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FEDERATION STARSHIP - PROMETHEUS CLASS


The data files are still in transit from Starfleet Headquarters. Information will be made available soon.


HISTORY:

The Prometheus project, originally started in 2344, was one of the most debated, contraversial, and troublesome projects ever taken up by Starfleet.

The ship was first proposed at the end of the war with the Klingons, in particular, the loss of the Enterprise C to the Romulans while it was defending the Klingons at Narendra III. The design brief was for a "tactical recon" vessel capible of sustaining an extremely high warp factor for extended periods of time. Over 100 different designs were submitted.

However, as the final design was chosen, the project was shelved by Starfleet pointing out the end of the war meant that the vessel was no longer needed. In protest, 10 officers threatened to resign from their posts. Many of these officers later were assigned to Intrepid Project. Their influence in the Intrepid Project is apparent.

The project remained suspeneded until 2358, when Starfleet made a general clean up of all "unused" starship designs. However, there was now a problem. The Nebula Class project had already been assigned the name USS Prometheus for use on one of their ships. Requests by the new Prometheus team to the Nebula team were met with various pranks, including having the computer replicate tapioca pudding whenever one of the Prometheus teammembers requested an item from a replicator.

The project, now renamed to Nomad Class after what was going to be the second vessel produced (later renamed to USS Arlington), continued under mulitiple redesigns and rehashes. The best thinkers and designers from the ASDB were pulled from their projects to work on the Nomad Project. This angered many in Starfleet Command. They again suspended the project, citing that no warships were needed - a lie because the end of the recent Cardassian wars had left Starfleet depleted. The three keels that had been assembled for USS Nomad/Prometheus, USS Arlington, and USS Kensington, were broken up into pieces and shiped to various outposts.

In 2365, Starfleet again reopened the Nomad Project as part of the reaction to the discovery of the Borg. However, when the keels were brought back to be assembled, there was a minor problem. Something (or one) had severely damaged all components of all three ships. A brilliant designer was able to come up with a hasty regesign to use the existing parts - allow the ship to split into three sections: lower, upper, and saucer sections. The redesign was quickly approved, as it would not require any outside parts or supplies. He integrated a unique weapon powering system, and called the splitting ability "multi-vector assault mode". It has been rumored that he did not think that his ideas would work.

Construction continued in secret up to 2373, when the Nebula Class USS Prometheus was destroyed. The Nomad Class designers successfully petitioned Starfleet Command to rename the project to Prometheus Class... again.

The ship launched in early 2374, but on its maiden voyage, it was hijakked by Romulans, but quickly brought back under Starfleet control by the brilliant work of two EMH programs, one being the starship Voyager's EMH, and the other being a new prototype EMH, Mark 2.



Commissioned Vessels:

USS Prometheus - NX-59650 - Current Status - Undergoing minor refit - location unknown
USS Arlington - NX-59592 - Current Status - Construction on hiatus indefinately due to ship being stripped to complete contstruction of USS Prometheus
USS Kensington - NX-59593 - Current Status - Contsruction on hiatus indefinately due to ship being stripped to complete contstruction of USS Prometheus

CHRONOLOGY:

2344: Prometheus Class design brief approved by Starfleet.
2345: Project shelved briefly because of documentation errors.
2348: Project shelved briefly because of further documentation errors.
2348: Preliminary design approved after numerous delays and much bickering.
2349: Project shelved.
2358: Project reopened under name "Nomad Class", redesign performed on exterior of ship to correspond with upcoming visual styles such as Soverign Class-like nacelles and deflector section.
2359: Project suspended.
2365: Project reopened.
2368: Starfleet pushes up launch date by 4 years; after extreme objection, it is only pushed up 2 years.
2370: USS Nomad, NX-59860 leaves spacedock for warp testing, but nearly suffers a warp core breach due to feedback from the nacelles- entire warp system deemed "a tad potent", and the warp safrguard systems are redesigned.
2370: A computer programming error (attributed to "rushing") results in all bioneural gelpacks exploding. System redesigned.
2373: Nebula Class USS Prometheus destroyed; USS Nomad NX-59860 renamed and recommissioned to USS Prometheus NX-59650.
2374: USS Prometheus commissioned and launched; EMH Mark II installed.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Length: 300m
Crew: 100
Passengers: 200
Max. Warp: Classified








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