Behind the celebration, tucked neatly somewhere between the multi-spectrum antimatter fireworks and the Vulcan children?s choir, Starfleet was in real danger of falling behind the times. Starfleet had relied on the Constitution class as its backbone and workhorse since the ships were first commissioned in 2245, before the latest generation of officer to serve on them had even been born. It was clear their design was quickly becoming obsolete. The twenty-third century was a time of unprecedented change in the Alpha Quadrant. Even as the Federation celebrated its Centennial in 2261, it was experiencing increased threats from its neighbors, ranging from the increasingly antagonistic Tholians to an uneasy but nonetheless threatening alliance between the Klingons and re-emerged Romulans.
Indeed, it had becoming quite apparent that most of Starfleet was in danger of being rendered obsolete. Missions such as that of Kirk, while monumental successes, highlighted the flaws in Starlfeet's aging designs. The Constitution class itself was 25 years old at the time of Enterprise's triumphant return. Historic innovations, such as the doctrinal shift toward the split primary/secondary hull configuration first introduced in the late twenty-second century and the introduction of standardized components such as warp nacelles and bridge modules that had rendered the Constitution class an efficient well-balance design now seemed outmoded. Further, the class?s defenses now seemed inadequate to meet the powerful fleets maintained by the Klingons and Romulans. Even after the introduction of ship-mounted phaser weapons and photon torpedoes to the Constitution class, it became quickly apparent that the ships? defenses were somewhat below par. Many of Starfleet?s most prominent officers began to speak about the need for a ?Dreadnought? class to meet any potential Threat attacks. Eventually, the movement gained enough momentum that serious fears began to emerge about the safety of the Federation.
A special exploratory commission was convened to submit a proposal for such a vessel to the Command Council for review. The proposal was handed to the Council in 2252 for review, and permission was granted to have the ASDB begin design work for the ship. The ASDB worked for five years and submitted several possible designs, the most promising being a three-nacelle variant of the basic Constitution design. The first member of the so-called Federation class was launched in 2260. While well-armed and technologically impressive, the vessels were also awkward and ungainly. Constitution class ships were still considered more prestigious posts than the twelve members of the Federation class. However, the class fulfilled its limited roles of border patrol and sector defense, but was clearly only a temporary mid-step and not a real solution. It did serve to assuage public safety fears, which bought Starfleet more time to come up with a real solution: a true replacement for the Constitution class that could hold its own against the Federation class in terms of defense.
The Starfleet General Staff could not entirely abandon the Constitution class. The Constitutions themselves had proven extremely durable, as all but two of the original 2240s production line were still in service, and during their careers had increased the area of known space by thousands of square parsecs. At the ceremony held aboard the Enterprise at her return, Admiral Hirohito Nogura, Starfleet?s Chief in Command, announced the implementation of a massive fleet-wide modernization and refit program, beginning with the two and a half year upgrade of Enterprise herself. However, Nogura and his colleagues at the General Staff knew this would only extend the life of the Constitutions by two decades at most. Starfleet had already begun designing a replacement for the Constitution that could satisfactorily explore and defend the ever-growing Federation.
In 2266, the Federation had granted permission for Starfleet?s Advanced Starship Design Bureau to begin preliminary work on such a starship, even as the dreadnoughts and the final set of Constitutions left the docks. The general design brief issued (labeled only SV-20) called for a ship capable of fulfilling the duties of the Constitution class: provide a mobile research platform for Starfleet exploration projects, border patrol, and defense, starbase resupply and defense of regional interests, and full execution of Federation policy in outlying frontier territories. The design team was convened under the supervision of Doctor Akito Tokogawa of the ASDB, an accomplished engineer and former assistant on both the original Constitution class project and the new modernization project. The team convened by Tokogawa included an impressive range of the best of the old and young that the ASDB had to offer, fully confident of their ability to meet Starfleet?s challenge. By 2271, another design requirement would be added: incorporate recent advances in transwarp drive.
