USS Constellation (NCC-1017)

The USS Constellation (NCC-1017) was a Constitution class starship, with a crew of 430, under the command of Commodore Matthew Decker.

On stardate 4202.1, while on routine deep space exploration, the Constellation encountered several destroyed solar systems, including system L-370 thru L-374.

Upon entering the L-374 system, the ship's science officer, Masada, discovered that L-374 IV was breaking up. Upon closer inspection, an enormous machine was found hovering over it, slicing out chunks of the planet with an antiproton beam.

The Constellation went in to further investigate but encountered exceptionally heavy subspace interference preventing their contacting Starfleet to inform them of their findings.

While attempting to intervene, the Constellation was attacked by the machine which crashed through the Constellation’s deflectors, knocking out the ship's generators. An attempt was made to contact Starfleet and a distress call was sent out, however their calls were initially unheard.

The Constellation hid in the inner system, defenseless, powerless and nearly dead in space. Worst of all, the ship's life support system was failing. Decker ordered his crew to abandon ship and he opted to beam his crew down to the third planet for refuge, while he stayed behind to operate the transporters.

The machine hit the Constellation again and knocked out the transporters, stranding Decker on the ship and his crew of 430 on the planet's surface. The robot later devoured L-374 III before assistance could arrive, killing Decker's entire crew. The guilt he felt from those deaths later drove him to the brink of madness.

A short time later, on stardate 4202.9, the USS Enterprise picked up the distress call while passing through that sector. The call was so faint, they could only make out the word "Constellation."

The Enterprise soon located the Constellation, adrift, and determined it to be wrecked by the same disaster that destroyed the systems within the sector. The damage analysis on the Constellation found a display of abnormal energy output: all power plants were dead, reserve energy banks were at a very low power level, and the life support systems were barely operative.

The entire bridge was damaged and uninhabitable, however the rest of the ship was able to sustain life. Radiation levels were normal; atmospheric pressure was at 11 pounds per square inch. The ship's computer system was still intact, but its filtration systems were out, and the Constellation's communication systems were shorted out as well.

The warp drive was "a hopeless pile of junk", and the impulse engines were not "too badly off" despite having their control circuits fused solid. The ship's phaser banks were exhausted, yet able to be recharged.

Once the Enterprise's landing party beamed aboard the Constellation, they found the entire ship a mess. The landing party split up: Scotty's team went to the engineering section, while Kirk and McCoy tried to find Decker or his crew.

However, there were no bodies or survivors present. It was assumed that the crew wasn't abducted, but had simply left. Kirk called Spock on the Enterrpise and asked if the crew may have beamed to one of the two planets they found intact when they entered L-374.

Spock commented that the two planets were unihabitable to human life; one had a surface of molten lead, and the other had a poisonous atmosphere. From this, they concluded that the entire crew was on one of the now destroyed Class-M planets.

Eventually, the landing party found Decker in Auxiliary Control, passed out. Kirk tried to get everything possible from Decker, but the man needed treatment onboard the Enterprise.

The landing party finally acquired the Captain's Log and played the tape, discovering the true fate of the destroyed solar systems. The Enterprise was prepared to take the Constellation in tow, so Decker and McCoy beamed aboard the Enterprise while Kirk and his party remained.

The machine once again returned to L-374 and attacked the Enterprise. Upon some hasty repairs, the Constellation was operable enough to have a single phaser bank recharged, shield power was temporarily restored, and 1/3 impulse power was available.

However, nothing could be done after the machine had attacked. After the Enterprise had made a number of unsuccessful attempts to stop the device, it was determined that the only way to destroy it was by exploding the Constellation inside the machine since now the Constellation had little to be gained with it's commanding officer and entire crew dead.

At first, Kirk thought of activating the ship's destruct system, but, there was not enough power for the destruct system to be put into action. Kirk ordered Scotty to overload the Constellation's impulse engines from Auxiliary Control.

While Scott beamed back aboard the Enterprise and no one was left aboard the Constellation, Kirk activated the machine. After further rigging the hulk, the impulse engines were overloaded in the maw of the device creating a 97.835 megaton fusion explosion that destroyed the Constellation and rendered the Planet Killer inert.(TOS: "The Doomsday Machine")

Adapted from