Encyclopedia of Speculative Fiction

Enterprise (NX-01)

From the Encyclopedia of Speculative Fiction - http://encyclopedia.wizards.pro

Image:NX-01 quarter.jpg
Caption: Enterprise (NX-01) in 2151.
Affiliation: Earth Starfleet, United Earth
Type: NX class
Defenses: Polarized Hull
Plating
Grappler
Armament: Spatial Torpedoes
(Until 2153)
Photonic Torpedoes
(After 2153)
Phase Cannons
Transportation: Shuttlepods
(Two)
Transporter
Image:EnterprisePatch.jpg
Caption: The mission
patch of
Enterprise.
Status: Decommissioned in 2161.

One of the single most important starships in interstellar history, Enterprise (NX-01) was the first NX-class starship launched by the Earth Starfleet in 2151. Enterprise established United Earth as a legitimate interstellar power and caused a wholescale revolution in Alpha and Beta Quadrant politics, paving the way for the creation of the United Federation of Planets.

Contents

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Background

Enterprise was the first Earth ship to be outfitted with Henry Archer's warp five engine. Enterprise was not so advanced in all areas, however. Unlike the Vulcan ships of its day, it did not possess tractor beams, merely grapplers.

It was also the first Earth vessel to be equipped with a transporter rated for transporting biological organisms. However, the machine malfunctioned a number of times (ENT: "Strange New World", "Vanishing Point") and the preferred method of travel was still the shuttlepod. After trips in the pod, it was standard procedure for returning crew and passengers to utilize the decontamination chamber.

Enterprise had a standard crew complement of 83; approximately a third of the crew was female. (ENT: "E²")

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History

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Launch and early missions

Image:NX Enterprise drydock.jpg
Enterprise's launch.

Enterprise was launched from the Warp Five Complex on April 12, 2151 under the command of Captain Jonathan Archer. The launch occured three weeks ahead of schedule because of the need of Earth to return Klaang, the Klingon, to his homeworld of Qo'noS in time to recieve proper medical care. The early launch was strongly protested by Vulcan ambassador Soval, who believed humanity was not ready to explore space. He did manage to wrangle a concession from Starfleet, forcing Archer to allow the placement of Sub-Commander T'Pol on his vessel in exchange for Vulcan star charts. (ENT: "Broken Bow")

The early launch of Enterprise meant that it left spacedock somewhat unprepared: its spatial torpedoes were uncalibrated, and its phase cannons not even installed. The spatial torpedoes were calibrated in the heat of battle in May 2151 (ENT: "Fight or Flight"); the ship only survived because of the intervention of the Axanar. The phase cannons were not installed until September 2151 while Enterprise battled an unknown enemy (ENT: "Silent Enemy").

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Brief cancellation and missions afterward

In March 2152, the ship's mission was cancelled when one of its shuttlepods appeared to have ignited the tetrazine gas within the atmosphere of the Paraagan II, killing 3600 innocent colonists. It was this event, plus its actions at other planets including P'Jem and Tandar Prime, that caused the Starfleet Command Council to recall Enterprise to Earth. Ambassador Soval recommended that Earth wait another ten to twenty years before trying another deep space exploration mission. Archer was able to convince the Starfleet Command Council and the Vulcan High Command to allow Enterprise to continue. (ENT: "Shockwave, Parts I and II")

In April 2152, Enterprise suffered severe damage after an encounter in a Romulan minefield (ENT: "Minefield"). Fortunately the ship was directed by a passing Tellarite vessel to an automated repair facility, though Enterprise was forced to destroy the facility to escape unscathed (ENT: "Dead Stop"). A plasma injector nevertheless failed shortly thereafter, necessitating a trip to the Kreetassan homeworld (ENT: "A Night in Sickbay").

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Search for the Xindi superweapon

After the Xindi attack on Earth in March 2153, Enterprise was recalled home. Arriving on April 24th, Enterprise was refitted and upgraded with the new photonic torpedoes, a Universal Translator update, and a new command center, and was relaunched on a new mission to the Delphic Expanse to search for the Xindi superweapon. Enterprise also took on board a detachment of MACOs for this mission. (ENT: "The Expanse")

The search for the Xindi was long and perilous, taking almost a year. Enterprise was in severe danger much of the time in the Expanse due to the presence of spatial anomalies generated by the spheres (ENT: "Anomaly"). It was discovered that insulating with trellium-D could protect the ship from the anomalies, but unfortunately trellium is hazardous to Vulcan neural pathways, and Captain Archer refused to let Sub-Commander T'Pol leave the ship (ENT: "Impulse").

