I've added some pictures of some of the instruments I've aquired for the EnoS III instrument panels.  I had to toss out a few pics because I'm not a very good photographer any more.  I'll reshoot some of them in the next day or so.  (Focus, focus, focus!)  As you can see most of the instruments either light up or are back lit.  The NAV/COM radio actually works in the recieve mode.  I may incorporate the radio's audio into the whole scheme of things... it shouldn't be a big trick. 

Random Question:

 

Does anyone out there know how to make two (or more) Bluetooth headsets talk to each other?  I see potential for a working ear-piece like Lt. Uhura's.

The following is the backstory... that fits the Shuttlecraft EnoS III into the Star Trek Universe.

The story is nine pages long... if printed.  If you don't care to read the story... skip this entry.

 

---

 

The Space Monkey's Prayer

Today, I am cool collected and brave.
I am prepared for whatever I may face.
Today, I'm a monkey, saved from the wild,
educated well... then shot into space.

 (The "Prayer" is used with the original author's permission. Visit www.monkeynaut.com)

EnoS III

An adventure story… with Justin Case.

In an age where our greatest quest is to “Boldly go where no man has gone before”… most stories of high adventure are written about giant starships and their hundreds of fearless and gallant crew members.  But not all such stories originated on the deck plates of ships called “Enterprise”, “Intrepid”, “Farragut”, or “Valiant”.  And as great as they are… ships captains like April, Pike, Kirk, and Chandra did not make every first contact or defeat every foe.

No, in fact, and some may find this a sacrilege, not every “adventure story” is about Starfleet vessels and the personnel they whisk from sector to sector.

This is the story of one such unassuming vessel and it’s crew of not hundreds but of… three.

Set back and listen as I tell you about “EnoS III”… an experimental ship named for a chimpanzee.

*

“EnoS III” started its career as “TEST BED ES-3”.  The official designation of an “experimental” planetary-space shuttle… a little ship designed as a way to experiment with various configurations of propulsion, navigation, life-support, instrumentation, and yes on a rare occasion weapons systems. 

In it’s 20 plus years of service to the McDonald-Hughes-Mitsubishi (MHM) International Spacecraft Company it is safe to say that everything, with the exception of the interior hatch handle and a few bulkhead plates, had been replaced, reworked or re-invented.  She was a ship of patches, welds, repairs, attachments, second thoughts, good ideas and bad.  This tiny little shuttle had been launched, crashed, flung around the solar system with all the civility of Klingon three-year-old in a china shop.  She had visited most of the planets (and their moons) in this solar system and others a few dozen light years away.  She’d docked in the hanger bays of at least 10 “Federation” ships and the holds of scores of “trader” vessels from all over the galaxy.  Her visitor log was full of famous signatures and automatic ship’s entries.

The engineers and technicians who worked on ES-3 are the ones who hung the moniker “EnoS” on her.  ES-3 seemed a bit too impersonal for the ship they had all spent so many years tweaking, modifying and oddly growing attached to.  So as they went about the task of naming her…

ES-3 became “EnoS III”.  Some data bank research of the early days of NASA discovered that one of the United States of America’s first “astronauts” was a chimpanzee named “Enos”.  They figured “EnoS III” was every much a pioneer as the simian she was to be named for.  And with all her eccentricities… it was easy to believe the spirit of the original Enos ran rampant through all her systems.

Much of what you know as today’s modern Shuttlecraft owes its technical refinement and design elegance to “TEST BED ES-3”… a.k.a. “EnoS III”.

On November 29, 2218 “EnoS III” was dollied into the back of one of MHM’s spacious hangers and unceremoniously retired.  Coincidentally, it was on this same date that the design work for the first “Constitution” class starship was commissioned with much hoopla and fanfare.  Even more of a coincidence… that was exactly 257 years to the day that the first “Enos” was shot into space.

Needless to say, and as history records, the “U.S.S. Constitution” was the first of a whole fleet of new warp eight starships.  Construction of these marvels of space engineering was ramped up and flagged “full speed ahead”!  MHM was one of the largest hull and superstructure sub-contractors in the “Constitution” program and in less than six months after the launch of the new ship it was discovered that “EnoS III” was “in the way” and needed to be moved, or disposed of, to make room for a new MHM construction facility.

