USS Prometheus

The USS Prometheus
^{Image © Paramount}

The USS Prometheus (NX-59650/NCC-59650) was a 24^th century Federation Prometheus-class starship operated by Starfleet. The USS Prometheus was an experimental prototype designed for deep space tactical assignments and equipped with regenerative shields, ablative hull armor, and multi-vector assault mode. She was the fastest ship in Starfleet with a warp factor of 9.99 when she was launched from the Beta Antares Ship Yards on stardate 50749.5 in late 2373. The vessel was also equipped with holographic projectors on every deck, allowing its EMH Mark II free range of movement throughout the ship. The Prometheus was, at least, the second starship to bear the name.

Sometime shortly after stardate 51462 in 2374, the Prometheus was briefly hijacked by Romulans. During their escape aboard the ship, the Prometheus easily disabled the USS Bonchune when the Romulans decided to enable the multi-vector assault mode, for the first time, proving her potency as a combat vessel. The timely intervention of a subspace signal from the USS Voyager installed an artificial intelligence that managed to foil the hijacking by disabling the hijackers with neurozine gas.

In 2375, the USS Prometheus was commissioned but it arrived too late to make a difference in the Dominion War.

In 2376, Lieutenant (junor grade) Sinead O'Riley served aboard the Prometheus in the ship’s engineering department as a transporter officer and holographic engineer. Her assignment was cut short at the recommendation of the ship’s counselor so she could have her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder treated on the planet Vulcan.

In late 2380, the Prometheus discovered a wormhole deep in Federation space. Further examination suggested that the wormhole had a temporal component, connecting to either the past or the future. Lacking the specialised equipment or personnel to do much more, the Prometheus dropped warning beacons, informed Starfleet Command and proceeded on their way. With Starfleet's resources stretched by the hunt for the renegade USS Theurgy, it would take several months before the USS Eclipse was deployed to investigate and, if necessary, collapse the wormhole.

Following the disappearance of the Eclipse and a subsequent search effort by the Prometheus and other vessels, the Eclipse was declared to be missing in action. The wormhole had also vanished.

(The USS Prometheus should not be mistaken for the Nebula class starship of the same name that was refit and rechristened the USS Domination in 2372.)