USS Cayuga

History

By the mid-2370s, the success and failures of the Intrepid-class were clear to Starfleet. Its underwhelming speed hobbling it as a long-range exploratory craft made engineers in Starfleet begin designing the next great explorer, the Iroquois-class. The name was picked in tribute to the Native Americans of centuries past, and because Iroquois-class' improved warp geometry was partially based on the quad-nacelle Cheyenne-class. The USS Iroquois, the first of its class, was launched in 2374 to great fanfare and was quickly seen by the Federation Science Council as a valuable resource. It was still small compared to the Galaxy-class, like the Intrepid, but contained the best technology available to the Federation.

The sleek curves of the Iroquois-class weren’t just a stylistic choice, they assisted the quad-geometry warp nacelles in producing a tight warp field over the starship with a steep and stable field gradient in even turbulent space-time conditions, giving these vessels both an impressive warp acceleration and stability. These features, along with the vessels primary Class-9 warp drive and its secondary warp assembly allowed the class an impressive top speed of warp 9.995. While its sustained warp speeds were considerably slower, they were still fast enough to allow Starfleet to hail the design as its new deep-space explorer. To aid in this role, Iroquois-class vessels were also equipped with the best technology in the Federation as of 2374, including the newest generation of multi-spectral subspace sensors linked into the most powerful shipboard computer yet in service in Starfleet. It would only be surpassed by the Vesta and Theurgy-class ships later in the 2370s'. This computing power was possible through a breakthrough in the use of bio-neural circuitry on the Intrepid-class, only refined in this new explorer, allowing the vessels’ computer to form information connections in a faster and more natural way, giving the main computer the unique ability to adapt to new and confusing situations as well as improvise solutions. This increased computer power allowed the Iroquois-class more automation than many Starfleet vessels, keeping the typical crew rosters down to between 130–150 officers and crew.

As it was a deep-space exploratory vessel, all Iroquois-class starships had an impressive amount of tactical systems as standard, the reasoning being that it would be operating far from any other allied starships and may need to defend itself against multiple attackers. The Iroquois-class had nine Type-XI phaser strips and four torpedo launchers (two forward, two aft). To further planetary exploration, all Iroquois-class vessels were assigned at least four type-6 or type-8 shuttlecraft in addition to the class-specific aeroshuttle that was located on the ventral side of the primary hull.

For crew recreation, new high resolution holo-emitters and integrated replicator systems made holodecks power efficient and able to create permanent matter in the simulation to prevent continual holo-emitter use and degradation. These same holo-emitters were also installed in a limited-purpose ship-wide hologrid, allowing the Mk II Emergency Medical Hologram system (EMH) to assist medical personnel when they required it anywhere aboard.