The ASDB had been conducting initial design work on SV-20 for five years when the secretive Excelsior Group presented its findings in transwarp research to the Federation Council and Starfleet Command. Transwarp had been a classified research project for nearly a decade by that time. For years, Starfleet scientists had been researching faster alternatives to conventional warp drive. In early 2261, Doctor Eugene Wesley was working in the Theoretical Propulsion Group on warp theory. He made a revolutionary discovery about warp velocity; he discovered nine progressively higher threshold leaps in warp field power requirements that did not correspond with the previously utilized cubed warp scale. He also noticed what appeared to be a tenth and most high warp jump. Dr. Wesley concluded that the tenth warp velocity jump would result in a state of infinite velocity which would allow a starship to exist in all points in the galaxy at once. Therefore, controlling the entry and exit from infinite velocity would allow a ship to instant jump from any point in the universe to another. Dr. Wesley envisioned an advanced drive capable of thus propelling a ship, which he termed ?transwarp.?
In February 2262, Dr. Wesley presented his classified data to the Federation Council and Starfleet. Although controversial among his colleagues, Dr. Wesley?s work intrigued both the Council and Starfleet, who allowed him to continue with a full research team. The team took the name the ?Excelsior Group,? excelsior being from the Latin for ?ever higher.? Transwarp was envisioned as the Holy Grail of interstellar travel, but no real promising breakthroughs into high-level subspace fields were made. Dr. Wesley and his team were initially given five years to produce concrete results, and had managed to beg for another five, but he and his team were getting more worried and more desperate. Their efforts were also hampered by severe funding cuts by the increasingly skeptical Federation Council.
All this changed in late 2268. On Stardate 5693, the Starship Enterprise discovered the missing U.S.S. Defiant, NCC-1764, near Tholian space. The Enterprise crew found Defiant trapped in a subspace rift, its crew having murdered one another due to madness caused by prolonged subspace exposure. The phenomenon was termed ?spatial interphase? by Enterprise science officer Spock. Spatial interphase was described as a temporary overlap of two dimensions, specifically space and subspace, which resulted in a type of trans-dimensional rift. While the Defiant herself was hopelessly lost, apparently trapped in limbo between dimensions, sensor readings accumulated by Enterprise proved invaluable to the Group?s work.
The interphase produced a level of subspace distortion heretofore unencountered by Federation science. These logs helped the scientists understand why the previous efforts to create a high-energy warp field had failed. The destruction caused in controlled environments by these efforts was prodigious and well-documented. The fortuitous timing of the Defiant incident has caused some in retrospect to wonder if at the time Defiant was engaged in illicit practical tests of rudimentary transwarp technology. While there relevant period documents remain classified to this day, it seems unlikely that Starfleet would have permitted such a dangerous test on a relatively new starship with a full crew, or that the Wesley team would have been capable of orchestrating such a perfect conspiracy. At any rate, the disaster had finally given Wesley and his colleagues what they need to make a breakthrough. New calculations were made and simulations conducted.
While many in Starfleet were initial skeptical of transwarp?s virtues, a champion emerged in the form of Admiral Robert H. Morrow. The young, charismatic Morrow had held a fascination with technology and warp development since he served as a supervisor at the ASDB, and long followed Dr. Wesley?s efforts. The young maverick worked his growing influence to bring around his fellows in the Admiralty, and the Federation Council finally ordered transwarp included as part of the SV-20 project. The Transwarp Development Project was officially born. The project soon came to be known among inner Starfleet circles as ?the Great Experiment,? which would eventually be made a household phrase by the Federation News Service.
New work began on SV-20, in tandem with the development of transwarp drive. The designs for the class evolved greatly from the original configuration conceived in the late 2260s. The first design brief of 2266 called for a ship ?superior in every way imagineable to Starfleet?s current design,? meaning the Constitution. Beyond the literal, Dr. Tokogawa was uncertain what ?superior? meant for his design. The original Starfleet specifications called for a ship at least 350 meters long by 150 meters abeam by 60 meters deep. Obviously, SV-20 needed to be bigger and faster than Constitution, but this in itself posed a serious dilemma. The bigger the ship got, the proportionally larger warp core and nacelles it had to have; the more substantial warp systems it had, the bigger the ship had to be. Finding a balance was becoming quite a dilemma.
