6.12 Acknowledgements: Volume 6

Author’s Comments

A lot of you have asked about the artwork I’ve been including with each successive issue of the FSC. Some of you are laughing at my in-jokes, while others want to know where they can get their own copies. Many of these are “placeholder” images pulled from various space art Internet sites, intended to fill in for STAR TREK conceptual art that simply doesn’t exist. That was one of the major drawbacks of Timo’s otherwise excellent work A Hobbyist’s Guide to the UFP Starfleet. You had no way to visualize what he was talking about. At least this way I can plant ideas in your head while at the same time making the FSC a more enjoyable read. As for the rest, I get them from TREK image and videogame archives all over the Internet. I just stick the subject I want to visualize into Google and usually add the word image, gallery, art, or something like that on the end and let it rip.

This is also the main reason why the FSC remains for the present a free publication. There’s simply no way I could clear the legal hurdles involved with some of these images and sell it for profit. By keeping it as a public domain reference work the FSC falls under the “fair use” clause of copyright law. Leastways that’s what my legal advisors told me. You see, I’ve been involved in several copyright actions of my own in the past. That’s why I’m taking this approach. If someone objects, then I’ll adapt accordingly.

I’ve included a revised Master Table of Contents in this issue to bring the FSC up to date with what I’ve done so far. It’ll also give you a look ahead as to what’s coming down the pike.

“So where’s ECS Horizon?” some of you might be asking. It’s not here because its existence conflicts with a ship class that’s already established in fandom tech, mainly Sternbach’s early Federation survey cruiser USS Horizon. Fandom tech holds weight here in the Prime One timeline; therefore, the ECS Horizon doesn’t exist. The class itself might exist (as the Roanoake class transports per Timo’s notes) but the ECS Horizon doesn’t. Because of this I decided to err on the side of caution and not include it. If you want to know more about the Roanoke class then go read Timo’s book, A Hobbyist’s Guide to the UFP Starfleet. As for those of you who insist on having it here, I refer you to my timeline note about the designation of “Class J” cargo ships. My research seems to indicate that the Roanoake class transport would have entered service around 2105 as the first of the new-build “Class J” starships. The Prometheus class ringship (Atlas class in the FRS site timeline) is a particularly vexing ship to try to place in any TREK chronology. According to the wall schematic in Star Trek: The Motion Picture a ringship very much like this was the first named Enterprise. That I have taken as Sternbach’s interpretation and placed it in the era of the Earth-Kzin Wars so it can be first to build on the Enterprise reputation over the years. That leaves this design, the original by Jeffries, which at casual glance appears to be a somewhat evolved version of Sternbach’s concept. Depending on which source you consult the Jefferies ringship enters service either just before or just after the Romulan War. I admit to swinging back and forth on the issue until one of my reviewers reminded me of the hijacking of the starliner SS Diana. According to the old SFC that took place before the Romulan War. While there’s no obvious connection between the Diana and the Jeffries ringship, a casual reading of the old SFC would lead one to believe that the Diana was a starliner of the “Declaration series.” It’s a better case for the dating of the Jeffries ringship than any I’ve yet seen, so in this case I’m differing with Prime Zero (Dixon) and moving its service entry date back to before the War. It also fits better with the FRS ringship evolution as illustrated on their website. If someone can make a better case for the Jeffries ringship entering service after the War then I’m willing to listen.

FRS readers and site visitors should take note that I am using Mandel and Drexler’s illustration of the Jeffries ringship from the Star Trek Maps instead of the Atlas interpretation by Aridas Sofia. That’s because it’s a better match for the majority of the original Jeffries production sketches. The drawing by Aridas appears to be based on a slightly alternate design Jeffries toyed with in at least three different drawings. In these a cluster of six small engines were mounted outside and behind the ring instead of a sole large engine on the inside. You can interpret his Atlas concept as the prototype for the Prometheus class, if you like. I’ve given you room for this interpretation by implying that most of the Jeffries ringships in civilian service had “giant” names (Atlas, Prometheus, Paul Bunyan, Saturn, etc.).

The Wright class was an attempt at addressing the appearance of the Djartanna at two different points in Dixon’s research. Most evidence seems to support the later date; however, as the Terrans and other races were contributing to Star Fleet starship design I felt the Centaureans needed to be represented, too, and for more than just their warp engines. Hence I followed Timo’s lead in creating an uprated Djartanna subclass. For that reason I’ve introduced the Djartanna in its original FASA lines on the first date and the uprated and reconfigured Wright (loosely modeled after Timo’s Iceland class) on the second. The Djartanna/Wright is part of Prime One’s evolution towards the Class I heavy cruiser, so I wanted to show a Djartanna that was a little closer than when we first saw it back in Volume 05. My drawing of the Wright is horrible (as is its companion, the Cavalry class destroyer) and hopefully one of you will be willing enough to do a better job. The engines were borrowed from the Durance since that was already an accepted starship design and sharing components across classes would lower production cost. This in a small way anticipates the modular component construction programs of the Baton Rouge generation and the Class I Starships almost a century down the line.

