12.25 Acknowledgements

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS VOLUME 12: 2176-2295

AUTHOR’S COMMENTS:

Here we are, folks: end of the line. It’s been a long time coming, and there were times I tho ght I mi t ever see it u ght no through, but here we are. T an hang r the ks for ing in fo h ride.

I came up with the Starfleet Reorganization Order of 2295 as way of tying together several divergent n bo events i th canon and fanon works, all of which point the way towards the “explore hips of TNG/DS9/Voyager. How best to r” class stars explain this? History has a tendency to repeat itself. Just as the Federation forced Starfleet to reduce its forces after the Romulan War, so I see them doing afte signing r the of the Khitom the end of hostilities with the Klingon er Accords and Empire. I don’t believe they wouldn’t have made them scale back as much, though, due to the resurgence of the new Romulan Space Navy (and its first generation of original Hawkseries designs, courtesy of SFB/SFC). I know I’m stepping out on a limb a modest scaling-back was intended, with , but I think new starships of the Excelsior generation gradually replacing those of the Class I era. Th m wre t dest e onkey nch tha royed all of these plans was Admiral Cartwright and Colonel West’s conspiracy to provoke a General War. That’s right, I’m deliberately using the Starfleet Battles IM term. HO, the SFB/SFC mayb that of FASA) is how things might universe (and e have ended up had that General War come about at whatever point in the timeline you want k. bviou to pic That’s o sly what Cartwright, West, General Chang (the Klingon faction), Ambassador Nalcus (the Romulan faction), and everyone else involved wanted. Once the various inves political tigations exposed just how deep the conspiracy ran and to what extent the co lling to go to cause that General War, nspirators were wi then the Federation Council u e ac ake s t wo ld hav ted to m ure tha such ed again. Hence the demilitarization of a thing never happen Starfleet, something that is alluded to several times in TNG. Starfleet’s posture changes from a milit e ba ary forc ck to an explorat it was meant to be in the early days of ion force, just as the Federation. This helps explain why the so-called “Lost Years” or “Lost Era” between The Undiscovered Country and The Next Generation is just th . St is t complet ely at arfleet almos tra t six decades from a well-armed nsformed over the nex military force to a well-armed exploration force. What’s the difference? One of percept i osoph ion and operat ng phil y, as I’m sure any Federation Councillor will tell you.

The Starfleet Reorganization Order of 2295 is also the best I could come up with where most of my canon and fanon sources could have their cake and eat it, too. The date was deliberately chosen for two reasons. First, most of the “good” TREK OS fan rks e T /T AS era tech on wo nd c.2290, shortly before the events depicted in Th discovered Co within e Un untry. Material those few that go beyond sug gests that such an order was actually issued, although it is now here documented. Second, I ant su t t w ed to allow fficien ime for the various political investigations into the assassina tion attempt on the Federation President at Khitomer to run their us course. There are obvio parallels in our own time and obvious parallels to the to this arfle anizat rder et Reorg St ion O of 2295 as well. Take for example led eff of the Canad their ort ians to integrate the fai armed o a single organization. I’m sure you readers forces int can think up of many more. The fallacy of the Starfleet Reorganization Order of 2295 will eventually be proven wrong decades omin ion War. As they did during its later during the D nd century, the more militant within “difficult days” of the late 22 Starfleet will always be looking for ways to return Starfleet to its “real” military calling (TNG’ s “The Pegasus,” for example). Those events are beyond the scope t of this document and will no e c b overed here.

