USS Constellation
- "We only see starlight because all the stars are bleeding."
- —Steven Hall - Ship's Dedication Quote
USS Constellation is a Constitution III-class explorer assigned to Fourth Fleet Operations. It is currently under the command of Captain Taes. A team of civilian scientists from the Romulan Free State is indefinitely assigned to support the Constellation’s investigation of scientific mysteries beyond the charted edges of Federation space. Although the crew’s search for knowledge is vital, their paramount mission is to improve diplomatic relations between the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Free State.
History
Like most among the first wave of the Constitution III-class starships, the USS Constellation was constructed through the upcycling of an older starship's superstructure and essential system components. As long as there's been a Starfleet, there have been Starship Constellations. Almost from the inception of this neo-explorer class of starships, it was decided to build this ship in honour of the Constitution-class USS Constellation (NCC-1017).
After construction on the new Constellation was completed in late 2400, she was commissioned to full service in early 2401. Assigned to Task Force 17, the Constellation was charged with a mission of exploration beyond the Federation's coreward borders into the Typhon Frontier.
Under the command of Captain Taes aboard the USS Sarek in 2400, a team of Romulan Free State civilian scientists were assigned to the science department and their liaison officer, Flavia ir-Llantrisant, was assigned to serve as Taes' chief science officer. Flavia and her Romulan Free State science department were transferred aboard USS Constellation with Captain Taes. Although Flavia was afforded leadership over the Starfleet officers in the science department, she held no position in the operational command of the starship. This was arranged as part of the Fourth Fleet's ongoing efforts to improve diplomatic relations with the Romulan Free State, despite the hold the Tal Shiar has on the very foundation of its government. This was envisioned as one of Starfleet's great experiments to develop friendship through adversity and to encourage the crew to expand their inner depths while exploring the galaxy at large.
Lost Fleet
In early 2401, the launch of USS Constellation was expedited in response to invasion in the Deneb Sector. A massive fleet of Dominion warships swept in from unexplored space, beyond the coreward Alpha Quadrant border of the Deneb Sector. Joined by the Breen Confederacy invading from Deneb’s trailing border, the Dominion incursion took large swaths of Federation territory, including whole planets. Under the protection of Saratoga Squadron, Constellation travelled through the sensor-dampening Ciater Nebula to pass through Dominion-occupied space undetected.
The Constellation crew gathered sensor data from uncrewed observatories and subspace relays beyond Federation space. Upon reaching the Iauna Pulsar, Constellation rescued Doctor Marl Trojet from the escape pod of his destroyed Federation science ship, Sef. Although Doctor Trojet was the unwitting architect of the Dominion’s return in the Alpha Quadrant, he was also that fleet’s first victim. While performing a psychic rescue of the comatose Trojet, Captain Taes learned that Trojet’s experiments to create an artificial wormhole at the Ianua pulsar released a portion of the Dominion’s lost fleet from out of time. The artificial wormhole released the Dominion fleet from the Bajoran wormhole, where they had been held in timeless stasis since they were lost in 2374. Returning to the Deneb Sector with this intel, Constellation was flanked by the Dominion’s final attack on Farpoint Station and took serious damage in defending Starfleet in the Battle of Farpoint.[1]
Frontier Day
After surviving the final Battle of Farpoint, Constellation's crew managed only enough repairs for cautious travel to the Trill homeworld. Doctor Marl Trojet's artificial wormhole research was collected to ensure no one else could access the remainder of the lost Jem'Hadar fleet, after the Jem'Hadar battleships in the Deneb Sector surrendered to the Dominion's care in the Gamma Quadrant.[2]
Because of extensive damage to the Constellation's shields, hull and communication systems, Captain Taes put in for repairs at Avalon Fleet Yards. The Constellation was designed with fleet formation mode at the core of its operating systems, with every intention of participating in the parade through space to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Frontier Day. Without the crew's knowledge, the Changeling who had been disguised as Lieutenant Commander Kellin Rayco had modified the ship's transporter system to edit Borg DNA into the brains of every young member of the crew, younger than the Human equivalent of 25 years old. Come Frontier Day, the Borg Queen sent a signal from Jupiter that tele-assimilated all of those Starfleet officerd with Borg DNA in their brains. In Sector 001, those assimilated officers had orders to kill every Starfleet officer; in Avalon Fleet Yards, the assimilated officers were ordered to commander the fleet yards for the Borg's purposes.
