Ship design of the USS Sagittarius from the novel series VANGUARD

http://voyagesofimagination.com/startrekbooknews.html

Those of you who read the Vanguard novel series can now see the ship design of the TOS-era Archer-class scout ship USS Saggitarius, available at the link above.

Pretty cool stuff.

The Sagittarius is also featured on the cover of the new VANGUARD novel, Reap the Whirlwind, which should be hitting bookstores now.

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/...oL._SS500_.jpg

Something about the design makes me feel that it needs another pass. The airlocks should be recessed or something too... things are bloody eye-catching.

Here's the image sans text.

Are there specs for this little guy anywhere? This would be a fun thing to stat out for me, I think....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ineti

http://voyagesofimagination.com/startrekbooknews.html

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I think they got the scale wrong on those illustrations.
I started working on deckplans based on those views, and the first thing I noticed was the "windows" in the domed section come in a place where the ceiling would be about a meter above the deck. That got me checking the scale, and that's when I noticed that the door on the gangway/airlock would be about 1.5 meter tall by their scale.
That thing should be a standard size, since that's where a Travel Pod would dock, and the doors on the refit TMP-era Enterprise were 2.6 meters (by my measurements and Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, which admittedly is not canon).

Adjusting the scale makes the ship tall enough for 4 decks, although at least 2 of those will have low ceilings.
I'm not sure it that makes it too tall: as described in Harbinger, it had at least 2 decks (passage between the decks being by ladder, not turbolift, since the ship was so small), but I'm not sure if 4 would be too big.

Anyway, a general sense of what I'm working on:
Deck 1 would include the probe launcer and the warp core, and have room for very little else. Probably place the 2-man transporter there or on Deck 2.
Deck 2 is in the dome of the saucer, and has a ceiling around 2 meters that begins to slope down about 6 meters from the edge.
Deck 3 is the main disk, with the Impulse Engines at the back (they extend into Deck 2 also).
Deck 4 is the cargo deck, as well as access to the main deflector and the sensors. Deck height is about 2 meters again, and the floor slopes up near the edges.
(I think most maintenence/repair of the main deflector must be done through panels in the floor of Deck 3.)

The ship is fast, stealthy, and designed to land on planets so it's transporter doesn't get much use. I don't happen to recall anything else from the book, but I'll be looking stuff up. :)

I don't like the lack of bridge.

Here are some views of the Sagittarius...

I posted my feeble attempt at making this ship in the coda system.

http://forum.trek-rpg.net/showthread.php?t=14418

A few more specifics from the first novel:
The crew is 14.
Captain, a Commander as XO, an Ensign as Science Officer, a Master Chief Petty Officer as Chief Engineer.

The ship itself is "almost new" in 2265, though it might just be a newly constructed ship of an older design.
Its hull number is NCC-1894.

The crew "hot bunks": crew members on different shifts share a bed.
From the Chief Engineer's quarters, you pass the mess on the way to the ladder up to the transporter.

I skipped the second book (can't find it locally), but have begun the third book, and it offers even more concrete facts.

First, the ship is basicly brand new. While it remains possable that the class has been around for decades, certainly this example is newly built. Much is made of how shiny and new it looks.

It has three decks, not the four I had guessed.
The lowest deck is cargo.
The main deck has the bridge forward ("heavilly shielded"), and on either side of the Bridge are the quarters for the Captain and the XO, who get the only private rooms on the ship. The Captain's is closer to the ship's head and shower. There are four crew compartments (2 port and 2 starboard) for the remaining 12 crew, and given that they're "hot bunking" there is one bunk per room. The galley and sickbay are aft. The ship's lab is next to the XO's quarters.
Crew spaces are along the outer edge of the hull: the center is filled with sensors and computers and probe storage.
The top deck is much as I surmised: Engineering, the transporter, and crawlspaces to access equipment. The transporter room has the ladder down to the main deck, and just forward of the transporter room is the hatch to access the computer core. Cargo deck access is by ladders on both port and starboard, "amidships".
The gangway/airlock is only on one side of the ship.

The engineering crew consists of (at least): The aforementioned MCPO Chief Engineer, a PO1 (Petty Officer, First Class), and a Crewman. Specificly mentions that Crewman as the only "enlisted man" in engineering, possably the whole ship. The others are NCOs: Noncomissioned Officers.
Another Petty Officer, this one Scond Class, is mentioned, and is probably a fourth engineer.

The helmsman is called the ship's Pilot, and is an officer (Lt.).
The Second Officer is a Lt.Cmdr.
As mentioned above, the XO is a Commander, and the CO is a Captain.

The ship's "scouts" also double as Security. The head of Security is a Lieutenant, and the 2 scouts under him are another Lieutenant and a Senior Master Chief Petty Officer.

The Ship has a Doctor, who has an Ensign as a "medical technician".
And there's an Ensign serving as Science Officer.

And that accounts for all 14 crew.

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If I were making changes to that stuff, one of the first things I'd do is reduce some ranks: IMO a ship this small will do just fine with a LtCmdr as CO. His XO and the Doctor are probably Lieutenants, and most of the other officers are Ensigns.
Only one Ensign in Security, if any.
And I'm not sure the helm/navigator/pilot isn't redundant: There should be someone at the helm any time the ship is moving, but with only 1 helmsman there can't be 3 shifts. Either the Science Officer and somebody from Medical take turns at the helm, or the Command Staff often handles the helm directly. And if it's the latter, then why have a helmsman: the guy at the controls will be either the CO, the XO, or the ship's Second Officer. And there probably wouldn't be a "Big Chair" on the bridge: Either the Helm is running the show, or the Captain is standing by the Helm.
IMO. YMMV. :)

Oh, and another thing:
The ship "made pretty good time" in returning to the station from some distant exploration when it was needed for a mission. the distance is described as "across two sectors", and took 6 weeks.
If those sectors were the standard 20 lightyear sectors mentione in TNG, that would be around TNG Warp 5 (actually a bit faster, as Warp 5 is 24 lightyears in 6 weeks), but there are several other things "sector" might mean here*, and all measurements given are approximate.

* for example, the map in the DS9 Technical manual clearly labled "Bajor Sector" shows an area about 80 lightyears on a side, gridded off into areas 20 by 40 lightyears. Each box of that grid has a unique number, but I cannot discern the patter of the numbers (some have 6 digits plus a decimal, some only five; moving one square in any given direction does not always produce the same change int he number; ...)

So, the speed of the vessel can be adjusted to fit whatever you happen to think is best.