The initial design, SV-20A, completely in 2268, was quite unconventional in design. It featured a saucer-shaped primary hull in line with a flattened, stepped engineering section. A horizontal ?wing? supported four twin warp nacelles, two mounted above and two mounted below each at the end of the wing. Warp power would have been provided by a horizontal intermix chamber. Impulse engines were mounted aft, between warp nacelle pylons. The warp nacelles looked radically uniqe but were relatively the same size as those that would be installed aboard the refit Enterprise. The ship also featured an unusual and unconventional navigation deflector ?pod? installed on the ventral half of the engineering hull.
The design evolved into SV-20B in 2270. SV-20B was similar, but even more unconventional. The overall ship was more flat and stretched out. It was equipped with four warp nacelles, but each nacelle was approximately 30% larger. The impulse engines returned to the saucer section, in separate housing on either side of the engineering hull connection point. The impulse deck itself was mounted atop the dorsal spine, between the engines, with a domed, exposed deflection crystal assembly. While the transwarp criteria introduced the next year would ultimately prompt designers to pursue a more conventional design direction, Starfleet was still very interested in the previous design work done, and asked Dr. Tokogawa to hand over his designs for use on a number of other projects. SV-20B itself served as inspiration for the design of the SV-19 Constellation Class Deep Space Cruiser project that was in work. The Constellation team would seize the promising four-nacelle configuration as its direction. With further work, the final design would see first production as U.S.S. Constellation, NX-1974, in early 2279.
Design SV-20C (created in 2271) was the first SV-20 design intended to incorporate transwarp drive, and with the inclusion of the Transwarp Development Project, was the first to bear the code-name Excelsior. It was basically a two-nacelle version of SV-20B, with refinements to the nacelle pylons, impulse systems, and the addition of a distinctive transwarp housing at the ship?s aft. However, this design was rejected as Starfleet requested a vessel that more closely resembled the Constitution. It seemed despite Morrow?s advocacy of the project, many members of the brass were still afraid of what the reaction would be to the already controversial SV-20 project. The ASDB was only too happy to comply.
Design SV-20D (created in 2272) very much resembled a modern Constitution. She had a round saucer mounted atop an elongated, curved engineering hull by an interconnecting dorsal. It mounted two pairs of fore and aft torpedo launchers, and radial phaser banks on the dorsal and ventral of the primary hull (akin to the Constitution refit designs). Her transwarp nacelles were 40% larger than those of the Enterprise, mounted to the dorsal engineering hull spine by inwardly curved pylons. Additionally, the warp core was returned to a more traditional vertical orientation. The SV-20D gained a great deal of praise and performed admirably in field flow simulations.
In 2273, more members of Starfleet Command came around to Admiral Morrow?s way of thinking, due in no small part to the V?Ger crisis, in which even the refit Enterprise was helpless to defend Earth from a massively powerful Threat Vehicle. Bureaucrats used to sitting behind their desks had been given the rare opportunity to practice taking refuge beneath them, and none liked it. Some skeptics were quick to point out that the crisis was resolved through diplomacy rather than force, but many were still quick to throw their support behind the SV-20 project as a result of the incident.
With streamlining and other modifications, SV-20E was born and gained final approval by late 2274. The transwarp nacelles were increased in overall length by a third, making them mere tens of meters shorter than the entire Enterprise. The ship?s overall shape was extremely curvilinear, with surfaces either curved or flattened as defined by transwarp field analysis. System design briefs were sent to various facilities throughout the Federation as the design team undertook the charge to turn SV-20E into reality. Armament and impulse drive design elements were soon delivered. Crew requirements were pinned down at a maximum comfortable compliment of 900 and a standard operational crew of 750, with a maximum evacuation capacity of 1,500. By the end of the year, the spaceframe design was approved for construction.
