Crew of the Enterprise A - circa 2288.
The USS Enterprise-A was the second Federation ship to bear the name. Originally, she was built and commissioned as the USS Yorktown under the command of captain Evan Foster. In 2286, the Yorktown, unde the command of captain Joel Randolph was ordered to intercept a massive Alien Probe that had appeared in Federation space and was headed for the Sol system. Upon intercepting the probe however, the ship was disabled by the probe's ambient communication signal, crippling it by draining the ship of its power. Over the course of a day, the crew struggled to survive, successfully fashioning a make-shift solar sail that provided the crew enough power to the ship's life support system, before power was completely restored following the completion of the Probe's mission. Following the incident, the Yorktown was repaired, it's command crew promoted and reassigned and the ship itself renamed to Enterprise, to which Captain Kirk and his bridge crew from the original Enterprise were reassigned to in recognition of their role in saving Earth.
From 2286 to 2293, the Enterprise would serve admirably. A few short months after being recommissioned as the Enterprise, the ship was assigned to a rescue mission at Nimbus 3, the "planet of Galactic Peace", where a Vulcan fanatic, Sybok, had led a raid on the only settlement and captured delegates from the Federation, Klingon and Romulan Empires so as to lure a ship from any of the three powers there. Sybok would then take control of the Enterprise after it arrived, capable of a means influencing individuals to follow his cause regardless of their beliefs. He then then took the Enterprise towards the Galactic Centre where he believed a god-like being resided. While he was partially proven correct, the being proved to be hostile and Sybok sacrified himself to protect the ship. The crew of the Enterpise and a newly arrived Klingon bird-of-prey were able to defeat the being and after a brief round of negotiations, both ships left peacefully and returned the ambassadors safely. This mission would help to improve relations between all three powers after they had been strained following the Genesis Incident.
The Enterprise continued its exploratory mission under Captain Kirk for the next 8 years, with notable missions including a followup to the first contact of the people of Gamma Trianguli VI, exploration of the Briar Patch, the capture of the USS Zephyr whose captain had been killed and replaced by a renegade Starfleet officer, delivering shipment of a cure to the plague ravaged colony world Chapin One, the rescue of the last remaining survivors of the missing USS Gagarin from a Klingon prison, overseeing the induction of the planet New Ketira's into the Federation, mediating warring parties on Chronian III, Betan, Quatrini and Mardelva, making first contact with the Meclanti and resolving a crisis of miscomunication whilst under the temporary command of newly graduated Cadet Forrester, exposing a Pilkoran plot to annex UFP and Romulan territory, destroying a missing cache of Tabukan weapons, evacuating the Willis mining colony upon the discovery of an incorporeal species there that was being exploited and rescued the USS Tinian.
When Praxis, the Klingon homeworld's moon, was destroyed in a disasterous accident caused by overmining, the Enterprise was assigned to escort Chancellor Gorkon to Earth for peace talks between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. However, after rendevousing with Gorkon's ship, Kronos One, the Enterprise seemingly appeared to fire on the Klingon flagship, and the Chancellor was assassinated by indiviuals wearing Starfleet EVA suits. This led to Captain Kirk and Doctor Lonard McCoy being arrested by Gorkon's Chief-of-staff, General Chang, for the assassination and the Enterprise was ordered to return to Earth as the situation began dteroriate. Despite this, the crew of the Enterprise decided to disobey orders and mount a rescue of their captain and doctor after finding evidence aboard the Enterprise of the true cuprits and a conspiracy to saboatage the Peace proceddings. The ship successfully snuck past Klingon monitoring stations and reached the frozen prison world of Rura Penthe just in time to beam up up thier missing officers before they executed by the bribed prison warden. With Kirk once again in command, the remaining conspirator aboard the ship was quickly found and vital information retrived from her, revealing the names of the conspiracy's other major members, including General Chang and their plan to commit another attack on the Peace process. Cross-referencing this information with Captain Sulu of the Excelsoir, who revealed the Peace conference was now being held at Khitomer, the Enterprise immediately changed course to the Klingon world to stop another attack.
It was here that the Enterprise engaged with General Chang who was utilsing an experimental bird-of-prey that could fire weapons whilst cloaked. The Enterprise endured visvous attack, even suffering a major hull breach piercing its saucer section but was eventually victorious, utilising a cunning method of tracking the Bird-of-Prey via its engine output, thus allowing a modified Photon torpedo to track and damage. The Enterprise, as well as the Excelsooir which had arrived to reinforce the ship mid-battle, quickly destroyed the bird-of-prey, killing General Chang. The bridge crews of both ships then beamed down to the Peace summit on the planet and prevented the assassination of the Federation President Ra-ghoratreii, as well as arresting the remaining major conspirators who were present there. Thanks to these actions, the Peace summit was not only saved, but vindicated in the eyes of both nation's governments and peoples, allowing the Accords to pass that day.
Following this incredible victory, the Enterprise was then ordered by Starfleet Command to be decommissioned, with its crew officially finished with their assignment and the Constitution class as a whole being retired from active service as part of the Treaty stipulations. Kirk, in typical fashion, would colorfully interpret the order in his own way, taking longer than expected to arrive back to Earth's San francisco before finally relieving himself and his crew from command of the Enterprise for the last time.
Following her decommissioning, there was much deliberation on what the Enterprise's final fate would be. Some wanted the ship to be stripped for parts while others, such as Admiral Androvar Drake wished to use the ship as target practice to be destroyed as part of a Starfleet live-fire exercise. Yet others, such as the government of the planet Chal, requested that they be allowed to purchase the Enterprise for use in their own system defense forces. However, news of such plans were quickly leaked to the Federation News Service, prompting a massive public outcry across the Federation and condemation from a number of high-ranking officers, including the former bridge crew. As a result of a massive public petitioning campaign citing the ship's historical importance, both in its own capacity and in its legacy to previous ships named Enterprise and their importance to history, the Enterprise-A was instead designated as a muesum ship, ensuring that it would survive for preservation. While this controversy was occuring, work continued on upgrading a currently under-construction Excelsior class ship with new improvements based on feedback gathered on the base models of the class that were currently in service. These improvements would constitute as an early (and expensive) refit to the already impressive Excelsoir class and it was decided that the first new ship of this refitted batch would become the successor to the Enterprise legacy and the new flagship of the Federation.
The Enterpise-A continues to serve as a mueseum ship to this day and is kept meticuously maintained and preserved, even still capable of travel and is often rotated between the Museum complexs at Earth, Vulcan, Athan Prime and Khitomer. It is currently interred at Starfleet's Fleet Museum annex over Athan Prime and is still listed as a reserve ship that Starfleet can call upon and recommission into active service at any time if deemed necessary. Indeed, this has occured three times so far, including when Earth was threatened by the Borg in 2371 and directly attacked by the Breen in 2375 during the Dominion War. During these incidents, the Enterprise was used alongside the other ships at the Muesum complex to ferry civilians out of harms way.
The Enterprise-A has often been the centre of celebrations and reunions of the crew over the years. A year before the Hobus supernova event that destroyed Romulus, Amassador Spock would make one last visit to the Enterprise before embarking on his fateful final mission, during which he gave the following quote whilst on the bridge in response to a question regarding the ship's continuing preservation and his Starfleet career aboard it and its predecessor: "A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory".
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