Quote:The con was stuck for a venue. We'd hit the fire limit the previous year on our old place, and six months before the con was supposed to be being held, we were still looking for a new one. It seemed as though the con was going to have to be put back for a few months until we found somewhere. That was when someone noticed that, strapped for cash, the Government was decommissioning and selling off the L.E. Ciara.

"Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we bought that and launched that into Space like the Yamato?"

Like Space coastal patrol vessel Athacon or something? It was a good joke... a one shot laugh to be quickly forgotten about... but the idea lingered far longer than it had any right to... long after we finally agreed to put the con back to the next February.

As far as Waving stuff was concerned, this country was a bit of a backwater. I knew a guy who'd managed to build himself a rather nice Motorslave out of an old BMW bike, among other things he was a bit too big to fit in, but the average project didn't get much more advanced. A small few had Aimed for the Top of their own accord, usually hitching a ride with someone leaving from the UK or the States. Someone in Derry turned a Humber Pig into a flying Pig, and got arrested for their trouble. While in the UK, even Top Gear got special permission to launch a Reliant Robin like a Space Shuttle. It seemed however, that space was one place the Irish Diaspora didn't seem to want to go.

That changed when the Dragonslayers built the Q-ship... out of an old twin-engined DeHavilland...then went for orbit. We had to beat them. The thing is, old planes came in two varieties, either pretty expensive, and pretty much toasted. But an old ship? That was the moment someone remembered the Athacruise joke. We decided... we would go to space. On a space ship.

A month later, on the con website it was announced; The con that year was canceled. Not announced was that we'd bought the ship, nor what we intended to do with it. We scrounged for cash, pillaging our own savings, university funding for foreign society trips, and some cash from a disgraced banker who just wanted to get off the planet before his creditors and the law could catch up. He couldn't leave the country, he couldn't make it on his own, so he turned to us. Money was money, and we were going to need a lot of it to get this thing going..

She took about six months to refit. We rebuilt her diesel engines using Space Battleship Yamato-fed handwavium, throwing in a little bit of Arcadia and Nadia for good measure. We were moving an actual ocean-going ship after all. That was the easy bit, we got some nice big thrusters out the stern for our troubles and had the engines running reasonably after about two months. The hard part was everything else.....we tried to leave the handwavium in the engine room only.

While she still had her guns physically present thanks to a clerical error... most of her electronic suites and all her ammunition had been removed. We thought about just Waving the lot... but the can of stuff we'd started with came with explicit warnings not to use it on weapons... so we rebuilt everything from the Radar down using hardtech only. Just about every electronic and electric system is made from traditional off-the-shelf or out-of-the-skip parts. Hatches were replaced with crude airlocks, her watertight compartments were made airtight and a basic 'Waved life support system was fitted and isolated from just about everything else so nothing could screw with it, or vice-versa. The internet said life-critical things just didn't fail... but who believes the internet? Besides, the last thing we wanted when we got up there was for the Radar to glitch out and for us to leave a boat-shaped hole in somebody's space-station because we didn't see it. That'd be a wonderful way to make a first impression.

Originally we weren't going to bother, but after a journalist who'd lifted an Alaskan crabber suggested we do it, we Waved her hull. We mixed some of the stuff in with a fresh coat of paint. Made her look all nice and shiny and professional...Ship-shape in Naval fashion inside and out. We didn't dare change her name... that was bad luck after all. We even cleaned up the Roadrunner art on her funnel. It was about this time that we started to notice the first of her little oddities... how the ship always seemed to be perfectly clean, or the weird things the Irish flag did when someone took it down... and the Road Runner foghorn that attracted any dogs within a ten-mile radius.

The last thing we did was to Wave her two Jaguar boats, giving them a sort of miniature form of the same kind of engine... and the personalities of little kittens.

On October 16th, 2010, we took off on our first shakedown cruise. We sailed out into the Atlantic, far enough out that nobody could watch us, and really put her to the test. We took off, took her slowly up to about airliner altitude.... just to make sure that we we could hold an atmosphere well enough that our heads wouldn't explode in space. Aside from a few leaking seals around the windows and doors, we found nothing seriously wrong. The engines ran sweetly, she handled slow but with gracefully.

We 'landed' the boat... startling some Spanish fishermen, before sailing back under conventional power to an inlet near a small town I knew. No lynch mob to greet us, no army chopper thumping overhead... just a pub I liked and had insisted we visit. Naturally, we celebrated like drunken loons far longer than the bar's owners would've liked.

A few weeks later, fully stocked up with provisions and fuel, we launched for real.

We didn't know where it would take us.

-Con Director/Captain Garret

__________

Quote:Name: SS Ciara.