This is not where our story of “EnoS III” ends… but where it begins.

*

When the Director of Resource Allocation dropped by my shop with a PADD listing of “items” the company was preparing to dispose of, due to the expansion of our manufacturing facility, I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw “TEST BED ES-3” was up for grabs.  It is not unheard of for a company like MHM to donate its experimental craft to a museum or some humanitarian organization.  Since the “ES-3” wasn’t much of a prize because of its size and capabilities and had no real historical significance… I guess the PR folks passed on it.

“Hank, is this right?  Is the “ES-3” really available?” I said barely able to believe what I was reading.

“The reutilization crew (read that demolition crew) is due in here at the end of the week.  If that little ship isn’t gone by then it’ll be hauled off and recycled for its base metals.  The rest of her “friends” have moved on or are not interested in another piece of space junk.  Justin, you are welcome to it if you want it.  I know you worked on the “EnoS III” project for a few years when you first got here… I thought you might be interested so I…”

“Interested!” I interrupted, “Yes I’m interested!  I know that little ship inside and out and she still has a little life in her.  They can’t melt her down!”

“Well then, fly her, tow her, drag her out of here in the next twenty four hours and I’ll see to it that her registration is transferred to you by Friday.”

“Hank, my old friend… you have a deal”.

And that is how “TEST BED ES-3”… “EnoS III” began its second life.

*

It didn’t take long for the word to get around the shop that I had just become the proud owner of the near quarter century old shuttlecraft.  “Case’s Folly” they started calling it. I took a lot of good-natured ribbing that day about my “prize”.

Now, how was I going to explain this to my landlord?  I don’t think any of her tenants have ever asked to park an actual spacecraft in the garage.  A few skimmers and skiffs maybe, but mostly your common ordinary land based transports reside on the first two floors of our apartment complex.  I wonder if I will need a permit to “launch” from the apartments or will I need to skim to a public facility?

Well, my ex-wife always said I needed a hobby.  EnoS III you are it!

*

I didn’t expect what I found when I went to retrieve my “prize” at the end of the workday.  “EnoS III” had gone through many more changes in the six years since I left the project to take over the M-P-W (Multi-dimensional Prototype Workshop).  She had a sleek new skin.  In the years I knew her she had a corrugated titanium-graphite alloy skin that supported the fairly strong stresses and heat during atmospheric escape and return without adding a great deal of weight.  This new surface was a little warm to the touch and almost felt like plastic.  I was aware of some new shielding techniques that used electronic fields to enhance structural integrity but I had never “had my hands on it”… so to speak.  I thumped on the hull with my knuckles and the “thud” sounded almost like I was pounding on wood.  Strange.

The great thing about owning a “Test Bed” is that every part, every sub-assembly, every material used in its construction… major or minor is documented in exquisite detail… how it was used, why it was used, what worked and didn’t work.  I would soon learn everything there was to know about “EnoS III”.

I keyed in the unlock code at the hatch and it sprung open with a slight hiss.  The hydraulic actuators were a little stiff from non-use.  Cabin lights flickered on.  One of the electroluminescent panels near the rear of the craft continued to flicker even after the others had stabilized.  OK, lets start the list of repairs with that little annoyance.

The cabin seemed a little more cramped that what I remembered.  There were a few new items installed and a few missing.  Most of the new stuff I recognized because we had manufactured the enclosures for them in our shop. 

By the looks of things “EnoS III’s” retirement was nearly as unexpected as it was unceremonious.  There were quite a few loose tools lying around and a couple of PADDs lay on the pilot’s seat.  One still had a dim display of some navigation mods the engineers were working on while the other appeared to have died.  Even selenium-lithium cells need to be recharged now and then. 

I collected all of the loose items in the cabin and stored them in a compartment under a seat in the back.  They were mine now… because my agreement to take “EnoS III” included “…all items aboard”.  Arrrrr… my first “booty”!  OK, so thoughts of turning “EnoS III” into a pirate ship had crossed my mind (for a moment).  A few more thoughts of the presence of Federation ships in range of anywhere this little ship could go pretty much erased that fantasy. 

