Guide:Voltara

Voltara
Class Overview
Category	cargo drone
Operational	2229 - 2288
Constructed	70
Dimensions
Length	64.5 m
Beam	23.5 m
Height	13.5 m
Mass	drone version: 4,800 tons (standard) crewed version: 5,000 tons
Performance
Max Speed	0.15 c
Endurance	5 years
Complement
Officers	drone: 0 crewed: 3
Crew	drone: 0 crewed: 9
Cargo	10,500 tons
Tactical Systems
Beam Weapons	drone: none high security model: 2x phaser III emitters (dorsal bow)
Shields	1-layer conformal forcefield Navigational deflector (ventral bow)
Transporters	1x/2x GP (6-pad); Mk I 4x light cargo; Mk I All Starfleet units upgraded to Mk III in 2249-51
Canonicity
Design	Daniel Biringer
Name	Daniel Biringer
History	own

The Voltara (NCC-G400) cargo drone was ideally suited for the sort of duonetic environment that reduced warp drive performance and hampered transporter operations. It performed obvious roles in supplying installations, expeditions, and fledgling colonies in star systems where such conditions were prevalent.

In its basic configuration, this advanced drone was a simple box 64.5 by 23.5 by 10.0 meters in dimensions, capable of taking aboard small cargo through twin stern airlocks, pumping in fluids to onboard tanks, and carrying significant loads externally. Its four inboard impulse engine pods were mounted in the corners of the lower deck. A navigational deflector and sensor array sat at the bow, and some support machinery at stern. Yet the space requirements of this type of machinery were minimal, and most of the deck was dedicated to cargo, with liquid tanks on both sides and a small control room for crew-supervised operations at forward center. Two pads for the centralized transporter system allowed internal shuffling of cargo, including outsize pieces. There was a turbolift system as well, with a vertical shaft going up from the control room and an open horizontal rail extending aft along the cargo hold centerline.

The next deck up formed the second open cargo area, served by a third transporter pad and quickly configurable to a variety of needs. The forward one-fifth, provided with viewports, might become a lounge area if the drone were to ferry passengers; the side tanks might hold anything from foodstuffs to industrial waste fluids; and the centerline spaces could be sectioned off or combined into a fabricator flats that would turn the drone into a flying manufacturing center.

Fixed facilities on the forward half of the third deck up included a bow-mounted personnel transporter platform and thirteen individual holds, each configurable into a passenger cabin if needed. The aft half held the cargo transfer airlocks, the larger two capable of receiving a container five meters on the side, the smaller four ideally suited for work pods and other small craft. Above this deck was a superstructure 19 m long and 5 m wide, holding the flight control computer and a dorsal sensor dome. On some variants, this was surrounded by facilities for extended crew-supervised operations, allowing the installation of diverse gear such as laboratories, sensors, airlocks and stores for construction and maintenance work, or self-defense armament.

The exterior surfaces were provided with clamps for further five-meter containers, 21 on the ventral side and up to 18 on the dorsal (reduced to 12 if the wide superstructure were shipped). Spatial operations with external and fluid cargo only were typically uncrewed; personnel would only be needed for transferring the cargo, often with work pods carried onboard in the four small airlocks. Planetary supply missions in turn typically involved internal cargo only, leaving the drone capable of landing on a prepared surface.

Seemingly over-engineered for any specific application, the standardized drone was still so inexpensive to manufacture that it could be fielded in great numbers and applied on basically any job at hand. Few users ripped out the useful internal divisions altogether; conversions to pure fluid or bulk tankers were rare. Even the simplest supply barges sometimes saw crewed operations. Logistics Command ended up procuring seventy vessels (NCC-G400-469), all of the most complete equipment standard available. Nominally complementing the recently acquired Sherman warp drones, the Voltaras played an important evaluation and training role as Star Fleet adopted this new type of logistics operations. Up to 200 hulls of Voltara type were subsequently manufactured for actual commercial use.

Yet the increasing technological sophistication of drones and barges eventually outmoded this model of operations. In addition to all the bells and whistles of a Voltara, a modern sublight cargo drone of the 2260s would come to sport full impulse engines and atmospheric and rough-field capabilities. A counterpart from the 2280s could have miniature warp drive on board as well. Low-sublight propulsion remains in use on 'big and dumb' applications such as in-system ore or deuterium carriers. Multipurpose drones have not featured this limited propulsion for the better part of a century, however.

Gallery

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Notes

• I just don't like the idea of a one-off sublight drive being introduced, especially without precedent within the Spacedock rules, so any reference to such has been removed from this article. The sublight capability was also reduced from 0.75 c to 0.15 c, to allow for the stated full impulse capability (0.25 c) of the succeeding drone.

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• Appendix D: Abbreviations From Outside