This week’s Featured Starship is a time-shifted Enterprise NX-01. I’ve included the special introduction about this ship and crew, originally in the Featured Crew: Lorian article.
Special Introduction
Welcome to a special series of connected Featured Crew and Featured Starship based on the season 3 Star Trek: Enterprise episode, “E²“. In the coming weeks, there will be four characters from that episode (Lorian, an older T’Pol, Karyn Archer, and Greer), as well as two ships (the time-shifted Enterprise NX-01 and the captured Suliban Cell Ship T’Pol) and two species (Ikaaran and Loque’eque), all you need to use the time-shifted Enterprise as a crew, or as allies or antagonists in an adventure.
“E²” Background
It’s recommended that you read or watch the Star Trek: Enterprise episode, “E²” for the full background. A familiarity with the Star Trek: Enterprise series is also helpful.
The short version is, the time-shifted copy of the Enterprise NX-01 was created when the original Enterprise entered a subspace corridor in the Delphic Expanse, in an attempt to stop the Xindi Weapon from being launched against Earth. However, the Enterprise was attacked by the Kovalaans, and its impulse manifolds also inadvertently destabilized the corridor, sending the ship from 2153 to 2037. Realizing that they had a chance to still stop the Xindi Weapon by living through the years to the next century, the time-displaced NX-01 became a generational starship hiding in the Delphic Expanse.
However, the generational crew were unable to stop the Xindi Weapon themselves. They decided to intercept the original NX-01 before it could enter the subspace corridor, and help it correct the engineering flaw that destabilized the corridor in the first place and caused the temporal shift. If they succeeded, then original Enterprise would reach its rendezvous with a Xindi ally on time, and perhaps be able to stop the Xindi Weapon for good.
At first the two crews fought each other over conflicting plans, but later united their strength. The time-displaced ship fought the Kovalaans so that the original Enterprise could travel through the subspace corridor safely. The original crew arrived without incident, but the generational Enterprise did not come through the corridor. It was thought destroyed, or erased from the timeline.
What if the century-old Enterprise had survived being destroyed and had not been erased from the timeline? They could have entered the subspace corridor but destabilized it again, this time throwing them elsewhere in time and space. It could appear in the 23rd or 24th century, and appear anywhere in any Quadrant.
Enterprise NX-01 (E²)
The time-shifted Enterprise NX-01 is technically about 120 years old, and has been kept in active service by incorporating alien technology from the Delphic Expanse since 2037. It has been converted into a generational ship, and I’ve given a Mission Profile of Generational Operations that reflects how this ship was portrayed: virtually lacking in medical knowledge, but a high knowledge of engineering due to the integrated alien systems.
It’s technically eligible for 12 total refits, but I only incorporated 2 here, applied to Structure. Depending on how you use the ship, it may make sense to incorporate technology from a future era, or a different alien culture.
The Grappling Cable normally on an NX-class was replaced with a functioning tractor beam, as seen in the episode. It has been replaced.
Depending on how you are using this ship, you can also decide that a deceased Jonathan Archer (and other past crew) may have used an Arc Milestone to improve the ship.
Adventure Tag: ADV004