The “Colonel of the Corps” business is my way of resolving the sue of Colonel West ar is ’s appe ance (Rene Auberjonis) in the full print VI: The Undisc overed Country. It is based on of Star Trek the two-pronged approach used by g Memory Alpha in describin s , ommander-in-chief of the Starfleet hi situation. First as the c Marines ould hold the f ull (or franked) rank of general, , he w which is equivalent to an admi ral and explains why he wears an admiral’s pin on his Starfleet uni form. He would wear the same he w ng a un iform, which we never see (and if ere weari Marine might not even exist per “official” s n ources). Second, I’ve take their s of using the B uggestion ritish concept of “colonel” and xpan over ol ded it to c e of the Starfleet Marine Corps. e the wh Instead of having a Marine Corps Commandant as does the 21st century States, 23 United the rd century Starfleet has a “Colonel of the ’s a p honor Corps.” It urely ary title but one that would be used on a regular basis; hence his addressed as “Colonel being West” of “General W est.” Maybe the old colonelinstead gene th onic era (and earlier) would be a ral om idea fr e Napole better approach, but that seem s too archaic a route for most folks to follow. Anyway, I’ve ta lked to several current Marines about nd t om fortable with it, so I’m going to this idea a hey’re c run with as long as my fell ow fans let me. it for

If you’ o a v e ever seen Marines d n insertion-extraction operation from l C-13 p o 0 trans ort craft, then you know how w-flying impressive a sight it is. Now imagine a p Miranda class starshi screaming through the atmosphere of a planet with full forward shields and doing the same thing, drop-kicking antigrav-equipped pallets of heavy equipment and other ground combat gear out of its dual hangar bays for Marines “on the ground” while at the

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same time letting loose with several phaser and photon torpedo salvoes to knock down any resistance. Yeah, I can see you Starfleet Marine fans drooling at the thought. ^_^

I realize a lot of fans of the Gunther/Sofia s chool of TREK tech nd possibly they themselves) are going t o be mad at me for (a (II) class from Ships of the Starfleet discounting the Enterprise Bird’s semi-official explanation of how nd going with the Great a the ”Enterprise-A” came to be. I’ll be frank with you. I’m going by what’s on screen. Ships of the Starfleet was published before Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was released. At he end of that film, which is supposed to take place in 2293 per t e Graham/Mandel timeline, Captain Kirk receives orders for th the “new” Enterprise to be retired from service. This presumably takes place despite Captain Kirk’s last little “spin around the block” per the end of the movie and official sources. This implies that the “new” Enterprise cannot be a new starship; otherwise she would have had a lot more life left in her. Now you know part of the reason behind my rationale for Starfleet’s Extended Service Life Program (ESLP). Yorktown, which was the name of the “new” Enterprise as originally commissioned (per the Great Bird), entered service in 2228 (date corrected), five years after the original Enterprise in 2223. She retired as the “new” Enterprise in 2293. This would have made her 65 years old – just 10 years short of the projected maximum 75-year life lifespan for an original Class I Program starship given two ESLP overhauls, which Yorktown had per fandom tech documents. Such a long life for a starship is supported by the later TREK shows, both TNG and DS9 in particular, where we see centuryold Miranda class cruisers still in active service. The renaming of the older, refitted Yorktown as the “new” Enterprise thus fits with what’s depicted on-screen in both TOS and all six TREK feature films. I think the Great Bird was right on this one, making it one of the few times he was right in his later, more scurrilous years.

With regards to the decommissioning of the Enterprise after Star Trek IV, I flatly reject the supposition of a certain novel that Kirk and company later “borrowed” the ship and subsequently destroyed it in another battle with the Klingons. There is no onscreen evidence for such an event ever taking place. It was my understanding when TNG first aired, as it was with many of my fellow fans at the time, that the old “Constitution class starship” Captain Picard mentioned he’d seen in “Relics” was the Enterprise-A herself, preserved as part of a museum fleet due to her historic importance. I’ll admit that this was never said on-screen, just something you felt while watching this remarkable episode. Nevertheless, I know a lot of you won’t agree with me, just as some of you were quick to point out the supposed “error” of my original statement back in Volume 10 (per ST II) that James T. Kirk was the only person ever to beat t came directly from the Kobayashi Maru training simulation. Tha on-screen dialogue, by the way. So, for the sake of those of you who must swear by your TREK novels, I’m only mentioning the Enterprise-A was decommissioned and leave it at that. Now you’ll be able to interpret her ultimate fate however you want. The reason I list the Belknap and Ascension classes as getting axed in 2295 is to explain their telling absence during the Dominon War of the 24th century (DS9). I suppose one could make the case that they were pulled from reserves and operated on the periphery somewhere, but there’s no record of it on-screen. (Of course there isn’t, because both are fandom designs – ed.) I suspect, like Timo, that the Ascensions got scrapped shortly after 2295 to pacify the Klingons. So where did the Belknaps end up during the Dominion War? I dunno. Maybe they got sent to less hostile areas in order to free up better starships for the Federation war fleet, or perhaps they had already been scrapped by then. I’ll pass on that question and let Todd and Aridas tackle it instead -- provided they ever release revised versions of their excellent fandom TREK tech works updated with 24th century info. -_^