The inclusion of FASA’s Armstrong class heavy cruiser gives Star Fleet an extra “heavy” (aside from the dated Messier class) that it was sadly lacking in the coming Romulan War. It also gave me a chance to slip in a backhanded reference to Enterprise. Finally, it gives Okudaites and RPGers who are using the FSC for source material a convenient “hook” for patching the NX-01 Enterprise into the FSC (despite its glaring technical inconsistencies — Warp 5 in a Warp 3 era, for one). In that scenario the NX-01 would be the “logical” successor to the Armstrong, replacing the extra 15 built during the Romulan War as Star Fleet’s main ship-of-the-line.

The Armstrong is yet another step in Prime One’s evolution towards everybody’s favorite starship. Of course we all know what comes next. The Daedalus, right? Not exactly. There’s an interim design that all but us “old school” TREK techies have probably forgotten. Your memory will be refreshed once the Romulan War issue is released. I’ve dropped you a couple of hints, though, and the more discerning among you should be able to figure out what it is. Stay tuned.

Have you ever noticed that Goldstein and Sternbach’s “mystery space probe” from the SFC, the one that flew into Federation space from outside the galaxy a few years before the Romulan War, looks amazingly like the Whalesong Probe from ST IV? That’s why I linked the two together. My guess is that whoever sent the probe in the movie sent the little one first. When it never made contact (due to being intercepted while en route) its senders decided to sent a second, larger, and more powerful one that couldn’t be stopped in any way, form, shape, or fashion. This second probe is the one featured in ST IV. The reason for the lag between the two probes is the time required for an extragalactic journey from God knows where.

I know some of you are scratching your heads at my mention of Starbase 10 being near the “New Territories” and thus within range of the “pirate” activity when Dixon, FASA and the SFC say it was Starbase 1. That’s because I compared the action as described with the Star Trek Maps. The only starbase in the area that could have been around at the time, given the construction rate of starbases (1-2 per year), is Starbase 10. You will also recall from the original STAR TREK television series (TOS) that Starbase 10 was within range of the Neutral Zone, which is exactly where the Star Fleet Maps puts it. That’s why I changed the identity of the starbase in question. I also had to push back construction of Starbase 1 by a few years in order to adjust for this fact.

The planetary stats for Orion and Rigel VII are a wild guess based on what little I could find in my research. Odds are that they’re probably wrong, too. I’d especially welcome corrections for these if you have them.

The idea for the character of elderly Martian colonist Georges Picard comes from Star Trek: First Contact. Captain Jean-Luc Picard mentions that one of his ancestors was among the original colonists of Mars. That would have made him a member of the Martian Genesis group. I envision him as a young boy at the time the ship landed on Mars; hence his age. I’m including older children among the Martian Genesis colonists due to its historical parallels with other frontier settlement accounts. “We wouldn’t have allowed children on a colony ship!” some of you might protest. You probably wouldn’t have allowed them on wagon trains to the American West or in ships heading to Australia, either, yet both happened.

I took the liberty of rewriting Commandant Niarchos’ opening address to the first class of Star Fleet Academy. I attended the U.S. Naval Academy in my youth and what is in the old SFC is nothing like any speech I ever heard from the “Dant” or the “Supe” during my time there. To be honest, the SFC original is ridiculous at best.

I’ve had several questions regarding the Atlas since the initial release of this volume. The Atlas was not a ringship according to the FASA RPG supplement The Romulan War. Nowhere in this gaming supplement are ringships described, although some (Aridas Sofia in particular) have retconned ringships into the overall scheme of events. It was a Star Fleet transport hauling a cargo of neutronic fuel and cobalt tetroxides from Delta II to the Sector 5D Agricultural Colony. For this issue I have replaced my earlier photoshopped picture with one of Dana Knutson’s drawings from the FASA supplement. It matches the destruction of the Atlas as described in the FASA materials, in particular the crew being forced to don EVA suits due to hull breaches prior to the final end.

Regards, - Richard E. Mandel

Special Thanks To

• Jason Boguess
• FASA Corporation
• Stan and Fred Goldstein
• Timo Saloniemi
• Aridas Sofia
• Last Unicorn Games

Visual Sources

• Steve Baron
• Dana Knutson
• DarthMagus
• Don Dixon
• Feyman Federation Shipyards
• Maeteen Greenway
• Andrew J. Hodges
• Walter M. Jeffries
• Dan Knutson
• Geoffery Mandel
• SciFi Meshes
• Gavin Pillay
• “Reverend”
• Aridas Sofia
• Rick Sternbach
• TallGuy
• The Trek BBS
• The SpaceArt Archive
• Christian Zaber

Contact Info

Want to contribute to the Federation Spaceflight Chronology? You can find me on the FRS Online or Star Fleet Network forums. If you prefer direct contact then you can reach me at: rtrodude@yahoo.com