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I think someone, perhaps Bernd Schneider, wrote a piece on this. Even if they look close enough on the outside, the internals may be completely different.

In any case, the very short hull life and limited utility takes us back to the question of "is it worth it?" As Graham said, SF must have been desperate.

Absolutely they were an act of desperation. And with all those parts which weren't designed to be put together, they'd tear themselves apart if any survived the war.

I actually think you could set a good story on one of those ships. A ship that threatens to tear itself apart if if goes above Warp 7; armed with a handful of twenty year old phaser banks that could hardly trouble a Miranda class. The "join" between the two hulls a weak spot so notorious that the chief engineer openly states that one good hit to that area might blow the whole ship in half. A crew who, while competent enough to graduate, are not exactly the cream of Starfleet, and are all too aware of it. And in command, a guy who was XO on a prestige ship like a Nebula or a Galaxy, and now finds himself here because there was nobody else available and the Admiral figured that he was good enough to maybe make something out of this ship and crew. The ship assigned to defend some insignificant outpost well behind the lines because it's not up to any more. And then one day, a Jem'Hadar bug comes calling...

...and blows the Frankenstein ship to bits after spotting and hitting the notorious weak spot.

Or, captained by a formerly promising young officer who ended up burning out after a particularly traumatic action in the line of duty, who has one more chance to redeem himself and prove himself capable, even though assigned to a low-priority post to minimize the loss if he cracks again...

Oh, wait. Never mind.

A day in the Frankenstien Fleet

:::alarms blaring:::

Captain, we have multiple hull breaches, and the port nacelle is gone sir.

What happened, were we hit?

No sir. Ensign Conway flushed the head while we were turning to starboard sir! The added stress tore the nacelle right off!

Damn, but I miss my old Miranda.

Mark wrote:Damn, but I miss my old Miranda.

Don't worry, I'm keeping her company

*rimshot*

"I miss my wife sometimes, but then I reload and try again."

Rochey wrote:...and blows the Frankenstein ship to bits after spotting and hitting the notorious weak spot.

Well that would be the point; they would have to try and find unconventional ways of fighting. Hiding, biding their time trying to think of a way to attack. Like maybe put an antimatter pod on an asteroid and try and lure the bug in and detonate it, that kind of thing.

GrahamKennedy wrote:

Rochey wrote:...and blows the Frankenstein ship to bits after spotting and hitting the notorious weak spot.

Well that would be the point; they would have to try and find unconventional ways of fighting. Hiding, biding their time trying to think of a way to attack. Like maybe put an antimatter pod on an asteroid and try and lure the bug in and detonate it, that kind of thing.

Or pull the old exploding lifeboat trick.

Maybe. Both of those have been done before, mind.

So what would YOU do in that situation, thread readers? Your enemy has better weapons, better shields, is faster, more agile. If you go to warp he'll detect it and chase you down in minutes, so you can't run. Without resorting to technobabble, what could you do to win?

GrahamKennedy wrote:Maybe. Both of those have been done before, mind.

So what would YOU do in that situation, thread readers? Your enemy has better weapons, better shields, is faster, more agile. If you go to warp he'll detect it and chase you down in minutes, so you can't run. Without resorting to technobabble, what could you do to win?

Play chicken while dodging their fire, prey to the deitys, and probably kiss my @$$ good-bye.

Surrender, and accept a boarding party. Jam every bit of power into every weapon you have right at the enemy bridge (which, being in 'Trek, is horribly exposed) as soon as they drop shields to beam aboard a/o beam us aboard their ship.

Dishonorable, perhaps, but at least you either win or go down fighting.

Look for a place to hide.

Mikey wrote:Dishonorable, perhaps, but at least you either win or go down fighting.

In my opinion, what good is honor if you're dead?