Topic: DATABASE: The Lady

Toby · Date: 2006-11-08 17:15 EST

Altamira Class - Medium-Heavy Cruiser/Cargo Transport
Fore/Aft Length: 135 meters
Port-Starboard Width: 90 meters
Draft (Ventral-Dorsal): 20 meters
Rough Tonnage: 20.0 diTons.

Internal arrangement comprises two full decks, plus a dorsal surface bridge/shuttle bay complex ("A" Deck). The main cargo bay is capable of holding 400 metric tons of cargo, while the secondary cargo bay can hold 75 metric tons.

The main cargo bay is located in the forward half of the main 'saucer' hull, taking up the entire forward half of the lower deck, as well as the 'north' or forward 1/4th of the upper ("B") deck. The upper section can be isolated by thick containment doors that run at floor level of the upper deck.

The secondary cargo bay is located on the lower ("C") deck, on the starboard side behind the main cargo bay. This secondary bay connects via a pressurized cargo elevator to the ship's storage compartment on "B" deck, and then up to the hangar deck on the upper hull, allowing shuttle-based cargo to be moved down into the cargo complex.

There are two external cargo access doors - one for the lower bay and one for the upper. The lower doors open outward and down from the front of the cargo bay, becoming an access ramp for ground-based access. The upper bay cargo doors are on the upper hull of the ship, designed to allow cranes to lower cargo into the bay from above. The original design also allowed for extremely tall cargo modules to be lowered from above, and take up both levels of the cargo bay.

A central 'core' ladderway connects all three deck levels in the center of the ship: A (Bridge/Hangar), B (upper saucer deck), C (lower saucer deck). The square after section of the ship houses the main engines - a standard Class 1 Hyperdrive and twin "Thunderbolt" sublight drives. Twin pods connected to the port and starboard hull surface there remain retracted close into the hull, and can be extended for drive use - these contain "Starlight" plasma-accelerator drives, capable of giving the ship a sudden burst of speed in sublight.

The bridge and shuttle hangar make up the small complex on the upper surface of the ship. The top of the central core ladderway opens in four directions: port and starboard hatches access the the two shuttle storage hangars, while the aft hatch is actually an airlock entry into the shuttle bay itself.

The forward hatch leads out into the split-level bridge. The upper part of the bridge has several computer consoles and screens, for both ship and general use. On the starboard side is a doorway into a small staging area - in here are several spacesuit lockers and storage bins. The bridge airlock connects here, opening out onto the upper hull of the ship.

Two steps down from the upper bridge is the command deck. This is actually a small area, containing only the pilot and copilot's seats and the main flight console. There is an extremely thick transparisteel view port dead center, as well as various display screens and monitors ranged around to show various camera and sensor angles, and data readouts as needed.

From the upper aft surface of the ship, the hangar deck is accessed via a large 'clamshell' door which has a maximum aperture of 30 meters. The hangar deck can handle 4 standard size shuttlecraft, and contains two full-size storage hangars as well.

Ship's accomodations consist of two cabins on the upper deck (port side), next to the ship's lounge/galley and infirmary. The upper deck's starboard quarter is made up of the ship's storage section, where consumables and other cargo specific to the ship itself are stored. A droid storage closet and ship's services room are located here as well. The Droid Storage closet contains recharge sockets and various maintenance equipment for the ship's droid contingent. Ship's Services contains the laundry machine and fabrication unit for general stores.

The aft quarter of the upper deck is basically a single compartment; a large shuttle repair and maintenance hangar, accessible by a descending floor elevator from the hangar deck above it. Shuttlecraft and any other small craft of similar size can be lowered into this area to be serviced, if necessary.

The lower level of the saucer is dominated by the main cargo deck, which takes up the entire forward half, and the secondary cargo bay takes up another section of the starboard side. In between them, a large cargo airlock is set on the starboard compass-point. Directly opposite on the other side of the ship, a smaller personnel airlock connects to the main access corridor - this corridor marks the port boundary of the main cargo bay, and ties directly into the central core ladderway.

Just behind the main access corridor is the Weapons/Shield Engineering room, where the specialized equipment for the ship's offensive/defensive systems can be maintained. There is a separate room behind for the powerful torpedo launcher as well. Directly behind the central core is Power Engineering, where the main reactor core (just aft) and all of its associated power systems are maintained. At the end of this section lies the reactor room, which allows direct access to the core.

