Federation Showcase

[Major Diarrhia]

Originally Posted by tnpir4002

One final shot of the Fitzgerald...

And the opponent to the Fitzgerald, the ISS Voyager. For those who remember the context of the story I was writing, this was designed around the principle of taking the natural maneuverability and speed of the Intrepid class, and combining it with the unorthodox thinking and invention centered around a need to survive a close encounter with a black hole, and then to travel backwards in time, and to be able to outfight any opposition along the way. This ship is meant to look and feel super-sophisticated and to be able to best even a Sovereign-class ship. Some of Jedilaw's greebles came in very handy for this design, and kudos again to Sarod for his excellent Intrepid mesh.

Voyager and thus any other Starfleet ship, can enter a blackhole's event horizon without even noticing it. Besides, maneuverability won't matter, it's raw acceleration that will matter, as well as endurance in running the engines. That's if for some reason you decide to use impulse engines instead of just using the warp drive which should get you out just fine. That he has to use a blackhole also implies he figured out the warp around the gravity well method for time travel, you know Kirks' accidental method? That means he won't need anything special, considering the ships original used to do the same thing. It all looks cool though.

Originally Posted by tnpir4002

The story opens in deep space with a group of starships chasing an Insurrection-style shuttlecraft. Cutaways to the aft cargo compartment reveal several sophisticated-looking components secured for transport, likely the target of the pursuing starships. Some of them look suspiciously like components of a Federation Intrepid-class warp core.

Do you mean the shuttle Picard and Worf used? That's really the only one you could mean because the ship Data used doesn't seem to have any rear area, it was probably all engine, fuel, and weapons. Also, Voyager's warp core doesn't really have any distinguishable components that I think would actually fit in anything even runabout size, which I think Picard and Worf's shuttle was close to in size.

On the bridge of one of the pursuing vessels, the crew attempts to compensate for the shuttle's sensor jamming so they can lock their weapons.

They should use a tractor beam, they could just sweep it around until they get a hit.

Cut to a deep-space research station (played by the Caretaker's Array).

What!? No. Why? Why not a reuse of Jupiter Station, it's modular and established it's use as a science station? Or is the Caretaker Array just a model you happen to have?

A tense showdown ends with Dr. Bridges successfully activating his transporter and escaping, and the Voyager lookalike doing an abrupt about-face--much faster than a standard Intrepid-class starship should be capable of--and disappear into warp. Chellik watches the starship escape on one of the lab's viewscreens, and softly wishes his old friend good luck on his journey.

Should I assume Chellik wanted Dr. Bridges to get away? Because if he didn't, then he could have easily ordered the shields up and that would have either stopped the guy or slowed him down enough to subdue him. He could have even ordered him transported to the brig or something. Also, the two security guards not subduing him seems too convenient, it would make more sense for the good doctor to have been prepared in some way such as with a mobile shield to act as a barrier, or a directional stun grenade, maybe even just transporting out fast enough not to be caught. You could even have him transport in his own security personnel, if he has any. It's hard to imagine that he does. Security really should have stunned him the moment they saw him transporter tagging stuff.

A second plan to disrupt Voyager's shields and disable its warp drive with a tachyon pulse also fails

The tachyon pulse's intent in Insurrection was to force Data to reset his shields in order to give Picard a chance to beam Data off the scout and into custody.

Later, in his ready room, Reyf is reflecting on the events when a chime comes at the door. In walks Lt Cmdr Data,

That's a bit much, it's weird enough that Worf is in every movie for some reason. The TNG guys are there just to be there.

I'm still trying to come up with a bridge design for the Akira-class ships that pursue the shuttle in the very beginning (oh yeah, we also see the Type-11 shuttlecraft with interiors), I may just base it on the bridge design for the Prometheus or the Equinox (same set, slightly different layout) and be done with it, I plan to use the Voyager-era uniforms in the prologue but the STFC-era uniforms thereafter for continuity's sake.

The Akira is slightly older than the Galaxy class, very slightly. I would redress a Nebula class style bridge. http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/ga...eus-bridge.jpg
However, the escape pods make it apparent that it may have had some upgrades.

I'd welcome any suggestions on this front. I had considered making the pursuer a single Galaxy-class ship, so I could just re-dress my film bridge to match the series, but that seemed like too much of a copout all the way around.

It might be better off being another shuttle since it doesn't make sense for the shuttle to have extraordinary ECM. The goal should be to keep the chasing ship as slow and weak as possible and the chase as short as possible in order to reduce the probability of being captured. The best way to do that is to make sure the guy has a head start. One way is to have it that the only ship is docked and have the shuttle go to warp immediately. Any chasing starship could just make a micro warp jump and get right near the shuttle, or fire a spread of torpedoes in proximity to disable its systems, that way it doesn't even need to hit. One thing that might help is to have the shuttle run its warp engines way over their limit, at something like 200%, the only problem is that even though it will give it a huge warp boost, it still can't be faster than a Starship and it will make it obvious that the pilot doesn't expect to go very far, which narrows down the places the shuttle will go. That leads to an intercepting warp jump again. I would also get rid of the isokinetic torpedo later on in the story since it isn't even used.

