Chapter 09

Alternate Conclusions

By H.W.

Chapter 9

"Warp scales are rather complex if you are not used to working with them," B'Elanna spoke up. "Let me break it down to the extreme for you, which means that if you really look at it it's not really true, but it does get the point across."

"Alright," Kastra said amused.

"You can say that warp factors are a cascading thing," B'Elanna began. "Let's take a distance of twenty light years. At warp one that will take you twenty years. At warp two it only takes you two years. So at warp eight that twenty light-year distance that would take you twenty years at warp one will only take you seven days. With me so far?"

Kastra nodded so B'Elanna continued. "This cascading effect becomes even worse when you go over warp nine. At warp 9.9 it takes you two and a half day. At warp 9.995 it takes you 16.6 hours, and at warp 9.999 it takes 6.9 hours. So you see, the difference between Voyager's 9.94 and the Phoenix's 9.99 is actually quite big. There is no way that a Voyager class ship will be able to outrun the Phoenix class because the Phoenix class will be able to hold the extremely fast pace of 9.99 for one-and-a-half days where the Voyager class will be able to go warp 9.94 for only one hour. After that hour they will have to go back to warp 9.91, at most, while the Phoenix just keeps coming at its fast speed."

"Alright, I think I get that," Kastra said, before adding a second, 'I think,' making the people around the table laugh. "So to use my laymen's terms instead of your 'simple' explanation; yeah, it makes a hell of a difference."

"Right," B'Elanna agreed with a grin. "This is also why the speed difference we are bringing will really be such a huge thing. To the layman two or three warp factors doesn't sound like that much of a difference. But to someone that is going to buy a ship that difference is huge. As Seven said, the ships we will create will be two to four times as expensive as ships from competitors, but people will be willing to pay it because the speeds will literally take days, weeks, or even months off their travel time."

She shrugged. "It will come down to this, what will the business person want? A cheap ship which will take a month every time to travel between two places the business person has to be at every time, or the outrageously expensive ship which will bring that travel time down to a week per trip. As the old, but still fitting, saying goes; time is money... I guess credits here."

"Indeed," Seven agreed, taking back the conversation. "As I said, the Voyager class will have extra cargo bays so that business people can buy the ship and say that they bought it as a cargo ship. Of course, our line of ships would not be complete without also having a true cargo ship. We will provide that cargo ship in the form of the Enterprise class."

Seven looked at some of the people around the table before adding, "I realize that the name 'Enterprise' has a long history in the other universe. However, here that history does not exist, and I find the name 'Enterprise' quite fitting for a commercial ship."

She once again pushed a button and on the screen in front of the people around the table a ship appeared that would become the Enterprise class. "This ship is the Federation Nebula class. We will keep the structure blueprints as they are, but will remove non-structural walls and floors to create a very large cargo capability."

"Um, why don't you just use one of the blueprints of Federation cargo ships?" Kasidy asked.

"Because Federation cargo ships do not really meet the specifications we need," Seven explained. "In the Federation cargo ships are mostly unarmed and their shields are also not that impressive. As you as a former freighter captain will know only too well, the shields are mostly only to protect the ship from things that the deflector cannot cope with. So that the ship can travel through what is called the Kuiper belt in the Sol solar system for instance. Besides that their speeds are also not that advanced since they are designed for travel inside the Federation where there are speed limits in affect. Then there is also the fact that the Federation is considered safe territory and therefore weapons are not needed for cargo ships. If they ever are slotted for a journey to an unsafe sector they normally get a Starfleet escort."

"True," Kasidy agreed. "It's actually a pretty common tactic there for people that want to intercept cargo ships to attack with more than one ship. That way the escort ship might be lured away and the other ship does the intercepting. As I said, it's a pretty common tactic, but it works because Starfleet can't afford to send two escort ships with every cargo ship."

Seven nodded. "Here it is different. First of all, here there is no speed limit. The speed limits in the Federation were introduced when it became clear that the greater speeds new ships could travel at were damaging the fabric of space if a certain area was traveled through often enough; like the route to a popular solar system. Here this did not yet happen because their ship designs have not yet reached those speeds. Obviously, here this also will not happen because of the new design of ships, and because we will make it known that at higher speeds you need a certain design of ships. This so that other people that try to build fast ships will keep this in mind. Since speed is our selling point initially, we will do what we can to make sure that a speed limit will not be needed in the Coalition."

"Makes sense," Maras could only say. "The last thing you want is that you have all these fast ships and then aren’t allowed to use them."

"Indeed," Seven agreed. "Another reason why we will use the Nebula class is because here the vast majority of cargo ships are owned by individuals or companies. They want to have a ship that is capable of defending itself, has a decent speed, and can operate on its own. The Nebula class fulfils those requirements easily. With a normal cruise speed of Warp 6, maximum cruise of warp 9, and maximum rated speed of 9.4, it certainly meets the speed requirements. And her weapons and shields are even more impressive. The beam power three times as strong as that of the Voyager class, and the shields are almost three times as strong as well. Sufficing to say that this will be a cargo ship that can defend itself against all but the top law enforcement ships."

Kasidy smiled. "How I would have loved to have a cargo ship like that at times."

"With the Enterprise class we will again introduce something that does not yet exist here," Seven explained. "A cargo ship that has the weapons and shields of a heavy cruiser class ship and the speeds that surpass all ships which are not of Phoenix Alliance design. Besides the fact that the Nebula class has the speed, shield and weapon requirements we need, I have especially chosen her because she is rather compact, yet capable of transporting a lot of cargo because she has a rather bulky design. She is 442 meters long, and 318 meters wide, her width is literally 75 percent of her length. And on top of that she is 130 meters high."

"In other words, the Nebula class is almost two and a half time as wide as the Voyager class and twice as high," Tom surmised for the other people around the table. He knew the exact measurements mainly because it was pretty much mandatory for a pilot to know the exact measurements of a ship that he was piloting. If for nothing more than knowing if the ship would actually fit into a starbase's drydock.

"That's a cargo ship alright," Maras said impressed. "You could fit Voyager in there almost five times then."

"In size as well as mass," Seven agreed. "The Nebula class has 4,7 times the mass of the Voyager class. It is another 'seller' for the ship. It can carry a lot of cargo, so there is no need for a convoy of smaller ships anymore. And you do not need to have protective ships escort the convoy. Instead of convoys, companies can now start sending one ship to that one place where it is needed now, relatively speaking of course."

Seven paused for a moment to see if there were further comments. When there were none, she pushed the 'next' button again and a lot of the walls in the blueprint disappeared. "Since just like with the Voyager class, in the Enterprise class a lot of departments will not be needed, I expect that we can bring the required crew down to 100 people per ship, which is less than the standard crew size on a normal cargo ship."

B'Elanna used her own controls to zoom in on the ship's drawing. "So if I understand this correctly we will build the ship from the Nebula blueprints, except that we simply don't put any non-structural walls, floors, or anything like that in while we are building the ship?"

"Basically," Seven agreed.

"I like that part," B'Elanna admitted. "Not having to put in the non essential stuff, plus removing some departments and not needed the put in the equipment they normally need, it will drastically cut down on production times."

"You might have to put some equipment or walls in," Seven noted. "What we will do, is let the buyer decide where the cargo rooms have to be. At the moment there are crew quarters for a 750 head crew. Most of those will no longer be needed because the people that manned several departments are no longer needed. Besides that those departments themselves will no longer be needed, creating even more room. Obviously, things like engineering or the bridge will not be touched. But other than that, we will sell the ship from plans; meaning that we will show the potential owners a plan that has all the area empty that can be empty. Then the new owner can make decisions about where they would like crew quarters and the likes since obviously they know best what layout works best for their needs. Of course, we will always have suggested layouts on hand for those people that do not want to decide on every detail but merely want to point and say 'I want that configuration'."

Seeing that there were no further questions, Seven continued. "The Enterprise class will be the last ship in the line that will be sold to everyone that has the credits to pay for them. As already mentioned, there will also be the Phoenix class, but besides us building them for our own use this ship will only be sold to the species that rule the other factions; Klingon, Cardassian, Bajoran, Romulan, Betazoid, and Trill. However, there will be one more ship in our line. This ship will not be sold to individuals, but will be sold to government and planet representatives."

"Why would they bother?" Harry asked before Seven could explain the class. "I mean, you have these factions with their starships, why should an individual planet buy their own ships?"

"Because space is a large place," Torres spoke up.

Torres knew that Seven wanted an informal atmosphere with her close government official; the people that were sitting around the table. So Torres went along with it even though she would never tolerate such behavior, like the constant interruptions, from her own government officials. She had to admit that she could see Seven's point though.

As Seven had told her; the Klingon faction was already firmly established. So what the Klingon faction needed was a tough but fair person at the top that made sure that the rules were kept. At the moment the Phoenix Alliance needed something else.

What the Phoenix Alliance needed was an active group that was willing to think about problems and see how they could be resolved. For that, as Seven had warned Torres, people would have to speak up and interrupt with questions, comments, or explanations. Torres had assured Seven that how Seven ran her government was her decision.

"True," Torres continued. "We have fleets patrolling our space. The other factions just patrol their space, but Klingon ships patrol all throughout the Coalition as well as just our own space. Sometimes we do so to help the other factions out a bit by covering areas so that they can send their fleets to be prominent in trouble spots. Sometimes we simply do it to remind all that we can be there if we want to. But still, if we need to react to something it can still be that it would take days or even weeks to get one of our fleets there."

She thought for a moment and then gave an example. "Let's say that I would get a message today that something big happens on Trill and I would decide to send the closest Klingon fleet there; it would still need almost two weeks to arrive, and depending on where the nearest Trill fleet is on their patrol, it can also take days for them to arrive. You can't afford such a gap if you need to do things, now."

Torres snapped her fingers to indicate the 'now'. "What the fleets of the factions mainly do is go and patrol parts of space that need a closer look and prevent criminals from settling down in a specific spot. But there are normally always some law enforcement ships at planets or star bases in case something happens that need immediate reaction; like a robbery. Because space is such a large place, you will never be able to truly get rid of crime so you will always need ships that can go after people that do things we can't allow."

"It is a paradox of sorts," Seven said. "The crime level in the Coalition is surprisingly low; not counting smuggling for the moment. In fact, the crime level is lower than that inside the Federation. Yet ships still need weapons. If ships did not have weapons they would not be able to defend themselves and they would become easy pickings; making the crime level rise. So ships have weapons, and because they do, they rarely have to use them. The Enterprise class cargo vessel I was just talking about is the ultimate statement of this fact."

"I think it's more than just the weapons," Tom said. "It's also the punishments you have around here. In the Federation if someone gets desperate they could try to earn some money by some piracy. The worst that can happen is some prison sentence where you are fed and can refuse to do the jobs they have. You only take the jobs to not get bored. As the people from Voyager know, I myself was serving a prison sentence when Janeway recruited me. I decided that playing Maquis would be fun and got caught. But here? I would never have joined the Maquis because it could be 'fun'. Because here you have death sentences, or prison is a mining camp where physical punishment for not working hard enough is dealt out."

