U.S.S. Victory NCC-9754:

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:

U.S.S. Victory is part of the Third Fleet operating out of Starbase 10. The Victory was en route to Nimbus III on a tour of the Federation Defences along the Neutral Zone. Ever since the tensions with the Romulans reached their pinnacle with the Tomed Incident, and the subsequent disappearance of the Romulans behind their Neutral Zone, Starfleet has wanted to make sure the border of the Neutral Zone was reinforced to an airtight condition.

The Third Fleet, based at Starbase 10, was the principal coreward fleet of the Starfleet. Tracing its heritage back to the signing of the Coalition of Planets' charter in 2154, the Third Fleet was stood up to face the rising Romulan threat. The following year in 2155, the incident with the Ferasans and the NX-01 Enterprise cemented the decision that a dedicated coreward fleet would protect the Coalition on that side. The Third Fleet featured prominently in the Romulan War and was the fleet that maintained the defences of the Neutral Zone after hostilities ceased.

Captain George Baptiste from Tower Hamlets in London, England, is the current commanding officer of the Victory. Baptiste was an engineer before he found his calling in command. Baptiste has served on several starships before attining the rank of captain with the Victory, these include the T'Lani, Kongo, Capetown, Nokoni and Resolution. Baptiste is the descendent of the famous late 21st Century boxer who stayed in Tower Hamlets where his family had emigrated to a century beforehand. He used his winnings to improve the area and it is now one of the sought after places for appartments.

Baptiste took that spirit of taking one's own fortune to improve life for others and applied it to his Starfleet career. He has a wife and three children and lives to be an example to them of what good things can be achieved. Baptiste likes to divide his shoreleave with spending time back in London, but also he likes to travel back to Trinidad, where his family came from to enjoy the fruits of the sunshine and an island paradise away from the hardship of work. Whilst Baptiste looks towards the future, he is also keen to ensure the past is never forgotten.

Author's Notes:

U.S.S. Victory appeared in one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation - "Elementary, My Dear Data". Just one brief scene at the end of the episode. Given this was the second appearance of the Constellation class model - which has only ever worn three identities of Stargazer, Hathaway and the the World Tour, Valkyrie - then the model was still wearing her markings as Stargazer in this appearance. This would explain the only brief shot of her at the end is this rather long shot.

This was the previous assignment of Geordi La Forge before becoming helmsman on the Enterprise-D. As the season four episode "Identity Crisis" showed, the legacy of some of his adventures on the Victory in 2362 would come back to haunt him and Susanna Leijten in 2265. Captain Zimbata was the commanding officer throughout this time and La Forge would make the captain a large model of namesake HMS Victory.

The Victory remained in service up until at least 2374 when it was attacked by Dominion forces. Losses include Commander Grace Kenney, Lieutenant Matata Kimya, Lieutenant Alan Kobayashi and Ensign Beverley Kurts. Other information suggests she was at Wolf 359, although the forty ships there have been more than covered. Victory was also in a deleted scene from TNG: Chain of Command, part one.

The Third Fleet idea for me came from the basis of major threat forces facing the Coalition of Planets during Star Trek: Enterprise era. The First Fleet was the Home Fleet, protecting Earth and the central core worlds of the Coalition. The Second Fleet would face the Klingons. After the events of "Broken Bow" and Klaang, there would need to be a fleet dedicated to protecting that side - especially as tension with the Klingons rose towards ST: Enterprise seasons 3 and 4. The Third Fleet would face the Romulans, that major threat that coalesced in Season Four Star Trek: Enterprise and would have built up in Season Five to the Romulan War. The Third Fleet would form to face the threat from that direction.

The Kzinti - or Ferasans to use their new name in the Star Trek universe - would have appeared in Season Five of Star Trek: Enterprise in "Kilkenny Cats" as a returning force in the universe. The appearance of the Patriarchy in this corner of the universe would have been a second reason to have a dedicated fleet in this region. The Third Fleet has the Romulans and Patriarchy as the two principal hostile forces in its juristiction. Starfleet Command is now looking to raise the Tenth Fleet in the coreward direction to push into the Beta Quadrant. Until then, the Third Fleet is the coreward frontline.

I had to decide were the Third Fleet would be based, and perhaps the headquarters have moved over time. Starbase 10 made sense as the headquarters, especially given its location near the Romulan border. The Third Fleet in the Interim Years has just been at the sharp end of the Romulan tensions of the first decade of the Twenty-Fourth Century. Star Trek has not, up until now, explained why relations between the Federation and the Romulans deteriorated so badly from the high of Star Trek V and the diplomatic relations in Star Trek VI to the Tomed Incident that would suggest almost the brink of war.

The Lost Era novel "Serpents on the Ruins" by David R. George III spoke of the growing hostilities between the Romulans and the Federation. Admiral John "Blackjack" Harriman senior was killed in the resulting confrontation. By 2313 the Third Fleet is still 'twitchy' after the Romulan confrontation and is suspicious of their disappearance. Is it for a few months or is it going to be for another century?

The Third Fleet covers both the Ferasan Patriarchy and Romulan Star Empire and has Starbase 10 and Starbase 25 "Temperence" as two of the most dangerous assignments in the Starfleet. Constellation class starships like the Victory and Nimrod are assigned to push back the frontier and explore what is over the horizon before colonisation. The endurance of the Constellation class makes it uniquely suited to deep space missions of this nature.

U.S.S. Victory was mentioned in Starship Creator as having escaped from a plasma streamer feeding into a Black Hole, thanks to Lieutenant (junior grade) Suzanna Leijten. She was then assigned to a four-year mission to bolster the Romulan Neutral Zone defences from 2361 - 2365. The Victory crew also was said to include Lieutenant (junior grade) Natasha Yar as the junior security chief - before her assignment to the Enterprise-D.

This page and the inclusion of the Victory was to show earlier on in her illustrious career. Just as HMS Victory did more than just the Battle of Trafalgar, U.S.S. Victory was involved in many different exploration voyages and discoveries, First Contacts and much more.

HMS Victory and the legend of the Battle of Trafalgar plays out in the Star Trek universe in many references: the starships Victory and Ambassador class NCC-10532 Horatio (named for Nelson) from season one Next Generation episode "Conspiracy", as well as Picard touring the Enterprise-D in "Best of Both Worlds" in the tradition of Nelson before a hopeless battle. Nelson may have died but the battle was won. Starfleet does not glorify war, but it does honour the traits of courage and honour that Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson personifies in history.

The period between James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard is one of Excelsior class, Constellation class and Ambassador class: pushing back the unknown and finding answers. By the time it appeared in TNG, the Victory was eighty years old and her last appearance was a ship that was ninety years old.

The unique design with twin warp core and the ability to alternate between pairs of warp nacelles means that this starship design has the endurance to push deeper into the darkness with manned missions. From the Wrath of Khan-era uniforms and mentality to the First Contact TNG uniforms with the grey shoulders and black uniforms, the Constellation class starships like Victory have seen tham all. This ship personifies the Star Trek eras from one to the other.