1.5 Starfleet Support

Starfleet Command, as an instrument of United Federation of Planets (UFP) policy, has provided both spacecraft and supplies to support the operation of Deep Space 9. Some twenty-five starships, runabouts, and shuttles have been redeployed from other assignments to afford the station a mobile defense and continued transportation between the station and the core Federation worlds. In addition, Starfleet Materiel Supply Command has transferred almost thirty-seven million metric tonnes of equipment and consumables from Alpha Quadrant depots to help reconstruct and maintain the space station.

The spacecraft deployment officially attached to the station involves only nine vehicles: the U.S.S. Defiant; the runabouts U.S.S. Rio Grande and U.S.S. Rubicon, two Type-6 shuttlecraft, and four standard Work Bee utility vehicles. All other vessels assigned to support roles are attached to nearby starbases and secured Federation worlds and are not normally based at Deep Space 9. The Defiant is the primary station defense and reconnaissance vessel and is equipped with a cloaking device on loan from the Romulan Star Empire. The normal docking location is Port 1, Pylon 1, within view of the commander's office. The Defiant class has recently gone into limited yard production as a front-line starship (see 14.1). Spares and upgrade equipment are channeled to the station by regular Starfleet vessels or a variety of threat-confounding conduits, including commercial freighters and research craft.

The runabout inventory has proved to be of variable quantity due to inadvertent attrition. Though it is not attributed to any major design flaws, nonetheless the runabout has suffered a loss rate of 3.2 units per 100,000 hours of operational time, second only to the Type-6 and Type-9 shuttlecraft, both of which have incurred a loss rate of 8.9 units per 100,000 hours. Three runabouts are continuously hangared at Deep Space 9 within specialized storage and maintenance bays (see 14.2). The Type-6 shuttles and Work Bees are also hangared in the runabout bays within partitioned sections of the main volumes.

Major fleet operations relating to Deep Space 9 defense automatically become the authority of Starfleet Command, using as much predeployment intelligence from the station and its ships as can be compiled. Any threat force movements that cannot be countered by the Defiant and two runabouts must be augmented by patrolling fleet vessels from Starbases 375, 257, and 211. Larger threat forces must be countered by Starfleet assets assembled from bases and yards closer to the UFP perimeter, layer by layer, through the defensive territory structure. The outbreak of unlimited warfare by threat forces requires a total UFP mobilization under the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP).

Support Flight Procedures

Starfleet Command maintains all physical transport and communications ties to Deep Space 9 through channels leading back to the Federation Council in San Francisco and the UFP president's offices in Paris on Earth. The various directorates at Starfleet Command receive mandates from the Federation Council, clearing them to allocate ships, personnel, and cargo. Availabilities of required equipment and consumables are determined, and all cargoes are moved by starship from Earth and other UFP member systems to staging areas such as Starbase 375 (see illustration). Final clearance to traverse the last leg of the run must be given by a starbase, once the exact defensive situation at Deep Space 9 is understood. Dedicated personnel transportation is handled in similar fashion, with or without escort vessels, depending on the priority of the transfer. Specialized high-warp courier vehicles can be employed for critical missions and are able to cover the 50.3-light-year distance between the station and the UFP inner perimeter within six days. This is equivalent to warp 9.92, and is accomplished by using alternating twin matter-antimatter reaction cores and nacelle pairs. A modified four-engine version of the Defiant pathfinder spaceframe has proven successful in surpassing the 1,000 light-year/year efficiency barrier.

Complex requests involving large structures and spacecraft are handled by a joint tasking group within Starfleet Command and the Federation Council. Shipments of Starfleet-originated equipment and consumables are made in standard cargo containers and involve instrumentation, breathing gases, potable fluids, foodstuffs, medicine, and tools. Escorted freighter convoys and single starship runs are common transfer methods. High-security items, such as weapons systems and powerpacks, arrive at the station by both open and covert means.

Starfleet Corps of Engineers

Vitally important to the reconstruction of Deep Space 9 was the Starfleet Corps of Engineers (SFCE), which also handles any required modifications and maintenance involving large-scale structures and hardware systems. An average of thirty-five resident engineers and technicians are based at the station, and are overseen by the chief of operations. An affiliate group of twenty-eight Bajoran engineers work together with the Starfleet crews and have been trained to maintain the station in the absence of Starfleet personnel. Engineering equipment assistance is provided in the form of tools, spares, replication gear, computer databases, and heavy equipment manipulation booms and extravehicular activity (EVA) systems. This last area involves interior and exterior spacesuit operations, and Work Bee autonomous cargo and repair pod missions (see 13.4, 14.3).

The SFCE crews have been instrumental in many episodes of station repair, including the destruction of Upper Pylon 3 by Jem'Hadar forces. Computer templates of the pylon structure and internal systems were used by the engineering crews to form new components, and seamless meld framing and hull plating together, once the damaged materials had been cut down and prepared. Every instance of threat weapons fire that has penetrated the station defensive shield envelope must be analyzed by SFCE and Bajoran personnel for microfracturing and alloy destabilization. Full patching and rebuilding are performed if required. The crews are also responsible for monitoring the total station structure for tension, compression, and torsional flexing in the Denorios Belt environment, as well as radiation effects from all known EM and subspace sources. Unique energetic effects not already stored in the structural database are added whenever encountered, in order to create new repair protocols.