Chapter 1: Takeoff
“Good morning, Doctor Builder.”
Dr. Fancy Builder bowed as he stepped into the Space Lord’s office.
Space Lord Matthews smiled. The man had been one of the first to get caught up in the fairly new- and still moderately unpopular but rapidly spreading- fad of naming children for what their parents hoped they could achieve; he had also achieved, apparently. “I hear you want to launch a civilian vessel under Navy authority?”
“Uh, Yes, Sir,” Dr. Builder answered.
“And none of the Guilds will let you launch under their authority?”
“That is correct, Sir.”
“Could you enlighten me as to why?”
“She’s equipped with a new type of FTL drive, theoretically capable of taking her where no other ship is currently capable of following. Unfortunately, while the drive itself is massive, the necessary support systems- from navigation to shields to power and so on- are even more so. As a direct result, she outmasses even the largest of our superdreadnaughts, yet only about two percent of her volume is available for passenger or cargo purposes- the rest is all systems. That puts her above the size and mass limits for the Personal Starship Guild and the Minor Yacht Guild, yet below the passenger-to-displacement minimum for basically every for-profit authority I was able to find.
“The Civilian Guild doesn’t like the potential of these engines to destroy the ship, since they require a full, live crew at all stages; her self-defence armament is too large for the Passenger Liner Guild, and her passenger-to-firepower ratio is too low for the Passenger Cruiser Guild. Then there’s all the freight guilds- which, aside from how none of them will allow any firepower, she also falls short of all of their freight-to-displacement and freight-to-mass minimums.
“And finally, she’s simply too big for the Science Guild. I think they’re afraid of fuel prices, though I’ve already loaded her with enough for her initial Testing Voyage and she is equipped with a fuel scoop.”
He scowled. “How about the LTL Guild?”
He shook his head. “She took longer than one year to build.”
“Up-and-coming guild?”
“She outmasses their station.”
“Unique Launch Association?”
“She was not built at an ULA-certified facility- and they refused to certify it until it’s empty.”
“The Cannon Liner Guild?”
“Her engines aren’t big enough for them, relative to her mass.”
“Hmm…” He rubbed his chin. “The Anything Goes Line?”
“Suspended last week for willingly working with the Black Fang.”
“Ouch. Um…” He thought for a few seconds. “I suppose that does tend to leave the Navy as the only option, doesn’t it? Aside from starting your own Guild, of course.”
He nodded. “And I don’t have ten members with their own orbiting ships.”
“True. Well… do you know what the requirements are for launching under Navy authority?”
He shook his head. “No idea, Sir. Wasn’t able to find anything.”
“Well, for one thing, every vessel we launch must be combat capable.”
He nodded. “I designed her to be capable of minor combat and self-defense. Especially considering her size, it seemed only prudent.”
He bowed his head. “So what’s the firepower-to-mass ratio?”
Dr. Builder raised the tablet he’d had under his arm. “Dry mass or wet mass?”
“Dry.”
“At least four kilogram-seconds per ton.”
“At least?”
“She’s equipped with several new weapons I came up with during construction- they haven’t been tested yet, and are not counted.”
“Ahh. Then she’ll pass that requirement under the Weapons Testing Exception.”
“Exception?”
“Yes- the minimum firepower-to-mass for naval launches is a hundred kilogram-seconds per ton.” He sighed. “I hope your untested weapons perform well- under the Weapons Testing Exception, if she still fails to meet the requirements after they are tested, she will be required to return to her drydock and denied permission to relaunch under any authority for at least three months.”
He winced. “... Alright, I can work with that.”
“Alright then. How about ammunition bunkerage- for how long can she maintain maximum rate fire?”
“She’ll be launching with well below a full loadout, but given a full load, she should be able to maintain maximum-rate fire with all tested weapons for forty-eight hours, though about two percent of them will have about five percent periodic downtime for reloading.”
“High rate of fire?”
He nodded. “She has a couple Incinerator gatling turrets, but the rest is from her fifty-hertz railguns. Her missile tubes are capable of a two-second shot delay out of the five-round on-mount magazine, with nine seconds transfer per missile from main magazines or from other mounts, for maximum surge of six rounds in twelve seconds; I ignored this surge capacity in my calculations.”
“How about for the untested?”
“She has a high-energy lateral accelerator weapon designed to accelerate masses of warheads to sub-luminal velocity, maximum magazine depth is six rounds per weapon. For testing, she will be launching empty warhead casings- fire rate unknown. She also has four externally-mounted one-off missiles designed for rapid eradication of a large assaulting force; all other untested weapons are energy weapons.”
He nodded. “Alright, that passes. How about fuel bunkerage- maximum combat power time?”
“That… would be a tricky one. I don’t yet know how much fuel she’ll run through at maximum combat power, especially with some of the experimental weapons consuming fuel directly as well. Maximum capable power, without weapons drain, should give her approximately three months from full bunkers.”
“... How about idle time?”