"Well, good to see that it works then," Torres said firmly. "Punishments should be punishments, not vacation."

"Either way, we digressed," Seven said to bring the conversation back on to focus. "This next class of ships will be called the Defiant class. This will be the ship as known from the Federation Universe, with no changes made to the blueprints. Since this ship will be marketed for police actions and defense, the cargo limit will not have to be changed. In fact, the limited cargo room will be a benefit. This way this powerful ship will not be used by criminal elements since they too will need cargo room, even if it us just to remove their spoils."

Seven gave a small smile. "I have no illusions, though the ship will not be sold to individuals, a few of them will eventually fall in the hands of less-than-desirable individuals because once a ship is sold to a planet representative, it is up to the planet to decide what they will do with it. And as we all know, it is normal that once government property becomes too old for efficient use, they tend to sell it. Especially things that still bring quite some credits despite being old and used. Some will eventually be sold to private individuals who will sell them on to others who will sell them on as well."

"Now I see what you meant before with the overall firepower of the Coalition going up," Sisko said, knowing like no other around the table just what the Defiant was capable of. "If you really do succeed in selling, say, two ships to every Homeworld, and then maybe some extra for escort services and colony planets, and you are looking at hundreds if not thousands of Defiant class ships in the Coalition. Yet nobody will really notice the high level because the Defiant class won't be the eye catcher that the Phoenix class will be."

He spread his hands a little and leaned back. "At best, if people even know about them at all, they will know that there is one or two of those ships stationed somewhere around their planet. But if ever a threat really does come from outside the Coalition and you throw all those ships together for a defense you 'only' have thirty Phoenix class ships, but on top of that you have the Defiant class, the Voyager class, and not to forget the Enterprise class; thousandths of well-armed ships."

"Indeed," Seven agreed. "Yet because all those ships are owned by individuals, or planets at best, the relatively few Phoenix class ships are still enough to keep the peace since at most they will have to hunt down one or two of those ships that have come in the possession of unwanted individuals."

"There is a reason why we took the base structure for the Delta Flyer for the Alpha Flyer," B'Elanna reminded. "Most of the Alpha Flyer comes from the Defiant class design, but the base structure of the Defiant class is so fault ridden that it's extremely high maintenance. So my question is, will the Defiant class be redesigned before it's brought on to the market? After all, you said yourself that that anything Phoenix Alliance should stand for 'the best', a design with a lot of faults doesn't fit in to that. But you also just said that the blueprints would not be changed."

"A very valid point," Seven agreed. "To answer your second question first; no, the design will not be changed. As to how we can have such a fault ridden product and yet be known as having the best; simple, we will market the flaws as deliberate design. As Maras said to me a few days ago on a different subject; it is not what you sell, but how you sell it. If we 'sell it right' from the beginning, we can be known for having the best, yet still have one fault-ridden product. However, for that to be believable you need to indeed only have one single fault-ridden product while the rest is of the highest standard. And to be clear, I do not intent to use such a way of selling more often, nor let it become a standard thing in the Phoenix Alliance."

"The exception that confirms the rule?" Annika asked amused.

"You could say that," Seven agreed. "The thing is that in case of the Defiant class I do indeed firmly believe that some safeguards are needed, and the fault ridden design is a very affective safeguard. The defiant class will be a very powerful ship; on phasers alone the Defiant class will already be six times as powerful as the Voyager class, and that is not even talking torpedoes or the shields."

"Faced with a Defiant class ship the only real defense a Voyager class ship will have is to run since the Voyager class is over a whole warp factor faster than the Defiant class," Sisko added, having a feeling that he knew why Seven wanted to keep the flaws in the design.

"If they still can run," Seven pointed out. "After all, is criminal elements have such a powerful ship, they will first try to damage the engines of other ships to the point where running is no longer an option. So to prevent that criminal elements acquire a Defiant class ship to do their hunting while other ships are used to haul off plunder, we will keep the flaws of the Defiant class. That way it will be impossible to operate a Defiant class ship unless you have access to a shipyard, starbase, or planet base and specialized materials and tools."

"I see what you mean," B'Elanna said in understanding. "No matter how good of a mechanic someone is, they will not be able to operate a Defiant class unless they can dock their ship. At most those criminal elements you talk about would be able to use the ship for a couple of months until the base structure needs major body work. To do that you basically need to take the ship apart."

Seven nodded her agreement before continuing. "We will market the Defiant class as a powerful policing ship, and that we actually deliberately incorporated a structure that will make this policing ship useless in the hands of the wrong people. We will even go to great lengths to have these faults be publicly known. That way criminal individuals will be discouraged from even trying to get such a ship because they know that getting the ship is not worth the danger of trying to get it. They will know that at best they will be able to use the ship for a couple of occasions before the structural damage will make it useless."

"And to add to that," Torres spoke up, "I would suggest that you petition the Chancellor to have the Defiant class, just as obviously the Phoenix class, classified as military ship classes. That way they would fall under the law that says that the stealing of any military class ship is considered a Capital Crime all throughout the Coalition and punished as such."

"Making it even less tempting for criminals to try and get a Defiant class ship," Seven agreed.

She looked around the table for a moment. She noted that a lot of them hadn't spoken up since the talk about space ships had started.

After thinking about it for a moment, Seven decided to do the extremely simple thing and ask, "I have noticed that several of you are extremely quiet. Please be assured that you can speak up freely in these meetings."

"Well, I think it's because most of us that didn't speak up yet are from this universe and we have been trained since birth to be quiet when and Intendant speaks," Donatra said seriously before giving Seven the smallest of smiles to show that she was kidding, mostly.

Then she explained her own silence. "I can't talk for the others, but for me it's simply that a lot of what you say is about things I already know, but that needs to be explained to the Voyager crew. For other things, the Voyager crew beat me to asking the question. For other things yet your explanation was clear enough. For the rest, it is of no important to my department, but be assured if I have any question that isn't asked before I can I will definitely speak up."

Seven got some nods of agreement from the others and gave a small nod herself. "Very well. In that case, let me continue. The classes I just mentioned are the classes of ships that will go in to production. Before I go on though, are there any questions about the ships I mentioned so far?"

"I got one," Sisko said before grinning. "Any chance there will be a Defiant class ship stationed wherever I'll be working from?"

"Even better; you will get your own," Seven said and she had to smile when she saw the grin getting wider. "Some people in this government will have to travel a lot, and will have to be able to start a journey at all times. Because of that they will get their own ship. The Sub-Intendants, the Admiral Supreme, the Secret Service Commander, the Inspector General, and the Rover will all get their own ship and crew. Seeing that you are a Sub-Intendant, you will receive a ship for the traveling you undoubtedly will be doing."

"So in that case there won't be any objection to me naming my ship the Defiant?" Sisko asked.

"None whatsoever," Seven assured.

"Well, if we are all getting a ship," Annika spoke up, "Can you tell me what you are planning to do with Voyager? The ship, not the class I mean."

Seven frowned for a moment. "Until the first Phoenix class ship is ready, Voyager will continue to serve as my flagship. After that I do not have any concrete plans for the ship. Why do you ask? Are you interested?"

"Well, yeah," Annika admitted. "If nobody else is interested that is. Since you said that the Admiral Supreme, me, would also get a ship, I think it stands to reason that it would be a Voyager class ship since I'll probably be getting the most situations where I have to be at places ASAP. The Sub-Intendants need a powerful ship to remind people that they talk with power. While I will need a fast ship to get to places."

Now Seven smiled. "You really should not be asking me. Because speed is also of essence especially to the Inspector General and the Rover, I guess you have to compete with them. I was thinking of handing a Voyager class ship to them, and a Defiant class ship to the others. Having said that, I do think that Voyager should be used by someone sitting at this table. Voyager served us well and she deserves better than only becoming one of the many Phoenix Alliance ships. She should be a prominent ship, used by someone that does a lot of traveling for us. However, if you were the one to receive Voyager, you would still have to wait almost two more years before she would officially become yours."

"I don't mind," Annika assured. "Voyager will be following the Negh'Var around for those two years anyway. I'm sure that if there is a situation where I need to be somewhere, you won't mind if I borrow the ship for some time, right? Especially considering that Torres' ship will actually be Phoenix One when you are on board. So Phoenix One can still arrive somewhere, even if you are not on Voyager then."

"Indeed," Seven had to admit. She herself really didn't care who would be in command of Voyager, just that the ship deserved more than being degraded to simply being one of the patrol ships of the Phoenix Alliance. "I also think that the Minister of Science and Technology will not mind at all that Voyager will continue to be a part of her life for an indefinite time."

B'Elanna didn't answer with words, but her grin sure said enough.

"Well, I for one don't mind," Tom assured. "I kinda like the idea of getting a new ship with new rooms to model just as I like them."

"I assumed you would," Seven said amused. "I realize that the Voyager crew did some remodeling of the quarters on Voyager lately. However, since the Voyager class is meant for wealthy individuals this will be changed with the Voyager class ships. As I said before, certain departments are no longer needed, the crew will be smaller. Just like we will do with the Enterprise class, we will sell the ship from plan. With the Voyager class we will marked the ship with a completely empty deck two, and then structure and decorate the deck to the specifications of the buyer. With as few or as many rooms as they want, and the layout that they want."

Tom made a show of rubbing his hands. "So you mean that Megan and I will have to look at plans once the building of the first Voyager class ship starts?"

"You will," Seven confirmed. "We will make a point of delivering all ships of all classes just the way people want them, as long as wishes are possible to realize of course. Since the ship will be appointed to you as your official ship you have a whole deck for you and Megan."

"Even better," Tom grinned, glad to finally have room on a ship. "So that means that the ship will become Megan and my home? And since we are asking for names to use for our ships, would you mind if I would have a shuttle of the Delta class on board the ship, and call it the Delta Flyer? I don't think I have to tell you what that name means to me."

"I would not mind at all," Seven assured. "As for where you will live, this brings up a good point. As you know, the seat of my government will be on Mars and there will be official housing there for all of you. However, one of the reasons why I chose you all for my government is that I value you input. Therefore, I would appreciate it if all of you would travel with me. I would like to have quarters for you all on the Phoenix once the ship is build, but for now I would like to offer you quarters on my Mistress' ship."

Seven waited for a moment as the people around the table looked at each other to see what the others thought of then invitation. Then she added, "The people that are not from the Voyager crew have already been offered, and accepted, quarters on this ship and the quarters for the rest of you will be in the same area. The quarters on Mars are meant so that there will be official residential seats for Ministers and the other functions in my government, now and in the future."

Seven looked around the table with the ghost of a smile before adding, "Of course, since these buildings will be located at Lake Zefram you might want to think about using them as your vacation homes."

"Well," Kastra said, feeling that some of the Voyager crew were unsure about the offer. "I for one can assure you that I like my quarters. As I said before when talking about the speed of ships, I have traveled on starships before and I can assure you that I was amazed by the size of the quarters I got here. And since the quarters are in the Phoenix Alliance embassy area, it's just a little walk to work or to the quarters of friends."

