Some Hypotheses regarding Sa'Vasku Ships
Sa'Vasku ships come in 4 basic varieties: a) Sterile Mules b) "Males" c)
"Females" d) (Hypthesised, never seen) "Breeders"
Sterile Mules are essentially disposable workers, incapable of reproduction.
They lack pod launchers and wombs.
Males have the ability to launch "Pods" capable of of eating asteroids and
other material (notably enemy ships...). It would take the trace elements from
about 1000 Mass of asteroidal matter (or perhaps half that of ships) for them
to produce 1 "Cell", often referred to as a "Hull Box", or when operating
independently, "Drones" or "Fighters".
Females have the capability to both absorb such "Drones", and produce them
from their own substance. Only the very largest can produce anything larger
than Sterile Mules, and appear not do so in any event. Most if not all also
retain their male organs.
Breeders have the ability to operate in concert to build other Breeders, and
any of the other types. They may not be capable of making Sterile drones, this
may be the province of the Females alone.
Each Cell newly produced from an asteroid cruises space until absorbed by a
Female or Breeder. Each cell has a certain amount of indpendent intellect, and
the ability to form complex processing links and manipulate energy to some
degree,
if only for self-propulsion and self-defence. As Cells age, they lose
some of their flexibility, becoming more specialised. Eventually they die, and
the bodies are then used to construct such organs as Stingers, Wombs, with the
less valuable parts of the body transformed into "husk" construction material
and armour. As a general rule, it will take the parts of 3 or more Cells to
make 2 mass of specialised organs, the remains either jettisoned as waste, or
used as husk. These organs become poisonous as the result of use, so are not
suitable food, any more than excrement is for most species.
Sterile Mules that survive long enough and find a Breeder can be transformed
into Males. Males that survive long enough and return to Breeders can be
transformed into Females. Females that survive long enough and find Breeders
are transformed into Breeders,
and will tend to make designs that echo their own life-cycle prototypes.
Thus
> Sa'Vasku ships come in 4 basic varieties:
"When I grow up, I want to be a superdreadnaught. I'll find some cute, sexy
battlecruiser, we'll settle down somewhere and have lots of frigates."
The concept of "mating dreadnoughts" is a bit boggling. Perhaps, given the
owners' origin, they arrange things
analogously to fish, ie the female lays corvette-sized eggs,
then male provides fighter-sized bits of its replicative coding.
> On 17-May-00 at 08:34, Laserlight (laserlight@quixnet.net) wrote:
Or they could do the mating sequence from The Reality Dysfunction, with the
males chasing the female and the fastest one catching her.
I did a little bit on that for my campaine --- Pre FB2---
. Care and feeding of Bioships Bioships cost 3 times their mass to grow. It
takes a year to hatch a young ship of mass 8 to 12. If uninjured and properly
feed a ship will grow 4 mass units per year. Bioship feeding costs 1 point per
10 units of
ships mass per year (to maintain). Bioship drives -- a
bioship has the FTL drive technology in use the year it is
born. A Bioship can not upgrade the drive. A bioship
follows the tactical rules presented in More Thrust with the following
exceptions:
Regeneration: During battle a bioship may regenerate 1
hull box per original power factor at a cost of 3 power
units for each hull box regenerated. Once the limit of
hull boxes has been reached no more hull boxes may be
regenerated. The wounded ship must return to a base for
rest and feeding. The ship heals at 3 point of hull or ½
total damage (whichever is greater) per month. Feeding cost
is one economic point per 5 points of hull damage. A ship
that has been injured does not grow in that year.
Foraging: Bioships may function while out of supply by
processing raw matter the ship must spend at least one
month in a system with some available matter (deep space is
to sparse). Foraging ships only grow 2 mass units a year
lacking the rich diet of the in supply siblings. Injured
ships forced to forage heal only 1 hull box a year and do
not grow till all damage is healed. Half of all hull
healed by combat regeneration will die if it must be feed by foraging and the
ship may not do combat regeneration again till all damage is healed.
Budding: Ships of sizes larger then 60 mass may elect to
grow a bud. In budding the ships normal growth is channeled
into a small bud that becomes a separate ship when 8 points
of mass are grown.
