USS Dragonetti (NCC-626)
Hermes-class • Scout / Exploration Vessel • 2259-2283
USS Dragonetti, during the
Raskar VII shrinking incident.
Science Officer Helen's log, Stardate 1672.5. I know the Dragonetti is small, but it's still supposed to be more than two inches! If I find out who brought an unsecured alien device on board, I don't care what Counsellor Kyt says, I will definitely have words with them.
Luckily, I was outside the ship when it shrank. I'm not being proud, but nobody else would have been able to pinpoint the flux invariant and figure out the correct frequency to invert the collapsar. I'm sure I could have fixed it from the inside, but that would have taken much longer than my actual solution.
The one saving grace is that the probes the Captain deployed while shrunk have stayed tiny. As soon as Engineer Andy can overcome the wavelength issue, we will have a fleet of extremely stealthy drones available for any risky situations we encounter on our voyages.
The Hermes-class was designed from the outset as a scout and exploratory ship. Modelled on the existing Saladin-class destroyer, its weapons were reduced in favour of long-range sensors and scanners.
The early ships of the class were prioritised on border patrol duties, but with the end of the Klingon War in 2257 Starfleet Command committed to return later models to their primary mission. The Cygnus subclass, already in production, was redesigned to emphasise its long-distance exploration role.
In many ways, the missions undertaken by the Cygnus group were a preview of those carried out by the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk, whose first command was the Hermes-class USS Sacagawea: to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilisations, and boldly go where no-one had gone before.
The small crew size of the Cygnus group (10-20, depending on configuration) allowed Starfleet to grant minor Federation systems selection rights for the command crews of several of these vessels. The first Arcadian, Risian, and Caitian command teams in Starfleet were aboard Cygnus-class vessels (the Grus, Phoenix, and Dragonetti respectively).
Ultimately, the Hermes-class' small size, and the hyperspecilisation of the later models, were to be its downfall. The Oberth-class replaced it in pure science and survey contexts, while advances in sensor technology meant long-range mapping projects could be carried out by standard starships. USS Dragonetti and her sisters were the last of Starfleet's "small, specialised ships"; the future belonged to the Enterprise and her kin.
Captain Calcifer, thankfully
failing to hunt the locals.
Diplomat Jake's log, Stardate 1723.5. I wasn't even meant to be on duty today: Betazed is a full (if new) Federation member system, and a planet full of telepaths/telempaths hardly needs a diplomat to charm them. We were only stopping in to pick up supplies (food synthesisers are fine, but you can't beat actual cooked meals).
And then the rogue Illyrian Kameck made planetfall and unleashed his "genetic regression engine". Chief Sphinx managed to beam most of us back to Dragonetti before we were affected, but the Caitians' smaller size meant they were hit first. The Captain, First Officer, and Security Chief all "devolved" to a pre-civilised state, and THAT is how we learnt that Caitians used to be the number one predator of primitive Betazoids.
I don't know how we managed to avoid any actual deaths. Captain Calcifer apparently "caught" a blanket and went to sleep, and Lieutenant Scout seems to have gotten distracted by a new target each time she got close to the previous one, but Commander Dragon was an absolute menace. Even with phasers, Lieutenant Taliesin and I were only barely able to bring her down short of a kill.
Once Kameck was contained (turns out devolved telepaths are still formidable in their own right!) I made a full apology to the Betazed government. It cost me almost half my rum supplies, but the Heir to the Holy Rings agreed that we could put the whole affair behind us, on the condition that - Computer, record for priority transmission to Starfleet Command - WE MUST NOT LET ANY CAITIANS LAND ON BETAZED AGAIN.
Crew Roster
Captain Calcifer
Red alert! All hands to battle stations! Overload the warp core! We're five minutes late for dinner!
- Captain Calcifer was one of the first Caitians born off-Cait, being the son of an early diplomatic envoy to Earth. He was raised on Earth, and entered Starfleet Academy on the day Cait officially joined the Federation.
