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The USS Secondprize (NCC-19296)is an Excelsior-class starship and the central starship of [[Star Traks: The Original Series]].


==Construction==
( Much of the following information is highly conjectural. Starfleet Command will not confirm any of it; although, they aren't denying it either.) 

During the Secondprize's construction at Utopia Planetia, the engineers accessed the wrong blueprints and set the ship's bridge up with helm and navigation consoles instead of the standard conn and ops. The ship's name also came courtesy of the engineers. They began calling the unnamed ship "Secondprize" during construction, since they figured it would be another one on the long list offered to Commander William Riker, who refused to accept anything less than the Enterprise. Normally, another name would have been assigned, but the engineers were too busy trying to figure out if they could fix the bridge screw up to notice that the paint crew was emblazoning the ship as the "Secondprize," which was what the ship was listed as in the dock yard's database. By the time the engineers did notice what had occurred, the vessel was being moved to Spacedock for launch. 


Crewing the ship fell to Admiral [[Earl Wyndham]].  As expected, Will Riker did turn down command, and, once the ship's problems came to light, Wyndham, acting on the orders of Starfleet Command (just who particularly that would be, we don't know), set about finding officers that wouldn't really be missed from other ships. The remainder of the crew was filled with fresh cadets who would either rise above the mediocrity of their crewmates and get transferred to other ship or who would remain on the Secondprize for the duration of their careers. 


==Service==
(Here the speculation ends, and we can turn to fact.) 

The Secondprize was launched on Stardate 47988 under the command of Captain [[Alexander Rydell]]. The ship's first assignment was to ferry Admiral Wyndham to a ceremony on Lodgibax. Wyndham flipped his lip for unknown reasons and left the ship in a stolen shuttle. Captain Rydell was able to retrieve the shuttle, but Wyndham vanished. For the next two years, the Secondprize handled mapping and patrol duties with the occasional diplomatic or first contact assignment thrown in. None of these were on Starfleet's vital mission list, so even if they Secondprize crew had failed, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal. That all changed on Stardate 49804 when [[Dr. Robert Tulson]] was taken hostage by the [[Joegonots]]. The Federation would normally have sent a better ship to [[Ugilious]] to deal with the situation, but the [[Grand Leech]] of the Joegonots specifically requested Rydell, since Rydell had insulted him at an official dinner the month prior to the kidnapping. During this mission, the Secondprize was plagued by a series of malfunctions caused by a saboteur. Despite the problems, the ship fought off an attack by Joegonot ships, and the crew rescued Tulson. (''[[Star Traks 1]]'' [TRK]) 


The Secondprize next visited [[Kilma Omega IV]] during which time the majority of the crew went on shore leave. The ship's computer used the opportunity to attempt to kill [[Jaroch]], the lone officer remaining on board. The computer had formed a romantic attachment to Jaroch, but he had spurned its advances. On this occasion, though, the computer was successful. Rather than die or go insane at the hands of the computer, Jaroch allowed a female holographic representation of the computer to have her way with him. (''[[Belch-O-Rama]]'' [TRK]) 


On Stardate 49829, the Secondprize was ordered to return to Earth so that an inquest could be held into Captain Rydell's actions at Ugilious. During this layover in Spacedock, Dr. [[Rebecca Singer]], believing that she was James T. Kirk, tried to take over the ship. [[Trinian]], the ship's bartender, stopped Singer in time for Rydell to take the ship to [[Gulax Four]] to rescue the [[USS Edsel]] from the Klingons. (''[[Star Traks 3]]'' [TRK]) Less than a month later, [[Myna]], an operative for the [[Audubans]] of [[Jeral]] who was on board impersonating a Federation Ambassador, attempted to destroy the Secondprize in an effort to force the Federation into supplying the Audubans with weaponry. Myna's plan was discovered in time, but the Secondprize's shuttlecraft Doorprize was destroyed during the incident. (''[[Star Traks 4]]'' [TRK]) 


The Secondprize spent most of the next couple of months transporting supplies or personnel from destination to destination, but on Stardate 50216 the ship was finally headed out to do some real exploration in the Beta Quadrant. Almost immediately, they encountered the [[Multeks]] and engaged a Multek ship in combat. The Secondprize was not damaged, but Starfleet immediately ordered them to report to Starbase 219 to report their findings. While at Starbase 219, several Secondprize personnel were transferred to the new [[Waystation]] that Starfleet was hastily building for deployment near the Multek Enclave. During this layover, the Secondprize also received a long overdue refit, which included finally replacing helm and navigation with conn and ops. With the refit complete, the Secondprize towed Waystation into position and continued its assignment. (''[[Star Traks 5]]'' [TRK]) 


Over the next year, the Secondprize crew dealt with Borg clowns, warring planets, and a hostage taker, but the ship itself saw very little action. However, the ship's computer did attempt to meld itself to [[Emily Sullivan]], a feat only made possible by the tremendous amount of time she was spending logged into the [[Subspace Dating Service]].  The quiet was shattered on Stardate 51543 when Dr. [[Rebecca Singer]] and [[Zero]] broke out of [[Tantalus V]], stole the [[USS Defiant]] from Deep Space Nine, and came looking for Rydell. After blasting out the deflector dish in a very risk reverse warp jump, the Secondprize exchanged shots with the Defiant and was forced to use the slingshot maneuver follow the stolen ship back into Earth's past. The Secondprize was severely battered in a fire fight with the Defiant inside the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and would very likely have been destroyed if Jaroch had not arrived in the runabout [[USS Hudson]] and blown it up in a successful effort to disable the Defiant. Both ships returned to the 24th century, and the Secondprize docked at McKinley Station for a month to repair battle damage and the strain on the engines caused two slingshot maneuvers. (''[[Star Traks 6]]'' [TRK]) 


On Stardate 52014, the Secondprize investigated the source of a series of temporal fluctuations detected by a Starfleet probe. The source turned out to be [[Forever]], an entity encased within a moon that controlled time and space in the universe. Rydell accidentally talked Forever into destroying the universe, an event Rydell managed to get the entity to postpone for ten years. Meanwhile, in orbit above Forever, the Secondprize was attacked by the [[Mitgogae]], a ship whose captain, [[Morticent]], had been assigned to protect Forever. The Secondprize managed to avoid severe damage from the powerful ship, and the Mitgogae broke off the attack once Morticent realized she was too late. Rydell informed Starfleet of the situation, assuming they would deal with it. During the intervening ten years, Rydell retired, [[Travis Dillon]] went nuts, and Jaroch became captain of the Secondprize. 


By the time Forever reactivated ten years later, the Secondprize was the oldest Starfleet ship still in active service. Some might attribute that to skilled captains, others to dumb luck. In any case, the Secondprize returned to Forever to prevent the end of the universe. They were once again attacked by Morticent, who had experienced a major change in life priorities in the ten year interim. The Secondprize was disabled and would have been destroyed if not for intervention by the [[USS Inevitable]], which was also disabled, and a little sabotage of the Mitgogae performed by [[Craig Porter]]. With the Forever situation resolved, the Secondprize returned to [[Deneria Dry Dock]] for some major repairs. Eighteen months later, the Secondprize docked at Starbase 84 for a computer upgrade. (''[[Please Hold for Oblivion]]'' [TRK])  Rumor has it that at some point the original Secondprize was destroyed and replaced with a duplicate ship, but sane people don't listen to such ridiculous nonsense.


==Support Craft==
Shuttlecraft Doorprize

Shuttlecraft Consolation Prize

Runabout USS Hudson