USS Potemkin - Deck 13: Shuttlebay

As all Excelsior-class vessels, Potemkin featured a large shuttlebay at the very end of the secondary hull. Its standard shuttle complement was two Type-7 shuttlecrafts (Sorensen and Kuhn) and five Type-15 shuttlepods (Sahade, Zadunaisky, Ringuelet, Varsavsky and Dubner). Two additional shuttles were available in storage (Type-7 Versiga and Type-15 Bryan) and could be quickly assembled in case of need.

The shuttles were parked on designated areas marked by white lines on the floor. In the event of a launch, the required shuttle would be moved via tractor beam to the appropriate launch pad at the center of the room, delineated with a yellow rectangle, before crew and cargo boarded. Arriving shuttles would do the reverse procedure, landing at the center, offloading crew and cargo, and then being moved to one of the parking areas.

Shuttlebay control, located on deck 12, was a small room overlooking the shuttlebay; it was from here that all shuttle operations were coordinated and executed.

Due to the external structure of the Excelsior spaceframe, the shuttlebay didn’t feature any sort of elevator or direct connection to shuttlecraft maintenance areas. Standard shuttle upkeep was done on the bay itself, while more exhaustive work required the craft to be moved externally to the open shuttlecraft maintenance area located at the bottom of the secondary hull. This zero-g work environment allowed engineering teams to work far more efficiently than would otherwise be possible in most other starship designs.