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Description
Let's take a break from ship-girl conversion parts for a while and go back to something a little more "traditional:" - an actual "Star Trek" Federation starship. In particular, this is my first attempt to design a TOS-style ship since I was in high school, many years ago. I came up with this ship very, very quickly during a short car trip on the way to work this past Wednesday, but she is already becoming one of the best-planned (and quirkiest) starships that I've ever come up with.

Meet the U.S.S. Vestal (SCE-1698), a Federation Starfleet repair ship built on a heavy cruiser platform active during the TOS and Classic Movie eras and operated under the aegis of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. The Vestal is named in honor of the historical U.S.S. Vestal (AR-4), a World War 2-era U.S. Navy repair ship that gained fame for supporting the legendary aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise (CV-6) after she was seriously damaged in battle during the Pacific War. The original Vestal also appears in "Azur Lane" as a healer-class ship-girl, again with special attachment to the representation of Enterprise.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Vest…

azurlane.koumakan.jp/Vestal?fb…

The Starship Vestal honors this memory in the shape of her assignment patch (which incorporates the Enterprise's arrowhead/Delta Shield insignia within it) and, in a more tongue-in-cheek nature, through her motto - "lights will guide you home, and I will try to fix you" - taken from the famous 21st century Coldplay song, "Fix You."

The Starship Vestal has one sister, the U.S.S. Akashi (SCE-1699), named for the only dedicated repair ship in the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy during WW2. Apart from having both starships named for real-life repair vessels, I thought it fitting that the namesakes of former wartime enemies would now be sisters going about their merry business of patching up their fellow ships side-by-side, a sentiment that has certainly been echoed by the staff of the "Star Trek" franchise over the years. Together, the Vestal and the Akashi are nicknamed "The Fix-It Sisters" by the rest of Starfleet, which is always happy to see them dropping out of warp after a particularly rough mission.

***

The backstories and design specs of the "Vestal type" were designed to fit into the current state of the "Star Trek" canon. Their origins can ultimately be traced back to the Starfleet Corps of Engineers' growing desire to have ships of their own so that they could pursue the development and testing of new starship technologies without the limitations that come from having to work with actively deployed starship crews that might be worried about the risks of testing unproven technologies on vessels pursuing time-critical missions or being forced to rely on simulations and theory in starbases or land-based facilities. They had been lobbying Starfleet Command to grant them ships of their own for years, to no avail.

The end of the 2250's is an extremely difficult time for Starfleet and the Federation, which are struggling to recover from a brief but brutal war against the Klingon Star Empire. Resources are few and far between, especially for new starship construction. However, it is also during this period that the newly-developed Constitution-class heavy cruisers, the pride of the fleet, are beginning to launch their celebrated five-year missions of deep space exploration, and these expeditions quickly proved to be more troublesome than Starfleet was expecting as reports began to come in of multiple Constitution-class ships being forced to abandon their positions after sustaining heavy damage during their five-year missions and make long, risky journeys to the nearest starbases for repairs.

The SCE saw an opportunity and decided to "rebrand" their proposal. As the best tech-heads in the Federation, they suggested that any ships allocated entirely to them could be built into long-range fleet repair and support ships, able to patrol all throughout Federation space, ready to answer distress calls by going to the stricken starships, rather than forcing the damaged ships to abandon their missions & positions to return to a starbase for repairs. Starfleet was convinced enough by this argument to authorize the construction of two starships to be registered under the express authority of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, but with some stern conditions: only two ships were allowed, and these new ships must be built as quickly - and economically - as possible.

Undaunted by these harsh limitations, the gearheads of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers quickly got to work. The new fleet repair vessels were planned as engineering-specialized starships built on heavy cruiser platforms in order to give them enough range and speed to do what they promised Starfleet Command they could do. Their overall design layouts would be based on that of the highly successful Constitution-class heavy cruisers, and like the Constitutions did in the mid-2250s, they would carry a crew complement of roughly 203 officers and enlisted personnel. A large part of each ship's crew would be contributed directly by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, with the remaining non-engineering-related specialties being filled by recruitment from the rest of Starfleet at large.

