9.1 Major Events

2191

• The Kepler series space probes enter service.
• The first of several sightings of unknown, manta-shaped alien craft begin on the edges of Federation space beyond the Rigel star system.

2192

• The Mann class survey cruisers enter service. These are the first starship class in Federation history that can maintain a cruising speed of Warp 4, thanks largely to their trititanium frames.
• The last of the original, pre-war Horizon class starships is retired (its class name already reassigned to the 2190 survey cruisers of the same name). All of these will be sold off to eager civilian buyers and enjoy extended lifespans as civilian transports.

2193

• All starships in the Tritium class are withdrawn from service. This is due both to the emergence of the Horizon and Mann class starships and to continued safety concerns about their flawed design. The lead ship, USS Tritium, will be donated to the Star Fleet Museum at Memory Alpha while the rest are scrapped.
• The Orpheus space probe is the first to apparently survive descent into a black hole. Its last recorded transmission happens a fraction of a second after it passes the black hole's event horizon, after which it is never heard from again. The data suggests that the old theories about black holes being gateways into other dimensions might be true after all.
• The Provider class space tug enters service.
• Birth of Sarah Anne Poole, future wife of Robert April and future first chief medical officer of the starship Enterprise.

2194

• The Castor class cruisers are withdrawn from service.
• The Back-to-Earth Movement is founded at the Benecia Colony.
• The Rickenbacker class "Flying Fortress" enters service.

2195

• For the next two years, Star Fleet will experiment with a new prototype battlecruiser based on the Horizon class starships. The USS Sigma itself will never enter service; however, many of its advances will make their way into future Star Fleet starship designs.

2196

• The last of the Daedalus class starships is decommissioned. Eleven are kept in the Star Fleet Reserve (including the USS Lovell) while the rest are scrapped.
• The first of several mysterious disappearances of Federation civilian craft begin to occur in the border space beyond the Rigel sector. Locals quickly tie the incidents to the alien, manta-shaped craft that have recently been spotted in the area.

2198

• For the next two years Star Fleet will evaluate the prototype for its first shuttlecarrier. While the Illustrious herself will only see limited service, lessons learned from it will make their way into the design for the secondary hull of the Baton Rouge class cruisers.
• The Lowell class scout enters service.
• The Back-to-Earth movement continues to gain momentum within the United Earth Government and its former colony worlds, creating heated debate on both sides of the issue.

2199

• A new series of high-speed interstellar pleasure craft enter the civilian starship market. As one wag put it, "If you have to ask the price then you can't afford them."

2200

• The Archon class heavy cruisers enter service.
• The Ariadne class clipper enters service.
• The Byrne class hospital ships are withdrawn from service.
• The Tetsujin class ringship is withdrawn from service.
• The largest spacelift in Federation history finishes evacuating all 10 million inhabitants of Bayard's Planet shortly before the shockwave from the Phi Puma supernova washes across the system.
• The Federation Space Marines, which up until now had been an independent organization, are brought under the aegis of Star Fleet and reorganized as the Star Fleet Marines.
• The Federation Worlds Court issues its landmark ruling regarding materializer research. It finds no moral, ethical, or legal objections to the dematerialization and rematerialization of organic matter. In short, all that is involved is the conversion of living matter to a state of pure energy and then back again without loss of life. So long as there is "lossless" conversion (via a transporter matrix) then the materializer (transporter) is incapable of taking life away from organic matter without a deliberate, pre-meditated act – the same as for any other tool or device. This clears the last major legal hurdle for Dr. Janet Hester's Materializer Research Project.

NOTE: The Federation Worlds Court's approval of the use of materializers on living matter cleared the way for the development of transporter technology as we know it today.

• Legal hurdles now cleared and with new Star Fleet backing, the Deneva Research Station resumes its research into making materializers safe for the transport of organic manner, including living beings.

2201

• The Hunter class corvette enters service.
• The United Federation of Planets now has over 500 members and affiliated systems. It has become so large that only major grievances can be dealt with in the Federation Council. This is a growing source of concern among many.
• The Federation Council finally grants its approval for Star Fleet to begin building its next generation of starships. Upgrades to suitable older starship designs will be performed on an as-needed basis.
• Star Fleet Division is founded under the aegis of Star Fleet's Starship Design Bureau to oversee all new Star Fleet shipbuilding efforts. Its first major task will be to gather materials, issue contracts, and secure yard space for Star Fleet's new shipbuilding program.

2202

• The Boyden class transports are withdrawn from service.
• Production ends on the Stellarford Shuttleplane.
• Hydra II is discovered by the USS Poseidon. Its is the first pelagic planet (waterworld) ever found by a Federation starship. This the first (and last) time that Hydra will not be beset by scores of Federation tourists or groups of Star Fleet personnel on shore leave.
• The Galactic Cultural Exchage Program puts on a Federation-wide fair that will be the stuff of legend among scholars and liberal-minded Federation citizens in later years.

