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 Post subject: Embassy Ship
PostPosted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 12:27 am 
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[As far as I remember, a very similar idea has already been discussed some
time ago, but I did not find that thread.
]

In my setting the humans inhabit the roughly spherical realm of the Core Worlds
as well as many "Island Regions" connected to the Core Worlds by natural and
artificial wormholes, some of those "Islands" as far as 2,800 parsec from Sol.
The entire settled space is governed by the Terran Federation, which rules the
Core Worlds directly and establishes Colonial District Authorities for the remote
Islands.

The task of these Colonial District Authorities is to protect the remote colonies,
to enforce the few interstellar laws of the Terran Federation, and to connect the
Islands colonies with the Core planets.
One of the means used by the Colonial District Authorities to connect Islands and
Core are the CDA Embassy Ships, which visit the remote colonies as often as pos-
sible to bring news and databases about the Core's and the other Islands' politics,
economy, technology and culture and to collect similar data on the planets they
visit.

Using Mongoose Traveller rules for the design of such an Embassy Ship, I think it
should have a couple of powerful computers with high storage capacity, library /
media rooms, scientific laboratories and technical workshops to transmit and
teach knowledge on the planets it visits.

What else do you think such a ship should have ?

Thank You. :)


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 Post subject: Re: Embassy Ship
PostPosted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:41 am 
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I dunno, the only thing I remember dealing with embassy ships was a long time ago, in a forum far, far away ... and that was to do with Hivers. If you have any of the CT Hiver books, you might want to have a look at information on their embassy ships. Not quite the same thing, but a lot of their mission probably overlaps - i.e. spying on people and generally getting up to no good.

An embassy ship in my idea of the human future would definitely have a lot of secrets - overpowered sensors, concealed weaponry, hidden compartments, secret rooms with assassination squads ... :twisted:

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 Post subject: Re: Embassy Ship
PostPosted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 6:16 am 
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First, I think it depends on how benign your Terran Federation is. It sounds relatively benign and more like a loose federation devoted to keeping the human "community" in touch with each other and not the typical "tyrannical Earth over the colonies."

In that case, I think an embassy ship would be quite large - but not necessarily for the reasons of gathering data. I would imagine "in the future" that computer technology would be quite advanced so all the data storage you'd want probably wouldn't take enormous amounts of room. I am not doubting the power of those computers - they probably would be quite powerful.

Instead, I envision an embassy ship more like a mobile World's Fair. The ship would be large because it would have envoys from various other human worlds, large corporations, and so on. Each would have samples of their wares and so on. I would imagine that contacts between worlds isn't totally common as you'd require an embassy ship so they'd want to cram as much as they could into the ship, especially if this is the only real contact a world might have with the rest of the Federation and it only comes around once a year (or even less).

The ship would come into orbit, and perhaps over the course of a few weeks, the politicos would meet with other politicos, yet at the same time, more importantly, hundreds (perhaps thousands) of other people aboard the ship would shuttle down to the surface. Electronic format things (like vid shows and so on) would be transmitted to interested local parties so they could keep up news and trends in the Core worlds and the rest of the human sphere. These might be businesses and governments from other parts in the Human Sphere looking for local products for sale and resources that could be developed and so forth. At the same time, you'd have reps from CoreTech or something showing the locals new models of cars or earthmoving machinery or whatever (bringing complete working samples for the locals to try out), agri-companies showing off new methods of cultivation or new cultivars in greenhouse modules, colony worlds trying to promote their own industries showing off Garudan Bat-Wool sweaters and so on.

The ship would of course have very nice ballrooms, spas, excellent cooks, and so on to show off the culture and arts of the rest of the human sphere to local politicos. It'd also contain things like the highest Core TL medical technologies and so on - a world raffle of like 500 children from the world might be taken up to be treated of diseases or conditions otherwise incurable on their own worlds, for free. This would be a tremendous PR coup. Perhaps a few of the best and brightest university students would also compete to be taken with the ship to attend prestigious universities in the Core and so on.

The entire point behind the ship would be make each world feel like it's a part of something greater, that it is valued simply because humans live there and that their fellow humans are interested and concerned as to what goes on with them. That they are not being abandoned - that they're a part of a community that has benefits for them.

Of course, as Vile suggests, the ship might also carry its share of spies - legal and quasi-legal to gather information - to ensure worlds aren't doing things contrary to the interests of the human sphere. In a benign Terran Federation, this might be just to ensure the local government hasn't become repressive - that norms of democracy or human rights are being respected, that corporations aren't exploiting and don't hold a world hostage, and so on. A more evil Terran Federation might be making sure dissident elements are under control, the worlds aren't dealing with hostile aliens, or whatever. If worse comes to worse, I'm sure such a ship would have an escort of Naval vessels and the vessel itself would have a Marine honor guard.


