Exploration: Frigate, Heavy - Balao-class

History And Mission Overview

Although Starfleet vessels are designed to last multiple decades in service, eventually, all equipment becomes obsolete. With Starfleet entering a new era, new starship designs were required to replace vessels which, although they had proven their usefulness, were past their period of usefulness. As such, Starfleet sent a request for a design for a new, multi-purpose vessel to the Utopia Planitia Yards, which had been responsible for developing some of Starfleet’s best vessels.

When the assignment arrived, the people at Utopia Planitia Yards that the Commander of the Yards assigned to do the job weren’t the typical designers. They had created designs which Starfleet had considered to be non-standard, to the point where most of what they created was eventually handed to other design groups for what Starfleet dubbed “refinements”. Many of their ideas were repurposed, with only a few of their ideas being used in their full original format. They had chips on their shoulders, and they weren’t afraid to show it. They intended to give Starfleet a ship that nobody could mistake for another vessel. Even if the Admiralty Board did not like the vessel, they would remember it.

Instead of utilizing a typical two-section ship design and making it their own, they looked at an older source of inspiration - the submarine. As it was the other type of vessel, other than aircraft, that humanity initially used to move in three dimensions, but in bodies of water instead of air, they felt that it was an underutilized hull type in spacecraft design. While using the basic premise of the submarine body style, the vessel in question was almost three times the size of submarine designs used during the Third World War. Along with the increase in size, they replaced certain unnecessary systems with systems only required in spacecraft, and made it far more livable. They also decided to stretch the borders of what they were allowed to include aboard the vessel, using some aspects in the design that the Admiralty Board did not originally request or approve.

What resulted was a multi-purpose ship that looked somewhat out of place. This wide departure from standard ship design, much like the original military submarines, gave the Admiralty pause. After a short amount of consideration, they approved a single prototype, the purpose of which was to test the promise of the new vessel. Due to the hull’s overall structure, multiple sections of the vessel could be built in tandem, making full construction of a single vessel require only four months. As the prototype was only a “proof of concept” model, it was finished in ten weeks.

When the ship came out of Utopia Planitia, it was initially named the Skipjack, in honor of the submersible vessel class that had shared the name. Upon successful testing, Utopia Planitia Yards proceeded to finish construction so that the original prototype would also be the ship of the class. Upon its christening, the Admiralty Board decided to name it the USS Balao, in honor of the most successful - albeit not the most numerous - class of submarine built.

Similar to the multiple roles that submarines performed in the past, the Balao was given a large and varied mission profile.

• Peacetime patrols
• Escort duties
• Border security
• Fleet and station support
• Short-term diplomacy
• First contact missions
• Oceanography
• Stellar cartography
• General scientific research

Furthermore, the two scientific laboratories aboard the Balao can be customized to suit the needs of any mission at hand. As such, for any given mission, the ship can serve any two additional mission profiles on the following list. Please note, however, that due to the size and equipment constraints in these laboratories, the ship can only perform initial phases of advanced scientific study.

• Propulsion development and testing
• Quantum physics research
• Small-scale robotics development and implementation
• Weapons research
• Cybernetics development and testing
• Geologic surveys
• Specialized chemical research
• Specialized biological research

Structure And Construction

Although the ship is named for a vessel that was part of the United States Navy during the Second World War, the body style looks more like a combination between the Russian Akula class and the United States Ohio class submarines of the late twentieth century.

The vessel is a single hull, eleven decks in height. Its central body is a cylindrical shape, comprising of decks 4 through 11. The fore ends in half of a prolate ellipsoid with the same diameter as the main body. The bottom of the hull is rounded, while the top of the cylindrical shape just aft of the semi-sphere is flattened. There is a ring around the hull, which acts as the main deflector, just aft of the forward dome. The aft of the vessel is a prolate ellipsoid roughly one-third of the ship’s length. It has two horizontal planes attached. These planes are capable of moving in a seventy-degree axis up and down at all times, and the aft sections of them have the impulse engine outputs, one dorsal and one ventral each. These outputs have watertight covers that slide over the impulse engines during waterborne operations. The top three decks form a tower-like structure, although it has relatively less height, is more rounded, and has more length than most towers from actual submarines, as it is roughly a quarter of the length of the ship at its longest. It starts one-third back from the fore of the ship.

