Ship Name: SV Grover's Corners, aka "Our Town"
That's no space station... that's a moon!
-- A seriously impressed Warsie
Created by Bob Schroeck
Registry Number: GEO-25429
Base Hull: 250 acres of prime West Virginia countryside (circular "divot" about 3700
feet in diameter) contained in a geodesic sphere made of handwavium-enhanced silicates.
Drive Type: "Spindizzy" (Speed, unique variant, rated for 0.01c -- but see Known
Vehicle Quirks)
Owner of Record: The Warriors Group, Ltd.
Flag of Record: N/A, but nominally USA
Purpose: Location-non-specific colonization. Slow, ultra-heavy cargo on occasion. Limited
agriculture.
Launched: April 20, 2012.
Description: The Flying Island's big sister, made from a chunk of rural West Virginia. Seven
frame houses, one concrete blockhouse/bridge/command center, several barn/warehouses and 100 acres of farm/pasture surrounded by about 150 acres of mixed
cedar/deciduous forest and meadows, all enclosed by a transparent geodesic sphere made of handwavium-enhanced silicates. (Ground level is the sphere's
equator, and the upper half is variably transparent.) There are two airlock "garages", one each on the "east" and "west" sides of
the sphere, where the crew is finishing up the conversion of various vehicles into spacecraft. A third such airlock is to the "south" but is empty;
it's intended for visitors and cargo handling.
Crew: (Crew with no last names are those I haven't asked permission from yet)
* Bob Schroeck
* Peggy Schroeck
* Joe Avins
* Kat Avins
* Scott Pinkham
* Heather
* Grace
* Attila Imre
* Helen Imre
* John Freiler
* Alison Mee
* Rachel Zane
* Jim Viel
* Nancy Ott
* David Viel
* Ed Viel
Supplementary Crew:
(Note: Listed ages assume story year is 2012.)
* Luna (4, daughter of Bob and Peggy)
* Nina (12, daughter of Kathleen and Joe)
* Ruth (16, daughter of Heather)
* Carl (14, son of John and Alison)
* Max (12, son of John and Alison)
* Emily and Sarah (14, twin daughters of Rachel)
* Tom (17, son of Jim and Nancy)
* Chris (14, son of Jim and Nancy)
* Mr. Mayor (Primary Coordinator AI, looks like a stereotypcial mayor of a middle American town circa 1915)
* Officer Friendly (Security AI, 1950s-style cop-on-the-beat)
* Geordi (Engineering AI. Looks like the Trek character, which makes Trekkies squee.)
* Gaia (Environmental AI. "Mother Nature" figure.)
* Assorted cats and dogs
* Several horses and ponies
* Various wild animals
Known Vehicle Quirks:
* You will be assimilated, Mr. Bluejay: Handwavium is believed to have infiltrated all the non-human
life within the ship, whose combined and networked mental power produce Gaia. Gaia in turn can use any animal in the ship as a remote sensor (but not a drone).
* It's so lovely this time of year: Goes through an annual seasonal cycle, although the
variation in temperature is not extreme; "winter" is never below 40 degrees F and "summer" rarely above 75.
* Never needs watering: There is no simulation of precipitation beyond fogs and dews that manifest
out of internal humidity; a rather organically-grown network of handwavium irrigation pipes and lines supplies water to plants across the entire ship.
* Partly cloudy, with a chance of asteroids: Beyond these limitations, the ship does manage to have
some actual, if limited, weather conditions. The dome dynamically varies in clarity and color in such a way as to simulate various levels of cloud cover, and
breezes ranging from gentle to brisk blow on occasion (though without obvious sources). Relative humidity also varies between 30 and 90%.
* Healthy body, healthy ship: The main drive output is noticeably improved by 10 to 20% when the
children are active in the "yard"; the improvement persists for up to six hours afterwards, depending on how long and how energetically they play.
And if the children are off the ship for more than a day, it loses up to 50% of its rated speed.
Known Crew Quirks:
* We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune...: There is no fixed command structure on the ship.
Whoever has bridge duty is the command crew for that shift, with "captain" and other ranks determined arbitrarily (or randomly) at shift start. The
unpredictable changes in the officers frequently confuse 'Danes and more militarily-inclined Fen.
* Picks up strays: With the size and resources of the Grover's
Corners, there's always room for a couple hitchhikers -- or even a couple hundred
if they bring their own food and bedrolls. The crew is especially sympathetic to fenkinder, particularly those who left parents behind
on earth. As the Grover's Corners has only recently gotten into space, this hasn't been seen
much yet, but it will become a point of reputation for the ship and its crew in the future.
