[TML] [Merchant Shipping] Some ideas I came up with to make merchant shipping more interesing

[Tom B]

>  Assuming there will be terrorism in the future and then think 911 with
>  a space ship into a city from space. What do you need to worry about
>  the power plant for?

Don't go the near-C rock way, please. I'm sure there is some sort of
rule against it and a space ship crash ain't far off.

Ultimately, harbours could be seriously mucked up today by tanker
crashes as cities can by plane crashes. It doesn't happen all that
often. Security processes, intelligence work, a lack of interest
generally for most people in dying... take your pick. I suspect the
same will be true in the Imperium.

So, having dealt with that, your plants are still something you have
to worry about, just like today.

>  I could see terrorism shutting down private space ship use altogether.

Conjecture: You'd just have to go through significantly more intrusive
certifications.

The Imperial *official* policy is anti-psionic. Do you suspect they
don't have any around? Do you suspect that those they have don't work
for intelligence agencies?

Or perhaps part of the 'medical' for getting a pilots license is a
quiet programming (thou shalt not crash thy ship into planets!).

>  It is just to dangerous to have anyone with a spaceship that is not
>  security cleared to the max! Only way I see out of this is some sort
>  of mind probe for all pilots and a very nice locked door to the fight
>  deck.

I suspect the flight decks of even tramp freighters are heavily
secured. Anti-hijack programs are fairly sophisticated (see canon
references and JTAS info on this).

The real world, despite media hyperbole, works on the idea of trusted
professionals. Now, obviously, this was a problem when a bunch of
terrorists got into the necessary flight training for big planes. And
when the cabin doors weren't well defended, there were no air
marshals, screening at airports was worse than today, and intelligence
agencies were doing a crappier job. The end result of all of those
weak points and some very sharp bad guys was some bad news. Have we
seen more effectual use of these mechanisms against commercial
shipping or planes? Not to my knowledge. Why not, since it worked?
Increased security of who we train and certify, increased penetration
of hostile cells by intelligence agencies, perhaps air marshals and
airport screening have increased the risk of failure enough to
convince enemy planners this isn't a good bid anymore... all of which
could exist in the Imperium.

Even a crappy ship can cost many million credits and they are hard to
take from even free traders. And there are probably bureaucratic
hurdles to buying ships (much like to buying 3 tons of ammonium
nitrate caught some bad guys near Toronto). So, getting the ship to do
this with is not easy. Getting someone trained, motivated, duly
licensed (at least enough to slip past security screens), etc....a big
challenge. I wouldn't be surprised if part of your earliest interface
with SysCon in a system is sending them your crew manifest, passenger
manifest, and cargo manifest as well as record of vaccinations and
innoculations. Part of the check dirtside may well be to verify your
credentials. I wouldn't be surprised if their was a Spacer's Guild or
Pilot's Guild or similar sort of thing where these quals could be
confirmed or else an Imperial registry of certified crew with
individual digital signatures.

Sure, you can imagine your way around a lot of these sorts of
processes, but security is not about stopping everyone, it's about
making it hard enough to act as a deterrent. Most suicide bombers and
crooks are just not that competent.

Also, in any populated system with patrol cruisers and SDBs,
controlled spacelanes would be enforced. If your Type A Free Trader
suddenly tries to burn into a lower orbit to smack Regina, I doubt
you're going to arrive their in enough of one piece to do much damage.
Of course, surface defense installation also could be involved. That's
assuming your plan wasn't foiled at any of the prior places by
intelligence or bureaucratic checks.

And you still need to secure your power generators. :0)