Technology

Technology here refers to the devices, weaponry and other systems found on Starfleet bases and ships. Certain technology can only be utilised by experienced officers, of which this page will refer to.

If you are looking for the handheld technology used by Starfleet officers, refer to Tools. For the technological handheld weapons, refer to Weaponry. For more focus on how these things work, look in Technological Engineering.

## Starfleet Non-Combat Technology

*Please note that the title of this section, Starfleet Technology does not mean that this technology is only used by Starfleet. Much of the technology used by Starfleet is also used by other known species.*

### Transporters

Transporters are an important device found on almost all of Starfleet bases and ships. The device is capable of transporting an object or individual from one location to another by using matter-energy conversion to transform matter into energy, then beaming it to or from a chamber, where it is reconverted back into its original pattern. The technology is widespread across the galaxy, with many favouring it over shuttles.

A person can be beamed to either another ship, planet, base, location on the current ship or a crew member on the current ship. *Please do note, however, it is sometimes considered rude to transport directly to another crew member*.

Safety features are also incorporated into the transporter in the form of biofilters. These biofilters are also able to decontaminate transported objects to protect the rest of a vessels crew. Biofilters are also used to detect and disable any transported person's weapons or explosives. If further decontamination is required, an officer with a tricorder can activate a forcefield around a transporter.

Transporters can only be operated by those in the divisions of Command, Engineering or Security or be above the rank Lieutenant. A transportee is also required to announce their wish to transport before transporting as the systems will lock when transporting a person without a request to transport. This request system can, however, be disabled by the vessel or base Chief Transporter Officer (sometimes the same role taken by a Chief Operations Officer). Shields are also known to block a transporter signal, both the outgoing and incoming vessels must disable their shields for a successful transport.

Transporter systems also have a range, which can be troublesome for transporting to specific targets. Signals can also be blocked by other vessels, bases, or space debris (such as asteroids). Pattern enhancers can be deployed on a planets surface for extending the range of transporters, as well as strengthening a signal to allow it to pass through some objects. (Thick atmospheres, for example).

#### Cargo Transporters

Cargo transporters, as the name suggests, are transporters designed specifically for sending and receiving large amounts of cargo. Although these transporters can transport lifeforms, it is discouraged due to a wide variety of problems that may arise when using a cargo transporter.

### Scanners

Starfleet ship-based scanners are very powerful, more extreme versions of a Tricorder's scanning function. Scanning devices are able to scan both another ship and locate crew members. A scanning device is operated from most Starfleet science consoles.

### Hailing

Hailing is the method of starship communication, controlled at the Operations station on Starfleet vessels. When hailing on a starship, the hail can go to either the vicinity around the ship, a nearby planet or base, or another ship. When hailing, the target must accept or decline the hail through their own Operations station. Hails can be made through both audio and visual methods. A cloaking device is also known to distrupt hails, with a cloaked ship unable to be contacted. Cloaked vessels can make hails, but they are unable to be accepted on the receiving end. If a starship activates their cloaking device while in communication it will still be active.

### Forcefields

Forcefields are found on all Starfleet vessels, commonly in a ships Brig or Armoury. A forcefield is an energy barrier, with a wide range of applications.

Containment fields are a form of forcefields and arguably the most common. These are found in key areas such as the brig, engineering and transporter rooms. They are designed to keep objects and lifeforms both in and out. A forcefield is used to protect the USS Enterprise-D's warp core in both combat and invasions from possible breaches. These forcefields are also found within holodecks to create hard surfaces.

Structural integrity and emergency force fields are used on Starfleet vessels to contain hull breaches found during ship-to-ship combat. When a hull breach occurs, it takes time for the computer to deploy emergency force fields automatically in that section, so some crew members could be flushed out into the vacuum of space, most famously in the case of Captain James T. Kirk.

Defensive Shielding are an external form of forcefields, commonly referred to as shields and found across most spacecraft, starships, starbases and even shuttlecraft. Shields are able to protect the ship itself from hull damage during combat. Shields can also scramble transporter patterns when attempting to transport. Due to the immense power cost of a Starfleet vessels defensive shielding, it recharges slowly when active. Tactical officers should disable shields when not in combat or when they have reached 0% power levels for them to recharge faster.

Navigation Shielding is a sub-type of standard defensive shielding, used when flying at high speeds to prevent debris from damaging the hull. Navigational shielding is active all of the time and is seperate from defensive shielding in both strength and power cost.