- Calcifer's meteoric rise through the ranks of Starfleet have never been adequately explained. Commander Dragon, who served as his first officer aboard the Dragonetti despite being several years more experienced, speculated that he "only has two settings - off and Maximum Warp".
- No-one ever successfully learnt his middle name. Rumour at Starfleet Academy suggested "Tiberius"; rumour aboard the Dragonetti usually centred around "Trouble". On the one occasion anyone asked him directly, he said the T. stood for "the" and walked off.
Commander Dragon
I recognise that there's nothing visible to shoot at, but I still recommend we fire phasers. You can't be too sure.
- Commander Dragon was the great-granddaughter of Fleet Admiral Dragon, founder of the Unified Caitian Navy. She was very proud of this fact; at her instigation, one of Dragonetti's shuttles is named in her ancestor's honour.
- Dragon transferred to Starfleet from the Caitian Navy as a Security Officer. She served for three years aboard Starbase 23 before being assigned by her government to the USS Dragonetti.
- Unusually for a survey ship, the majority of Dragonetti's mission logs were written by Commander Dragon rather than Captain Calcifer. It is claimed that Commander Dragon recorded a personal log expressing her frustration at Calcifer's "manic tone".
USS Dragonetti approaching
the Cosmogene Nebula
First Officer Dragon's log, Stardate 1822.35. I'm aware that Captain Calcifer has logged a report with Starfleet Command regarding our survey of the Cosmogene Nebula. However, as I'm also aware that log consists of the single word "Wowsers", I consider it my duty to append a fuller description of the encounter.
The anomolous nature of the nebula wasn't apparent as we approached, or we would have taken a more cautious approach. Lieutenant Commander Helen had just gone off shift; if she had remained, perhaps we would not have gotten into such a pickle.
For clarity, the "pickle" I mentioned isn't a Human metaphor: it's a literal fact. We spent three hours stuck in a colossal interstellar cloud of acetic acid, remodulating our shields to fend off lifeforms Lieutenant Taliesin described as "like sea cucumbers, but more spacey". It was not pleasant.
Lieutenant Commander Helen
It looks like some kind of anomaly. Another one.
- Lieutenant Commander Helen studied in the science academies of a dozen Federation planets, and said all of them are "blinkered by their own biases".
- She was a key member of the Federation joint task force investigating the "red burst" anomolies of 2257. All of her work on the project has been locked by Section [CLASSIFIED].
- She was mildly famous (or infamous) for the time she clashed with Lieutenant Spock, science officer of Starfleet flagship Enterprise. Rumour says she won the argument, along with a classified official reprimand on her file.
Lieutenant Commander Arianna
No, I don't have a "cure for headaches"; I have paracetamol.
- Lieutenant Commander Arianna had a distinguished and eventful career, serving aboard the USS Hiawatha during the Caitian Allergy Crisis, and in Starfleet Medical Centre during the Ravenite Pandemic.
- Her transfer to USS Dragonetti was a last-minute request, in which she stated that she wanted to join the exploration ship for "a bit of peace and quiet".
- Prior to joining the Dragonetti, Arianna published three papers on three different conditions in three different species from three different sectors. Her work during Dragonetti's mission continued the trend.
Hypermetabolic polypore sample
from Carnax Beta
Medical Officer Arianna's log, Stardate 1991.3. I've just finished decontaminating the entire ship. Did I run out of aerosol disinfectant halfway through Astrometrics? Yes. Did I have to break out a literal mop and bucket? Yes. Did anyone else come to help? Ab-so-lute-ly not.
I have warned the crew time and time again against picking up random objects without proper PPE. I even said - specifically - that I was worried about alien fungi getting loose on the ship. Maybe having all their soft furnishings eaten by hypermetabolic polypores will make the point for me, but I doubt it.
I can report that Lt. Com. Helen and Lt. Taliesin suffered no damage a dermal regenerator couldn't heal, and that Lt. Scout's fur should grow back to fill the bald patches in the next few months. Also, I really need a nap.