Image:EnterpriseNX-01-2154.jpg
Enterprise in 2154, damaged after her mission in the Delphic Expanse.

In February 2154, Enterprise determined the location of the Xindi weapon and arrived in the Azati Prime system (ENT: "Azati Prime"). There the ship suffered severe damage due to multiple attacking Xindi ships. The primary warp coil was destroyed, damage that required drastic actions on the part of Captain Archer to repair (ENT: "Damage"). Enterprise may have endured even more damage in the Delphic Expanse if not for the intervention of a future Enterprise, where the second ship travelled 117 years into the past when attempting to use a subspace corridor (ENT: "E²").

Enterprise accomplished its mission to destroy the Xindi weapon successfully, though Captain Archer was presumed dead. The ship was returned to Earth by a Xindi-Aquatic cruiser following the end of the mission, though it made a slight detour to 1944 with the help of Daniels, where Archer rejoined the ship after stopping Vosk and bringing an end to the Temporal Cold War. (ENT: "Zero Hour", "Storm Front, Parts I and "II")

See also: search for the Xindi superweapon

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After their return home

The crew of Enterprise were hailed as heroes upon returning to Earth, especially Captain Archer, for whom several schools were named. Modifications to the ship included a new captain's chair, an upgrade to the transporter, and repainted door panels. (ENT: "Home")

In May 2154, a group of rogue Augments had stolen a Klingon Bird-of-Prey and killed its entire crew. The Klingons began to threaten Earth with war unless the Augments were apprehended. After a debriefing and a refit, Enterprise was relaunched with Arik Soong onboard, to try and hunt down the Augments on the border of the Orion Syndicate. After several brief firefights with Orion interceptors, the Augments found Enterprise and took Arik Soong aboard their ship and set course to Cold Station 12. Enterprise pursued but failed to stop Soong from taking thousands of unborn Augment embryos. Soong headed to the Briar Patch however the Augments turned on him and headed to a Klingon colony and attempted to release several types of pathogens into the atmosphere. Enterprise arrived in time to stop the Augments, destroying them and their Bird-of-Prey. (ENT:"Borderland", "Cold Station 12", "The Augments")

When the Earth Embassy on Vulcan was bombed, Enterprise was ordered to the system. The Vulcan High Command propossed the Syrrannites had been behind the bombing. The crew discovered a bomb still in the wreckage of the embassy and confirmed the DNA was of a well-known Syrrannite, T'Pau, but was later discovered to be faked. Archer and T'Pol went on a quest to find T'Pau in The Forge while Enterprise was in command of Charles Tucker. After challenging V'Las's evidence on the bombing, Ambassador Soval was thrown out of the High Command and decided to stay with the humans. Enterprise was ordered to leave the system, and refused with the captain still on the planet, causing a skirmish with the Vulcans. Soval informed acting Captain Tucker the Vulcans were preparing to attack Andor. Enterprise warned the Andorians and the two fleets of Vulcan and Andor met and engaged with Enterprise fighting on the side of the Andorians. The Vulcans called off the attack after only a short time due to changes back on their homeworld. The discovery of the ancient texts of Surak caused the dismissal of the High Command and Starfleet activity was no longer to be regulated by the Vulcans.(ENT:"The Forge", "Awakening", "Kir'Shara")

Sometime after the Vulcan Reformation, Emory Erickson performed a major overhaul of the transporter in an experiment on Enterprise, boosting the transporter range to more than 40,000 kilometers. The upgrade replaced the old transporter control pedestal with a much more advanced control system.(ENT:"Daedalus")

Later in 2154, two officers were contaminated with a silicon-based virus which was beamed aboard Enterprise. As a result, a part of Enterprise had to be sealed off for quarantine purposes. (ENT: "Observer Effect")

