USS Challenger (NCC-71099)

The USS Challenger (NCC-71099) was a Federation explorer that was in service with Starfleet in the late 24th century. Challenger was commissioned sometime prior to 2378. In that year, the Challenger was one of the starships which intercepted the Borg sphere which carried the USS Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant. 

In an alternate timeline created after the USS Voyager's attempt to use quantum slipstream drive resulted in the ship being destroyed, the Challenger'' was captained by Geordi La Forge in 2390. The vessel was assigned to pursue and capture the Delta Flyer, which had been stolen by former Voyager crew members Chakotay and Harry Kim. The Challenger managed to inflict severe damage on the Flyer, causing a warp core breach. However, Harry Kim was successful in transmitting a message to Voyager into the past, giving them instructions to collapse the slipstream and avert the disaster.''

Background information
The Challenger was a computer-generated model; its presence during is implied by the fact that the name and registry on the model was left over from "Timeless." The Challenger also appeared in the and  Ships of the Line calendars from Pocket Books, although parts of the CGI image were still labeled "Enterprise" and "NCC-1701-D." Like the USS Venture, the ship's name was emblazoned below the registry number on the ventral side of its saucer section. The Venture model was the first to do this. The registry number, NCC-71099, was likely a tribute to the space shuttle orbiter , OV-099, lost in January 1986.

Apocrypha
In the non-canon Pocket TOS novel The Return by William Shatner (with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens), a Galaxy-class starship Challenger was mentioned existing earlier in 2371. In the novel the ship was commanded by a Vulcan, Captain Simm, and, docked at Deep Space 9, was the scene of a fight between Jean-Luc Picard and a Borg-assimilated James T. Kirk.

Geordi La Forge also assumed command of the Challenger in Star Trek Online in 2397.

The Pocket TNG novel Indistinguishable from Magic by David A. McIntee has Geordi La Forge promoted to captain and assuming command of the Challenger in 2384 after its previous commander, Captain Montgomery Scott, retired after the death of his first officer during a battle with marauders and the determination that he failed to meet the minimum service requirements for command by the Challenger's chief medical officer Alyssa Ogawa. Then-commander La Forge was aboard in a detached, temporary role of operations and second officer during a mission to investigate the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E)'s discovery of the Intrepid NX-07, assumed destroyed in 2162 by a left-over Romulan mine from the Earth-Romulan War. The Challenger was portrayed in this novel as being a testbed of several experimental systems developed by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers.

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