### Replicator

Replicators are commonly used across Starfleet vessels to produce items from seemingly nothing. The technology itself works similar to a transporter in that it used matter-energy conversion processes to produce items from a ships replicator reserves. Replicators are also able to recycle any items and exchange them for others. Replicators typically are used for food and beverages, other items such as weapons or drugs are often restricted from being made using a replicator (although malfunctions have been known to occur) any officer found with illicit replicated materials will have them confiscated. Users can also program their own recipes into a replicator. Mass or Industrial Replicators are found on planets and construction yards used to construct larger items for buildings and starships. Replicators can be found on many starships and locations, most commonly found on Starship command decks, ready rooms and bars

### Holodeck

The holodeck is a rather new technology, with holodecks only being found on the USS Enterprise-D. Holodecks are able to construct entire environments that are (mostly) infinite through the use of holo-emitters. A holodeck can be used for both recreation and official duties, such as tactical simulations, visual records and more. Forcefields are used with the holodeck to create a sensation of actually touching an object. Holo-emitters are also found on major sections of newer Starfleet vessels, such as the Bridge and Sickbay for use of the somewhat experimental Emergency Medical Hologram program and it's variations. Strangely though, holo-emitters have been found across the entirety of the Enterprise-D.

When in an active program, the door linking the outside ship and the program is called the Holoarch, where users can change, activate and control the functions of the Holodeck. A favoured program is the battle simulation Gungame, featuring weapons from the 20th/21st centuries of Earth

### Propulsion

Starships need methods of travel both in-system and out of system. This is where propulsion comes in. Propulsion here involves both Impulse Engines: for near-light speeds, Thrusters: for close manuvers and docking and Warp Engines: which work with the warp core to provide faster than light (FTL) travel. (This page will not go through the exact specifics of starship propulsion, please consult *Warp Engines and other Starship Propulsion Methods: For Dummies).*

Starfleet vessels use warp factors for measuring their warp speed. It goes from 1 (slowest) to 10 (fastest). Decimals are used for these factors, such as warp 8.7 . Faster speeds can only be achieved for certain periods of time, depending on the strength of the warp engines. The fastest speed a starship has been recorded of going is warp 9.99, which is when the specific starship began to breakdown and take structural damage. The Warp 10 barrier has attempted to be broken previous times, but all have been a failure, along with the NX-Excelsior's Transwarp drive.

Warp factors are selected after a vessel has entered warp from the helm console.

### Command Functions

When commanding a starship, there are a number of command functions that are required for better operation and automation of a your ship. This is the original basis behind the idea of command functions for Starfleet ships. In this context, command functions refer to either the voice activated functions and command codes, to which a computer will usually reply to and the more specific buttons that control a ship's state.

#### Command Codes

Command codes are usually requested when performing high level vocal functions towards a ships computer, such as deactivating life support or activating self-destruct. Command codes are long strings of both letters, numbers and greek letters (Alpha, Beta, Omega, etc) that are unique to each individual.

### Alert States

There are numerous alert states used by Starfleet ships and bases for informing their crew of various situations and automatically controlling some parts of the ship. Alerts are either activated through voice commands or (some) command controls (found most commonly at the Captain's chair)

#### Green Alert

The basic level alert for when nothing is happening and the ship is when no danger. Officers should either be at their stations or relaxing off-duty.

#### Yellow Alert

The second highest alert level, used for when a ship has encountered a threat but it is not serious and/or the ship is not in any imminent danger. Officers are expected to be ready for a battle situation and to be prepared. When this alert is activated, shields are expected to be raised.

#### Red Alert

Originally known as "Reed Alert" due to it's creator, Malcolm Reed, the Chief Armoury officer of the *NX-01 Enterprise.* Since then, Red Alert (also known as Full Alert, Battle Alert and other names) has become a familiar part of all Starfleet ships, designed to announce the crew that there is a combat situation and they should all report to their stations. Red Alert automatically activates when the ship is attacked, an intruder comes aboard or the ship recognises a collision.

#### Blue Alert

Blue alert is most commonly used in quarantine and lockdown situations on a starship or starbase. Blue alert may do different things depending on the ship, for example: some ships use it for landing.

#### Grey/Black alert

Grey or Black alert is used only used in low power or power saving situations where the lighting will dim to save power. There are no other instances of this rare alert.

## Starfleet Combat Technology

Although Starfleet are known as travellers, negotiators and explorers, many Starfleet vessels are equiped with combat technology to defend themselves.

### Phasers

Ship-based phasers are much larger versions of the hand-held phasers found on Starfleet officers. Phaser arrays are found on 24th century starships, while phaser banks are much smaller versions of phaser arrays found on 23rd century starships. Phaser arrays produce beams of energy that deal more direct damage towards shields than hull. The Galaxy class includes 10 to 12 Type-X Phaser arrays, while other ships, such as the Soverign Class carry Type-XII Phaser arrays. Phaser arrays used different power levels with varied destructive power. These power levels are typically scaled from 1-5.