Lieutenant Commander Andy
I'm pretty sure that's physically impossible, but hey, let's give it a go.
- Lieutenant Commander Andy served in Starfleet for many years, but the USS Dragonetti was his first shipboard posting. Prior to taking the position, he had worked only in administrative roles on Earth.
- His skills as an engineer are entirely self-taught; he did not take any Academy course prior to transferring from admin, but simply booked the test and aced it on his first try.
- Andy insisted his hat was a significant religious relic, belonging to a Terran cultural hero named Indy (or, according to a different account, Phil). He was nevertheless disciplined three times for refusing to remove it.
Lieutenant Scout
I'm not trapped here with you... you're trapped here with my claws.
- Lieutenant Scout was the first Caitian to graduate Starfleet Academy in the Security track. Caitians as a species are generally seen as intelligent, empathetic, and non-aggressive, so Scout's application to Security was seen as an oddity. Any surprise, however, only lasted until someone had encountered her in action.
- Serving on the USS Anning during the Klingon War, she racked up the highest hand-to-hand kill count during the retreat from Deep Space Station K-7.
- There is a holodrama based on her first away mission. It is entitled "The Jaws That Bite, The Claws That Snatch", and was originally intended as a training exercise before being deemed too extreme.
Lieutenant David cleaning
the Recreation Room
Chief Engineer Andy's log, Stardate 1742.6. After the whole "everyone on the ship got stunned and we almost flew into a black hole" incident, Scout's banned from running live phaser training sessions. I suggested she use the rec room instead, and she loved the idea.
Well, not 'loved'. She said holographic targets aren't realistic; that fighting something you can't touch isn't real fighting. And I said, what if I tied the food synthesisers into the transporters and dropped real meat in front of her phaser?
And it worked! Well, it almost worked. It worked until she actually hit something, at which point we found out what superheated protein paste does to holo-emitters. Good news is, I'm busy untying the systems from each other, so Taliesin and David get to do the cleaning up. That's what Junior Lieutenants are for.
Lieutenant Jake
I'd like to share an Earth delicacy with you. It's known as "rum".
- Lieutenant Jake was a junior member of the negotiation team in the aftermath of the Klingon War, serving under Sarek of Vulcan and Captain Philippa Georgiou of Starfleet.
- He transferred to the exploration corps shortly after negotiations closed, claiming exploring strange new worlds would be "much less stressful" than working with Klingons, Vulcans, or Georgiou.
- His diplomatic style reflected his work on the treaty, blending a Vulcan directness with the Klingon tactic of defusing tension with large quantities of alcohol.
Lieutenant Alexander
9.3 sounds a bit reckless. How about Warp Factor 2 instead?
- Lieutenant Alexander came up through the ranks as a shuttle pilot, culminating in a posting on the Enterprise reporting to Lieutenant Ortegas. The Dragonetti was his first deployment as a starship pilot.
- His selection for the Dragonetti was partly based on his cautious approach to piloting, which was considered an asset when transiting unmapped star systems.
- He often clashed with Commander Dragon, who preferred to get everywhere as fast as possible. Both officers frequently cited multiple times they were "proved right".
USS Dragonetti with
quantum shielding active
Pilot Alexander's log, Stardate 1932.6. Good(?) news: I am no longer an omnipotent godlike being. It was nice while it lasted, but Lieutenants Kyt and Jake were right that it was too risky to keep the power for long.
I did some good while I had it, though! I got us safely through the dark matter asteroid field, found that wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant, and flew a Feynman pattern through a metadimensional nebula that gave the ship inpenetrable quantum shielding. Not bad for an ex-shuttle pilot; I bet Ortegas would be proud!
Oh. Lieutenant Commander Andy has just told me that the quantum shielding generator has collapsed itself into nonexistence. No powers, no upgrades... it's almost like an entertainment holo, where none of our adventures are allowed to have a lasting effect on the status quo. Weird.