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 Post subject: Re: Embassy Ship
PostPosted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 11:09 am 
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Thank you very much for the ideas. :D

I will take a look at the Hiver embassy ships, and I like the idea of a "mobile
Federation Fair" very much.

Edit.:
Meanwhile I have used Mongoose Traveller and GURPS Traveller to begin the
design of the Embassy Ship.

Since 2,000 dtons are about the upper limit of a ship's size in my setting, the
ship will have a 2,000 dton streamlined and self repairing hull.
The FTL drive will be a hyperdrive, the ship will carry reactor fuel for 6 months.
The bridge will be equipped with a computer model Core/3, Survey Sensors and
the best electronics available.
Since a ship of this size will not be able to land at many of the frontier colonies,
it will carry two shuttles for transfers between orbit and planetary surface.
The ship will be unarmed, but will be accompanied by a CDA Patrol Cruiser (an
800 dton ship with a Marines unit).

The Embassy Section of the ship could look like this:

Offices (10) - 40 dtons
Halls, Restaurants, etc.(5) - 50 dtons
Holoventure Zone (2) - 60 dtons
Theater (1) - 40 dtons
Sickbay (20 beds) - 10 dtons
Operating Theatre (2) - 2 dtons
Complete Workshop (2) - 5 dtons
Media Center (2) - 8 dtons
Laboratories (5) - 20 dtons
Guest Quarters (50) - 200 dtons
Exhibition Space - 135 dtons

Total: 570 dtons

The 2 Holoventure Zones are a way to create additional "virtual space" for
demonstrations, exhibits and thelike (and the latest tridee movies, of cour-
se ...): Instead of carrying the material stuff, the ship's databases carry
holograms of them, turning the Holoventure Zones into a kind of almost in-
finite exhibition.


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 Post subject: Re: Embassy Ship
PostPosted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:31 pm 
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Looks good so far. One thing to keep in mind is the level of luxury that will be provided. These are basically mobile embassies if I understand correctly, and you know what they are like from James Bond and those Ferrero Rocher ads. So, I would ad 50% to the guest quarter tonnage - there will be a lot of suites in there. Presumably the shuttles would be first-class-only, too. That's quite a big sick bay - one of the ship's functions could be to perform medical procedures which colonies couldn't handle, and a very plum posting for a top surgeon.

Would you consider adding some lasers as point defence weapons? I'm not sure how necessary they would really be, having no concept of how much junk is floating about out there. But from people's posts on the Mongoose forums they seem pretty tame, so probably wouldn't be seen as overly aggressive.

Good point about the "trade fair" element, epicenter. IIRC the original meaning of an embassy was a diplomatic mission carrying gifts and expecting to negotiate favours, basically a speculative trade caravan sent from one national leader to another.

Hmm, I think you have the makings of a whole new chapter of your setting here, rust. :)

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 Post subject: Re: Embassy Ship
PostPosted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:34 pm 
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I would give the ship SOME weapons. In a farflung civilization there are going to be pirates around and those Embassy ships would be ripe targets for pirates or militant governments. The Escort can't be there all the time.

Not anything military, but maybe a few Pop-Up Barbette PAWs and some turrets with Sandcasters and Pulse Lasers "For Defense". Of course the shuttles will be armed...

I would dedicate some tonnage to Luxuries like Vile suggested.

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 Post subject: Re: Embassy Ship
PostPosted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:43 pm 
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Thank you very much. :D

Luxuries are a good idea, and I have enough cargo space to use some
of it for a more luxurious environment for the delegations on board of
the Embassy Ship.

As for weapons, I am not sure whether a basically diplomatic craft really
should be armed, or whether the presence of an escort would be suffi-
cient to deter any trouble.
It seems I will have to think a bit more about the general "militancy" of
the setting (e.g. whether pirates or rogue governments exist, and what
their ships and armaments could be like) before I make a decision.
If the Embassy Ship is armed, it will be hidden weapons, pop up turrets
and thelike, to make it at least look unarmed, I think.

Edit.:
Added 80 dtons of Luxuries and 10 Triple Pop Up Turrets, this still leaves
350 dtons of Cargo Hold, and since the Terran Federation gets the bill ...


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 Post subject: Re: Embassy Ship
PostPosted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 4:25 pm 
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I like this idea a lot. With your permission I will use it in my setting. Embassy ships will fit in very well. The setting I am presently GMing sound similar to yours. A 3d space, hyperdrives, and distant system groupings with wormhole connections.

Many of the groups however do not get along well so the ships will definitely be armed.

Dave


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 Post subject: Re: Embassy Ship
PostPosted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 4:32 pm 
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Don't forget conference and meeting rooms.

A mixing lounge for the various guest to wait for their appointments in which could also double as nice dining area (assuming tables and chairs replacing the couches and easy chairs.)

Sending you an email too. :)

Dave Chase

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 Post subject: Re: Embassy Ship
PostPosted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 5:07 pm 
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Agatsu77 wrote:
With your permission I will use it in my setting.

Yes, of course. ;)


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