3788 Scale Gorn Bubble Dreadnought SRZ

The Gorns are six-to-seven-foot-tall, 350-pound, cold-blooded, egg-laying, reptilian humanoids bearing a superficial resemblance to a T-Rex or Raptor. Despite the fearsome visage, they are actually quite civilized people who run one of the few democracies in the galaxy. The Federation and Gorns met in a border incident in which two hot-headed captains shot first and faced embarrassing questions later. (A Federation corporation built an unauthorized colony outside of Federation territory. The Gorns saw a few Vulcans and thought the colonists were Romulans (with which they had fought wars for over a century). Diplomats smoothed everything over and the Gorns became the most stable ally of the Federation. (The Gorn legislature’s reluctance to spend money or join the Federation's war limited this alliance during some periods.)

This is a proposed, but never built, design postulating that large ships could be constructed more easily through modular construction. The idea was to build component sections of a large ship and then assemble them, thereby saving shipyard space (since the modular components could be constructed in slipways designed for frigates, construction of which would be discontinued). The resulting design (which may have been a demonstrator given the oddities in its layout) lacked a number of systems by Gorn standards.

The principle drawback in the scheme proved to be the need to tie up tugs or light tactical transports to bring together the components in a slipway large enough to accommodate a dreadnought in any case. The resulting delays imposed by moving the bubbles, it was believed, would impose so many delays (when added to the many missions already requiring the use of tugs and transports) that the resulting ships would take longer to build than simply assembling a dreadnought the normal way. The Confederation’s logistics command reported that it simply would not be able to accommodate the proposal unless Battle Command were willing to release all tugs (and transports) from any combat exposure. (The occasional loss of one of these units carrying a battle pod, or simply pressed into combat at need, had several times destabilized the entire logistical network and was responsible for the cancellation of at least one counter offensive.)

Still, the design did fly in the academy’s simulators, where it was discovered that the bubbles’ small contact areas (where they were hard-welded together) was extremely vulnerable to stress when the ship executed high energy turns, significantly more so than standard construction dreadnoughts. This problem was, however, not deemed to be especially significant since no one in their right mind would try a high energy turn with the normal dreadnought either. The design envisioned four separate shuttle bays (two of which would carry ground assault shuttles) to be constructed in the hollows between pods, and one gunboat leader (dubbed the “Admiral’s gig”) to be carried on a mech-link on the number-four bubble’s tractor.

This ship originally appeared in Star Fleet Times #33. Using it in a game requires permission from the opponent’s girlfriend (or mother, sister, child, sibling, significant other, or other potentially bribable person designated by the opponent).

The ship is available in a variety of materials. Ships are unpainted, use standard flight stands available from many sources, and, while designed for gaming, make fine display pieces.