Lieutenant Taco
Technically you never ordered me NOT to replace the alert siren with Klingon opera.
- Lieutenant Taco came up through the communications track. They apparently wished they were still there, as they continued to hold the position despite promotion to head the Operations division.
- Their responsibilities spanned computer systems, life support, and the cleaning and entertainment; in their own words, "anything that goes wrong on this ship is my fault", though it's not clear if this was a complaint or a confession.
- They were rumoured to have a hammock set up in the computer room, though whether this was due to computer issues or to avoid using the hot-bunking crew quarters is unrecorded.
Lieutenant Kyt
Let's try this again... the ship's phasers are NOT a therapy tool.
- With the decision to add a qualified counsellor to each long-range exploration vessel, Kyt was recruited from civilian practice on Earth, fast-tracked to an appropriate rank, and assigned to the Dragonetti.
- With Lt. Com. Arianna, they were one of only two officers empowered to overrule Captain Calcifer. Their importance to the crew was underscored by the assignment of a dedicated office on the space-starved Hermes-class starship.
- They often worked closely with Lt. Jake on first contact missions, with the pair taking an approach referred to by Lt. Taliesin as "tea and cocktails", or on one occasion as "hugs and a kickin'".
The Dragonetti's transporter
room before cleaning.
Stellar Cartographer David's log, Stardate 1845.1. I've just added "white hole" to both my list of stellar objects I now have sufficient scans of to navigate around, and my list of stellar objects to avoid at all costs.
It wasn't the Captain's fault; I'm not sure if I can even really blame Lt. Commander Helen for beaming the gas sample direct to the lab, or Lt. Taco for using the ship's air ducts to vent it back out again. Them filling the entire ship with a luminous haze that makes Caitians hallucinate was stressful enough without playing the blame game.
Thank goodness Captain Calcifer was just convinced the white hole was a bowl of milk. If Commander Dragon and Lt. Scout had gotten their way we would have opened fire on it, and I don't even want to think about what THAT would have done to the local fabric of space-time.
Lieutenant (jg) Taliesin
Okay, just to check: did anyone ELSE touch the obviously cursed artefact?
- The Klingon War led to most A&A Officer commissions being folded into general science officer duties. Taliesin lobbied hard for a position on one of the few exploration vessels to retain the position.
- They quickly established themselves as a key member of the away team, investigating the culture and history of the planets the Dragonetti visited. Most of the ship's records of those planets began on Taliesin's camera.
- Their reports never used the same expansion of "A&A" twice. Variants included "Art & Architecture", "Aliens & Anomolies", and "Artefacts and Alarmism Officer".
Lieutenant (jg) David
'Second star to the right' isn't a very precise navigation program.
- The Stellar Cartography laboratory is unique to Starfleet exploration ships; on most other ships, the navigator is allotted a single bridge console to do their work.
- David was responsible for locating each of the systems visited by the Dragonetti, identifying courses to them and plotting them on the charts. Whether this was a good thing depends on which crew member you asked.
- Initially, David was given permission to name any uninhabited planets he located. After a swathe of planets named from 20th-century fiction, this privilege was revoked.
Gondolinian star map,
after cleaning.
A&A Officer Taliesin's log, Stardate 1692.1. You know what's an awesome source of missions? Ancient artefacts from dead planets, that's what!
This really was a team effort: Helen found the rock, I figured out the 'cracks' were an inscription, and Taco worked with me to get the translation. Then we all had to fight David to get him to accept that a poem that only rhymes in prehistoric Gondolinian was valid nav data.
It was all worth it at the other end. The Gondolinian space probes were a treasure-trove of information about their lost civilisaion, and the black hole they'd sent it to only damaged the ship a little. Win-win-win all round!
Chief Sphinx
Yeah, I could fly you down, OR... you could use the transporters.
