USS Khai Tam (fictitious vessel)
The USS Khai Tam is a fictional starship in the Star Trek fandom universe. The vessel (often referred to as "ship" or "starship") was envisioned and designed between the years of 1991 and 1994 by members of the Tallahassee, FL chapter of STARFLEET: The International Star Trek Fan Association. ContentsHistoryCommissioned on July 15, 2374, Khai Tam was the first Federation starship of the Qapla'-class. Designed in response to the then newly-discovered Borg threat, the initial order of four Qapla'-class ships, two to the Federation and two to the Klingons, was a hallmark of cooperation between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. In 2367, Starfleet was developing a new design to fight the Borg. Known as the Relentless Development project, the design was a massive heavy cruiser "armed to the gunnels." At the same time, the Federation was in negotiations with the Kligons to work on a technology-sharing project in ship design as a part of the New Alliance. Learning of the Relentless project, the Klingons declared that the battle cruiser was the only current Starfleet project worthy of Klingon participation. After lengthy talks, the design project was re-started with Klingon paricipation and an amazing new battle cruiser was designed. When the Borg threat dimished, the Federation re-tooled their variants for more of a scientific mission, redsignating them as "Heavy Cruiser - Exploratory." The Klingons, of course, left their variants more militarily inclined. Though the class-named IKV Qapla', a Klingon variant, was the first of the class to be launched, shake-out problems led to a delay in commissioning. This meant that the Federation-vairiant USS Khai Tam was the first of the class to be commissiioned. The other two initial orders were the IKV Targ and the USS Relentless. With the success of the prototype units, Starfleet exercised its contract option for 25 more hulls as a follow-on to Khai Tam and Relentless. The capacious shuttle bay facilities of the class proved to lend themselves toward light carrier duty, and several of the class are now deployed by Starfleet in that capacity including the Khai Tam.
Design & TechnologyThe overall structural design is the most obvious blending of the two technologies at work. What is, essentially, a Federation Galaxy-class saucer design serves as the hull, with enormous wings and nacelles reminiscent of generations of Klingon battle cruisers. A separable component to saucer section was added in the Federation variants to allow an expanded scientific and civilian presence aboard which could be left in a safe zone should the ship be dispatched to a potentially hostile sector. The real technological revolution of these ships was the way in which the Federation and Klingon technologies were combined. For example, while the ship's matter/antimatter reactor is of Federation design (and unique in its horizontal orientation in the hull), the warp nacelles are very clearly of Klingon design. Combining these two major components of such radically different design was a bit like mating a human and Klingon: it took a little tinkering with the DNA. The most notable technological strides for the class were made in ordnance, ordnance delivery, and targeting systems. Designed to effectively combat the Borg (the design requirements for the project were that a single Qapla'-class vessel must be able to single-handedly at least delay a Borg Cube for no less than five hours), the ship encompasses a a collection of widely-variable weapons to defeat the Borg strategy of adaptive defense. The ship embarks a next-generation Federation torpedo design as well as Klingon torpedoes and gravitic mines. Variable weapons control for the Federation phasers and the Klingon disruptors also provide superior gunnery. Unique ElementsThough arguably an entire collection of unique elements, there are a few features of the ship which stand out:
Technical ManualIn 1993, the members had the basic idea to write a technical manual for the Khai Tam as a way to "sell" the idea to Starfleet to officially sanction this non-canon original design for a Trek-Universe starship. The problem was that no one had the time or resources to work on the project. In April of 1993, Kevin McNulty joined the Khai Tam and offered to help. A stay-at-home-dad at the time, McNulty had the time to work, coupled with writing and computer illustration experience. He, the Khai Tam's Chief Engineer, Colin Toenjes, and other club members began work on the book later that year.The 92-page USS Khai Tam Technical Orientation Manual was completed in six months. Being well satisfied with their work, the ship thought that perhaps they may be able to sell it at Star Trek Conventions via established dealer channels. In early 1994, Kevin and Colin approached Mike Kott of Intergalactic Trading Company with a rough draft of the book. Not only was Kott interested in selling it, he offered to publish it! This was the crowning achievement of the design team, and a published, bound, and autographed copy was sent off to Starfleet in June of 1994. Shortly thereafter, approval was given for other chapters to select the Qapla'-class starship for their own chapters. Autographed copies of the book have been given to crew members, Trek stars, and Trek designer Michael Okuda. The book can still be purchased through Interglactic Trading and also through some auction and book sites. Googling the title produces several interesting links even to this day.The game Khai Tam Clue was based largely on the designs in the book, using floor plans from the book for the game board. Custom ModelA model of the Khai Tam was created in 1999 by then-member (now Captain) Richard Graham. Using art from the Khai Tam website and parts from several commercially available model sets, he produced a fairly faithful reproduction of what the ship's designers envisioned. The model travelled extensively with the club and was displayed with pride at many events. It was eventually auctioned at a ship fund raiser in 2002 where it was purchased by none other than long-time Khai Tam Captain, Jon Reddick.
ReferencesUSS Khai Tam Technical Orientation Manual
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