ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE Sidebar: Star Carriers...

[Johnny1A.2]

ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE Sidebar: Star Carriers...

In 2123, faster-than-light interstellar travel has been established for a modest time, and small colonies have been established beyond the Sol System (all but one of the purely-Terra-settled worlds still have tiny populations, though, the colonies are still very new). Trade with other human and near-human inhabited worlds is also a thing.

The technology that enables faster-than-light travel (and super-high-speed sublight travel within star systems, if you can afford it) has certain quirks that shape star travel. Starship drives (and some other systems, but mainly the drive) require supplies of the incredibly expensive extra-planar substance called orichalcum. Other things add to the expense, but the orichalcum is by far the largest expense that goes into a new starship.

Interstellar trade can be profitable, though, because while starships in 2123 are fantastically expensive to construct, they are relatively cheap to operate, and they can operate with moderate costs for a very long time, if properly maintained. Thus, though it might take many trips for the cargo a vessel carries to pay for the ship, the ship can make many, many such trips, and still be useful when finally amortized.

Additionally, the precious orichalcum that goes into the construction of a starship is not consumed, it is a component, not a fuel or other consumable. This means that when a starship reaches the end of its operating lifetime, the most valuable single part of the investment can potentially be recovered and reused.

These factors combine to make interstellar travel and trade potentially profitable, even given the awesome cost of entry.

Another factor shaping how interstellar travel/trade works is that the expense of a stardrive does not scale up as fast as the size of the vessel. That is, a single high-capacity stardrive can be much cheaper to construct than several smaller ones with the same combined capacity.

The upshot of these factors is that Terran star travel fell into a pattern seen in many other, older star travelling worlds, at least in the case of humans and near-humans. Most interstellar travel and shipping is done by the use of enormous vessels called 'star carriers'. Usually, these are orbit-to-orbit vessels, creatures of pure space that never enter even tenuous atmosphere, and usually slow and ungainly in normal space (though exceptions to every rule do exist).

Most manned star travel consists of a smaller, ground-to-orbit vehicle (or other spacecraft) that either docks with, or is taken inside, a larger star carrier (depending on the design of the carrier). The star carrier then transports the ships within it/docked with it faster than light to a destination world, where they can finish the rest of the trip under their own power. Usually, the travelers make the trip aboard their own vessel, though some high-end star carriers also have passenger facilities of their own.

Cargo is handled similarly, either aboard smaller cargo vessels, or in various modules and containers that can be carried from loading station to loading station.

All this saves enormous amounts of money, overall, since instead of dozens or hundreds of small stardrives, one large stardrive serves all users. Most travellers and shippers simply could never afford to purchase or built their own stardrive-equipped vessels.

(Note that there is no technical reason smaller FTL ships can not be built, it is simply a matter of economics.)

Though this arrangement permits affordable star flight, it has obvious limitations for travelers and shippers as well. For one thing, there must be a star carrier going where you want to go in order for you to go there. For another, you must conform yourself to the star carrier schedule, if the next scheduled star carrier will not arrive for another month, you are not going anywhere (except possibly to orbit or a nearby planet of the same star, depending on your ship) until then.

Plus, of course, the star carrier ride is not free.

To be continued...

[warellis]

I forget, for advanced mature nations that have had orichalcum drives for a long, long time, like say the Helians or that Human nation that destroyed itself in a civil war (you had long posts about them), at that stage of development and experience with orichalcum drives and FTL travel what has changed regarding how common FTL drives are?

Like are they common enough to the point you're putting them on fighters and shuttles as well as bigger ships?

Like to use an example, in Star Trek warp drives can be scaled down to be put on shuttles and fighters.

Is that the case in Orichalcum Universe as well, for mature advanced nations?

[Johnny1A.2]

Star Carriers continued...

Because of their utility, their vast expense, and their centrality to interstellar trade and travel, star carriers are considered to be valuable, non-expendable assets by most who possess them. The orichalcum alone in a star carrier makes it a very tempting target for piracy or other such action, which means that most star carriers are armed, but few of them are really functional as warships. Most star carriers also carry a well-armed staff of security personnel, and they usually have legal cover to use as much lethal force as the situation might require.

Star travel is a relatively new activity in 2123, but some legal and customary arrangements have emerged with regard to star carriers. Most national governments consider star carriers to be 'off limits' for attacks, in something like the same sense as an embassy. Assaults on a star carrier can be interpreted as a legitimate casus belli if done by a state or with state sponsorship. Attacks by private actors can provoke enormous responses from law enforcement and naval assets.

The actual ownership of most star carriers is technically private, but it is a highly regulated private ownership, usually with strong governmental involvement because of the vast value of the ships, and the fact that most polities regard orichalcum as a strategic resource.

As far as design goes, star carriers are highly variable. Some star carriers are designed around a vast interior hangar, enabling them to bring smaller vessels inside for the voyage. Others are much more spare, basically a massive structure to which smaller spacecraft can be externally docked and carried. Some star carriers are hybrids of these two approaches.

There are also cargo-specialized star carriers, which are designed primarily to transport specialized cargo modules from orbit to orbit. Such modules are sometimes offloaded at orbital facilities, but sometimes the cargo modules can be dropped into an atmosphere and reenter on their own. This last approach is especially common for delivering cargo to frontier worlds.

Driver Modules:

Naturally, accessing a star system or world by star carrier requires that a star carrier travel to such a place. When no such visitations are scheduled or available, another option is available, the 'stardrive module'.

Many normally sublight vessels, including many ground-to-orbit vessels, ar designed to be able to 'mate' with a driver module that contains an integral FTL drive and the necessary support systems to turn that vessel into a starship. The use of such detachable driver modules means that ships can be built without the immensely expensive translight drive system, but still make use of such when necessary.

Several companies 'rent' driver modules to shipowners to enable them to make special star trips without waiting for a star carrier. These stardrive modules are themselves immensely expensive, but can be rented out and reused over and over to amortize the cost for the provider.

Of course, one can not rent a driver module unless one is available for rent, which can make obtaining access to one an adventure in itself under some circumstances. The more so because not all stardrive modules are compatible with all vessels, various manufacturers use their own designs, and not all are cross-compatible.

Because of the expense (and the very real option of illegally reselling one), most driver module providers take various precautions to protect their investment. These precautions can range from sending armed personnel along with the drive module, to destruct systems that will destroy the module (and the people involved) in the event of unauthorized tampering.

(The latter is unpopular, because it still means losing the expensive investment.)

Sometimes a renter must post an immense bond. Occasionally, not entirely legal precautions are taken.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by warellis

I forget, for advanced mature nations that have had orichalcum drives for a long, long time, like say the Helians or that Human nation that destroyed itself in a civil war (you had long posts about them), at that stage of development and experience with orichalcum drives and FTL travel what has changed regarding how common FTL drives are?

The ancient Eosian Hegemony fell into something not entirely unlike the same pattern, for the same economic reasons. Their version of 'star carriers' was very different in terms of details, but many of the same approaches were applied.

Like are they common enough to the point you're putting them on fighters and shuttles as well as bigger ships?

The Eosians had access to more orichalcum than Terra does in 2123, so yes, they used more 'individual' drives, though much traffic still used their version of star carriers for cost reasons. They had more orichalcum, but not that much more.

The Helians, on the other hand, had access to relatively large amounts of orichalcum, so they used mostly individual drives.