Hello and welcome to another episode of Truth OR Myth Beta Canon, a Star Trek web series that dives into the history of any given topic using Beta Canon sources and my own imagination to fill in the gaps. In today’s episode we’re looking at the Europa Class, as first seen in Star Trek: Online, to better understand its place in Star Trek History.
Please note, that there isn’t a lot of information on this class, and the information that does exist from Star Trek: Online, well some directly contradicts information that has already been established in Alpha Canon. Thus, I’ve had to slightly alter the design’s history to properly fit in this new age of Star Trek.
And of course, as always, because this IS a Beta Canon video, all information re-laid should pretty much be taken with a grain of stardust, and only considered a little bit of Star Trek Fun! And so, with all that out of the way, let’s begin.
With the 25th Century fast approaching, and the Starship Construction facility is known as Yard 39 finally safe for disassembly, Starfleet Command would recover several mid-23rd Century starship designs from that shipyard, refit them and breathe new life into these very old vessel classes.
And one of these new classes, the Europa Class would go on to become Tactical Monster, defending Federation Space from various outside threats. But what do we know about this upgraded Design? Well today, we’ll find out…
After almost a century and a half of being off-limits due to severe Baryon Radiation eruptions, the Star at the TL-9139 Star Systems suddenly calmed down and showed no signs of acting up again.
This meant the long-abandoned shipyard, known as yard 39, could finally be accessed, and all federation Technology in that star system was removed and dealt with.
Yard 39 had been one of Starfleet’s largest, and long-established Construction Facilities apart from the yards in the Terran Star System, as a result, hundreds of starships in various states of construction from the mid-23rd Century, needed to be dealt with.
Normally, these starships would merely be sent to a decommission yard for disassembly.
But the recent attack on the Utopia Planitia Facility, where a fleet of Newly Constructed Transport Vessels, along with many recalled starships being modified to act as colony support vessels, were destroyed, leaving Starfleet and the federation quite vulnerable.
To build the fleet back up as quickly as possible, Starfleet had focused its construction effort on one easily built Class, the Inquiry Class, and had created several variants on that design, and we pumping them out like Tribbles in heat.
But now, Starfleet was presented with a unique opportunity, to grab these old starship hulks, upgrade and refit them with new technologies and add them to the fleet. And one of these re-acquired classes would be the Nimitz Class, a 4-nacelle design quickly refit, and the Europa Class would be born.
Sitting at a length of approximately 416.2 meters, the Europa Class was designed to be operated by 485 Officers and crew members.
The standard safe cruising speed for the Europa Class was warp factor 7.5, with a maximum emergency speed of Warp Factor 9.8 for 12-hour increments. An unknown included technology within the Europa Class was what was known as the Quantum Slipstream Field Projector, which allowed the Europa Class to Travel at speeds exceeding 300 Light Years per hour.
Thanks to its time in stranded in the Delta Quadrant, the USS Voyager brought back with it many detailed scans and various attempted and failed technologies based on Slipstream and Transwarp Drive.
However, due to limitations of the time, as well as the untried nature of the technology, the Europa Class could only remain in slipstream for 30 minutes at a time, before having to power down the drive, initiate a recharge cycle of 60 minutes for reactivation, and repairs to any damaged components, including any possible developing micro-fractures in the hull.
This meant that the technology would only be used in extreme circumstances, as Starfleet attempted to work out all the bugs in it. The Europa Class would also test another new propulsion technology Starfleet was developing, that of the Transwarp Coil.
Unfortunately, the coil included in the Europa Class would be considered a complete failure.
Requiring almost all the starship classes’ power to even turn on, the coil itself created tremendous strain on the starship’s hull, rendering it far more dangerous to utilize technology, and this particularly developed coil would be subsequently uninstalled and its development abandoned.
Tactically, the Europa Class would again be a test bed for new weapons and defensive technologies, but this time with far more success.
The Europa class would test Starfleet Command’s new 10 Type-X Annular Confinement Beam-jacketed Phaser array system, which would have its emitters placed strategically around the outer hull of the starship.
Two weapons banks, each containing two type-XII pulse Phaser cannons and four variable-payload launch tubes, were located at the front of the primary hull. Four additional launch tubes were in the classes aft section.
These launching tubes could easily accommodate both Photon and Quantum torpedoes, but in addition, would also carry a payload of Transphasic torpedoes to be used in extreme emergencies.
Shielding for the Europa Class would be of the Multiphasic Regenerative type now standard on all Starfleet Starships, and the Europa Classes hull would be coated with a Duranium Nanomesh material which covered the Classes ablative Neutronium alloy hull plating.
The Europa Class was also equipped with a large arsenal of Fighter craft and auxiliary vehicles, making her a formidable fighting machine. Lastly, another new starship system tested within the Europa Class was that of the Emergency Crew Replacement System of the ECRS.
With holo-emitters installed in all critical areas of the Starship, an Officer or the main computer could activate a variety of holographic replacement personnel, should a combat situation or emergency require the use of these programs.
That meant that Emergency Medical Care, Engineering and Damage Control Officers or even Security Personal could be easily activated, replacing, or augmenting the current crew.
Even an Emergency Command Hologram was included with this new system. To be activated if the Captain, First Officer, and Second Officer were incapacitated or killed during a critical situation. The command Duty officer could also activate the ECRS system if they deemed it necessary.
The Europa Class quickly became a successful Patrol Vessel for the outer reaches of Federation Space.
8 Nimitz Class Hulls were recovered and refit from Yard 39, but Starfleet would only construct an additional 8 Vessels of the Class. Once again, Federation Politics would get in the way of a Starship Class, with the more pacifistic Member Worlds of the federation appalled by the sheer warlike nature of the Europa Class.
After a fierce debate between the Council Members and Starfleet Command, finally, a compromise was made for only 16 of the Class to be constructed, as Starfleet was able to convince the Council that Pure Warships were still a necessity for the organization.
Reminding them of the Battle of Wolf 359, the Battle of Sector 001, the Dominion War and even the Attack on Utopia Planitia.
The 16 constructed Europa Class Vessel would each perform above and beyond Starfleet’s Expectations, receiving refit and upgrades during the class run, but amazingly, Starfleet would never revisit or construct more of the class, even when various other conflicts would seem to dictate for them to do so.
Nevertheless, the 16 Vessels of the Class would ALL survive to be decommissioned over 100 years after their initial refit to become the Europa Class, making them a complete oddity in Starfleet historical Texts, as virtually the organization had never had a single starship design run, survive with all its starships intact.
Recovered during a time of fear and anxiety for the federation, the Europa Class, though small in numbers, certainly made its presence known throughout the Federation, serving with distinction and honour, earning this class its amazing place, in Starfleet History…
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