USS Gallagher

Vessel Name	USS Gallagher
Registry	NCC 1996 - C
Starship Class	Galaxy Class (Variant Prototype)
Starship Type	Exploratory Cruiser / Testbed
Status	Active
Purpose	Exploration
Construction	Utopia Planetia Fleet Yards
Commissioned	July 9th 2374 (Refit October 8th 2376)
Dedication	"Sail them home with acquiesce on a ship of hope, tell them to fear no more."
Dimensions	Length: 695 Meters
Mass	5,040,000 Metric Tons (Pre refit) 5,500,000 Metric Tons (Post Refit)
Decks	42
Standard Crew Complement	830 (stand.) 15,000 (evac. limit) 2 (skeleton)
Maximum Cruising Speed	9.6 (Pre Refit) 9.8 (Post Refit)
Standard Cruising Speed	6 (Pre Refit) 7.5 (Post Refit)
Armarment	14 Type X Phaser Arrays 4 Photon Torpedo Launchers (250) 2 Quantum Torpedo Launchers (42)
Defences	High Capacity Deflector Shield Array, Ablative Armour, Duranium microfoam and Tritanium Hull composite
Auxilliary Craft	Type 8 Shuttles: 4 Type 9 Shuttles: 4 Type 9A Cargo Shuttles: 2 Type 18 Shuttlepod: 6 Workbees: 8 Mk II Valkyrie Federation Warp Fighters : 40 Captain's yacht: 1
Design	Original Galaxy Class designed by Andrew Probert.
3D Model	Star Trek Online

The USS Gallagher was a Starfleet exploratory vessel later refit in 2376 to testbed new technological breakthroughs. Her crew contained a mixture of veteran Starfleet Officers and fresh Academy Graduates throughout her history, a tradition upheld since the Dominion War by her Captain.

Description

The USS Gallagher is a Galaxy Class with an almost unique external design. Whilst she has capabilities similar to her sisters, she has a much larger (And thus more stable) neck section which slants down the dorsal side of her body. This increases her weight but also allows for a much larger internal structure. The Gallagher enjoys a modular internal structure which allows her to be reconfigured at a given shipyard for upcoming missions. Whether they be scientific endeavours, evacuation operations, tactical operations or exploration missions.

History

Commission and The Dominion War

The USS Gallagher was originally one of many Federation Starships constructed hurriedly during the Dominion War. Built to serve in one of several 'Galaxy Wing' fleet arrangements, the Gallagher began her career with minimal scientific facilities and a modular internal structure, due to the need for ships on the front lines. While she was commissioned too late to serve in Operation Return under the command of Benjamin Sisko, the Gallagher served with distinction during the war up until its end in 2375.

Post-War and Exploration

After the Dominion War, Starfleet began to return to its original Ethos of exploration and the Gallagher was one of many ships refit with scientific facilities and enhancements to her modular internal structures, giving her the capacity to serve as a fully fledged exploratory ship. In conjunction with this, she was also bolstered with fresh recruits from both veterans of other starships (Mostly those which had been destroyed or severely damaged) and newly graduated officers from Starfleet Academy.

The Gallagher would begin a 4 year exploratory mission, somewhat hampered by regular returns to Federation starbases and shipyards to be further tuned or have more prototype components installed.

Prototype Refit

With constant technological strides being made during the Dominion War and beyond, including the Odyssey, Theurgy and Prometheus classes, Engineers began looking at preexisting starship designs and began wondering how best to improve an existing starship chassis. The Galaxy Class, with its large size, impressive resources and modular design was a natural choice to begin with. The USS Gallagher was one of several starships selected for this purpose, however the only one which underwent an extensive refit, practically transforming the entire ship into a larger, beefier version of itself.

The refit itself spanned 2376, wherein the saucer section was temporarily removed and the stardrive was completely revamped. During this period, the Gallagher's crew were permitted a two month leave whilst the ship was refitted. By October, however, the refit was complete, or at least enough to make the ship capable of undertaking missions once more.

With the formation of the Tactical Conn department in 2375, Starfleet's gradual steps into fighter craft and its associated challenges demanded starships be retrofitted with more carrier oriented equipment to support not only the Peregrine Fighters in large numbers, but also its Valkyrie successors. The Gallagher, having much of her internal space still empty and modular, was a natural choice to receive these upgrades. Her primary shuttlebay, located in the saucer section was optimised for the 40 fighters she would carry, her remaining shuttlebays in the stardrive taking up all but two of the Type 8 and 9 shuttles in total.

In addition, Deck 6 was completely redesigned to house not only living quarters for the pilots and crew needed to manage a fighter complement, but the facilities they'd need too. Fuel containers, engineering bays and most prominently, a Fighter Command Centre housed at the fore of the ship, where the inhabitants could observe an ongoing space battle from the viewports just as easily as they could from a holographic imaging table. This FCC contained live tracking and communication for and between each fighter and could be reconfigured to operate as a Fleet Command Centre just as easily.

The refit's most prominent change from the original Galaxy design was the larger neck section. Concerns about structural integrity had led engineers to rework the neck in its entirety, giving it a sloping angle. This used much more resources and massively increased the ship's weight, however placed less stress on structural integrity fields when it came to holding the ship together whilst it was under duress from exterior forces. The result was a greatly increased interior space and much more robust design than the precursor design.

The USS Gallagher's side profile, showing off the vessel's unique neck design

This Neck would come to house several of the Gallagher's prototype designs, including the 'Garand Shield Capacitors' which appeared on the exterior of the vessel as a series of . Their purpose was to provide shields with a temporary boost in power, allowing the ship to theoretically sustain further damage from an enemy salvo, or to resist being drained for a little while longer. The Capacitors, however, were prone to burning out, particularly if used constantly, which made them usable once or twice per engagement.

The Neck was also the location of a second computer core system, intended to work either in tandem with the primary core located in the saucer, or independently, primarily when the two segments were separated from one another. Naturally, this meant the Gallagher had formidable computer processing power, nearly twice that than another Galaxy class. She could adjust the frequencies of her weapons, perform complex calculations and process scanning data at a faster rate as a result.

The neck was mostly occupied, however, by crew quarters, Diplomatic Lounges, Medical Facilities and scientific laboratories, maintaining the original Galaxy Class's purpose as an exploratory vessel suitable for a variety of roles.

Crew Manifest

Captain - CPT. Liam Verys

First Officer/ XO - Cmdr. Rebecca Knightly

Chief of Operations - Lt. Aaron Hammond

Chief Engineering Officer - Cmdr. N'pree

Chief Science Officer - Lt. Elias Newlin

Chief of Security - Lt.Cmdr John Walker

Chief Tactical Officer - Cmdr Lana Espinoza

Chief Medical Officer - Doctor Corliss Leigh

Head Counsellor - Lt.Cmdr Zoe Nelson

Former Crew

Junior Operations Officer - Joseph Adams (Transferred to USS Theurgy in 2380)