Post by norcaler on Oct 8, 2014 1:24:20 GMT
Prelude to an Odyssey
The year 2390 marked the fifteenth anniversary of the end of the Dominion War and in the decade and a half since then, the United Federation of Planets had known relative peace, but not without some trouble. The Hobus supernova had obliterated the planets Romulus and Remus three years prior, plunging the Romulan Star Empire into chaos. The Klingon Empire had begun aggressive campaigns into RSE and Gorn Hegemony space, foreshadowing the conflicts of the decades to come. However, Starfleet had by and large returned to its mandate of peaceful exploration; a far cry from the dark days of the 2370s.
Among the most critical developments of the past fifteen years was the development of the quantum slipstream drive (QSD) based on designs from the USS Voyager (NCC-74656) during her seven year return from the Delta Quadrant. While Voyager'S testing of the QSD nearly ended in the destruction of the ship, the drive exhibited potential and following Voyager's arrival in the Sol System in 2377, Starfleet's Theoretical Propulsion Group at the Mars Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards was tasked with studying the design with the hopes of making the QSD aboard UFP starships a reality. By 2378, the group had succeeded in producing a functional QSD and they were installed aboard the first vessels of the Vesta-class of multi-mission explorers, which were deemed to be the ships best suited for the initial trials.
In 2380, the USS Aventine (NCC-82602) became the first starship since Voyager to achieve slipstream velocities, however almost immediately limitations were discovered that would hinder the QSD's full potential. As with Voyager's one time use of the drive, near constant adjustments while the QSD was in operation was required in order to ensure the slipstream did not collapse, which could overload and cripple a starship's systems and render it adrift far from rescue or support. These adjustments proved taxing over an extended period to computer cores and crews of that era, even on brand new starships like the Vesta. Additionally, even with constant (and just as importantly, accurate) adjustments, the QSD placed a great deal of strain on the hulls of starships, which ultimately precluded older starship classes or vessels that had already been placed under extensive wear and tear during its service life from having QSDs installed. Finally, prolonged use of the QSD even with these other limiting factors resulted in course errors that increased the further a vessel traveled, resulting in using conventional warp speeds to complete a trip to the intended destination.
Unfortunately, the first generation QSD did not live up to the promise of a quick return trip to the vast unexplored reaches of the Delta Quadrant. Following the trial runs of the Aventine, Starfleet Command authorized limited deployment of the QSD on a select number of ships with limitations as to its implementation. Activation of the drive required authorization from Starfleet outside of extreme emergencies and for safety considerations limited to thirty second intervals. Nevertheless, the Theoretical Propulsion Group continued to press on with development of an advanced quantum slipstream drive (AQSD) and by 2390 a workable model for one had been developed.
Unfortunately, no existing starship design proved capable of handling the AQSD. Even the Vesta's systems were incapable of handling the calculations and stresses required of the second generation drive (though Vesta and follow-on multi-mission explorers were ultimatly fitted with a special third generation QSD). A new class of starship would have to be developed to accomodate a drive system that promised to take Starfleet even further beyond where no one had gone before.
[USS Odyssey (NCC-97000) on maneuvers in the Sol System]
The Heir Apparent
Therefore, in October of 2390, Starfleet Command officially charged the Advanced Starship Design Bureau with developing a new class of starship, dubbed Odyssey in honor of the Galaxy-class USS Odyssey (NCC-71832), one of the first vessels lost in combat against the Dominion. While implementing the AQSD would be the primary requirement that would ultimately shape the ship to come, Starfleet Command also issued additional requirements for the design. By 2390, the Galaxy-class had achieved roughly a third of her expected 100-year service life; the Sovereign-class having been in service for twenty years. Although both the respective previous and current flagships of Starfleet had many more years of active duty operation ahead of them, Starfleet deemed that a new class of cruiser was needed to not only utilize the new AQSD but also to lead missions of deep exploration to the furthest reaches of the galaxy. Technological breakthroughs and improvements pioneered by the ODYSSEY were to trickle down to other, smaller, and newer starships as had been the case since the NX-class of the 22nd Century's United Earth Starfleet.