The ship’s nacelles are on the port and starboard sides of decks 6 to 8. In order to reduce the ship’s warp profile, they are semi-cylindrical bulges with a 7.5 meter radius that end in a semi-sphere at their fore and a flattened plane at the aft. The nacelles themselves are perpendicular to the main hull, with the bussard collectors placed on the semi-spherical part of the nacelle housing. They each extend outward 7.2 meters from the hull at their midline.

Hatches ring the exterior of decks 5 and 9 which are covers for the escape pods, all of which are not only air tight but also waterproof. There is also a docking hatch on deck 5. Retracting doors which cover the shuttle bay are on the top of deck 4, aft of the tower structure. Two coverings are on the fore of deck 7 equally spaced from the centerline. Both coverings slide open to allow the fore torpedo tubes to fire when needed. A similarly-sized covering at the aft of deck 5 slides open to allow the aft torpedo tube to fire when needed. A larger round covering is at the aft of deck 11, as well as a rectangular covering at the fore bottom of the ship. These coverings open when the ship activates its pump-jet system. There is an airlock on the fore of deck 5 which allows the vessel to dock with any station, provided said station has the capability to dock with a larger vessel. The air lock can also be used underwater, and is stocked with three Starfleet standard underwater diving suits. Finally, there is a hatch on the bottom aft of deck 9 that opens in the event that warp core ejection becomes necessary.

The ship is capable of atmospheric entry and exit. It can make ground landings via six pylons - three on the starboard side and three on the port side - that fold and retract in to spaces in deck 11. The pylons themselves are built of solid tritanium with two tritanium joints each, and have pointed ends that sink in to the ground for added stability. A ramp extends from fore of deck 10 to allow for external access.

Due to the ship’s body design, the Balao is also capable of landing upon and traveling across any body of water of more than 70 meters in depth, and can submerge itself in any body of water of at least 100 meters in depth. The maximum splashdown speed is 150 km/h. In order to leave the water from the surface, the hydrojet stops, the thrusters engage to both lift the ship out of the water and to push the water away from the vessel, the coverings on the impulse engine outputs retract, the impulse engines activate, and the ship proceeds with atmospheric travel as normal.

Instead of using ballast tanks, the fins at the aft of the ship assist the thrusters in the descent and ascent of the vessel. The ship is balanced so that its buoyancy is naturally neutral, i.e. it neither sinks nor floats unless the crew or another external force makes this occur. The draft when waterborne is 32 meters, the maximum safe diving depth is 2.8 kilometers, and the underwater crush depth is 3.4 kilometers, according to simulations. Because of these capabilities, all Jeffries tube hatches on the Balao are designed not only to be airtight, but also to be watertight. There are metal coverings that slide over all windows on the vessel. In the event of flooding of a deck, retracting pressure-resistant walls are evenly spaced on each deck, and slide out to prevent further flooding. These walls can also be activated as an alternative to containment shields in the event of a security emergency or a regular hull breach.

The ship’s superstructure is a tritanium alloy reinforced with duranium, while the internal structures are all duranium and other common materials. The external structure of the ship is tritanium plating armored with 3 cm of a high-density duranium composite material. The superstructure is put together with transporter welding, the ship’s interior is installed via manual labor, and the shell is attached using further transporter welding to make sure that it is sealed and shaped perfectly. Because the ship needs to work in space, atmospheric, and underwater conditions, the Balao has twice the amount of structural integrity field emitters as other ships its size.

Science And Remote Sensing Systems

The ship has a type VII sensor suite. The sensors can conduct high-resolution scans within a 3.11 light year radius, and low-resolution scans within an 11 light-year radius. Due to the nature of the vessel, the sensors are purposed to act as both a regular sensor suite and a SONAR system when waterborne. The main sensors are located in the forward dome of the vessel on decks 6 and 7.

The ship’s main computer is a series of 18 single-deck isolinear chip towers located on deck 3. There is also a separate computer control room on deck 3. Due to its accelerated construction time frame, the ship’s computer network is entirely isolinear. The towers and the computer room are separated by a corridor, and both areas are accessible through four doors total opposite one another in the corridor. There is a backup core in Main Engineering, from decks 7 to 9, which consists of three three-deck isolinear towers. The backup computer is only capable of operating mission-critical functions, such as propulsion, life support, and weaponry.

