Scotty cleared his throat as he unrolled the old style blueprints and pushed them in front of Lohman. “Look here, lad.” He said. “I had a hard time understanding some of your notes until we started building the brute.”
Admiral Davidson sat back, sipping at his drink. There was nothing he enjoyed more than a good technical discussion.
Lohman looked at the blueprints. “Those are nice.” He said. “They change some details.”
“Every new hull requires something different, lad. Ye’ve got the interior of this ship built to face the whole Klingon fleet at once. Extra shields and deflectors. Triple thick hull skin. Extra bracing, and mighty strong bracing at that! An extra power plant. The hull will stress differently than a Constitution class or an Endeavor class. Problem is, the hull will pass the stress onto the area where the nacelles join the warp pylons.” Scott said. “That’s a fragile spot. I had to fix that.”
Lohman frowned, looking at the blueprints. “It changes my design slightly.”
“I altered it, lad. I went with the spirit of what ye intended. And because Davidson wanted this kept secret from Starfleet, I couldnae tell ye.” Scott said.
“If you don’t want the whole Starfleet to know, don’t tell the Operations Admiral. If you don’t want the outer rim races to know, don’t tell the Planning Admiral.” Davidson said.
“And if ye want the thing to work, dinnae tell the captain.” Scott said.
“If Starfleet and the outer rim races know, the Tellerites know, and the Klingons will buy the information for 2000 credits. So I neglected to tell anyone who wasn’t in the Military division. Admiral Coon doesn’t know. Admiral Trimble doesn’t know. Admiral Stiles doesn’t know. Admiral Roddenberry for sure doesn’t know.” Davidson said.
“I had a bad day when I read his article on warp engines.” Lohman said.
“It was correct, based upon the original Cochran designs.” Davidson said. “We deviated from the Cochran steam boilers back when the USS Intrepid was built. The Constitution was the only hull with the old Cochran design. We used a unique design for the Enterprise.”
“What kind was that, Admiral?” Lohman was intrigued.
“That was the Scott design.” Davidson said. “Montgomery Scott holds the patent on the design. Still using it for the Constitution-A class, just with the updated warp technology.”
“And ye still dinnae build them according to my specifications.” Scott objected.
“We built them that way now.” Davidson said.
“Not on this ship, ye dinnae.” Scott thumped the table, silverware clattering.
“What did we use for the Federation?” Lohman peered at the blueprints.
“Some new design.” Scott said. “We used the Lohman design. I found yer term paper in Engineering Technology. Rough and rusty, but I polished the sharp points off it.”
“Kept working on your ship design even after the practical joke, didn’t you?” Davidson chuckled.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know that my homework was being sent directly to Starfleet before grading.” Lohman said with a glare.
“We had our eye on you for a long time, Joseph.”
“Sounds like the usual typical Military division cloak and dagger.” Scott chuckled. “You’ll see there’s been some planning changes. The Emergency bridge runs the computer core. Ye put an emergency bridge inside the hull. Starfleet’s new method is to make a Battle Bridge instead of an emergency bridge.” Scott said. “The Federation is so big a ship, we put all three in. The others will have the same design.”
“Others?” Lohman looked up.
“Why build one at a time, when we can build three or four?” Davidson said around a mouthful of food. “Once the hull proved to work, we started on two more. Once the exterior of the Federation was functional, we started on number four.”
Lohman dropped his fork and put his head in his hands. “Excuse me. This is a bit of a rush. I play a joke, and the next thing I know is I’m finding out my daydream is a good design.”
“Not just good.” Scott said. “Ye’ve got so many good ideas in there, it’s going ta revolutionize Starship Design.”
“They’re talking about a new starship design using your ideas. It’s going to be called the Galaxy class.” Davidson said. “You’ll be retired by then.”
“Probably pick you to head the project.” Scott snorted.
“How many Dreadnoughts are we making?” Lohman asked.
“Star League and Unificatum are numbers two and three, both about a month behind the Federation. The Confederation is number four. The other seven are still in the hull casting phase. Be a couple of years before we get the next three operational. You’ll be captain of the first of twelve.” Davidson said.
“Lohman commands the class ship of his design, and Vance will be Admiral of the Dreadnought Division.” Scott said. “The Military Division’s Chief Admiral is not happy.”
“It’s a dirty job, Admiral Scott. I was picked.” Davidson said. “If it blows up in my face, I take the fall.”
“How could this blow up?” Lohman was astounded.
“Lad, there’s going ta be a furor when the news of this hits Starfleet Command.” Scott said. “I can personally think of several who’ll scream to high heaven once they find out. Roddenberry among them.”
“The command never would have allowed this a few years ago.” Davidson said. “And after Rittenhouse’s treason made the news, those who would have been on the fence have switched sides. See the Dockyard Review where Shidara questioned the need for a battlecruiser?”
“I’ll keep my opinion to myself.” Lohman said.
Davidson laughed. “Why start that now?”
“The problem is, there’s Orions. Romulans. Gorns. Klingons. Tholians. There’s a hundred races who have the ideology that might makes right.” Lohman said. “All of them willing to let the poor of their people starve to death in order to create weapons that will destroy Starfleet. And more waiting in the wings to be discovered tomorrow and the next day. If we don’t build Dreadnoughts, someone else will. Remember the motto of the Military Division of Starfleet used to be ‘Vis Pacem Per’.”
“Peace Through Strength.” Davidson translated.
Scott nodded. “Ye’re right, lad. It’s the same bunch that protested phasers on Starships. And Photon Torpedoes are a war weapon, according to that lot. Good thing Roddenberry threatened to quit if they didn’t listen.”
Davidson cleared his throat. “Lieutenant Commander Shidara represents a majority contingent in Starfleet. Roddenberry is one of them.”
“Not that Nogura will listen to their opinion!” Scott said. “Too smart for that nonsense. It’s what you get commanding a starship. Well, we’ve spent far too much time talking. Let’s let the lad get some rest, and we’ll wake him up shortly to go get his behemoth ready.”
They got up and gathered the plans up. Lohman walked to his quarters, wondering how in the world he’d ever get any sleep.