With the mandate for a ship capable of operating decades away from Starfleet support and installations, a large self-sufficient cruiser was deemed necessary, far larger than the vessels she would succeed. A new and advanced computer core was put into development to assist in operation of the AQSD along with a new deflector to open the slipstream for the ship. In addition to her cutting-edge propulsion system, Odyssey would have state of the art scientific equipment and tactical systems as befitting a flagship of the Federation. Finally, since Odyssey would be operating well outside of direct real-time communications with Starfleet, the ship would have advanced command and control facilities for fleet operations. She would dwarf her predecessors in both size and crew compliment; almost half a kilometer longer than Sovereign and over double the personnel of Galaxy. Even at the propsoal stage, Odyssey would be the most complex piece of equipment ever fielded by the UFP and as such her development would be a lengthy process.
Almost immediately, the need for such a vessel was put into question. The resource cost for construction of one Odyssey was quickly measured by how much said resources could be used to build multiple ships of current classes by her critics. Starfleet and the ADSB were further criticized for going "all-in" on only one design to implement the AQSD and for the need to send ships of exploration to the Delta Quadrant with the future of Federation/Imperial Romulan relations so tenuous. Nevertheless, by the time the preliminary design of Odyssey was submitted for Starfleet and the Federation Council's Starfleet Appropriation's Subcommittee approval in 2393 it was authorized for further development and funding for eventual construction by a comfortable margin. However, while Odyssey was charged with spearheading efforts to the Delta Quadrant, events in local space would ultimately alter her mandate and that of Starfleet as a whole.
Wayward Odyssey
In 2393, J'mpok, a Klingon hardliner unsatisfied with Empire's alleged tepid response to Gorn aggression, challenged Martok for leadership of the Empire and while even to this day no one in the Federation knows exactly what occurred in the Great Hall, Martok was ultimately killed and J'mpok became chancellor. The new leader of the High Council wasted no time consolidating his power and expanding his reach.
As the Alpha and Beta Quadrants held its breath while the Klingon underwent a major realignment, the Odyssey-class Development Program began to falter. Development of the deflector and warp nacelles were grossly behind schedule; as of 2398, both of the components critical to the Odyssey's design were still on the drawing board and years from simulation testing and prototyping, which naturally hampered overall development of the ship as a whole. Further setbacks occurred in the construction of the warp core and testing of the new computer cores were essentially frozen until the propulsion system's design was finalized. The more the core systems of ODYSSEY were stalled in the development phase, the more these setbacks trickled down not just to the overall development of the ship, but also to potential development of starships derived from systems the Odyssey was to pioneer.
Members of the Federation council's Starfleet Oversight Committee were growing impatient with Odyssey's lack of progress. More hawkish council members feared that if relations with the Klingons took a turn for the worse, the Federation would be without what Starfleet touted as the most advanced starship to date to defend against possible Klingon incursions. To assuage those fears, new management was brought in to the Development Program in 2399 to get Odyssey back on track. After several weeks of re-evaluation, resource and personnel reallocation, the ASDB at the San Francisco Yard declared that the first Odyssey would be launched by late 2409 for testing and shakedown cruises.
But such guarantees weren't enough for some in Starfleet and the Council. Many feared that in the event of a conflict with the Empire, the Federation was in danger of losing its greatest advantage: technological superiority. Since the Federation's founding, it had always maintained an edge in starship design over most adversaries and when it encountered a foe where that was not the case, like the Borg or the Dominion, it could quickly adapt and field new designs to either level the playing field or take the lead. J'mpok, meanwhile, rubber-stamping any new ship design in the hopes of expanding the number of ships at the disposal of the Klingon Defense Force to levels far beyond what it was prior to the destruction of Praxis a century earlier. Now, with the Klingons churning out new, advanced warships at a rate never before seen in the history of the Empire,some feared that the Federation was about to lose its edge. As of 2398, though, the hawks were in the minority; the majority did not foresee the situation with the Empire deteriorating to the point where the Federation would be in a military confrontation with the Klingons and their growing cadre of allies (indeed, just as J'mpok's introduction of an armada of new warship designs came as a surprise, so too did his diplomatic accomplishments, such as an alliance with the Orion Syndicate). Therefore, they were willing to wait for Odyssey, even to their eventual detriment.
