USS Banff (NCC-74752)

The USS Banff (NCC-74752) was a Yellowstone-class runabout assigned to the Federation starship Prometheus in the late 24th century, in lieu of a captain's yacht and to replace their destroyed type-11 shuttlecraft, the Deucalion. (Star Trek: Prometheus)

History

Class history

The Yellowstone-class runabouts, an upgraded version of the Danube-class runabout, were named after well-known Earth parks. The Yellowstone class was equipped with tetryon plasma warp nacelles and designed for a variety of mission profiles. The prototype vessel of this class was the USS Yellowstone (NX-74751), which was designed by the Starfleet Engineering Corps and constructed in 2371. Originally the Yellowstone class had a key design flaw: a dilithium fracture problem. Several weeks were spent resolving the problem, which was "cured" with new plasma flow equations.

Starship history

Like all Yellowstone-class runabouts, the Banff was an upgraded version of the Danube class. On an individual level the USS Banff was visually identical to a Danube-class runabout with a sensor pod attached.

Ideally, the Banff could be piloted by two crewmembers, although one would suffice. The pilots' consoles faced forward upon two large portholes. The cockpit had stations for up to four crewmembers. The two large portholes were equipped with retractable blast shutters. Small square viewscreens mounted within the forward corners of the cabin were used for video communication and ship status displays.

The rear of the USS Banff was configured as a crew cabin complete with sleeping and dining areas, a small head with sonic shower, and a small aft cargo hold. Located between the two wing pylons, the replaceable modules of the USS Banff were an infirmary module and science lab module.

The USS Banff was equipped with two manual escape hatches, located near the front port and starboard sides of the vehicle. A small Jefferies tube was also present, immediately underneath the warp core that ran along the spine of the vessel.

By late 2379, due to modifications to the warp drive and navigational deflector by the Prometheus' Lieutenant Commander Durgan Morlon and Ensign D4 Green, the Banff was the among the fastest, if not the fastest, Yellowstone-class runabout in Starfleet. The transporter on the Banff underwent the same modifications as the transporters on the Prometheus, at the same time as the warp drive upgrade, reducing the transporter cycle on the Banff to four seconds (from five seconds). Like all Starfleet transporters, the Banff had the same limitations regarding shielding, transport inhibitors, and naturally occurring transport inhibiting minerals/formations/events.