* So motie it be: Approximately half of the adult crew are active, practicing Wiccans who seem to
have unusual success at convincing handwavium to do specific things when they act in concert. This fact is not yet known to Fenspace at large.
Faction: Non-aligned, but friendly to all. There are too many fandoms represented among the crew
for any one to dominate.
Home Port: In the words of one crew member, "We are
a home port."
Current Location: Quasi-periodic Lissajous orbit around the Earth-Moon L3 point while the crew
recovers from and gets used to having gotten off Earth.
Status: Active
Trivia:
* A small fleet of support craft is planned, but as of this time only four are spaceworthy -- the Salvage I, the Saturns 0 and 1, and the Benten.
* The crew have about a dozen "pre-owned" electric golf carts (waved, of course) which they use to get around from place to place inside the ship.
* The ship has an artificial "sun" that traverses the dome on a track, but it hasn't been used yet; it's intended for extended stays in the
outer system and beyond.
* First known Fencraft with its own ecosystem.
* Largest known solid object to leave Earth under its own power.
* Designed by a science fiction author, two engineers and a witch, who were inspired by The Island and wanted to do the same kind of thing, only bigger.
* It took two nervewracking years -- after the US ban on handwavium -- to grow the geodesic, after
which it took an additional month to treat all the buildings and systems and generate the drive.
* Launched at midnight on the last new moon before the story start date.
* The Grover's Corners' launch set off military radars for hundreds of miles in every
direction.
* The launch was directly responsible for the latest wave of US paranoia about handwavium, and the current increase in tensions between the US and Fenspace.
* The adults were especially vilified by the US government for "recklessly exposing" children to handwavium and taking them out of US jurisdiction.
* The crew intends to "export" freshly-grown vegetables and microbrewed beer, mead and wine once they've settled in. (There are no less than four
hobbyist brewers in the crew.)
* One of the barns currently holds sufficient building materials and tools to erect at least two more houses, should the need arise.
Support Fleet:
SS Salvage I
Creator: Bob Schroeck
Base Hull: Cement-mixer crew capsule atop tanker-truck body
Drive Type: Speed (.08c)
Owner of Record: The Warriors Group, Ltd.
Main Use: Shuttle, cargo
Known Crew: Bob Schroeck, Peggy Schroeck
Known Vehicle Quirks: Requires the presence of at least one gallon of genuine hydrazine fuel
somewhere onboard or its drive will not function. Given how explosive hydrazine is, this is can be nervewracking for the crew. Navigational computer (non-AI)
speaks with the voice of Andy Griffith.
SC Saturn 0
Creator: Bob Schroeck
Base Hull: 2002 Saturn SL1
Drive Type: Speed (.1c)
Owner of Record: Bob Schroeck
Main Use: Personal shuttle
Known Crew: Bob Schroeck, Peggy Schroeck
Known Vehicle Quirks: All the Saturns in the GC fleet emit a jet of flame worthy of their namesake
rocket predecessor from their rear when in flight. This flame obeys the Law of Slapstick; at worst it will cover with soot anything that comes in contact with
it. Radio/CD player self-selects with eerie appropriateness and cannot be turned off, although the volume can
be adjusted.
SC Benten
Creator: Bob Schroeck
Base Hull: 2003 Hyundai Elantra
Drive Type: Speed (.1c)
Owner of Record: Helen Imre
Main Use: Personal shuttle
Known Crew: Helen Imre, Attila Imre
Known Vehicle Quirks: (not yet determined)
SC Saturn 1
Creator: Bob Schroeck
Base Hull: 2001 Saturn SL1
Drive Type: Speed (.1c)
Owner of Record: Alison Mee
Main Use: Personal shuttle
Known Crew: Alison Mee, John Freiler
Known Vehicle Quirks: All the Saturns in the GC fleet emit a jet of flame worthy of their namesake
rocket predecessor from their rear when in flight. This flame obeys the Law of Slapstick; at worst it will cover with soot anything that comes in contact with
it. Loses 10% of rated speed when operated out of sight of the moon.
(There are several more support vehicles, which will be added as I write them up.)
(3/15/07 Edit: Peggy reminded me last night that I had invited her brother Jim's family into the crew at Christmas, but had forgotten to include them all
this time. Peggy's also arguing with me about the need to have real rain on the ship. )
-- Bob
---------
...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
That's no space station... that's a moon!
