[TML] Low Berths: was: Jump-6 communication

[Richard Aiken]

On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 4:24 PM, Mark Urbin <eclipse at urbin.net> wrote:
> You are "knocked out" in a low berth.  It's because it's cheaper than
> providing life support.
>
> Most of the people who sail from California to Hawaii do so because they
>  can afford to take the time to travel that way.  The tight quarters
> are part of the experience for them.
>
> People in the OTU travel using low berths because that is all they can
> afford.

Been reading "The Winds of Gath," the first of the E.C. Tubbs
"Dumarest of Terra" books.  That's exactly how low berths are used
there.  But I found a few things of interest.

1) The term "traveler" seems to refer specifically to individuals who
bum around the galaxy via low passage.  They spend only enough time on
each world visited to accumulate the (low) amount of cash needed for
the next trip.  They also need to bulk up prior to traveling agins,
because passage via low berth seriously degrades your physical fitness
(your body basically consumes itself while you're in the berth).

2) There hasn't yet been any mention of middle passage, just High and
Low.  The only equivalent to middle passage seems to be the crews of
the jump ships, which are the only people who don't use one of the two
drugs used by other starfarers (see #3 below).

3) High Passage is defined primarily by those who can afford to take
what I believe is Traveller Slow Drug.  They take this to avoid
terminal boredom, by experiencing the long weeks of travel as only a
couple of days.

Very interesting book, so far.  Especially for something so thin!

Richard

-- 
Richard Aiken

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