & Cetacean shuttlecraft and fighter craft. Shuttles are generally used for transportation, while fighters are used in combat situations.

Federation Shuttles

Aboard the ship five type M1A workpods. Two of these workpods have heavy-duty hull plate manipulators, but the other three can be converted into the 'Killer Bee' configuration with the exchange of their manipulators for type II phaser emitters. These workpods are used primarily for exchanging lateral sensor platforms or for extravehicular maintenance and repairs.
The Stenos also has 15 shuttlepods. Five are type 15A light short-range two-person pods, and the other ten are type 16A medium short-range shuttlepods capable of carrying three people.
For warp transportation, the Stenos's ten type 7 personnel shuttles are used. One is a special case, a modified type 7D, the 'Captain's Gig'. The type 7D has a more luxurious interior and fewer, but roomier crew accommodations. The 7D is used primarily for diplomatic operations. Maximum speed for the type 7 shuttles is warp 2, and the standard type 7s are capable of carrying 6 persons, and the type 7D, two to four.
For cargo transport, the Stenos carries five type 9A cargo shuttles.
The ship's two Federation Runabouts are extremely versatile and warp-capable. They can carry up to 100 persons in emergency seating configuration, and are used extensively in planetary survey and special operations. The two runabouts attached to the Stenos are the Tursiops (NCC-72002) and the Orcinus (NCC-72012).

Amicus Class Fighters

The pride of the Stenos's crew is her cetacean portion. Unfortunately, due to physical differences, the Neo-fen are incapable of piloting a standard Federation shuttle. Although this has problem has been solved on board the ship, the shuttle's design prevents simple beaming-out of command chairs. Therefore, a new class of shuttles was developed for them.
The Amicus class craft carried by the Stenos consist of 58 ships total: 24 AM-4 starfighters, 14 SN-6 heavy fighters/cruisers, and 10 AM-2L light escort fighters. All possible upgrades, including weapons, drive systems, and defensive capabilities, have been applied to these fighters.
The Amicus AM-2L is manned only by one fin. It has a high sublight speed (thanks to the Very Large Engine [VLE] upgrade) and excellent maneuverability. It includes ablative armor, shielding, an emergency transporter and pod ejection. Its weapons consist of two low-power phased-pulse cannons (PPC, essentially a weak, rapid-fire disruptor) mounted on the ends of a mobile wing structure, allowing the PPCs to cover a 30 field.
A human can pilot the AM-4, but usually command is left to the single fin. The AM-4 is the only fighter carried by the Stenos fitted with a cloaking device. The AM-4 also carries the ablative armor, standard shields, ejection and emergency transporter of the AM-2L, and adds a 'Glory Device' self-destruct mechanism.
The AM-4's weapons include two forward GLG-20 disruptor cannons, identical to the model used on the Stenos itself, and also has a forward and aft torpedo launcher, with a 25 torpedo capacity. The GLG-20 cannons, combined with its unparalleled maneuverability, makes the AM-4 a very lethal weapon.
The SN-6, although very slightly less maneuverable than the other fighters, makes up for this with its four GLG-20 cannons.
Also included in the SN-6 are one forward/one aft torpedo launcher, 40 photon torpedoes, ablative armor, shields, the Glory Device, ejection mechanism, and escape transporter. The SN-6 is controlled by two humans and/or two fen.
For Neo-dolphin comfort, the Neo-fin compartment is filled with oxywater, water pumped with oxygen, so that the fin's harness can extract the oxygen, allowing the fin to breathe in comfort. Although past oxywater systems lead to fatigue over time, the system on the Amicus fighters was designed and built by fen with their own good-being in mind, so this system is greatly improved from the past designs. Controls and buttons are designed large and easy-to-read to increase response time and reduce mistakes when manipulated by the harnesses 'waldow-arms'.
All of the fighters contain the optional planetary landing system.

Remotely Piloted Craft

The Stenos carries ten remotely-piloted craft for dangerous missions. These craft, designated QRPVs (Qapla' Remotely Piloted Vehicle), are piloted from virtual-reality cockpits on deck 17.
The first QRPV is basically a remotely controlled GLG-11 disruptor cannon. It is about half as high and over twice as wide as a Type 15 workpod.
The QRPV1 is capable of warp 1.5 and can be automatically guided by its on-board computer should the link with the Stenos be severed. Its cannon has an energy store sufficient for 100 shots.
The QRPV1 is extremely maneuverable, thanks to its extreme-distance RCS packages. It is very aerodynamic for excellent maneuverability in any atmosphere. Five operate out of the Main Shuttlebay.
The other five remote craft are the small QRPV2 remotely piloted reconnaissance vehicles. While it does carry a type IV phaser emitter, its primary mission is as a remote sensor platform. More than twice the size of of a Class VIII instrumented probe, its size and remotely piloted capability classify it as an auxiliary craft, and not a probe.

Figure 11.1

Chart of number & types of auxiliary craft carried aboard the Stenos.