The Death of the Khitomer Accords
The prevailing wait-and-see policy lasted only a year. Over the previous four years, Ja'rod, son of Lursa of the former House of Duras, had been steadily building a case within the Empire that the Gorn and possibly other powers had been infiltrated by what was termed the "qa'meH quv" ("Replacers of honor with dishonor" from the Klingonese). Ever since the Khitomer Accords were signed in 2293, the Empire had predominantly played a supporting role to the Federation in interstellar peace keeping affairs. J'mpok believed that now was the perfect time for the Klingons to be a leader, not a follower. In 2399, J'mpok and the High Council declared war against the Gorn Hegemony. And as the Empire and their Orion allies slowly marched through Gorn space, they continually repeated their accusations that the Undine were in quiet control of the Hegemony to the Federation. While on the one hand, the Federation had a treaty of peace with the Gorn dating back to the Dominion War that hawkish elements demanded to be honored in light of what at the time appeared to be an unprovoked invasion, others vocally reminded the Council of the Klingon invasion of Cardassian space in 2372. While the Empire's claim in those days that the Cardassian government had proven false ultimately, the divide between the Federation and the Klingons ultimately led to the Cardassians joining the Dominion and precipitated the most devastating war in known interstellar history. The old Earth saying, "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it" were prevalent in the halls of the Palais de la Concorde, but ultimately the Federation Council voted to condemn the Klingon invasion of the Gorn. In retaliation, J'mpok withdrew his Empire from the Khitomer Accords and once more the peace that existed between the Federation and the Klingon Empire was dead. And as far as many in Starfleet and the Federation were concerned based on past history, it was only a matter of time before the absence of peace turned into the presence of war.
[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-F) and a Romulan Republic D'Deridex-class warbird battle cruiser on patrol in the Carraya System]
Odyssey Lost
With the death of the alliance between the Federation and the Klingons, the status of the embryonic Odyssey-class was called into question. With the Empire now rulers of the territories of the Orion Syndicate and the Gorn Hegemony, they were now in control of more than double their territory prior to J'mpok's ascension to power. By 2402, the Gorn homeworld of Gornar had fallen to the invaders and the Klingons were quite open about executing members of the Hegemony government whom they believed to be secretly Undine infiltrators. King Slathis, monarch of the Gorn, agreed to swear fealty to the Empire in exchange for a non-voting seat on the Klingon High Council. The Federation at this point did not only appear to be caught unaware of the Undine infiltration of normal space, they were also standing squarely against the one nation that proactively responded to these incursions. Many on both sides of the political aisle in Paris believed that a war with the Klingons over the condemnation of the invasion was almost inevitable, that Federation has just painted itself as the next target of the Klingon crusade against the "qa'meH quv." While Odyssey was on track for a deployment in 2409, Starfleet was beginning to feel she'd be too late to be of any use.
In 2403 as Gornar capitulated to the Klingons, the ongoing development of the Odyssey-class was called into question yet again by the Federation Council's various oversight committees. It was felt at the time that the Federation needed a new flagship now even as rumors of an Odyssey counterpart dubbed bortaS' ("Vengeance" translated from the Klingonese) being developed started to surface.
Indeed, while development of the Odyssey's systems had progressed well into the modeling and testing stages, not a single piece of the prototype's keel had been gamma-welded yet. She still, at that point, was a so-called "paper starship;" a lot of promises but no results. Calls for suspending the Odyssey Starship Development Program continued to grow, however as of 2403, there was not yet a clear plan of succession or of an alternative. Following the latest talk of halting Odyssey, the ASDB office at the Mars Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards (who were in direct competition with their counterparts at the San Francisco Yarsd; the same ones behind Odyssey) developed a solution that would address the Federation's short term needs for a new class of cruiser designed to counter the expanding Klingon Empire while at the same time perhaps spelling the end of the Odyssey-class before she even had a chance.