Between the fleet formation system and the assimilated officers among her own crew crew, the Borg took control of the starship Constellation. Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Cellar Door only managed to wrest control away from the Borg by ejecting the ship's warp core, collapsing the electroplasma system. Lieutenant Commander Kellin Nertlinge was located in stasis aboard Deep Space 17, having been held hostage by the rogue modified Changelings since before Constellation's launch.[3]
Directive Four
In partnership with her own crew, Avalon Fleet Yards repaired Constellation to her original manufactured specifications. Captain Taes took the ship through the Barzan Wormhole to commence a prolonged mission of exploration in the Delta Quadrant. Shortly after their arrival, more Borg vessels were identified traversing into the Gradin Belt with far greater frequency than had been witnessed since before their decimation by the neurolytic pathogen in 2378. Despite this seeming Borg awakening, there were other reports of Borg relay stations and installations having been disassembled and abandoned in recent days.
Cautiously entering the edges of known Borg territory, Captain Taes and her crew undertook a scouting mission to investigate the state of the Borg Collective after the Borg Queen’s apparent demise on Frontier Day. Constellation followed a faint Borg power signal to a tropical planet known only as Planet 4 in System D-515. The initial away team called the planet Solus, because they found no trace of Borg technology anywhere on the planet; rather, the crew found non-humanoid, sentient plant-life on the planet, all of whom showed no signs of assimilation, nor any form of community. After a brief encounter with a Borg Cube that showed no interest in Constellation or her crew, the cube reclaimed the Borg power source from the planet's surface. Constellation's away team discovered an ancient fungal being that had survived an attempted assimilation centuries earlier. Borg nanoprobes had proven entirely incompatible with the neuro-electric transmissions of the planet's sentient beings. Concerned for how those ancient, abandoned nano-probes could be misused, Constellation destroyed them using electromagnetic pulses.[4]
Notable Crew
Commanding Officers
2401-Present: Captain Taes
Configuration
Main article: Constitution III-class Explorer
Consistent with her class, the Constellation's design aesthetic hews to a return of spartan and utilitarian architecture. Vaulted ceilings, archways and lighting panels from every direction are a common theme throughout every deck of the ship. The floor, bulkhead and overhead panels are predominantly metallic with no upholstery. While the common ships of the class tend toward gun-metal grey, the duranium plating upcycled into the Constellation resulted in a colour scheme that favours brushed copper, reflective bronze and transparent panels throughout the ship's interiors. With the advent of holo-technology and automation, most compartments are sparsely furnished and decorated. Single-use equipment is too inefficient a use of space aboard a starship intended to explore unaided for five years at a stretch. Allowing for the illusion of larger rooms, most compartments are multi-functional, be they operational centres, personal quarters or laboratories, with fewer partitions and sub-divisions than on the comfort-driven explorers of old.
Planetarium
Bringing with it all of the mid-century dining room sets and interior design of the 2260s, the Planetarium lounge is an exact replica of the crew lounge aboard the Constitution-class USS Constellation NCC-1017. From the lacquered black deck plating to the vibrant red banquets, stepping into the Planetarium feels like stepping into Starfleet's past. By utilising all of the interior safe sacrificed by smaller quarters, the Planetarium offers a large recreational area for the crew with an awe-inspiring wall of exterior viewports looking out the forward saucer-section. There is one raised dining platform, enclosed with duranium slats, offering a private dining area for the captain and senior staff. The one 25th-Century enhancement are the holographic projectors in the lounge often used to project familiar planetarium-style views of star systems and stellar phenomenon across the entire overhead of the lounge.
Romulan Laboratory
Based on the terms of the Federation's treaties with the Romulan Free State, the Romulan scientists aboard Constellation have an enclave laboratory devoted to their own independent research. The lab possesses a small dedicated computer core and subprocessors, entirely air-gapped from the starship's main computer cores. Under normal operating procedures, the Starfleet crew cannot access the Romulan lab with internal sensors unless authorized by the captain directly or if the computer detects risks such as damage to life support, weapons fire, open flames, or unregistered communications transmissions.
Auxiliary Craft
Constellation's shuttle bays are equipped with a full complement of auxiliary craft, including:
- Captain's Yacht: Decker
- Danube-class runabouts: Estéron (assimilated by the Borg in 2401)
- Orion-class runabouts: Rubenstein and Anser
- Type-14 shuttles, including: Masada, Harpa Georgii, Canis Minor, and Zoma