In 2275, Naval Experiment Contract 2000 was issued, and given the name Excelsior by Morrow after the transwarp group?s name. Estimates suggested that construction would take up to a decade. Meanwhile, for his involvement in making transwarp and the Excelsior project a reality, now-Fleet Admiral Morrow was made Starfleet CinC to replace the retiring Nogura. Nogura had been suffering from stress lately, concerning a recent Starfleet Intelligence fiasco that had caused great political repercussions for the Federation and the loss of many lives. It seemed Morrow had maneuvered himself into the perfect position to ascend as his replacement.
Later that year, Excelsior?s first keel plate was laid at a special ceremony on Earth at Construction Building Five in San Francisco. A smiling Admiral Morrow made the first gamma-weld on the piece of tritanium that would later hold the ship?s ventral phaser arrays. In Earth orbit, a massive new dry dock facility in excess of 500 meters long was being built for the assembly of Excelsior?s components. Morrow and his Starfleet colleagues were thoroughly pleased with the positive PR that was coming from the new Excelsior?s construction. The Federation News Service left messages daily at the respective offices of Morrow and Tokogawa asking about the Excelsior project. Both remained coy as to the exact nature of the project.
Construction proceeded at a feverish pace. By 2277, the hull spaceframe had begun to take shape in the recently completed Dry Dock Seven facility. Morrow and Tokogawa reportedly mused together at the ?Lucky Seven? designation the new dry dock was given. Several design flaws in late simulations meanwhile led to complete redesign of several key systems. As these refinements to the ship?s about-to-be-installed systems were made, the public and the Federation News Service grew more and more curious, which was exactly what Morrow wanted.
In 2278, the refit Enterprise returned from her first five-year mission in her new configuration. Commander Montgomery Scott?s aid was requested for Excelsior. Dr. Tokogawa sought to have him added to the design and construction that was underway. Dr. Wesley was very hesitant of seeking Scott?s counsel, but Tokogawa overruled him. Mr. Scott was invited to examine the Transwarp Development Team?s work and offer recommendations, in the hope that he would want to join the project. By all accounts, Scott earnestly reviewed their work, though his recommendations were lesss than encouraging. Having seen firsthand the effects of interphase-level subspace distortion aboard Enterprise in 2268, Scott was skeptical of what he termed the team?s ?trying to break the laws of physics.? Scott had long been a champion of conventional warp technology, and was convinced that only through its advancement was superior FTL travel possible. From his own official report, regarding his opinion of the Transwarp Development Project;
"It is my professional opinion that the Transwarp Development Project currently underway is doomed to failure. At this time we do not possess? sufficient understanding of subspace field interaction to fully comprehend what effects this level of warp field produced on a vessel, its occupants, and indeed the fabric of space itself? Flirting with catastrophe of this caliber is quite simply an affront upon nature, and a portrait of mortal arrogance."
Scott had thus succinctly and dramatically declined a positon on the team and presented dire warnings backed by years of experience to the Federation. Dr. Wesley was both furious and disheartened. He knew Scott was shortsighted in his views, but also knew that Scott?s opinion represented the opinion of many Starfleet engineers and admirals. He feared that this was a dark omen for his transwarp engine. For his part, Mr. Scott returned to the serve another five year mission aboard Enterprise. His opinions were gone, but not forgotten.
In late 2279, Morrow finally issued an explanation of the Excelsior project to the public. He announced that U.S.S. Excelsior was the first of a bold new line of starships that would fulfill the needs of an ever-changing universe, and serve as a revolutionary new platform for exploration and defense. He cryptically mentioned the ship?s new transwarp drive, which he stated would represent a quantum leap beyond existing faster than light propulsion. The public was very intrigued by what Morrow said. Some were very excited by the possibilities this new transwarp drive could present, while others were very skeptical and cautious in their desire to embrace this new ship. For their parts, the Klingons and Romulans instantly launched secret intelligence campaigns dedicated to unlocking the secrets of the Federation?s new supership. Their efforts would prove surprisingly unsuccessful.