Warp Propulsion System

The Balao class is powered by a single Class 8 warp core feeding two nacelles. The warp core is in the aft of decks 7 through 9, and the nacelles are integrated in to the hull in the starboard and port housings on decks 6 through 8. The nacelles, due to their structural nature, are fixed-geometry. The ship has a cruising speed of warp 6.0, a maximum warp setting of warp 9.2, and a maximum speed that can be sustained for a twelve-hour period of warp 9.6. In emergency situations, the core can propel the ship to warp 9.8. There are two options for the ship during a core overload. If the ship is not submerged, the hatch at the bottom of deck 9 opens, the latches holding the core in place unlock, and a piston shoves the core out of the ship with a force of 6000 newtons. If the ship is submerged, or if core ejection is not a possibility, the crew evacuates the ship, as an overloaded core ejected into a body of water is a larger environmental risk than a starship self-annihilating in that same body of water.

Impulse Propulsion System

The impulse engines are fusion units on the port and starboard aft of decks 7 and 8. They each power an impulse unit at the aft of the port and starboard maneuvering planes which are inlaid in to the aft of the maneuvering planes. This allows the ship to maneuver with only the impulse engines, as they can move independently or in tandem. The engines are waterproofed as a backup for the metal coverings. Due to the size of the vessel, the ship can reach a maximum impulse speed of 0.30c, and is capable of accelerating to said speed in 34 seconds, and decelerating in 24 seconds. This fast deceleration is possible because of the additional thrusters present on the Balao to allow for atmospheric and waterborne arrival and departure.

Pump-Jet Propulsion System

Used when the Balao is on or under a body of water, the pump-jet propulsion system consists of a centrifugal pump mounted inside a shaft that runs two-thirds of the length of deck 11. This pump has six propellers on the turbine, and uses power from the fusion engines to operate. To eliminate the need for thrusters when steering, the aft of the shaft has two vertical directional plates that act as a rudder for the vessel. The pump-jet can propel the ship up to 50 knots on the surface, and provided that there is enough space to do so, they can propel the ship underwater at speeds of up to 65 knots without the ship suffering significant damage. The pump-jet also has a roll-out reversing bucket, which can put the ship in to reverse and propels the vessel at 21 knots maximum. The systems automatically take the Coanda effect in to account. The ship’s shape is partly the reason for the reduced surface speeds, as hydrostatic tension creates more drag on the ship when it is surfaced.

The acceleration time while surfaced is 32 seconds, and the deceleration time while surfaced is 16 seconds, once again due to the high number of thrusters on the ship, but also due to increased drag from hydrostatic tension. The acceleration time while submerged is 24 seconds, and the deceleration time while submerged is 20 seconds. The time to dive a distance of 100 meters is 12 seconds, and the time to rise 100 meters is 17 seconds. Depth has no bearing on the diving and rising times. Should the vessel need to travel at lower speeds, or the centrifugal engine fails, the shaft also has four regular propellers that are inset in to the aft side walls of the shaft. These act as axial pumps for the pump-jet. These propellers are locked in place with slide-out plates, and fold out in to the shaft as needed.

Tactical Systems

Shields

The Balao’s main deflector is formed in a ring that goes around the structure of the ship just aft of the forward hemisphere. This orientation is specifically because of the ship’s structure, as placing it as an inset of the forward dome caused extra stresses on the ship in waterborne simulations. While it means that the deflector cannot be used to create particle beams, it does allow the ship to alter the distance between the shields and the hull.

The Balao is also equipped with five type-8 shield arrays: one directly forward of the tower on the top of deck 4, one on each of the starboard and port sides of the shuttle bay doors on the exterior of deck 4, one on the underside of the vessel’s main cylindrical shape along the center line, and one that forms a ring around the midpoint between the fore and aft of the conical section. Together, the arrays form a uniform shield that can sustain a maximum graviton load of 1612 MW and has a maximum energy dissipation rate of 4.38 x 10^5 kW.

