Heres a little throwback Thursday! One of the most important starships in interstellar history, Enterprise (NX-01) was the culmination of the NX Project. The NX-01 was the first NX-class starship, launched by the United Earth Starfleet in 2151. Enterprise established United Earth as a legitimate interstellar power and caused a wholesale revolution in Alpha and Beta Quadrant politics, paving the way for the creation of the Coalition of Planets in 2155, and eventually the United Federation of Planets in 2161. For Humanity to make space exploration missions possible within a single natural lifetime, Humans had to make themselves capable of traveling faster than warp 1, the speed of light. After Zefram Cochrane made a successful warp test flight in the Phoenix in 2063, the propulsion system he created was further developed. In 2119, several engineers, such as Henry Archer and Cochrane himself, began the work that paved the way directly to Enterprise, at the Warp Five Complex in Bozeman, Montana. Over the next thirty-two years, warp engine development continued until Humanitys first warp 5 engine was created. This engine was capable of speeds that finally made interstellar travel in more survivable periods possible – that is, in days, weeks or months, instead of years. As a result, humanity was able to construct its first warp 5 capable starship, Enterprise, completed in 2151. Aside from its engine, Enterprise was also the first Earth vessel to be equipped with a transporter rated for transporting biological organisms. However, the machine malfunctioned a number of times before the initial bugs were worked out. The preferred method of travel was still the shuttlepod, unless all other options were exhausted. After trips in the pod, it was standard procedure for returning crew and passengers to utilize the decontamination chamber. The ship was not as advanced in all areas, however; unlike the Vulcan ships of its day, it did not possess tractor beams, merely magnetic grapplers. Enterprise had a standard crew complement of 83 Humans, with the addition of a Vulcan and a Denobulan; approximately a third of the crew was female. Prior to its launch, Captain Gardner was considered for command of Enterprise, regarded as the most suitable choice by Ambassador Soval. Admiral Maxwell Forrest ultimately narrowed down the candidates for the captaincy to Jonathan Archer and A.G. Robinson instead, though, pointing out that the Vulcan High Command was not in charge of Starfleets personnel assignments. In 2150, Forrest finally selected Archer. The historical significance of Enterprise was related in a drawing of the ship that hung in Archers ready room; the image was part of a series of paintings, depicting the historical lineage of ships called Enterprise. Enterprise was launched from the Orbital Drydock Facility on April 16, 2151, under the command of Captain Jonathan Archer. The launch occurred three weeks ahead of schedule, because United Earth needed to return Klaang, a Klingon, to his homeworld of QonoS. The early launch was strongly protested by Vulcan Ambassador Soval, who believed Humanity was not ready to explore space. He did manage to wrangle a concession from Starfleet, forcing Archer to allow the placement of Subcommander TPol, of the Vulcan High Command, on his vessel in exchange for Vulcan star charts. Once Klaang was returned, Enterprise soon explored an argon-rich planet occupied by slug-like animals. Not long afterwards, the crew descended on and explored their first class M planet, eventually named Archer IV. The crew also made first first contact with a pre-warp civilization shortly afterwards. The early launch of Enterprise meant that it left spacedock somewhat unfinished: its spatial torpedoes were uncalibrated, and its phase cannons had not even been installed. The spatial torpedoes were calibrated in the heat of battle, in May of 2151; the ship only survived because of the intervention of the Axanar. The phase cannons were not installed until September of 2151, while Enterprise battled an unknown enemy. Enterprise reached Warp 5 for the first time in February 2152, while attempting to outrun a Mazarite warship and carrying Vulcan ambassador VLar. In March of 2152, the ships mission was canceled when one of its shuttlepods appeared to have ignited the tetrazine gas within the atmosphere of Paraagan II, killing 3,600 innocent colonists. It was this event, along with its actions at other planets including PJem and Tandar Prime, that caused the Starfleet Command Council to recall Enterprise to Earth. Ambassador Soval recommended that United Earth wait another ten to twenty years before trying another deep space exploration mission. Archer was able to convince the Starfleet Command Council and the Vulcan High Command to allow Enterprise to continue, particularly when it was revealed that the accident had been triggered by the Suliban Cabal. In April of 2152, Enterprise suffered a large hull breach after an encounter in a Romulan minefield. Fortunately, the ship was directed by a passing Tellarite vessel to an automated repair facility. Enterprise was repaired, though the crew was forced to destroy the facility when it was