-- A seriously impressed Warsie
Created by Bob Schroeck
Registry Number: GEO-25429
Base Hull: 250 acres of prime West Virginia countryside (circular "divot" about 3700
feet in diameter) contained in a geodesic sphere made of handwavium-enhanced silicates.
Drive Type: "Spindizzy" (Speed, unique variant, rated for 0.01c -- but see Known
Vehicle Quirks)
Owner of Record: The Warriors Group, Ltd.
Flag of Record: N/A, but nominally USA
Purpose: Location-non-specific colonization. Slow, ultra-heavy cargo on occasion. Limited
agriculture.
Launched: April 20, 2012.
Description: The Flying Island's big sister, made from a chunk of rural West Virginia. Seven
frame houses, one concrete blockhouse/bridge/command center, several barn/warehouses and 100 acres of farm/pasture surrounded by about 150 acres of mixed
cedar/deciduous forest and meadows, all enclosed by a transparent geodesic sphere made of handwavium-enhanced silicates. (Ground level is the sphere's
equator, and the upper half is variably transparent.) There are two airlock "garages", one each on the "east" and "west" sides of
the sphere, where the crew is finishing up the conversion of various vehicles into spacecraft. A third such airlock is to the "south" but is empty;
it's intended for visitors and cargo handling.
Crew: (Crew with no last names are those I haven't asked permission from yet)
* Bob Schroeck
* Peggy Schroeck
* Joe Avins
* Kat Avins
* Scott Pinkham
* Heather
* Grace
* Attila Imre
* Helen Imre
* John Freiler
* Alison Mee
* Rachel Zane
* Jim Viel
* Nancy Ott
* David Viel
* Ed Viel
Supplementary Crew:
(Note: Listed ages assume story year is 2012.)
* Luna (4, daughter of Bob and Peggy)
* Nina (12, daughter of Kathleen and Joe)
* Ruth (16, daughter of Heather)
* Carl (14, son of John and Alison)
* Max (12, son of John and Alison)
* Emily and Sarah (14, twin daughters of Rachel)
* Tom (17, son of Jim and Nancy)
* Chris (14, son of Jim and Nancy)
* Mr. Mayor (Primary Coordinator AI, looks like a stereotypcial mayor of a middle American town circa 1915)
* Officer Friendly (Security AI, 1950s-style cop-on-the-beat)
* Geordi (Engineering AI. Looks like the Trek character, which makes Trekkies squee.)
* Gaia (Environmental AI. "Mother Nature" figure.)
* Assorted cats and dogs
* Several horses and ponies
* Various wild animals
Known Vehicle Quirks:
* You will be assimilated, Mr. Bluejay: Handwavium is believed to have infiltrated all the non-human
life within the ship, whose combined and networked mental power produce Gaia. Gaia in turn can use any animal in the ship as a remote sensor (but not a drone).
* It's so lovely this time of year: Goes through an annual seasonal cycle, although the
variation in temperature is not extreme; "winter" is never below 40 degrees F and "summer" rarely above 75.
* Never needs watering: There is no simulation of precipitation beyond fogs and dews that manifest
out of internal humidity; a rather organically-grown network of handwavium irrigation pipes and lines supplies water to plants across the entire ship.
* Partly cloudy, with a chance of asteroids: Beyond these limitations, the ship does manage to have
some actual, if limited, weather conditions. The dome dynamically varies in clarity and color in such a way as to simulate various levels of cloud cover, and
breezes ranging from gentle to brisk blow on occasion (though without obvious sources). Relative humidity also varies between 30 and 90%.
* Healthy body, healthy ship: The main drive output is noticeably improved by 10 to 20% when the
children are active in the "yard"; the improvement persists for up to six hours afterwards, depending on how long and how energetically they play.
And if the children are off the ship for more than a day, it loses up to 50% of its rated speed.
Known Crew Quirks:
* We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune...: There is no fixed command structure on the ship.
Whoever has bridge duty is the command crew for that shift, with "captain" and other ranks determined arbitrarily (or randomly) at shift start. The
unpredictable changes in the officers frequently confuse 'Danes and more militarily-inclined Fen.
* Picks up strays: With the size and resources of the Grover's
Corners, there's always room for a couple hitchhikers -- or even a couple hundred
if they bring their own food and bedrolls. The crew is especially sympathetic to fenkinder, particularly those who left parents behind
on earth. As the Grover's Corners has only recently gotten into space, this hasn't been seen
much yet, but it will become a point of reputation for the ship and its crew in the future.