- The senior/sole non-commissioned officer on the Dragonetti was intended to have a broad role, but Chief Sphinx quickly staked out his post as 'just the shuttlebays'.
- The Dragonetti ended up making far more use of the transporters than expected, as it was quicker than waiting for Sphinx to get around to launching a shuttle.
- After Lt. Cmdr. Andy banned him from Engineering for 'fiddling', his walk between the two shuttlebays routinely took over 15 minutes.
Nothing going on
Chief Sphinx's log, Stardate 1790.25. Lovely day today; absolutely nothing happened. Just lounged around Shuttlebay Two.
There was a bit of a racket outside - red lights flashing, sirens, some kind of announcements going on - but I've turned the alarms off in the bays. I don't need that kind of stress. If they need me, they'll come get me, which they didn't.
Oh yeah, I suppose there was that time Scout and Dragon ran through with a couple of aliens. More of Jake's guests, I guess, though I didn't think we let them bring weapons aboard. Not that I object to Scout 'reviewing her security protocols' or whatever, as long as she doesn't try to get me involved. Maybe I'll lock the doors next time.
Ship Profile
Red alert! All hands to battle stations! Overload the warp core! We're five minutes late for dinner!
I recognise that there's nothing visible to shoot at, but I still recommend we fire phasers. You can't be too sure.
USS Dragonetti approaching
the Cosmogene Nebula
First Officer Dragon's log, Stardate 1822.35. I'm aware that Captain Calcifer has logged a report with Starfleet Command regarding our survey of the Cosmogene Nebula. However, as I'm also aware that log consists of the single word "Wowsers", I consider it my duty to append a fuller description of the encounter.
The anomolous nature of the nebula wasn't apparent as we approached, or we would have taken a more cautious approach. Lieutenant Commander Helen had just gone off shift; if she had remained, perhaps we would not have gotten into such a pickle.
For clarity, the "pickle" I mentioned isn't a Human metaphor: it's a literal fact. We spent three hours stuck in a colossal interstellar cloud of acetic acid, remodulating our shields to fend off lifeforms Lieutenant Taliesin described as "like sea cucumbers, but more spacey". It was not pleasant.
It looks like some kind of anomaly. Another one.
No, I don't have a "cure for headaches"; I have paracetamol.
Hypermetabolic polypore sample
from Carnax Beta
Medical Officer Arianna's log, Stardate 1991.3. I've just finished decontaminating the entire ship. Did I run out of aerosol disinfectant halfway through Astrometrics? Yes. Did I have to break out a literal mop and bucket? Yes. Did anyone else come to help? Ab-so-lute-ly not.
I have warned the crew time and time again against picking up random objects without proper PPE. I even said - specifically - that I was worried about alien fungi getting loose on the ship. Maybe having all their soft furnishings eaten by hypermetabolic polypores will make the point for me, but I doubt it.
I can report that Lt. Com. Helen and Lt. Taliesin suffered no damage a dermal regenerator couldn't heal, and that Lt. Scout's fur should grow back to fill the bald patches in the next few months. Also, I really need a nap.
I'm pretty sure that's physically impossible, but hey, let's give it a go.
I'm not trapped here with you... you're trapped here with my claws.
Lieutenant David cleaning
the Recreation Room
Chief Engineer Andy's log, Stardate 1742.6. After the whole "everyone on the ship got stunned and we almost flew into a black hole" incident, Scout's banned from running live phaser training sessions. I suggested she use the rec room instead, and she loved the idea.
Well, not 'loved'. She said holographic targets aren't realistic; that fighting something you can't touch isn't real fighting. And I said, what if I tied the food synthesisers into the transporters and dropped real meat in front of her phaser?
And it worked! Well, it almost worked. It worked until she actually hit something, at which point we found out what superheated protein paste does to holo-emitters. Good news is, I'm busy untying the systems from each other, so Taliesin and David get to do the cleaning up. That's what Junior Lieutenants are for.
I'd like to share an Earth delicacy with you. It's known as "rum".
