When the U.S.S. Voyager, registry number NCC-74656, returned to the Alpha Quadrant after being lost in the Delta Quadrant for seven years, Starfleet Command was surprised to find a pair of major technological developments installed on her. These developments were then fitted to the U.S.S. Anasazi, NCC-62001, as part of a testing and development program to determine feasibility of usage within the fleet. This report deals with one of those developments, deployable regenerative ablative armor.
In brief, this is basically a “why didn’t I think of this?” development! The technology currently exists everywhere in the Federation, just employed in a different and clever manner for this advancement.
During a temporal incident that led to the Voyager’s recovery, one VADM Janeway (temporal), went back into time to effect that recovery. During the incursion, she caused this technology to be installed to increase the Voyager’s survivability. The modifications persisted even after the ship arrived in this time and spatial coordinate. After study, the modifications were installed on Anasazi.
The armor technology consists of industrial transporter and replicator systems, heavy duty energy transfer conduits used to power the systems, a suitable mass of minerals to be replicated into ablative armor plating, heavy duty connection and load bearing points for the armor itself, new reference coordinate plotting, and CAD/CAM engineering to design the systems and armor plates themselves. The reader will note that all of these systems are found at any repair shipyard or industrial facility. It is only in their unconventional use that we find the genius of the technology.
First, computer aided design/computer aided manufacturing is used to design the power, replication, and transport ancillaries to support the making and placing of the armor, as well as the armor pieces themselves. Then hull hardpoints and mounts, and replication/transporter antennae are manufactured and installed. Power is connected to the heavy duty replicators and transporters for the armor. Once in place, further tests and simulations are run to insure the system’s function. Then reference coordinates are plotted for each piece of armor. One these are determined, a full-up test of the system is run and debugged. Then structural integrity field and warp field parameters are revised for the in flight armor mode. More testing and debugging follows. Then a full deployment test is run.
The sequence is as follows: After receiving a deployment command, the system powers the replicator phase, and de-molecularizes a mineral quantity sufficient to create the first armor panel. The panel dimensions and composition are called up from stored memory, and transporter functions materialize each panel outside of the ship, along the hull in the proper position. As the panel forms, the nearby panels are sequenced in order behind the first, with each panel going from ghost level to solidity, in such a way as to molecularly bond with the previous panel, in a process called phase transition bonding. The panels appear somewhat segmented, but are actually one piece throughout due to the bonding effect. As they are formed, the panels capture and seat themselves along the hull hardpoints and mounts. Also, any necessary ports and panel openings are formed during the process. Weapon ports, such as the torpedo bay, are mechanized to allow opening and closing.
Similar to the re-entry tiles of the United States Space Shuttle of the 1980’s, but much tougher and damage resistant, ablative armor dissipates energy and inertial impact by ablating, or burning off. This system can replace lost thickness by replicating and phase transition bonding new material onto the damaged surface. It is impervious to tractoring, as well; molecules of the armor can be sloughed off into the tractor beam at a rate high enough to prevent locking on to the main body of the vessel. Only the finite quantity of stored minerals limit the initial deployment or the amount of armor repair. When the quantity is exhausted, normal regenerative electromagnetic shielding can take over the ship’s protection.
An old technology turned on it’s ear, this armoring is proving to be an effective way to extend defensive ability on vessels in critical situations, giving a second line of defense to ships and their crews.