Hello all!
Ric here covering a new type of vessel introduced in Star Trek lore that seems to occupy a pivotal
point in the development of faster than light travel, the USS Dauntless!
So, while there is a Federation vessel called the Dauntless, its origin owes much to the
false Dauntless created as a trap for the crew of Voyager.
So starting with the origin of that vessel, 2373 saw the crew of Voyager make a temporary
alliance with the Borg Collective in order to pass through their space while dealing
with Species 8472.
This saved the Borg from a threat that could have overwhelmed them, although 8472 may not
have stopped with the Borg.
However, one of the next systems to fall to the Borg was Species 116 who had been successfully
fending off the Borg for centuries.
Only 20,000 escaped assimilation and one such individual was linguist and cryptologist,
Arturis on board a vessel constructed by his species.
This ship had two major advancements over Starfleet levels of technology, the Particle
Synthesis systems and the Quantum Slipstream Drive.
Particle Synthesis allowed the vessel to remap and reshape its interior and exterior in limited
fashion, a form of advanced holographic technology.
This allowed the vessel to appear to be of Federation design.
The Quantum Slipstream Drive was a method of travel that was equivalent to high warp
9 factors, covering sixty thousand lightyears in only three months.
Arturis’s plan was to intercept a message from Starfleet and direct the crew of Voyager
to the Dauntless, posing as a Federation vessel that would grant them a faster trip home.
After transferring the crew to it, the course was locked to deliver them to the heart of
Borg territory in vengeance for the loss of his people and Voyager’s involvement.
While the plan failed, the crew of Voyager managed to get incredibly detailed looks at
the QSD technology and in 2375 they had some limited success in replicating it.
The QSD Voyager made had to be shutdown to avoid disaster, but they still used it to
shave 10 years off their journey.
When Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant, it had the technology within it and it became
the subject of much scrutiny by Starfleet R and D. Under Rear Admiral Janeway, the Dauntless
was replicated, this time by the real Starfleet and the initial prototyping of the slipstream
drive began.
In real life, the original false Dauntless was created by Rick Sternbach and designed
to have the Starfleet silhouette but a very different and more alien shape, hinting at
its non-Starfleet origin.
Therefore, it followed the arrowhead shape established by the Intrepid class, but with
more organic curves and detailing.
In place of a deflector array, it had a series of grills which featured as part of the QSD
system and the smoothed domed designs were created to move effectively at these velocities.
After a concept was established, a more copper colour scheme was considered.
The new Dauntless was then created as a vessel for Star Trek Prodigy and approached as a
deliberate attempt to recreate the alien vessel.
The ship was made with a more metallic finish than Arturis’ ship, the nacelle shape and
rear hull was completely different, but the saucer and QSD systems were basically the
same.
I’ve seen people asking why would Starfleet copy the fake Dauntless but in universe, this
too is exactly what the point was.
The new Dauntless looks so similar to the fake one because Starfleet was sticking with
what it knew worked, Voyager had days and complete access to the original.
As Starfleet becomes more comfortable with Quantum Slipstream technology, they branched
out into newer designs and incorporating it into their new vessels, but with the prototype
for the tech, they basically played it safe.
The vessel’s recreation was headed by B’elanna Torres under Admiral Janeway’s oversight,
alongside other projects such as the Protostar FTL drive.
This gave the Dauntless the designation of a science vessel and testbed.
The initial USS Dauntless was field tested in 2383 and 84, and required Benamaite crystals
in the core to function, a rare resource that could be synthesised but took years to do
so.
This made the QSD a promising technology, but a highly limited one until better sources
of the rare mineral could be located, or creation perfected.
The Dauntless NX-80816 was commissioned in 2384 and registered with an NCC prefix before
being dispatched to locate Captain Chakotay and the USS Protostar.
The Dauntless was larger than the original, making it approximately 300 metres in length,
so about one third larger.
The vessel had a completely functional slipstream drive, of course, but this was actually one
of the more advanced in the fleet; a fully dedicated drive.
The future implementation of such technology was actually scaled back somewhat, with the
burst drive being far more common, a drive used for limited sprints at QSD velocities
and there are two limiting factors.
The longer a quantum slipstream journey, the more chance of fatal errors occuring, and
the rarity of Benamite.
So while the Dauntless had an effective drive, Starfleet development of the technology is
still ongoing, but becoming more common with ships like the Odyssey class and Pathfinder
both implementing it.
It seems starfleet could make a proper Slipstream powered ship, but that’s not a stable bet
at the turn of the 25th century.
As for standard warp speeds, it could keep up with the Protostar’s maximum speeds so
at least warp 9.97.
Its impulse drives were on the rear of the saucer and allowed for decent sublight speeds,
although this was not the vessel’s forte.
It had four torpedo launchers, two fore and two rear facing.
Because of the placement of the QSD, the Dauntless’s torpedo launchers were moved to the saucer
section and it seemed to lack phaser strips, instead utilising the older phaser banks.
Although it did have four strips below the saucer in the recessed section.
I assume it had rear facing banks too, however I could not locate any, and either way, the
minimal armaments shows this vessel’s priorities.
Although it could pack a punch with the minimal armaments it did have, combat was clearly
not its focus, with its poor coverage.
One detail which I kinda like although it impacts nothing, is that the red Starfleet
stripes livery was actually neon on the Dauntless.
The Dauntless is most likely a one off ship and although commissioned, this was likely
only in the face of the mission to locate the USS Protostar.
As a test bed for QSD functionality, it replicated what Starfleet knew worked and allowed them
greater insights into this new system which was gradually being implemented fleet-wide.
By the end of the 25th century, it was not uncommon for ships to have slipstream capabilities,
but they were often relegated to burst drives as the technology evolved, with this class
being a necessary stepping stone.
Although one was glimpsed in a potential battle of Procyon V in the original fake configuration,
so maybe more were made.
I’ve been Ric, thanks for watching this breakdown of the Dauntless class and I’ll
see you next time for another lore video, thanks again and goodbye!