In late 2283, as Excelsior neared completion, the Enterprise returned from another five year mission of exploration under now-Admiral James Kirk. Kirk was returning to his post at Starfleet Command, and Admiral Morrow was very conscious of Enterprise?s potential to overshadow Excelsior. The gallant old Enterprise was subsequently assigned to training duty at Starfleet Academy under command of Captain Spock. It was widely whispered in the halls of Starfleet Command that Morrow had orchestrated the order to make Enterprise a training ship to keep her out of the way of his bold new vision, an accusation Admiral Kirk always suspected to be true and held Morrow responsible for. As the forerunner of the Constitution class, Enterprise could, in a prominent position, pose the most serious threat to the success of the new class; as a trainer, she could quietly and gradually slip from the limelight into mothballs without the public outcry of being broken up.
By 2284, Excelsior was mostly finished, slightly ahead of schedule. She was launched on thruster power for her initial space-worthiness testing with an ASDB flight test crew. Initial test results were complete, and all ship systems passed Level Four review tests on the Earth-Jupiter run, except for transwarp drive. The transwarp core was brought to full power, but there were unusual subspace fluctuations being detected in the magnetic constriction assemblies. Morrow, Tokogawa, and Wesley were privately rather unnerved by this, but publicly were far more optimistic, and hoped that given more time the ship?s initial transwarp difficulties would be ironed out. She returned to dry dock for final fitting out, including thermocoat painting and striping. On 2 August, 2284 (Stardate 8105.5), the Excelsior was commissioned during an elaborate public ceremony held aboard Dry Dock Seven. After a bottle of 2245 vintage Dom Perignon was shattered against the ship?s bow, Admiral Morrow hosted a reception in the ship?s recreation deck. There he spoke of the work that had gone into the ship and the potential she exhibited and for the first time, he introduced the public to Excelsior?s captain-to-be, James B. Styles.
Captain Styles was a veteran of Starfleet, known among his colleagues for his pompous and stuffy superior attitude. He graduated in the same class as Admiral James T. Kirk, and had always had something of a private rivalry with him. Styles probably could have been an Admiral himself by that time, but although he possessed great knowledge of procedure and facts, and was an admittedly competent officer, he was not very good at the improvisation and creative thinking Kirk was renowned for. However, what Styles sometimes lacked in ability he could make up for in eloquence and charm. The press loved him, and responded well to his naming as Captain of the Great Experiment. Styles gave the assembled masses a personal tour of the Excelsior?s advanced facilities, much to the delight of reporters and Starfleet personnel alike, and delivered a long-winded set of speeches in response to questions about Excelsior and thte ship?s soon-to-be role in history.
The public reaction to Excelsior was far better than Starfleet could have ever dreamed. The public was once again enthusiastic about Starfleet and exploration, and had good reason to be proud of Starfleet?s latest accomplishment. The members of the press at the Federation News Service were elated by the ship?s design, and marveled at the potential of her wondrous new transwarp drive. In January 2285, the Excelsior Group was awarded the Archer Medal of Excellence in Warp Design. Admiral Morrow and the rest of Starfleet were thoroughly pleased. Excelsior traveled to Spacedock to begin her final flight tests, and soon after, her transwarp trials.
Meanwhile, the brass at Starfleet made several important and sure-to-be controversial decisions. First, Admiral Morrow quietly slipped into his paperwork for the month an order to decommission the aging Enterprise. She had been a training vessel for several years, and had very recently suffered extreme battle damage at the hands of the twentieth century superman Khan Noonien Singh. As Enterprise limped home, no one aboard suspected that her final fate had already been sealed. Morrow and the rest of his allies at Starfleet Command hoped that the hoopla over Excelsior would overshadow any public protest about what they considered finally unavoidable for the forty-year-old ship. Morrow also added to his paperwork a construction order for five more Excelsior class ships, to begin immediately after the completion of Excelsior?s shakedown. He was determined that the second Excelsior class ship would be named Enterprise, NCC-2007. The future had begun, and there would be no stopping it.