Looking at Seven, Kastra asked, "As I told you when I took my position and you told me that as your adviser, you expected me to travel with you all the time; I love to travels. I am curious though, doesn't it make more sense for Ministers to be in the main office at their Ministry?"

"For later, when the Phoenix Alliance is firmly established, the answer to that question is yes," Seven agreed. "That is why there will be official offices and residences on Mars. So that the top governmental people are still close together and can go see each other in person to make deals. However for now, we are talking about governing 8 sectors of space; 15 species, 15 Homeworlds, 124 planets in total, and 1,325 moons in total. Most of the communications of the Ministers will have to be done through a view screen regardless. The departments of the ministers will be established on Mars and the lower levels of government people working there will take care of every day things. I would much rather have the people around this table with me instead of them being on Mars so that individuals can come with me to look at things that concern their department."

Seven shook her head a little. "A view screen may be more than enough for office meetings, so to speak, so more than enough for a meeting with the department members on Mars. However, there is nothing like physically being somewhere and taking a look around. Seeing, smelling, touching. In different situations I will call upon different people around this table to come with me and give me their opinion. For that, I would like them to travel with me unless their job requires them to be somewhere else at that moment."

"Makes sense," Kastra said.

"Does anyone have any objection to living on the Phoenix in two years, and on my mistress' ship until then?" Seven asked. She knew that she could simply make the decision and tell this to the people around the table, but she felt that they themselves had to decide where they should live.

"I have to tell you," Maras said slowly. "When I agreed to take the job I knew that I would have to move away from Orion, but I thought it would be to Mars since that's where you said you were thinking of making the official seat of the government. From Mars it's only three days to Orion with my fastest ship, so I was still planning on hopping back home on a regular basis."

"So you are saying that you would prefer to work from Mars?" Seven asked.

"Not necessarily. I would be willing to travel along with you if I still could travel to Orion from time to time on a ship that's fast enough and on top of that if it meant that all this traveling wouldn't mean the wear and tear of a ship that is already mine."

Now Seven understood and said amused, "I believe you are at this very point proving to the people around this table why I wanted you to be my Minister of Commerce. Would a ship that has a cruise speed of Warp 6 and a maximum cruise speed of Warp 9 suffice to take away the objections you have about living on the Negh'Var? Especially if combined with the offer that the ship will get all the dilithium it needs so that the maximum cruise speed can be used most of the time while traveling?"

Maras smiled. "Well, yeah, but really, I couldn't ask for that. After all none of the other ministers will get a ship at their disposal."

Seven returned the smile. "And neither will you. I do not want to set a precedent that will be followed by ministers in the future. However, the Phoenix Alliance will build a lot of ships. Not all of these are destined for sale though; the Phoenix Alliance will need ships for its own use. We will have Phoenix class ships to serve as a flag ship and be the most powerful policing ship. Besides that we will also have the Defiant class ships for local law enforcement, and the Voyager class ships for those times where speed is the most important factor but we cannot use a Phoenix class ship since we only have a limited number. The Ministry of commerce will need quite some ships to move goods around for the people that cannot afford their own ships; a service these people will have to pay for. Of course, since you as the Minister are in control of the Ministry of Commerce, it will be up to you to decide where ships operate."

Maras grinned. "Got you, Intendant. You just mentioned warp 6 and Warp 9. Does that mean..." Maras let her words trail off when Seven gave a short nod.

"It does mean," Seven agreed. "The first Enterprise class ship build, the Enterprise, will be for your Ministry. However, let me be clear. I do expect that if goods have to be shipped for your personal company, the Enterprise or any other governmental ship will not be used for that, unless your company pays the standard fees for having goods shipped by Governmental ships."

"Of course," Maras was quick to assure.

"Very well, in that case, does anyone else have an objection?" Seven asked.

"Well, I wouldn't call it an objection," Tom spoke up, "In fact, I would more call it a change of subject, but if all of them are staying on the Negh'Var, and Megan agrees, I would like to ask if there's any chance if we could get a set of quarters here as well? We can still live on our own ship when we have to go somewhere, but when we are back we can then live with our friends. I know that we would only be a beaming a way, but there is just something different between walking to the quarters of your friends or having to beam there."

"I discovered that same fact myself not long ago," Seven said amused. "Rest assured, there will always be a place for you on the ship I live on. That goes for all that will get their own ship; there will always be a set of quarters waiting for you between your friends."

"Good," Chakotay spoke up. "Then we will always know where home is."

Seven looked at Chakotay in silence for a moment and it was clear to see for the people around the table that Seven was extremely touched by the sincere sentiment of the statement. Finally she gave him a broad smile of the kind that was normally only reserved for Torres. "Indeed," She finally said. "There will always be a room waiting for any and all of you, at home."

"Well," Chakotay said, deciding to move on. "If the names Phoenix, Defiant, Voyager, Delta, and Enterprise are used for ships that will be used by people around this table, than I would like to ask if I could have a shuttle on my ship of the Alpha Class and call her the Alpha Flyer. That way all ships that classes are named after will be in service of the Phoenix government. As for Voyager, if Annika wants her than that's fine with me."

"Very well," Seven said. "Annika; Voyager is now considered yours. Seeing that the quarters of all of you will be on this ship, Voyager will be ready for your use if you need her. For the rest of the time she will be at the side of this ship and function as the Phoenix Alliance Flagship."

Nobody brought up the fact that if the group around the table would be living on Torres' ship, there would still have to be beaming done to visit the friends that were not sitting at the table at that moment; friends that were not part of the direct government, but which would still be fulfilling important jobs for the Alliance at some point. Even though it hadn't been discussed they all knew that there had to be some line where people would stay on Voyager and where people would stay close to Seven to act as that interactive government Seven wanted and needed.

"Um, just a small point," Harry spoke up. "You do realize that according to your own words, if the people around this table are at home, you will have a whole fleet of ships trekking around, right? I mean, first there is the Negh'Var. Then you will have the Phoenix when she is build, and Voyager, for Annika, and two more Voyager class ships, and then three Defiant class ships for the Sub-Intendants, and finally a Enterprise class ship. That's nine ships, not counting the shuttles."

"I do realize that," Seven assured. "I also realize that this sounds like a waste of ships and crew, especially in the beginning when ships are hard needed to create the Phoenix Alliance. However, I do feel that these people need their own ships ready for use at a moment's notice. Besides, the people I mentioned might not be the ones actually using the ships. For instance, the Enterprise class ship for Maras. It might very well be that a cargo ship is needed for a transport 'now', and her ship is the closest. At a moment like that it would be illogical to not use her ship for that. If in the mean time she suddenly needs a ship to go somewhere, I am sure that she will be able to borrow one of the other ships."

Then she reminded, "On top of that there are different speeds for different ships. If we are moving to a location fast, some ships will not be able to keep up and will fall back; catching up again while the rest is already on location. Also, even though most meetings will be done over view-screens, there will always be a need for face-to-face meetings. In those situations those ships will be used to transport people to meetings, or the ship will be away to get someone to bring to this ship so that the meeting can be held in the Phoenix Alliance embassy. My guess is that at any time only half of the ships will be following my Flagship."

When Seven saw that her answer was to the liking of the people around the table she said, "This concludes the classes of ships that will be build, and this also brings me to the last project having to do with the building of ships; a theoretical aspect only. With both the Sovereign class and the Defiant class the Federation proved that having blueprints ready drastically cuts down building time when the moment comes that the ships need to be build. I like that approach. I want the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Practical Implications to set up a joined department that does nothing else but create, maintain, and update blueprints."

"I think I know where you are heading here," B'Elanna spoke up. "But if that department comes up with new stuff it eventually has to be build and tested."

"They can build certain parts so that they can be tested," Seven assured. "But then those parts will be built in to existing ships and tested there. This department will never build an entire ship unless it is a completely new class of ship and an experimental ship has to be created. However, at any and all time I want blueprints ready for all classes of ships we have, and I also want there to be worked on blueprints for ships we do not yet have, for instance to fill the gap between the Alpha class and the Voyager class. That way if we decide that a new class should be build, or that an existing class is in need of upgrading, we will already have the most up-to-date blueprints ready and a new class ship can be build in one year, two at most."

Looking at the two ministers in question, Seven added, "Since this joined department is to design the blueprints for ships that set us apart from the rest now, and in the future, I expect them to push. As I said, they can build things so that they can be tested. With any and all test report I also want there to be a report of where the item failed. In other words, I want any and all things to be literally tested until destruction. The Phoenix Alliance will be known for building 'the best' ships, I do not intend to give up that position, ever. Once new technology has been tested to the extreme, it will be implemented in the existing designs and become the standard. Over two hundred years the Phoenix Alliance will probably still be building a Phoenix class ship, however a ship from then will only compare to a ship from now in form. If even that."

Getting two nods of agreement, Seven continued. "To further ensure that, I will provide you from time to time with products I know from the Borg but that are not known, or at least not used, in the Federation and therefore not part of these ships designs. As I said, now we will have these Federation ship designs and these will be so much more than people in this Universe are used to that they will revolutionize the market. Once we have ensured our Monopoly position we will add a new technology to the ships; the Borg autonomous repair technology."

"I heard of that," Maras spoke up. "They are experimenting with that in some labs around the Coalition, but nobody has come any further than 'autonomous repair' really just being a computer system telling you what's wrong and then guiding a technician through the steps of fixing it. And maybe automatically rerouting some power and information flows to that it looks like the computer just fixed itself but in reality it just stopped using defective components."

Seven lifted an eyebrow. "I can assure you, Borg autonomous repair systems are quite more advanced than that. I am talking about systems that truly repair themselves. If a circuit is damaged then specific nanoprobes that are designed for such repairs start working and create a new panel from the old and damaged system. Borg autonomous repair only stops working when the nanoprobes are destroyed. But since something smaller than a blood cell is quite hard to destroy in a smaller explosion, the system is such that if autonomous repair stops working you have, as B'Elanna likes to say, other problems to worry about'. Once you survive those other worries, you then need to call in an engineer that fixes the problem; and engineer that not only knows how to repair an autonomous repair system, but that also knows how to get new nanoprobes to put into that system."

"Nanoprobes that only the Phoenix Alliance has," Maras said approvingly. "And since autonomous repairs only fix smaller damage, it will not affect our repair service industry because larger repairs, scheduled maintenance, or modifications, still will have to be done by Phoenix Alliance specialized engineers. While the smaller damage would have been repaired by a local engineer that does not work for us anyway."

"Indeed," Seven agreed. "Of course, we will introduce new technology in stages. For instance, the first autonomous repair design will only be able to repair small things like broken relays or ruptured data lines. Since the people here do not know this system at all in a working concept they will amazed by this. And then a few years later we will introduce a new system that does the before mentioned, but also repairs hull damage."

Maras nodded eagerly. "And since people don't know you had that technology all along, they will even be amazed that you can improve on it so fast, instead of being upset that you didn't just introduce the full system in the beginning. Smart."