The Spare to the Heir
In late 2403, the Mars division of the ASDB submitted an unsolicited proposal to Starfleet for an alternative to the Odyssey dubbed the Venture-class. It was to be an exploratory cruiser modeled after the famed Galaxy-class (and like the Odyssey named for a former Galaxy) that would utilize all the technology developed for the Odyssey save for the AQSD. On paper, she would be a cost effective alternative to Odyssey in terms of exploratory and scientific capability that the design group hoped would easily pass through appropriation committees worried of the then unfulfilled promises of the Odyssey in light of the current situation with the Klingons while at the same time having a new flagship should relations deteriorate to the point of war.
In the early 2390s, Starfleet experimented with converting several Galaxy-class cruisers into dreadnaught type vessels. These Galaxy-x ships, as they came to be known, sacrificed the original Galaxy's scientific abilities in favor of more tactical prowess, including a powerful forward-firing weapon dubbed the "phaser lance." Furthermore, after the Federation Council in a controversial move deemed the Treaty of Algeron null and void due to the collapse of the Romulan Empire following Hobus, some of the Galaxy-x dreadnaughts were further fitted with cloaking devices. The Galaxy's new proposed successor, the Venture, was to be designed with easy conversion to Venture-x dreadnaughts in mind. While turning a Galaxy to a dreadnaught would take roughly six months in a drydock to accomplish, a Venture would only require one month. Should war break out with the Klingons as the Mars team argued, the Federation could field a fleet of Venture-X ships within thirty days that could match the firepower and stealth of their Klingon counterparts and more importantly, perhaps far faster than the new promised flagships of the Fedreation.
Additionally, during Odyssey'S initial troubled years of development, the Cochrane Institute on Proxima Centauri developed a radical breakthrough in warp propulsion in 2394: the asynchronous warp field. By utilizing fields generated by modified impulse engines, starships could be propelled beyond what was then considered theoretical limits. And unlike the AQSD, a wider variety of ships could employ this new propulsion system. So radical was this innovation that by 2395 the traditional warp scale where a warp factor of 10 was considered the fastest possible was revised. As development of the asynchronous warp field continued into the dawn of the next century, the AQSD and the ship designed around it seemed more and more superfluous. It was looking more and more that Odyssey was out of a job even before the first keel of the first ship of her class began construction.
The Federation Council's Starfleet Appropriation Subcommittee convened a hearing following the proposal of the Venture-class where for several hours members of the Odyssey's design team from the San Francisco Shipyards were grilled mercilessly. The engineers, propulsion experts, and designers held their ground and left the Council with the following conclusion: "Odyssey is the only ship that can achieve AQSD velocities; perhaps even faster with asynch warp. If we don't build her now, our enemies will."
Both teams from the ADSB walked away from the council sessions in Paris with what they wanted: the Utopia teams were green lit to develop and launch Venture as fast as possible while the San Francisco teams behind Odyssey were granted yet another reprieve. It was now a competition, the first in Starfleet's history since the Constitution versus Pyotr Velikiy wars of the early 23rd Century (see M. Okazaki's Pyotr Velikiy and Constitution, Starfleet Museum Press, 2214 for more details). The Council and Starfleet believed that the first ship out of the gate would win, but sometimes being first doesn't guarantee victory.
A Venture into War
Within days of each other in the closing weeks of 2403, the prototypes of Starfleet's newest class of cruisers officially began construction, with USS Odyssey (NX-97000) at the San Francisco Yards and the USS Venture (NX-71854-A) at the Utopia Yards. Additionally, the first Venture-class dreadnaught, USS Paladin (NX-97180) began construction in Mars orbit alongside the cruiser prototype and several other vessels from the initial production order of the Odyssey-class (indeed, the Utopia Yards as a whole saw the situation as a win-win deal for them; no matter which ship claimed supremacy, the Utopia Yards would be a primary builder). Both of the main prototypes were projected to launch within seven years, however Venture was predicted to launch first owing mainly to her smaller size.
