[Space] Steampunk Firefly Idea

[Gold & Appel Inc]

More importantly, if we're doing some variation on Firefly here, Chinese stuff is everywhere in the series (except the ethnicities of the main cast), while Japanese stuff is nowhere to be seen.

If this is supposed to be steampunkish, I'd personally dispense with TL7 trappings entirely, use some kind of TL 6+2 handwavium to achieve escape velocity, and then just use steam-based propulsion for maneuvering in vacuum. Whichever PC is the "Big Guy" can have the official job title of Coal Shoveler on a spaceship.