Nav-Tank

Nav Tank

independent computronic system soley dedicated to navigation. NAvigation systems aboard Union ships are independent and seperate from the ships main AI/ Computronic and has no physical connection between the two systems. Navigation Systems consist of :

- Nav Sensors - Visual observatory - Independent Time Keeping System - Navigation Department ( Sentient being interface) - Nav Tank

The Nav Tank Nav Tanks have been part of all Union fleet ships since the beginning. It is a central part of the bridge or in bigger units placed in C&C. Its form and shape has changed little, but its size varies due to the size of the bridge.[1]

It is a rectangular device usually the size of a large box with a simulated 3D star chart on top. The star chart represents the space quadrant the ship is currently in. It always displayes any obstacles, contacts, startions, planets, suns and any spatial conditions in scale relationship to the ship which is represented as a symbol or small rendering in the center of the tank.\ By Union Fleet regulation, the Nav Tank data is not to be altered or adjusted. The reasons for it is to give the Command Officers of the ship a real spatial sense of conditions around the ship and its relation to other obnjects with one glance. scale and distant markers are always displayed in a faint three dimensional grid. the scale can be zoomed in or out. It also provides navigators a second or alternative instrument to plot course or determine position. The largest Nav Tank is aboard the USS Devastator and it is in form of a large table where the 3D cube is projected down allowing officers to lean and lookd down into simulated space and charts. Admiral Stahl often calls it his Crystal ball (even though it is not round) [2]

[1] Noteable difference are Bubble top bridge layouts where the Nav tank is placed on a retractable platform and usually rests in Command and Control beneathe the actual bridge.\ [2] Legend has it that Stahl had a second Nav Tank in his belly and always knew exactly where he and the Devi was.