Galactic Mission space systems
Orion Union starships, space stations, and support craft
I’ve been on a sci fi ship design kick lately, so after putting together posts for the Ulysses and an Uutaruu voyager-class starship I thought I’d put together some concepts for the other Orion Union (OU) ships planned to appear in the book. The general aesthetic of human-built ships is 1950s-era sci fi flying saucers but with a touch of realism (one of the big issues in space is dissipating heat). The ability to teleport does not require systems to be aerodynamic unless they also have to deal with e.g. re-entry (q.v. ionopter, below).
Now the Ulysses was an OU Ministry of Defense ship (hence it’s MD-nnnn designation), but the vehicles below are under the purview of the OU Galactic Diplomatic Mission — part of the Ministry of Galactic Affairs that runs most of the vessels used for governmental interstellar business. These ships have a GM-nnnn designation. In a sense, it’d be like if the US Department of Defense had only a few small ships (like the Coast Guard), but the Department of State had most of the Navy.
The reason this is the state of affairs is that the OU has been what is called a conservate in the Intragalactic System (IS) — a protected status in the galactic government (the IS) for new species developing hyperquantum drives for the first time. As such, humans have not needed a great deal of militarized vessels — only enough to deal with some small groups of “space pirates”. In the story of Inner Horizon, there is some internal conflict about whether or not the OU needs more military capability as humans are about to graduate from their conservate status.
Overall, there is a general philosophical argument about what it means to have a military given the technology of the Aegis pretty much lets anyone stick it out in an invincible bubble indefinitely1. But you can’t go about e.g. trade in such a situation, so the usual setting for the Aegis threshold is high enough to let some things in and out — which makes teleporting a few people with low energy weapons aboard a ship the typical form combat takes. Those low energy weapons are often swords and crossbows since lasers, firearms, and chemical weapons can be filtered out with the Aegis2.
Ok, let’s get to the ships.
OUS Bellatrix GM-0003
The first major flagships built by the OU for the Galactic Diplomatic Mission were named after the major stars of the constellation of Orion: Rigel, Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Alnilam, Alnitak, Saiph, Mintaka, etc. They also have a nickname based on their Greek label — gamma for the Bellatrix, it being gamma Orionis. The first of these are nearly two hundred years old by the time of the story of Inner Horizon, but remain on active duty due to multiple refits. Running with Aegis fields up to block ionizing radiation means they can basically operate indefinitely. These ships are effectively mobile embassies for the OU, with the ambassador serving as the “captain”3.
The horizon state entropy gradient which sets up the artificial gravity is set to a 3rd order disk oscillation mode that has two nodal diameters and two nodal circles where gravity goes to zero. The primary hallways4 are built along those lines so that moving between or around decks is all done at zero g. Portable propeller systems are used to fly in these main conduits if speed is needed — otherwise people float along the walls pulling themselves from grip to grip. The oscillation mode guarantees no net force on the vehicle, however like the Ulysses this can be set to be imbalanced to accelerate the ship ("grad[ient] mode" of the hyperquantum singularity drive). Again, this is not used very often at high speed since it is subject to time dilation and the limits of human endurance of < 10 g’s or so.
When the ship was first built, it only had a conventional hyperquantum drive which required significantly more Ba IV as more jumps were required to travel a given distance. It was upgraded with a singularity drive about 100 years after commissioning which freed up a great deal of space for additional crew and supplies for longer missions. It does have a significantly lower ratio of Ba IV to crew than the Ulysses — the latter being designed for much longer missions at much greater ranges.
L2 Station
The newly created Orion Union began building this space station in the late 2120s, almost 300 years before the events of Inner Horizon. It orbits the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point. As an 80-year-old Dr. Miranda Sierra put it:
It’s also why they are building our galactic space port at the L2 point — small changes in location give you multiple different directions of the gravitational field vector allowing you to jump in any direction. It’s reminiscent of sailing with the z-direction being analogous to the direction of the wind.