Phaser Systems

The Balao has three type X phaser arrays that form rings around the tower structure and each nacelle. The array around the tower has a horizontal firing arc of 360 degrees and a vertical firing arc of 90 degrees, while the arrays around the nacelle bulges have vertical firing arcs of 360 degrees and horizontal firing arcs of 90 degrees. Each type X array has 150 emitters, a maximum energy output of 5.1 MW, and a maximum effective range of 300000 km. The Balao is further armed with four type VIII phaser arrays on the aft starboard and port sides. Two are on each side of deck 9, and two are on each side of deck 6. Each type VIII array has 120 emitters, a maximum energy output of 2.6 MW, and a maximum effective range of 150000 km, horizontal firing arcs of 110 degrees, and vertical firing arcs of 180 degrees. In planet side operations, their maximum range is only 50 km.

When the Balao is waterborne, the array around the tower is active while the Balao is surfaced. Under normal circumstances, when the Balao is submerged, all arrays are inactive. This restriction is to limit the environmental impact of using energy-based weapons in aquatic ecosystems, although they can be activated during extreme cases.

Torpedo Systems

The Balao is equipped with three torpedo tubes total. There are two type 3 torpedo tubes located at the fore of deck 9. In space combat situations, they have a maximum range of 3.5 million km. In atmospheric conditions, their range is only 200 km. In waterborne situations, for practical reasons, their range is only 8 km. They can each fire two torpedoes every four seconds. If needed the fore torpedo tubes can alternate firing patterns, allowing the Balao to launch twelve torpedoes in as many seconds. There is also a type 3 torpedo tube located on deck 5 directly aft of the Shuttle Bay. It is not linked with the firing times of the other tubes. Due to the nature of the vessel, the torpedo tubes serve as the only offensive armament that the Balao has under normal conditions when submerged. As such, each tube has a hatch on the inner portion, and is capable of pressurization. The closing and sealing of a hatch adds one second to the firing of a torpedo. Should a hatch break, the covering plate on the fore of the tube slides back in to place, emergency shields activate, and auxiliary pumps evacuate any excess water from the tube interior. Should the protective hatches on both tubes fail, the phasers automatically activate if other protocols have deactivated the phaser systems. The Balao carries 70 photon torpedo casings, with 18 casings typically reserved as probes. The fore launchers’ storage bay holds 36 torpedoes and 12 empty casings, while the aft launcher’s storage bay holds 16 torpedoes and 6 empty casings.

Command And Support Systems

Bridge

Due to the structure of the vessel, the bridge aboard the Balao is rectangular in shape instead of circular. It is located on deck 4, directly below the tower structure. On the aft wall of the Bridge are two doors. The port side door connects to the turbolift system for the vessel, while the starboard side door allows access to the Conference Room aft of the Bridge. The aft wall in between these doors is for the master systems display, which is an interactive screen.

On the port side of the Bridge, there are three stations lining the wall. Each station has a chair which can swivel a full three hundred sixty degrees, and consists of a wall display combined with an interactive panel beneath. From fore to aft, the stations are the Ops station, the Security station, and the Engineering station. Ops keeps the individuals on the Bridge apprised of all shipboard processes, the Security station connects directly to the Chief of Security’s office and relays information from the Security department to the Bridge, and the Engineering station directly connects to Main Engineering and relays information to the Bridge.

On the starboard side of the Bridge, there are a further three stations with similar setups. From fore to aft, there is a Science station, a Tactical station, and a Communications station. The Science station connects to the labs, and also to the sensors. When the ship is submerged, the Science station provides assistance with underwater navigation. The Tactical station is directly connected to the weapons systems on the ship, and is used to control all weapons during combat situations, both in space and planet side.

In the middle of the Bridge, in a line, evenly spaced from the center of the Bridge, are two chairs. The aft chair is for the CO, and is on a raised dais about a foot above the rest of the floor, with two steps on the forward part of the dais. The CO can choose custom features, but typically, it can communicate with any of the stations on the Bridge. The fore chair has a console in front of it, which serves as the helm station. It allows for all navigation and steering both when in space and when waterborne.

The forward area has a standard view screen with a door on each side. The starboard door allows access to the ready room, while the port side allows access to hygienic facilities for individuals on Bridge duty.

Ready Room

The Ready Room is an area available for the Officer On Duty on the Bridge, and acts as a general-purpose office and private meeting area for the officer in command of the vessel for any given duty shift. The Commanding Officer typically has the final say of any given personal touches, including what to put in a display case on the fore wall. There is a window on the starboard side. The default arrangement of the room has a desk with a chair, a display screen, and a control panel. There are also two chairs placed on the opposite side of the desk, a couch on the port wall, a table with two chairs, and a replicator. Two storage closets are in the fore port and starboard corners, and are specifically designated for the Commanding Officer and Executive Officer of the ship. There is also a small day locker inset into the wall below the replicator, specifically for any Officer On Duty to use while said officer has the use off the Ready Room.

