USS Minoru

Important Locations: USS Minoru NCC-64306, Akira-class

Below is a brief listing of key locations and example interiors of the USS Minoru. The ship's interior design is similar to ships such as the Intrepid and Sovereign classes. Work spaces and corridors lack the level of luxury and opulence seen on ships of the Ambassador and Galaxy design eras, instead designed for ease of movement and access to behind-wall and under-deck equipment. Of note is that the ship has a more compartmentalized design than average and all corridors have regular emergency bulkheads that make the ship less reliant on emergency forcefields in event of a hull breach. With that said, crew quarters and lounges still provide a considerable degree of comfort, if not necessarily space, as the ship was designed for long deployments.

Main Bridge (Deck 1 Floorplan Unlabled / Labled ): (Note: 3-d image is of a similar, but not identical bridge. The floorplan is closest to actual layout.); The bridge is located on Deck 3 at the top and center of the primary hull. If the ship is a body, the bridge is its brain. From here, all functions of the ship can be controlled. The Akira-class has gone through several bridge designs over the years, due to where it fits in starship design history. The Akira-class design project was begun near the end of the Cardassian Border Wars and thus after the ships of the Galaxy-generation like the Nebula, New Orleans, and Cheyenne, but it still slightly predated many the next generation of ships like the Sovereign. As such, its interior design was slightly in flux. Its combat-biased design affected the bridge layout, as unlike ships such as the Galaxy there was not as much emphasis placed on open spaces and luxurious fittings. They turned towards successful designs of the past, particularly variants of the Excelsior-class as it was of similar size, as well as other combat-oriented designs such as the Galaxy and Nebula battle bridges, and modernized them to account for increased automation.

