Back in 1989, my friend Bernard Reischl published a 23 page Star Trek technical manual entitled Reischl's Guide to Ships of the Fleet as by the Starfleet Command Intelligence Bureau (S.C.I.B.) through Prometheus Graphics. It included exterior views of the Saberhagen class Defense Substation, the Niven class Light Attack Cruiser and an article entitled Sketches From a Starship Designer's Notebook. The article included studies of modular Starfleet cargo tug and its cargo modules, a heavy carrier starship and finally, a preliminary sketch for a border outpost (above).

During the CoViD-19 crisis, the nursing home where I live (even Star Trek fans get old) was on isolation so I had a lot of time on my hands and I decided to do a simple set of deck plans based on this drawing. Then I faced the fact that nothing's simple...