In order to meet Starfleet's demands for speed and economy of construction, the new ships, which were to be called Vestal (SCE-1698) and Akashi (SCE-1699), would be built using discarded spare parts from other Federation starship types that were readily available, including pieces of Bonaventure-era ships and even Constitution-class heavy cruisers. In fact, the Vestal herself, in a fitting irony, actually incorporated a large number of components from the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701), further cementing the age-old bond between the Vestal and the Enterprise and effectively making Vestal the "little cousin" of the other ship. When completed, Vestal measured in at roughly 886 feet in overall length (a good bit smaller than the 947-foot length of the Constitution-class Enterprise), with a width of 425 feet and an overall height of 273 feet.

In terms of handling characteristics, the starship, due to being based on the good characteristics of the Constitution-class in terms of spaceframe and RCS thruster placement, had slightly above-average maneuverability; however, she was limited due to the antiquated nature of some of her parts, which reduced her speed as she was launched with somewhat outdated warp engine nacelles despite her relatively modern warp core and EPS units. A snail compared to the her big cousin Enterprise, the Vestal could achieve a comfortable cruising speed of Warp Factor 6 (on the old scale, of course). Her "safe" top speed was Warp 7, but she could achieve an emergency flank speed of up to Warp 7.5 if necessary. This was not recommended, as traveling at 7.5 put immense strain on her old warp engines and ran the risk of damaging them. Consequently, if Warp 7.5 was reached, Vestal's warp engines were programmed to automatically shut down after six hours of continuous travel.

The Vestal, like her sister, the Akashi, were never going to break any speed records; however, her engines were still just capable enough to allow her to fulfill her primary mission of keeping up with Starfleet ships deployed all over the Federation and, indeed, exploring the uncharted regions around the borders. The Vestal-type repair ships would be sent on patrols along the Federation spacelanes, and could be diverted to rescue, repair and resupply other ships either by receipt of direct orders from Starfleet Command or after intercepting and triangulating distress calls. The "Fix-It Sisters" were uniquely suited to their main roles thanks to the extensive modifications made to their components by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers during their construction, and their crews - justifiably proud of their abilities - liked to boast that they could fix anything that didn't require a full-scale drydock - even emergency saucer separations, as starships in this period used explosive bolts to separate their modules and couldn't re-attach them on their own.

Befitting her role as a long-range repair vessel, the U.S.S. Vestal (SCE-1698) was equipped with a variety of special features by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Her massive saucer superstructure incorporated four huge sets of sliding doors, allowing through-deck transport of everything from parts to be repaired and fresh provisions to casualties for emergency treatment. The dorsal side of the saucer also featured four powerful additional tractor beam emitters, one located on each corner, for towing other ships or manipulation of components. For larger-scale, delicate work, a telescopic, highly-articulated mechanical manipulator arm terminating in a set of pincers could extend from a massive curved hatch located at the front of the saucer superstructure (due to the differences in configuration between Vestal and her sister Akashi, it should be noted that Vestal had one large manipulator emerging from the front of her saucer, while Akashi had two that emerged from the rear). Most of the rest of the saucer superstructure including the impulse engines and bridge module were fairly standard, having been built from spare components for the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701).

The saucer superstructure was built up so much because deep inside lay a massive labyrinth of spaces and systems that were necessary for the ship to fulfill her role as a long-range fleet repair & support ship. These included additional hangar space, large cargo bays for stowage of spare parts and provisions, fabrication facilities and workshops, and even an expansive series of laboratories that were used by the SCE staff when developing and testing new technological innovations. As Vestal and Akashi continued to pursue operations throughout Federation space, the ships they stopped to assist frequently began to routinely transfer wounded aboard for treatment as well, necessitating the ships' sickbays and medical staffs to be expanded too even though they were never intended to function as true hospital ships.