9.3 sounds a bit reckless. How about Warp Factor 2 instead?
USS Dragonetti with
quantum shielding active
Pilot Alexander's log, Stardate 1932.6. Good(?) news: I am no longer an omnipotent godlike being. It was nice while it lasted, but Lieutenants Kyt and Jake were right that it was too risky to keep the power for long.
I did some good while I had it, though! I got us safely through the dark matter asteroid field, found that wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant, and flew a Feynman pattern through a metadimensional nebula that gave the ship inpenetrable quantum shielding. Not bad for an ex-shuttle pilot; I bet Ortegas would be proud!
Oh. Lieutenant Commander Andy has just told me that the quantum shielding generator has collapsed itself into nonexistence. No powers, no upgrades... it's almost like an entertainment holo, where none of our adventures are allowed to have a lasting effect on the status quo. Weird.
Technically you never ordered me NOT to replace the alert siren with Klingon opera.
Let's try this again... the ship's phasers are NOT a therapy tool.
The Dragonetti's transporter
room before cleaning.
Stellar Cartographer David's log, Stardate 1845.1. I've just added "white hole" to both my list of stellar objects I now have sufficient scans of to navigate around, and my list of stellar objects to avoid at all costs.
It wasn't the Captain's fault; I'm not sure if I can even really blame Lt. Commander Helen for beaming the gas sample direct to the lab, or Lt. Taco for using the ship's air ducts to vent it back out again. Them filling the entire ship with a luminous haze that makes Caitians hallucinate was stressful enough without playing the blame game.
Thank goodness Captain Calcifer was just convinced the white hole was a bowl of milk. If Commander Dragon and Lt. Scout had gotten their way we would have opened fire on it, and I don't even want to think about what THAT would have done to the local fabric of space-time.
Okay, just to check: did anyone ELSE touch the obviously cursed artefact?
'Second star to the right' isn't a very precise navigation program.
Gondolinian star map,
after cleaning.
A&A Officer Taliesin's log, Stardate 1692.1. You know what's an awesome source of missions? Ancient artefacts from dead planets, that's what!
This really was a team effort: Helen found the rock, I figured out the 'cracks' were an inscription, and Taco worked with me to get the translation. Then we all had to fight David to get him to accept that a poem that only rhymes in prehistoric Gondolinian was valid nav data.
It was all worth it at the other end. The Gondolinian space probes were a treasure-trove of information about their lost civilisaion, and the black hole they'd sent it to only damaged the ship a little. Win-win-win all round!
Yeah, I could fly you down, OR... you could use the transporters.
Nothing going on
Chief Sphinx's log, Stardate 1790.25. Lovely day today; absolutely nothing happened. Just lounged around Shuttlebay Two.
There was a bit of a racket outside - red lights flashing, sirens, some kind of announcements going on - but I've turned the alarms off in the bays. I don't need that kind of stress. If they need me, they'll come get me, which they didn't.
Oh yeah, I suppose there was that time Scout and Dragon ran through with a couple of aliens. More of Jake's guests, I guess, though I didn't think we let them bring weapons aboard. Not that I object to Scout 'reviewing her security protocols' or whatever, as long as she doesn't try to get me involved. Maybe I'll lock the doors next time.
The Hermes-class was one of the smallest Starfleet ships of the period, with the USS Dragonetti's saucer section measuring barely 50 meters across. All crew activities took place on a single deck, with most non-routine maintenance requiring an excursion outside the ship.
To allow the small hull to accomodate all of the required equipment, several novel designs were employed. The standard deflector array was replaced with a ring surrounding the sensor dome, while deuterium cold-storage was placed in a second strut connecting to the warp nacelle.
While some of the innovations were well-regarded, and taken up in later ship models, the most significant change from the standard design was not. The single-nacelle warp engine proved navigationally unstable, prone to skewing the warp field and requiring frequent calibration stops if the ship wished to arrive at its intended destination. As Lt. Alexander once put it, "Getting her to go where I want her to is like herding cats - no offence, Captain."