* So motie it be: Approximately half of the adult crew are active, practicing Wiccans who seem to
have unusual success at convincing handwavium to do specific things when they act in concert. This fact is not yet known to Fenspace at large.
Faction: Non-aligned, but friendly to all. There are too many fandoms represented among the crew
for any one to dominate.
Home Port: In the words of one crew member, "We are
a home port."
Current Location: Quasi-periodic Lissajous orbit around the Earth-Moon L3 point while the crew
recovers from and gets used to having gotten off Earth.
Status: Active
Trivia:
* A small fleet of support craft is planned, but as of this time only four are spaceworthy -- the Salvage I, the Saturns 0 and 1, and the Benten.
* The crew have about a dozen "pre-owned" electric golf carts (waved, of course) which they use to get around from place to place inside the ship.
* The ship has an artificial "sun" that traverses the dome on a track, but it hasn't been used yet; it's intended for extended stays in the
outer system and beyond.
* First known Fencraft with its own ecosystem.
* Largest known solid object to leave Earth under its own power.
* Designed by a science fiction author, two engineers and a witch, who were inspired by The Island and wanted to do the same kind of thing, only bigger.
* It took two nervewracking years -- after the US ban on handwavium -- to grow the geodesic, after
which it took an additional month to treat all the buildings and systems and generate the drive.
* Launched at midnight on the last new moon before the story start date.
* The Grover's Corners' launch set off military radars for hundreds of miles in every
direction.
* The launch was directly responsible for the latest wave of US paranoia about handwavium, and the current increase in tensions between the US and Fenspace.
* The adults were especially vilified by the US government for "recklessly exposing" children to handwavium and taking them out of US jurisdiction.
* The crew intends to "export" freshly-grown vegetables and microbrewed beer, mead and wine once they've settled in. (There are no less than four
hobbyist brewers in the crew.)
* One of the barns currently holds sufficient building materials and tools to erect at least two more houses, should the need arise.
Support Fleet:
SS Salvage I
Creator: Bob Schroeck
Base Hull: Cement-mixer crew capsule atop tanker-truck body
Drive Type: Speed (.08c)
Owner of Record: The Warriors Group, Ltd.
Main Use: Shuttle, cargo
Known Crew: Bob Schroeck, Peggy Schroeck
Known Vehicle Quirks: Requires the presence of at least one gallon of genuine hydrazine fuel
somewhere onboard or its drive will not function. Given how explosive hydrazine is, this is can be nervewracking for the crew. Navigational computer (non-AI)
speaks with the voice of Andy Griffith.
SC Saturn 0
Creator: Bob Schroeck
Base Hull: 2002 Saturn SL1
Drive Type: Speed (.1c)
Owner of Record: Bob Schroeck
Main Use: Personal shuttle
Known Crew: Bob Schroeck, Peggy Schroeck
Known Vehicle Quirks: All the Saturns in the GC fleet emit a jet of flame worthy of their namesake
rocket predecessor from their rear when in flight. This flame obeys the Law of Slapstick; at worst it will cover with soot anything that comes in contact with
it. Radio/CD player self-selects with eerie appropriateness and cannot be turned off, although the volume can
be adjusted.
SC Benten
Creator: Bob Schroeck
Base Hull: 2003 Hyundai Elantra
Drive Type: Speed (.1c)
Owner of Record: Helen Imre
Main Use: Personal shuttle
Known Crew: Helen Imre, Attila Imre
Known Vehicle Quirks: (not yet determined)
SC Saturn 1
Creator: Bob Schroeck
Base Hull: 2001 Saturn SL1
Drive Type: Speed (.1c)
Owner of Record: Alison Mee
Main Use: Personal shuttle
Known Crew: Alison Mee, John Freiler
Known Vehicle Quirks: All the Saturns in the GC fleet emit a jet of flame worthy of their namesake
rocket predecessor from their rear when in flight. This flame obeys the Law of Slapstick; at worst it will cover with soot anything that comes in contact with
it. Loses 10% of rated speed when operated out of sight of the moon.
(There are several more support vehicles, which will be added as I write them up.)
(3/15/07 Edit: Peggy reminded me last night that I had invited her brother Jim's family into the crew at Christmas, but had forgotten to include them all
this time. Peggy's also arguing with me about the need to have real rain on the ship. )
-- Bob
---------
...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.