Environmental
suits:
Whenever starship personnel
visit planets with hostile atmospheres or enter the vacuum of space, they must
wear environmental suits. While a Federation environmental suit is comfortable
and light, it is still somewhat inhibits an untrained wearer’s mobility.
An environmental suit protects
its wearer from pressure extremes (from the vacuums to five atmospheres worth)
and temperature extremes (from –100 c to 120 c). They are not heavily armored,
however, and are easily punctured by most melee weapons, projectile and energy
weapons. Most suits automatically repair rips and tears (self-sealing punctures
of minimal damage). The wearer must manually patch larger punctures; each suit
carriers six easily accessible patches.
The suit itself consists of
full-body jumpsuit with removable gloves and a transparent helmet, as well as
gravity boots which allow the user to walk on solid surfaces in zero-gravity and
even climb steep surfaces under extreme gravity—one may even attempt to walk
clumsily on ceilings under full gravity (1g).
A small belt-pack houses the
suits life-support system. Based on micro-replicator technology, the
life-support system can purify air and recycle drinking water for up to 25
hours. Wrist controls on the suit activate various functions; Gravitic boots, a
built-in communicator, and visor- and helmet- mounted lights. The energy
signature produced by environmental suits is easily detectable by most sensors,
making it nearly impossible to hide while wearing one.
Medical
Kit:
On away team missions,
Starfleet doctors and medics carry medical kits and medical tricorders. A kit
contains an auto-suture, a dermal regenerator, a hypospary and a neural
stimulator. With these items, a doctor can perform most routine and emergency
medical procedures on-site. Patients with severe illnesses or injuries must
however, receive full diagnosis and treatment in a sickbay facility. A medical
kit’s devices are designed to work on all known humanoid life forms and on most
DNA-based non-humanoids.
Personal Access Display
Device (PADD):
Personal access display devices
are among the most common tools in the Federation; nearly every crewmember and
almost every inhabitant of an advanced planet has her/his own PADD. In essence,
it is an extremely powerful hand computer capable of holding several billion
pages of text and pictures in two isolinear optical chips. It consists of a
high-resolution touch-sensitive screen as well as several multi-function touch
pads. It also contains a subspace transceiver equal in power to a commbadge; a
user can communicate, uplink to upload and download data, and even control a
starship from up to 40,000 kilometers away, and in some advanced models
utilizing interplexing beacon variants, far longer ranges.
Civilians use these devices to
keep track of appointments, play games, and communicate with various planetary
computer networks. On a starship, PADD’s are often used to send and receive
reports and to access the ships computer. While its size significantly limits
its ease of use, a PADD can be configured to take over the functions of a
starship control panel or workstation. However, the usual slower response time
of a PADD makes this highly irregular for common uses and would require special
command level clearance in most instances.
PADD’s allow users access only
authorized functions. Command staff members know override codes, which allow
them, access to any ship function with a PADD.
Personal Communicator
(Combadge):
Intraship voice communication
on Starfleet vessels are primarily performs via personal communicators housed in
Starfleet badges worn by all crewmembers. Subspace radio frequency (SRF) signals
are picked up by local antennae, routed to local subprocessors, then through the
optical data network (ODN) to the intended recipient. Voice AI routines are
quite intelligent, and able to understand conversational and contextual cues to
route transmissions properly.
Conversations may be ended with
the properly context word “out”, by opening a channel to another party, or by a
ten-second pause.
Ship-to-surface communications
are very similar in performance. IF a channel is opened to an away team member,
the computer, which remembers that the member has recently transported or
shuttled off ship and continues to keep tabs on her/his location while in range,
routes the subspace signal to the subspace transceiver. Combadges have an
effective range of about 500 meters under commbadge power to more than 40,000+
kilometers if supported by local main communications devices. Personal
communicators can be activated by voice as well as touch. A dermal sensor
verifies the users identity.
Tricorders:
Tricorders are extremely
compact and powerful sensory devices In addition to a broad array of miniature
electromagnetic, magnetic, audio, chemical, and subspace sensors, tricorders
includes extremely detailed databanks covering a wide range of scientific and
historical information. The computer in the tricorders can rapidly identify life
forms, materials, and energy sources, by comparing its sensory readings to its
internal databanks. Tricorders can also attempt to analyze unknown life forms,
materials, and energy sources, although complete analysis can require up to an
hour. But during this time, the tricorders can still perform other, less
involved tasks. Tricorders contain subspace communicators with ranges comparable
to those of personal communicators. Tricorders can send and receive data of all
types, logging onto starship computers or other distant networks.