The captain sits at the center of the bridge. From here he can easily see all the stations on the bridge. Beside him are seats for the executive officer and a mission advisor, who have small consoles and sit at a slightly lower level. Ahead of them are the Conn and Ops stations side by side, which are lower still in order to allow the captain a clear view of the viewscreen. The remaining stations are arrayed around the room. Starting at the port side of the screen is Mission Ops I and II, which are frequently used to monitor flight and groundside activities. At the centerline is a turbolift, followed by Tactical/Security. At the rear of the bridge is a free-standing engineering station, with the MSD behind it. To either side of the MSD are doors to the Ready Room and a corridor to the rest of the deck, including the briefing room, a small break room, a head, and a ramp down to Deck 4. Continuing on is Science, another turbolift, then Mission Ops III and IV, which are configurable to multiple purposes such as intelligence or additional science stations. Finally, dead ahead is a holographic viewscreen. All of these stations have chairs, and the Mission Ops stations can have extras added as necessary. Overall the bridge has a slightly 'classic' feel to it. This design philosophy would latter be echoed on the bridge design of the Prometheus class.; Related Areas: Briefing Room, Ready Room
Main Engineering: The main engineering facility is buried near the center of the ship on Decks 9 and 10. It is surrounded by the main shuttlebay in a compromise between the needs of the flight deck design and the necessary size of the warp core. However, this was judged to an acceptable risk, as the location gave the greatest defense against enemy fire and similar designs had been used on the Cornado- and Miranda-classes (and related ships) without major incidents. The surrounding bulkheads have been heavily armored and reinforced to insure survivability in the event of a catastrophic accident such as a fighter crash, plasma fire, or munitions detonation. The space is fairly roomy and is lined with consoles to monitor all of the ship's systems, and was designed to act as an emergency control center in the event of damage to the main bridge and auxiliary control. Minoru's warp core is a modernized linear intermix system like that of the Intrepid-class as opposed to the more common pulse-reactor design seen on most starships. While a bit more maintenance-intensive, it can handle rapid increases and decreases in power output much better and has shown excellent damage resistance, making it a good choice for a more rugged starship.; Additional Images: View from Entrance, Warp Core, Upper Level
Auxiliary Control: Like many larger starships, Minoru has a dedicated auxiliary control room. Calling it a 'battle bridge' would be overstating its granduer, however. Aux Control looks like a hybrid of a Defiant-class bridge and a runabout cockpit, with the size being decidedly closer to the former. It is quite cramped and has only handful of minimalist stations. At the front is a small viewscreen placed relatively high on the wall. The helm station is directly before it and sunk into a pit so that the commanding officer can see the screen. Along the port and starboard walls are consoles with their own screens built into the bulkheads. To port are tactical and science, and to starboard are operations and engineering. The commander is on a slightly raised seat toward the rear where he can see all of the stations. Under most alert conditions, the stations are manned by junior officer or ratings, frequently from the midwatch shift, with one of the junior watch officers in charge. If the bridge is destroyed or otherwise put out of commission, Aux Control takes over operation of the ship. For security reasons, the main bridge is capable of locking out commands from Aux Control, unless that is overridden using a command-level access control.
Sickbay: Minoru has an extensive sickbay facility for a ship its size, as it was designed with combat and disaster relief in mind. This includes several treatment wards, surgical and examination suites, and isolation rooms. The sickbay is located on Deck 6 and has almost all the same technology as a larger ship in smaller number. However, it does not have as many specialists and relies more on general physicians. This includes a modern EMH. There are also several first aid stations around the ship, and the ship carries emergency medical supplies to set up treatment wards in the cargo bays in a mass casualty situation.
Shuttlebay: The shuttlebay is on Deck 10 (high bay space on 9), with additional maintenance and storage facilities on Deck 11. Minoru's small craft are found here, including all of the fighters, runabouts, and large transports. For the sake of safety and convenience, it is broken into four areas. Bays 1 and 2 are at the aft end, and are primarily used for landing and shuttle operations. Bay 3 is the launch area at the front of the ship, and between is the Hangar. All of these areas can be isolated by pressure doors and forcefields in an emergency. The bay has a through-deck design that allows for simultaneous launches and recoveries. There are three elevators that allow access to Deck 11; however, only shuttles, hoppers, and workbees can actually fit in the lower level.
Transporter Room: Minoru has four standard six-person transporters. They have a range of 40,000 kilometers under optimal conditions. There are also four cargo transporters, which are much more efficient and can beam much more material but under normal circumstances can not transport living creatures; it is possible to transport entire shuttles with a bit of skill. Finally, there are two twenty-person emergency transporters, which have a range of only 10,000 kilometers and are only capable of dematerialization and thus can not beam people back onto the ship without extensive modifications. They were designed for evacuation purposes, but have found common use for troop landings. However, modern ships can still quickly beam numerous people aboard in an emergency, as their exterior transporter arrays have far greater capacity than the internal pads. An example of this is when the USS Voyager simultaneously beamed over 200 Klingons off an exploding ship. This is not recommended, however, at it puts severe strain on the pattern buffers, and repeated attempts without an intervening full maintenance cycle would almost certainly lead to catastrophic failure of the entire transporter system.
Crew Quarters: There are three main variations on crew quarters on Minoru. First are the senior officer's quarters. These feature a living and dining area, a separate bedroom, and a private bathroom with both a sonic shower and bath (subject to species-specific hygiene requirements). The captain and XO have slightly larger versions, and the VIP quarters also follow this model. Second are quarters for lieutenants and senior NCOs, which have only a single combined living and sleeping area. The bathroom, which has only a sonic shower, is shared with the next room over. Finally, ratings and some ensigns share quarters in pairs. They have privacy dividers between beds plus a small living area, and still share bathing facilities shared with the next room. All of this is subject to rearrangement depending on number of mission specialists, pilots, and marines aboard, interior space changes, family needs, and so on; as such, some officers may share rooms, while some ratings with special environmental needs may have private (if small) rooms. The XO, COB, and Ops department are responsible for housing arrangements.; Examples: Senior Officers' Quarters, Junior Officers' Quarters (Exact layouts vary depending on location in ship, ie catamaran hulls versus edge of saucer.)
Mess Hall and Lounges: While almost all quarters quarters have food replicators, use of these replicators is deliberately limited for most of the crew. This is not due to a lack of resources on the ship, but rather to force them to eat a majority of meals in one of the mess halls around the ship, thus improving intra-crew socialization. There are several mess halls for the officers, crew, and marines, with the main all-personnel hall on Deck 5. There are also a few lounges around the ship aimed primarily at recreation rather than eating, with the main lounge again on Deck 5. There are also some smaller recreation spaces and break rooms scattered around the ship in locations meant to improve crew efficiency. For example, on Deck 3 there is a small break room so that bridge officers can remain nearby while eating their mid-shift meal. Finally, there is a multi-purpose large group room used for, among other things, briefings, audio-visual entertainment, lectures, and musical and theatrical performances.