#charon class

[alphamecha-mkii]

Star Trek: Discovery - Attack on the Imperial Flagship Concept Art by John Eaves and Scott Schneider

[the-maddened-hatter]

So I've been thinking (always a dangerous thing), would the Charon class ships be seen as higher or lower in status than the California class ships? (because you know everybody meets the Cerritos at some point XD)

They honestly have *kinda* similar jobs what with humanitarian (for lack of a better word) aid and smaller scale ecological research, but the California class handles actual second contact and the Charons usually only go to places with at *least* a kind of pretty established rapport if not outright just colonies that have suffered some major problem, never just for pure diplomacy (they are kind of the ships that go to places of death after all).

Ecological work can vary, I'd say Charon gets bigger jobs in that regard sometimes, it can be as simple as samples because they're in the area or actually dealing with a lot wider scale ecological issue.

While they may get called for maintenance or medical assistance if they're close, Charons are rarely called for any kind of backup or rescue mission unless they're just *truly * the only ships to hand (they're really not built to fight, they're far better and hiding, scanning, and bunkering down with their shields) so California class definitely beats them out there.

Charons scan and record very well, so they sometimes get sent to record more established celestial phenomena that is well known of but warrants more detailed study (and sometimes to collect reconnaissance, though that's not publicized, happens a lot less since the end of the Dominion war, and really only applies to a few select ships anyhow)

Charons basically never get to go planetside to anywhere prewarp species are barring literal emergency landings, so there's basically no potential for *any* kind of authorized in-person poking around like these might be with a California class crew, but some Charon classes also transport Xenoanthropologists to places where the citizens have died off or have advanced enough to be visited or leave the place all together.

Even as second contact workers, Californias still get to participate much more in diplomacy events than Charons who are pretty much just purely support, and since that seems to be a really big deal I could see that being kind of a big detractor from the Charon's status.

I think Californias tend to be viewed more of a stepping stone in building a Starfleet career where some people decide to stay or just get stuck; hard work but usually with a carrot to chase at least for a long time, while Charon class tends to be kind of something someone either enters out of a deep sense of altruism or because they're having problems lack recourse there's not really anywhere else they can go and still be in Starfleet for whatever reason (technicality qualification workers, behavioral issues, legal issues, species relations issues, being so desperate to transfer that they'll take any ship, etc).

So the actual question I'm having:

How would California classers see Charon classers?

As solemn, impressive, and intimidating (keep their distance out of respect)

Depressing and/or creepy (avoid/at least we're not *that*)

Actually they would vibe with them out of relative class solidarity

OP's looking button

Voting ended onJun 10

[the-maddened-hatter]

I'm trying to think a bit about uniforms and coloration distinctions among the Omelas and the Charon class as a whole. I don't have anything too definite yet really, because honestly I am 1000% still learning to do any kind of drawing and style, but just some rattle around ideas:

(very long posts ahead lol)

With uniforms: Voyager's style has always been my default mentally (probably because that's the first Star Trek I ever saw) and in fairness that's closest within the timeline to where Omelas would be (post canonical Voyager return, though not very long after).

When I was first getting started with the index card pictures I was still sort of aiming for the Voyager look, but I kind of tended to do this sort of circular scoop more than the sharper standard, and I'm not sure if I'd want to sort of canonize that in a more deliberate way or quietly file that look as early draft weirdness (examples of Toka and Ceicive with the two looks):

I think the Voyager style design is much crisper and I do like that about it, but I'm ngl it might be interesting to kind of play off of/highlight a Charon class' typical assignments and lower status with a sort of almost lower part of a nun's wimple look to the colorful part of the uniform (edit apparently this is called a guimpe):

a lot of Charon class people are in that class either out of a notable degree of altruism or because they kind of lack other points of recourse within Starfleet for one reason or another, though there's also people who have begun to/continue to serve it far more as an ostensible position to mask their less than condonable assignments, and I think that would be a decent visual metaphor for that, so I'm kind of on the fence. (also I don't think that would be the reason for the look in universe like at all, this is just a meta idea)

I also think that the colors tend to have just a bit of subtler variation within overlap colors than seen standardly in canon, like the captain's red being a bit deeper than the rest of the bridge crew, security and engineering having a lighter and darker version of gold from each other (not totally sure which way yet), and sciences and medicine being more distinctly separate with science having a darker blue and medicine having the greenish teal Voyager's Doctor sports.

I'm not totally sure if the Xenoanthropologists would wear civilian clothes with a Starfleet branch denotation, or if they'd have uniforms as well with maybe a sky blue color signifier to denote a more purely academic aspect.

I think a lot of Charon class ships themselves as tending to have a more bronze-grey kind of color:

"Fusions or Fragments", have way less of a standard because they weren't so mass produced and tend to have more variance due to repairs and joinings, with post Dominion war "prefabs" probably having a more set range of a standard to their design and coloration.

It's not uncommon for F&Fs to have notable "battle scarring" or almost kintsugi style emphasis of repair or joining, many taking on deliberate ornamental patterns, like the USS Checkmate having a blocky square look to join points, and the USS Charon proper having a sort of vine or ivy look to it to honor the USS Persephone and USS Hades' merger. These lines may have elements of any of the above colorations

I'm not sure if it's just for the shuttles like is roughly pictured here, but I do also like the idea of having some of starfleet's color stripes being present as well

Idk anyway what are y'all's thoughts?

[the-maddened-hatter]

Not done bc not even all of the ships have lore and there could be more ships in future, but I made a little playlist of songs for the Charon class ships I do have!

The first three are vibes and the rest are more themed! :)

I'd love recommendations, and absolutely lmk if you're interested in having an oc aboard one of the ships or making your own after you read the lore I have for Charon class rn, I'd love to grow the fleet XD

[the-maddened-hatter]

Oh btw in oc design news: I called the colorful area on the Charon class' uniform variant the "Robin's patch" in conversation and I'm weirdly proud of that and will be keeping it as the terminology 🤣