### Torpedoes

Torpedoes are the other major Starfleet ship-based weaponry, with the most common being Photon Torpedoes and were able to be launched in different methods:

Singular - 1 Torpedo

Dual - 2 Torpedoes

Tri - 3 Torpedoes

Quad - 4 Torpedoes

Full Spread - 5 Torpedoes for most ships.

Newer Starfleet vessels also include modular torpedo launchers, being able to fit Photon and the more powerful Quantum Torpedoes. Starships have a limited amount of torpedoes, with the smaller photon torpedoes generally being more common on Starships. Photon Torpedoes, however are slowly being phased out by the much larger and more powerful Quantum Torpedoes, such as the USS Imperious, which only has Quantum Torpedoes.

Torpedo casings are used often as caskets for dead crewmembers, allowing them to be released into the void.

## Romulan Technology

This section involves released classified information and intelligence reports of Romulan Technology, please note that this information is not as substantial as that of Starfleet Technology, due to the lack of much shared information from the Romulans.

### Cloaking Device

Cloaking devices have been around for hundreds of years, operated by many races over the years. Since the 22-century, Romulans have had the ability to cloak their starships, showcased in the Earth-Romulan war. These cloaking devices have been refined over the years and are still found in Romulan vessels of the present day, such as their Warbirds. Friendly relations between the Romulans and Klingons allowed them to share technologies and starships, such as the cloaking device (which the Klingons had been attempting to make on their own for many years). Cloaking devices develop a field around a vessel, allowing them to appear invisible, both to the naked eye and modern scanners, meaning that they cannot be targeted by a ships weapons, communications or transporter devices. However, cloaking devices disable the affected starships shield generator, leaving them vulnerable for a few seconds while the cloak engages. Cloaking devices also take up much of a ships energy that they can only fire in rare cases, such as General Chang's modified Bird of Prey encountered during the Khitomer Incident of 2293.

### Disruptors

Much like Starfleet's phasers, Romulan disruptors found on their starships are more powerful, larger versions of the hand-held weaponry. When compared with the phaser arrays of modern Starfleet vessels, Romulan disruptors are more powerful, slightly less precise and bolt weapons that deal plasma damage towards ships. A downside of disruptors is that they are only able to be used when facing the target, and have a slight angle to them, allowing them to be dodged by the defending vessel.

### Torpedoes

Plasma torpedoes are much larger and more powerful than the standard issue Photon Torpedo, albeit slower. Like the plasma disruptors, Romulan vessels cannot fire whilst cloaked.

## Klingon Technology

Klingon technology is greatly similar to Romulan technology, due to their agreement of shared technology during 2268 including the sharing of the Romulan cloaking device. Most information can be found in all Klingon starships, such as the IKS Rotarran.

### Cloaking Device

Since the 22-century, Romulans have had the ability to cloak their starships, showcased in the Earth-Romulan war, with the technology being restricted to the Romulans. Friendly relations between the Romulans and Klingons allowed them to share technologies and starships, including the cloaking device. Cloaking devices develop a field around a vessel, allowing them to appear invisible, both to the naked eye and modern scanners, meaning that they cannot be targeted by a ships weapons, communications or transporter devices. However, cloaking devices disable the affected starships shield generator, leaving them vulnerable for a few seconds while the cloak engages. Cloaking devices also take up much of a ships energy leaving their weaponry useless, except in rare cases, such as with General Chang's modified Bird of Prey encountered during the Khitomer Incident of 2293.

### Distruptors

Klingon distruptors are similar to Romulan distruptors. When compared against the phaser arrays of modern Starfleet vessels, Both Klingon and Romulan disruptors are more powerful, slightly less precise and bolt weapons that deal plasma damage towards ships. A downside of disruptors is that they are only able to be used when facing the target, and have a slight angle to them, allowing them to be dodged by the defending vessel. However this downside is negated with the Klingon Empire's use of small craft, such as the B'rel class.

### Phasers

Klingon phasers make up a large problem that Romulan Warbirds face, that they always have to face their target, with their distruptors that face forwards, a more agile vessel can manuever behind the Warbird. Although Klingon distruptors face this same problem, the phasers allow for full coverage on all sides. Phasers are less powerful than distruptors, but can fire from almost every angle.

### Torpedoes

Klingon torpedoes are simply photon torpedoes, better at dealing damage against hull rather than shields.

*(Images to follow)*