USS Dragonetti meets USS Dragonetti.
Communication Officer Taco's log, Stardate 1988.4. New one for the fun puzzles log: establishing communications with, dramatic pause, ourSELVES.
So we're meant to be heading back to Earth for the end of our mission, but Captain Calci keeps finding cool places to stop off. This one was a subspace rift or something, and we'd only just arrived when out of the thing came... us! Or at least, us if the Dragonetti was made of cheap plastic and held together with duct tape.
I got to chat with the other Lieutenant Taco - turns out their medical officer is EVEN STRICTER than ours somehow - but obviously the rift thing started blowing up (I dunno, ask the scientists). It was hilarious watching their consoles all explode for no reason while they threw themselves around like a pre-space rollercoaster, but then, I dunno, they either blew up or went home. Either way, they weren't exactly responding to hails any more, so we moved on.
Bridge
- The command centre of the USS Dragonetti. The captain's chair stood in the centre, with Helm and Navigation in front, and other stations around and behind. Doors below the viewscreen granted access to the forward quarter, while a corridor to the rear gave direct access to Engineering and the technical areas, the captain's office and the conference room (which doubled as the captain's ready room and dining room).
- The transparent doom roofing the bridge was unique to the Dragonetti, having been insisted upon by the Caitian command crew. Despite it posing a significant structural risk, they claimed they "liked the view".
Crew Quarters
- Due to limited space, the crew of the Dragonetti employed a hot-bunking system, with one crew-member from each shift assigned to each of the four small rooms. These were positioned forward of the bridge, with ready access to the mess hall, and a long window positioned high on the outer wall.
- Captain Calcifer and Commander Dragon had their own quarters. Commander Dragon was rumoured never to actually use hers; certainly no crew-member ever reported seeing her entering her room, or emerging from it.
- The human crew frequently attempted to alter the room assignments to avoid having to sleep in a bunk recently vacated by a Caitian officer. Lt. Taco was widely suspected to have hung a hammock in the computer room to avoid the fur left by Chief Sphinx in their assigned room.
Technical Core
- The Dragonetti's technical areas - the computer room, deflectors, sensors, and weapons - were compressed into a ring around and below the bridge. The accessible areas of the tech core were reached via passageway directly from the bridge.
- Other areas of the core, including the primary sensors and the deflector ring, were only reachable externally. The requirement for an EVA to perform any major sensor adjustments was a point of contention among the crew.
- The position of the phaser banks above the bridge passageway meant that the Dragonetti was unable to fire directly forwards without shattering the ship's bridge dome. The crew were nontheless forced to do this on at least one occasion.
You can't photograph
an energy being.
Counsellor Kyt's log, Stardate 1901.67. I've read stories about people being transformed into pure energy. They always act as if it's some sort of cosmic revelation. They never mention the trauma you have to process afterwards.
Jake is still half-convinced he's a warp core. David can't stop visualising the atomic energy transitions in everything he does. Helen insists her bunsen burner is threatening her. In fact the whole human crew is barely functional; if the transgenic astrolator hadn't ignored the Caitians entirely, we'd be dead in space.
Me? I'm fine. I must be: the crew need my help, none of the Caitians are anything like qualified to offer counselling, so I have to be fine. It doesn't matter if the light burns my skin and I can taste the stars: I... am... FINE.
Engineering
- Main Engineering, housing the warp core and impulse drive, was less than thirty seconds from the bridge. The warp nacelle was reachable by Jefferies tube from Engineering.
- On multiple occasions, this arrangement meant damage to Engineering spilled over to the bridge, forcing the crew to run the ship from Astrometrics until the damage could be repaired.
- The shuttlebays were officially under the authority of the Chief Engineer. In actual fact, Lt. Cmdr. Andy and Chief Sphinx had banned each other from their respective domains within six weeks of launch.
