Let me try to expand on that idea.
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Ever since there was interstellar space travel, there was commercial activity. Basically, there are two types of trading. Bulk trading, being the exchange of resources, and a smaller kind of trade, mostly focusing on luxury articles, nifty pieces of technology and other goods only available to people of great monetary power.
Interstellar travel increased and improved over the years, making interstellar flights easier and easier over time, thus lowering the price of goods. The moment replicators became common, bulk trading mostly disappeared, except for non-replicable goods. Concerning the smaller rade, only the replicator pattern would be important for transport. Thus, trade as a general declined, and thus, more and more cargo ships were phased out inside the Federation.
With the new missios in the gamma quadrant, it was decded that currently available classes of cargo ships would not be sufficient, as most of these ships held relatively little cargo space, in fact, some of them were little larger than a standard shuttle, because of the small-scale trade. A new kind of cargo ship was designed, mostly using modules from existing designs which would fit on each others frame.
The modules would plain and simple, not combat capable, beyond the very basic means of defence. One tug would be used to tow eight cargo pods, 6 being the actual station, one containing a central piece to bind them tgether, and a last one to act as a reserve and cargo hold for the joints. If one section is lost, this can be refurbished into an additional section, though it must be built from the bottom up, including pressurization systems.
The setup for the station is as following: 6 cargo pods are restructured to have warp sustainers attached to them to facilitate transport with the use of a tug towards the desired location, where they align in a loosely hexagonal structure, not interconnected yet. Second, a central connection point is put in this structure, facilitating hallways to connect the various sections and the central defence point, being the torpedo turret. The eigth pod contains 6 angular constructs, facilitating the connection between two pods.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... exagon.svg
This is the approximate configuration of the first six cargo pods, with a seventh, spider like construct in the middle, which is not shown in the image.
Assembly procedure
All pods have letters connected to them. First of all, section G is installed, by deploying the arms and setting the central point of the station. As all arms are extended, each pod is then directed towards their respective arm. At this point, the station can be operaed normally, but to increase efficiency, joints can be added at the 6 angles of the hexagon to shorten distances.
Letters
A, B, C, D, E and F are the main parts of the station, the six sides of the hexagon, so to say. there are docking ports on each pod, and each pod has the same facilities, though sections B and E have one industrial replicator set each.
Section G, the proverbial 'G-spot' is in the middle of this station, being a connection point in this station and to relieve stress from the structural integrity field.
section H is a spare pod, which is nothing more than a container with 6 joints, meant for increasing efficiency concerning traffic between the various pods.
Armament
There are 6 type VII phaser arrays, located on sections A,B,C,D,E anf F, power projection of 7500 Terawatts each.
One standard photon torpedo tube, with 50 photon torpedoes, more can be assembled via the various replicators and workshops present.
All parts of the station are made of a single duranium/tritanium hull
Beam Weapon Output : 45000 TeraWatts
Torpedo Tubes : 1 standard torpedo tube
Weapon range / Acuracy : 500
Shield Capacity : 2700 TeraJoules
Hull / Armour : single duranium/tritanium hull
Low structual integrity field
Maximum Warp Factor : 0
Combat Manoeuvrability : 1
Overall Strength : 333.22
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What do you guys think?
ohhh god...the iamges