Less than a year after construction began, the feared event that spurred this race occurred. In mid 2404, Chancellor J'mpok invoked the Klingons' long standing claims to the Hromi Cluster, claims that had been conceded to the Federation decades ago. The chancellor's call was followed by the expulsion of all Federation citizens from Klingon territory, both were expected to be complied with within three months. At the dawn of 2405, J'mpok's deadline expired just as President Okeg issued a final refusal of Klingon demands. In response, a combined Klingon, Orion, and Gorn fleet invaded the Korvat system. The allied KDF attack did not end there, with strikes across their shared border with the Federation, including the critical Sherman system. Both potential flagships of the future were now too late to assist in the present and Starfleet as a whole engaged in a mad scramble to cope with the new conflict.
With war now laid squarely at the feet of the Federation, almost every resource in new starship construction was thrown at the new Odyssey and Venture-class ships. Traditional bench mark systems were waived in favor of expediting them into service. And while the Federation held its own while waiting for their new, advanced reinforcements, the ADSB began authorizing new starship construction based on technology soon to be featured on either of its two new flagships, such as the Sao Paolo-class escorts, the Armitage-class heavy escort carriers, the Bellerophon-class long range science vessels, and the Regent-class assault cruisers. All of these ships and more benefited from the prolonged development of ODYSSEY and were rapidly churned out en masse well ahead of the flagship that would lead them.
By 2408, a de facto stalemate existed between the Federation and the Klingons. Neither side had been able to advance the front lines beyond the Eta Eridani Sector Block or at least not for more than a few weeks. It was during that year that the prototype USS Venture cleared the drydocks at Utopia Planitia well ahead of Odyssey and performed as expected and also as expected, she was new in every sense instead of her non-QSD propulsion systems. Following her shakedown and as Paladin entered testing, Venture was sent to the frontlines against the Klingons. In the estimation of her first and only captain, Rebecca Simmons, the Venture was a capable combatant, but "not the game changer we were hoping for. Not against what the Klingons can dish out." Venture had her first time at the plate, in terms of the old Earth sport of baseball, but on the balance, she at best walked. Venture's tactical systems were rated as subpar across the board in all action against the Klingons she participated in towards the close of 2408 and the fear was that Odyssey as well wouldn't be up to the challenge. Perhaps the Federation had not only produced one so-called "lemon," but two as well at the worst possible time.
The Age of Aquarius
As the war continued on with little gains on either side's behalf, Odyssey was preparing for her first trials in early 2409. However, based on Venture's sub par tactical performance, along with accumulating damage that not many other starships could return to starbase from, few expected the new prototype to excel in combat. To alleviate the issue, the San Francisco portion of the Advanced Starship Design Bureau halted work on the other Odyssey-class starships outside of the pathfinder for last minute design changes. Thanks to the modern modular design of the Odyssey, there was room to work with, so it was decided that the following three starships of the class would be augmented in various areas over the prototype. The second ship of the class would receive additional armor plating and thruster boosts, the third additional power relays for its energy weapons, and the fourth bolstered scientific capabilities for use in combat.
However, the final piece of the Odyssey's puzzle was about to fall into place shortly after after the Borg attack on the Vega Colony. While the USS Renown (NCC-96047, Regent-class) and the USS Khitomer (Noble-class, NCC-46701) held their own against the Borg, it was felt that smaller vessels like the Defiant (NX-74205), the USS Armitage (NCC-92331) and a Miranda-class ship operating in support of these cruisers turned the tide. Engineers working on all variants of the Odyssey suddenly had an inspiration: to replace the Odyssey's aft shuttlebay with a light escort vessel that could augment its tactical capability and provide flexibility for a variety of assignments outside of the war. This new craft was quickly dubbed Aquarius after the lunar module of the Apollo 13 mission of the 20th Century; the command module of that spacecraft was named Odyssey.