revealed that it had taken hostage of one of their crew members. A plasma injector nevertheless failed shortly thereafter, necessitating a trip to the Kreetassan homeworld. After the Xindi attack on Earth in March of 2153, Enterprise was recalled home. Arriving on April 24th, Enterprise was refitted and upgraded with the new photonic torpedoes, enhanced hull plating, a universal translator update, and a new command center. The ship also took on board a detachment of MACOs, before being relaunched on a new mission to the Delphic Expanse to search for the Xindi weapon. The search for the Xindi was long and perilous, taking almost a year. Enterprise was in danger much of the time in the Expanse, due to the presence of spatial anomalies generated by the spheres. It was discovered that insulating the hull with trellium-D could protect the ship from the anomalies, but unfortunately, trellium was hazardous to Vulcan neural pathways, and Captain Archer refused to let Subcommander TPol leave the ship. Hence, the shielding could not be used. Eventually, TPol discovered a way to determine or predict the spatial anomalies as well as the locations of the spheres. During an exploration to verify TPols theory, decks B, C and E were breached and decompressed. Enterprise then spent around two weeks in a polaric field, where the ship was covered with highly-charged and magnetic nucleonic particles, primarily ferric ions, that formed a strong particulate which generated a power-dampening dia-magnetic field capable of shutting down all shipboard systems, including life support. The crew eventually was able to use the ships shuttlepods to tow it out of the field, and the nucleonic particles detached from the hull once Enterprise was clear. Afterwards, Enterprise was hijacked by Triannon fanatics with organic explosives implanted in their bodies. During the event, part of the ships hull was damaged and one crewman died. In February of 2154, Enterprise determined the location of the Xindi weapon and arrived in the Azati Prime system. There, the ship suffered severe damage, due to attacks by multiple Xindi ships. The ships primary warp coil was destroyed, damage that required Captain Archer to eventually attack an Illyrian ship. That ship had a warp coil that Enterprises crew could use, which would let them arrive on time to a meeting with Degra. Enterprise might have endured even more damage in the Delphic Expanse, if not for the intervention of an alternate future version of Enterprise, which had traveled 117 years into the past when attempting to use a subspace corridor. Enterprise accomplished its mission to destroy the Xindi weapon successfully, though Captain Archer was presumed dead in the explosion. The ship was returned to Earth by a Xindi-Aquatic cruiser following the end of the mission, though Enterprise made a slight detour to an alternate version of 1944 with the help of temporal agent Daniels. During this mission, Archer rejoined the ship after stopping Vosks attempt to return to his own time, and subsequently bringing an end to the Temporal Cold War that had, for so long, plagued Enterprises mission. Twenty-seven Enterprise crew members died during the search for the Xindi weapon. The members of Enterprises crew were hailed as heroes upon returning to Earth, especially Captain Archer, for whom several schools were named. Enterprise was placed into drydock, where it began an extensive repair and refit. Modifications to the ship included a new captains chair, an upgrade to the transporter, and repainted door panels. In May of 2154, a group of rogue Augments, left over from the Eugenics Wars, stole a Klingon Bird-of-Prey and killed its entire crew. The Klingon Empire threatened United Earth with war, unless the Augments were apprehended. After a debriefing and refit, Enterprise was relaunched with Arik Soong on board to try to hunt down the Augments on the border of the Orion Syndicate. After several brief firefights with Orion interceptors, the Augments found Enterprise, took Soong aboard their ship, and set course to Cold Station 12. Enterprise pursued but failed to stop Soong from taking thousands of unborn Augment embryos. Soong then headed to the Briar Patch; however, the Augments turned on him, and headed to a Klingon colony to attempt the release of several types of pathogens into the atmosphere. Enterprise arrived in time to stop the Augments, destroying them and their Bird-of-Prey. When the United Earth Embassy on Vulcan was bombed, Enterprise was ordered to the Vulcan system to investigate. The Vulcan High Command postulated that the Syrrannites had been behind the bombing. The crew discovered a bomb still in the wreckage of the embassy and confirmed that DNA of a well-known Syrrannite, TPau, was on the bomb, but this was later discovered to be faked. Archer and TPol went on a quest to find TPau in The Forge, leaving Enterprise in command of Commander Tucker. After challenging VLas evidence on the bombing, Ambassador Soval was thrown out of the High Command and decided to stay aboard the ship with the Humans. Enterprise was eventually ordered to leave the system, and refused to do so with its captain still on the planet, causing