Benthan fighter ships intercepting the coaxial warp ship
The Benthan fighter ships were starships used by the Benthan Guard. They were equipped with phasers and tractor beams.
In 2374, Steth's ship was intercepted by two Benthan fighter ships in the Kotaba Expanse, who were looking for Steth for theft of the vessel. They were driven off by another starship piloted by Daelen, who was in reality, the real Steth. (VOY: "Vis à Vis")
Appendices[]
Background information[]
These vessels were described in the script as "two distinctly unfriendly-looking fighter-ships."
The creation of the scene in which Paris, in Steth's body, is confronted by Daelen's ship and a pair of Benthan fighter ships utilized CGI models designed by the visual effects company Digital Muse. Ron Moore said of the vessels, "We weren't going to see them much, just [in] a couple of shots [...] I would get sketches from Muse and pick a direction that we'd want to go, make whatever changes we felt necessary. That's what we did for both [ship classes]. We wanted to play this size thing a little bit, with the biggest one being Daelen's ship." The size differential helped make it conceivable that the arrival of Daelen's ship would intimidate the Benthan crafts into immediately departing, relieving the visual effects artists of having to create a big battle. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 90)
Apocrypha[]
These vessels were also playable in Star Trek Online's Delta Rising expansion as a prize from the Delta Expedition Lock Box, dubbed the Benthan assault cruiser (β). It also appears among Benthan NPCs. The Benthans also possess frigates and cruisers, respectively shrunken and enlarged versions of the patrol ship. For unexplained reasons, the STO version of the ship flies with the bow and stern reversed from the TV version.