USCSS Patna

USCSS Patna
Overview
Type	Medical frigate
Manufacturer	Lunnar-Welsun Industries
Class	Conestoga-class
Affiliation	Weyland-Yutani Corporation
Status	Active as of 2183
Technical specifications
Length	731.6 meters (2,400.3 ft.)
Width	99.6 meters (326.8 ft.)
Height	182.9 meters (600 ft.)
Mass	78,000 tonnes
Powerplant	Gates-Heidman GF-240 rockets Romberg-Rockwell Cygnus 5 tachyon shunt hyperdrive
Minimum crew	Fully automated systems

"The ship I came in, the Patna, is equipped with a state-of-the-art surgical facility."

―Michael Bishop to Ellen Ripley (from Alien³ (novel))

The USCSS Patna was a Conestoga-class troop transport ship owned by Weyland-Yutani Corporation reorganized as a medical frigate. It served as Weyland-Yutani executive Michael Bishop's mobile headquarters on the Frontier and was used by Bishop and his science team in their attempt to recover Ellen Ripley and a Xenomorph specimen from Fiorina "Fury" 161 in 2179.

Overview

The Patna was equipped with six science labs, a full surgical with dozen of medpods, and was stripped of its rail guns and long arm missile pods. It was also rumored to carry nuclear weapons when moving illegally through Union of Progressive Peoples space. The Patna's crew wore assorted outfits adorned with white on white Weyland-Yutani patches.

History

When Superintendent Harry Andrews informed Weyland-Yutani that Ripley had crash landed on Fiorina "Fury" 161, Weyland-Yutani Corporation quickly responded that they would send a ship to extract her. However, the Patna had already been dispatched from Motinea before the message was even received, acting in response to information sent to the company directly from the USS Sulaco's black box recorder. The Patna was carrying a team of Weyland-Yutani commandos and scientists under the command of Weyland-Yutani executive Michael Bishop, equipped to recover the Xenomorph they knew they would find on the planet.

Patna overlooking Fiorina 161.

Upon arrival, the Patna entered Fiorina 161's atmosphere and Bishop's team set down on the surface. However, their mission to recover a Xenomorph was ultimately a failure. Bishop and his team departed aboard the Patna, taking with them the sole survivor from the Fiorina 161 Class C Work Correctional Unit, prisoner Robert Morse, along with Corporal Dwayne Hicks and civilian Samwell Stone, who had also been captured on site.

In 2183, the ship could frequently be found at Weyland-Yutani's corporate berth at Anchorpoint Station carrying out transit runs between the station and the Frontier tracking down any alien material, Engineer ruins, or viable Xenomorph specimens to weaponize.

Crew

• Michael Bishop - Owner
• Weyland-Yutani scientists
  • Doctor Sora Matsushita
• Weyland-Yutani Commando unit
  • Animal
  • Boss
  • Kostas Macrae
  • William Raby

Behind the scenes

The Patna follows in the tradition of naming spacecraft in the Alien franchise after elements from Joseph Conrad novels — in this case, the SS Patna from the novel Lord Jim. The name, however, is never mentioned in the film; it comes from the novelization. Originally, the Patna was not going to appear at all, but the crew eventually realized that they would need to show the vessel that brings the company team to the prison. In an attempt to keep the production's rapidly rising costs down, they elected to reuse the Sulaco model with a slight re-dress of surface features.

Appearances

• Alien³/novel/comic
• Stasis Interrupted
• Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report
• Alien: The Roleplaying Game
• Aliens: Bishop

Gallery

Concept art for the USCSS Patna.

The USCSS Patna as it appears in the comic book adaptation of Alien 3.

The crew of the USCSS Patna.