2203

• The Cahuya class survey cruiser enters service.
• Star Fleet's massive CR594 mobile construction rig enters service.
• The lead vessels in the Baton Rouge and Ranger class starships begin simultaneous construction under the supervision of Star Fleet Division at the San Francisco Navy Yards (Baton Rouge) and the Vickers Shipbuilding Spacedocks (Ranger) in orbit above Terra. These will be the first starship classes in Federation history with full trititanium hulls and frames and are designed with Warp 6 operations in mind. They will also be the first Star Fleet vessels to utilize a modular component construction system for easier maintenance and upgrades. Both spaceyards are soon racing each other as much as safety procedures allow in order to see who finishes their new starship first.
• Star Fleet encounters the Klingons in battle for the first time in the Millie Sue Incident, although their identity is unknown at the time.
• The Richter Scale of Planetary Culture is published by academian Alonzo Richter.
• Kelvar Garth, the greatest starship commander of his generation, is born on the planet Izar.

2204

• The Bering class automated tanker enters service.
• Amanda Grayson, future second wife of Sarek of Vulcan, is born.
• Mark Chausser, father of the Baton Rouge generation of starships, is tragically killed in a shuttlecar accident outside of Paris, France. His young assistant Franz Joseph IV succeeds him as head of the program.

2205

• The new heavy cruiser USS Baton Rouge is launched a mere 7 hours, 12 minutes, and 3 seconds ahead of its dockyard competitor, the survey cruiser USS Ranger. It will become the namesake of its generation of Star Fleet starships.
• The starships Baton Rouge and Ranger are commissioned into Star Fleet and promptly undergo their initial shakedown cruises. Their revolutionary new design, incredible performance, and ease of operation cause a sensation both with Star Fleet personnel and with the general public.
• Birth of Matthew Decker, future Star Fleet commodore.

2206

• Dr. Richard Daystrom makes his initial breakthrough in the development of duotronic computer technology. His invention will forever change the Federation computer industry.

NOTE: Duotronic computers were the first with enough sophistication to handle "on-the-fly" manipulation of a starship's warp field. Their invention made possible starship designs outside the standard twin-nacelle configuration and added greatly to a starship's performance at warp speed.

2207

• Growing dissatisfaction with the new, centralized Federation government brings about increasingly strident calls to dispense with the Federation Charter and revert to the more decentralized government of the old Articles of Federation. The Back-to-Earth Movement uses this dissent to increase its membership.

2208

• The Watt class cargo tugs are retired from service.
• The last of the Tritium's personnel shuttles are retired from service.
• The Masters class interstellar tug enters service.
• A chance discovery on the Lalande VIII mining colony reveals the unusual energy-moderating properties of dilithium crystals. Its implications in the field of warp engine technology are immediately obvious to all.
• Federation museums and private gemstone collectors reap enormous profits from the stores of dilithium crystals they have kept for years, unaware of their true nature or value.

NOTE: The discovery of dilithium's energy moderating properties allowed Cochrane Warp Dynamics to solve the problems it was having with its PB-18 warp engines. The final production version of the PB-18 would be the first dilthium-moderated warp engine to ever see service with Star Fleet. Dilithium moderation has been a standard feature of all Star Fleet approved warp engine designs ever since.

• The first Star Fleet approved duotronic computers are installed on the Baton Rouge and Ranger class starships currently under construction. They will be quickly back-fitted onto vessels already in service.
• The first successful "transport" of a humanoid with a materializer (transporter) takes place between the Baton Rouge class starships Moscow and Tehran. Within the year materializers are being back-fitted onto all Star Fleet starships, with the Baton Rouge and Ranger classes having top priority, as fast as they can be built.
• Perceptive minds at Star Fleet's Starship Design Bureau see in the "doodles" of Chiokis lead designer Franz Joseph IV the inspiration for the generation of starships that will follow in the Baton Rouge's groundbreaking footsteps. They begin working with Joseph to turn his "doodles" into a buildable starship design. This is the origin of the legendary Class I Program of starships, the successors of the Baton Rouge program and the foundation for today's Star Fleet.

2209

• The Constant Warwick class light cruiser enters service.
• A number of terrorist strikes by dissidents upset with the "totalitarian" Federation government threaten its interstellar economy. The Federation Council has no choice but to enact harsh security measures in order to bring the terrorist to heel. This move stops the terrorism but only adds fuel to the fires of dissent building within the Federation.
• The first documented case of transporter psychosis occurs during its early use aboard Star Fleet starships.