a skirmish with the Vulcans. Soval informed Acting Captain Tucker that the Vulcan High Command was preparing to attack Andoria. Enterprise traveled to a nearby nebula where they warned the Andorians, and then assisted them when the two fleets engaged each other. The Vulcan High Command called off the attack after only a short time, due to political changes – back on their homeworld – that caused the High Command to withdraw. The discovery of the ancient texts of Surak caused the dismissal of the High Command, and Starfleet activity was no longer to be regulated by the Vulcans. Some time after the Vulcan Reformation, Emory Erickson performed a major overhaul of the transporter in an experiment on Enterprise, boosting the transporter range to more than 40,000 kilometers. The upgrade replaced the old transporter control pedestal with a much more advanced control system. The upgrade turned out to be part of a ruse to try to get back his son, who had been lost in a transporter accident, many years before. Later in 2154, two officers were infected with a silicon-based virus whilst on an away mission. The virus was used by the Organians to test races, then, if passing, make first contact with them. As a result, a part of Enterprise had to be sealed off in quarantine. In November of 2154, Enterprise carried a Tellarite delegation, including Ambassador Gral, to Babel. On the way there, the starship received a distress call from the Andorian warship Kumari. The warship had been attacked by an unknown ship, although Andorian Commander Shran blamed the Tellarites for the destruction of his vessel. Eventually, the crew of Enterprise learned that the Kumari had been attacked by a prototype Romulan drone-ship which was able to holographically disguise itself as other vessels. Gral and Shran eventually managed to work out their differences, and Enterprise rendezvoused with a Tellarite transport ship which returned Gral and his delegation to Tellar Prime. Enterprise continued to Andor, where Captain Archer and Commander Shran encountered the Aenar, a blind race of telepaths. A member of the Aenar, Jhamel, returned to Enterprise with Archer and Shran, and assisted in the destruction of the drone-ships which the Romulans had launched from their home system. Again, the starship journeyed to Andor, where Shran and Jhamel left the ship. Enterprise returned to Earth on November 27, 2154. While there, Chief Engineer Charles Tucker transferred to the new NX-02, Columbia. On Earth, Doctor Phlox was assaulted and captured by Rigelians. Enterprise followed the warp trail of a Rigelian freighter which had left Earth, two hours after Phloxs abduction. When the starship arrived at the freighters coordinates, the Rigelian craft had been seriously damaged and only wreckage remained. As Enterprises crew attempted to determine the identity of the freighters destroyer, a Klingon vessel attacked the starship. An away team from the Klingon craft beamed aboard and sabotaged Enterprises systems. Although the Klingons returned to their ship, Enterprise was unable to follow, due to the sabotage. In the end, Enterprise was repaired thanks to a risky maneuver on the part of Columbia, when Tucker was sent back to his old ship via a grappler wire extended between the two ships while at warp. Columbia and Enterprise then took on the mission of rescuing Phlox together. The crews were able to also save the Klingon species, with the help of Phlox, from a mutated version of a virus combined with Augment DNA. The infected Klingons were left with flat foreheads like Humans, without cranial ridges, a state from which it took almost a century for them to recover. A few days after this Klingon mission, an Orion man named Harrad-Sar came to present an offer to Archer; he would allow Starfleet use of a planet he had discovered, rich in magnesite. Starfleet would do the mining, and he would get ten percent of the shares. To seal the deal, three Orion slave girls were given, as a gift, to Captain Archer. The girls were able to seduce the crew by controlling the men, and disable the women. Tucker and TPol, the only two unaffected, were able to foil their plans. Harrad-Sar came to drag Enterprise back to the Orion Syndicate, because they wanted Archers head, whether or not it was attached to his body. The crew of Enterprise stopped him by sending a shock through the deflector and disabling his ship. Enterprise was also present when Earths leadership announced new trade relations with Vulcan, Andor, Tellar, and Coridan, in January 2155. The members of Enterprises crew were hailed as heroes laying the ground work for that alliance, a precursor to the formation of the United Federation of Planets. During this conference, the crew was instrumental in thwarting the militant Terra Prime organization, preventing efforts to eject all non-Humans after Terra Prime hijacked the Mars verteron array. Enterprise was retired in 2161 to make way for new, more advanced starships. It was then placed in a Federation museum, where it still remained in the 24th century. (Shran)
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 08:11:38 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015