Excelsior-class USS Lakota (refit)

First contact with the Dominion late in 2370 led Starfleet to consider the possibility that a major, imminent threat existed for the first time since the aborted Klingon War over a century earlier. While new starships were on the drawing board to combat the Borg, they would be almost three years from completion. Accordingly, a major upgrade programme was started for older designs.

The USS Lakota was selected to begin the Excelsior-class upgrade in 2372, projected to take up to six months. Upon arriving at Earth Station McKinley, the Lakota was refitted with additional impulse engines and fuel storage in projections from the primary and secondary hulls that looked very much like the Enterprise-B when she was launched. These took several weeks to attach; the projected new warp drive and Type 9 phaser arrays would take longer. Before work on these systems could even start, the Lakota found herself mired in an attempted coup d'etat by Admiral Leyton, who had been concerned that focus on the Klingon-Cardassian conflict was distracting effort from the Dominion threat. With only her upgraded impulse drive, hull storage and overhauled phaser power relays, the Lakota was dispatched to intercept the USS Defiant. After sparring for a while, the Lakota was ordered to use her supply of quantum torpedoes on the Defiant. Refusing to do anything more than disable a fellow Federation ship, Captain Benteen of the Lakota stood down and allowed the Defiant to travel on to Earth.

Repairs, installation of new nacelles and the phasers on the Lakota were completed by mid-2373. She fought the Borg at the Battle of Sector 001 and received moderate damage. Upon the outbreak of the Dominion War later in the year, Starfleet had all on to repair damaged ships, never mind take them out of service for a six-month rebuild. The Excelsior upgrade project had to wait until after the war, when hull numbers were at a premium and keeping the older ships in service seemed like a very good idea.


This is one part Excelsior life extension, one part explanation for why we only see one other Enterprise-B-type ship in Trek. I heavily modified my Enterprise-B drawing, redoing the nacelles and adding phaser arrays from my upcoming Ambassador-class pic. What do you think?