Now, how the hell can he do that? I mean, there must be hundreds if not thousands of Danube-class runabouts. . . unless it's only a DS9 tradition to actually name them after rivers, then surely there might be another runabout somewhere with the same name? Heck, even a proper starship!

But there's more. . . we've argued about registry numbers, and one of the things I believe is that the reason they've got so high is because of small ships like runabouts. But. . . I think the registry of the USS Danube is known and canon? And that it's in the 70,000s? Yet, after 5 years, numbers have only gone from the 74,000s (the Defiant, NX-74205) to the mid-75,000's (the Sao Paulo, NCC-75633) - despite the large numbers of runabouts they must have built.

There can be only one of two explanantions for this:

1) Most runabouts are assigned to starships and don't have registries (whether the one from the E-D in "Timescape" had one we don't know), only those assigned to Starbases etc.

2) The Sao Paulo isn't that new. Even so, registries can't have got much higher than the 76,000s which still isn't a great increase.

Well, they are just outsized shuttles, so we may never know.

Now, there's also the possible renaming of the Sao Paulo as the Defiant-A. Again, done by Sisko. I sincerely hope not, for personal, aesthetic and logical reasons. The first two are obvious, the latter needs explaining:

*scene from "The Best of Both Worlds"*

Picard: "She's a good ship, Will."

Riker: "Nah, that was the other Melbourne, which Captain Murgatroyd renamed as the Hilda after his wife. THIS Melbourne used to be the Gerratana, and when Captain Aden took it over he decided he preferred the name Melbourne. And who wouldn't?"

Picard: "My god, you're right. Forget that then. That ship's such a dog, it wouldn't last five minutes against the Borg before getting its saucer half blown off."

. . . where's it going to end? And suppose they start changing registries too? Complete chaos! Mind you, it would explain TSN's fave two subject's, the Nebula Melbourne and the Yamato's registry. . . 8)

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"Victory is Life!"

As for the new runabout.....why wouldn't it have been named already before arriving at DS9? That seems kind of odd that Starfleet would let their captains just pick a name from anywhere....

Anyway, I think only Starfleet Command should be aithorized to name and number ships.

And I think SF is the only body authorized to number ships, but, since they aren't named until later, they probably let captains name them sometimes. I mean, why would they worried about the name of a runabout that's more thatn likely to be blown up in a couple weeks? :-)

*bottle hits hull*

::BOOM!::

"Captain, we just lost the "Repulsive.""
"Damn! The "Transmetal Decepticon" and the "Mumble-something" are supposed to be covering that flank!"
"The "Sheik Yerbouti" and the "Flying Circus" are falling back..."
"The "My Aunt Melba" has broken through."

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You're just JEALOUS because the little voices talk to ME!

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there's a bird in the chimney,and a stone in my bed
when the road's washed out,they pass the bottle around
and wait in the arms,of the cold cold ground