USS Selene
USS Selene NCC-82525 is a Lamarr-class Federation starship currently assigned to Fourth Fleet's Task Force 86.
It is commanded by newly promoted Captain Olivia Carrillo follows on from the crew's continuing adventures from service aboard the USS Luna. The USS Selene supports Task Force 86’s aims of defending the Federation borders by exploring the unknown, using its advanced sensors to uncover potential new dangers, and by reaching out to new life and new civilizations that may become either allies or part of the Federation.
Design and Layout
As with other ships of the Lamarr-class the USS Selene is a variant of the Sovereign-class exploratory cruiser, specifically designed for scientific exploration beyond the boarders of the Federation. The Lamarr-class uses the explorer-sized spaceframe to a more specific scientific mission profile than its cousins the Sovereign-class and the Obena-class which is also a variant of the Sovereign.
Less well armed than the military minded Sovereign the USS Selene (like others in its class) retains the large Type-XII phaser arrays on the saucer and spread over other areas of the hull. It also has the Sovereign's signature forward-firing torpedo turret. Secondary armaments such as the various single-fire torpedo launchers were eliminated, in favor of a single aft burst-fire torpedo launcher.
Like its fellow Lamarr-class ships the USS Selene was built based off many of the learnings from the Intrepid-class USS Voyager's time spent stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Like contemporary vessels, she retains ship-wide holographic projectors and was built with bioneural circuitry, but this has since been updated to isolinear-bioneural hybrid circuitry.
The Selene has a large cetacean operations department, with room for multiple crew members. This department can host beings as large as megaptera novaeangliae (Humpback whale) who are employed as navigational and linguistic specialists.
Mission Operations
Primarily the USS Selene is assigned to Starbase 86, the headquarters of Task Force 86. From there it is dispatched on missions to investigate and explorer new regions of space, usually in the neutral zones shared with other major powers. It is also continuing the USS Luna's exploration of Romulan space a new and sometime unexplored segment of the cosmos that has been opened up to the Federation in recent years.
An important secondary task of the Selene is to act as a flying branch of Starfleet Academy, giving 100 students experience on the frontiers of the Federation. The makeup of the academy students is fourth years looking for hands on experience. The Selene's complement of students is roughly divided up as 50% science (and medicine), and 50% command, engineering, and security focused students. This is a semester, or perhaps more, that will be applied towards final grades and assignments post-graduation.