[tnpir4002]

WOW...I can't believe someone actually took the time to read through all that...I know I wrote it to be read but still...WOW

I can just imagine similar discussions taking place in Brannon Braga's living room about episodes they were writing. I still remember hearing about in an audio commentary that people actually got red-faced arguing about what a ship's warp drive could or couldn't do...but I digress :-)

The idea of having a standlone time machine is motivated by nothing more and nothing less than a desire to build a time device and have some eye candy...Spock would call that human need for vanity and he's right HAHA...that's a case of art influencing medium I suppose...that's one of the tests I did before, the sequence was set to the part of "Beamed to the Farm" (Caretaker OST) that goes from Kim's command to activate the EMH until the quirky moment when he and Paris exchange glances at the hologram's behavior and the scene cuts to Engineering. It's actually a pretty cool moment because it's a total montage moment, intercutting between this cool-looking gadget in the cargo bay and the bridge at red alert. If I can find a way to compress it down to appropriate size I'll post a clip of it here, it's really cool.

And yes, I was talking the Picard-Worf shuttle. You're right, Voyager didn't have many components that would fit in a shuttle that size, but I figured I could put in a magnetic constrictor (as seen in "Caretaker" and later "Projections") and maybe one of the silver rings that separate the segments of the core itself. That's about all that would fit, but it'll be a good bit of foreshadowing and visually explains why the shuttle is being chased.

Tractor beams don't make for good television :-) I'm going to explain both this not being used and their inability to hit the shuttle with weapons as a deliberate jamming effect coming from the ship that surrounds it with sensor echoes to make the shuttle indistinguishable from the shadows.

I chose the Caretaker's Array just cuz I had it lying around (see below). Looks cool though doesn't it?

Your question about Chellik is actually one that's left deliberately vague :-) The two are implied to be good friends, so it stands to reason that Chellik might want to be seen to have tried to stop him, but really intended to let him escape. One of the themes of the film however is not compromising one's ideals, so you never know... And the transporter tagging actually took place just before Chellik and company arrived, and the way the scene plays, Chellik orders my character to go with him to his office, and Dr. Bridges appears to be about to agree to go when his hand flashed quicker than the eye can see to a control pad, and by the time Chellik orders the guards to open fire the transport cycle has already engaged. It's fudging just a bit, but if you look at Starfleet security guards in TNG, also not entirely unebelievable haha

I'm surprised the description of the use of the tachyon beam didn't remind you of "Dreadnought" (VOY SSN2), because the same plot device was used there in the same way.

Data and Troi are both on detached service on the Fitzgerald; it's never actually explained, although the implication based on the log entry stardates is that this all takes place shortly before the appearance of the Enterprise-E in First Contact.

Extraordinary ECM? What's ECM?

The reason I wanted to make it a clear mismatch was to plant something in the minds of viewers--"Alright, even with sensor ghosts that shuttle still took enough hits that it should've been disabled, and yet it wasn't. And that captain said that it was faster than any Type-11 shuttle he'd ever seen...hmmm...." That thought would be with them later on when the ISS Voyager with all its super-advanced technology shows up. It's meant to imply that my character is very skilled both tactically and technologically, and that he's going to "soupe up" anything he gets his hands on. My character is meant to come across just like your typical mad scientist, jaded but very intelligent and able to outthink his opponents, as well as outmaneuver them with his unique inventions that give him an edge over everyone around him.

I do like the idea of overdriving the shuttle's warp engines though.

As for the isokinetic charge, it does get used? That's how the Fitzgerald ultimately beats Voyager, using an isokinetic charge to overload the ship's shields, which has the side effect of accidentally engaging the time machine (kind of like the lightning strike in Back to the Future Pt. 2 that accidentally sends the DeLorean back to 1885).

Also please have a look at the attachments...the latest version of my ST7 film bridge, the new Voyager residential corridor taken from actual set blueprints (custom design for my own Captain's Quarters is in progress at this very moment, along with a matching Mess Hall set; I also plan to make a TNG version of this later on, although probably won't make the quarters for that one), and the Caretaker's array, all carefully colored and textured from screencaps from the appropriate films or series.

My 200th post!!!

[homerpalooza67]

ECM=Electronic Counter-Measures (i think) its a term taken from the Honor Harrington series by David Weber, where ships employ decoys and jammers to fool enemy missiles into hitting the wrong target. Essentially, the shuttle broadcasts fake sensor ghosts to fool the targeting computers of the approaching starship. Therefore, the attacker cant get a positive weapons lock without manual compensation/targeting, and by that time, its too late.

[Starship]

Man, you have impressive skils! I'm saving your renderings for future reference.