Workspaces
- Under the 3-shift pattern operated on the Dragonetti, most crew spent half their shift operating a bridge console, and the other half at a separate assigned station around the perimeter of the saucer section.
- The laboratory, transporters, counsellor's office, sickbay, astrometrics lab, cargo bay, and workshop were all readily accessible from the main ring hallway.
- The Ship's Diplomat lacked an assigned office, leading to him negotiating with alien representatives in rooms as varied as the counsellor's room, command office, rec room, or, on one memorable occasion, the First Officer's quarters.
Recreation Spaces
- Expected to be away from Federation space for several years, the Dragonetti provided substantial recreational spaces for the crew.
- The mess hall was supplied with the latest model food synthesisers and a full kitchen, while the rec room hologrid was upgraded to photorealism.
- The full log of red room 'incidents', including the three separate occasions Lt. Cmdr. Andy attempted to create full holographic immersion within the chamber, can be found on the Starfleet Academy recommended reading list, indexed under 'Holodeck, adoption of, reason for delays in'.
Cmdr. Spirit on shore leave.
Security Officer Scout's log, Stardate 1704.6. I'm pretty sure the [censored] scientists have erased one of the crew from existence. [Censored]s.
I don't LIKE that I know this stuff, but our orders say we should have 14 crew: 3 shifts of 4, plus the [censored]-in-chief and Cmdr. Dragon. But here we are with 13, and an Ops/Comms officer who's too junior for one post and too senior for the other. I dug through the computer and recovered one [censored] photo labelled 'Cmdr. Spirit'. There's no other evidence one of us got wiped from time or whatever, but there [censored] wouldn't be, would there?
I bet Spirit was a Caitian. This is our ship, the humans are just along to do the science, but an underqualified human is in charge of Operations? [Censored]. They deleted one of us and didn't bother to fix it - absolutely [censored] typical. As soon as I find proof, they'll be [remainder of log censored].
Mission Log
NCC-626 USS Dragonetti was launched from the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards in 2257, 3 months after the cessation of hostilities with the Klingons. After a 2-week commissioning voyage to Vulcan and back, she departed with 13 crew (4 Caitians, 9 humans) on what was intended to be a 5-year mission of exploration and discovery.
The mission's early months kept the Dragonetti in known space, though not always on explored planets: Lt. Taliesin's famed discovery of the Gondolinian probes began on an uninhabited moon in Alsafi, and ended around a black hole in Eridani. Even when visiting known civilisations, the mission was not uneventful, as the crew's foiling of Kameck's attempted regression of new Federation member Betazed shows.
100 days into the mission, the Dragonetti set course for uncharted space. Entering the Beta Quadrant, she skirted the Romulan Neutral Zone and proceeded corewards. She encountered 18 new civilisations in this timeframe, establishing diplomatic relations with 16. Only the Killiks and the Dormanti remained hostile, with the Killiks almost succeeding in capturing the Dragonetti before being driven off by Lt. Scout's innovative 'flood the corridors with flammable gas' strategy.
More frequent than run-ins with strange lifeforms were the Dragonetti's encounters with unusual stellar phenomena. Lt. David was the first Starfleet scientist to fully analyse a white hole, and 7 separate nebula classes were originally defined by Lt. Cmdr. Helen. A large number of potentially dangerous anomalies were identified and catalogued by the crew, at considerable risk to themselves - the ship's logs record 8 different incidents in which members of the crew were transformed somehow.
Despite their successes, the continued high level of danger experienced by the crew, coupled with concerns over their dwindling supplies of critical spares, led to the recall of the Dragonetti in mid-2258. Despite protests from multiple crew members to both Earth and Cait, the ship's course turned homewards after less than 300 days in space. Her last survey mission took place at Carnax Beta, less than 15 light-years from Earth, and she docked at Starbase 1 almost exactly a year after departing.
Captain Calcifer's log, Stardate 1822.1.
Wowsers.