The Vestal's drive section & secondary hull largely consisted of the components that the ship needed to support her own operation such as her primary propulsion and life support systems. However, some internal rearrangement of her internal components was made in order to allow her aft shuttlecraft hangar to be extended and two new sets of rectangular cross-deck hangar doors to be mounted on the port and starboard sides of the hull behind the main shuttle bay's clamshell doors for the Vestal's own standard complement of small craft (five Type-F shuttlecraft and two Work Bee maintenance vehicles). The rear port/starboard cross-deck hangar doors were intended primarily for the use of her secondary complement of four additional Work Bees, which were almost totally dedicated to the Vestal's mission of servicing, repairing and resupplying other starships.

All of these awesome specialized design features left some disadvantages, however. As mentioned previously, the fact that the Vestal and Akashi were built using existing, and often outdated, spare parts meant that despite how much the SCE tried to tweak or even overclock their propulsion systems to get the most out of them, they would never be the fastest or most agile ships on the block and could easily be left in the dust by a Constitution-class heavy cruiser. Furthermore, dedicating so much internal space and available power to these systems meant that the ships were highly specialized compared to most Federation ships of their platform type. They were of practically no use in non-engineering research, diplomatic, or combat roles; in relation to the latter, while the Vestal-type ships were able to defend themselves and even take out some small fry if need be, they were minimally defended compared to their larger cousins with only two Phaser emitters on rotating twin mounts (one forward, one aft) and two forward-firing Photon Torpedo launchers fed by a magazine of twenty Photon Torpedoes.

***

The Vestal and Akashi were built between 2259 and 2260 and were launched into active service under the jurisdiction of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers in the early part of 2261. They immediately began to make their presence felt, quickly picking up the nickname "The Fix-It Sisters" by the starships whose distress calls they answered. Vestal, in particular, began to build a reputation for herself by - as her WW2 predecessor did in the Pacific - rescuing her cousin, the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701), on several occasions and allowing Captain James T. Kirk and his crew to remain deployed in deep space for much longer without having to divert from their five-year mission to make it back to a Federation starbase for major repair work.

Throughout the late 2260s, the Vestal and Akashi were also extensively utilized by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers and the Advanced Starship Design Bureau to actively develop and field-test new technological advancements that would find their way into the great Constitution-Class Refit Program of the next decade. It should also be noted that Akashi's service records during this period are suspiciously "spotty" in certain places, as it is believed (though never officially confirmed, of course) that there were several instances where the repair ship found herself involved with the Federation shadow agency, Section 31.

Both the Vestal and the Akashi were also part of Starfleet's lineup during the great conflict with the Klingons that ultimately led to the Organian peace treaty. The vulnerable repair vessels were held in reserve, stationed in a "safe zone" away from the main battle area, just close enough that they could quickly warp in to rescue stricken starships should the need arise.

Sadly, Akashi's budding Starfleet career would be cut short. In 2281, the starship was on patrol near the edge of Federation space when she picked up a distress call from the U.S.S. Prince of Wales (NCC-1741). The Constitution-class cruiser had been dispatched to the center of the Milky Way galaxy in an ambitious mission to conduct in-depth studies of the super massive black hole known to be present in the galactic core when disaster struck, causing her to lose power and suffer a series of catastrophic system failures. Akashi raced to the scene at maximum warp and began a desperate rescue and recovery effort of the stricken Prince of Wales, but both starships ultimately vanished under mysterious circumstances with all hands lost. Starfleet is currently still investigating the matter.

Her big sister, the Vestal, would go on to conclude a remarkable 45-year career that saw her deployed all over Federation space in every manner of situation as both an experimental testbed and a long-range fleet repair & support vessel. She was ultimately retired from the active fleet repair role and spent the last ten years of her service life at Jupiter Station, serving as a training vessel and test ship for the Starfleet Corps of Engineers and Advanced Starship Design Bureau before she was finally deemed too old for further service and, unable to sustain any further refits, she was decommissioned in 2306.