Most of the area around this is taken up by the engine machinery, though there are several compartments to note. At the aft end, beyond the reactor room, are the main status Engineering display and system consoles. On the starboard side are the main computer room (where the AI modules are installed) and the main circuit room (where every system on board is tied together.) Both these rooms are heavily armored and insulated against physical and electromagnetic damage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Altamira class ship known previously as S.S. Malojay was owned by a husband-and-wife prospecting team based out of Delhombe Station, Theta Orionis. Their last transmission to their home port put their position near the sector of space known as the Badlands, as they were looking to avoid some reported pirate traffic nearby.

Shortly after this, Captain John "Toby" Emerson made an emergency landing with his ship, the S.S. Lady, on one of the larger asteroids in the Badlands sector. While exploring, he came across the Malojay, which had made an emergency computer-controlled landing some weeks before. The ship showed no signs of damage, save for one - a hull breach on the upper hull, which had vented the port quarter of that deck to space. As it turned out, that section of the ship is where the crew quarters were centered, and it is almost certain that both crew were killed in the depressurization.

With no next-of-kin listed, the salvage rights to the Malojay were granted to Emerson, still at the time a licensed salvage operator. His own ship having been lost at the same time (a critical reactor failure while on the asteroid had destroyed the Lady. Luckily, Emerson had time to salvage as much of his gear as possible and get clear before the reactor went supercritical), he chose to bring the ship back to Rhydin III's orbital facility and work on getting it repaired. In the process, he made considerable changes to the ship's internal arrangement to suit his own ends.

Among the modifications Emerson made were the following:

He closed and sealed the divider between the lower and upper cargo bays, and then installed modular flooring to essentially turn the upper cargo bay into a separate compartment of its own. The addition of a work bench, desk, and multiple storage cabinets, as well as a large test rig in the center of the comaprtment, turned the former cargo bay into a well-equipped R&D lab, large enough to hold something the size of a small fighter or gunship. The upper doors remained sealed, though he could still open them to bring in large objects for test purposes.

The smaller of the two crew quarters was turned into his personal office and private space; he kept a secured and self-contained computer system in there for personal data storage, as well as record-keeping.

The shuttlecraft maintenance hangar he used to hold a very special piece of cargo - an Imperial Missle Boat prototype that he'd salvaged in deep space. Bristling with the very latest in Imperial technology, the prototype had disappeared during a trial run when her experimental 'fold' drive had failed in mid-fold. Emerson didn't report this particular salvage job, as the Empire would likely want it back. He had done some major hull-cutter work to put together an access tunnel through the port side of the hangar, allowing an improvised track system and railing to extend the craft away from the main hull, and take off/land on her own power.

Since acquiring her, Emerson upgraded the shield designs to a much more compact and efficient system, based partly on the technology found in the missle boat. He'd also increased the offensive installations; bringing them up to four dual-barrel plasma turrets forward (two above, two below) and three aft turrets (two above, one below in between the two tractor emitters). The torpedo launcher was refitting to be able to handle both Type I and II proton torpedoes, as well as concussion missiles. He also redesigned the launcher into a turret system to cover a full 360 degree arc around the ship. The turrets are in fixed-facing positions, but the dual-barrel weapons are able to rotate within the turrets to give a 22.5 degree range from their face position, allowing more flexibility in defense.

Though capable of holding up to 6 standard shuttlecraft, Emerson currently only has two on board - a small 5-person personnel shuttle, and a somewhat bulkier cargo transport shuttle. There is also the salvaged missle boat, but that's kept quietly in the converted repair bay - he doesn't fly it blatantly, at least in heavily travelled areas.

Toby · Date: 2006-11-20 12:22 EST

20061120.1216

A major refit came about in the eleventh year that Emerson owned the craft. Ever since the original refit, the ship's primary propulsion during sublight operations had been the Taurus ion drive, which producted a modest and steady speed, but as was the case with most ion drives, failed to provide strong acceleration.

At the time, Toby was looking to put one of his experimental designs to work, and opted to take the risk with his own ship. Twin engine pods were designed to extend away from the aft engine hull on bracers, and each contained one of the "Starlight" plasma accelerators that he'd been working on for some years. Angled out and up at the optimal angle, the dual plasma burn drives could provide a sudden speed burst of up to 50 MGLT or more (depending on the ability of the hull in question to withstand the strain. The Lady herself, being one of the more sturdy designs in recent memory, was able to take at least a maximum acceleration surge of 55MGLT over her current top speed without noticeable stress warnings.)

