Chapter 36 - The (aging) Excelsior-class Starship (Patreon)

“No, that won’t be necessary. I think we need to be underway before that ship arrives though,” I answered, quickly reviewing the data on the ship and its captain. “Don’t you find it utterly ridiculous that Starfleet is still fielding a ship that was first designed and constructed in the 2280s?? Refit after refit after refit has been required to keep it somewhat up to date. It’s not like the Federation doesn’t have the resources or shipbuilding capacity to construct new ships. The Federation is going to pay in blood for fielding so many different old classes of ship that they’ve just kept refitting instead of replacing altogether.”

B’Elanna looked interested.

“I said the same thing when I was at the Academy. My thoughts were not well received,” she complained in a sour, annoyed voice. “Objectively, the resource costs in maintaining and refitting these old ships actually exceeds the cost of building new ones.”

“If I had to guess, it’s on purpose, to limit the power of Starfleet and keep it from becoming too militaristic by the member states, or some bullshit like that. They’ll wish they had more new, state-of-the-art ships before long, I guarantee it,” I said. “Anyways, Doctor, I’d like a report from you as well.”