Special weapons: There are other weapons available to
bioships that are not available to ships at this level.
Bioships and cargo: All Bioships may carry cargo = to
1/4th there mass.
---------------
The technology of bioships has a lot to do with genetic engineering so
changing systems means creating a new genotype.
[quoted original message omitted]
> Laserlight wrote:
Heh. Reminds me of an ancient SF short story, who's name escapes me at the
moment (I believe it was collected in an anthology entitled something like
"Dreadnoughts" or "Starfighters")
On this weird planet, the highest form of life is this huge monster with all
sorts of organic weaponry. The mother lays an egg about the size of a fighter
plane. The egg starts broadcasting a radio signal.
Over the horizon, a male picks up the signal, lines up his generative organ,
and fires off a volley of spermatozoon.
( I am forcefully preventing myself from using terms like "erecting his
weapon" and "pops off a volley"...)
These fly under rocket boost to the egg, throwing out chaff, decoys, and other
counter measures.
The female sets up an anti-aircraft barrage,
attempting to destroy the spermatozoon.
> Nyrath the nearly wise wrote:
Space-Fighters
Edited by Joe Haldeman
0-441-77786-4
The story in question is called "Early Bird" by Thodore Cogswell and
G'day guys
> The concept of "mating dreadnoughts" is a bit boggling.
Now that's a mating rush I want to keep WELL clear of!!!!! Something like that
could close space lanes;)
Mind you I'd always though of the SV ships as being distinct to the
SV...
but then I guess my future counterpart was one of the jobs lost in the
OUSIRO's latest funding cutbacks;)
Beth
> Mind you I'd always though of the SV ships as being distinct to the
No, the original post was about SV *ship* lifecycles. The SV themselves are a
whole different matter. We know the small ones are about the size of Blue
Whales (they have to be about this size to fit in/on a Dreadnaught), but
how big are the large ones? Norfolk Island? Isle of Wight? Maine? Tasmania?
Greenland?
So relax, Beth, you job's safe for the next 2 centuries :-)
G'day Alan,
> No, the original post was about SV *ship* lifecycles.
Yep sorry missed that until after I posted (blush).
> So relax, Beth, you job's safe for the next 2 centuries :-)
Wish I could believe you;)
Beth
G'day guys,
I was thinking about this last night (inspired by yesterday's less than
savoury image of a SV ship mating rush) and for biological and censorship
reasons <after Phalon-gate I really think we need to put the G back into
GZG;P> I'd say the SV ships weren't sexually reproductive entities.
The ships are bioconstructs that the SV want to do their bidding when they
want them to do it - the last thing they want is the biological
imperative interrupting their battle plans, furthermore why risk the chance
that a
mutation will see batches of your ships non-viable (most fertilisations
aren't only a small percentage are successful). Clonal reproduction via
budding would be far more sensible as the SV maintain control of the form of
their constructs, you're assured they're not going to have other things on
their 'mind' at the wrong time and you know the design works. Even the issue
of lineage depression (no sexual recombination to spice up the line so may be
vulnerable to disease etc) isn't that much of a problem if the SV are at the
genetic helm anyway and can tinker for themselves.
Obviously the 'wombs' and 'birthing' of ships gave rise to the idea of sexual
reproduction but you could put that down to a misidentification by early
xenobiologists brought in by UNDIA to consult. Personally I think
that the drones/fighters/torps resemble (in function and production)
the pneumatocysts (jelly fish stingers), barbs (of gastropods),and budding
that are used by many marine groups. Just makes biological sense to have a
weapon in place you can regrow rather than risking your 'children'.
So I'd say the SV ships would be large asexual constructs that budded off new
smaller ships, used the interstellar equivalents of pneumatocysts and that if
they do grow they show slow but continuous growth (so will take many years to
reach large sizes) but under very favourable conditions (known to their SV
creators) they show remarkable growth spurts (you don't want to your new
battleline taking 3 centuries to grow if you need it
yesterday) - this also fits with some existing marine invertebrates.
Just a few oddball thoughts.
Cheers
Beth
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