I slipped into the pilot’s seat.  Oh, this feels good!  “ES-3” was originally crafted as on OTS (off the shelf) ship.  Everything used in her original construction was originally intended for some other type of ship.  These seats came from an early version of the terrestrial “Work Bee” and were somewhat padded… the “Zero-G” version has no padding at all.

I’d nearly forgotten what climbing in behind the controls of a real spacecraft was like.  Oh, to relive those days at the Starfleet Academy again.  If only I knew then what I know now.  My life would probably have been a little more exciting and a lot less complicated.  But I was a square peg in a round hole.  Not a good fit.  Four years and out.  Well as they say… that is water under the bridge. 

I had kept up my pilot’s proficiency rating by running lots of after hours “testing” on the sims our company manufactured (free flight time is free flight time).  But there is nothing like the real thing.

I began switching on the APU breakers and more lights and instruments began to come to life.  Computer subsystems began a subtle medley of whirs and beeps.  A couple of the displays over in the co-pilot’s panel were completely unfamiliar to me.  More reading. 

The main computer system began to dutifully download updated databases and navigational and weather related NOTAMS (Notice To Airmen).  (Funny how some times old terms just hang on even after they have technically become obsolete.)

The next switch triggered the start up sequence for the impulse engine and the micro gravity generators in the floor plating.  Now a bass line joined the computers… the humming and thrumming of magnetic and ion power completed the living musical composition of “EnoS III.

The rest of the hanger had been pretty much cleared out… the cargo pods and the one large “Archer” class transport ship usually stored there had already been moved to new accommodations on the other side of the complex.  I was glad of that… I really didn’t want to have to maneuver the little shuttlecraft around a bunch of expensive obstacles anyway.

As all the engine readings settled into the “green” I touched the button that activated the atmospheric controls.  A “joystick” popped up at my left hand and the instrument display switched from diagnostic items to more traditional aviation readouts… altitude, speed, heading, ATC, land-based navigation and the like.  The Air Traffic Control display noted that “EnoS III” was identified and locked into the system.  Funny… I never knew that anyone had gone to the trouble of officially registering her with the PSA (Planetary and Space Authority) as “EnoS III”.  The last time I flew her she was designated as “MHM-ES-3”.  Nice touch.

I reached forward and let my fingers slip around the joystick.  A proximity sensor in the joystick immediately signaled ATC that someone had taken the controls of the little ship and that it was about to become airborne.  A disembodied, computer generated voice requested my destination.  I spoke the address of my apartment complex and was immediately rewarded with clearance from ATC.  I set the throttle to idle plus 1 and I gently pulled back on the joystick and the ship began to rise, nose up.  I centered the joystick and the ship leveled off and hovered over the spot where she had been parked. I nudged the joystick forward and she began to glide out of the hanger.  She was flying!  No warnings, no red lights.  I radioed ATC that I was going to do a few “maneuvers” in front of the hanger before departure and was answered by a green “approved” signal on the display. 

I don’t know how many years it has been since ATC became totally automated but I do know that clearance has never been quicker.  I love technology!

*

The most eventful part of the eleven-minute flight to my apartment was getting the craft into the bay I had rented earlier in the day.  I need lot of practice in close order piloting.  I might want to run through a few hours of “Thunder Angels” sims.  For those of you who haven’t seen them… The “Thunder Angles” are the Starfleet flight demonstration team.  They fly high-speed maneuvers just inches apart.  Zoom!  If I can gain even 10 percent of their precision I won’t have trouble parking this ship anywhere.  Of course I could always use the “auto dock” function but where is the fun in that?

*

There were two messages on my personal communicator when I got home.  I had silenced the thing so that my flight would be uninterrupted and that way I could devote my full attention to the ship and her expected but undelivered eccentricities.

*

The first call was from Rita Clark (a great, great, great granddaughter of the Author Arthur C. Clark)… a co-worker and another Starfleet “square peg”.  She was a few years younger than me.  They said she was one of the most natural navigators in the Academy.  But she didn’t take much to going where she was told.  She was more of a “ …lets get lost and I’ll find a way out of here” kind of navigator.  Not exactly at the top on the list of Starfleet job titles.  So for MHM she worked for me as a “backwards engineer”.  When we would get a new piece of “alien” technology… she would reverse engineer it.  She could take apart a alien warp engine and draw schematics of how to build a new one, a better one, faster than 100 engineers could do the same task in a “normal” manner.  Rita’s strengths lay in her ability to see things differently than everyone else around her.  She was great at figuring a way to insert “Tab A” into “Slot Z”… and make it work!