Description
Let's take a break from ship-girl conversion parts for a while and go back to something a little more "traditional:" - an actual "Star Trek" Federation starship. In particular, this is my first attempt to design a TOS-style ship since I was in high school, many years ago. I came up with this ship very, very quickly during a short car trip on the way to work this past Wednesday, but she is already becoming one of the best-planned (and quirkiest) starships that I've ever come up with.

Meet the U.S.S. Vestal (SCE-1698), a Federation Starfleet repair ship built on a heavy cruiser platform active during the TOS and Classic Movie eras and operated under the aegis of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. The Vestal is named in honor of the historical U.S.S. Vestal (AR-4), a World War 2-era U.S. Navy repair ship that gained fame for supporting the legendary aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise (CV-6) after she was seriously damaged in battle during the Pacific War. The original Vestal also appears in "Azur Lane" as a healer-class ship-girl, again with special attachment to the representation of Enterprise.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Vest…

azurlane.koumakan.jp/Vestal?fb…

The Starship Vestal honors this memory in the shape of her assignment patch (which incorporates the Enterprise's arrowhead/Delta Shield insignia within it) and, in a more tongue-in-cheek nature, through her motto - "lights will guide you home, and I will try to fix you" - taken from the famous 21st century Coldplay song, "Fix You."

The Starship Vestal has one sister, the U.S.S. Akashi (SCE-1699), named for the only dedicated repair ship in the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy during WW2. Apart from having both starships named for real-life repair vessels, I thought it fitting that the namesakes of former wartime enemies would now be sisters going about their merry business of patching up their fellow ships side-by-side, a sentiment that has certainly been echoed by the staff of the "Star Trek" franchise over the years. Together, the Vestal and the Akashi are nicknamed "The Fix-It Sisters" by the rest of Starfleet, which is always happy to see them dropping out of warp after a particularly rough mission.

***

The backstories and design specs of the "Vestal type" were designed to fit into the current state of the "Star Trek" canon. Their origins can ultimately be traced back to the Starfleet Corps of Engineers' growing desire to have ships of their own so that they could pursue the development and testing of new starship technologies without the limitations that come from having to work with actively deployed starship crews that might be worried about the risks of testing unproven technologies on vessels pursuing time-critical missions or being forced to rely on simulations and theory in starbases or land-based facilities. They had been lobbying Starfleet Command to grant them ships of their own for years, to no avail.

The end of the 2250's is an extremely difficult time for Starfleet and the Federation, which are struggling to recover from a brief but brutal war against the Klingon Star Empire. Resources are few and far between, especially for new starship construction. However, it is also during this period that the newly-developed Constitution-class heavy cruisers, the pride of the fleet, are beginning to launch their celebrated five-year missions of deep space exploration, and these expeditions quickly proved to be more troublesome than Starfleet was expecting as reports began to come in of multiple Constitution-class ships being forced to abandon their positions after sustaining heavy damage during their five-year missions and make long, risky journeys to the nearest starbases for repairs.

The SCE saw an opportunity and decided to "rebrand" their proposal. As the best tech-heads in the Federation, they suggested that any ships allocated entirely to them could be built into long-range fleet repair and support ships, able to patrol all throughout Federation space, ready to answer distress calls by going to the stricken starships, rather than forcing the damaged ships to abandon their missions & positions to return to a starbase for repairs. Starfleet was convinced enough by this argument to authorize the construction of two starships to be registered under the express authority of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, but with some stern conditions: only two ships were allowed, and these new ships must be built as quickly - and economically - as possible.

Undaunted by these harsh limitations, the gearheads of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers quickly got to work. The new fleet repair vessels were planned as engineering-specialized starships built on heavy cruiser platforms in order to give them enough range and speed to do what they promised Starfleet Command they could do. Their overall design layouts would be based on that of the highly successful Constitution-class heavy cruisers, and like the Constitutions did in the mid-2250s, they would carry a crew complement of roughly 203 officers and enlisted personnel. A large part of each ship's crew would be contributed directly by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, with the remaining non-engineering-related specialties being filled by recruitment from the rest of Starfleet at large.

