Star Trek Outardly Mobile

Episode 53a The Acton
by
Jay P. Hailey

 

Delo Maran looked at the ship floating in the space dock outside the huge transparent aluminum windows.

"What do you think of her?" Vontoer Bach asked.

Maran knew that Bach was proud of his recent ship building. He viewed it as a way to enhance the status of the Great Spiral sector. Maran smiled lightly. She enjoyed Bach's energy, his ambition. His no holds barred patriotism. A lesser man than Bach would be a coniving, scheming, political animal seeking his own advancement at the cost of the Great Spiral.

At the same time he was like a little boy showing off his first attempt at a shop project.

Maran made her smile wider "She's beautiful." Maran could care less about the ship. She enjoyed Bach's affection for the thing.

"She's a Niagra class cruiser. Originally there were only six of them built. They were considered half sized prototypes for the Galaxy class." Bach said.

Maran quirked an eyebrow. "That was some time ago."

"About thirty years." Bach said. A hint of bitterness crept into his voice "I asked for the jigs to make the Intrepid class, but they wouldn't turn loose of them."

"But this thirty year old ship..." Maran prompted. She felt a hint of bitterness herself. Since Starbase 94 wasn't in what was called a strategically senstitive area, all the tools and jigs to make advanced starships went to Ships yards closer to the Klingons, Romulans and Cardassians.

Bach shook his head. "We're expected to support the Intrepids, though. We can build most of the systems. So this new girl was updated in the design stage. While you've been away at Earh, we've been busy."

"Someday..." Maran prompted. She loved to hear Bach say it,

"Someday they'll speak of Caractalla or Tallamatrix the way they speak of Earth or Vulcan now." Bach said.

Maran's smile became more sincere. Not only did Votoer Bach believe he could move the center of the Federation, Which Maran found utterly charming, but so far he'd shown no sign that this might be out of his grasp. Once again Maran was deeply happy to have returned from Earth and her training there. Although it was nice to know that she could function as a Starfleet Officer on her own as well as by Bach's side, she really wanted to be near him.

"I believe they will." Maran said.

"This ship will be part of that." Bach said, looked at the new starship again. "Part of our future."

Maran looked at the new ship again. Every detail she could make out pleased her. The Bridge module and the lounge looked bright, new and modern. "How so?"

"Well, I mean ours in the larger corporate sense of the Great Spiral as a whole. She means trouble for the future of you and me."

Maran's blood ran cold. "How do you mean?"

Bach turned and look Maran in the face. "I need someone to command her I can trust, utterly."

"Are you going to ask me?" Maran said. She discovered some ambivelence within herself at the idea. Being Bach's right hand woman sounded satisfying in many ways. But command of a starship...

"Yes. That's exactly what I am going to do." Bach said. "Maran will you command her for me?"

Maran looked at him with bright eyes. She started to speak and stopped again.

"Will you command her for the Great Spiral?" Bach drove the final nail home.

"Oh, Bach." Maran felt tears begin to roll down her cheeks. To think that the man she loved trusted her so, and loved her so as to put her in the center seat of a starship "Yes." She straightened up and put her officer's face on. "Yes, Admiral, I will."

"Welcome, Captain." Bach said "To the USS Acton."

Maran found herself hoping that she'd prove worthy of Bach's trust.

"Do you think this will come between us, personally?" Maran asked.

"I know it will. Maran, this ship is not just a patrol cruiser, She's also an explorer. At first you'll be undertaking routine patrols like a destroyer squadron. But as time goes on, you're going to be one of the ships out on the frontier, pushing it back." Bach answered.

"I will miss you. But I won't let the time and distance seperate us. You won't get away from me that easily, Bach."

He smiled "That's the way I like to hear you talk. Think you can find some time free for dinner this evening?"

Maran grinned brilliantly at the thought. Her trip to Earth and back had taken a long time. "I'm sure I can."


- Ship Name USS Acton

- Brief description of ship:
A 1/2 sized Galaxy, similar in size and capacity to an Intrepid or a Constitution class starship.