The second call was unexpected.  It was from the Vulcan technician that had come on a “professional exchange” to McDonald-Hughes-Mitsubishi.  Most believed, even though relations between Earth and the Vulcans had warmed considerably in the past 50 years, the technician was actually a “spy”.  In an effort to tease the stoic Zarn we would even call him our “Vulcan Spy”… a title he never refuted.  He would just look up, raise an eyebrow, and return to his work.  His specialty was light metals.  He was credited with over 200 patents for materials used to make everything from hair brushes to ship hulls… thus his importance to MHM. 

For a Vulcan, with their “I’m only in it for the job satisfaction.” attitude, Zarn was know to have socked away the majority of his wages in a personal account… very un-Vulcan like. 

Zarn had one other “illogical” trait.  He really seemed to enjoy fighter pilot sims.  If he had been an actual fighter pilot he would have been an “Ace” a thousand times over!  Those who have watched him (when he didn’t know he was being watched) as he battled the “enemies of the Federation” say a smile… ever so slight… has been know to crack his face as he fired phaser bolts and photo missiles into the unwitting foes.

Coincidentally, both calls were making the same offer... their spare time in bringing the “EnoS III” back to “space-worthy” condition.

I returned both their calls and invited them to dinner that evening to talk about “our” new hobby.

*

Few people put all of their cards out on the table at one time.  I found it curious that these two people were so eager to volunteer their time for my little project… especially when we didn’t even have a close working relationship. 

Thanks to Zarn we didn’t have to do a lot of dancing…  his cards came out in a hurry. 

We sat on the terrace of my apartment and ate a light meal of Alaskan Cod and a salad of dark green lettuce imported from the Martian Colony agriculture complex. 

As Zarn politely ate his salad (no dressing) and drank room temperature water he explained his “genetic” defect.  At least that is how it was conveyed to him.  He was/is actually an outcast from the Vulcan spiritual/logical body as a whole.  Something about him makes him a little more aggressive than the rest of his fellow Vulcans.  For years he was subjected to anger management and passive resistance training that just didn’t seem to take.  Short of a good old fist fight every now and then, the fighter pilot sims seem to be one of only two outlets he has to vent his pent up aggression.  The other… is a diversion… anything that takes him out of his hum-drum everyday routine.  He told us that he thrives on “adventure”.  Vulcans explore the universe because of a need to fill a void in knowledge… but not for the thrill of reaching out into the unknown. 

Zarn summed it up best with this last comment… “I suppose I would rather not be a Vulcan.” 

With that he wiped his mouth and folded his napkin in his lap and then looked as us for a reaction.  It was my turn to raise an eyebrow.

Rita’s story was so much like mine.  Square peg, round hole.  We both knew we blew it by leaving Starfleet but at the same time knew that we could never survive the discipline required to be a Starfleet officer.

We all wanted an adventure and “EnoS III” looked like the quickest way to have one.

*

As common as space travel has become it still costs money for casual trips.  The easiest way to travel is to be a member of Starfleet… but it has its “strings” attached.  So for us civilians… you have to save your hard earned credits and travel on commercial vessels.

That is where “EnoS III” set us apart from 90 percent of the rest of the Earth’s population.  Deuterium fuel expenses aside… we would be free to go wherever, whenever within range of Federation standard impulse engines would take us.

*

Evenings and weekends were consumed for the next three months bringing dormant sensor systems online, replacing defective navigation modules, and fine tuning the sub-warp impulse engine.  We were thrilled to learn that so many of the sensor systems were software based and that all versions were available at our command.  If it could be detected by a sensor… of any kind… we had it!  “EnoS III” could detect and navigate on its own to a peanut butter sandwich half a light year away!

Sometimes all three of us would be working on the ship and at other times it would just be two of us or every so often only one of us… whoever had the spare time… usually spent it working on the shuttlecraft.

