Per the Insider, it lacks the extended fuel tanks of the original Bennet, which'd give you a bit of space for extra berthing and storage/magazines, along with the extra armor it got.

Imagine that, sleeping between explosive fuel tanks!
I reckon part of the existing storage space was converted to crew quarters, and the fuel tanks converted to (weapons)storage.

Depends on the amount of reshuffling done with all the new gear added, some existing gear being replaced by newer models (which could go from being smaller/lighter for similar performance to more powerful and more bulky), and some other design quirks, like maybe the original design had some empty, or half filled-in compartments reserved for future refits like this.

Or it's the usual case of wartime refits, they deleted some comfort enhancing rooms/compartments, as the new ships are not intended to spend as much time away from base on a single patrol as the old ones did.

Whoops, my bad, how did that extra one get in there.

Related to this, earlier it was mentioned the Bella had prima-fide Diplomatic staff onboard; were they like, UN reps, TCA only? Did they have any protocol and plans in mind?

Perhaps you thought Alex was saying there were 80 unaccounted for (which is the question Tempo asked), which would have put the total at 137.


There was a team of diplomatic specialists on board, drawn from a variety of sources, but Captain Hamilton was in overall command of the diplomatic mission. The TCA folks have watched enough Star Trek to know that you can't have diplomats trying to override the captain's authority in a crisis situation.

I'm sure they drew up all kind of potential scenarios and planned accordingly, but they had so little information (not even knowing which side they'd be talking to) that they knew any such plan would not survive contact with the enemy, so to speak.

So... the Orgus mentioned that the Loroi were telepathic. Did they also mention that some Loroi were telekinetic?

I think it's unlikely that the Orgus refugees had any detailed knowledge of what specific psionic abilities the Loroi had or how common they were.