Ship of the Line - Diane Carey [38]
A spontaneous cry of willingness rose from the crew, blasting forth like the shot of some great old weapon. In a moment, in an instant their enemy was back and they were warriors again! Their shame could become their monument!
Like a flash Gaylon remembered the long-subdued one characteristic that had made Kozara worthy of the rank of command—stunning flexibility.
On the crest of this unexpected turn, Kozara squared his shoulders, raised his chin, lifted both his hands and fanned them, and turned to Zaidan.
“This I promise, I vow, I swear to my son,” he blazed. “On the blood of our fathers, there will never be another Enterprise!”
The ship was a thing of exquisite beauty in an exquisite setting… . She was a magnificent fighting machine, the mistress of the waves over which she was sailing in solitary grandeur.
Lieutenant Hornblower
Chapter 10
“Well, I must say … that is a thing of beauty.”
A study in motion. A swan in starshine.
Riker had heard that description of a starship before, but he couldn’t remember where. Probably one of those moments of wonder that trundled down from person to person, father to son.
The Enterprise-E. There she was.
Olympian and stunning as it rested in the welcoming arms of open space, the new starship looked as if it were going warp five standing still. This new Sovereign-class ship was a creature of motion, as if her designers had been leaning forward when they made the design. There was still the traditional Saucer Module, inspired by the most original H. G. Wells science fiction and found to be ironically servicable, but unlike that on the EnterpriseD, this ovoid saucer was turned so that its longest diameter ran with the fore-and-aft line of the ship instead of against it.
As he looked at this ship now, Riker had a hard time imagining any other design, even though he had flown another design for the better part of his career. The main body of this new ship was mounted directly to the aft underside of the saucer—there was no birdlike neck as previous designs had possessed, but the familiar V-shaped design had been cherished. The two snake-headed warp nacelles still rose like wings above and behind the main section. The hull plating was not white, as early ships were, but instead was a pattern of flannel blues and dove grays, making the ship look as if it were made of buffed pewter.
Hundreds of lit rectangular cabin windows on the saucer section were mounted up and down like wheel spokes, each pointing inward toward the bridge. The windows on the main section, however, were turned on their sides to follow the hull lines. Backlit by the Christmas-tree glitter of the boxdock, the starship looked as organic as the narrowed eye of a god.
Riker felt supremely privileged. He hadn’t been in on the launch of the EnterpriseD, or any other starship for that matter. He’d participated in the launch of a hospital ship once, and accidentally happened upon the launch of a matched set of recon sweepers, but that was all. Until this moment, looking out at the new ship, he hadn’t realized what he’d missed. Judging by the spectator pods and media coaches that hovered at the ordered distance around the boxdock, the whole Federation understood the significance of this new starship.
He felt a little guilty as the pod he and Picard were using to approach the ship was cleared by the harbormaster. Unlike all those spectators, he and Picard could go right through