STAR FLEET UNIVERSE HISTORY served decades beyond the date they should have retired; the ROMULAN SNIPE Romulans could not afford any reduction in fleet size. The ships were converted to use tactical warp power, transporters, and trac- DECK PLANS tor beams after the Klingons provided these technologies under by Nick Blank the Treaty of Smarba. The ships carried cloaking devices (in- cluding the earlier masking and veiling devices) from their earli- The Romulan “Snipe” is a frigate-class ship, a holdover from est design dates. Many Snipes were converted to secondary roles earlier days of non-tactical warp power. Solidly built, the Snipes such as scouts, escorts, cargo ships, and police ships. CAPTAIN’S LOG #36 Page 29 HISTORY STAR FLEET UNIVERSE Bridge Deck The forward end of the deck contains the ship‘s scanner array, used for targeting the weapons. The cloaking device and control systems are here in a secure room forward of the bridge. The bridge contains a standard control column for command personnel, as well as several other stations for bridge crew, as well as a holographic main viewing screen. The aft end of the deck contains a briefing/situation room, as well as dedicated life support equipment for the bridge deck. Access points include a ladder adjacent to the cloaking device room, as well as the stan- dard turbo elevator, and stairwell. crew mess hall, kitchen/food replicators, and the security office and brig. Attached to the mess hall is the aft airlock/docking port. Upper Deck The mess also has a cargo elevator that lowers past the shuttlebay The outer portions of this deck are lower than the standard to the cargo holds. This elevator is only used on this deck when deck height, and contain various equipment described below the ship is docked for loading cargo (tables and chairs are stowed rather than living space. out of the way). This allows the mess hall to be used as a tempo- The diamond-shaped elements are the ship’s energy damp- rary staging area for personnel or cargo moving onto or off of the ers for the armor systems. These many elements are connected ship. to the actual hull plating of the ship by various super-conducting Access to the deck is by turbo elevator, and stairwell, as energy conduits. Any energy striking the hull (after penetrating well as the aft docking port. Ladders up and down are at the front shields) is drawn away and dissipated into this system, dealing of the deck. There is a pass-through for shuttle launch but it does only minimal damage to the hull plating itself. This dissipation not connect to this deck. fuses the crystal structure of the energy dampers, requiring them to be replaced by a repair facility. Once the dampers are all fused Mid Deck (taking a surprisingly short amount of time given the powerful This is the ship’s main deck. Forward is the large type-G phaser weapons of the current era) the hull plating is subject to plasma torpedo launcher, and the torpedo control room. Most the full brunt of enemy weapons. As such, this system is not as control spaces feature the standard control column, often with useful as the ship’s deflector shields, but is retained from the era seating. Along either side of the plasma torpedo launch tube are when so-called armor was the only protection for starships. It the ship’s navigational deflectors and main sensor dishes. Along- does give the ship an added layer of protection when the shields side the plasma generators are the ship’s forward docking ports are breached, but being hard to repair, is not used in modern with airlocks. The rest of the front half of this deck are the crew designs. quarters, consisting of ten rooms of ten bunks each. Shared The atmospheric gas storage tanks are here as well, along shower facilities are in the center of the deck, alongside the el- with the life support equipment. The front of the deck houses the evator shaft. main phasers, with an access crawlway. Between the wings on the starboard side are sickbay and The center portion of the deck is of normal deck height, and the medical office. (Medical lab space is minimal.) On the port contains the phaser control room along with the officers’ quarters side sit the auxiliary control room and the crew gymnasium. Aft in the front half. The large center cabins are for the ship’s com- of auxiliary control is the shuttlebay complex. There is one shuttle mander and first officer. The rear half of the deck contains the craft (no spare), with room for a second to land temporarily when Page 30 CAPTAIN’S LOG #36 STAR FLEET UNIVERSE HISTORY necessary. Only one shuttle can be maintained on board for any energy conversion systems. The battery systems are larger than length of time. There is a shuttle control room, and the airlock normal for a ship this size, providing emergency power for fast provides access to the cargo elevator leading to the upper dock- torpedo loading, or cloaking as necessary. ing port and lower cargo bays. The access points for the wings and engine nacelles are on Port of the shuttlebay are the crew recreation and library this deck. The wings contain the ship‘s fuel pods (deuterium room and the ship’s computer core. Starboard of the shuttlebay slush), as well as maneuvering and landing thruster assemblies. sit the engineering machine shops and maintenance shops. Aft Several turbo elevators, the main stairwell, and forward lad- of the shuttlebay sits the engine room. The dilithium crystal hous- ders provide various access points to other decks, and the two ing is here, along with impulse drive, and the ship’s batteries and forward docking ports allow access to bases and other ships. CAPTAIN’S LOG #36 Page 31 HISTORY STAR FLEET UNIVERSE Lower Deck Like the upper deck, much of the lower deck has a ceiling height too low for normal use, and this space is filled with more energy dampers for the ship’s ar- mor plating, as well as the ship’s fresh wa- ter tanks and water recycling equipment. There are three landing legs used for planetfall. These are each equipped with an airlock and boarding ramp. The center of the deck contains the ship’s fabricators and limited replicator systems, materials recycling, and laundry equipment. Forward is the probe launcher. There is a tractor beam emitter in one aft cargo bay. The rest of this deck is composed of cargo holds. When transporter technology was obtained from the Klingons, a cargo transporter was installed in one aft cargo bay, while another small forward cargo locker was converted to a standard six- person transporter. This transporter is not in an ideal location, but the larger cargo areas could not be spared (cargo space being extremely precious on a warship this small), and the Romulans did the best they could with technology the ship was never designed to carry. The cargo eleva- tor in the aft cargo bay leads up to the shuttlebay and upper docking port. Access to this deck is by turbo eleva- tor, stairwell, and one ladder adjacent to the probe launcher. The boarding ramps are used when on a planet surface, and the transporter became a common means of entering or leaving the ship after it was installed. Page 32 CAPTAIN’S LOG #36.