USS Defiant (NCC-1764)

For the mirror universe counterpart, please see ISS Defiant (23rd century).

For alternate reality counterpart see USS Defiant (alternate reality NCC-1764).

STARSHIP
USS Defiant
Class:	Constitution-class
Registry:	NCC-1764
Affiliation:	Federation, Starfleet Terran Empire, Imperial Starfleet
Status:	Missing (2268) Active (2250s, mirror universe) Recovered (2380) Decommissioned (2380) (Star Trek: Intrepid/ Star Trek: Helena) Decommissioned (2376) (Star Trek: Corps of Engineers Interphase books)

"That ship out there is the key to our victory. With the Defiant on our side, there will be nothing to stop us!."

— Jonathan Archer, 2155

The USS Defiant (NCC-1764) was a Federation Constitution-class (Bonhomme Richard sub-type) heavy cruiser in service to Starfleet in the 23rd century. She was the last of the original 13 Constitution-class starships to be commissioned.

The Defiant was named in honor of the British warship HMS Defiant.

Construction and service history

The Defiant was constructed at Tranquility Base, Luna. She was the last of the original thirteen Constitution-class starships to be constructed and commissioned. During the early years of her service, the Defiant conducted many missions of importance for Starfleet, and constantly patrolled the Klingon Neutral Zone as tensions between the two powers continued to rise. During that time, the Defiant became the sixth Federation starship to encounter the N'shaii, and was easily able to dispatch them. (TOS - My Brother's Keeper novel: Constitution, DSC novel: Drastic Measures, FASA RPG module: Federation Ship Recognition Manual)

During the Federation-Klingon War , the Defiant was assigned to patrol Sector 006. (DIS episode: "Despite Yourself")

During the Four Years War, the Defiant and a squadron of Baton Rouge-class cruisers, under the command of Commodore Jarv Maxwill, were escorting convoy Y-16Z to Deuteronomy III and passed by the Rebonet system. They were ambushed by a small task force of Klingon cruisers and gunboats in what became known as the Attack of Convoy Y-16Z. All eight Klingons ships were either destroyed or captured during the battle. (FASA RPG module: The Four Years War)

At sometime prior to 2265, the Defiant was refitted with new technologies, as well as receiving some cosmetic changes to the look of the ship. The USS Constellation and the famous USS Enterprise were two other vessels that received the same treatment. (TOS - Crucible novel: The Fire and the Rose)

In late 2265, the Defiant returned from her first five-year mission, and Captain Serling stepped down as commanding officer. He was replaced by Captain Thomas Blair who took the Defiant out on her second five-year mission in early 2266. With increasing tensions with the Klingons, the Defiant was once again posted along the Neutral Zone.

By 2267, the Defiant had been assigned to operations in the Taurus Reach. That year, it accompanied the USS Endeavour and the USS Akhiel on a mission to drive Klingon forces off of Golmira, a low-tech planet where a Shedai conduit had been discovered. (VAN novel: Precipice)

In 2268, the Defiant was called to the Klingon colony on Traelus II after receiving a distress call. A landing party discovered no Klingon survivors left on the colony, but they recover a land-based web generator of Tholian origin. The Defiant set a course back for Federation space, but soon found themselves being pursued by three Tholian vessels. Trying to escape the Tholians, the Defiant entered a spatial interphase and became trapped. Captain Blair managed to get a distress call out to the USS Enterprise before the crew succumbed to madness and started to kill each other. (SCE eBooks: Interphase, Part One, Interphase, Part Two; VAN novel: What Judgments Come; DIS episode: "Vaulting Ambition")

Time was altered when the Na'kuhl, bent on revenge towards the Tholians for the destruction of their homeworld, ambushed the Tholian colony that was nearby, murdering an entire generation of Tholians. The Defiant was caught up in the conflict until a starship from two years into the future arrived to help, though refused to explain why. The two starships defeated the Na'kuhl, but the Tholian Queen refused help and opted to kill the Na'kuhl Dreadnought attacking them by ramming it with her own ship, though getting word out that the Federation did nothing wrong. The two starships attempted to escape the destruction of the two ships, but the temporal energies released ended up trapping the Defiant in the spatial interphase. Despite the pleas of the time traveling captain, Agent Daniels refused, as it was what history needed to do. (STO mission: "Painful Omens")

The Defiant in the interphase

By the time the Enterprise arrived at the Defiant's location, three weeks later, the crew of the Defiant were dead, and the ship had been drawn deeper into the interphase. Interference from the Tholians stopped the Enterprise from trying to retrieve the Defiant and she was left behind. (TOS episode: "The Tholian Web")

The Three USS Defiants

There are three distinct accounts of the recovery of the Defiant, the first version saw the USS Enterprise-A returning in the late 2280s and retrieving the vessel, while another saw the Defiant remaining in the interphase until 2376.

