USS Cantabrian (NCC-24705)

The USS Cantabrian (NCC-24705) was an Excelsior-class starship. From 2369 until 2373, her commanding officer was Captain Noel Turner.

Previous Earth navy ships
The name USS Cantabrian was derived from:
 * Royal New Zealand Navy Leander-class HMNZS Canterbury (F-421) (Commissioned 21 October 1971)
 * HMNZS Canterbury (L-421) (Commissioned 12 June 2007)

Both ships served the New Zealand navy for many years in peacekeeping roles.

Between 2314 and 2368
The USS Cantabrian replaced the USS Cantabrian (NCC-607). Commissioned on 6 February, 2314, the first commanding officer of this Cantabrian was Captain Thekla Lawless.

In 2315, the Cantabrian crew made first contact with the Kaartali, who were so impressed with Lawless that, on several occasions, they specifically requested the Cantabrian in their dealings with the Federation.

Captain Lawless retired in 2330, leaving the Cantabrian after 16 years.

Captain Jack Annand took over from Lawless in the same year, claiming he had "big shoes to fill". He successfully commanded the Cantabrian until he mysteriously disappeared in 2341.

Acting-captain Miriana Kahu briefly commanded the Cantabrian until a permanent replacement could be found; she acted as caretaker of the ship during 2341, until replacement Captain Tomomi Tanaka was given command of the Cantabrian at the beginning of 2342.

Captain Josiah Mwangi took over from Tanaka in 2347 and served as the Cantabrians commanding officer until 2361, when Captain Kenzal, the Cantabrians only non-human commanding officer, guided the Cantabrian as CO until 2368.

2369-2372
In 2369, Captain Noel Turner took command of the USS Cantabrian, with Lieutenant Ulitania Jonar acting as Chief of security and Leslie Hernandez as Counselor; Turner was the Cantabrian ' s seventh commanding officer. Sometime shortly thereafter, in a tense stand-off with the Wthaure, a subspace weapon detonated, severely damaging both the Wthaure battle cruiser and the Cantabrian.

Starfleet Command decided to refit the Cantabrian. Based at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, the Starfleet Corps of Engineers added several experimental technologies, including launch bays for two scout ships and the HOLIE holographic system, and, in 2372, the Cantabrian was relaunched with Captain Turner at the helm.


 * In an alternate timeline visited by Elizabeth Singh in 2373, the Cantabrian and Wthaure battle cruiser never met and no subspace explosion took place. For some reason, the USS was damaged, and the Cantabrian took its place investigating the Badlands for the Maquis.  In this reality, the Cantabrian disappeared in the Badlands.  This was supposedly engineered by Scott Fack and the M'Tar. 

2372
Nearly two-fifths of the Cantabrian crew were presumed killed when the Myhr'an destroyed Starbase Expanse 4, where the crew members were awaiting transfer. An additional 45 were killed (3 on the SE3, 42 aboard the ship) in a fight with three Myhr'an battle cruisers near Starbase Expanse 3.

The Cantabrian worked with several other Starfleet vessels in confronting the Myhr'an planet killer and other Myhr'an vessels, damaging the ship and placing the isolation bays out of service. The HOLIE system was rendered inoperative during this battle as well and later removed.

Critical repairs were undertaken at Starbase Expanse 7, although less critical repairs were left due to the Cantabrian needing to investigate reports of survivors being held at a Myhr'an internment camp in the Rhinessa system. A battle with three Myhr'an battle cruisers there left the Cantabrian with minor damage.

Through the Cantabrian, Federation scientists discovered standard shields offered little protection against Treaty Killer and Renai'i transporter beams, as both races seemed to have the ability to transport through them.

In a showdown with the Myhr'an super battle cruiser, the Cantabrian took on moderate damage. Eventually triumphant against the Myhr'an, the ship limped to Deep Space 4 for extensive repairs.

2373
Months into 2373, the Cantabrian was space-worthy again, with an updated bridge amongst other modifications. Its first mission was to investigate reports of a mysterious dark starship, the latest victim being a runabout Elizabeth Singh was on.