It is set up as a hexagon; the entropic gradient points in opposite directions as you move from tower to tower with three pointing up and three pointing down — resulting in no net force on the station. Each tower is 168 stories tall.
In addition to its original purpose as the headquarters of the Galactic Diplomatic Mission and space port, it serves as a hyperquantum telescope. Using the six computers as a sparse array antenna, the system’s Aegis algorithms can detect and get a bearing on incoming hyperquantum jumps, Conscious Horizon Interface (CHI) events, running hyperquantum systems, as well as black holes.
The station is able to detect CHI events occurring in humans on Earth, and so maintains a Department of PlanCom Affairs (DOPCA) “go team” ready to travel down to the planet to provide assistance. The PlanComs (Planned Communities) set themselves up as particular vision of an American suburb in a perpetual 19935 — as such they do not want to allow humans with CHI ability6 to disrupt their fantasy. Typically, they treat people manifesting CHI ability with benzodiazepines at first, but as this “treatment” doesn’t always work some people are taken in by DOPCA facilities (DOPCAFs) or the CHI Institute depending on their needs and desires.
The typical procedure for entering or leaving the hangar deck requires establishment of over-the-air holonet (laser comm). Holonet crystals on both the vehicle and in the comm terminals are coded and must be physically installed. The automated hangar system then guides the vehicle in or out using “grad mode” of the holo drive.
The airlock is designed to open in multiple configurations so the entire deck does not need to be evacuated for every vehicle. Shuttles (MMS’s below) can even use the carbon fiber ejection sock system that unrolls around the shuttle, and cinches closed at the back tight enough for only very limited amount of hangar air to escape. Once enveloped in the carbon fiber sock the outer ring aperture door snaps open quickly7 and the air pressure inside the hanger slingshots the shuttle into space as the sock turns inside out. The sock is then rolled back up until the still cinched closed end is inside the aperture door which closes.
Multi-Mission Shuttlecraft (MMS)
The truck of the Orion Union, Multi-Mission Shuttlecraft (MMS’s) have a wide variety of uses. Mostly used in space, they can be equipped with a conventional hyperquantum drive that allows them to leave a planet using grad mode.
Orion Union Ionopter
From the Greek-derived English/Greek mash-up for ion (engine) wing [ion-pteron], the ionopter is the primary transportation around star systems with planets that have atmospheres. The English word ion is itself derived from the Greek ienai conjugated as “to go” so the word is also literal (the propulsion systems that make the vehicle “go” are on the wing) as well as a kind of pun go-wing.
The props are far more efficient energy-wise than using hyperquantum drive grad mode in the atmosphere, and they can reach speeds sufficient for Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) even in the thin atmosphere of Mars. Additionally, the ability to teleport obviates the need to achieve high speeds.
It was created basically as a combination of the Space Shuttle and a helicopter (or more specifically a V-22 Osprey). The props need to be stowed for re-entry, and the lifting body design allows for a gliding descent to an altitude where the props can be deployed. Leaving a planet involves simply taking the vehicle to sufficient altitude to compute a hyperquantum jump without interference due to local gravitational field fluctuations. The front window is made from Booss chitin, so it is not damaged by re-entry heating.
The ionopter uses its ion engines in space for maneuvering, orbit insertion, and travel over short distances. The nacelles can be rotated to slow the vehicle down (they rotate in opposite directions to conserve angular momentum), as well as for coarse orientation control; however additional conventional thrusters are used for fine maneuvers such as landing in a hangar on e.g. L2 station or the Bellatrix.
Sweeper Buoy
Sweeper buoys are autonomous hyperquantum computers used to set up a negative entropy gradient to produce “anti-gravity”. This anti-gravity clears a region of debris, making hyperquantum jumps far safer near star systems or individual planets. Materializing from a hyperquantum jump into a space occupied by even tiny pieces of matter can be extremely dangerous. Per Dr. Miranda Sierra:
It’s not terribly different from the energy released launching a projectile close to the speed of light into another object — except it is happening in our rest frame.