In order to meet Starfleet's demands for speed and economy of construction, the new ships, which were to be called Vestal (SCE-1698) and Akashi (SCE-1699), would be built using discarded spare parts from other Federation starship types that were readily available, including pieces of Bonaventure-era ships and even Constitution-class heavy cruisers. In fact, the Vestal herself, in a fitting irony, actually incorporated a large number of components from the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701), further cementing the age-old bond between the Vestal and the Enterprise and effectively making Vestal the "little cousin" of the other ship. When completed, Vestal measured in at roughly 886 feet in overall length (a good bit smaller than the 947-foot length of the Constitution-class Enterprise), with a width of 425 feet and an overall height of 273 feet.

In terms of handling characteristics, the starship, due to being based on the good characteristics of the Constitution-class in terms of spaceframe and RCS thruster placement, had slightly above-average maneuverability; however, she was limited due to the antiquated nature of some of her parts, which reduced her speed as she was launched with somewhat outdated warp engine nacelles despite her relatively modern warp core and EPS units. A snail compared to the her big cousin Enterprise, the Vestal could achieve a comfortable cruising speed of Warp Factor 6 (on the old scale, of course). Her "safe" top speed was Warp 7, but she could achieve an emergency flank speed of up to Warp 7.5 if necessary. This was not recommended, as traveling at 7.5 put immense strain on her old warp engines and ran the risk of damaging them. Consequently, if Warp 7.5 was reached, Vestal's warp engines were programmed to automatically shut down after six hours of continuous travel.

The Vestal, like her sister, the Akashi, were never going to break any speed records; however, her engines were still just capable enough to allow her to fulfill her primary mission of keeping up with Starfleet ships deployed all over the Federation and, indeed, exploring the uncharted regions around the borders. The Vestal-type repair ships would be sent on patrols along the Federation spacelanes, and could be diverted to rescue, repair and resupply other ships either by receipt of direct orders from Starfleet Command or after intercepting and triangulating distress calls. The "Fix-It Sisters" were uniquely suited to their main roles thanks to the extensive modifications made to their components by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers during their construction, and their crews - justifiably proud of their abilities - liked to boast that they could fix anything that didn't require a full-scale drydock - even emergency saucer separations, as starships in this period used explosive bolts to separate their modules and couldn't re-attach them on their own.

Befitting her role as a long-range repair vessel, the U.S.S. Vestal (SCE-1698) was equipped with a variety of special features by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Her massive saucer superstructure incorporated four huge sets of sliding doors, allowing through-deck transport of everything from parts to be repaired and fresh provisions to casualties for emergency treatment. The dorsal side of the saucer also featured four powerful additional tractor beam emitters, one located on each corner, for towing other ships or manipulation of components. For larger-scale, delicate work, a telescopic, highly-articulated mechanical manipulator arm terminating in a set of pincers could extend from a massive curved hatch located at the front of the saucer superstructure (due to the differences in configuration between Vestal and her sister Akashi, it should be noted that Vestal had one large manipulator emerging from the front of her saucer, while Akashi had two that emerged from the rear). Most of the rest of the saucer superstructure including the impulse engines and bridge module were fairly standard, having been built from spare components for the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701).

The saucer superstructure was built up so much because deep inside lay a massive labyrinth of spaces and systems that were necessary for the ship to fulfill her role as a long-range fleet repair & support ship. These included additional hangar space, large cargo bays for stowage of spare parts and provisions, fabrication facilities and workshops, and even an expansive series of laboratories that were used by the SCE staff when developing and testing new technological innovations. As Vestal and Akashi continued to pursue operations throughout Federation space, the ships they stopped to assist frequently began to routinely transfer wounded aboard for treatment as well, necessitating the ships' sickbays and medical staffs to be expanded too even though they were never intended to function as true hospital ships.