While tracking Samantha Delaney and her Dark Starship, the Cantabrian discovered the crashed saucer section of the USS Cartwright (NCC-42953), assumed lost in 2360 during the Federation-Tzenkethi War.

Throughout most of 2373, the Cantabrian played a cat-and-mouse game with the Dark Starship. While the Cantabrian was, in most cases, unable to cause significant damage to the Dark Starship due to temporal flux, she was successful in sustaining light to moderate damage and escape the Dark Starship ' s temporal weapon.

Later in the year, Starfleet Command assigned the Cantabrian to pick-up the Kaartali delegation from their home planet. With Captain Noel Turner, second officer Antonio Ramirez and flight controller Tawana Jonar missing, the Cantabrian conducted various sweeps to try to find the lost shuttlecraft. Right before the Cantabrian left to return on the course to Earth, the shuttlecraft was discovered.

Near the end of the year, the Cantabrian led a small Starfleet fleet against Delaney's Dark Starship, pushing towards Earth. In a bold move, Turner ordered the Cantabrian to stop Delaney at any cost, and the ship was severely damaged in the process. The crew abandoned the stardrive section, detaching the saucer section to escape. The Cantabrian's stardrive section suffered a warp core breach, destroying it.

Bridge
The Cantabrian ' s bridge worked along the same circular design as other bridges. All stations faced forward towards a main viewscreen.

In the bridge's middle stood the "Captain's Circle", with the captain's chair on the circle's aft perimeter. The circle's forward perimeter, a step down from the captain's chair, held the flight controller and operations manager stations. A further step down from these stations led to an emergency turbolift on the port side, a Jefferies tube access point immediately left of the viewscreen, access to the Captain's ready room on the starboard side with turbolift access in the same alcove.

The executive officer's station followed the "Captain's Circle's" starboard perimeter. Directly behind the captain's chair, the tactical station, manned by the security chief, was separated from the starboard and port stations by steps upwards from the circle. On the circle's port perimeter, and mirroring the executive officer's station, were two stations: the chief linguistics officer's station and the counselor's station.

On the bridge's outer wall, three separate banks of stations coincide with the three main station areas on the "Captain's Circle". Behind the executive officer's station stood three science stations. Separated by corridor access to the observation lounge and other areas, the area behind tactical held three engineering stations, including a main engineering station in the middle, and a master systems display on the wall. With turbolift access sandwiched between the engineering stations and the port banks, the port banks housed another three stations, including medical and environmental controls.

Jefferies tubes could also be accessed through the deck behind the tactical station.

HOLIE

 * See the HOLIE article for further information.

Captain's ready room
Located starboard to the bridge, the Captain's ready room allowed the Cantabrian ' s commanding officer a personal work area close to the bridge.

Walking through the entrance from the bridge, to the left stood the forward wall with two viewports. A wall met the forward wall at a forty-five degree angle, with a picture of Christchurch, New Zealand on the wall and a small pedestal with a model of the USS Christchurch (NCC-18005) beneath the painting. Facing the starboard wall, at a ninety degree angle from the forward wall, housed the captain's desk, with a monitor perched on its top. Two seats faced the desk.

Further down the starboard wall, two more viewports looked out into space. Three stairs led up to a corridor leading to a private area, including a small bedroom, replicator and private washroom. A small balcony branched off from the corridor, and on the wall separating the upper level of the ready room from the rest of its facilities, shelves were bracketed to the wall. Under Noel Turner's command, these shelves had personal belongings, including various works by Shakespeare, Dickens and other classical English authors. He also had a tartan displayed from his ancestors' clan,, as well as his family. Several gifts and artefacts from Earth and other planets sat on these shelves as well. Pictures were dotted in frames between the books and artefacts; these included pictures of Turner, his former partner and Ulitania Jonar on vacation, the command crew of the Christchurch, and various other memories.

A discussion area was sandwiched on the lower level between the balcony and entrance from the bridge, with two couches in an L-shape and a coffee table.