In November 2154, Enterprise carried a Tellarite delegation, including Ambassador Gral, to Babel. On the way there, the starship received a distress call from the Andorian warship Kumari. The warship had been attacked by an unknown vessel, although Andorian Commander Shran blamed the Tellarites for the destruction of his ship. Eventually, the crew of Enterprise learned that the Kumari had been attacked by a prototype Romulan drone-ship which was able to disguise itself as other vessels. Gral and Shran eventually managed to work out their differences and Enterprise rendezvoused with a Tellarite transport ship which returned Gral and his delegation to Tellar Prime. Enterprise continued to Andor, where Captain Archer and Commander Shran encountered the Aenar, a blind race of telepaths. A member of the Aenar, Jhamel, returned to Enterprise with Archer and Shran and assisted in the destruction of the drone-ships which the Romulans had launched from Remus. Again, the starship journeyed to Andor, where Shran and Jhamel left the ship. (ENT: "Babel One", "United", "The Aenar")

Enterprise returned to Earth on November 27, 2154. While there, Chief Engineer Charles Tucker transferred to the new NX class starship Columbia. On Earth, Doctor Phlox was assaulted and captured by Rigelians. Enterprise followed the warp trail of a Rigelian freighter which had left Earth two hours after Phlox's abduction. The starship arrived at the freighter's co-ordinates, although the Rigelian craft had been seriously damaged and only a wreckage remained. As Enterprise's crew attempted to determine the identity of the freighter's destroyer, a Klingon vessel attacked the starship. An away team from the Klingon craft beamed aboard and sabotaged Enterprise's systems. Although the Klingons returned to their ship, Enterprise was unable to follow. (ENT: "Affliction") In the end Enterprise was able to save the Klingon race with the help of Phlox. The Klingon race was left with flat foreheads like humans, with no cranial ridges.(ENT: "Divergence")

A few days later, an Orion man came to give an offer to Archer. The offer was that he would let Starfleet use a planet he discovered. Starfleet would do the mining operations and he would get 10% of the shares. To seal the deal, three Orion slave girls were given as a gift to Captain Archer. The girls seduced the crew and controlled the men. Tucker, the only one not affected, was able to foil their plans. The Orion man came to drag the Enterprise to the Orion Syndicate because they wanted Archer's head, whether or not it was attached to his body. The Enterprise stopped him by sending a shock through the deflector and disabling the Orion ship.(ENT: "Bound")

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Romulan War and retirement

Enterprise was retired in 2161 to make way for new, more advanced starships. It was placed in a Federation Museum where it still remains in the 24th Century. (ENT: "These Are the Voyages...")

Before Enterprise was withdrawn from active service, the ship presumably served during the Earth-Romulan War.

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Achievements

This exploration was not entirely into unknown territory, as the ship was aided by the Vulcan star charts. However, it participated in several historically significant events, such as the discovery of the Temporal Cold War (ENT: "Broken Bow"), the return to Terra Nova (ENT: "Terra Nova"), continued involvement in Vulcan/Andorian hostilities (ENT: "The Andorian Incident", et al.), the destruction of the colony on Paraagan II (ENT: "Shockwave, Part I"), the first human encounter with a noncorporeal life-form (ENT: "The Crossing"), the discovery of a lost human tribe in the Delphic Expanse (ENT: "North Star"), the race to stop the Xindi superweapon (ENT: "The Expanse", et al.), the Augment Crisis (ENT: "Borderland", et al.), the Vulcan Reformation (ENT: "The Forge", et al.) and the formation of the first alliance with the Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites. (ENT: "Babel One")

Enterprise also made Earth's first contact with numerous species, including:

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Command Crew

See also: Enterprise (NX-01) personnel

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Alternate Enterprises

There are three alternate timeline versions of the ship that have been observed.

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"Twilight"

In one alternate timeline, Captain Archer's brain was infected with interspatial parasites in October 2153. These parasites caused him to develop anterograde amnesia, and led to him being relieved of command. Sub-Commander T'Pol received a field commision from Starfleet, becoming the ship's new captain. She continued the search for the Xindi superweapon.

Image:OneNacelledEnterprise.jpg
Enterprise, severly damaged
In 2154 Enterprise learned the weapon was being built at Azati Prime. But as they drew close, the ship was attacked by two Xindi-Reptilian vessels. The ship suffered substantial damage: thirteen crew died, including Travis Mayweather, and twenty-three were injured. In addition, the starboard nacelle was out of commission, limiting the ship to Warp 1.7. By the time Enterprise reached Azati Prime at that speed, the weapon had been launched. They were able to follow it back to Earth through a subspace vortex, but their efforts were in vain and Earth was destroyed.

