Stardate 8381.3, somewhere between the Sol and Alpha Centauri systems. A critical systems failure had caused the Excelsior to fall violently out of transwarp with a terrible jolt. Something had gone seriously wrong. Fiery plasma streamed from the transwarp nacelle field grilles and pylon purge vents. In engineering, klaxons provided an unwelcome reminder of the impending disaster. On a rather irregular final test flight in the most recent series of flights, that Captain Styles had insisted was unnecessarily dangerous, Excelsior had reached speeds in excess of warp fourteen, but the transwarp core had developed a coolant leak. Engineers had scrambled to try to fix the problem as the ship continued to accelerate, but the problem only became worse. Captain Styles finally had to order the crew to forcibly shut down the transwarp core while still at warp speed and eject the antimatter pods. As the Excelsior began to fall to subluminal speeds, the pods fell behind and exploded in a brilliant, dramatic display of matter/antimatter annihilation, the shockwaves gently rocking the ship. No catastrophic damage was sustained from the explosion, but the damage that had already occurred to the transwarp coils and related subsystems was serious by itself. The transwarp core was vented, but fused into a useless heap in the process. Moments later, the Constitution-class U.S.S. Lexington, which had been following the Excelsior from a safe distance to observe the test flight, arrived on the scene to offer aid. Excelsior had to wait over twelve hours for two tow-ships to arrive and tractor her back to Spacedock.
Captain Styles sat disheartened in his chair on the bridge throughout the entire journey back to Earth, maintaining silence except for the occasional order. This had been the third and most catastrophic failed test of the transwarp drive. Each time, Excelsior had failed to pass warp fourteen without an incident. The first two times the power surge and subsequent overload had been contained, but this time was far worse. The Excelsior would have to return to Dry Dock for months of repair and refit to her power transfer conduits and transwarp coils and the installation of a new transwarp core. Styles was beginning to get worried. He feared that Mr. Scott had done them a favor when he had sabotaged the ship’s engines months prior. Styles met with derision from some of his colleagues, and the nicknames “Spacedock Styles” and “Styles Without Substance” soon came to refer to the Captain’s (and his ship’s) false starts.
Meanwhile, the decision was made to provide James Kirk and his crew a new Enterprise to replace the loss of the previous ship and honor them for saving Earth during the Whalesong Crisis. Though the original intention was to have the second Excelsior become the new Enterprise, the Excelsior‘s problems had delayed her sisters’ construction, and Starfleet’s and the public’s doubts about the class prodded the Admiralty to rethink their decision. At the same time, an historic moment was occurring as the last production Constitution class ship sat in her dry dock nearly finished, years after the others had been built. Built from reclaimed ‘leftovers’ after the end of the Constitution refit cycle, she was meant to be a testbed for implementing new technology developed for the Excelsior project to refits for the Constitution class. By executive order, this ship was redesignated U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701-A, and became the unofficial flagship of the Federation, performing various high-level diplomatic and political missions, and setting the precedent for later Starships Enterprise to be declared the official flagship. (As an interesting historic side note, due to the presence of the U.S.S. Yorktown in Spacedock at the same time, some came to believe that this was the ship renamed Enterprise.) After a shakedown cruise, she soon departed on a five-year mission.
By the beginning of 2285, Excelsior had been fitted with three separate pairs of transwarp nacelles and two different transwarp intermix chambers. None of them managed to propel the ship past the transwarp barrier. Starfleet engineers began to believe that the problem laid in the dilithium used in the transwarp core, which began to disintegrate at higher warp frequencies. On each test run, the ship had reached speeds in excess of warp fourteen, nearly tearing herself apart on several occasions. Indeed, this was another separate problem – engineers began to doubt whether the ship would actually be able to maintain transwarp speed, if it was actually ever achieved, without destroying itself. The engine core repeatedly began to overload and was shut down, repeatedly throwing the ship out of warp and requiring days of repairs. Each time the transwarp intermix chamber could not be powered high enough to propel the ship beyond the transwarp barrier without seriously damaging the ship. Fortunately, there were no core breaches. However, transwarp still remained beyond reach even through dozens of more flights. Captain Styles was completely embarrassed, and Doctor Wesley was at wits’ end. Both quietly admitted the same fear: Starfleet had engineered a failure. Finally, the Admiralty had enough.