Design work for the Aquarius was infinitely briefer than her mothership, with the construction blueprints approved mere weeks after she was first proposed. Many of her internal systems were based off of so-called "off-the-shelf" technology, though her tactical systems were derived from the then newly launched Sao Paolo-class, which in turn owed its existence to Odyssey and Venture. As one designer put it, "If Odyssey is to be a starbase with warp drive, then Aquarius will to be to her what the DEFIANT was to Deep Space Nine." The second as yet unnamed Odyssey would be the first vessel to sport Aquarius, as would the third and fourth; each of them respectively being the first Operations, Tactical, and Science Odyssey.
The Odyssey Begins
Finally and almost on time to the day it was promised, USS Odyssey cleared all moorings from the San Francisco Shipyards. Following being declared and free to navigate, she began warp trials, pushing her maximum standard warp speed of warp 9.99 until she was well into the Orion Sector (plans to outfit Odyssey with asynchronous warp fields were scrapped in favor of testing the AQSD; it would be the third ship of the overall class that'd have that distinction). Almost two decades after the first prototype AQSD was developed, the Odyssey engage the engine she was designed around, ODYSSEY powered up her AQSD on course for Starbase 39-Sierra; Odyssey arrived at its destination with little drift from her course within seventy seconds. Finally, the Federation had the slipstream drive it had been looking for, but instead of a means of exploring strange new worlds, many in Starfleet were thinking of the tactical implications. The AQSD now presented a means of sending ships across the border towards enemy targets that couldn't be intercepted, however not only did Starfleet realize this great advantage, but the Klingon Empire realized it as well. And the Klingons now were willing to do anything to either impede that advantage or steal some of it for themselves.
Odyssey returned to the Utopia Yards following her shakedown cruise for final tune-ups and crew rotations. However, after she left port on what was to be her last shakedown cruise, a Klingon strike force attacked the yards and Odyssey held her own before reinforcements helped to drive off the Klingons. Starfleet soon after launched a retaliatory strike against the bortaS' at the Ganalda Shipyards but while that attack was equally fruitless, ultimately it proved that the Klingons feared Odyssey more than the Federation feared bortaS'.
Odyssey was soon commissioned following the failed attack on Utopia Planitia and assigned to the Sirius Sector Block to assist in further testing of components for her sister ships. The second vessel of the class and the first operations cruiser was soon dubbed the next USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-F); she would go on to participate in actions to free Deep Space 9 from Dominion occupation and thwart the Undine attack on Qo'noS. The third ship of the line and first tactical cruiser, USS Avalon (NCC-97635), became the most combat-tested Odyssey-class starship so far as of this writing. The first science was dubbed USS Houston (NCC-97284) and was destroyed while serving as Admiral D'Vak's flagship during the attack on the Borg Unicomplex in the Gamma Orionius Sector Block.
At long last, the ship that took decades to develop finally lived up to her potential. Odyssey became the ship that fleets clamored over to be their flagship; the ship captains desired to command over any other vessel. And furthermore, the Odyssey continued to inspire a new line of starships, from those that preceded her out of the drydocks to the ships that followed, such as the Avenger-class battlecruisers to the new Guardian-class cruisers. Her successful implementation of the AQSD has carried over to the experimental Chimera-class experimental destroyers, along with similar ships developed by the Klingons and the Romulan Republic, through peace rather than espionage. Although the Venture and her Venture-X-class siblings have served with distinction, their accomplishments seem to pale in what Odyssey managed to pull off with so many setbacks. The Odyssey most certainly had a troubled gestation period, but her service since birth has more than earned her the right to be called a flagship of the Federation.
[USS Avalon (NCC-97635) exploring along the frontier.]
Image Credits:
Odyssey Patch by Thomas Marrone
STO screeshots by Norcaler
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