USS Tikhov

The USS Tikhov (NCC-1067-M) was a small Federation starship operated by Starfleet. Since the mid-23rd century, the Tikhov had housed a seed vault that stored samples from every plant in the known galaxy. 
From the 27th century onward, each planet in the Federation took turns providing crews to keep watch over the vault; it even managed to survive The Burn in around 3069. By 3189, the Tikhovs caretakers were a Barzan family consisting of Dr. Attis, his wife, and their two daughters, Amma and Tolpra. In that year, the vessel was struck by a coronal mass ejection that killed Attis' family and irradiated him while also leaving him partially out of phase (due to being mid-transport at the time). Attis, believing his family could still be saved, placed them in cryo-stasis chambers and removed numerous plants from the vault, growing them within the ship in the hopes of finding a cure.
Six weeks later, the was tasked with retrieving samples of unmutated plants from Urna so as to cure a prion infection threatening Kili refugees. They found the Tikhov adrift and apparently abandoned in an ion storm. After pulling it free with a tractor beam, an away team learned what had happened to the vessel and managed to bring Attis back in phase.
Commander Michael Burnham helped Attis face the reality that his family was lost, and with his access code, obtained the needed Urna samples. Afterward, Commander Nhan volunteered to stay aboard and complete the Barzan watch over the Tikhov before returning to Barzan II. ()
Nhan lived on Barzan for a short time, and within a year completed the seed vault mission before departing to join Federation Security. ()
When Earth was threatened by the Dark Matter Anomaly in 3190, the Tikhov participated in the evacuation effort. It reported that its shields had been reduced to under ten percent by debris impacts, shortly before Fleet Admiral Charles Vance ordered all remaining ships to depart. ()
==Appendices==
===Background information===
The Tikhov may have been named for , considered the "father of astrobotany".}}
The Merian-class was designed by Ryan Dening. 
USS Tikhov was slated to receive its own outing in the British Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection partwork publication as a "Tikhov-type" vessel. A prototype tooling master for the display model was in effect already produced, as had been the in-universe article as reproduced in the second edition Star Trek: Shipyards - Starfleet Ships 2294 to the Future reference book (pp. 298-301) for the accompanying magazine, with regular production set to go. The release came to naught however, due to the August 2022 bankruptcy of Collection (and reference book) publisher Eaglemoss Collections.
===Apocrypha===
According to the Shipyards reference book (p. 303), the Tikhov-type was 51,3 meters in length.
===External link===
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Category:Federation starships