Observation lounge
The Cantabrian ' s observation lounge was similar to those aboard other starships of the 24th century. A large conference table, surrounded by eight to ten chairs, matched the curve of both the forward and aft walls. The aft wall contained viewports, looking out into space. The forward wall housed a large viewscreen and monitor unit, with models of the Pickering-class and Constitution-class versions of the Cantabrian (NCC-607) on the port side and the Excelsior-class version on the starboard side.

Smaller monitor units were also placed on the port and starboard walls, more towards the viewports. Next to these monitors were small separators and doors leading out: the port leading to a turbolift, the starboard to a hallway to the bridge.

Two replicator units were also available, located on the far port and starboard sides of the forward wall.

Senior officers, families and diplomats
Crew quarters on the Cantabrian came in various shapes and sizes, dependent on location in the ship.

Captain Turner's quarters were spacious and faced looking forward out over the ship's hull, consisting of a main living area with office, desk and replicator, a bedroom with attached bathroom and wardrobe facilities, and a secondary bedroom with separate bathroom and wardrobe facilities. Turner later turned the second bedroom into a hobby room.

Walking into first officer Elizabeth Singh's quarters, one found a moderate living room with desk, couches and replicator: a viewport looked out over the hull and into space. To the right and accessible from both the corridor and the living room, the bedroom had adjoining bathroom and wardrobe facilities.

The commanding and first officers quarters were both located on deck two. Diplomatic quarters were also available on deck 2, due to the rooms' spacious size and viewports.

Other officers', families' and diplomats' quarters were located on decks three, four, five, seven and eight.

Known Cantabrian crewmembers' quarters include:
 * Commanding officer's quarters: 02-3601
 * First officer's quarters: 02-2701
 * Chief medical officer's quarters: 07-0901
 * Second officer's quarters: 07-2701
 * Counselor's quarters: 07-3504
 * Chief engineer's quarters: 08-1836

Junior officers' quarters
Junior officer quarters were usually smaller than their senior officer counterparts and usually lacked portholes.

Med-tech Nelson's quarters were internal, with an entrance from the corridor into the small main living area, with a couch, replicator and small eating area. Through a doorway on the left, the bedroom held a bed and access to the bathroom, which was behind the main living area.

Junior officer quarters were located on decks three, four, five, seven, eight and on various decks in the stardrive section. Like on other starships of her size, junior officers and crewmen holding the rank of ensign or below were required to share quarters.

Sickbay
Sickbay on the Cantabrian was located on Deck 4. The main Sickbay housed one emergency surgical biobed with a dedicated forcefield generator in its own rounded alcove. Two secondary surgical biobeds stood between the main surgical bed and the Chief Medical Officer's office, in a line down the room's middle. All three surgical biobeds housed dedicated sensor clusters above each unit.

On the opposite wall from the entrance, three biobeds, separated by support beams, allowed for patients in moderate to intensive care to be monitored by main medical staff.

Secondary sickbays were located on the same deck and had a similar configuration. Each sickbay was equipped with an Emergency Medical Holographic program.

CMO's office
The chief medical officer had her own office adjacent to the main sickbay. A desk with seating for the CMO and patients or visitors are available. This office also had windows facing out into sickbay and med-lab, allowing the CMO or duty doctor to monitor patients from the office. A large monitor, with various information streaming in different areas, allowed staff to perform several tasks at once.

The office's close proximity to sickbay allows the CMO to quickly attend to patients in distress or other situations requiring her immediate attention in sickbay.

Med-lab
A medical laboratory was located on the opposite side of the CMO's office. This small laboratory allowed medical staff to perform tests or experiments during their duty shift without leaving the proximity of sickbay. Marie Bourget called this laboratory "Med-Lab".

Medical laboratories
Several other medical laboratories were located on deck 4 with other medical facilities. Like their science counterparts, medical laboratories aboard the Cantabrian were sometimes grouped in fours, with two labs either side of an open, lounge-like area in the middle. Personnel gained access to each lab via an airlock-type system, and other personnel could monitor the progress of the lab workers through a window facing into the lounge-like common area.

In an emergency, emergency section doors could be lowered into place, isolating the laboratories from the rest of the ship. Corridors run parallel to both emergency section doors.

