Presidium Class
The Presidium-class station is a medium-sized station intended to support orbital operations, either as stand-alone facilities or components of larger fleet yards and starbases. Most of their volume is given over to living quarters and office space rather than extensive fuel and consumable storage, so they cannot be built too far from the Federation's main shipping and supply lines. These facilities are ubiquitous, efficient, and generally unremarkable.
Layout
In theory, Presidium-class stations could be built in a variety of configurations, because their upper modules similar to those on other small and medium Starfleet stations, but this class is almost always built in exactly the same configuration of four upper modules and four lower modules to simplify construction and operations. While other Starfleet installations are often likened to fungi, the Presidium has a barbell shape, with a central spire connecting two identical hemispheric modules. Beneath the upper hemisphere are four small, circular modules. Above the lower module are four roughly-spherical modules.
Hemispheres
The two hemisphere modules are identical to one another, each containing a large central shuttlebay with four space doors at 90 degree angles. These hangers are five decks tall and can handle ships as large as a Raven-class corvette and most small Federation freighters. There is a five-deck band of windows around the equator of each hemisphere, which contain the majority of the station's long-term civilian housing. Within this area are four runabout pads in each hemisphere, each capable of handling one of the station's runabouts as well as a visiting vessel. The remainder of the space in these modules is used for fuel storage, cargo operations, and recreation facilities. Both hemispheres have towers of sensor equipment at their poles.
Central Spire
The central spire connects the two hemispheres and most of its volume is taken up by structural members. The station's fusion reactors are located at the points where the hemispheres connect. The remainder of the spire contains additional quarters, labs, and administrative offices.
Upper Modules
The upper modules are each ten decks high are used for short and medium-term project space, such as science or engineering labs. They can also be configured as hospitals or additional housing, depending on the station's needs. They are attached to a ring around the central spire. These four modules also each have one of the station's main docking ports.
Lower Modules
The lower modules contain most of the station's operations and mission-specific functionality. Unlike other stations, operations is not at the top of the station, but in one of the four lower modules. In the standard configuration, there is a module devoted each to command & operations, science, medical, and engineering support. These modules each have three small shuttle bays and three docking ports, as well subspace communications equipment, all of which support that particular module's mission. For example, the engineering support module will use its shuttle bays to send out workbees or inspection pods to visiting starships, while the medical module has triage facilities immediately adjacent to its own hangers. Crew for each department are also housed in the same module in which they work. These modules connect to the central spire to a larger ring than the upper module, and this ring contains the station's promenade, with extensive recreation and dining facilities, as well as some civilian tenants.
Engineering
Of all of the station classes currently in service, the Unity is one of the newest. It incorporates major advances in construction techniques and maintenance protocols that make it a relatively low investment of resources despite its size. All compartments have holographic capabilities, and the station largely uses holographic computer interfaces. Like contemporary stations, this design has many modules that are serviceable or replaceable from the outside, which is intended to allow individual sections to be improved as new technologies come into service. Sixteen powerful thruster arrays in the central core keep the station in position, or can be used to move it when needed. Primary power comes from the four reactors in the lowest levels of the station, which are safe, easy to operate, and long-lasting. These reactors give the station enough power to comfortably operate all of its defensive systems simultaneously and keep the station's docking operations well-supplied.
Docking & Cargo Facilities
The Presidium-class station is not intended to directly handle complex repairs or resupply tasks, as it lacks both large internal bays and extensive consumable storage, but it is adept at supporting small craft traffic through two large shuttle bays in the hemispheres for visiting traffic and a total of sixteen docking bays for starships. Because of the station's relatively compact diameter, it can only support a limited number of large vessels through physical connections. The station's cargo handling facilities are optimized for receiving and temporary storage of items before they are either beamed down to the planet they orbit or sent down on cargo shuttles. They are also excellent staging facilities or waystations for moving cargo between starships.
Presidium-class stations also directly support starship construction and maintenance by serving as housing and administrative facilities for the Federation's largest shipyards. Before it was destroyed, Utopia Planitia had no fewer than a dozen of these stations, for example.
Defensive Capabilities
Compared to other stations, Presidium-class stations are lightly armed, with phaser arrays ringing the top and bottom of the two hemispheres and the four large modules. These arrays provide good coverage, but the station lacks torpedo launchers. This is more than sufficient for a station that is often only one component of a larger base, but when they are the only orbital presence for a colony or starbase, they're often surrounded by defensive platforms if they are in contested areas. They also use their runabouts to multiply their defensive abilities. Generally speaking, by the time an enemy gets to a station of this class it has often had to go through a gauntlet of other stations and starships.