It is true that space is fairly empty, but even the rare chance of teleporting into a region of space occupied by a speck of dust can cripple a ship — a very low probability but extremely high consequence event. Risk mitigation is necessary.
In addition to their space-clearing purpose, sweeper buoys also appear as “bright points” (regions of high horizon state information change) due to their continuous hyperquantum computations rewriting horizon states to produce the anti-gravity. This allows incoming ships to detect them and identify their negative entropy gradient prior to making a jump — effectively serving as navigational markers.
Intragalactic Jump Conduits (or just “jump conduits”) for safe travel around the galaxy are established by the members of the IS via the deployment and maintenance of sweeper buoys as well as registries. Registries are remote space or terrestrial stations that serve as waypoints along jump conduits where there are no inhabited systems8. The registry facilities themselves are protected by a very high Aegis setting meaning that a only very small number of beings can walk slowly through the field boundary.
The registries serve a number of functions — the high Aegis setting serves as a very “bright point” on the horizon, so can be detected at longer range or by less capable hyperquantum computers. This is the “lighthouse mission” of a registry along a jump conduit. The high Aegis also protects the register — the log book of ships using the jump conduit. Ships log their visits to registries (and their flight plans) because travel by teleportation over multiple jumps makes it exceedingly difficult to find a ship that’s suffered a failure of its hyperquantum drive. A preserved record of your waypoints and flight plan at least make being found feasible should something go wrong.
Registries also house the staff that maintain the sweeper buoys in the vicinity of the registry. Since the IS devolves jump conduit maintenance to the local species, registry facilities also serve as cultural expressions — frequently decorated with a species’ art or historical markers.
The trade that occurs along these jump conduits makes maintaining registries a major economic benefit to the species hosting them such that they’re typically run gratis (though some species enact tolls). Adding more registries can increase trade from nearby systems, but too many and they’ll cost more than they benefit as ships with capable hyperquantum drives will jump past registries that are too close together.
It’s mostly a barter system in the galactic economy. As any physical token can be copied by almost anyone using 3D printing technology (plus the sheer size of the galaxy and the existence of the Aegis would make counterfeit enforcement impossible), and practical encryption is impossible in a universe with hyperquantum computers, there’s no “money” in the inter-species galactic economy9. The closest things to universal currencies are quantum singularities that are used in hyperquantum singularity drives10 and star maps. The former last only for a few months before evaporating, so need to be replaced regularly. The latter, due to the chaotic nature of gravitational interactions, are actually out of date as soon as they are collected — however recent data on the positions and velocities of astronomical objects, especially in areas off the jump conduits, are critical to navigation. Since a telescope will only tell you where a planet or star was thousands of years ago, you actually need to visit a system to collect more recent information11. These observations are used to update large scale models to predict the current location of an object — the information you need if you're going to teleport nearby.
Other trade goods or services are often species or planet specific — Booss chitin, Kamiser blades, or delicacies that only grow in a specific environment12. Uutaruu offer translation services. There is some amount of “real estate” trade where species “lease” planets in their natural growth path that are unsuitable for their own habitation. The barter economies that arise near some registries even sustain settlements in some of the harsher environments (with what is harsh varying species to species). These economies mean that sometimes supplies can be procured at registries.
Violations against the jump conduit/registry system, whether it’s a species not maintaining them as tasked, falsifying information in the register, or deliberately damaging the facilities outside of a “binary conflict” is one of the most egregious offenses in the IS and will result in punishment as determined by a vote of delegates from the member unions. There is a judicial process that begins with investigations and analysis of the scope of the violation — determining facts such as the level of organization the culpability would be assessed (is this an individual act, or a government), and the net impact of the violation.