"It makes economical sense," Seven said. "And it has to be done this way so that people will be amazed by the new things we can think up, but will not start to wonder and think that the new step is too big to just be the process of evolution. We do not want people to start wondering where we get the new technology from. Instead we want them to assume hat it is the result of slavery ending. The result of some very intelligent people that were only allowed to say 'yes Master' before now finally thinking for themselves and trying stuff they would never be allowed to try before."

"No unrest," Cisco said in understanding. "You will have to create some brilliant minds then to cover up." Seeing how most people around the table, including Seven looked at him confused, he explained, "People will believe it if you tell them that the new ideas came from the minds of some now freely thinking former slaves, but you for that to happen you will need some real people you can point to. Others will only believe 'someone in our department thought of that' for so long before they start wondering where you got the technology from for real. You will have to pin 'inventions' on some people that will go down in history as the inventors of it."

He pointed at B'Elanna. "For instance, people will believe that the Minister of Technology though of the autonomous repair system. More so if as you just said, the idea is improved on over the years. Clearly this brilliant B'Elanna Torres spend all her free time improving her original invention. And you might even have history say that it was her invention that got her the position as Minister of Technology to begin with."

"I see where you are going," B'Elanna said in understanding, "People might believe that, and even maybe a few inventions I thought up that kinda lie along that line of thinning, like some other maintenance technologies. They won't, however, believe that I also invented transwarp, and that new weapon system, and that new holodeck technology. Those fields are just too diverse, no matter how brilliant the person is. You will need new people to pin different kinds of technology on. I can be used for all that goes along the lines of maintenance and repair, Miles can be used for all that has to do with fields. Transwarp, moving to other universes, subspace communication, all could be along his line or brilliance. While Harry here will of course be the brilliant mind that came up with all the new starship designs, and so on."

Seven nodded her agreement. "You both have valid points. We will definitely have to look at who 'invented' the technologies when we introduce them. We have some very brilliant people sitting around this table; I am certain we can distribute the recognition fairly, and that people will not mind to much that they will have to carry the burden of being known as the inventor of technology that aided us to the extreme."

Once the amused chuckles had died down, Seven continued. "But for now, let me continue the topic we were discussing. Once the ships with this technology are firmly established in the Coalition we will introduce the next revolutionary technology. Now in the beginning we will be known for our fast ships, and in four years we will be the only people in the Coalition to offer the next step in speed; transwarp."

Seven hesitated for a moment. "Well, we will produce the first ships with transwarp then. It will take a little longer before transwarp will be an option one can buy."

"If you already know those two technologies now, why not introduce them both with the next generation of ships?" Leeta asked.

"In one word?" Seven asked. "Marketing. If we introduce these two and other technologies in the next ship generation, yes, everyone will want to buy them. However we will benefit from those technologies only once. Now we will introduce the fast ships and everyone will want them. With the next generation of ships we will introduce the autonomous repair technology and everyone will want those ships, including the people that already have our ships. Some will sigh and decide that the new technology alone is not worth buying a new ship for, but a lot of people that can afford it will buy the new ship."

She gave them a small smile. "And once they bought the new ships we will revolutionize the market again with the generation of ships coming after that by introducing transwarp. And then we have the same situation that we have now; a huge jump in speeds. True, in line with what I just said we will only produce low level transwarp at first; warp eleven or twelve at most. And later on we can then increase the speed in later models. But compared to regular warp it still means an incredible increase in speed. People that have our high quality, and only four year old, ships will decide that they still have to buy new ships since they just cannot let transwarp pass them by. They cannot afford to pass up the opportunity to cut their travel time from two weeks to two days."

"That will also add to that overall level of arms in the Coalition," Sisko pointed out. "Someone that buys a new ship will of course sell their old one on the second hand market to at least earn some of the credits back. But that doesn't mean that it's lost. It only means that now there is one Voyager class ship in the Coalition that can travel at transwarp, and one that can't. But the ship is sure still there if ever needed to defend."

"That is another aspect that entices me in this staged introduction," Seven agreed. "Though the marketing strategy is even more important to us at the moment. We need the credits for the Alliance at the moment. And to ensure that marketing factor for a long time, I made it my goal that with every next generation of ship something is introduced that makes people that already own one of our ships want to buy a new one. I know enough Borg technology that can be used in our ships to make sure that the Phoenix Alliance will revolutionize the market time and time again for the next century. More so if we introduce that technology in stages. As I said, first low levels of transwarp, then faster. First only basic autonomous repair, then more advanced."

"There is one more thing to keep in mind," Torres spoke up. "Even if Seven would want to introduce all possible changes with the next generation of ships, we, the other Factions and the Chancellor, would not allow it. As you heard before, one of the reasons why we encourage Seven, and by extension you, to build these new ships is to up the firepower in the Coalition. In that light we want people to feel the urge to buy this new ship, and then the next generation of new ship, and then the next generation. But what we don't want is for people to get worried about the fact that the other person has this highly advanced ship that can take on a whole fleet of ships."

She pointed to Maras and Arandis. "We don't want someone on Orion to become nervous because someone of Risa bought a ship; instead we want them to look at that ship and say 'I want one too'."

Seven waited for Torres to be finished before she herself continued. "Another reason for not introducing all right now is that unfortunately at this moment not all of the Borg technology can be immediately built into our ships because Federation technology does not match with those Borg technologies. However, this is where the new department I just talked about comes in. Besides having those blueprints, they will test the Borg technology and change it to where it does work with Federation technology. Once they have worked this out, the technology will be added to the blueprint."

With slightly amusement, Seven added, "To save anyone from having to point it out, I realize that I will not live for ever. And that things happen, as they say. I could die tomorrow and take all that information with me. To make sure that this does not happen I will already put to PADD the technologies I am talking about and hand these to the Ministry of Science and Technology."

Looking at B'Elanna, Seven continued, "Of course, the safeguarding of that information has the highest priority, so before I hand you the information I first want to see a plan that safeguards the complete secrecy of that information."

"Give me a week to think something up and talk it through with people like Olkra and Annika, and I'll hand you a plan," B'Elanna assured.

"A week it is," Seven agreed. Then she looked around the table again. "Now that you know the general outline of ships and how we will also ensure that offer the best in the future as well, let me move to a different market in space ships; upgrades. As much as we would like it, not everyone will be in a position to buy a new ship every couple of years. A lot of people will only ever be able to afford a second hand ship; preferably a second hand ship that is of Phoenix design and is sold because the former owner is buying one of our new ships."

"It can also be that the buyer of a new ship is a person that wants, for once in their life, to own a truly new ship," Tom pointed out. "To have the 'new toy' feeling out of their system before they start doing things that put an financial strain on them, like having their own home, or business, or a family, and therefore will not buy a 'new' new ship after that one."

He looked to the side at his fiancée before explain, "Megan and I were dating for the first time when we built the original Delta Flyer. She can tell you as nobody else what a new toy can do to a guy."

Megan bumped him with her shoulder before admitting to the others, "Yeah, it can turn him into an asshole. It's why I dumped him back them. The ship was more important to him than me. The last straw was when I suggested, in a way that should leave no room for interpretation, that I wanted to go to bed. And he told me that in that case he was going to work on the flyer some more."

Tom smiled a bit sheepishly. "Yeah... that wasn't my best move ever. But that's really my point. With a lot of guys, and probably women too, a new toy is 'the thing'. It's something they truly want at least once. But after that they realize that the new toy is just a thing after a week of fun, while a partner is still a loving partner that makes you feel good with nothing more than a smile. I guess that a lot of the Delta Flyer and even Alpha Flyer class ships will be sold to the 'I want a new one once' people. After that they will just keep the ship for the family since it's big enough for that. Or else if business starts to grow, they buy a second hand bigger ship."

And for those second hand ships we will offer refits," Seven hooked in smoothly. "Still expensive, but not as expensive as buying a new ship. Of course, a refitted ship will not be able to compare with a new ship, but for a lot of people it will be enough. Or to point to the new technologies that we will introduce, people that already own a Phoenix Alliance ship might only want a certain thing that can easily be done in a refit. Some things, like the transwarp, will not be possible to do for ships that are not designed for them, but there is no reason why we cannot upgrade a ship with new weapons, or shields, or engines that are of the same design, just a new, and more advanced model."

"Will you offer these refits and upgrades to Phoenix Alliance build ships only?" Maras asked. "I have a small fleet of Orion build ships for my business, and I sure would like some of those upgrades."

Maras gave a small smile before adding for clarity, "For those people around this table that don't know, Seven made it very clear to me that it's more than alright for me to have and manage my business, but that it would be extremely unwise, to use her words, to use my position in her government to benefit my business. So if others can't get those upgrades, neither can I get them to my Orion ships. Somehow I don't want to find out what Seven meant with 'extremely unwise'. Sometimes Intendants make statements and if you are really smart you don't ask them exactly what that means."

"It is good to see that I have such smart individuals in my government," Seven said with a lifted eyebrow, making the Voyager crew chuckle. It took a moment for the others to realize that Seven had been joking and after a moment they too joined in the chuckles.

"To answer your question," Seven continued once the chuckles had died down, "those upgrades will be offered to anyone, as long as it is possible. We will not make upgrades to ships if this endangers the safety of the ship. In some cases upgrades will not be possible and in other cases upgrades will only be possible in combination with another upgrade. For instance, only fitting a Federation type engine to your Orion ships is not possible because the increased speeds would literally rip the ship apart. Therefore such an upgrade could only be offered in combination with a shield and deflector array upgrade which would ensure the safety. So some upgrades will be able to be done separately, and others will only be done in packages."

"Great," Maras said. "Soon as we start offering that service consider me a customer."

Seven gave a nod of agreement before adding, "Also, let me elaborate on the 'extremely unwise' comment. As stated, correct, if others cannot get something like upgrades, then the people in my government also cannot. However, I have no problem with people playing favorites within the rules. The people under you will do so, so you should at least be able to have that benefit as well."

"What exactly do you mean?" Trinka asked.

"What I mean is this," Seven started to explain. "If you go down the line far enough, you will eventually reach a point where one of our representatives for ship upgrades sees the new upgrades we offer that year and decides he wants them. Would it surprise you that he would put his shuttle on top of the list? Something he can do because he is the first one to see the upgrades and others cannot even be put on said list since it is not open for business yet?"

Trinka merely nodded, wanting to hear the rest before making a real comment.

That is what I am talking about," Seven continued. "We are making deals, the people around this table already know things that others cannot even start to imagine. Most people in the Coalition do not even know what transwarp mean for instance. In that light, if we are having a meeting and decide that as of next week we will start offering upgrades to ships that we not build by us as well, I would not hold it against Maras if she were to do the same as that representative we just talked about and ask us if she could be out first customer. I do not see why she should have to wait until the list public and already filled with other customers while more than likely those other customers are all lower level government representatives that saw the list go live and quickly added their name."

"So that's the line?" Trinka asked. "We, the top government people won't be able to get things others can't either, but we will be the ones that can get it first once others can? Like the upgrades now, or the ships you just talked about that will be handed to us for usage?" She nodded thoughtfully. "Alright, I can live with that, and sell that. First, but not only."

"You could call it that," Seven agreed. "First, but not only. Maras might be first on that lift of upgrades, but she still will have to pay for it as much as the next person on the list."

Maras smirked. "Well, at first, yes, but my main accountant is a devil with numbers and knows how to do magic with tax deductions and things like that. There is a reason why I pay him thirty thousand a month."

"And I enjoy a good puzzle," T'Pel said with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope," Maras said happily, "Seven clearly said that what 'I' do will be checked by the Ministry of Commerce. What my employees do is a whole different matter. Subjecting my whole business to that level of control would go beyond not being fair. You don't check the Torres Holdings on that level as well, do you?"

Now everyone looked to Torres.

"She can't," Torres said with a grin. "Remember, the Torres Holdings is a Klingon company that is seated well outside Phoenix Alliance territory. If anyone around this table has the authority to check the Torres holdings it's, well, me, actually. Good luck trying to get that done."

The she shrugged and looked at Seven. "But your Minister of Commerce has a point. Yes, you should check the businesses of government representatives, but you should also be fair and do it on the same level as you would check any other business. I know you will change things over time, but at the moment there is an established way of doing things, and a big part of that is to make it a sport to see what you can get away with. You can't hold it against Maras that her people are good at doing their job in the way that is normal now."

She looked at the Orion before saying, "It was that deal on Risa that brought you to Seven's attention when it crossed my desk. I had to give it clearance to even continue. But just between you, me, and all the other people around this table, how many credits did you have to spend to make it happen? How many credits were spent that were not included in the official price?"

Seeing no reason to lie to people that could find out within hours as worst if they really wanted to, Maras admitted, "A little over two billion." She had to smile when she saw the eyes of most people around the table get wide at that number. Just for fun, to see if she could make a few people choke she decided to add. "The official price was forty-one billion, which I paid for from my own savings." Yep there were few coughs around the table. Then she concluded, just to round off the information, "So you can say that I spend about five percent of the official price extra in unofficial bribes. Five percent is pretty much the norm."

"It is," Torres agreed. "I myself often have to pay the same because people are too stupid to guess that the name of Intendant Torres and the Torres Holdings might be the same person." She looked at Seven before adding, "I guess you could call it my hobby that people don't know about. Dukat does his thing, and I simply have a business that most people don't know belong to me because it's just too obvious."

"So," Seven said thoughtfully, "You said that Maras had a point. I assume that this point is that though government representatives better not try to misuse their position, when we check then we should do so against the standards that are considered the norm at that point. For instance, if she has just conduced a deal that cost her forty-one billion credits, we should just glance over the fact that two billion credits of her private fortune has gone missing and cannot be accounted for."

Torres nodded. "Something like that. Seven, you agree that government people should be able to also continue with their business if they have one. To do so, you should also allow them to do their business in the same way as the next person. As long as they are not misusing their position. Have Maras bribe someone to favor her company when they have to make a decision as to who to give business to, sure. Have her order them to give the business to her company, nope, bad move."

Seven nodded. "A valid point. Businesses should be treated equally, regardless of whether their owner works also works in my government." She looked at T'Pel and asked, "Will that be a problem for you?"

"Since I am new to this universe, I do not yet know fully what is considered normal here," T'Pel reminded. "I will study several business to find a norm before I will look at the business government representatives might have."

"You might want to take the Torres Holdings as an indicator," Torres suggested. "Very successful business that operates in all factions and is not too bad with sticking to the laws. In fact, you might argue that it's the best example you can find for a case study since your own Intendant has been advising me on certain deal ever since she became mine."

"And yet another valid point," Seven agreed. "T'Pel, please do study the Torres holdings and consider their way of doing business the norm until we have established our own norm. More so since we as the Phoenix alliance will have to ease into doing business instead of being shunned because we do not do the deals others are used to."

"I will," T'Pel assured.

Seven nodded and looked around the table, and especially at the people that were from Torres' Universe, before continuing the original discussion. "Now let me continue about upgrades for ships. You have all heard the short story of how we came to be in this universe. Let me add some information that is not that known, not even under the Voyager crew. At some point, my Mistress agreed to let the Voyager crew escape, taking the ship with them. However, as part of the payment I would have to oversee the building of a ship just like Voyager."

Seven could see the startled looks on the faces of the Voyager crew. They knew that Torres had been lenient on them when they were still considered slaves. But none of them, not even B'Elanna, had guessed that the Intendant's help had been that far reaching.

"Since that time events have overtaken us several times already," Seven continued. "And lately this promise I made to my Mistress is not even discussed anymore between us. However, that does not mean that I have forgotten it. At this time, considering that we will soon start building a whole fleet of Voyager class ships, offering a Voyager type ship to my Mistress is not that special; she could simply buy it instead. Therefore I have decided to keep my promise in a different way. In two years time when the Phoenix is build and we will start offering refits to other ships, we will once again start this off with a proverbial bang."

She paused for a moment to make sure that all would clearly understand the next part. "The first refit we will do, completely free of charge, is to refit this ship. The Phoenix will be more powerful than this ship, the Negh'Var, but by the time we will be finished with the refit this will have changed. We will do whatever we can to turn this ship in to the most powerful, fastest, and toughest ship in the entire Coalition. Once we will be finished there will once again be absolutely no question about which is the most powerful ship in the Coalition. This ship will be the perfect mix of the best of Klingon, Federation, and Borg technology, and she will be the only one ever of her kind."

Seven looked to her side to see Torres looking ahead of her with a somewhat bored expression. But Seven, who knew Torres so well, could clearly see the surprise on Torres' face.

She looked back at the others before admitting, "There is an obvious benefit to this for us as well. Just like building the Phoenix class first will prove that we can actually do such a thing. Upgrading my Mistress' ship will prove that we are capable of upgrading on a large scale, and not merely of upgrading shuttles and basic starships. And besides proving that, it also makes us more believable. If we say that we cannot upgrade the engines on this or that ship because of safety. Then it truly means that it is because of safety and we are not just using safety as an excuse since we already have proven that we can make the upgrades as such. However, let it be clear to all of you, this is not why I'm doing this. I, no, all of us from the Voyager crew, owe my Mistress a great debt."

Seven lifted a hand and used her fingers to count off, a feature Torres did often enough and that Seven had started to copy without even realizing it. "First she kept us all from being sold in to slavery and split up to work in different places."

Another finger was extended. "Then she allowed you to take Voyager with you in the escape; a ship with so much new technology on it that it would have been worth billions of credits to the person who would be able to copy that technology and sell it as their own inventions."

Another finger. "After that, even when Voyager was gone, my Mistress continued to protect Voyager, even reaching a deal with the Cardassian Intendant that Voyager would be left alone."

She dropped her hand back onto the table and continued. "Some might point out that she did this for me, not for the rest of the Voyager crew, and that someone would be right. However, the fact is, no matter why she did what she did, the important part is that she did it. That protection then is what eventually led to us now sitting around this table as the government of a new Faction. We all owe her a great dept, and we will show our thanks when the time comes to upgrade this ship. At that time I fully expect everyone to repay that debt by going above and beyond their normal best effort. Are there any questions?"

"I have one," The Doctor said, "but it's not about what you just said; I think we all know what you mean there. We will put so much effort in to upgrading this ship that years from now we will still see it as our biggest achievement."

"Something like that," Seven agreed. "Please, state your question."

"As some around this table know, when we were still in the Delta Quadrant I have once been transported to the Alpha Quadrant and landed on board an experimental Federation starship. It's most unique feature was that it could split in to three ships and orchestrate computer controlled combined attack maneuvers. My question is, will we build such a class as well at one point, or at least research it?"

"The answer to that is; mostly no to the first part and yes to the second," Seven answered. "The department that will create and maintain the blueprints for the next generations of ships will look in to the design and have that class ready as well. However it will be low priority. The only reason we will look in to that is to have a design ready if ever someone else creates such a ship. That way we can then bring that class on to the market and do not have the new competitor design cut in to our sales."

"But why not have a Prometheus class as well?" Sisko asked surprised.

"For two reasons," Seven said. "First of, as the Doctor just said himself; it was still an experimental ship. Because of that there are still flaws that have to be corrected before it could ever meet the standard we would require. The second even more important reason is nothing more than cold, hard, business rationality. If we were to sell them a ship that can be split in to three fully functional parts, we would basically be selling them three ships for the price of one. We are most definitely not going to do that. If they want three ships, they can buy three ships."

"I can see the point," Maras said. "And as Minister of Commerce I fully agree with it."

"Alright, I can see your point about it being an experimental ship," Sisko conceded. "And at the moment you don't even have to do research into it because that's being done in the Federation. You can wait until that's finished and then take those blueprints. I'm sure that they won't mind since the agreement is that you will also hand them blueprints of the ships you create here, including improvements like the autonomous repair."

"But?" Seven asked.

Sisko sight. "It's not a but. I see your point, both your points actually. It's just that I don't get why you are limiting the choices like that. Starfleet has a lot more classes than the few ships you just named. I don't understand why you are only looking at ships that are build now and ignoring ships that have been build until a few years ago. Or in case of the Galaxy class, are still being build. Just that now all the focus of the Federation's most imposing ship has shifted to the Sovereign design. Alright, so the Sovereign class Enterprise E, which you will basically copy and call the Phoenix class, is the most powerful ship of Starfleet. But the Galaxy class is still being build and it's actually bigger than the sovereign class. The enterprise D was a Galaxy class and it was the flagship of the fleet until it was destroyed."

He thought for a moment. "I think that in weapons and shields she would be third in line after the Phoenix and Defiant class. So still pretty damn safe since all that can overpower her are enforcer ships. But since she is bigger than the Phoenix class and a damn lot faster than the Defiant class, I think she would be perfectly suited for travel between planets."

He lifted a hand. "Before you say it, I know that she would be way too expensive for a cargo ship, even though her size would make her suited for that as well. But as you pointed out before, there are also people that don't have their own ship, that still need transport to other places. As I myself know since I was in command of DS9, most travel is done on ships that don't belong to the people that travel on them. Billions of people travel to other places and only thousands own a ship themselves. "

"And for them there is the public transport system," Seven reminded. "I see your point. Since the Galaxy class is that fast we would also be improving the speed of public transport. Yet people that can afford it will still buy their own ships because public transport often only leaves once a week or even month and they do not want to wait that long. And the people that cannot afford an own ship are normally the kind of people that can set their schedule to that of the public transport; have a vacation only begin the day that the public transport arrives."

"Right," Sisko agreed. "And there the bigger size would mean more customers per trip on ships with enough size for them to not be packed together like cattle."

"And for such public transport the more expensive ships are doable since governments pay for them and get the credits back over time," Seven concluded the idea that clearly they both liked. "You seem to be onto a good line of thought here, please continue. You mentioned other ships?"

"Well, yeah." Sisko thought for a moment. "There are ships that have been discontinued only recently. They are no longer build, but they are still in use in the fleet. There you have your tested designs. Take the Frankenstein ships."

"The what?" Seven asked confused.

Sisko smiled. "That's what they were called. 'The Frankenstein fleet', to be correct. You see, once the Dominion war broke out, Starfleet basically panicked. They realized that they might have good ships, but in a war you often need numbers more than quality. They needed a lot of ships now. But as the earlier discussion proved, it's not easy to just stomp out a hundred ships when you need them. So they decided to do what the Voyager crew did with the Defiant class; take a ship and strip it and see how small you can make it and still have it be of use. They took several designs and started cutting. Come to think of it, some of those would be perfectly suited to fill that gap between the Alpha Class and the Voyager class."

He chuckled for a moment. "There is even one class that was derived from what you will call the Voyager class. You could market it as a mini version for those that want a smaller ship. She still has the clearly recognizable tear-shaped hull."

"I believe I know the one you are talking about," Seven said, since she had looked at the designs that Starfleet had sent her.

But Sisko was right, she had ignored the classes that stated that the ship was no longer in production, even though several had been listed as still in service, even if no longer build.

She indicated the screen worked into the table in front of everyone. "But for the rest... you can access the designs from here, please show them to us. That way I can also look at the schematics, and you can point out other ships that might be of interest to us."

After Seven had told him where to find the designs of ship, Sisko brought up the schematics of the ship class known in the Federation as the Yeager Class. "As you can see, the speed is not that bad, from warp 6 for normal, to warp 8.2 for maximum rated. What's most interesting is that the saucer section is exactly the same as the one of the Voyager class, so you can simply use a saucer section made at the same place where the Voyager class is made. It's only behind that where they made changes. Less powerful engine, fewer decks. The Yeager class only has eleven decks, compared to Voyager's fifteen."

"She does look somewhat like a smaller sister," Seven agreed. "But since she is very close to the Voyager class, I would suggest that we do eventually build her when we focus on giving more choice; maybe a cheaper version with the same luxury as the Voyager class. But in the beginning it is not worth it since this middle step is too close to the Voyager class to be truly a middle step. Do you have other suggestions?"

"Sure," Sisko said undeterred. "How about the Steamrunner class? She looks more like the Defiant than the other Starfleet ships. It's even argued that that's where the Defiant builders got the idea from. 9 decks, 244 meters long, 160 meter beam, 40 meters high. Warp between warp 6 and warp 9.5. Weapons and shield are even better than those of Voyager. In fact, in a battle voyager can best just run away since the Steamrunner is nowhere in her league with speed."

Seven looked at the schematics for a long moment. "Now that, is an excellent candidate for a place between the Alpha Flyer class and the Voyager class."

She had to admit that she felt somewhat ashamed for missing this very potential ship. She looked back at Sisko and asked, "Any more suggestions? You have already made two suggestions that I clearly missed incorrectly."

Suddenly she looked around the table. "This is something I want to impress on you all. As you just saw, I may be Intendant, but I certainly do not think of all. You are all selected for a reason. Now and in the future, if you think of something; speak up. At worst I might think that it is not needed, or not needed at the moment, like I just did with the Yeager class. But I might also really like the idea and consider it something that needs to be done, like now with the Steamrunner class."

Then she looked back at Sisko and merely lifted an eyebrow.

Sisko brought up another schematic. "Well, since you like the Steamrunner class that much, how about the Saber class? She was designed to be a frigate counterpart to the Steamrunner that was more designed as a light cruiser. The Saber class has 2 decks more, 11 in total, and is 1 meter higher, but she is much shorter; only 190 meters long. Though with being 250 meters wide she is 90 meters wider than the Steamrunner."

She is wider than she is long? Maras asked. "That's not normal, is it?"

"If you ask me, it's simply evolution," B'Elanna spoke up. With all species that have starships they all first evolved airships. Airships have to cope with drag in the atmosphere, so it has to be an elongated design. And a century or two later they start making ships to travel in space, and of course they think elongated. More so because most ships still have to be able to fly in the atmosphere. But there have always been people that think outside that box. Airplanes that are called flying wings are wider then they are long. The Borg have proven that you can travel perfectly well on a three by three kilometer wide cube. There is nothing that says that a spaceship has to be longer than it is wide. Nothing but 'it's always been done that way'."

"I always liked the design," Sisko noted before continuing. "With the warp speeds being between 6 and 9.7, the Saber class is faster than the Steamrunner. But on weapons and shields it's no match. The Steamrunner's bean power is 3 times as strong And the shields of the Saber class is 4 times weaker than the Steamrunner."

Seven said nothing and it was clear that she was thinking about it. Apparently she was not as thrilled by the idea as she had been with the idea of the Steamrunner.

"Oh, come on, you got to have her," Tom suddenly exclaimed. "If you have the Steamrunner, you need to have the Saber as well."

"And why would I need that?" Seven asked, amused by his outburst.

He tapped the screen to indicate it. "Because it's the typical choice. You are right. People are going to buy the ships for things like speed and technology. But why not have them have a choice for things that fit their taste? The Steamrunner and Saber are perfect for that."

He lifted his hands as if they were a set of scales and lifted one a little higher than the other. "Should someone buy the Steamrunner or the Saber? Steamrunner, fast, safe, can protect itself against the average pirates, has enough cargo room for a small family run business."

Then he lowered the one hand a little and raided the other. "Or should they go for the Saber? Even faster. Well, shields aren't that great, but damn she's fast. Weapons are a joke, but damn she's fast. Cargo room is just a little too small for a family business but will do in a pinch, and oh, did I say she was fast?"

He lowered his hands and grinned. "It's the typical new hover car battle that every self-respecting man faces at some point. Should I go for the model that fits the family and the groceries, or should I go for the nippy fast model that lets everyone else eat my dust? Trust me on this Seven, if you have one, you really should also have the other. They aren’t really competing with each other because we get the sale either way; just price them pretty much the same. But give people something they want to buy with their balls as well as their mind."

Seven lifted both her eyebrows. Then she clarified, "You mean with their emotions instead of common sense."

Tom shook his head. "Oh, this transcends emotions. That's seeing something and thinking 'mine' and buying it without looking at the price."

"I see," Seven said in surprising understanding. Then she looked at Sisko again. "Something else?"

He shrugged. "Well, I was going to suggest another class in that area as well. But if you do go for the Steamrunner and Saber class then you will probably not be interested in a ship that fits in that same niche."

"Why do you not show it to us?" Seven countered. "I believe that both you and Tom have a point. You with suggesting that other ships deserve a chance, and Tom with saying that people might want to choose. More designs do not threaten my plan since we will start building them only once the main plan is assured. Then we can train extra people and focus on building more classes. We will start with a clear lineup of ships, and then we can introduce the extra classes one or two years later, or more in the case of the Yeager class."

She paused before admitting, "There I also think that a smaller sister is not a good idea because then people might be more inclined to buy her instead of the Voyager class. But the ships we are talking about now are of the size that people that are willing to buy the Voyager class would never have bought the smaller ship because it is too small for them. Tom is right. We do need a lineup of ships that makes people not just want a ship, but even wants them have a specific model because it is 'them'. It will only enhance sales. More so because we will then have the more basic Delta and Alpha class for the people that can only just buy a ship. And right above that we will have a lot of option for the people with more credits to spent, but not enough to buy a Voyager class."

Sisko nodded. "Alright, in that case..." He called up a new schematic, "...The Nova class."

"Hey, we know that one," Chakotay pointed out. "We came across the USS Equinox in the Delta Quadrant. Some of them even joined our crew and are now still on Voyager. They didn't even go to the Federation; they found a new home with us."

"I see why you compare it with the Steamrunner and Saber class," Seven noted. "But I disagree. I think this fits in the line very well. As I said, Tom was right; the Steamrunner and Saber class compete with each other. It is a case of taste. But the Nova class actually fills a gap between them and the Alpha Flyer class. With only 8 decks, a length of 165 meters, width of 62 meters, and height of 34 meters, she is clearly smaller than the others, yet obviously much bigger than the Alpha Flyer."

"Yeah, but weapons and shields are stronger than the Saber class, though weaker than the Steamrunner," B'Elanna pointed out. "Not a bad choice to fill the gap between Alpha flyer and Steamrunner since the speed is actually closer to the Alpha Flyer with a warp between 6 and 8."

She frowned when going over the schematics. "Um, you said that with the Voyager class the crew will be cut. I assume that this is the same with all classes? I mean, fully staffed the Nova class has a crew of 78 people. But as our experience with the Equinox proved, not all of them are truly needed to maintain the ship."

"True," Seven agreed. "As started before, departments disappear. And on top of that, these ships will not be Starfleet ships and therefore also do not need the extra crew that is normally on board for things like planetary missions. I think it is safe to say that with all designs the crew can be brought back to about 25 percent of that is considered fully staffed. More so because all these designs already have a fully integrated auto pilot that can basically fly the entire course. Something that is safe to do while traveling in fully explored space, where these ships would be used. So the crew of the Nova class will exist out of 20 people while the crew of a Voyager class will be 35 people."

Her need for precision made her stop for a moment and then add, "Though the bigger ships will be an exception to that, which does add to the average still being only 25 percent of the crew. Because from one side, the Nebula class normally has a crew of 750, but as said before, I believe we can bring that back to 100 when we build the Enterprise class. On the other hand, the Sovereign has a crew of 700 and we might want to bring that up to 750 or even 800 when we build the Phoenix class. This because the Phoenix class will be our law enforcement ship. And therefore it will need more than just the standard security detail. It will also need marines and/or commandoes that can secure a location by force. But for the civil ships a crew can be bigger than those 25 percent if the owner wants since staff is their concern. But the numbers I just gave will be listed as a required minimum for safe operations."

She looked back at Sisko. "Any more suggestions?"

He grinned. "One, if you are interested."

"I am interested," Seven assured. Then she added with a ghost of a smile, "I can still say no after you suggested it."

"Alright. Let me focus on another potential little sister."

Seven lifted her eyebrow and Sisko raised his hand. "Wait, whole different ballgame. I'm talking cargo now. You will introduce the Enterprise class as a cargo ship. How about giving her a little sister in the form of the New Orleans class?"

He brought up the schematics of the ship. "As you can see it's quite some smaller than the Enterprise class. But if you disregard the nacelle placement, the hull and saucer section have exactly the same design; Compact, yet bulky. Just that they are smaller. I think that here a smaller sister will actually be a good thing."

He looked directly at Seven. "Honestly, the Enterprise class is a damn big ship that really only the biggest companies and government will buy simply because they will be the only ones that can afford to buy them. I know that the price of an Enterprise ship won't compare to the price of a Nebula class ship in the other Universe. You will be saving a bunch of credits because some very expensive departments aren’t needed. Some walls aren’t needed. Most of the crew quarters aren’t needed. But still, it won't be cheap. Torres might buy one for her company, but even Maras, who we know isn't exactly the poorest business person, won't be able to afford one if she had to buy it."

"True enough," Maras agreed. "But I still like the idea of having a Enterprise class ship as my... let's say on permanent loan. And if you start talking about me getting another ship, I'll start doing the business talk and start saying things like I need it to show up at places and thereby promote our product."

Sisko smirked. "That's alright. I can see the logic of having the minister of Commerce traveling around on one of the most expensive free to buy ships. You can go somewhere to talk to someone, they are impressed by the ship and you will just love to show them around of course. Also telling them in a by the way manner that they can also buy ships on a loan against really reasonable interest rates."

"They can?" Maras asked.

"We did not yet discuss that, but I believe that it would make sense," Seven pointed out. "Not everyone has the credits to buy a ship of this size. Actually, most will not. Simply because of the fact that if they had so many credits they would have used it for something else, like expanding their business. So selling a ship on a loan makes sense to me. More so because they do not have to pay all at once, and therefore the company continues to flourish."

Seven frowned for a moment as she thought. "In fact, now that we mention it, I talked about a similar subject with my Mistress once. More to the point, then it was that I was surprised that big companies and rich people seem to have a surprisingly small amount of free cash at hand. Most is tied up in investments and property. And as such that is not unheard of for even extremely big businesses to buy companies in an installment plan. With the guarantee being in that you will for sure meet your monthly payment."

"True," Maras agreed. "I myself had to put a freaking lot of work to get my credits in cash to be able to buy that trading post on Risa. The Owner wanted it all in cash to finance a lot of other projects 'now'. I think that it was one of the smaller parts that made me the deal. I wasn't the only one that could pay the price, but I was the only one that could say, 'I can pay the price, in cash, now this minute'."

"I see benefits to paying in installments instead of one time payments," T'Pel approved. "Especially since you have an extra security almost no other has. If they buy a ship from you, they are buying from the government. If they no longer pay for whatever reason, you have the power to go and take back what is yours and people cannot try to stall you by opening a court case. I will work on setting up some contract examples. Since the Phoenix Alliance is going to be known for 'the best', it is a fair assumption that buying things on a loan from us will be a common practice for a lot of people. Yet another way of earning revenue; from the interest of loans. I will set something up that will not cripple people financially, but will at the same time also give us a nice bonus on top of what a ship would have cost if they had paid at once."

"Make sure that it's lower than the banks," Torres reminded. "Or else they will just take up a loan with them and pay them the interest instead of us. Maybe just a flat fee. Something they know up front. Like, you can buy the ship on credit and pay it off in time for a total of ten percent of the sales price."

T'Pel merely dipped her head in thanks for the suggestion.

"Very well," Seven said, "Ben, we interrupted you."

"Thanks. As you can see from the schematics, the New Orleans is smaller than the Nebula, yet still a formidable ship. Just as fast as the Nebula because they used the engine and nacelle design from the Nebula, just that they placed the nacelles different. The weapons are a bit weaker than the Voyager class, but the shields are quite some stronger. So, smaller ship, still good defenses, still fast, as still enough cargo room to supply a big business. I think that this is more the kind of ship Maras would be interested in if she had to buy a ship."

Maras nodded. "He has a point. Buying wise, while I would love to buy a ship like the Enterprise, I would never do it. Or at least not at this point. Even if I managed to get the credits, or were willing to sign a loan contract with you, I would still not do it because for that amount of credits I would much rather buy two or three smaller ships and at least gain the ability to go to more than one place at a time, even if it is with a smaller cargo room. But the New Orleans class..."

She made a show of licking her lips as if anticipating something sweet. "Now, I might be persuaded to buy one of those because it is one of those smaller ships. I could get that on a loan contract and then when business blooms because I can deliver cargo like I want to, I would buy a second, third, and maybe even forth. All in stages of course. So in the end you would earn more from me than you would with me buying one Nebula class simply because I can buy a forth ship, but I would never manage to buy a second Nebula class."

"But, you do think that there would still be a market for the Nebula class?" Seven persisted.

Maras nodded. "Sure, for the big companies like the Torres Holdings. Or for governments that need them to do regular shipping. After all, it's not just people that need public transport because they don't own a ship. A lot of smaller companies can't afford a ship and they sent stuff through governmental transport and pay the fees that costs. The producers of Bajoran spring wine don't have spaceships for shipping for instance. They just ship it with a shipping company. Now, those shipping companies, those are your true customers. And even if they aren’t as big as the Torres Holdings, they will probably still buy a Nebula, or Enterprise class as you will call them, ship because they do need that bulk and they can make calculations. They know how much credits they make every month on this or that route, can they afford to put an Enterprise ship on that route and does the earnings cover the monthly payment?"

She shrugged. "Or other companies that really need the bulk, like mining companies. For them the Nebula class will be a dream come true. A huge ship that cuts down on needed trips back and forth, and on top of that weapons and shields so strong that no pirate ship can even think of intercepting her. I think that the first couple of years you definitely will have to put people on a waiting list simply because we can't build them fast enough."

"You are right with that," Seven agreed. "Especially since the Nebula class will not be priority ship, at least not in the beginning."

"You know," Donatra said as she looked at a PADD. "I was keeping track of the classes you were all talking about. Do you realize that if you also count Voyager's little sister, we suddenly have twelve ship classes? That pretty much doubles the ship classes. I see two problems with that."

"Which are?" Seven asked.

"First of all you will need to find people that can use these extra ships for official government usage so that all the ships that carry classes names are in official use of your government."

"I am sure that we will," Seven said amused. "For instance, the Steamrunner class would be very suited for the Minister of Physical Services who will also have to travel to a lot of places to see how things are working out."

Arandis gave a warm smile in reply. Then she asked," Are you also going to change the names of the new classes? You changed other names."

"But not all," Seven reminded. "I changed the names of the Intrepid, Nebula, and Sovereign classes because I felt the new names more fitting. But I did not change names of the other classes because I found them more fitting. For instance, I find the Defiant a very fitting name. With the new ships it will be the same. I find the Galaxy class a very fitting name for a class of ships that will offer people, that cannot afford another option, a way of traveling through the galaxy. On the other hand, I do not think that Steamrunner is a suitable name for a ship used by the Minister of Physical Services. I believe that if I feel that a name is not suited that I will let the person that gets the ship suggest a new name and I will then decide if I approve of it."

She looked at Arandis with a questioning look. "Do you have a suggestion?"

The Risan thought for a moment. "How about The Tranquility? In fact, since you already talked about borrowing ships of other people if ours is not available, I would like to offer the suggestion that the Minister of Emotional Wellbeing and I share the use of The Tranquility. A small message that shows that we care equally hard about the emotional as well as the physical wellbeing of people."

Seven looked at Ezri and once the Trill had gave a short nod, Seven agreed. Then she turned back to Donatra and asked, "Finding a place for the ships that carry the class names was the first problem you said, then what is the second problem?"

Donatra looked at her PADD for a moment. "Well, I counted and put ships in somewhat of a line. From small or cheap to big and expensive you have, Delta Flyer, Alpha Flyer, Nova, Saber, Steamrunner, Yeager... to be build later on, so ignorable for now..., Voyager, New Orleans, Enterprise, Galaxy, Defiant, Phoenix. Are you truly thinking of building them all?"

"Except for the Yeager class right now, yes," Seven said. "I will think a bit further about the new classes, but I think I like the new lineup. Though the priority of build will differ. Clearly nothing will be allowed to compromise the fast build of the Phoenix class."

"Well, that's the problem I see then," Donatra continued. "You said that the Voyager class will be the first class that will be built at the shipyards instead of on the planet. But I would suggest that she will be built on the surface of Mars as well. Mars has room and building a planet based shipyard is not that hard; it mostly exists out of leveling ground and building hangers and supporting buildings. And on Mars we have more than enough room. Hell, we can turn half of the planet into a shipyard, proverbially speaking of course. So I really think it would be best to build the Delta Flayer, Alpha Flyer, Nova, Saber, Steamrunner, and Voyager class there."

"I would agree to that," B'Elanna spoke up.

Donatra gave her a nod of thanks for the support. Then she continued. "But that still leaves six classes of ships to be built in space. We just don't have the room. Even if with a snap of your finger you had twenty dry docks by tomorrow, even that would not be enough. Even if you ignore that the first years they can't be used because you will be building the Phoenix class there, there simply won't be any place to build the other ships. Not on a level where we can sell them in any numbers bigger than two per class. After all, these ships also need a lot of time to be build, let's say also two years per ship."

Seven thought about that for a moment and then sighed. "You are right, of course. I believe that this is a case of me wanting too much. I believe that in this I still think too much like a Borg; they simply build as they need and do not have to worry about capacity."

B'Elanna tapped the screen thoughtfully. "You know, there is no law that says that you 'have' to build bigger ships in shipyards that are located in space. In fact, when the Constitution class was build they build the ships on the surface of Earth."

"What's the Constitution class?" Donatra asked.

"It's the most famous ship class ever built in the Federation... if you ask Humans that is," B'Elanna answered with a grin. "I sincerely doubt that species like the Vulcans would agree to that. But a fact that not even the Vulcans can disagree with it that the USS Enterprise was the most famous ship in Federation history. Well, I mean of the ships that were in standard service of the Federation and not counting several ships that have their claim to fame from one single event, like Zefram Cochrane's ship the Phoenix."

She gave Seven in quick grin at the last word before continuing. "The Phoenix was just a little thing, I wouldn't really call it a spaceship, more a test rocket."

"Which is also a spaceship," Seven couldn't help but point out.

"Yeah, well," B'Elanna said not at all impressed. "It still was just a test rocket. The only reason why the thing is so famous is because it was the first time Humans were able to reach warp one and thereby breached the faster than light barrier. Anyway, the point I was making is this. Before technology advanced to the point where shipyards in space was possible, the space ships were all build on the planets. On Earth they were building ships had to 450 meters length before they finally started building the bigger ships in space."

"Why not build all the ships on the planet then?" Kastra asked confused.

"Because of gravity," B'Elanna explained. "The bigger the mass of an object, the more it is affected by gravity. That is also one of the reasons why ships the size of Voyager are pretty much the biggest thing that are normally build with the capability of landing on a planet. Let's say it was theoretically possible to land a Galaxy class ship on a planet. First of all, unless you made the 'feet' about at least a quarter the size of the ship, which you can't, the weight of the ship would make the ship sink into the ground up to the hull, probably damaging that as well. But let's assume that you have a reinforced landing place to take care of that, still, just because of the gravitational stresses from merely standing on the planet, as soon as you were to lift off again, you would have to go to a Starbase to repair the damages caused by stress fractures."

B'Elanna could see that Kastra clearly still didn't understand her. She picked up one of the PADDs lying on the table. "Alright, let me put it this way. Imagine that this PADD is made of solid duranium. And imagine that it's twenty meters long. Now, the only gravity we have to worry about in a shipyard that is located in space is the gravity cloud that is created by the object you are building, which is basically ignorable for a starship of any size that the Federation had ever built, or anybody here in the Coalition as far as I know. Because of that, that bar of duranium will be absolutely straight in space because there is no gravity to deform it. If I clamp down one side, the twenty meters will still stick out perfectly straight."

"But on a planet it would bend down under its own weight," Kastra said in understanding.

"Right," B'Elanna agreed. "try building a ship when you constantly have to allow for that and keep in mind what metal will do once it's in space and gravity is gone. No matter how much you support things, materials will bend, and when the ship becomes big enough during the building, the materials will also start to compress because of the sheer amount of weight on top of it. So in other words, if you build a starship of the Galaxy class on a planet it is perfectly suited for... I don't know, being some fancy hotel on the planet but it can never leave because if it were to travel into space it would undergo catastrophic damage simply because bend materials straighten out because there is no gravity pulling them down anymore. Just imagine the floor in engineering raising ten centimeters because it was bending so much under the weight of the warp core. And the ceiling only raises three centimeters because above it there is not that much more other than normal floors and walls."

"I know this one," Kastra said with a smile. "Because the warp core is fastened to the floor as well as the ceiling it would suddenly miss a few centimeters of space and get crushed."

"More like cracked," B'Elanna both agreed and partially disagreed at the same time. "But it would still be enough to make the entire warp core unusable. So as I said, big ships have to be built in shipyards located in space."

She looked at Seven before adding, "but we may have a little bit of luck here. As far as I remember the gravity on Mars is only half of what it is on Earth, right?"

"The gravity of Mars is only thirty-eight percent of what it is on Earth," Seven corrected.

B'Elanna grinned. "Even better. That means that we can build ships on the surface of Mars that have double the mass of any ship ever built on Earth, and we would still have twelve percent safety margin. From just looking at the classes you just talked about, my educated guess, without actually calculating it all, is that... I would say that if need be we can build every class on the surface of Mars with the exception of the Galaxy class and the Sovereign... I mean Phoenix, class. That would take the pressure off the space located shipyards and let them focus on those two classes for now. And as we talked about before if they run out of orders for the big ships they can start building the biggest of the smaller classes."

"I like that idea," Sisko spoke up. "I'm all for it, but I do have to take a moment to remind you that this means that classes like the Voyager or the New Orleans class will have to be build different than the Federation was building them. It's simple, in a spatial shipyard a ship is build from the center outwards. That way you have the least problems with items you already installed being in the way. Or more to the point, they usually start with the deck where the nacelles are located. But if you build the ship on a planet you have to start building from the ground up. Probably start using the prefab block system, since we also need to build fast. The blueprints might stay pretty much the same, but the way of building differs."

"A very valid point," Seven had to agree. "However I still think that building as many classes as possible on the planet is a good idea. The advantage we have with those classes is that there is no time pressure, or should I said no time pressure other than that we need ships to be finished so that we can sell them. In any case, with those classes we can afford for the first couple of ships to be built slower than will be the standard later on. That will give the builders the opportunity to learn how to best build those ships on a planet instead of in a spatial shipyard."

"I think that it would be best that the Torres Holdings start focusing on building those Enterprise class ships as soon as your part of the shipyards have the ability to build those Phoenix class ships," Torres suggested. "I think that the Enterprise class will also be a good credit maker. The Galaxy class also sounds interesting, but since you said that those are best suited for interstellar transport of people I would suggest waiting with starting to build those for a year or two. At the moment there are already ships being used for that transport so it can wait a little longer. We have to make choices on what to build first."

Seven nodded her agreement. "I believe the best approach is a tree branch attack, so to speak. First of all the Torres Holdings shipyard will start with the building of the first Phoenix class ship. While this is being done we start the expansion of the shipyard until they have the amount of drydock bays we talked about. As soon as the first of those is finished we start building the Phoenix class ships there as well while we continue to build the next drydock and so on. At the same time we also start creating the shipyards on the surface of Mars. We will begin with only the first three classes there; the Delta flyer class, the Alpha flyer class, and the, for lack of better name at the moment, Nova class."

Seven paused for a moment before continuing. "Step two will be after the Torres Holdings Starbase has finished the first Phoenix class ship. Then they will start building the first Enterprise class ships there until all the Phoenix class ships are build and the Enterprise class can be built in the drydock as well. At the same time we will also expand our shipyards on the surface of Mars and having them start building the Saber, Steamrunner, Voyager, and New Orleans class."

Seven paused again before mentioning the third step. "Lastly, when both the planetary as well as the spatial shipyard have grown to the point where they can manage more capacity we will start with building the Defiant class ships on Mars and the Galaxy class ships in the spatial shipyards."

"That will keep us busy for the next six years or so," B'Elanna said amused.

"It will," Seven agreed. However, what I just said was the first branch of the three branch attack. The second branch, something that will happen simultaneously with what I just said is that we will work on our image. As I said before I want that the mentioning of 'the best' is synonymous with Phoenix Alliance. So from the very first day we will make sure that all of the Phoenix Alliance stands for 'the best'. I want that name out there as soon as possible, and I want all of you at all times to understand how important the image of 'the best' is and that all of you work to uphold that image."

"I think I know what you are getting at, "Maras said in understanding. "You make sure that everybody knows that Phoenix Alliance is the best and then in a couple of years when you start selling them outrageously expensive ships like the Enterprise class, you already have you base. Everybody will stay, 'damn that's expensive. But then again, it's a Phoenix Alliance build ship, and everybody knows that all they do or make is the best. So that ship has to be worth it's money'."

"That is indeed what I am aiming for," Seven agreed.

Maras nodded. "Then I would strongly suggest that you start selling those smaller ships as soon as they roll off the production line. So that the Coalition is already familiar with the quality and speed of the smaller ships and everybody knows that we don't sell empty air. Let everybody knows that our ships deliver. I would even suggest toning down the talk of a few other things. I mean, I know that the speeds is something you need to tell everybody about because that is a selling point. But I other things we can be more conservative about than true fact is. For instance, tone down the talk about the power of the weapons just a little bit, or the power of the shields. Say that it's a bit less than it really is. Don't worry, their real values will be common knowledge soon enough, as soon as the ships have been tested by one or two of the consumer agencies. In fact, it would be a good idea to have the Fereng's buyers guide do an extensive test article on one of the ships in their weekly news article."

"And what would the purpose be of this deliberate saying that our goods can do less than they can really do?" Harry asked confused.

The Orion gave him a dazzling smile. "Why, it will spread the word of course. People will talk to each other and say, 'hey have you heard about that new Phoenix Alliance product? It's been tested by this or that commercial organization and the results are that there is not a single unfounded boast in their sales talk. In fact, it has been proven that it can do actually more than what the sales brochure says.' And the other person will say, 'what? It's that good?' You see? By downplaying a few things about the ship that won't really matter in the sale, at least not in the margins that we are downplaying in, we get a name for not only delivering the best, but also delivering what we say we will deliver, and then some. Modesty is often seen as class. If we are modest about our products. If we can answer questions with, 'well, we don't like to brag', we are seen as classy and eloquent, instead of just the next sales person trying to sell their product."

"A good idea," Torres agreed. "I think that the reason why Maras is the one that mentions this is because just as me she knows one of the biggest facts of doing business in the coalition. It's simple but effective. If you deduct about ten percent of what they say you will be buying, you might have that what you are really buying. Well, not literally of course. But it is assumed that you never quite get what the advertisements and sales talks say that you will get. So if the Phoenix Alliance actually delivers more than we say we will deliver, it will strengthen our name as providers of 'the best'."

"Then that is what we will do," Seven said decisively.

"Well, with that taken care of," Maras said, "the talk about building ships on Mars brought up a question for me, which is; why choose exactly Mars as the place to build the new shipyards, not to mention as the official seat for your, our, government? I mean, I don't mind since it's not that far away from my home, with a fast ship, but still, why?"

"To answer the question of the shipyards first; the answer to that is because in the Federation universe there is already a shipyard in orbit around Mars, and because the Federation is putting quite some effort in to helping us. Utopia Planitia is the Federation's main shipyard and we are going to build our shipyard in exactly the same orbit. Then a large transporter room will be built on both shipyards. The transporter technology however will be changed to the technology that makes travel between our universes possible. Because both transporter rooms are in exactly the same place, just a universe apart, there will be a permanent point of travel between our universes. It will be brought back to the most basic of things; simply entering the transporter room and then walk back out seconds later, but in another universe. This way personnel can be moved extremely easy, as well as products or devices."

"But won't that make things a little too easy?" Olkra wondered. "It will make the perfect spot for people that want to escape from the authorities. I mean, how better to not be found than by literally moving out of the universe? I do realize that the existence of this transporter room won't be announced on the news or something like that, but with as many people as the Federation is lending us in help and with them moving back and forth, rumors are bound to start."

"A very valid point," Seven agreed. "The first line will be to have a high level of security. However, I do realize with literally ten's of thousands of people using the room there are bound to be people that slip through the system. All it will take will be one good set of false identification documents. Because of that the Coalition and the Federation have reached an agreement. If an individual uses the gate to flee a universe, the authorities in the other universe will continue the pursuit. Of course, we reached this agreement with the Federation, so an individual could still try to flee to one of the other power, like the Romulan Republic. However, here we have the advantage that Mars is located deep in Federation space and that the borders with the other powers are heavily guarded. Any individual on the run will more than likely be apprehended long before reaching the border."

"Unless the Federation believes that the person has a reason for fleeing," Tom said. "I mean, I can see the Federation deciding that someone is fleeing for a proper reason and not hand them over. Especially considering that they know that the person they hand over could be killed here if the person is found guilty of certain crimes."

"I can see the same thing," Seven agreed. "That is why I insisted that traveling through the portal without permission is actually the illegal thing to do, and that individuals will be handed over because they broke that law, and not for what else they might have done. I realize that there is still a chance of the Federation not wanting to hand over an individual. However, let us be realistic. The Federation is not a perfect place. They are not above doing things that most would not agree of if they think it serves the Federation. If the Federation will have to choose between handing over an individual, or risking the cooperation they have with us, then that law will be used to indicate that they can do nothing about the situation and hand over the person."

The she nodded to Maras to indicate her. "As to answer your question as to why I have decided to make the official governmental seat on mars, the answer is because it is unused. Every other planet in the Phoenix Alliance where normal life is possible, and where an official governmental seat could be build, has a history. Either it was once an important planet in the Sol Empire, and then a slave planet, or it has been a free planet for the last 150 years. If I were to form the official seat on any of those planets it would seem like I am giving that planet a privileged position."

She gave the Orion a small smile. "But Mars is different. Yes, at one point it was part of the Sol Empire. However, by the time they had Terraformed Mars to the point where life on it is possible, they already moved on to conquering planets. Yet because Mars was only Terraformed to the point that people could live on it without protective gear, nobody ever bought the planet once it was part of the Klingon territory because it still needed too much work. So Mars has no true history as a Sol Empire planet, nor as a Coalition planet. We will be the ones that make the history for that planet. As I already discussed with Keiko, Mars will be her learning ground for the Fine Terraforming her Ministry will specialize in. We will start to develop Mars at the same pace as the Terraforming will allow it."

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Chapter 10