Yet another lesson in Trek Tech coming your way. Tonight's discussion is on the physical structure of and arrangement of the Kitty Hawk.

The Kitty Hawk is composed of 21 decks (sometimes identified alphabetically). The saucer section is composed of the first 11 decks, the Secondary Hull is composed of decks 14-21. The neck connecting the two is composed of decks 9 - 13. The beloved Jeffries Tube runs the spine of the neck, stretching from the Impulse Engine Room at level 6 to the floor above Main Engineering, deck 14.

Here is a basic deck-by-deck description of the Kitty Hawk.

Deck One -- Main Bridge

This deck is, surprisingly enough, composed almost entirely of the main bridge. From the outside, this is the small disk on top of the saucer section. There are two turbolifts on the rear port and starboard sides. Directly behind the bridge, and accessible through the port turbolift, is an airlock, complete with security lobby and toilet. There is a panel in front of the helm/navigation stations that opens to a ladder leading to Deck Two.

Deck Two -- Main Security

This deck, not much larger than the bridge, is composed of the Security Chief's office, as well as a break room and three small holding cells. The [M-6} computer core, which stretches from the bottom of Deck One to the base of the saucer section (deck 11 and the sensor array below), dominates the center of the deck area.

Deck Three

This deck is comprised mostly of the officer's mess (only the 428 ensign-grade [and non-commissioned] crew [are discouraged from eating] here). In the center area is a real kitchen, to accomodate VIPs and special meals. The rear of the deck is composed of the Officer's Lounge, with its adjoining library and privacy room. [note: Kitty Hawk's crew is also composed of non-commissioned personnel.]

Deck Four

This deck houses the VIP staterooms, a conference room, and the ship's junior officers quarters. The upper phaser banks are also housed here.

Deck Five

This deck houses the senior officer's quarters.

Deck Six

Crew quarters and crew's lounge are located on this deck. The crew's mess is located in the center of the deck. The Impulse Engine room is located on the aft section of the deck, where five large fusion reactors are also located. An elevator maintenance shop is located just forward of the Impulse Engine room.

Deck Seven -- Main Deck

In the center of the deck, surrounding the computer core, is the auxiliary bridge, used in case of destruction of the Main Bridge, or great danger to the ship. Sick Bay is located here also, forming a half-ring just aft of the auxiliary bridge. Most of the emergency and standard transporter rooms are located just fore of the auxiliary bridge. One transporter is specifically for medical emergencies, and adjoins Sick Bay. The main briefing room is also on this deck, near the transporter complex. When the Captain calls a meeting in the main briefing or conference room, this is where he's talking about. Adjoining the briefing room is the armory. The starboard rear of the vessel is composed of the two-level rec deck. The chapel is found on this level, with the adjoining chaplain's office. Science labs, the main brig, and the ship's gymnasium lie around the outer perimeter of the deck.

Deck Eight -- Docking Level

The ship's two main docking port complexes are located here, with an adjoining staging area. The ship's auxiliary fire control center surrounds the computer core at the center of the deck. At the rear of the deck is ship's laundry, where uniforms are broken down into component parts and re-assembled. More complex uniforms, such as engineering rad suits and marine armor cannot be broken down, and must be cleaned sonically. The main fabricators are also here. Should emergency saucer separation occur, this is the deck it would separate at.

Deck Nine

This deck is dominated by three viewing lounges and [M-6]'s main backup system.

Deck Ten

This is the primary hull circuit breaker room, insuring that all power is distributed correctly to various ship's systems.

Deck Eleven

This deck is composed entirely of the Main sensor array. Two science specialists man this array.

In the connecting dorsal, there are a few specialized VIP staterooms, capable of fully altering their environment for specialized VIPs.

Deck Twelve

The fore of this deck houses the two-story facilities that handles the storage, arming, and loading of the ship's twenty photon torpedoes. A backup firing computer is located behind the facilities on this deck. There is a photon exhaust system at the rear of this deck.

Deck Thirteen

This deck houses the port and starboard docking ports, as well a the bottom floor of the photorp system. It was one of these docking ports that Kirk entered through in the beginning of Star Trek II: TWOK. [note: of course, that's in Kitty Hawk's future]

Deck Fourteen

This deck is the structural spinal column of the vessel. It is where the structural supports for the warp nacelles are located.

Deck Fifteen -- Main Engineering

This deck is the location of the Warp Engine Room, seen in many cenes in the movies. It's the room with a huge blue column in it. This s the vertical linear intermix chamber. The horizontal intermix shaft extends rearward from this location as well, before separating into two sections which lead into the warp nacelles. At the rear of the deck, the landing bay control room is located, which overlooks the Shuttlebay and controls the rear doors. The dilithium reactor room is also locate here (the place where Spock met his demise in ST:TWOK).

Deck Sixteen

This is mostly engineering support deck. At the forward end of the deck are the twin energy converter units, which translate the ship's raw matter/antimatter into a form which is usable. The main battery room, with twelve nuclear generator cells are located here. The Chief Engineer's briefing room and office are here, as is his exec's office. Just aft of the briefing room is the maintenance facilities, where all the ship's tools are located. At the aft of the ship are two galleries which overlook the Shuttlebay.

Deck Seventeen

At the fore of this deck is the emergency transporter systems for the Secondary Hull. There is also a circuit breaker room that handles Deck Twelve through Deck Twenty-One. A large open area in the center of the deck serves as the Cargo Section's m ain observation and inspection room. On this deck is also the floor of the Shuttlebay. There is an elevator here which leads down to the hanger and repair facilities below.

Deck Eighteen

This is the shuttlecraft hangar level (which holds four shuttles), the cargo facility (which holds thirty-two pods), the secondary auxiliary bridge (for command of the Secondary Hull), and an auxiliary [M-6] computer system (for command of the Secondary Hull). The lifeboats are also located on this level.

Deck Nineteen -- Cargo Deck

This deck is mostly composed of Cargo Storage, but there is also a fabrication facility, a shuttlecraft maintenance shop (accessible by the two elevators from Deck Seventeen). The recorder-marker system is located aft.

Deck Twenty

At the fore of this deck is the matter/antimatter containment system. The tractor beam is located aft of these systems, and the botanical gardens, with botany lab, are located aft of this. A spacious messroom is connected to the garden, with a specialty kitchen. There is also a regulation pool here.

Deck Twenty-One

The sanitary wastes recovery system is located here, as is the fresh-water tanks and swimming pool maintenance systems.

As an aside, an emergency saucer separation is a permanent thing, there's no re-connecting without full facilities.

My thanks to Rodney Morris for allowing me to adapt the design information he prepared for his unfortunately defunct roleplaying game, Exeter, to the Kitty Hawk. Both ship's are of the redesigned Constitution-class, so few changes were necessary. I hope it helped you get a real feel of the Kitty Hawk.

Interested in more information, please contact gamer@stargame-redux.org.

LLAP!