The second quarter of 2285 marked a transitional period for everyone at Starfleet. Excelsior began her full systems trials in the Sol System. The Excelsior was doing very well, but many were privately disappointed by what they considered mediocre results compared to what was hyped in the press. The ship?s transwarp drive had still failed to pass Level Four Review, although the transwarp drive was being continually reconfigured and reprogrammed as other systems were tested. Captain Styles assured Admiral Morrow that the ship was merely settling into herself, and that they should have some shocking results soon.
Soon the battle-scarred Enterprise joined Excelsior in Spacedock. Many people found it a stark and shocking display; some historically conscious individuals compared it to an old, worn Terran B-17 aircraft (Enterprise) sitting next to a sparkling new B-29 (Excelsior) on an airfield during Earth?s World War II. Admiral Morrow soon informed the Enterprise crew of their ship?s fate, and ordered Chief Engineer Scott to report to Excelsior as Captain of Engineering. Morrow hoped that the project?s most vocal skeptic might somehow produce results. Scott went kicking and screaming. For nearly a week, Enterprise sat silent and abandoned next to her replacement, as if consigned to her fate as old news. Then, suddenly one late night, Enterprise began to wearily slip from her berth. A general yellow alert was issued to all Spacedock posts and to Excelsior herself. Someone was stealing the Enterprise.
Admiral Morrow informed Captain Styles that Admiral Kirk was stealing the Enterprise on an illegal mission to return to the newly formed Genesis Planet to somehow resurrect Captain Spock. Excelsior was ordered to pursue. All systems were powered up and successfully cold-started. Captain Styles was confident that Excelsior could easily overtake and recapture the forty-year old Enterprise; Excelsior?s engines had been fully prepared for the next day?s speed tests. Styles had earlier boasted that he was looking forward to breaking a few of Enterprise?s speed records, but now it seemed he was going to have the chance to beat Enterprise herself.
As Enterprise passed through the Spacedock doors, Stylese contacted his old rival Kirk to try to dissuade him from his plans, even as Excelsior?s transwarp core came to full power. Kirk was apparently unmoved as the old Enterprise gained distance from Spacedock. After one final warning from Styles, Enterprise jumped to warp. Finally, Styles had the moment he had both wanted and dreaded. Excelsior?s helmsman confirmed full transwarp power was available, and Styles gave the order to engage transwarp drive.
The entire ship was alerted. Everyone activated their inertial restraints and braced for the jump to transwarp. The transwarp core revved the engines nacelles pulsed, but? nothing. Excelsior sputtered and ground to a stop mere kilometers from Spacedock. Circuits fused and sparked, and on the bridge the computer offered Captain Styles a cheerful message: ?Good Morning, Captain.? Excelsior?s engineers had to manually shut down the transwarp computer system to prevent a catastrophic inversion. Styles and his senior staff were aghast. This time, the transwarp drive hadn?t even engaged. No one understood what had happened until someone realized that Captain Scott wasn?t aboard. Styles quickly concluded that Scott had helped steal the Enterprise, and sabotaged Excelsior to prevent pursuit.
Excelsior was towed back into Spacedock by tow shuttles for repairs. Her engineers searched Excelsior?s propulsion systems for hours before discovering that several important computer components had been removed from the main transwarp computer drive. Without these components, the transwarp nacelles had never had never received the order to activate. It is worth noting that the engineers over-emphasized the importance of Captain Scott had done. In fact, the ship was not fitted with proper auxiliary controls to supplement such an occurrence, but the engineers chose to overlook this fact for the moment. The fused computer systems were repaired and reprogrammed over a period of months. Soon after, Excelsior returned to her postponed transwarp trials.
