In this scenario, each active member of SD.net (50+ posts) (along with any spouces they might have) find themselves transported by Q to a strange spacecraft. One of a large fleet of which is in orbit over the dark side of the moon.
The Ships: The basic spacecraft is 150 meters long, (for the most part) 12 meters in diameter and is divided into three sections, pressure hull, engineering and the secondary area.
The pressure hull is for you and your crew live in. Here are the controls, quarters, life support and recreational facilities. The basic model has the following systems...
• Hull: Ceramic/metallic Designed to resist radiation and micrometeors and reflect heat. It can not survive entering earth's atmosphere.
• Manoeuvring Thrusters: Sixteen of them arranged in four clusters of four along the hull
• Bridge: Located under a polarized transparent hemisphere 5 meters in diameter (with a retractable shield). Here is the Captain’s, Helmsman’s, Sensor Officer’s and First Officer’s stations.
• Corridors: General tubes and rings for getting around the spacecraft.
• Sickbay: Well equiped and stocked, with enough medicine to keep you in proper health if you have special needs. Each ship has a trained doctor able to handle your needs.
• Emergency Packs: A few emergency packages are about, these have emergency air supplies and patches in case of hull breech.
• Storage: There are some Cargo Holds, mostly for supplies
• Sensor towers. Two 5 meter towers near the front of the ship with radar, lidar and a pair of 50cm telescopes.
• Quarters: The Base model has quarters at the core of the ship, this includes the Captain’s quarters, a 90 degree segment 5 meters in radius and 3 meters tall. This comes with a zero G bed, sink, lavatory, television, shelves, gaming systems and a computer. The rest of the crew sleep in small chambers similar to Capsule Hotel rooms. Beneath it is the Recreation room, which is a common recreational area for the crew with a few treadmills and other exercise machines as well as large screen TVs. The ships computers have an extensive library of music, films, TV shows and Games. Ships with larger crews have more space to accommodate them.
• Docking: two retractable universal docking births are installed to either side, these can lock onto any existing earth spacecraft and extend up to 5 meters, as well as serving as airlocks. Each crew member has their own mechanical pressure spacesuit with manoeuvring thrusters.
• Life Support/Food Production: Long story short, each ship is fully capable of recycling its air, water and material to keep its crew fed and breathing. In case of food, it comes in the form of a Hydroponic Garden. This produces algae, vegetables, soybeans, tea and there are a set of tubes which grow culture meat, as well as being able to create sugar, hot sauce and salt synthetically. On the basic unit, this is enough to feed seventeen people comfortably. Food is prepared in the ship’s galley. If you must, a culture of Brewer’s yeast is available and your crew does know how to make a still. Fabric is also produced here, as are some basic plastic items.
Engineering is where the Fusion Drive is located, as well as the fuel tanks, a few spare parts and the Radiator Array (retractable). Their fuel tanks hold 1,000,000 liters of Deuterium and Tritium for fuel. The ship has a maximum acceleration of 1G (general acceleration is 0.5G) and generally cruise at speeds of 200km/s.
This is of course, only for the basic model. In addition, there are six variants designed to do various tasks. You can choose what type of ship you have.
• CARGO: Your ship has cargo capacity; it has thirty two cargo modules along its side as well as a loading arm. These are not pressurized. The rated maximum transit capacity of which is 4,000 tonnes. Has a crew of sixteen.
• HABITAT: The habitat ship has a ring shaped rotating section and extended life support and agricultural capacities which allows for the accommodation of up to 150 passengers in 0.3G gravity. Has a crew of 20.
• FACTORY: Factory are mobile factories and have crews of 64. The additional crewmembers are engineers and robotics technicians and overseers. These ships have systems process metal and ceramics into additional things. These include space station components, habitats for planetary development, industrial equipment, scaffolding and indeed, more spaceships. That said, they cannot work without raw materials and while they can assemble large scale things and have limited transport capacity.
• MINING: Mining ships are ore processing stations. They have a set of shock absorbers near the fusion drive and tether launchers allowing it to safely touchdown engine first onto an asteroid and then deploy three dump truck sized vehicles called grinders. Grinders will then chew up material, put into boxes which are then picked up and taken into the refinery. It can process most materials, from fuel to metal and ceramics. That said, it has minimal transport capacity and cannot produce much besides simple ingots or deuterium. Has a crew of 24.
• EVA CARRIER: The EVA Carrier has external racks, two manipulator arms and a crew of 42. It has a complement of sixteen manipulators. These are low range craft maneuver and have a pair of arms that can be fitted with a number of graspers, welders and bolt drivers. These can be used to assemble components provided by factory ships. They can build shipyards and space stations.
• DROP CARRIER: Drop Carriers are very similar to EVA Carriers in design. Their difference is in their payload, they carry two shuttles and two Landers. Shuttles are triangular jet assisted spacecraft capable of escaping earth’s gravity with four tonnes of cargo or 16 tonnes. Landers are heavier purpose craft designed to touchdown on objects comparable in size to mars. They can land and unload up to 50 tonnes of cargo and lift off from the lunar surface with a similar payload. Has a crew of 26.
Working together and with a supply of raw materials a Factory ship, a Mining Ship and an EVA carrier could mine enough ore, fabricate components and scaffolding and complete a new ship in eighteen months. Six ships (Two of Each) can do the same job in 9 months, nine (three of each) can do it in six. Also, a critical fact: NONE OF THESE SPACECRAFT ARE ARMED. They also have a safety program installed to make sure that they can not fire their thrusters to damage any other ship in the fleet, parasites or the fuel depot.
The Fuel Depot-A large orbiting fuel tank, has 5,000,000 tonnes of Deuterium/Tritium and 200 docking stations in lunar orbit. It is entirely automated.
The Crew: In terms of qualifications to run the ship, they are more than capable, but there is some subtle diference. Since these spacecraft for the most part don’t have artificial gravity, the crew is adapted to thrive in its absence. They are Zero Gravers.
Zero Gravers (Homo Cosmicus) are humans adapted to live their lives in Zero Gravity. They have better resistance to radiation and feel perfectly comfortable in freefall. They can get about when gravity or effective gravity is present, but they are awkward in it. They typically tend to be very detail oriented, obsessive and good at math. Your crew is loyal to you so long as you don't try to kill them. Each ship has a a 50/50 male female split. One per ship is a capable teacher on top of their ususal skills. Zero Gravers are not uniform, Black, Asian and Caucasian Zerp Gravers exist. They all speak with thick Australian accents and while they don't hold it against normal people, they see baseline humans as being very weird looking, what with their deformed lower hands, beady little eyes and body hair.
So what happens and what do you do?
Zor
