Acrually from what i remember from just rewatching ds9, when ships dock with the station both the defiant and the klingon ships and possibly others dock nose first into the docking ring. So if two ships did dock with eachother it probably would be roughly nose to nose.
There’s a scene in Star Trek: TMP where they basically pull the nose up to the edge of the VGER platform and walk across the hull and off the ship. But the obviously exited from somewhere further back.
I seem to remember an episode where there’s an actual umbilical between two ships, and those extend from the sides.
Given the variety of species and the large number of models just within the Human Federation, you probably can’t reasonably assume docking ports are going to be on the nose. They face one another because the front is usually where most of the weapons are; it’s in case you have to shoot, not in case you have to dock. Plus, if things are so bad that neither ship had a functioning transporter, emergency nose-docking is probably not high on the list of deciding your orientation.
Acrually from what i remember from just rewatching ds9, when ships dock with the station both the defiant and the klingon ships and possibly others dock nose first into the docking ring. So if two ships did dock with eachother it probably would be roughly nose to nose.
There’s a scene in Star Trek: TMP where they basically pull the nose up to the edge of the VGER platform and walk across the hull and off the ship. But the obviously exited from somewhere further back.
I seem to remember an episode where there’s an actual umbilical between two ships, and those extend from the sides.
Given the variety of species and the large number of models just within the Human Federation, you probably can’t reasonably assume docking ports are going to be on the nose. They face one another because the front is usually where most of the weapons are; it’s in case you have to shoot, not in case you have to dock. Plus, if things are so bad that neither ship had a functioning transporter, emergency nose-docking is probably not high on the list of deciding your orientation.