Guide:Alexandria

Alexandria
Class Overview
Category	corvette tender (later freighter)
Operational	2186-2236
Constructed	6
Dimensions
Length	638.1 m
Beam	167.4 m
Height	237.0 m
Mass	511,000 tons
Performance
Cruise Speed	w 3
Max Speed	w 5.5
Endurance	2 years
Complement
Officers	3
Enlisted	14
Passengers	100
Cargo	corvette tender mission 2x Pointer class corvettes tons 4x 100,000 ton deuterium tank containers 4x 75,000 ton tritium tank containers 2x munitions rearmament containers 2x refueling service containers 3x personnel community containers 1x operations center/communications container freighter mission 14x 100,000 ton transport containers 16x 75,000 ton transport containers
Tactical Systems
Beam Weapons	5x laser emitters (1.25 GW) (single banks) (forward ring) 4x laser emitters (1.25 GW) (single banks) (forward-face of rear ring) 2x plasma cannons (1.7 GW) (single banks) (bow) 3x plasma cannons (1.7 GW) (single banks) (aft-face of rear ring)
Shields	1-layer graviton/subspace globular forcefield Navigational deflector at bow
Transporters	1x GP (3-pad); Mk I 2x cargo units; Mk I
Auxiliary Craft	1x shuttlepod 6x work pods
Canonicity
Design	(DeviantArt)/modified by me
Name	Timo's Guide: Pointer class corvette
History	Timo's Guide: Pointer class corvette/myself

Even as the Pointer class corvettes were just entering service around UFP homeworlds, their capacity to complete their primary mission - to provide assistance to Federation local defense forces as well as customs and police units - was promising to be quite expandable. If they could be delivered to remote but highly important areas, they could protect shipments and maintain order within contested space, as well as provide immediate protection for civilian operations deemed critical, but not worth demanding the constant on-site vigilance of a capital ship (frigate or larger).

The problem lay with the Pointers speed and range. Warp 3.5 was deemed more than acceptable for most in-system response times, and it made even 'local' interstellar neighborhood patrols reasonable for these short-endurance vessels. However, when you need firepower on-station at a remote industrial site for 2-3 years at a time, it didn't make sense to have a corvette hopscotch between major worlds on a trek that itself could take several months (or even years, at warp 3). The Pointers were coming online at a fantastic speed and a solution was deemed to be needed as soon as possible, so the Committee for Starfleet went looking to the commercial fleets for answers.

The two Pointers milking from a corvette tender of Alexandria class seem scant protection for the Watt class tanker and two McCormick factory ships that comprise Hanolin Asteroid Reclamation Project 2-7. Yet small vessels like this were very practical in the unstable Hanoli space, where large military vessels were at constant risk, and where even small and nimble pirate craft often dared not tread.

They found it with the W Class or Senator class freighter. First unveiled in 2165, the vessel was perfect for Starfleet's needs. It utilized an open-space framework to haul around containers of almost any size, but was one of the first to be built to accommodate the newer 75,000 and 100,000 ton versions. With extremely little modifications, the ships could be bought 'off-the-shelf' and tasked with not only transporting the smaller-ranged corvettes to their destinations of assignments at a sustained speed creating than the corvettes' warp 3.5, but they could ferry the crews along, too, in conditions much more hospitable than living within those tight quarters. Additionally, with the right resources and equipment loaded alongside the piggy-backing ships, once the destination was reached, the corvettes could see their dwell time expanded from 6 months to up to 18 months (without external re-supply) by having the Alexandria mothership remain on station alongside them.

The first modification came to the aft-most section of the cargo area. Tie down points and accessways were installed to take the place of 4 of the 75k containers allocated for the dorsal spine area and reversed for the same space intended for 4 100k containers on the ventral side. Two types of semi-automated service containers were developed for the '3 Zone' just forward of the ship bays. The first carried both additional KE rockets and fusion mines, as well as storage space for spare MAWS modules, but also equipment that, when properly loaded with the munitions, would auto-feed the receptacle bays on the Pointers, even if the ship was hovering within the bay unsecured. The loading of the automated booms had to be accomplished by crew members in spacesuits, but this was no issue for the personnel of the sister ships still embarked aboard the Alexandria. Or, if no ships were currently embarked, the SMM crew was trained to provide the re-armament service. A similar setup was conceived for the 2 refueling service containers, that were feed directly by the 8 deuterium and tritium fuel containers loaded into the '2 Zone'.

Forward of all of these, in the '1 Zone, were four habitable containers designed to accommodate the embarked Pointer crews. The three personnel community containers (or 'barges' as they were colloquially known) could house, feed, entertain and sustain many more than the 100 'Fleeters' expected for long-hauls, plus they also had the free rein of the freighter's generous spaces (though the aft engineering section was considered off-limits, unless an invitation was extended). A fourth container provided an operations center, communication facilities and training classrooms for the Pointer crews.

Additional modifications included self-defense weapons. It had been argued the Pointers could themselves provide all necessary defense, but the response was that a well-informed aggressor could target an empty Alexandria on a return trip, stranding not only those just-delivered, but all corvettes the mothership may have serviced. Plus, if the ship remained on-station, having additional weapon would only benefit the operation being protected. Nine laser and five plasma cannons were installed on the bow and both rings. It was also realized that one tender could easily support up to 4 corvettes, either with all four ships carefully secured for the extent of the trip or allowing 2 to warp alongside a slightly speed-reduced tender, swapping out with the secured vessels every few weeks at relatively brief stops. More than four corvettes (up to eight) could be supported when on-station (though there was very little demand for so many co-located corvettes).

A total of six Alexandrias were procured for corvette tending by the end of 2188. As the modifications made did not subtract from the ship's cargo capacity in more than the slightest, when the Pointers were decommissioned by 2208, the tenders quickly shed their specialized containers and joined the SMM in much more mundane and typical freight transport, working alongside and in support of Starfleet for another twenty-eight years.

Gallery

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  Senator (or W Class) freighter

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