In 2155, Enterprise led one of several convoys of survivors to Ceti Alpha V, where humanity hoped to resettle to escape the wrath of the Xindi. When the ship arrived there in 2156, T'Pol turned command over to Commander Tucker; the ship's new responsibility was to patrol the Ceti Alpha system. The ship was upgraded with shields provided by General Shran of the Andorian Imperial Guard.

In 2165, Enterprise was attacked by Xindi forces that had finally located Ceti Alpha. Archer and T'Pol vaporized the ship in a subspace implosion, thus preventing the parasites in his brain from ever having infected him, creating a new timeline. (ENT: "Twilight")

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"E²"

Image:FutureNX-01.JPG
Alternate Enterprise (NX-01)

In a different alternate timeline, the ship's trip through a subspace corridor from the Kovaalan nebula to the Xindi Council planet in February 2154 would have sent it to the year 2037. The particle wake from a damaged impulse manifold caused the corridor to shift in time. Unable to return to the present, Captain Archer decided to wait in the Delphic Expanse until the ship could stop the Xindi destroyer/probe from attacking Earth.

To survive for all that time, Enterprise forged alliances with other species, trading its advanced technology for food and supplies. The ship even acquired alien crewmembers, such as Archer's wife Esilia. With time, the ship acquired advances from other races as well. By 2154, its atmosphere processors had been doubled in effeciency, it acquired an isomagnetic collector from the Ikaarans, and it had had a tractor beam installed. In addition, Haradin traders provided the technology to upgrade the plasma injectors and allow the ship to reach Warp 6.9 for a brief time, but the ship's injectors were too old to take the stress, and so they couldn't use the technology.

By 2153 all of the original crew had died except for T'Pol. Lorian was in command of the ship, Karyn Archer was executive officer and pilot, and Greer was tactical officer. Enterprise tried to stop the Xindi probe from being launched at Earth, but Lorian gave the order to ram it too late, and the probe departed. In 2154, Enterpise rendezvoused with the Enterprise of that time period just before it entered the corridor.

Lorian provided Archer with the Haradin specifications, but T'Pol intervened, showing that performing the upgrade was too dangerous. She suggested Enterprise upgrade its impulse manifold to reduce particle wake, but Lorian refused to let Archer carry out the plan; he stole the 2154 ship's injectors to use them himself. The two Enterprises deadlocked in space battle, and Lorian eventually relented and agreed to follow Archer's plan; Archer's Enterprise made it safely through the corridor.

The fate of Lorian's Enterprise is unknown. It may have been destroyed by the Kovaalans it was fighting at last sight, it may have escaped, or it may have been erased from history by allowing the 2154 Enterprise to make it through the corridor. (ENT: "E²")

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Mirror Universe

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Background Information

In the DS9 Season 3 DVD's special feature "USS Defiant" Herman Zimmerman states that the compact design of the NX-01 was influenced by the USS Defiant (NX-74205).

Throughout the series, the ship was mostly referred to as simply "Enterprise", rather than "the Enterprise". This may have been one of the creators' early attempts to distance the series from the rest of the franchise, such as the exclusion of the name "Star Trek" from the main title sequence during the series' first two years.


NX class Starships
NX prototypes NX-Alpha | NX-Beta | NX-Gamma | NX-Delta
Commissioned ships Columbia | Enterprise
Mirror universe ISS Avenger | ISS Enterprise


Starships named Enterprise
Earth Starfleet Enterprise (XCV-330) (pre-2143) | Enterprise (NX-01) (2151-61)
Federation Starfleet USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) (2245-2285) | USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) (2285-93) | USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) (2293-?) | USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) (?-2344) | USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) (2363-71) | USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) (2372-?) | USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-J) (c. 2550s)
Terran Empire ISS Enterprise (NX-01) | ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
Image:Sandworm heretics.jpg

The sandworm is a native lifeform of the planet Arrakis. It lives in the vast sand dunes that stretch across the surface of the planet, and is a by-product of the same process that creates the Spice Melange.

Sandworms typically stay beneath submerged in the sand, although occasionally they will surface. They are attracted to rhythmic vibrations, including human footsteps, which perturb them and will cause them to attack the source.de:Enterprise (NX-01) nl:Enterprise (NX-01)

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