- Campaign role for the ship:
In Jay-Trek currently, none, except perhaps a BG mention, or a scene as a contrast to a PC's ships. In another campaign or under changed conditions in Jay-Trek the Acton and her putative sisters would make a nice PC's ship.

- Fleet role: A Medium, multi-role cruiser

- Age:
The Acton when first seen is a newly built cruiser. Her sisters are over 30 years old.

- Built: Just recently at Starbase 94

- Length: 320 meters

- Distinguishing Marks (Odd paint job, repair scars etc):
The Acton can be told from the other Niagra class starship by the large Constitution style shuttle bay on the aft end of the secondary hull. Any scan will show a more powerful warp core as well as uprated shields and weapons.

- Equipment Quirks and Problems:
The Acton is a new ship, and so may suffer teething pains and adjustment problems. Due to the nature of the ship's design and technology upgrade, any serious flaws are unlikely

- Equipment Advantages :
The Acton is based on a 30 year old design. The designers had 30 years of logs and development to look at as they updated the desgn. The designers were also using relatively well proven equipment. The Acton rests solidly in the modern front line ranks of starships. It is much less likely to suffer system wide failures or unexpected consequences.

- Shuttles, number, any odd ones?
The Acton carries a reasonable selection and number of shuttle craft. The Acton being equipped from the Starbase 94 technology base doesn't get front line shuttles. She gets shuttles that are older, simpler and more rugged designs

- Notable Previous Crew:
Delo Maran, the CO is an ambitious, tough, capable and fortuitously connected. Her approach to Starship command will be definite, forward and somewhat more militaristic than a more mainstream Starfleet Captain.

- Primary Power:
The Acton uses a modern, up to date warp core.

- Secondary Power:
The Acton has solid, well engineered fusion/impulse reactors.

- Primary Weapons:
The Acton's primary strike weapon is a standard arrary of photon/quantum torpedo launchers. She can dish the damage as well as any ship in her weight class.

- Secondary Weapons:
The Acton's secondary and more versatile weapons are her collimated phaser arrays which cover all firing arcs

- Service History:
The Acton has just recently been launched and has no serious history as yet.

The Acton is the seventh of a class of ships never intended to go beyond 6 units.

The Niagra and her sisters were the first half sized test beds for the Galaxy class The Niagra was designed to do several things at once, mainly to field test the Hull as well as testing new technology concepts. As such the Niagra spent years in tests and simulation and excercises and little time on active duty. Then the ship was considered an engineering path finder, and kept away from unusual circumstances to act as a base line.

The other five ships were used in very different circumstances but all were treated as prototypes. At the time The Excelsior class ships were still very strong, and the Ambassador class was the backbone of the fleet. For Starfleet Command of the day bigger was better and because it wasn't a larger ship, the Niagra cass was never developed into the role that it might have been.

The decision was made, once the test regime was complete, not to produce more. The remaining ships were assigned to the fleet and forgotten.

The late 2350s and early 2360's were an eye opening time for the UFP. Half the Galaxy class ships were lost, and Starfleet discovered that they were facing worse threats and more numerous then originally thought.

A new Class of ship, the Intrepid, was created, and it looked like the Niagra class had been completely obvivated.

Admiral Vontoer Bach of Starbase 94 was eager to get his hands on the sort of medium weight multi-role indepedant ship that the Intrepid represented. But because of limited production equipment and high demand Vontoer was denied the abbility to produce the new ships.

However Vontoer was not easily foiled. He looked around for another ship in that weight class and discovered the left over equipment for producing the Niagra class. Vontoer examined the technical stats of the Niagra class and realized he had discovered hidden treasure.

Vontoer asked for and got the equipment to build Niagra class ships. He also got (almost without asking or any choice) the equipment to support and repair the equipment on Intrepid class ships.

Taking these two elements back to Starbase 94, Vontoer and his engineering staff updated the design and built themselves a fine new multi-role cruiser.

Time will tell if it was successful or is the first of a new batch of Great Spiral based cruisers.

If you ask Vontoer he'll tell you there's no doubts.