Since my last two articles were Klingon in nature, I figured it was time to share this ship with my readers. I will hold off any witty comments until the "Real Universe" portion of the article.
IKS Gre'thor
lomqa' QuQ Class
1:2500 AMT Kitbash
Star Trek Universe Notes:
BEGIN TRANSMISSION
Captain’s and First Officers Eyes Only
Starfleet Directive: S20141023
Subject: IKS Gre'thor [lomqa' QuQ Class]
The ship’s name refers to the Klingon Equivalent to Terran’s Hell.
The ship’s classification roughly translates to “Ghost Engine”
Directive #2: Do not attempt to board the vessel.
Directive #3: Do not communicate with the vessel.
Directive #4: Notify Starfleet Command via secure priority channels of vessel’s current location.
Directive #5: Maintain a distance of no less than 384,400 km from the vessel.
Directive #6: Await further orders. All other missions parameters have been rescinded.
The following information has been obtained through covert sources. The Klingon High command currently denies the existence of this ship.
The ship was originally christened the IKS Qib Joh. This roughly translates out to Shadow Lord. It is an experimental drive ship meant for deep space pin-point incursions into enemy territory. The drive is a highbred of the type of drive used on Romulan vessels. In fact, it is believed that this drive was confiscated from a captured Romulan ship and then heavily modified. The ship was constructed under contract by the Triple “D” Shipbuilding Company, although they too deny any knowledge of this vessel’s existence. It appears that the ship is constructed from the head and neck of a Klingon C-8 dreadnought and the primary hull of an older style Romulan Bird Of Prey.
It makes sense that they chose that hull as it already housed a similar drive type in the past. The ship also has a warp ring that appears to be either Vulcan or Terran in design. There are “wings” that come off of the ring with some sort of pods mounted to the ends. It is speculated that these pods may be used to help maintain or control the effects of the drive.
According to our sources, the ship’s maiden voyage was met with disaster. The ship’s computers were programmed to set a course for a remote planetoid, initiate the drive system, and travel there. The ship’s computer was also programmed to bring the ship back to its original location via the experimental drive system after 10 minutes. The ship was “manned” with several Klingon prisoners to help measure the effects of the new drive. The ship “warped” away but never re-materialized at its final destination. Instead, a singularity or distortion appeared near the planetoid that tore it apart and sucked it in. During this event, telemetry and internal data was still being transmitted from the ship. It is reported that screams of agony and torment were heard from the prisoners. As soon as the planetoid was “absorbed”, the singularity closed and all telemetry ceased.
The ship was believed lost and the entire event was covered up by the Klingon High Command. Those that were aware of what had happened renamed the ship to IKS Gre'thor, due to the screams that were heard during the event.
Two years later, the USS Hathor (NCC-26299), a Miranda class vessel, assigned to deep space exploration, encountered a strange vessel near a planet with a heavy gravity well. The ship appeared lifeless but upon scanning the vessel, an automated distress call in Klingon was initiated on the ship. Away teams were sent over to the vessel, and the captain ordered two shuttles be launched to do a more detailed scan of the outside of the ship. It is unknown why the captain made this order, however, had it not been done, no information would have been know about the events that transpired afterwards. The away team found what remained of the Klingon prisoners. They appears to have suffered the effects of explosive decompression, however, there was no evidence of this happening on the ship. About 30 minutes into the away mission, the ship suddenly powered up and the drive activated. A singularity distortion appeared. The planet, and all ships but one shuttle were sucked into the event. The surviving shuttle only survived because it was 300,000 km from the event taking energy readings. As soon as the planet was absorbed, the singularity closed in on itself. The remaining shuttle was able to receive transmissions from the Hathor during the event, but like the Klingon event, the transmissions ceased upon closure of the singularity. And like the Klingon transmissions, the ones received by the shuttle were also filled with screams of agony and torment.
It is because of these rumors and Starfleet’s past dealings with this ship that these directives must be followed.
END OF TRANSMISSION
Triple “D” Shipyards did in fact assist in the building of this ship, using parts from their boneyard. The work was done in trade for additional parts and technology for a personal project being done by the companies CEO, the formal Admiral Patrick M. Dougherty Sr.. The original Romulan drive system was installed and then the ship was towed away by the Klingons to some secret location where the modification work continued. The new drive functioned by opening an artificial black hole, to use the immense gravitational power to bridge two points in space-time, greatly reducing travel time over astronomical distances. The new drive did indeed work as planned. It opened a gateway in space-time, however, it leapt outside the known universe and into another dimension, that can be best described as "a dimension of pure chaos, pure evil" (and implied to be Hell). The ship also gained an evil sentience. It absorbed the life-force of the Klingon prisoners and energy from the planetoid before appearing in its new location where it “slept”. When it was eventually found by the USS Hathor, the scans “awakened” the sentience which waited patiently for the opportunity to feed on this fresh batch of victims. The ship activated the drive system again, devouring the crew of the Hathor and the planet before “warping” away to a new unknown location.
Real Universe Notes:
I have always liked the movie Event Horizon. I have been wanting to do a Star Trek like Event Horizon for a vey long time. And I will admit right here and now, I stole lots of plot information for the back-story right from that movie.
People ask me how I come up with my ideas for my original kitbashes. Really, I look around at other people's work and if I like something I go with it. And then sometimes, I just start placing pieces together and see what looks good for a ship.
My last two ring ship kitbashes were attempts at building an Event Horizon, but they always ended up looking like happy little Starfleet ships. The saucer sections just made the ship look too "friendly", no matter how bad ass of a ship hull I used. In both of them, I used the hulls from Space Battleship Yamato bad guy ships. In the end though, it just would end up looking like something Starfleet would do so I would move the design in that direction.
SkunkWorks Experimental FTL Test Ship
1:2500 AMT/Bandai Kitbash
Salvaged and Refitted Experimental Vessel
1:2500 Johnny Lightning Kitbash
Experimental Quantum Slipstream Drive Ship
1:2500 AMT/Bandai Kitbash
I've been having a blast building ring ships using PVC pipe which was an idea I got from the Star Trek Modelers Group and was bored enough to want to build another ring ship for the Ring Ship Contest that they were holding. It then dawned on me that the Klingon D-7 (or K-Tinga) head and neck were as close to the EH's head and neck as I was gonna get. After dry fitting that to the TOS Romulan Bird of Prey, I just knew that I found that right combination to make an evil looking ship.
The naming was the hardest part. There is a Bing Translator that can translate English to Klingon, however, when you translate back, it doesn't always come out that close.
gravity well = tlham vISujlu'be'
tlham vISujlu'be' = structure I am well
ghost drive = lomqa' yItungHa', qaH QaQ
lomqa' yItungHa', qaH QaQ = Ghost yitungha', Sir, this is a good
ghost engine = lomqa' QuQ
lomqa' QuQ = ghost in the engine
The easiest name was the final "nickname" for the ship.
Gre'thor (this is the name of Klingon "Hell")
[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Gre%27thor]
In the end, I did need to add a few more bits here and there to fill the ship out as it looked a little too plain.
All in all, I am very happy with the end result.
As always, I hope you found this article useful and informative. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to comment below.
So for now, "Live long and prosper!!!"
Additional Links To Photos Of My Collection:
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