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From: shimkevi@buchmf.bu.edu (Sergey Shimkevich)
Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative
Subject: Grey Stars (Technical Supplement)
Message-ID: <84830@bu.edu>
Date: 27 Apr 92 11:05:28 GMT
Sender: news@bu.edu
Organization: Boston University Chemistry Department
Lines: 108

I hope it comes out all right...

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The Bridge of the U.S.S. Resilient:
(and some observations on it)
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                Turbolift door


             ______________________
                                 
           6                       7
                    ________
                    |      |
                    | - 1  |
                    |______|
                    
   _______                             _______
   \      \                           /      /
    \      \                         /      /
     \      \                       /      /
      \      \   3            4    /      /
   2   \      --------|   |--------      /  5
        \             |   |             /  
         \      ______|   |______      /            
         /     /                 \     \
        /_____/                   \_____\


              ====================
                Main viewscreen

1 - Captain's chair
2 - Science Officer Station
3 - Helm
4 - Navigation
5 - First Officer Station (communication and weapons systems)
6,7 - Auxilliary stations (usually not manned)

The reasons for placing bridge consoles in certain places have always been
mostly psychological. It is still a tradition that a helmsman and a navigator
should be facing the main viewscreen and, as we can see, it was still observed
in the bridge design for the Resilient. The first officer, unlike the
Enterprise-D, has his own station and a rather heavy share of workload, which
stems from the fact that the Surya-class starships have a much smaller crew as
compared to the Galaxy class (it is worthwhile to remember that Spock, the
first officer on board the original Enterprise, also doubled as a Science
Officer). 
Regardless of that, this bridge still has more in common with the Enterprise-D
bridge than with the original Enterprise bridge. In the times of James T.
Kirk, the general design philosophy was that the captain should oversee the
work of the bridge personnel, thus all the stations were on the perimeter so
that the captain could (in theory) observe each display from his (or her...)
chair. However, this was rarely the case due to two reasons: the distance was
still too great to pay attention to any details, besides, the personnel
manning those stations were more qualified in their respective fields, anyway.

Besides being rather ineffective, that particular bridge design had another
drawback, mostly psychological. It is a conditioned reflex for all military
personnel (OK, para-military) to face the captain if addressed. As the bridge
was designed in the TOS, Spock and Uhura had to turn around every time Kirk
asked them a question (Uhura, in fact, was always sitting half-turned), which
clearly reduced efficiency and created a conflict of interest (of a kind).

In contrast, the TNG bridge has most of its workstations in the back, which
are usually manned by people excluded from the decision-making process and,
therefore, rarely addressed by the captain. Those, whose opinions count (First
Officer and Counselor) are seated next to the captain. True, there is an
exception: when Data mans (androids?) the navigation, he often turns around to
talk to the captain, but then again, Data is probably the only
navigator/helmsman in Starfleet whose opinions count.

Now, on the Resilient, the first officer and the science officer are important
in the decision-making process. Both, however, have a large workload to take
care of as well. Therefore, they are seated at large consoles AND facing the
captain. The only drawback is that they cannot see the main viewscreen, but
that's not really necessary for the kind of work they do. There is a small
screen in each of their consoles, anyway.
 
The Dropship.

As it always is with military technology, a breakthrough in one field leads to
the development of techniques designed to counter it. A transporter is no
exception: widely available (on the black market, that is) and relatively
inexpensive jamming equipment makes it impossible to use the transporter in
most SWAT operations. Thence the need for a dropship.

The standard SWAT dropship (like the one on board the U.S.S. Resilient) is
actually two ships - a warp-capable assault craft and a landing module.
There are many different kinds of landing modules - some are nothing more than
short-range shuttlecraft that can separate and maneuver independently, others
are basically armored personnel carriers. If needed, a specialized module can
be constructed on board the RRF starship to meet the requirements of a
specific operation.

After the separation of the assault craft and the landing module, the latter
proceeds to acccomplish the main objective of the mission. The assault craft
assists the SWAT team by providing air support, jamming the short-range enemy
communcations, etc. In case of a space-based counterattack, the objective of
the assault craft is to engage the enemy until the landing module returns to
the mothership.

The assault craft is armed with two forward-firing disruptors for space
combat, two phaser banks for air-to-ground attacks plus a variable complement
of missile weapons. It also carries powerful subspace jamming equipment.
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