The canon version shown in Star Trek: Enterprise suggests that the Defiant was transported to the mirror universe in 2155. Its appearance set a trend in this universe for the staple of ships named Defiant, as the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode and novel arcs have shown, throughout the 2370s.

In a Mirror, Darkly

The Defiant being held by the Tholians

The Defiant emerged in the mirror universe in the year 2155, where it was captured by the Tholians and taken to a drydock in the Vintaak system. Commander Jonathan Archer of the Terran Empire ship ISS Enterprise learned of the ship and led a mission to capture it from the Tholians.

The Defiant at warp

With the Defiant, Archer planned to use it to crush an alien rebellion plaguing the Empire. The Defiant rendezvoused with the assault fleet, but found only the ISS Avenger remaining. Destroying the rebels, Archer proceeded to assassinate Admiral Black and decided he was going to use the ship from the future to overthrow the Emperor. The aliens on Avenger however, led by T'Pol and Soval, inspired by the database on board the Defiant (describing a United Federation of Planets in the other universe), convinced Phlox-the only remaining non-Terran aboard Defiant-to disable the ship, allowing Avenger to attack. However, the crew was able to restore systems and destroy the rogue ship, killing Soval.

The USS Defiant in 2155

Upon the arrival of Defiant at Earth, Hoshi Sato poisoned Archer and intended to use the futuristic ship to install herself as Empress. (ENT episode: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")

When Starfleet refused to surrender, the Defiant was forced to engage a fleet of seven Terran vessels; including the dreadnought ISS Imperator, four NX-class battlecruisers, including the ISS Broadsword and ISS Khan's Wrath as well as a pair of destroyers. Despite this, the Defiant was able to disable Imperator and destroy three of the NX class ships before bombarding Starfleet Headquarters from orbit, eliminating Fleet Admiral Gardner, and declaring herself Empress.

Sergeant Travis Mayweather was appointed the ship's Captain, and over the next few months the interior and exterior appearance of the Defiant was modified to reflect the propaganda of the now-Empress Sato that the ship was a vessel from the future of the mirror universe where the Terran Empire flourished into the 23rd century. The Defiant was also the subject of a massive attempt to reverse engineer its weapon systems for installation on other Terran vessels. The Defiant was sent to the Devolin system to search for a potential rebel base. This was revealed later to be a ploy by General Shran to get the powerful ship away from Earth, leaving it vulnerable to a rebel attack. The ship later participated in the battle over Aldus Prime against rebel ships in an attempt to rescue Empress Sato.

After her successful rescue, Empress Sato discussed with now-Regent of Vulcan T'Pol about sending the Defiant (as the head of a fleet) into an unexplored region of space to make first contact with a race believed to inhabit the area known as, "Romulans." (ENT novel: Age of the Empress)

Discovery

Recovered Defiant data with slight variations

Owing to the rebellion its computer files had once incited, information on the Defiant (up to and including its arrival in the mirror universe) was highly classified. Only the emperor knew the full story of the Defiant's crossover. (DIS episode: "Vaulting Ambition")

By 2256, information on the true origins of the Defiant were stolen by rebels and stored aboard a datacore on a Klingon warship. As part of his plan to seize the Terran throne, Captain Gabriel Lorca baited the crew of the USS Discovery with information on the Defiant. To that end, he assumed the role of a prisoner with Michael Burnham posing as her Terran counterpart so they could board the ISS Shenzhou and recover the Defiant data. (DIS episodes: "Despite Yourself", "Vaulting Ambition")

Burnham was able to access the data on the Defiant but the files were heavily encrypted and too large to transmit back to Discovery. After Ash Tyler was revealed to be a Klingon sleeper agent, he was beamed off the Shenzhou in accordance with Imperial law. Burnham surreptitiously placed the data card containing the Defiant data on Tyler so Saru could decode it upon Tyler being beamed aboard Discovery. (DIS episode: "The Wolf Inside")

Saru managed to decode the file but found it to be heavily redacted, learning only how the Defiant had crossed over. After revealing her true identity to Emperor Philippa Georgiou, Burnham was able to bargain for the totality of the Defiant data in exchange for the blueprints to the spore drive Discovery utilized. (DIS episode: "Vaulting Ambition")

