[TML] Noncanonical TU 3D.

[Thad Coons]

On 1/4/08, Timothy Little <tim at little-possums.net> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jan 04, 2008 at 02:21:24AM -0500, Thad Coons wrote:
> > OK, for those interested, I now have a few pages of  Terran
> > Space<http://www.sapiencekb.com/traveller/trav3d.htm> attached to my
> > web site.
> > I'd be interested in hearing commentary and feedback: offlist will do.
>
> Yow, that's a nasty death rate for the first few interstellar trips :-(
>
> 1) All crew killed (ship couldn't return)
> 2) All crew presumed killed (ship never arrived)
> 3) Some crew killed
> 4) All crew killed
> 5) First base, many killed
>
> It might be useful to mention how the people died in 3, 4, and 5.  I
> know I'm wondering!  (The first explanations that came to mind seem
> very unlikely on further consideration)
>
>
> - Tim
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Yes, this was unusual string of bad luck. The first manned ship was lost
because the jump drive failed entirely on restart and life support ran out.
The second is attributed to misjump. The third was a combination of
jumpsickness and  life support failure.
The fourth has always been a baffling mystery. "What really happened to
the Arcodian?" is a favorite pastime of armchair historians.
The fifth was a classic case of underpreparation and mismanagement. The
colonists were young, eager, and idealistic volunteers from earth who were
shockingly ignorant about low pressure, low g, and extremely cold
environments, and were poorly equipped to begin with. The first colonial
governor turned into a tyrant who was better at destroying morale than
anything else. There were also several incidents of sabotage.