The Vestal's drive section & secondary hull largely consisted of the components that the ship needed to support her own operation such as her primary propulsion and life support systems. However, some internal rearrangement of her internal components was made in order to allow her aft shuttlecraft hangar to be extended and two new sets of rectangular cross-deck hangar doors to be mounted on the port and starboard sides of the hull behind the main shuttle bay's clamshell doors for the Vestal's own standard complement of small craft (five Type-F shuttlecraft and two Work Bee maintenance vehicles). The rear port/starboard cross-deck hangar doors were intended primarily for the use of her secondary complement of four additional Work Bees, which were almost totally dedicated to the Vestal's mission of servicing, repairing and resupplying other starships.

All of these awesome specialized design features left some disadvantages, however. As mentioned previously, the fact that the Vestal and Akashi were built using existing, and often outdated, spare parts meant that despite how much the SCE tried to tweak or even overclock their propulsion systems to get the most out of them, they would never be the fastest or most agile ships on the block and could easily be left in the dust by a Constitution-class heavy cruiser. Furthermore, dedicating so much internal space and available power to these systems meant that the ships were highly specialized compared to most Federation ships of their platform type. They were of practically no use in non-engineering research, diplomatic, or combat roles; in relation to the latter, while the Vestal-type ships were able to defend themselves and even take out some small fry if need be, they were minimally defended compared to their larger cousins with only two Phaser emitters on rotating twin mounts (one forward, one aft) and two forward-firing Photon Torpedo launchers fed by a magazine of twenty Photon Torpedoes.

***

The Vestal and Akashi were built between 2259 and 2260 and were launched into active service under the jurisdiction of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers in the early part of 2261. They immediately began to make their presence felt, quickly picking up the nickname "The Fix-It Sisters" by the starships whose distress calls they answered. Vestal, in particular, began to build a reputation for herself by - as her WW2 predecessor did in the Pacific - rescuing her cousin, the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701), on several occasions and allowing Captain James T. Kirk and his crew to remain deployed in deep space for much longer without having to divert from their five-year mission to make it back to a Federation starbase for major repair work.

Throughout the late 2260s, the Vestal and Akashi were also extensively utilized by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers and the Advanced Starship Design Bureau to actively develop and field-test new technological advancements that would find their way into the great Constitution-Class Refit Program of the next decade. It should also be noted that Akashi's service records during this period are suspiciously "spotty" in certain places, as it is believed (though never officially confirmed, of course) that there were several instances where the repair ship found herself involved with the Federation shadow agency, Section 31.

Both the Vestal and the Akashi were also part of Starfleet's lineup during the great conflict with the Klingons that ultimately led to the Organian peace treaty. The vulnerable repair vessels were held in reserve, stationed in a "safe zone" away from the main battle area, just close enough that they could quickly warp in to rescue stricken starships should the need arise.

Sadly, Akashi's budding Starfleet career would be cut short. In 2281, the starship was on patrol near the edge of Federation space when she picked up a distress call from the U.S.S. Prince of Wales (NCC-1741). The Constitution-class cruiser had been dispatched to the center of the Milky Way galaxy in an ambitious mission to conduct in-depth studies of the super massive black hole known to be present in the galactic core when disaster struck, causing her to lose power and suffer a series of catastrophic system failures. Akashi raced to the scene at maximum warp and began a desperate rescue and recovery effort of the stricken Prince of Wales, but both starships ultimately vanished under mysterious circumstances with all hands lost. Starfleet is currently still investigating the matter.

Her big sister, the Vestal, would go on to conclude a remarkable 45-year career that saw her deployed all over Federation space in every manner of situation as both an experimental testbed and a long-range fleet repair & support vessel. She was ultimately retired from the active fleet repair role and spent the last ten years of her service life at Jupiter Station, serving as a training vessel and test ship for the Starfleet Corps of Engineers and Advanced Starship Design Bureau before she was finally deemed too old for further service and, unable to sustain any further refits, she was decommissioned in 2306.