2210

• The Hale class scout enters service
• The Hercules class transport enters service
• The Anton class cruiser enters service.
• With approval from Star Fleet, the Horizon class heavy cruiser Constellation (known affectionately as "Connie" to her crew) is taken to the San Francisco Navy Yards for fitting with a new version of the Chiokis thin-disc primary hull saucer. This configuration is intended to test the possibilities of the 2208 Joseph concept. The yard will also have to rework the Connie's secondary hull so that the new saucer can clear the engine booms. This conversion will take just under nine months to complete.
• About the same time, the Baton Rouge class cruiser Republic is withdrawn from service and also taken to the San Francisco Navy Yards for a slightly different conversion. It will be testing a new secondary hull design and is also reconfigured according to the 2208 Joseph concept. This conversion will take just over a year, since the Republic's basic frame has to be altered for the conversion.

2212

• The Cabot class trawler enters service.
• The Star Fleet Association is formed to look after all Star Fleet vessels that have been retired and converted into museum ships.
• The photon torpedo is developed.
• The Kepler class deep space stations enter service, not to be confused with the Kepler space probes (or later Keppler class transport/tug).

2213

• The Perth PB-20 "Ajax" warp engine is developed.
• The Bode class scout enters service.

2214

• Dilithium-moderated PB-20 warp engines are fitted to both Joseph prototypes (replacing the Connie's PB-17s and the Republic's VX-25s) to evaluate their potential with the program.
• The starship Valiant is lost in the line of duty.
• The Detroyat class heavy destroyer enters service. It is the first Star Fleet starship with photon torpedoes.
• Christopher Pike is born 11 April in Mohave on Terra.

2215

• The McCormick class factory ships are withdrawn from service.
• The Federation Council authorizes another production block of Baton Rouge class heavy cruisers reconfigured for the multi-mission role. This will form the Nordenskjold sub-class.
• Based on testing data so far on both Joseph Program prototypes, the Constellation is fitted with a modified version of the Republic's new secondary hull. This is because the Connie has been the better performer of the two prototypes during testing. This will be the final design change made to the program prototypes.

NOTE: By this point in time, as one can see, the modified Constellation is for all intents and purposes a Class I heavy cruiser. Because of this it is regarded by some starship historians as the first Class I starship, preceding the Constitution by seven years. It will serve as the basis for that program and later be upgraded to match the other ships in the class. Its origins as a Horizon class heavy cruiser, though, will leave it with slight variances in its design that only a trained eye will be able to spot.

2216

• The USS Dewey is decomissioned.
• Based on the test results from the Constellation and Republic, the Starship Design Bureau lays out its final specifications for the next wave of starship classes that will follow the Baton Rouge generation. The first design in the new Class I Program will be a heavy cruiser patterned after the Constellation prototype. This will be a multi-mission starship, suitable for both military and survey roles, replacing both the Baton Rouge and Ranger class programs. The second design is for a single-nacelle starship suited for the destroyer and scout roles. These will replace both the Drake and Cook class starships, and they will be cancelled in favor of their successors. The third is for a Class I transport/tug with a new and larger container pod system, replacing the one originally developed for the Watt class transport.
• The decision is also made to go with the older (and less expensive) PB-18 warp engine for the new Class I Program instead of the newer (and more expensive) PB-20. This is a throwaway move intended to help gain approval for the Class I Program from the Federation Council. Star Fleet plans to upgrade all Class I starships with the PB-20 or its successor once the necessary funding becomes available.

2217

• The Patton class destroyers are withdrawn from service.
• Star Fleet's submission for its new Class I Program of starships is flatly rejected by the Federation Council. The reason given is that there is no need for such an expansive program given the already expensive outlays for the various Baton Rouge related programs.

2218

• The Nordenskjold class survey cruiser enters service.
• The Drake class destroyer enters service.
• The Cook class scout enters service.
• The Sentry Incident ignites hostilities with the Klingon Empire.
• Leonard Horatio McCoy, future chief medical officer of the starship Enterprise, is born 20 January on Terra in the American state of Georgia.
• The reconfigured starships Constellation and Republic rejoin the fleet. According to ceratin starship historians this event marks the "real" beginning of the Class I Era.

2219

• The possibility of the first interstellar war in six decades causes a split Federation Council to approve funding for Star Fleet's new Class I Program of starships.
• The keel of the heavy cruiser Constitution is laid down in spacedock at the San Francisco Navy Yards at Terra. Officially, it will be the first starship in the Class I Program.

2220

• The Palomar class starships are withdrawn from service.
• The keel of the heavy cruiser Enterprise, the second starship in the Class I Program and destined to become the most famous starship in Federation history, is laid down in spacedock at the San Francisco Navy Yards at Terra.