Counselor's office
The counselor's office was located on Deck 6, room 2781. The room had a replicator, a desk with a monitor and two couches.

Isolation bays
Isolation bays could be used where infected personnel or others need to be quarantined from the general ship's company. Aboard the Cantabrian, the isolation bays were located on Deck 4, near the saucer section's edge.

In 2372, an infected Noel Turner could not be beamed to the isolation bays due to their severe damage in an earlier battle with the Myhr'an. (: "Catalyst, Part One", "Isolation")

Morgues
The morgues aboard the Cantabrian were narrow rooms with several stasis drawers to house bodies on one long wall. Access could be gained to one morgue via a corridor from sickbay (via the wall opposite to the stasis drawers) or via the main corridor. A small desk with monitor was located between the accessways to the corridor and the medical facilities.

Med tech Nelson was assigned to this morgue before his death in 2372. Drawer number 7 housed the Myhr'an body. (: "Catalyst, Part One")

Science laboratories
Science laboratories ranged in location, size and distribution aboard the Cantabrian. The lab cluster both Helena Bourget and Dakota Caldwell used aboard the ship had four separate laboratories, each with their own airlock and air systems. They were arranged in two laboratories on either side of a wide corridor/common area, a main console table in the middle. Two smaller corridors, linked up to the rest of the ship, ran perpendicular to the wide corridor on either side of the labs.

The labs are equipped with forcefields, programable up to level 10.

Main engineering
Main engineering was located on decks 22 and 23 in rooms 5550 on each deck. Similar to the design of an Intrepid-class starship's engineering, the Cantabrian ' s main engineering included work stations on each side of engineering, with secondary consoles facing inwards on deck 23. Walking towards the warp core, the chief engineer's office sat on the starboard side with a secondary office mirroring it on the port side.

Once at the core, a walk-around deck surrounded the core with plasma conduits leading aftwards under the decking. Further corridor access was located above the plasma conduit.

Deck 22 had several auxiliary workstations. (: "Catalyst, Part One", et al)

Engineering lounge
Forward of main engineering, the engineering lounge, located on deck 23, room 5100, housed several couches and a replicator. Instead of four walls, the lounge had six walls; where the fourth wall should be located, an alcove-like area, comprised of three equally-sized walls. Each of these walls had a monitor embedded in them. (: "Catalyst, Part One")

Transporter rooms
The main transporter rooms in use aboard the Cantabrian were Transporter Rooms 3 and 4, located on deck six in rooms 3658 and 3659 respectively. Like most transporter rooms, the Cantabrian ' s transporter rooms consisted of a control station for the transporter operator on a raised platform, facing the transporter pad. A separate area with banks of computers and work area for the transporter operator was accessible through a corridor on the room's far side.

The Cantabrian had 18 transporter rooms throughout the ship, not including cargo transporters.

Shuttlebays and other egress points
The Cantabrian had three shuttlebays: two in the saucer section and one in the aft-most part of the secondary hull. The shuttlebays carried 10 type-18, 3 type-9, 3 type-8 and 2 type-7 shuttlecraft. In addition to the shuttlecraft, three Danube-class runabouts made up part of the inventory.

On the dorsal side of the saucer section, the Cantabrian had experimental launch bays for two Titania-class scout ships. These launch bays had resealable launch doors and a large arm-like apparatus hooking into the Titania-class ship's dorsal hull. These rooms were approximately two decks high, plus additional room above for the large launch arms. (: "Catalyst, Part One", et al)

Personnel egress points existed at several points on the saucer section and secondary hull. Some points include port and aft deck two and port and aft deck 22.

Some cargo bays allowed egress from the Cantabrian as well. Cargo bays were located throughout the ship.

Captain's private arboretum

 * See Captain's Private Arboretum.

Holodecks and Holosuites
Holodecks were located on decks 8 and 10. The Cantabrian had four holodecks in total with a wide variety of programs available for crew use.

Twelve holosuites were also available for crew use, located on decks 24 and 26.

Crew

 * List of USS Cantabrian (NCC-24705) personnel

External link

 * Star Trek: The Cantabrian Expeditions website