U.S.S. Javelin NCC-3723:

Crew: 535 [Maximum: 600]

Officers: 45

N.C.O.'s: 490

Cruising Warp: 6.

Maximum warp: 8.

Height: 86m.

Width: 175m.

Length: 310m.

Phasers: 12 Turrets.

Torpedo Launchers: 3 [2 Foward, 1 Aft].

Torpedo Compliment: 100.

Warp Engines: MARA

Impulse Engines: Standard

Computer System: DCLD - Duotronic Computer Library Database [Author's Note: Later upgraded to LCARS]

Expected Duration: 100 Years

Time Between Resupply: 3 Years

Time Between Refits: 5 Years

Shuttlecraft: 5 [Various types]

Starship primary mission: Planetary and Deep-Space Exploration.

Designation: Heavy Cruiser

The Mission:

The Javelin is on a scientific mission to study the Tzenkethi and their Coalition. Starfleet Command has become aware of the Tzenkethi exploring beyond their borders. The region is one of rising tensions recently. Destroyers and strike cruisers have been allocated to the region to enhance the security along the border with the Tzenkethi. This area of the Alpha Quadrant has gone from a quiet backwater to a tense one following the loss of U.S.S. Excelsior in 2308. What could not be defended one-on-one would be achieved in sheer numbers. Scout vessels of Kestrel, Phantom, Trista, T'lani, Endurance and Antares classes have been allocated: Starfleet wants knowledge and security in the region.

The Fifth Fleet is one of the newer generation of fleets, along with the Rimward ('Southern') Sixth Fleet, Klingon border Seventh Fleet and the remote Eighth Fleet near to the Hydran border. Starfleet took the loss of Captain Hikaru Sulu and the Excelsior to be an opportunity to re-organise Starfleet ready for the Twenty-Fourth Century. The Fifth Fleet was a sub-division of the Alpha Quadrants' Fourth Fleet, based in Cait, and historically the fleet that addressed the Tholian border - most famously for the Taurus Reach campaign of the 2260s. The new Fifth Fleet would be based at Trill and assignmentsw to this new fleet are prized by Starfleet personnel wanting to face new, unknown challenges away from the usual Romulan, Klingon and Tholian borders.

Starships like Javelin and Miranda class Venerable are amongst the pioneers opening up this region of space and creating new relationships with the nations on this new frontier. Hellespont Station oversees much of this exploration of the Alpha Quadrant, under Admiral John Harriman. The Fifth Fleet headquarters on Trill are close enough for starships to explore virgin territory whilst also available to defend this important region from piracy and other threats. The two main nations along this Alpha Quadrant border are the Tzenkethi Coalition and the Cardassian Union. Little is known about either of these two races. The Federation Science Council has sought, since the signing of the Khitomer Accords, to re-dress this imbalance. On one of these assignments the flagship U.S.S. Excelsior was declared missing, presumed lost.

With the loss of Excelsior in proximity to the Tzenkethi border, an official First Contact with that nation was made a priority by the Federation Council. Cursory contacts had been made over the previous decade and Starfleet felt that it was time for a formal overture to be made. The Federation Council believed Ambassador Spock, fresh from success with the Klingon Empire, would be the ideal candidate. This decision was made as much by the volunteering of Ambassador Spock for the assignment. After monitoring their open channels and low-key ice-breaking, Ambassador Spock and Doctor Leonard McCoy joined Excelsior class U.S.S. Farragut in 2312 to travel to Ab-Tzenkanth. The Farragut was escorted to the Tzenkethi Homeworld and a formal First Contact was made. As part of the proceedings, Doctor McCoy and a Tzenkethi Medic studied each other out of curiosity. It was shortly after scanning Ambassador Spock that they ended the proceedings and requested that the Federation starship and delegation all leave. Immediately.

Ambassador Spock analysed the failure of this diplomatic mission closely, concluding it was the results of the medical scan by the Tzenkethi medic that had resulted in the termination of the meeting. He concluded that it was his hybrid status as half-Vulcan and Human tht had somehow unsettled the Tzenkethi. Further cultural studies would be needed to aid in follow-up diplomatic efforts. Spock had never considered his genetic make-up to be a liability as an ambassador, until now. Javelin and Venerable represent the tip of this renewed effort to explore, learn and understand about the cultures and their relationships.