Conference Room

Located in the aft-most accessible area via deck 4, the Conference Room serves as a meeting area, both for ship’s officers and for visiting personnel in the presence of Starfleet personnel. It has eleven chairs, five to a side and one at the head, as well as an image-only holographic display. The display projects three-dimensional images, but these images are not solid. There are windows on either side of the room to allow views of space outside of the vessel.
Communications Room

Located on deck 2, the Communications Room is a central hub for all communications systems on the Balao. There are three workstations, as well as a display for all communications in the area, and aboard the vessel. The room also serves as a signals interception and cryptology area, allowing for the use of one time pad encoding and other forms of complex encryption, encryption decoding, and collection of communications from non-Federation sources. Due to the nature of this room, the Balao is capable of supporting a limited number of Intelligence personnel, if needed.

Security Facilities

Located on deck 9, this area contains both the Brig and the office for the Chief of Security. The Brig has three holding cells, each of which has two bunk-style beds, and is contained by a force field. The COS’s office consists of a desk with a chair, an interactive display screen, two chairs for visitors, and a replicator. The office also holds a weapons locker with two phaser rifles and two hand phasers which the Chief of Security can access via a combined code input and biometric scan.

Armory

Located on Deck 10, the Armory is a small weapons cache aboard the ship, should the vessel encounter a situation requiring person-to-person combat. It has six weapons lockers - two with a total of ten phaser rifles, two with a total of forty hand held phasers, one with two tetryon pulse rifles, and one with explosive charges. Only the CO, XO, and Department Heads can access these lockers.

Multi-Purpose Office

Located on deck 2, the Multi-Purpose Office serves as an office for the Department Head of any swing position that may be assigned for the mission, or as a permanent part of the ship’s crew. It has a desk with a chair, as well as two chairs for guests, and a wall display that can be configured to access relevant information. As this is the only office of its kind on board the Balao, the ship can only support one additional non-Intelligence Department Head or senior personnel position at any given time.

Main Engineering

Engineering is located at the aft of the vessel on decks 7 through 9, and is divided into three levels: A, B, and C, as well as access areas to the storage tanks for the warp core on decks 6 and 10. Except for access points, Engineering is separated from the rest of the ship by an additional layer of duranium three inches thick. It is based around the warp core and contains all the main power junctures aboard the vessel, as well as the three backup computer cores. The area is a rectangular prism in shape. Level A is accessible through stairwells from Level B, and consists entirely of scaffolding. There are diagnostics panels along the walls here, and allow quick re-routing of power to specific areas of the ship, as well as ship systems. Level B is the main area of Engineering, and contains more detailed control surfaces that provide information on all ship’s systems. Level C is accessible through ladders, and allows access to the lower warp core as well as diagnostics and manual control panels for all propulsion subsystems. The Chief Engineer’s office is located on Level B at the single entrance at the fore of Engineering, and contains a desk with a chair, as well as two chairs for visitors, a replicator, and two displays that can show ship information of the Chief Engineer’s choosing.

Science Labs

Located at the fore of deck 7, the science labs are two general laboratories with interchangeable equipment that can specialize the purpose in line with the ship’s specific mission. In the default configuration, each lab has three workstations: one that links directly in to the sensors, one that links in to the scientific data library, and a station that provides a theoretical simulator. The equipment can be swapped to modify the labs for Robotics, Cybernetics, Medical Research, Propulsion Theory, Weapons Research, Geology, General Biology, General Chemistry, or Quantum Mechanics. These changes can be made when the Balao is in space dock, and since it is changing equipment instead of entire ship sections, the changes take a few hours at most. Even if the laboratories are specialized, all of them can still access sensor data, as well as data from the Oceanography Lab and the Stellar Cartography database. The Chief Science Officer’s office is located in Science Lab 1. It has a desk with a chair, two chairs for guests, a scientific replicator, a regular replicator, and a wall display that relays information that the Chief Science Officer believes is relevant.