“Idling? Assuming all power is from fusion, a couple thousand years. Around Earth, or in other solar-suitable areas, and without significant drain, she can shut down her fusion plants entirely and operate off of live and stored solar power, for indefinite idle time.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That’ll pass the requirements… but only because there is no maximum. If she has to return to dock, you can expect there will be a maximum by the time any relaunch comes about. Though, if she’s going to have a passive idle like that, what is her maximum combat time on stored power alone?”
“I don’t know. She’ll be able to run all tested weapons and engines for at least four days on the secondary reserves- but the primary reserves are also a new technology, tested on the ground, and I have yet to discover their limit.”
“Alright. Crew capacity and requirements?”
“To fully use all facilities at capacity without automation assistance, I estimate a crew of forty thousand may be necessary; she is designed to be capable of self-management, all the way up to AI-driven autonomous operation in both manned and unmanned environments. I expect her Testing Voyage to be unmanned, in case the engines- or something else- blows the ship.”
“And the firepower-to-crewmember limit is automatically met by the zero-crew capability… Passenger capacity to crew count, assuming full crew?”
“Two point five million passengers per crewmember- maximum passenger capacity by berthing is a hundred billion, maximum atmospheric life support estimated at half a trillion, long-term life support- including hydroponics and recycling- available for approximately one quarter trillion.”
“Good. Speed?”
“Under her traditional Distortion Drive, she should be able to hit twenty-five hundred cee; thrusters will impart approximately a quarter of a meter per second squared; magnetic drive, two meters per second squared. She is equipped with a new gravity drive- technology tested on the ground, but implemented at larger scale- that is theoretically capable of accelerations as high as fifty gees, and is confirmed to be able to exert at least one gee on the ground. Her untested engines have the theoretical capability to boost top speed and acceleration under any other drive scheme, in addition to their unique drive scheme- which, in theory, will allow the ship to travel interdimensionally.”
He scowled. “Hmm… That’s just barely within the requirements on the traditional engines, so it’ll pass. Interdimensional travel… I assume that means we won’t be able to spot her with another vessel from launch to commission?”
“Uh… No. Not unless you’ve got something similar.”
“Well, that is a requirement… and the very last one. With no exceptions.”
Dr. Builder sighed. “Right. So…”
“So at this time, I cannot authorize the launch under naval authority. But don’t give up- I’ll see if I can’t get an Engine Testing Exception to that on the books.”
“Ahh… Well, the launch reservation is for tomorrow morning.”
“Good thing I can still meet with the USN’s policymaking body tonight, eh? I’ll get you your answer, see if you can’t give her the go-ahead tonight.” Space Lord Mathews scowled. “Though with preflights, that might not be fast enough.”
“Oh, uh,” he chuckled softly. “She’s actually already started those, a few days ago. I can call her off until the moment she leaves the ground- though doing so grounds her for a couple of weeks to allow her to reset everything, and the time required for a fresh set of preflights.”
“... Ahh. Then don’t cancel it just yet, and I’ll be telling you whether or not you have to.”
Ten hours later, Space Lord Matthews tapped a comms combination into his terminal, then waited while it rang.
Finally, it answered… Voicemail. It played back the recording, gave him the signal.
“Good evening, Dr. Builder,” he greeted the silent pickups. “Good news. The Engine Testing Exception was approved, and you’ve been cleared to launch under naval authority with both exceptions. Your ship is cleared to operate completely without oversight for the initial, automated Testing Voyage, before returning for manned testing afterwards. I’m looking forward to hearing just how effective those new engines are!” He hung up.
Then he let out a sigh, and leaned back in his chair. That was right about the last thing he had to do tonight.
So he turned slightly to the side, to look up at the TV screen on the wall, showing the local news station. It looked like they were covering a car crash. “Unmute,” he commanded.
He could instantly hear the newscaster. “- estrian that was struck was just identified as Dr. Fancy Builder, who was just given a launch authorization by the United Star Navy…”
He looked back at his terminal. “That… That will be a problem.”
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Do you mean minimum idle time, not maximum?
10676341
This is a warship with fuel bunkers so large she will require at least three months to burn through it all at the maximum capacity of her power plants, let alone at power levels she might actually need for combat. Plus, with a powered idle time of a few thousand years, considering her size...
That means she has almost ridiculously large fuel bunkers. There is no max, so she'll pass... but necessity is the mother of invention, and once the policymakers realized she had that much bunkerage relative to her requirements, they'd probably put a limit on it, being afraid of having too much volatile hydrogen fuel stored on the vessel in the event of a catastrophic failure... or combat damage.
I was under the impression that you had a couple different versions of this in the running, so is this another AU or did you decide to rewrite one for some reason?
10695569
It's a rewrite of... Oh, I forget which of the other two, but it is a rewrite. The Equestrian Starliner just had too many idiots in high-up command positions... well, being idiots. And the ship AI was literally the smartest and most proactive thing on or near the entire planet... which is boring.
So it got rewritten. And too thoroughly, at that, for an in-place rewrite.