Karemma Ship

Universe :	Prime Timeline
Affiliation :	Dominion
Class Name :	Karemma Ship
Type :	Trading vessel
Dimensions :	Length : 388 m [1] Beam : 120 m Height : 83 m Decks : 15
Mass :	1,691,000 metric tons
Crew :	23 [2]
Defence Systems :	Standard shield system, total capacity 94,500 TeraJoules Light Variethiel Single hull. Low level Structural Integrity Field
Warp Speeds (TNG scale) :	Normal Cruise : 5 Maximum Cruise : 6 Maximum Rated : 7.2 for 2 hours.
Strength Indices : (Galaxy class = 1,000)	Beam Firepower : - Torpedo Firepower : - Weapon Range and Accuracy : - Shield Strength : 35 Hull Armour : 3.44 Speed : 376 Combat Manoeuvrability : 3,420
Overall Strength Index :	48
Diplomatic Capability :	None
Expected Hull Life :	48
Refit Cycle :	Minor : 1 year Standard : 1 years Major : 16 years

Notes

The Karemma are one of the major economic powers of the Dominion within the Gamma Quadrant; powerful enough to be allowed a certain degree of freedom, the Karemma have traded with many non Dominion powers. Deeply concerned with profit, they saw an advantage in the marketing opportunities provided by the discovery of the Bajoran Wormhole in 2369. Fearing open trade with the Federation, the Karemma traded covertly via Ferengi intermediaries, a relationship successful despite Ferengi business practices.

This relationship brought the Federation into close contact with the trading ships of the Karemma. The most widespread design is a medium sized starship of relatively conventional design; utilizing standard warp drive technology, the Karemma ships house a small matter/antimatter reactor system in the rear section of the ship. This feeds a pair of strut mounted fixed geometry warp nacelles which provide the ships motive power.

Forward of the engineering section is a set of six relatively large cargo bays fitted to hold almost any form of merchandise; this section takes up almost the entire centre section of the ship, one third of the main hull or over 110 metres in all. Forward of the cargo section is the vessels primary hull. This section houses the navigational deflectors, a modest shield system, a small hangar deck, and the relatively spartan accommodation section.

The Karemma ships are not equipped with offensive weapons of any kind, although the cargo bays are certainly large enough to be fitted with modular weapon systems of some form if required. However, basic commercial considerations have ensured that this design will never be able to compete in the combat arena with the likes of a starship. This was emphasized in 2371, when a Karemma vessel met with the USS Defiant in order to settle a dispute over their trading agreements; the meeting was ambushed by the Dominion, who destroyed the Karemman vessel with ease. [2]

The closing of all traffic through the wormhole in 2375 [3] has effectively ended all contact with the Karemma, but many hundreds of these vessels were in the alpha quadrant by then and many hundreds more have been built since.

Colour key

References

#	Series	Season	Source	Comment
1			Speculative	A tricky one - I can find no reference to the length of this ship anywhere. I measured the distance between two rows of windows on the picture and assumed three metres per deck to scale the drawing, and calculated the length from that. There is likely to be a fairly significant degree of error in this figure.
2	DS9	4	Starship Down
3	DS9	5	Call to Arms

Comments

The figure for crew number is from the Encyclopedia, and is presumably stated in the episode though I haven't checked. The idea that the ships are optimised for trading and cargo carrying seemed reasonable given the apparent pseudo-Ferengi nature of the Karemma. I've assumed that the six structures we see in the middle of the ship are cargo bays, with engineering systems aft as indicated by the nacelles and everything else forward.

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Last updated : 5 Apr 2013

Series :	DS9 Season 4
Episode :	Starship Down

Series :	DS9 Season 5
Episode :	Call to Arms

Source :	Speculative
Comment :	A tricky one - I can find no reference to the length of this ship anywhere. I measured the distance between two rows of windows on the picture and assumed three metres per deck to scale the drawing, and calculated the length from that. There is likely to be a fairly significant degree of error in this figure.