Engineering
Tricorders;
Engineering Tricorders include special engineering
peripheral (EP) appended to one end of the device. The EP contains specialized
sensors capable of detecting slight energy fluxuations in addition to a wide
variety of engineering particles and exotic power signatures. The EP also houses
an extensive database documenting all ships and devices used by known species,
and a detachable high-resolution probe. The remote probe only has a range of two
meters, but can determine the exact physical composition of any substance, as
well as identifying precise details such as minute energy residues or micro
fractures and material flaws in an object structure..
Medical Tricorders:
Medical Tricorders have a
special medical peripheral (MP) attached to one end. The MP contains specialized
biosensors used to collect information and compare it to data in its vast
internal database. The database contains anatomical files detailing more than
2000 species, in addition to containing medical information pertaining to
hundreds of thousands of diseases, illnesses, infections, and similar medical
phenomena.
MP sensors can identify a subject’s species and detect vital
signs within a range of 25 meters. Within 5 meters, the sensors can analyze a
beings internal structure, in a manner similar to a 20th-century CAT scan, to
detect broken bones, internal injuries, and the like. The MP also contains a
detachable high-resolution probe. The remote probe only has a range of one
meter, but is capable of extremely refined sensory input, including DNA typing,
blood chemistry analysis, and detection of all known drugs, poisons, bacteria,
and viruses.
Phasers remain the standard
weapons issued by the Federation and its allies. The common Starfleet models
include the small hand-held phaser Type 1, carried as a hand weapon on many
occasions and able to fit within the palm of a standard humanoids hand, and the
larger Type II, issued only when there is a significant threat of violence,
about the size of a 20th century ‘flashlight’. Each has variable beam
settings ranging from 1-8; 1-4 being stun settings, and 5-8 being ‘kill’
settings. The phaser Type III, or phaser rifle, rarely sees action, although are
stocked on all Starfleet vessels and facilities in secure weapons arsenals for
deployment in appropriate situations. They have beam settings as high as 16, and
the basic model contain gyro-stabilization, autonomous targeting sensors, etc.
Other more advanced military variants of the phaser rifle are produced, such as
the Type III-A through III-C phaser rifles that contained advanced compression
technology and higher beam settings of 17 and 18, and are deployed in a more
military aggressive fashion, rarely deployed to starships seeing standard
phasers are usually more than enough to deal with any threat situations. (Phaser
rifles and other more militant oriented weaponry is discussed in the ‘Military
Equipment’ of this section.)
Regardless of the model, all
Federation phasers contain a subspace transceiver, allowing a ship or facilities
computer to monitor the usage. This limits all on board to setting 3 (Heavy
stun) or lower unless authorized by the command staff. If desired, the firing
button can be set to the users bioelectric field, so only the users designated
user can use the weapon. Skilled tampering can override these safety interlocks.
Other species energy weapons may or may not possess similar
features.
Phasers project a beam of rapid
nadions (highly energetic, short-lived subatomic particles). These particles can
produce a wide variety of effects, depending upon their energy state. A low
setting, phasers produce bioelectric shock capable of stunning most targets. At
moderate settings, the beam heats the target. At higher settings, a phaser beam
causes subatomic disruption, which can vaporize moderate-sized objects or cause
larger objects to explode. A user can set a phaser to fire in four distinct
modes; standard beam, pulse, continuous beam, wide-beam. Similar weapons may or
may not possess all these firing modes.
In addition to being powerful
weapons, phasers make useful tools. On standard beam settings, a firer can use a
phaser to clear undergrowth in the jungle or carve wood, metal, or rock. On wide
beam mode, she/he can use a phaser to heat rock and radiate warmth in cold
climates, as well as clear obstacles like snow, ice, or vegetation.
The energy stored in phasers is
done so through sarium krellide power cells. Phasers can be recharged by
plugging them into the standard power taps of a ship electro plasma system, or
by attaching them to portable sarium krellide units (like small portable
generators). It takes about one minute to restore ten charges worth of phaser
energy.
Standard Phaser
Types:
Type I
Settings:
1-8
Range: 5/10/25/50
meters
Size: 12 cm long, 0.3 L in
volume
Mass: 0.2
kg
Energy: 160
charges
Type II
Settings:
1-16
Range: 5/20/50/100
meters
Size: 25 cm long, 0.8 L in
volume
Mass: 0.6
kg
Energy: 1,000 charges
Types III
Settings:
1-16
Range: 5/40/80/150
meters
Size: 55 cm long, 1.6 L in
volume
Mass: 1.1
kg
Energy: 1,500
charges
Type
III-A
Settings:
1-16
Targeting: (Enhanced module
unit)
Range: 5/45/85/160
meters
Size: 62 cm long, 2.0 L in
volume
Mass: 1.4
kg