Population & Stationboard Life
With a crew of a thousand, Presidium-class stations are major commands and have the full range of mission specialists and support staff you would expect at a Starfleet facility. They are not generally sector command outposts, though, and so generally are not commanded by flag officers, and most are commanded by commanders or captains. Stations as part of larger bases may even be led by lieutenant commanders subordinate to the central station or shore facility. Many of these stations support shipyards and so their crews commute from the station to drydocks and other facilities for their work-shifts, either by transporter or shuttle. This makes them almost the spaceborne equivalent of suburbs, as the majority of the station's population leave during the day and return at night. On stations that provide the orbital presence for a ground facility, the opposite might be true: many of the crew may live on the surface and commute to orbit for their work shifts.
These stations have the full range of recreational opportunities found on any station, including holodecks, small arboretums, and a well-equipped promenade, but they feel like a town in space more than a city in space to most. Accommodations are of a high standard, with even crewmen having their own quarters. Medical facilities are comprehensive, and even oversized for the station's population, as they are intended to also support visiting crews and handle medical emergencies.
Stations of this class can house civilian populations, but this is only common on stations operating alone; the space that would be used by civilians on stations supporting shipyards is taken up by either visiting starship crews or additional engineers instead. They do often house civilians working for the Federation or for Starfleet, though, and almost all of them have at least a small population of folks who run various bars, restaurants, and shops on their promenades. They're not an ideal choice for long-term living or raising a family, compared to larger stations or planetary colonies, though.
Presidium-class stations are often sleepy assignments for those crewmembers that spend any time there, since the real work of many of their crews is on a planet's surface or in a shipyard, but this can be a welcome change of pace for anyone who's spent too much time on the frontier. The silhouette of this station is emblematic of life in the Federation's core and it is welcome to see on approach because it means that you're once again in a safe area. Indeed, someone who lives here but works somewhere else might see this station as a home more than an assignment.
While all of these stations share the same basic external configuration, a number of them have been equipped to serve in specialized roles, such as hospital stations or large research stations. These installations have a much different character, as they are substantially larger than the Regula or Anchorage-class stations also used as research bases. They feel like universities in space, and the high concentration of science personnel creates an atmosphere that magnifies enthusiasm and curiosity.
History
While Starfleet's inventory of small and large stations had adequately been supporting orbital operations for the better part of half a century by the 2340s, there remained gaps in the medium-sized inventory that needed to be filled. Specifically, Starfleet wanted a better solution for a station that could house a relatively large crew in a compact frame to support shipyards and to provide an orbital presence for shore facilities, a role that Regula or Anchorage-class stations could handle in light-intensity situations, but that they struggled to keep up with as traffic increased. These stations also had a lot of their volume devoted to consumables storage, something that wasn't necessary for a purely orbital facility.
Based on innovations pioneered for the Spacedock and Aurora-class spacedocks, the Starfleet Corps of Engineers developed the Presidium over the course of the 2340s, with the first units coming online in the 2350s. By the 2360s, there were dozens of these stations appearing all over the Federation, including at Utopia Planitia, and by the end of the 24th century their numbers were in the hundreds. They are about evenly split between stations built as part of larger groupings of assets, like fleet yards, and as orbital facilities for shorebound starbases. They have received regular updates over the years, including now hosting Type-XII phaser arrays.
Presidium-class stations are a solid part of Starfleet's space station inventory, but they have not turned any heads over their careers to date. They perform their functions very well, and almost every Starfleet officer has either seen or set foot on one at some point.
The Presidium-class station In-Play
- These stations are everywhere but they blend into the background; as they are really just orbital housing or office space, they're not a particularly exciting place to work in most circumstances.
- Given their crew size and the large number of these stations, it's very probable that one of your characters might have served aboard one of them at some point.
- As a story setting, these stations would be interesting either when they're being used for a specialized purpose (such as a hospital or research base) or when they're the orbital facility for a frontier colony. While Starfleet wouldn't purposefully build one in a dangerous place, perhaps political winds have shifted and a sleepy base like this suddenly finds itself in the crosshairs of something unexpected.