Oceanography Lab

Located aft of the two science labs on deck 7, the Oceanography Lab is one of two permanently specialized scientific laboratories on the vessel. The lab is designed to research the aspects of any large water body present on a planet that a Balao-class vessel encounters. It has five stations – one along the aft wall, and four arranged in a square in the main area. The station along the aft wall is a panel that can access and correlate data between the four stations in the center of the room. The two aft stations are biological research stations – one for flora, and one for fauna. The latter station typically also handles research in fungal and microscopic entities that may not necessarily be classified as cellular organisms. The fore starboard station is a geologic analysis station. The fore port station is a fluid analysis station. While the lab does not require physical samples to operate, the lab can handle physical data. Due to the potential for hazardous situations arising within this laboratory, either accidentally or on purpose, this lab is capable of full isolation. This entails closing off all physical access in or out of the lab, firewalling all computer access to protect the ship’s computer network, disabling communications with anybody not onboard the vessel, sealing the lab’s life support systems from the rest of the ship, and recycling the lab’s atmosphere for use solely within the lab.

Stellar Cartography

Located at the fore of deck 1, Stellar Cartography is the other permanently specialized scientific laboratory aboard the vessel. The ceiling is a planetarium, capable of displaying the night sky of any known planet at any known configuration, as well as the current sky, if the ship is planet-side. The walls, save for the hallway entrance at the aft, are map displays that can show star maps of any previously charted area of space, as well as any place that the Balao charts. In the center of the room are four control panels that allow for data entry and retrieval. This area cannot be turned into an Astrometrics lab due to the generalized nature of the Balao, as well as technological restrictions present during the vessel’s design phase.

Diplomatic Facilities

Located in the aft of deck 1, this is an open area that can serve multiple purposes, including an alternate dining hall, a small meeting area, or offices for visiting diplomats. The crew can place furniture and other devices in the room depending upon the function that the diplomatic personnel in question require. At maximum, it can contain 40 individuals comfortably. It is 300 square meters in size.

Utility Systems

Cargo Bay

There is a single cargo bay located on deck 10 forward of the Armory. It is a single-deck bay, 7500 cubic meters in size. It has a cargo transporter, but also has a retractable forward wall that allows the bay to be loaded via the ramp. Two turbolift access points, forward and aft of the bay, allow the crew to reach the cargo bay.

Transporters

There are two six-person transporter rooms, on each of decks 8 and 9. They have a maximum range of 40,000 km. There are also four emergency single-person uni-directional transporters on each deck in the event that the escape pods fail or certain crew members cannot reach them. The emergency transporters have a range of 15,000 km.

Tractor Beam

The Balao has two tractor beam emitters located on the exterior of deck 8. They have a maximum range of 20,000 km.

Crew Support Systems

CO’s Quarters

Located on deck 5, the CO’s quarters has three areas: a bedroom, a sitting area, and a kitchen/eating area. The entrance from the hallway opens to the sitting area and kitchen. The bedroom forms one third of the quarters, and has a king-sized bed, two bedside tables, a wall-mounted shelving unit, a closet space, and a personal bathroom with a tub, a sonic shower, and personal hygiene facilities. The tub has a self-contained water source with a filtration system. The bedroom door leads to the seating area. The sitting area and kitchen are an open combined space. The kitchen has a replicator, a stove, an oven, a sink with a self-contained water source and filtration system, two counter top positions, and cabinets underneath and above the counters for storage. There is also an open floor space in the kitchen for a table that can seat up to six people. The sitting area has room for a low-level table seating for roughly eight people if there is seating in the round. The CO can customize the furniture to his or her liking.

XO’s Quarters

Located on deck 5, the XO’s quarters also has three areas. It shares a similar layout as the CO’s quarters, but is only 80% the size. As such, the tub is holographic (meaning that there is no room needed for a water system), the sink is replaced with a sonic scrubber, there is only room for a table for four in the kitchen space, and there is only room for seating for four in the sitting area.

Senior Officer’s Quarters

Located on deck 5, the senior officer’s quarters have two areas: a bedroom and a sitting and eating area. The bedroom has a queen size bed, a bedside table, room for a chair, a closet, and a restroom with a sonic shower and hygienic facilities. The second area has a counter top attached to a wall to the side of the bedroom door, a replicator inset in the wall above the counter, a table and chairs for four, and regular seating for four centered around a shin-high table.