I deliberately upped the hull numbers for the Midway class shuttlecarriers, since the ones floating around the Internet (and presumably from SFC II:EW) duplicated those of the Ariel and Fredrikstad classes.

Nowhere in any of the various TREK materials is a specific date given for the Camp Khitomer conference. Dixon’s research into the stardates seems to indicate a date of mid-August 2291. I the day of the assassination attempt on the arbitrarily picked deration President as 14 August. It’s a nod towards the title Fe of the TREK movie from which this event comes. The movie’s sub-title is The Undiscovered Country. 14 August was the birthday of Virginia Dare, the first child born in the New World at the lost English colony of Roanoke.

Well, as the saying goes, it’s been nice and it’s been grand but I’ve had all that I can stand. It’s time for me to bring the Federation Spaceflight Chronology to its final end. Will there be revised versions, with corrections and possible additions? Most likely. Is the long-delayed Romulan supplement ever going to be released. Certainly, once I get the details worked out. Will there be any additional FSC volumes to cover the TNG, DS9, and Voyager eras and their respective alien “powers?” No. My first love is with what they nowadays call “classic TREK.” I have no desire to extend the FSC beyond the sixth and last of the “classic TREK” feature films. That I leave to you.

Perhaps others of you might want to take on the challenge of a TNG-era starship chronology in your own works, following the trail that has been already blazed for you. Perhaps you would prefer to take the FSC and elaborate on it in s pecific areas, or ore detailed “classic TREK” tech on your favorite starship m classes. Perhaps some of you would like to rewrite the FSC and adapt it to the “canon” TREK timeline (Prime Two), seeking the path that others have done in works that came long before mine. Perhaps reading the FSC will inspire you to create your own future cities, alien vistas, planetscapes, starships, drawings, or 3D models like those of the many, many, MANY artists with whose work has graced all volumes of the FSC.

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There are so many possibilities. The one thing I’ve tried to do above all else with the FSC, even above my effort to hammer the old Graham/Mandel timeline back into shape, is to inspire you ith the possibilities that old-school “classic TREK” still has to w offer. Hopefully I’ve fanned that spark of creativity within you in a way that hasn’t been done before. What you do with it from here on is up to you.

Be seeing you

- Richard E. Mandel SPECIAL THANKS TO:

“Cluttered Mind” Jason Boguess Neale Davidson Stan and Fred Goldstein Jan Hendrik Kobarg Aridas Sofia Memory Alpha

VISUAL SOURCES:

3D Starships Activision Games Atolm Atrahasis Darius Architectus Demon Renegade Studios iers Federation Front Ted W. Giebel (SFB Nexus) J. C. and Rafael Gonzalez Todd Guenther Industrial Light and Magic Greg Jein Hal Jordan Rick Knox (aka Pneunomic81) Eric “Jackill” Kristiansen Jason “Vektor” Lee Chris Johnson The Light Works Michael Newlyn Models Please OrbiterMods David Schmidt Outlance Shipyards John Payne Paramount Pictures Martin Shaw Slider17 (FileFront) Starforce Productions Starship Schematic Database Aridas Sofia Daniel Swift Taldren Brad Torgerson Adam Turner Yeaterk

CONTACT INFO:

Want to contribute to future revisions of the Federation Spaceflight Chronology? You can reach me at:

rtrodude@yahoo.com

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