USS Pathfinder

USS Pathfinder
General Information
Registry	NCC-97600
Class & Type	Pathfinder-class Long-Range Science Vessel
Affiliation	Starfleet
Status	Active
Commissioned	2398
Assignment
Unit	Fourth Fleet Operations
Squadron	Endeavour Squadron
Role	Explorer Archaeological Research
Key Personnel
Commanding Officer	Commander Karana Valance
Executive Officer	Lieutenant Commander Dashell Antedy
Template:Starship

"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 an aborted deep-space exploratory mission and received her next orders: to proceed to the former borders of the Romulan Neutral Zone under Commander Karana Valance. 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.

MSD for the USS Pathfinder

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.

Auxiliary Craft

Type-12 Shuttles

Pathfinder has the standard complement of smallcraft, with four Type-12 shuttles berthed. With only a flight crew of one or two officers, they struggle to fit even an additional four personnel aboard. Despite this, they are capable of reasonably long-distance missions, and the limited auxiliary craft aboard means the shuttles are relied on whenever the Waverider-class is unavailable or unsuited. The shuttles are all named for famous archaeologists:

• Estragon
• Korby
• Galen
• M'Tell

Waverider-class

The favoured ship for any away mission requiring more than two officers or facilities of any significance, the Pathfinder's Waverider-class is a capable multi-mission platform that can operate independently for limited missions of some duration. The Waverider has been called the 'Watson', in honour of the original Pathfinder Project's Operation: Watson, itself an homage to Thomas Watson, assistant of the telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell.