Sovereign-Class NCC-74997

GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS.

            VESSEL NAME: United Space Ship Maximillian (Formerly United Space Ship Monarch from 22 November 2366 through 01 January 2373)

            VESSEL CLASS:  Sovereign-Class

            VESSEL REGISTRY:  NCC-74997

            CATEGORY: Explorer

            BUILDER:  San Francisco Fleet Yards, Earth

            LAID DOWN:  22 November 2366

            LAUNCHED:  13 January 2373 (Stardate 50032.8)

            COMMISSIONED:  24 May 2373 (Stardate 50393.6)

            DEDICATION MOTTO:  "Reach for the Stars, and Grab the future."

            BRIEF COMMENTS:  Fifth Federation Starship to bear the name.  Currently equipped with a Flag Ops Center for fleet and task force coordination.  Equipped with the new holo-communications technology, with projectors on Flag Ops, Flag Officers' Quarters, Main Bridge, Flag Ready Room, and Bridge Ready Room.  Currently equipped with new Continuum Distortion Propulsion (warp drive) System that does not pollute the space-time continuum at speeds in excess of warp factor five.  Sickbay is equipped with the new Emergency medical Holographic (EMH) program, which is designed to assist the medical staff, or work independently from them on a short term basis in sickbay during emergency situations.  Equipped with a Bio-Neural gel pack computer network.  Some of the traditional circuitry has been replaced with gel packs that contain synthetic neural cells.  They organize information more efficiently, speeding up response time.

            DISPOSITION:  Destroyed.

STARSHIP HISTORY

2373, SD-50000.0 (01 JAN): Federation Sovereign-Class starship U.S.S. Monarch (NCC-74997), under construction at the San Francisco Fleet Yards orbiting Earth, is renamed U.S.S. Maximillian by Starfleet Command at the request of Fleet Admiral Robert Lyon, to honor the sacrifice of Federation Nebula-Class Starship U.S.S. Maximillian (NCC-72016), and the actions of her crew at the battle of Semtar III.

2373, SD-50032.6 (13 JAN): Starship Maximillian is launched for trial systems tests.  She is under the command of Admiral (one-star) Turok T'Kill.

2373, SD-50393.6 (24 MAY): Starship Maximillian is commissioned by Starfleet Command at the San Francisco Fleet Yards, Earth.  Under the Command of Admiral Turok T'Kill, Maximillian is assigned to deep-space exploration in the Menkare Expanse, the most distant and uncharted area in the Alpha Quadrant.  Fleet Admiral Robert Lyon is assigned to coordinate Starfleet's exploration efforts in the Menkare Expanse, and names Maximillian his flagship.

2373, SD-50403.1: Starship Maximillian arrives at station Deep Space Five for additional crew and equipment before continuing on to the Menkare Expanse. Joining the crew at this point, among many other notables, was Lieutenant Critch Starblade.  After arriving in the Menkare Expanse, Admiral Lyon assumes command of the Twelfth fleet, assigned to exploring the uncharted region of the Galaxy, and to investigate the disappearance of starship Niobe.  Admiral T'Kill serves as Lyon's second, and Commander Tamak is promoted to Captain, taking command of the Maximillian.  After a relatively uneventful time, the Niobe's trail was picked up, just as Tamak entered a stage very similar to Pon Farr.  The following events, showcased in "Guard Forever", led to Admiral Lyon, Blobbin, and Lieutenant Starblade being trapped in the past for a time, and T'Kill and Kelvok in the future.  While all were eventually returned and the mystery of the Niobe's disappearance solved, Tamak was forced to relinquish command of the Maximillian, and First Officer Teela Amor took command.  She found she much preferred working behind the scenes however, and less than a year later also stepped down, and exchange officer S'Quid Tai Septaric was promoted to the captaincy, along with her brother to Commander, Kragnar.  Admiral Lyon left command of the twelfth fleet at the same time, assisting Admiral Rod Hammond with a secret project. 

Six months later, at the beginning of 2377, the Maximillian is called out of the Menkare Expanse abruptly by Admiral Lyon to join in a hastily constructed task force to meet an invading vessel.  The task force soon goes awry and the vessel destroys a Gorn Homeworld, seriously damaging the Maximillian in the process, and killing Captain Septaric.  Admiral Lyon retakes command, and orders the damaged ship after the vessel, even as Lieutenant Commander Starblade stows away on board.  Under Lyon's intense command, the Maximillian is nearly destroyed, but regroups with a large portion of the Federation fleet to stop the vessel, now revealed to be a Marconian ship.  Through the efforts of the Maximillian's officers, the vessel is destroyed, costing Admiral Lyon his life.  The Maximillian itself is severely damaged but salvagable, and reconstruction and upgrade begins immediately under the new command of promoted Captain Kelvok.  Among other installations are upgraded shielding and weapons based on Admiral Blobbin's Errsedorian designs.  Lieutenant Commander Starblade takes a leave of absence but returns to the Maximillian after it's relaunch.

In 2379, the Maximillian answers a distress signal from a distant planet, and while en route welcomes aboard Lieutenant Overload Soong-Maddox and Databit.  On the distant planet, the crew encounters a malevolent biogenic plant-creature that has overcome the entire planet.  Eventually, the lifeform overtakes the Maximillian, and forces Captain Kelvok to order a full abandon ship.  Starblade and Soong-Maddox are barely able to stop the creature before it can use the ship to seed itself throughout the galaxy.  However, one of the seedlings from the creature survived on a escape pod.  That pod crashed on a nearby planet, Cirrus Theta, and soon the creature infested another world.  While they attempted to stop it, before long Kelvok was forced to destroy the planet.  While he was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing by a tribunal, Kelvok stepped down as Captain, recommending Starblade for the position.  Despite misgivings from Admiral T'Kill, Starblade took command of the Maximillian in late 2380, with Commander Jaydin as his first officer.

At the beginning of his term, Starblade encountered a cyro-ship containing Reman soldiers of Shinzon, and exposed the last plot to destroy several worlds of the Federation.  Impressing Admiral T'Kill in the process, Starblade and his crew was able to stop the Remans.  The rest of Starblade's first five year mission passed uneventfully, as the Maximillian was tasked to Romulus to oversee peace talks as the new Government was formed, one that was hoped to be friendlier to the Federation.  Despite the tumultous events on Romulus and Remus, the rest of the galaxy was quiet.  There were small flare ups as a organization calling themselves the "Shinzon Loyalists" began to strike Federation targets in small scale invasions, and similar biogenic plant lifeforms sprouted, though none to the extent as had happened on Cirrus Theta.  Other than that, it was quiet.

In mid-2384, following Commander Jaydin's return to Bajor, Starblade chose the Xenobiologist Horta Nirathi to succeed her as first officer as the Maximillian was assigned to locate the whereabouts of the U.S.S. Asimov and Captain Stephenson, both lost in empty space.   The events following will be shown in Order of the Sword.  Also see NCC-74997, The Sacrifice, Beyond the Final Frontier, A Great Adventure, Needs of the Many, Strength In Darkness, Order of the Sword, and Guard Forever.