Along with the standard Class 1 Hyperdrive, the Lady's engine configuration remained the same for another decade past that point. However, recent advances in plasma drive technology coupled with the realization that the stress bracers of the Starlight drive were finally reaching the limits of their viability, led Toby to begin blocking out a design for a completely new engine configuration as early as the first months of '06.

The actual changes came in the later part of the year, when he found himself on an extended long-distance trip and docked for much of that time at the Core station. It was here that he finally took the new design from theory to construction. He had access to technical specialists, all the dry dock and technology he needed, and some old friends with influence when needed (namely Thane, with whom he'd worked fairly regularly for over a decade.)

The first step was identifying all the changes he'd have to make - and they were many. The old Starlight drive pods and the variable-extender braces would have to be removed. The new dual plasma accelerator units would fit in the same place, but rather than fold outward, they would extend backwards in place slightly for a more centered thrust. The different vector geometry would be compensated for by smaller 'nozzles' on the new outrigger design. Which led to the next stage..

Toby · Date: 2006-11-20 13:22 EST

When Toby had finally decided to redesign the ship's engine configuration, he decided to do it all the way. Instead of three systems (Hyperdrive, Sublight Drive, and Plasma Accelerators for a speed boost), he was going to completely revamp things and break it down to two systems.

The FTL drive would no longer be a standard hyperdrive, but rather a brand new "fold" system, to take advantage of the advances made in fold-gate technology over the past decade. And the sublight system would be expanded and improved to the point where the third stage (the Starlight devices) would no longer be necessary.

There was not enough room in the hull, however, to support the machinery and support systems for a full-on Fold drive, even with some creative accounting. So Toby ultimately decided to go with an external design, and for even better efficiency he'd double up on it.

The fold drives would be located in long nacelles mounted to the sides of the aft engine hull, and extending down several meters below the hull line. This would render the Lady incapable of landing, though Toby intended to rework the mounting to allow the nacelles to rotate out and up to the sides for that.

The mounting braces would then continue upwards and over into an arch above the upper hull, providing optimal stress tolerances in both modes. At the apex of the arch, Toby would include a module which did not yet have a stated purpose. It could be used for weapons, sensors, or other things yet to be.

The arch and braces would also support secondary plasma jets to fine-tune the ship's manueverability during high acceleration, giving her as much or better control at high sublight as she'd had before.

The internal hyperdrive and its machinery would be removed and replaced with the containment generators necessary for the fold engines (these plus the fold drives themselves meant a much larger space requirment than a relatively compact hyperdrive unit had.)

Finally, a new power core would have to be designed and built to handle the new requirements. Fortunately, Toby knew more than anyone about the unique crystal fusion 'laser rod' power plant he'd designed, and that meant he knew how to scale it up another notch.

This was a major project, but one definitely worth doing, and one long overdue. Lady had been flying a long time, and her wings were tired. It was time to give her new ones.

Toby · Date: 2006-12-08 15:30 EST

Redesign:

*Note - the Central Core runs at the exact geometric center of the saucer, and conencts all three decks. It is a selfcontained and pressurized shaft, with a three-sided ladder running up the center. It has a low gravity environment, to allow easier climbing. At each of the three decks, a metal grate floor runs around the edge of the circle, allowing access to doors at any of the four compass points.

A-Deck (Command Deck)

Central Core opens to all four compass points. North exit hatch opens onto the upper bridge, on which was a communications and computer console on the left, a hatch in the floor leading to one of the two escape pods, and a door on the right leading to the airlock. Beyond that door is a small staging area with storage lockers, and the airlock entrance itself that leads out onto the upper hull of the saucer.

Continuing north off the upper bridge, is the cockpit itself. There are two consoles, left and right - the left hand console was the Pilot's station, while the right hand is a backup station and general computer console. In the center is another floor hatch leading to the second escape pod, and between the consoles is a small ladder down to a sunken storage/observation/machinery access area.

Central Core's east and west exits directly access the two shuttlepod hangars via airlock, which are pressurized. The south exit from the Core leads into the Shuttle Bay itself. The Bay is large enough to support three standard-size shuttles at once, and has an elevator in the center that can lower one craft down into a repair garage below.

Track-mounted trays allow vehicles to be stored in the two hangars and withdrawn as necessary, and there is a cargo floor elevator on the far starboard side leading down to the Mass Storage compartment on B-Deck.

B-Deck (Living Area / Ship's Stores / Lab / Shuttle Repair bay)

An "X" shaped series of thick divider braces separate this level into four 'quarters', (North, South, East, West).

Each is a different self-contained area in case of hull breach.

