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 Nova Class of Starfleet Starships, as first seen in Star Trek: Voyager, to better understand its place in Star Trek History.
And 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.
Designed as a State-of-the-Art replacement for the ageing Oberth Class, the Nova Class would quickly prove itself to be one of the most versatile Science Vessels ever created by Starfleet’s Starship Designers. But what do we know about the Nova Class?
With the Battle of Wolf 359 behind them, Starfleet Command was in full swing when it came to technological developments and creating new, very powerful, Starship designs.
Even as Starfleet Command and the Federation Council were knee-deep in review and debates about the battle, Starfleet’s design engineers were developing new starship designs based on technologies both theoretical and recently developed in the hopes of creating starship classes that could fight and defeat the Borg Collective.
Starfleet Command wanted smaller, easily constructed vessels that were more powerful than a Galaxy Class starship, and believe it or not, this expectation was within Starfleet’s Grasp.
Several of these smaller starship designs were brought forward for Project Defiant, the name of the program designated to create these small battleships, and what would eventually become the Nova Class was one of them.
After a review of all the designs, however, the Nova Design was excluded from the running.
It was felt that its far more traditional Starfleet Design, having a primary and secondary hull, along with warp nacelle struts, was more of a liability than anything. Starfleet Command would eventually decide on a more compact design for Project Defiant.
Starfleet Command though did like the Nova Class design very much, and although not sure what role that class would play in the fleet, they in fact commissioned construction on a prototype of the class, in the hopes of using it to test several brand-new technologies as they were developed.
And thus in 2368, the Nova Class was born.
Sitting at a length of approximately 222 meters and 8 decks tall, the Nova Class would be designed to be operated by 78 Officers and Crew members.
Originally the class was based on Isolinear technology, but when the Intrepid classes Bio-neural Circuitry proved so successful, the design would be quickly updated to include this new technology.
The Nova Class had a standard safe cruising speed of warp factor 6 and a maximum emergency speed of warp factor 8. However, this class could reach speeds up to Warp 9.2, but at great risk to both ship and crew.
Weaponry for class consisted of 11 Type 10 Phaser Arrays and 3 Photon Torpedo Launchers, 2 forward and 1 aft. While its defensive shielding would end up being the same type of system used by the Intrepid Class Starship, making them as strong as the Galaxy Classes shields of the time.
Being such a small vessel design, the Nova Class would cut out a lot of the luxuries normally included aboard starships.
There would be no Holodecks, no swimming pools or bowling alleys, and shipboard quarters would be streamlined into a design that would utilize every bit of available space.
Though the classes sickbay was relatively small in comparison to other classes, it nevertheless was state of the art, and capable of dealing with any medical emergencies that could arise while the starship was on assignment.
Also, the Nova Class would include the new EMH or Emergency Medical Holographic system.
This meant that should the ships doctor or nurse be incapacitated, or require additional help for a medical crisis, a holographic doctor would be created by the computer to assist.
Though receiving many upgrades and changes during its early lifetime, the EMH System would become a valuable resource for many starships, eventually allowing smaller classes like the Nova Class, to not have a flesh and blood physician assigned to them.
2 Transporters, located on Deck 2, and 1 Cargo Transporter located on Deck 3, would provide this class with all transporter needs.
2 shuttlebays would also be included with a larger primary one contained in the aft section of the secondary hull in this design, carrying several repair vehicles as well as 2 standard Starfleet Shuttlecraft.
A special cargo bay facility, connected to the secondary shuttlebay would also be included in this design on deck 3, and like the Intrepid Class, the Nova Class had the ability to land on a planet.
Because Starfleet had not yet decided on the role that the Nova class would play in the fleet, most areas of class not designated as crew quarters or equipment housing remained unfinished during the classes shakedown cruise.
But shortly after successfully completing its trial run, the Nova class would finally get its mission profile, that of a short, ranged science vessel.
After the Battle of Wolf 359, Starfleet and the Federation Council had done a complete review of all starship classes currently employed within the fleet.
This review would see many of the starship classes from Project Galaxy get the chop from construction rosters as not adequately filling the roles which they had been created to fill.
Especially concerning to both organizations were the older classes still employed by Starfleet such as the Miranda and Excelsior classes.
This fear in those designs ended up being misplaced, as both those older designs proved more than adequate for the roles they played within the fleet.
The Oberth Class, however, was not so lucky… Both Starfleet and the Federation Council determined that this older starship class, was not only completely out of date, but also inadequate in the role of Short Ranged Scientific Starship.
Put simply, Its defences were subpar. And given the fact that the Federation was continuing to venture into the unknown, and these ships were required to follow the Exploration Starships initial studies, doing tasks like Planetary Surveys in what could still be considered dangerous space, and the problems with the Oberth Class become clear.
And instead of designing yet another new class of vessel to replace the Oberth Class, Starfleet Command would instead decide to utilize the Nova Class design and simply alter it into a science vessel. Something which ended up quite easy to do.
Specialized Science labs and sensor equipment were added into the design, and by the early 2370s, the Nova Class would begin to prove itself superior to Oberth Design in every way.
Now, should an enemy or dangerous situation present itself during scientific studies, the Nova Class had more than a fighting chance to survive these encounters.
So impressed with the abilities of the Nova class, Starfleet Command would even begin several research projects into special variants of the class.
One of these variants on the design would see the Nova class beefed up becoming a tactical assault vessel along the same lines as the Defiant Class after all.
And in this role, she would perform just as admirably as she did in her scientific role.
Like the Oberth class before her, the Nova class would have a long a fruitful life within Starfleet, having almost 2 centuries of service under her warp core.
During the battle of Procyon 5, many Nova Class starships would participate in the battle alongside the Enterprise-J. Helping lead the Federation to victory against the Sphere Builders.
But as the 27th century Approached, and once again newer Starship Designs were being introduced, the decision would be made to finally end the career of the Nova Class and decommission it once for all.
Created as a Science Vessel with teeth, the Nova class debuted during an uncertain time in Federation History, only to prove its worth and become a valued member of the fleet. Earning this distinctive class, it’s place in Starfleet History…
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