Type : (Former)Costal Patrol Vessel

Commissioned: 03/05/1985
Decommissioned: 02/04/2010
Converted: mid-2010
Re-Launched: 16/10/2010
Launch to orbit: 04/11/2010

Ownership: Athacon Committee/UDC MAS/Mr K.
Faction: None yet but themselves.
Flag of Record: Republic of Ireland, Earth.
Registration: P-42
Purpose: "Get up to space"

Maximum Complement: 22
Length (meters) 62.6
Beam (meters)10
Draught (meters) 2.9
Displacement: 712 Tonnes

Engines: 2 x Crossley 14400 hp SEMT - Pielstick Diesels driving main Wave Motion drive thrusters.
Cruising speed(water: 17 Knots
Cruising speed (Space) 0.06C
Top Speed (water): 25 Knots, 30 Knots dash speed.
Top Speed (Space): .10.C :: 0.125C (Dash speed for up to about 2 hours. Burns fuel ten times faster, may run out)
Range: 6-7AU can be achieved reliably with an acceptable margin of error.
(Enough to get to Mars and back reliably, and to parts of the main belt depending on relative positions of the planets.)
Fuel: 30,000 Litres Marine Diesel.

Comm's (Pre OGJ).
e-mail: Captain@roadrunner.fen.
charter@roadrunner.fen for commercial traffic.
Maritime VHF and EU Civil Band
PMR-446 for Intra-ship.

Crew:
Bridge
Captain: Sam Garret. Con-director for Athakon. Degree in European Business. Fan of Space Battleship Yamato, Galactica and lately, Durarara. Came up because he loved Starblazers.
XO: Anne 'CutieKitty' Devlin. Chairperson of the Manga society. Degree in Media Technology. Fan of Azumanga Daioh, Firefly and.... Came up to get away from the doom and gloom 'recession'.
Chief Mate: Susan Mullholland. Manga society and Athacon treasurer. Partway through a degree in European Business. Also ship's effective cook. Sailor moon fan. Wants to be a Senshi.
Pilot: Sam Crean. Manga Society member. 3rd year Digital Communications degree. Macross fan. Always wanted to be a space pilot.
Comms/Navigation: Megan Fitzpatrick: Fianceé of Sam Garret. Final year International business. Not an animé fan, but partial to....

Engineering
Chief Engineer: Seán McKenna. Manga society member. Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Star Trek fan, with added Gundam and Outlaw Star. Came up to be Scotty.
Second Engineer: Orla Tubridy. Athacon PRO. Degree in Electronic Engineering. Nadesico fan... Came up because of the economy... to try something new.
Computer Engineer: Micheal 'Sed' Donnelly. Athacon Trade Liason. Linux Nerd, loves Lain and Ritsuko Akagi. Curious about 'waved computers, but doesn't dare trust his life to one.
Engineering Technician: Peadar Farrel. 2nd year Medical Mechanical Engineering. Loves Star Trek, Babylon 5... just about anything. Not an animé fan.
Engineering Technician: Tom 'Touji' Carrol. Manga Society First Year Liason. 1st Year Manufacturing Process Engineering. Rabid Evangelion fan... or rabid Rei fan.

Finance:
CFO: Patrick C. Kearney. Former CEO of National Allied Bank. Under investigation for fraud. Financed launch, and joined crew to escape national jurisdiction, at the suggestion of a mysterious phonecall.

Deck department:
4 Crew to be added.

Senshi squad: (OGJ: From 2012 onward
6 Senshi TBA. Japanese name meaning 'Red Shirt'?

Future Crew:
"Aisha"... Catgirl Victim rescued from Boskonians. Shows a talent for mechanics. Takes over as Second Engineer. From 2013 onwards.
"Misha"...Catgirl Victim rescued from Boskonians. Stays aboard with companion Aisha as a Junior deckhand. From 2013 onwards.
Paul 'Savage Eye' Platowski... Boskonian defector. From 2013 onwards.
Milly Jackson. American computer science student and fan of Asimov. Computer technician From 2013 onwards.
Micheal Perry. Australian fan of Battlestar Galactica. Chief Mate from 2013 onwards.

...more to be added.

Shuttlecraft:
2x "Jaguar" Rigid hulled Inflated Boats, named Luna and Artemis.

Quirks:

In the Navy now: As a (former) Naval vessel, the Ciara holds herself and her crew to a higher standard, expecting a little professionalism from those aboard her. The ship will generally keep herself clean and tidy, cleaning up rust, paintwork, dust and spills on her own. However, she will only do this so long as the crew meet her standards. This requires a functioning chain of command including a Captain, XO, Chief Engineer and a Chief Mate aswell as some form of uniform for the crew. Clean con staff t-shirts with some form of rank isnignia seem to suffice. Passengers are exempt.