Junior Officer’s Quarters

Located on deck 6, the junior officer’s quarters are studio-style rooms with an extra-long twin bed, a closet, a table and chairs for two, a wall-mounted replicator, a desk and chair, and a restroom with a sonic shower and hygienic facilities.

Crew Quarters

Located on decks 7, 8, and 9, the crew quarters are studio-style rooms with two extra-long twin beds, a desk and chair at the end of each bed, and a restroom facility with a sonic shower and hygienic facilities.

Visitor’s Quarters

Located on deck 6, there are twelve visitor’s quarters. Eight are configured like junior officer’s quarters, while four are configured like senior officer’s quarters.

Senior Officers’ Lounge

Located on deck 5, the senior officer’s lounge serves as a place where the CO, the XO, department heads, and dignitaries aboard the vessel to relax and have their meals when they choose not to dine in their quarters. It has four tables, two with booths and two with chairs, as well as a serving bar and a holosuite. There is a kitchen area behind the wet bar, with a door on either side. The kitchen has an oven, a stove top, two replicators, two preparation counters, and a pantry. The area can be reconfigured as a dining hall or a reception area for visiting dignitaries, first contact situations, and the occasional wedding. There is a window in the port wall.

Crew Mess Hall

Located on deck 7, the mess hall is where junior officers, general crew members, and junior members of visiting delegations can eat. It has eight tables with four seats a piece, plus four booths on the port wall that can seat six. There are two replicators that are only programmed with drinks and dessert items inset into the fore wall and four replicators on the starboard wall that provide full meals. In the aft starboard corner is a small galley with a stove top, a cabinet for cookware, cooking utensils, plates, and eating utensils, and a replicator programmed to provide basic raw foodstuffs.

Crew Lounge

Located on deck 6, the crew lounge is a place for the junior officers and regular crew members to relax. There are four regular tables with four chairs each, a small performance area in one corner, a bar with a replicator in the other, and two tables that have holographic projectors that can re-create a multitude of table-top games, including chess, kal-toh, kadis-kot, and others. There is also an elongated holographic table that can imitate a pool table, a dom-jot table, or a ping pong table. One of the walls has a shelving unit for pool cues and ping pong paddles. There is a window on the starboard side.

Holosuites

In addition to the recreational facilities aboard, the Balao has four holosuites located on deck 8. They share a single program computer, and have all holographic simulations available in the Federation that only require a single-level simulator. Although the designers discussed the inclusion of holodecks, they eventually concluded that they would take up too much space and use too much power on a ship the size of Balao’s size.

Sickbay

Located on Deck 8, Sickbay has four bio-beds and one surgical bed arrayed in an arc. The surgical bed has a series of monitor panels that are readily visible for medical crew performing an operation, and can be sealed off from the rest of sickbay either with force fields or a slide-out transparent aluminum wall that wraps around the area. The bio-beds have wall-mounted status displays. The port-side wall also has a medical replicator. A quarter of the area is a windowed space with a door that serves as the Chief Medical Officer’s office, and has a lengthened desk complete with an expanded, self-contained medical library, a chair behind the desk, a couch along the windowed wall, and a replicator. The office door is capable of closing, and the windows are capable of tinting. Due to the vessel’s accelerated build time, an EMH is not present in Sickbay.

Auxiliary Spacecraft Systems

The shuttle bay is located in the aft of the vessel, on decks 4 and 5. The crew can access the shuttle bay through deck 5. The shuttle bay doors are retractable segments of the hull, split along the centerline, and allow craft to exit the vessel vertically. The shuttle bay can hold either two shuttles or one runabout. The shuttle bay does not have the capability to support or resupply fighter craft. Additionally, due to safety and ecological concerns, the shuttle bay doors do not open while the Balao is submerged.