Stardate 8281.3, somewhere between the Sol and Alpha Centauri systems. The Excelsior was thrown out of transwap with a terrible jolt. Something had gone seriously wrong. Fiery plasma streamed from the transwarp nacelle intercoolers and nacelle pylon purge vents. In engineering, klaxons provided an unwelcome reminder of the impending disaster. Excelsior had reached speeds in excess of Warp 8.5 on the recalibrated Modified Cochrane Unit Scale (Warp 14 on the old scale) but the transwarp core had developed a coolant leak. Engineers scrambled to try to fix the problem as the ship continued to accelerate, but the problem only became worse. Captain Styles finally had to order the crew to eject the transwarp core. The core exploded in a brilliant, dramatic display of matter/antimatter annihilation, rocking the wounded Excelsior with recoil. No critical damage was sustained from the explosion, but the damage that had already occurred to the transwarp drive was serious enough. Moments later, the Constitution-class U.S.S. Lexington, which had been flying formation a few light years behind the Excelsior monitoring her test flight, arrived on the scene to offer aid. Within the half-hour, two tow ships arrived to tractor the Excelsior back to Spacedock.
Captain Styles sat disheartened in his chair on the bridge throughout the entire two hour journey back to Earth, maintaining total silence except for the occasional order. This had been the third and most catastrophic failed test of the warp drive in the month following her redeployment. Each time, Excelsior had failed to pass the ninth warp threshold jump without an incident. The first two times the power surge and subsequent overload had been contained, but this time was far worse. The Excelsior had not suffered serious hull damage, but would have to return to Dry Dock for six months of refi and the installation of a new transwarp core. Styles was beginning to get worried. He feared that Commander Scott had done them a favor when he had sabotaged the ship?s engines months prior.
Captain Styles wasn?t the only one beginning to feel the strain of Excelsior?s problems. After Excelsior returned to dock, Admiral Morrow faced serious questions from the Federation Council and Starfleet Command. What had began as a bigger and better replacement for the Constitution class had turned into this ?revolutionary? new project, largely under Morrow?s influence, and both authorities were ready for some results. Morrow began to push Doctors Tokogawa and Wesley harder to fix Excelsior?s problems, in the end only frustrating their efforts more. Morrow had used the Excelsior to make his career in the Admiralty, and now it looked like it might break it.
The Excelsior sat idle during her refit in early 2286 as the Whalesong Crisis occurred. Once again, Earth was threatened by a massive foreign Threat vehicle, and once again all conventional defenses proved ineffective. Excelsior, however, had been designed partially in response to the similar V?Ger threat over a decade earlier, but had proven useless thanks to her transwarp drive. Patience was beginning to run out in San Francisco. Instead of instantly abandoning her, with the hope of saving face in a project that was quickly becoming a source of dread and embarrassment to many, Starfleet authorized the design team to use their refit to begin making major refinements in Excelsior?s propulsion systems.
Meanwhile, the scheduled second Excelsior?s name, originally slated to be Enterprise, was renamed Yorktown, as the Constiution-class Yorktown was redesignated Enterprise, NCC-1701-A in honor of the Kirk and his crew?s participation in saving Earth during the Whalesong Crisis. In turn, the third Excelsior, originally scheduled to be named Yorktown, was renamed Enterprise, NCC-1701-B, and was scheduled for a 2293 launch to coincide with the scheduled decommissioning of the current ship. However, the entire Excelsior line was still facing serious doubts.
By the beginning of 2287, Starfleet had fitted Excelsior with three separate pairs of transwarp nacelles and two different transwarp cores. None of them managed to propel the ship into infinite velocity. Starfleet engineers began to believe that the problem laid in the dilithium used in the transwarp core, which began to disintegrate at higher warp frequencies. On each test run, the ship had reached speeds in excess of warp nine on the new warp scale, nearly tearing herself apart on several occasions. The engine core repeatedly began to overload and was shut down, repeatedly throwing the ship out of warp and requiring days of repairs. Each time the transwarp core could not be powered high enough to propel the ship beyond the transwarp barrier. Fortunately, there were no more core breaches. However, infinite velocity still remained beyond reach even through dozens of more flights. Captain Styles was completely embarrassed, and Admiral Morrow was at wits? end. Both quietly admitted the same fear: Starfleet had engineered a disaster. Finally Starfleet had enough.