The National Colour: The ship will always fly the Irish Tricolour from her mast. If it is taken down, a new one will take its place. If another flag is placed on a higher part of the ship than it, the Tricolour will move to a higher position.

Dinosaur burner: Her engines will only run reliably on diesel oil from Earth. It can be shipped anywhere in space, but it has to come from Earth. Coupled with high fuel consumption if she wants to do anything fast, this limits her range a great deal and ties her either to Earth, or a station where her crew can store fuel.

‘Defense' Forces: The Irish military are a defensive force only. In her previous life, the Ciara's purpose was to patrol costal waters intercepting drug runners, smugglers along with search and rescue duties. The ship 'dislikes' taking offensive actions... systems may malfunction or operate at a noticeably reduced efficiency if she's used in an offensive manner. (e.g. attacking an enemy base/ship without provocation)

Space is an Ocean: Even in space, the ship still behaves like she is floating on an ocean with a light swell. Not uncomfortable, but noticeable. May aggrevate seasickness in some passengers, but the crew are used to it. Also produces a drag on the hull that increases with speed, similar to water, requiring her engines to be run constantly.

Roadrunner: Her foghorn will always make a loud 'Meep-Meep', which will attract nearby dogs and especially Coyotes.

Schroedingers bugs: A phenomenon first noticed in computers at least as far back as the 70's. The ship's computers and electronics work... so long as nobody notices that they aren't supposed to work. It doesn't matter how this realisation is made, once it happens the program involved immediately crashes and refuses to work correctly until the problem is fixed. Thank God for Open Source.

---------------

The Jaguars

A pair of small Rigid-hulled Inflatable Boats carried aboard the Ciara named Luna and Artemis, their engines have been waved and modified in a similar manner to their mothership. Fast and maneouverable, on the surface they were often used to chase drug smugglers at high speed. They lack an enclosed cabin or life support system, but are light, fast and can turn and stop on a penny while carrying ten passengers and one pilot. Each Jaguar is more than capable of keeping up with the mothership. A higher 'Wavium content per kilo compared with the mothership has caused the Jaguars to start behaving like little kittens seeing Ciara as their mother cat.

Quirks

Mommy!: With a mindset like a young kitten, they don't like being seperated from their mother. If the pilot doesn't pay enough attention they try to wander back. If kept away for too long they start to sulk and get depressive. This has the slight benefit that if the crew aboard are incapacitated, Luna and Artemis will naturally find their way home.

Shiny!: Like above... if the pilot doesn't pay enough attention, they will wander towards any nearby lightsource.

Mouse!: Anything else small and fast *will* be chased down, unless the pilot grabs a hold.

Catnip!: When given catnip... usually via the fuel tanks, the Jaguars are noticeably 'happier' in a way nobody can quite explain.

Still not weaned: The kittens are still nursing from their mother. They can only be refueled using diesel oil from the Ciara's onboard stores. Anything else will be refused messily and violently.

---------------

Quote:So, is there hope?

Dartz Wrote:I've never actually done a collaborative writing project before... how do these normally work. Do we each write our halves of the conversation and actions, or is it one and approve?

Quote:They'll probably end up swinging by Stellvia anyway, to pick up their first passengers, trade food and supplies, and maybe find someone who might be able to fill their diesel tanks in orbit.

Quote:I'll end it when they dock, and get met with a biomod at the airlock.

Quote:Unless anyone has any other idea of how Haruhi got to orbit, or it's a secret of fenspace not told to newcomers. I'd like to have a bit of a brick-joke with that.

Quote:Stellvia, well... somebody shows up armed in orbit, they take an interest and see just who they are.

Quote:And I thought I'd have some fun with the Athacrew's newbieness and Kelly.

robkelk Wrote:Edit: Oh, yes... this doesn't need to go into the story, but should be noted for background.

Fen are open about sharing navigational data - for many people, the only thing worse than being marooned in space because you thought your destination was closer than it actually is and your fuel ran out, is to be responsible for somebody else being marooned because they thought their destination was closer than it actually was and their fuel ran out. Charts are electronic and available for free at all major ports of call, including Kandor City, Stellvia, The Island, and Port Phobos. You'll be asked which celestial-simulation software your navigation computer uses; if you don't have such software, freeware will be provided. (If you don't have a computer at all, an old PalmPilot with navigation software pre-installed will be given to you courtesy of Stellvia Trading, while supplies last.) Along with the software, you'll also be given a recommendation to update the software quarterly at minimum; new stations and settlements are founded relatively often.

Quote:Updates are also ferried to outlying settlements and ports of call by the various shipping services such as Jupiter Mining Corporation

JFerio Wrote:Never, EVER underestimate the bandwidth of a 'waved station wagon filled with thumbdrives.