Jumper
A variant of the sweeper buoy that can be used to “scout ahead” or clear a region of space. A starship sends a jumper out to a point the ship wants to teleport to. The jumper jumps to the location, sends back a message crystal that it survived the jump, and then sets up a negative gravity gradient to clear the space. It also uses sensors to scan the nearby region of space. It can later teleport a message crystal back to the starship containing information about the prospective jump. Once those tasks are completed — they can take hours or days — the starship teleports to the neighborhood of the jumper.
Since jumpers are smaller, disposable probes they generally cannot jump as far as the starship that sent it. Often they are conventional hyperquantum computers. This makes this process of travel by jumpers a slow one, but does allow for safer off-conduit travel.
Occasionally the IS will designate a disagreement among members a “binary conflict”. The two (or more) member unions so designated will then no longer be under the protection of the IS community and are effectively at war. This introduces competition to the IS which is believed to benefit galactic species evolution. However, these states of war are generally about shutting down jump conduits to bring trade within a member’s region of space to halt by taking out sweeper buoys (see above) and registries. By construction, sweeper buoys cannot have Aegis in effect and registries must allow beings to pass through in order to do their job — a registry that doesn’t let people register isn’t a registry. As an analogy, it’s like if warfare consisted of conducting a naval blockade while taking out navigation buoys (sweepers) and lighthouses (registries) in a world before GPS and radio. The casualties are generally just among the beings attacking or defending them. The Kamiser have an ancient board game that plays very similarly to strategies for binary conflicts in the IS — as a species that arose around undersea volcanic activity on an iced-over world, the strategy of controlling a network of connecting undersea vents was directly applicable.
However, novel poisons can be developed to get past a species’ Aegis filters. It’s generally a hard problem even given access to a test subject and would be essentially single-use in the field — once used, it would be added to the filter.
In terms of Galactic Mission ranks, ambassador is more a role than a rank. There are only three ranks in the GM: consular agents (agents), Vice Consul, and Consul General. Any of the three can be “acting captain” of a GM ship which is referred to as ambassador.
Sci fi size comparison: the Bellatrix is about as big as the Enterprise D saucer section, but only about 1/3 as thick
In an ironic twist, PlanComs have a much higher rate of natural CHI ability due to a genetic founder effect after closing themselves off from the rest of humanity in the Aegis Regions Union. CHI ability is not itself genetic and the ability to focus in the proper way can be learned; however, there is a genetic predisposition to naturally focus in the proper way without deliberately training for it. As an analogy, CHI ability is like having perfect pitch — some people might be born with it, but others can acquire it through training.
Ultra fast doors are used on spin launch.
L2 station serves as a registry, but the term registry is usually reserved for dedicated facilities that don’t have much other purpose.
Individual species have their own cultural approaches to the economic problem that rely on their own institutions.
The singularities are produced either in massive particle accelerators or collecting them from overspinning a black hole. In the latter case, hyperquantum computers are used to teleport spin-polarized material into the black hole which increases its angular momentum to the point where the event horizon closes in on the ring singularity (Kerr black hole). As this approaches, the black hole “sheds” mass to maintain cosmic censorship — the shed mass consists of quantum singularities of varying sizes that are then collected. The difficult part is that a black hole needs to be low enough mass (or spinning fast enough) to make this operation feasible. This means there are limited candidates for this process, and having one in your species’ natural growth path is very valuable to the galactic economy. Often it is valuable enough that if a species has one taken from them due to reallocation along a new member’s natural growth path the current species will be allowed to continue production until the new member is capable of taking it over.
Instead of thousands of years, the information would be only minutes or hours old.
There is a concerted effort to limit cross-contamination of planets’ indigenous species, so often instead of trying to grow something from another planet on your own (or even in a lab), you engage in trade. Authenticity is also a valued commodity in the galaxy — Kamiser are extremely fond of Earth’s potatoes (which they prefer to eat raw), but wouldn’t think of eating one that wasn’t grown on Earth. The general abundance of the universe creates demand for authentic experiences.