B-Deck North - Lab: Toby's Lab is intentionally larger than would seem to be necessary for the equipment and work space used. This was done to make the space large enough to hold even a small shuttle or other large piece of equipment to be worked on in the central-mounted support rig. Toby's desk is immediately left of the entrance, followed by the extensive work bench and storage cabinets. To the right of the entrance is a storage/recharging bay for GNK-series power droids, and in the far right corner is a specialized test alcove for potentially dangerous experiments (it boasts a vacuum system and emergency ejection unit.) There are also triple-reinforced doors in the upper hull, allowing direct access while onplanet (or if the lab is properly depressurized, in space itself.)

B-Deck East - Storage: To the left of the starboard corridor is the Droid Storage room, where the various cybernetic crew can go to recharge and repair themselves as needed. To the right is the laundry room, a small shipboard replicator and a converter (used to break down waste and unusable material into raw energy again.)

The far left side of this section is Ship's Stores, used for consumables, personal item storage (such as crew supplies) and personal cargo. There is also an elevator here that connects down to the main cargo bay. Across the corridor is the Mass Storage area. This is used for larger scale storage, such as machine parts, raw material for the replicators, water tankage, and battery storage (the elevator here is the one from the shuttle bay.)

B-Deck South - Shuttle Repair Bay: Toby installed a high-security airlock between the Core and this room. Designed originally as the repair and maintenance alcove for shuttlecraft, Toby now uses it for storing a very unique small craft of his own, as well as for its intended purpose now and then.

B-Deck West - Living Area: As with the east section, this part of the deck is divided down the center by a corridor into four compartments, two on each side. The near left room is the Infirmary, stocked sufficiently for not only Toby but for a variety of possible passenger types. An upgraded Medbot droid runs the show here. On the near right is Toby's private office and trophy room (as he put it).

The far right room is Toby's cabin itself, and behind it is a self-contained water shower and bath (a bit of admitted decadence, but it had its own self-contained water tankage.) The far left compartment is the ship's lounge, which contained a built-in kitchen alcove, a small bar and various other entertainments (including Toby's beloved Baldwin Acrosonic upgright piano.)

At both the far ends of the East and West corridors are escape pods, accessible from the corridor's end.

Aft of the South section is a several-meter thick damping and protection wall dividing the habitable saucer from the sublight engines behind them. Both drives are mounted on the aft port and starboard, with support machinery and crawlspaces accessible from the engine spaces on C-Deck.

C-Deck (Main Cargo and Engineering)

The largest overall deck in terms of habitable space, and also the largest single open area on board ship is found here. At the far port center of the deck is a personal airlock (used for docking at spaceborne facilities), and on the starboard center is the larger cargo lock.

The port airlock leads into a security corridor, and directly into the Central Core. There is also a secured hatch leading forward from the corridor, into the Main Cargo Bay. Main Cargo takes up the entire forward half of the saucer, and contains various restraints to secure cargo of varying sizes. Each exit (north and east) from the Central Core is a secure airlock, as the Main Cargo bay can directly open to vacuum. At the precise front centerline of the bay, a large pair of pocket doors retract and a large section of the floor opens down to serve as an access ramp.

The other exit from the bay is on the starboard side, just after the cargo airlock - the next compartment holds the heavily-secured, armored and self-contained Aux.Storage compartment. This is used for cargo that might be hazardous, extremely valuable or fragile, or in need of special storage requirements (essentially it allows for multiple environments, gravity or inertia-absorbtion.)

On the opposite side of the saucer from this point is located the equally heavily-secured weapons storage chamber. In here are stored torpedoes for the launcher Toby installed, as well as the insulated batteries for the backup hyperlasers. The primary offensive weapons (aside from the torpedo launcher) are the plasma cannons, which are fuelled directly from the main engine powerplant.

The after quarter of the saucer, between the two protective barriers, is taken up mostly by the two huge landing gear bays, though nestled against the central core (but not accessible from it) is the ship's primary computer and circuit access compartment. One of the more heavily shielded and secure areas on the ship, this is the nerve hub and brain of the vessel.

A corridor from that point leads after between the landing gear chambers into the engine spaces themselves. As with the deck above, a thick curving shield wall separates the saucer from the engine area, though it is broken by the access airlock from the saucer itself. The engine spaces allow direct access to the various machinery back here, and also up into the crawlspaces above.

The port and starboard drive systems and the power filtering system
surround the scintillant power core on three sides, and the unique Crystal-fusion plant throws a wild array of colours out into the engine space. Toby's own design, the power core is an order of magnitude more powerful than the previous laser-rod array he'd been using.