Technical Specifications

Dimensions & Structure

Length

240.75 meters

Beam (Width)

61.5 meters

Height

52.8 meters

Decks

11

Crew Complement

Officers and Crew

135

Visiting Personnel

26

Maximum Evacuation Limit

800

Computer Systems

Core

Isolinear data towers x18

Backup core

Isolinear cores x3

Software

Starfleet Library Computer Access and Retrieval System (LCARS)

Warp Systems

Power Plant

One 1909+ Cochrane Class 8 M/ARA core feeding two nacelles

Cruising Velocity

Warp 6.0

Maximum Warp

Warp 9.2

Max. Sustainable Velocity (12 Hours)

Warp 9.6

Emergency Speed

Warp 9.8

Impulse Systems

Full Impulse

0.30c

Zero-0.30c

34 seconds

0.30c-Zero

24 seconds

Pump-Jet Systems

Max Speed (Surfaced)

50 knots

Zero-50 knots (Surfaced)

32 seconds

50 knots-Zero (Surfaced)

16 seconds

Max Speed (Submerged)

65 knots

Zero-65 knots (Submerged)

24 seconds

65 knots-Zero (Submerged)

20 seconds

Max Speed (Reverse)

21 knots

Dive time (100 meters)

12 seconds

Rise time (100 meters)

17 seconds

Defensive Systems

Shield Maximum Graviton Load (Continuous)

1612 MW

Shield Maximum Energy Dissipation Rate

4.38 x 10^5 kW

Offensive Systems

Torpedoes

Tubes

3x Type 3 Launcher

Standard Payload

70 Standard Photon Torpedo Casings

Phaser System

3 Type-X phaser arrays
4 Type VIII phaser arrays

Deck Layout

Deck 1

Diplomatic Facilities
Stellar Cartography

Deck 2

Multi-Purpose Office
Communications Room

Deck 3

Computer Room
Main Computer

Deck 4

Bridge
Conference Room
Ready Room
Shuttle Bay

Deck 5

Aft Torpedo Storage
Aft Torpedo Tube
CO’s Quarters
Senior Officers’ Lounge
Senior Officers’ Quarters
Shuttle Bay
XO’s Quarters

Deck 6

Junior Officers’ Quarters
Crew Lounge
Matter Fill Ports
Matter Fuel Injectors
Matter Storage Tanks
Sensor Array
Visitors’ Quarters
Warp Nacelles

Deck 7

Crew Mess Hall
Crew Quarters
CSO’s Office
Impulse Engines
Main Engineering, Level A
Science Lab 1
Science Lab 2
Oceanography Lab
Sensor Array
Warp Core
Warp Nacelles

Deck 8

CE’s Office
Crew Quarters
CMO’s Office
Holosuite 1
Holosuite 2
Holosuite 3
Holosuite 4
Impulse Engines
Main Engineering, Level B
Sickbay
Tractor Beam Emitters
Transporter Room 1
Warp Core
Warp Nacelles

Deck 9

Brig
COS’s Office
Crew Quarters
Main Engineering, Level C
Fore Torpedo Storage
Fore Torpedo Tubes
Transporter Room 2
Warp Core

Deck 10

Anti-Matter Fill Pumps
Anti-Matter Fuel Injectors
Anti-Matter Storage Tanks
Armory
Cargo Bay
Ramp

Deck 11

Landing Strut Storage
Pump-Jet Systems

Ships Of Class

The Balao shares ship names with submarines built and used during Earth’s Second World War, many of which were Balao class submarines, but some of which were Gato class submarines.

USS Balao, NCC-75285 (Class Ship)
USS Wahoo, NCC-75287
USS Blackfin, NCC-75289
USS Dorado, NCC-75291
USS Hammerhead, NCC-75293
USS Growler, NCC-75295
USS Cavalla, NCC-75297
USS Razorback, NCC-75299
USS Manta, NCC-75301
USS Moray, NCC-75303
USS Trigger, NCC-75305
USS Bowfin, NCC-75307

The Balao class can be constructed quickly, and so many have been put in to service around the fleet, including the following:

USS Macabi, NCC-75286 (NPC)
USS Bugara, NCC-75288 (NPC)
USS Silversides, NCC-75290 (NPC)
USS Caiman, NCC-75292 (NPC)
USS Flasher, NCC-75294 (NPC)
USS Cubera, NCC-75296 (NPC)
USS Barbero, NCC-75298 (NPC)
USS Archer-Fish, NCC-75300 (NPC)
USS Tang, NCC-75302 (NPC)
USS Piranha, NCC-75304 (NPC)
USS Finback, NCC-75306 (NPC)

Conclusion

The Balao is designed to fill multiple small-ship roles, making it a very versatile design. In spite of–or perhaps because of–its unique hull variant, the Balao can be an effective part of the fleet.