Cloaking device

A **cloaking device**, more commonly a **cloak** or very rarely an **invisibility screen**, is a camouflaging technology that can blend a vessel into its surroundings, remaining unobservable to the naked eye. Cloaks are used by the Planetary Union on all of their shuttlecraft.

## Description

The cloaking device bends light around the vessel, rendering it invisible to the naked eye.

Cloaks are often employed to evade detection by societies less technologically advanced as the Union. Cloaks are rarely engaged around similarly developed civilizations, such as the Krill, as there exist methods to detect cloaked vessels.

A cloaked ship's relative position can be detected by venting plasma from a quantum drive, which adheres to the ship's hull. A cloak will not mask a broadcast signal from a tracking device.

By reducing the field radius, the cloak of a vessel such as a shuttle may be focused like a lens which can render individual objects or even people invisible.

## History

In the winter of 2419, an away team led by First Officer Kelly Grayson flies to Sargus 4 by shuttle. Before landing, they engage a cloak which enables them to land discretely.

On April or May, another away team engages a cloak in order to land on a planet whose inhabitants have not yet achieved space flight, thus requiring them not to interfere with their cultural development.

While flying the ECV-197-1 shuttle to spy on Kelly and Cassius in the former's quarters, Ed promptly engages the cloak after Kelly spots him peeping through the window.

In late 2420 or early 2421, the brilliant Engineer Locar focuses a shuttle's cloaking device upon himself like a lens by reducing the field radius to hide from the Orville within its own Shuttle Bay.

In early 2421, Orrin Channing takes Shuttle 1 out of the Orville with Helmsman Gordon Malloy to destroy the Krill destroyer *Davoro'kos.* Gordon engages the shuttle's cloak so the Orville will not be able to follow them. However, unbeknownst to Orrin, Gordon also placed a tracking device on the shuttle.

## Trivia

* In the original pilot script, a Krill destroyer orbits Epsilon 2 hidden behind a cloak when the USS *Orville* arrives. It de-cloaks when Doctor Derek Ashton summons the vessel. However, when the episode aired, the Krill destroyer merely flies to Epsilon 2 upon Derek's call. Further, the Krill soldier who hides inside the shuttle ECV-197-1 was cloaked in the original script.
* Locar has stated that a personal cloaking device would be far more complex than a ship's cloak.

## Appearances

* *Episode 1x07: Majority Rule*
* *Episode 1x12: Mad Idolatry*
* *Episode 2x01: Ja'loja*
* *Episode 2x07: Deflectors*
* *Episode 2x10: Blood of Patriots*
* *Episode 2.5x01: Launch Day, Pt. 1*
* *Episode 2.5x03: Heroes, Pt. 1*
* *Episode 3x09: Domino*

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *Episode 2x07: Deflectors*
2. ↑ Episode 2.5x01: Launch Day, Pt. 1
3. ↑ *Episode 2x04: Nothing Left on Earth Excepting Fishes*
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Episode 2x10: Blood of Patriots*
5. ↑ Episode 1x07: Majority Rule
6. ↑ Episode 1x12: Mad Idolatry
7. ↑ Episode 2x01: Ja'loja
8. ↑ MacFarlane, Seth. Orville 1x01 - Pilot. *Fox Broadcasting Co.*
9. ↑ Locar states that focusing the shuttle's cloak is "nothing so complex" as personal cloaking device. Episode 2x07: Deflectors