If we couldn’t scrounge something we needed Zarn was quick with the credits and the new component would be at my apartment the next day.   It became apparent, in short order, that “EnoS III” was a part of all of us and that we had become a part of it.  Our co-workers even began to call us “The EnoS III” as if it were a fraternal order.  She was taking a hold on us… and she began to whisper, “Let’s go!”

After dozens of orbital flights, a visit to the Tranquility Base Museum on the moon, and a couple of trips to the Martian Colonies for that (duty free) lettuce that Zarn has become so fond of… “EnoS III” was officially declared “space worthy”. 

*

I don’t believe that our work at MHM suffered much because of our “project”… but I know that all three of us were constantly on the alert for anything that would become “surplus”, be it hardware or software, that would be of value to our little ship.  Our biggest challenge became leaving enough room for the three of us to travel comfortably but yet make “EnoS III” the hotrod of the solar system.

Our “friends” were always bringing us something they thought would be perfect for this, that or the other thing… but the best thing they ever brought us was a tip. 

There were rumors of a crashed Klingon Scout Ship some where on Io.  The problems with the story… the Klingon’s deny ever having had a warp capable scout ship anywhere near Io… Klingon warp engines are not legal to posses within the Federation because they have a tendency to leak plasma like crazy (something Rita says she can fix)… and Io, although charted… is a big place with lots of caverns, abandoned mines, mountains, volcanos and other such places to loose a small starship.

The good news… our friend had a map!

How many treasure hunts have started with just a map?

*

“Treasure map” in hand… six days holiday and the “EnoS III” (both versions) are off on a grand adventure.

Our flight plan was filed and approved in a matter of three minutes.  No questions asked.

Zarn had outfitted “EnoS III” with a grappler and mechanical tie downs… just in case we found something of interest that we might want to bring back.  He also hinted there may be one or two other “surprises” aboard as well.  Vulcan’s and their surprises!

I slid into the pilot’s seat… more out of habit than necessity.  Rita took the co-pilot’s seat although it would be her navigational efforts that would take us to our destination.

Zarn took the “jump” seat in the rear of the cabin.  He said this would be a good opportunity for him to catch up on some of his oft put off meditation.

Next stop Jupiter!

*

Jupiter Station is not much more than a small Federation communications outpost used for controlling the first band or sub-space communications relays, 4 hanger decks for visitors, overnight accommodations for about 30 people and a pilots’ lounge with halfway decent food.  We booked three rooms and called this place our “home base”.  The adventure would begin in earnest tomorrow at 06:00 Earth time.

(More to come… but probably not until it gets too cold to work in the garage.)

 

 

Greetings!

 

This site is my first attempt.  I'll get it all figured out one of these days... so please hang in there.

 

The purpose?

 

1. I am building a full scale Star Trek (universe) Shuttlecraft. 

 

2. I want to share what I am doing with other fans.

 

3. Some of you may have some great suggestions.

 

My shuttlecraft is named EnoS III (after one of NASA's first space monkeys).

 

It is not "cannon"... so please don't nitpick me on details that are not "just right"

 

It is a model somewhere between the "Enterprise" Shuttle Pod and the Star Trek (TOS) Galileo Seven.  When finished it will look much like the latter.

 

The EnoS III is not just a "pretty" to look at... but an actual space flight simulator.

 

It will be powered by 5 PC computers.  7 DVD players (a couple will just be playing the "soundtrack"... a Sony PlayStation, and a number of other still and full motion video devices.

 

The Captain and First Officer's seats came from an L-1011 jet. 

 

It will have heat and air conditioning.

 

Currently I have over a dozen LCD video displays ranging from 3" to 19"... some of them will make up the "glass cockpit" display instruments with the others doing some pretty cool things.

 

The deck is 6 feet wide and 10 feet long... it rests on 2.5" "black pipe" runners.  The deck is covered with a plastic "diamond plate" flooring.  (More on that in a later message.)  There is a "hatch" in the middle of the floor with technical goodies just like Scotty worked on in the TOS Episode "Galileo Seven".

 

There is lots more to tell... including the "backstory"... and many more pictures.

 

This site... just like my EnoS III project is a part time venture.  I will update it as often as I have the time.  (It may be a little "random"... just like me.)

 

Thanks for your interest!