To their infinite embarrassment, Starfleet Command was forced to officially announce the failure of the Transwarp Development Project. The press had a field day. As quickly as they had sang the praises of the glorious new wonder ship, they had also torn apart its failures, suggesting incompetence at Starfleet was to blame for the project?s failure. The Federation Council was incensed both at the public response and at the waste of resources that had been poured into the project. It was clear that someone was going to take the fall for the project?s lack of success. Soon, a distressed Admiral Morrow announced his decision to step down from his position as Chief in Command, and indeed retire from Starfleet. The strain of the failed project had taken its toll, and Morrow was beginning to show age. Morrow?s return to civilian life allowed him to find a particular sense of self-fulfillment at his family?s ancestral home in upstate Maine. Meanwhile, Excelsior?s crew was reassigned. Though he was ultimately faultless, Captain Styles?s career was broken, and though he would continue service for the next two decades, he would never be offered command of a starship again.
The Excelsior herself was another issue entirely. Starfleet had halted the construction of the next two Excelsior class ships, the first of which was well into the framing stage, and the second only into initial parts production, and Excelsior sat powered down in dry dock as the authorities at Starfleet Command debated what was to be done with her. Her failed transwarp drive was stripped, her fuel drained, and her bridge module removed. Over the six months of limbo, Starfleet allowed some of her fittings to be stripped for use on other starships under construction or refit. Excelsior lay at Pier Three a broken, hollow vessel, the blackened echo of what might have been and a reminder of what was not.
Even in defeat, Excelsior quickly became the principal source of dispute again. Many in Starfleet wanted to dismantle Excelsior, recycle her remaining components, and try to forget about this embarrassing chapter of their history while pursuing a new, more conventional replacement for the Constitution class. However, another part of Starfleet Command, saw this plan as wasteful and still wanted to make the Excelsior class a reality. They pointed out that while Excelsior had failed to achieve infinite velocity, the speeds she had achieved were nonetheless impressive. Similarly, although many members of the public were highly critical of the project, many more were eager to see the ship refit and put into the service. This combined movement managed to convince the new Chief in Command, Admiral William L. Russom, to save Excelsior even as he was preparing to write the order to scrap her. It seemed Excelsior, a substantial experiment that had become a tremendous failure, had somehow managed to capture the imagination of the Federation public.
Therefore, at the end of 2287, the stripped hulk that had been Excelsior was again crawling with work crews beginning the task of refitting her with a standard warp drive and completing her fitting out. The work to build a new warp drive large enough to accommodate such a big ship and then install it into an already completed ship was staggering. Though publicly Starfleet wholly supported the effort, in private the brass was still uneasy and skeptical of the design?s viability, and planned to scrap the refit if major problems arose. Fortunately for Excelsior, they didn?t. Remaining equipment designed specifically for the transwarp drive was stripped and a new warp core and nacelles were constructed, again under the supervision of Dr. Tokogawa. The engineers who had worked to create transwarp had learned many things from their failed efforts and made revolutionary discoveries which went into the production of the warp drives of Excelsior and all subsequent vessels. Excelsior also received a new, state of the art bridge, complete with her original dedication plaque.
In early January 2289, Excelsior was again launched from Dry Dock Seven, this time under power of standard warp propulsion and with far greater caution and apprehension. Under the guidance of her new flight test crew, Excelsior began the second systems review and shakedown of her lifetime. All of Excelsior?s systems performed to full Level Four Review satisfaction this time, surprising and relieving both Starfleet Command and the staff at San Francisco Yards. However, Excelsior became notorious for several unforeseen quirks that would become characteristic of this next phase of her life. First, she retained the awkward sublight maneuverability even at full impulse that had plagued her earlier trials. Her test captain commented that Excelsior ?showed her size.? Additonally, she seemed to be too powerful for her own good, continuing to threaten to tear herself apart under full power of her engines at speeds of warp nine (MCU) and above, developing a serious vibration problem evocative of those experienced by the old Constitution class.
Nonetheless, Starfleet authorized the Excelsior for active duty as NCC-2000. Starfleet was so pleased with Excelsior?s shakedown results that it resumed construction on the two new Excelsiors that were already underway, and ordered the next three to follow. The Transwarp Development Project had proven a failure, yes, but the Excelsior Class Project was a monumental success whose historic legacy was just beginning.