Starfleet feared the embarrassment of having to announce the Transwarp Development Project a failure. Doctor Thorndyke’s career would likely suffer little damage from the fiasco, as he had engineered many great successes before Excelsior, and would continue to do so for many years. Excelsior flight data eventually did provide a different breakthrough for Dr. Wesley; he discovered nine progressively higher threshold leaps in warp field power requirements that did not correspond with the previously utilized cubed warp scale. Following this math, he uncovered what appeared to be a tenth and final warp jump. Between the newly discovered ninth and tenth jumps, increases in speed required an exponentially increasing demand for power. Dr. Wesley eventually concluded that the unreachable tenth warp velocity jump would result in an apparent state of infinite velocity which would allow a starship to mathematically exist in all points in the universe at once. The warp scale would soon be re-calibrated, with Warp Ten at the top of the scale. The remainder of Doctor Wesley’s career would be a quiet one. His lasting legacy would be the ultimate adaptation of his modified warp scale throughout the Federation and much of the rest of known space. The name ‘Eugene’s Limit’ would come to be the common name for the unreachable Transwarp Barrier.
The Admiralty had halted the construction of the next two Excelsior class ships, the first of which was well into the framing stage, and the second only into initial parts production, and Excelsior sat powered down in Spacedock as the authorities at Starfleet Command debated what was to be done with her. Even in defeat, even without any official public announcement, Excelsior quickly became a principal source of dispute again. Many in Starfleet wanted to dismantle Excelsior, recycle her remaining components, and try to forget about this embarrassing chapter of their history while pursuing a new, more conventional replacement for the Constitution class. There was never any real chance of this; Command knew it would be seen as wasteful and politically disastrous. They pointed out that while Excelsior had failed to achieve transwarp, the speeds she had achieved were nonetheless record-breaking. This argument managed to sway Admiral Cartwright. In what may be the greatest face-saving maneuver in history, Starfleet Command used Dr. Wesley’s warp threshold discovery and warp scale recalibration to announce the success of the project. While all of the auspicious goals were not fulfilled, and transwarp drive was not actually achieved, the project had set the precedent for the next generation of engine designs, and Starfleet insisted that was what they were really after all along.
By the end of 2285, Excelsior was again crawling with work crews beginning the task of refitting her with a standard warp drive and completing her fitting-out. The work to build a new warp drive large enough to accommodate such a large vessel and then install it into an already completed ship required a great deal of ingenuity. Though publicly Starfleet wholly supported the effort, in private the brass was still skeptical of the design’s viability. Remaining equipment designed specifically for the transwarp drive was stripped and a new intermix chamber and nacelles were constructed, again under the supervision of Dr. Thorndyke. Fortunately, the engineers who had worked to create transwarp had learned much from their failed efforts and made revolutionary technological breakthroughs which went into the production of the warp drives of Excelsior and all subsequent vessels. Excelsior also received a new, state-of-the-art bridge module, completed by the addition her original dedication plaque.
In early January 2287, Excelsior was again launched from Dry Dock Seven, this time under power of standard warp propulsion and with far greater caution and apprehension. Excelsior began the second systems review and shakedown of her lifetime. All of Excelsior’s systems performed to full Level Four Review satisfaction this time, surprising and relieving both Starfleet Command and the staff at San Francisco Yards. Her engine power impressed everyone involved, as did the remainder of her scientific and tactical systems in various extensive trials. Her facilities were spacious, state-of-the-art, and well-equipped. However, Excelsior became notorious for several unforeseen quirks that would become characteristic of this first operational phase of her life. First, she retained the awkward sublight maneuverability even at full impulse which had plagued her earlier trials. Analysts commented that Excelsior “showed her size.” Additionally, at warp she seemed to be too powerful for her own good, continuing to threaten to tear herself apart under full power of her engines at speeds of warp nine (MCU) and above, developing a vibration problem evocative of those experienced by the old Constitution class. Despite these relatively minor quirks, Starfleet authorized the Excelsior for active duty as NCC-2000. Starfleet was so pleased with Excelsior’s shakedown results that it resumed construction on the two new Excelsiors that were already underway, and ordered the next three to follow contingent on the first three’s performance. The Transwarp Development Project had proven a failure, yes, but the Excelsior Class Project was now a monumental success whose historic legacy was just beginning. She was ready for her first mission.Time would tell whether Excelsior would ultimately prove worth the work and faith put in her.
Starfleet Heritage and History Command 