After the two had overthrown Lorca, Georgiou gave Burnham the full information on the Defiant. (DIS episode: "What's Past Is Prologue")

Upon the return of the Discovery to the prime universe all data on the trip to the mirror universe was highly classified by Starfleet. As a result the crew of the Defiant were unaware of their ultimate fate, and computers on Starfleet vessels held no information on the mirror universe even after Kirk's 2267 crossover. (DIS episode: "The War Without, The War Within")

Some information on the mirror universe was ultimately declassified by the mid 24th century. (DS9 episode: "Crossover")

Raise the Defiant

The USS Enterprise-A recovers the USS Defiant in 2287

Raise the Defiant was a special issue of DC Comics Star Trek line, written by Kevin Ryan and published in Winter 1994, set in 2287.

Interphase

In 2298, the Defiant was seen drifting near the rift by the Excelsior. (TLE novel: The Sundered)

In 2376, a passing Tholian vessel rediscovered the Defiant. The USS da Vinci was sent to salvage the vessel until the Tholian vessel opened fire. The Defiant was trapped in the rift with the SCE crew. (SCE eBook: Interphase, Part One)

The Defiant was able to escape the rift to help battle against the Tholians. The Defiant later went into Spacedock on its own power. (SCE eBook: Interphase, Part Two)

Recovery by Starfleet

In 2380, the USS Defiant came out of the mirror universe and out of interphase around the planet Bajor. After returning the Defiant to Starbase 306, Captain Typhuss James Kira finds logs from 22nd century, Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway starts Project Defiant to find more logs in the starship's database. Captain Kira was assigned to extracting all the logs and deleting them afterwards. Since it had been altered by the Terran Empire, the Defiant was refurbish. Admiral Nechayev ordered that the Defiant be decommissioned, being that it was a now obsolete design and, even if the Terrans were able to enter the primary universe, they would pose no threat. (Star Trek: Helena episode: "Voyage of the Defiant")

Dark mirror universe

The Defiant emerged in the dark mirror universe in the year 2155, where it was captured by the Tholians and taken to a drydock in the Vintaak system. Commander Jonathan Archer of the Terran Empire ship Enterprise learned of the ship and lead a mission to capture it from the Tholians.

With the Defiant, Archer planned to use it to crush an alien rebellion and the Terran rebels plaguing the Empire.

The Defiant rendezvoused with the assault fleet, but found only the ISS Avenger remaining. Destroying the rebels, Archer proceeded to assassinate Admiral Black and decided he was going to use the ship from the future to overthrow the Emperor. The aliens on Avenger however lead by T'Pol and Soval, inspired by the database on board the Defiant (describing a United Federation of Planets in the other universe), convinced Phlox the only remaining non-Terran aboard Defiant to disable the ship, allowing Avenger to attack. However, the crew was able to restore systems and destroy the rogue ship, killing Soval.

Upon the arrival of Defiant at Earth, Hoshi Sato poisoned Archer and intended to use the futuristic ship to install herself as Empress, but she was killed by Charles Tucker III and declared himself as the Emperor and allow T'Pol to become his Empress of the Terran Empire.

Crew manifest

Starfleet

• Commanding officer
  • Captain Serling (2260-2265)
  • Captain Thomas Blair (2265-2268)
• Executive 0fficer
  • Commander Philippa Georgiou (2246-2249)
  • Commander Kamau Mbugua
• Chief science officer
  • Lieutenant Commander Philippa Georgiou (2246-2249)
  • Lieutenant Commander Erin Sutherland (2266-68?)
  • Lieutenant Commander Clarissa Nyn (2268)
• Chief engineer
  • Lieutenant Commander Stevok
• Chief communications officer
  • Ensign Ravishankar Sabapathy
• Chief of security
  • Lieutenant Commander Trethishavu th'Vlene
• Chief medical officer
  • Jane Hamilton (2267-2268)
• Chief helm officer
  • Lieutenant T'Lehr
• Gamma Shift duty officer
  • Lieutenant Commander Terry Shull
• Other cew members
  • Ensign Garrovick (2266-2267)

Terran Empire

• Commanding officer
  • Jonathan Archer (2155)
  • Travis Mayweather (2155-2157)
  • A.G. Robinson (2157)
• Executive officer/Science officer
  • T'Pol (2155)
• Chief engineer
  • Charles Tucker (2155)
• Chief of security
  • Malcolm Reed (2155)
• Chief communications officer
  • Hoshi Sato, (2155)
• Chief helm officer
  • Travis Mayweather (2155)
  • Zona (2155-present)