USS Pathfinder
- "Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
- —Ralph Waldo Emerson
The first of her class, the USS Pathfinder has finished her shakedown cruise and received her first orders: to proceed to the former borders of the Romulan Neutral Zone. The region is rife with political instability, competing local factions, and some of the most desperate and dispossessed people of the quadrant, but Pathfinder’s mission is not one of security. The fall of the Romulan Star Empire has opened new opportunities for exploration, granting access to stretches of space no Starfleet ship has ever reached.
While the Pathfinder is a sophisticated science vessel capable of uncovering all manner of astronomical mysteries, stellar sciences are only her secondary priority. Her crew’s primary operations are missions of archaeology and anthropology: recovering knowledge lost with the Empire’s fall, helping displaced peoples regain connections to cultures left behind, and uncovering histories of territories once ruled by those with no interest in discovery.
With a crew of scientists, historians, diplomats, and explorers, Pathfinder must navigate these challenges – be they scientific, physical, or even political.
Design and Layout
Like any of her class, the Pathfinder is equipped for long-range missions of scientific exploration. Reflecting her primary designation, however, the majority of her laboratory space has been allocated to supporting archaeological and anthropological research, with other scientific facilities revolving around the study of earth sciences needed to support these missions. These laboratories are all modular in nature, and Pathfinder can be reconfigured for other operations if needed.
Much of the rest of the ship is laid out as standard. Lounges and other crew space all so far have retained the configuration with which she was launched, giving even the main mess hall and the aft lounge favoured by senior officers a somewhat utilitarian feel.