Tour - Bridge
Summary
The Bridge is the starship equivalent of an operations center and is generally located near the top and front of a vessel. From here, the Commanding Officer supervises the entire ship's operation, ranging from vessel course control to tactical systems.
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Additional Information
| Location | Deck 1/1A | |
| Description | On Starfleet starships, the bridge is usually located on Deck 1, on top of the vessel's primary hull. The bridge is the nerve-center of every starship, and it is manned by the top officers of each department. From here, the Commanding Officer supervises the entire ship's operation. When seated in the command chair, typically located in the center of the room, the commander has visual access to all major personnel stations and viewscreens, facilitating the decision-making process. By the mid-24th century, it has become standard that a first officer is assigned to assist a ship's captain in this process. The Merlin Bridge is a completely new redesign. It features a sub-level quarter deck that has a normal configuration for sciences and during operations that require fighters doubles as the "tower". The quarter, or science deck, also features a port window rather than a viewscreen to allow for unaltered views. The glass of this observation window, however, does have features such as magnification if needed. The main deck has consoles that are holographic glass, which has all displays and interfaces on the thin LCARs layer. The command platform and placement of the Bridge stations barrows from the Defiant class bridge, using more of a submarine command deck design, while incorporating a few of the more traditional features like the raised tactical station. The viewscreen is now stand alone and set away from the front of the bridge. This allows for an additional observation window on the main forward bridge deck. This are can also have a special sound dampening field raised for it to double as a conference room. It may seem overly large for the ship, however, this design adds more functionality, including allowing sciences to have a full time work area and presence on the bridge. Most bridges on Starfleet vessels are replaceable modules, so that adaptation to special missions or upgrading the ship is facilitated |