[TML] My Weird Sulieman, was Re: Tonnes, Tons and Tuns

[Richard Aiken]

Dropping into the middle of this, after someone told me I had to re-join
as listmom had been forced to use an old membership list . . .

On 8/22/07, Jerry W Barrington <jursamaj at yahoo.com> wrote:

> So, fast ships are going to be broad, flat spheroids or domes.  Needles
> are
> horrible.


How about a slice out of a globe?  A circle several decks tall, with the
nozzles spaced around half the perimeter?  A la the "Enterprise" disk
section?

And speaking of needles . . .

I'm making up the PC ship for my Serene Travelling* game as a new-model
Sulieman.  The two engines are placed further outboard, for two reasons; 1)
they're now fusion scram jets, so they need inlet valves for atmospheric
flight and 2) I'm re-arranging the interior layout to allow for a
33-dton removable module along the ship's centerline.  The module has an
aft 22-dton cubical section and a forward 11-dton semi-conical section,
which mates with the tiny cockpit-accessway/airlock that lies between the
two permanent "rabbit-hutch" triple-bunk staterooms.

Yeah, I know it's technically a bridge and not a cockpit.  But in order to
get good all-round vision, everything is shoved right up against the
overhead "windshield," in a cramped, steeply-sloping space crammed with
acceleration couches and control boards.  The instant the first
test-pilot crawled into this, it became "the cockpit with the largest
dashboard in the 'Verse."

Since my new Imperium is only 225 years old - and my gravitic-lift
spaceships are built using heavy steel - I'm figuring the same Sulieman
hulls have been in use since the beginning of the Empire (or close to it).
I'm also assuming this in order to have sufficient surplus hulls available
for detached duty Suliemans.  So all my Sulieman "models" are the exact same
ship, just mounting different modules:

Courier Module: An 11-dton Message Computer in the forward section and a
22-dton Cargo Hold in the aft section (with cargo doors spanning the entire
aft bulkhead).

Scout Module: An 11-dton Analysis Lab in the forward section and a 22-dton
Scout Sensor Array in the aft section (while surveying, the ship orbits "ass
down," as the aft end of this module is spectrum-transparent in appropriate
spots).

Seeker Module: The Analysis Lab from the Scout Module (hooked to a turret
laser as per canon) with the Cargo Hold from the Courier Module.

Detached Duty Module: A common area/galley, six low berths and a double-bunk
steerage class stateroom in the forward section and the aft section
Cargo Hold from the Courier Module.

Each of my weird Suliemans has space for two
(2) air-rafts, in half-deck-high snugly-fitting bays, one located either
side of the aft centerline, beneath
the module bay.  To board them, open trap doors in the module floor and
climb down.  The air-rafts then exit down and to the sides, through
single-leaf exterior hatches (hinged along the centerline side).  The jump
drive** is located in the half-deck area above the aft end.  There's no
separate power plant; each of the two fusion scram jets contain a fusion
reactor, which together supply all power needs.

*This is the name I've come up with for my game, since it combines a
non-canonical Traveller background with the Serenity RPG rules.  Obviously -
since its an adventure game - this title is a tad . . . misleading.  <eg>
**I'm using stargates (built by the Ancients, of course), so you don't need
a special drive to get to the hex next door.  Any spaceship capable of
reaching the appropriate stargate (and keeping you alive for the week that
transit takes) can get you there.  But if you want to go further, then you
need a jump drive rated for the total number of intervening hexes you want
to "jump over."

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein
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