Ship Technology

For all the bits and pieces that go on ships.

Equipment

See also EVA and Diving Equipment.

• Snowplow generators, which create a field that either pushes debris away from the ship or vaporizes it. Not necessary while in Well.

Commercial Liners

"Unlike a Fleet vessel, with its unmistakable emergency sirens, the passenger liner's sole indication of its status was a demure strip of red and white lights where the floor met the wall and the occasional repetition of a message 'to please stay in your cabins until the crew gives you further instructions.'

• in-sector hoppers (short haul, for within a sector)

Platy-Driven Navigation

See also Platy Water Environments

Repairs

• Repairing ships apparently involves "acrid, nose-tickling smelling" chemical fusers and grease.
• Hull breaches can be temporarily relieved by an emergency energy patch.

Weaponry and Defense

See Ship Weapons.

Well Drive

Located in engineering on Fleet ships: an "enormous central chamber with its pulsing Well capsule." Has a bleed-off system, and overload of that system causes enough damage to cripple a ship. Supported by pylons (different numbers depending on ship class) and glow during operation.

Has five "speeds":

• 1
• 2 (The Lip of the Well)
• 3 (The Lip of the Well); most civilian ships stop here.
• 4 Civilian courier ships occasionally go this speed.
• 5 (The Well's Deep) This speed is only typical of Fleet vessels pushing things.
• 6?
• Deeper?

For civilian ship, anything past Well 4 tends to diminishing returns when the increased cost of maintenance, repair and energy usage were factored against the time saved. For vital military or political reasons, military vessels can safely drop deeper in the Well but even those hit the limits of technology, especially material strength and propulsion systems, before whatever may be at the theoretical "bottom" of the Well.

There's a way to "bounce" a slow-moving ship out of Well if you know its vector and engine harmonies, but it's a 'bit of a gamble.' Fleet personnel call it a tripwire. This is more of a pirate technique than a Chatcaavan one.

It takes about a week to repair a well drive.

Few ships capable of landing on a planet have Well drives, and those that do are expensive.

The computer can and usually does superimpose images of stars moving when in Well for crew comfort, even though one doesn't actually pass stars in the Well.