Fast Berth

[Grav_Moped]

This is basically the shell of a Low Passage Berth stripped down to its life support systems (atmospheric pressure/temperature control, and gravity compensation), with automated injectors for Medical Fast and Medical Fast Antidote.
Unlike the standard Low Berth, there is no risk to this process. It requires TL 13 for the antidote; otherwise, the passenger is incapacitated for 60 days.

The Passenger Fast Berth is Cr50,000 and 0.25Td. It can maintain a passenger in Fast Mode for 60 days. It has a 60-day self-contained power and life support supply, but normally operates off shipboard power. TL 13.

The Survival Fast Berth is Cr200,000 and 0.5Td. It can maintain a passenger in Fast Mode for up to 10 years. It has a 10-year power, medication, and life support supply. TL 9 (But TL 13 is required for passenger transport use because that requires the antidote).

Each Fast Berth costs Cr3,000 per use up to 30 days. When used for extended periods, each two months cost an additional Cr2,000, or Cr12,000 per year. The Survival Fast Berth is pre-stocked with 10 years of Medical Fast Drug.

Fast Passage costs Cr4000 at standard Traveller rates. In ATUs with per-parsec and promptness surcharges, it costs Cr3750 plus 1/4 of the the per-ton-per-parsec rate adjusted by the promptness surcharge.

Its primary use is for carrying passengers on high-Jump ships with little payload space. In this application, there is no social stigma to its use. (Normally, using this or low passage would have an effect on perceived SOC equivalent to repeated failure to spend to demonstrate a suitable lifestyle -- mid passage would count as only a single such event.)



From a game mechanics standpoint, it's the same as putting the passenger into a vacc suit, dosing him with Medical Fast, and shoving him into a locker for up to two months.

 

[Grav_Moped]

An example of such a ship with little payload space is the LBB2(81) 400Td Jump-5, 2G courier (TL 11 to construct, but under LBB2 it does not improve with TL). Rules-as-written, it has 3Td payload with a single turret.

The cost per payload ton is, obviously, astronomical. Passage rates would be similarly high even in ordinary low berths -- but anyone worth sending at that price is too valuable to expose to a revival roll.

 

[willtron3030]

[existing Imperial Encyclopedia entry]

I'm more inclined to go with real low berths for emergencies.

10 years on Medical Fast drug is still perceived by the berth occupant as two months in a small box, without food, water, or sanitary affordances.

 

[Grav_Moped]

[existing Imperial Encyclopedia entry]

I'm more inclined to go with real low berths for emergencies.

10 years on Medical Fast drug is still perceived by the berth occupant as two months in a small box, without food, water, or sanitary affordances.

For awaiting rescue from deep space with its multi-year lightspeed lags, you'd probably need to disinfect and catheterize (etc.) the passenger beforehand, and sedate them for the duration. Dietary prep may be required... The advantage is that it's perfectly safe, if a bit unpleasant over the course of a decade.

The main difference between my proposal and the Wiki entry is that mine also includes a bit of redundant safety and security -- the berth can be handled (and transferred, if needed) similarly to a standard Low Berth. And honestly, unless it was an emergency (keep a PC/NPC alive for the duration of a couple of Jumps to get back to advanced medical facilities), I don't think you'd have your passengers comatose on open bunks anyhow.

I'm not sure I buy off on the "plague from the sleepers" angle in the wiki writeup. Viruses won't be able to replicate at normal speed since they exploit the host's metabolism, and bacteria will likely be affected by the drug on contact since the drug apparently also affects intestinal flora*.


*Well, if it doesn't, the consequences get messy both objectively and narratively...

 

[Grav_Moped]

The simple answer is to declare that at TL 13 and above, low berths are far more expensive to operate, but no longer require revival rolls. High Guard's "Frozen Watch" concept justifies this to an extent.

Or you can still get the cheap low berths...

 

[Werner]

The simple answer is to declare that at TL 13 and above, low berths are far more expensive to operate, but no longer require revival rolls. High Guard's "Frozen Watch" concept justifies this to an extent.

Or you can still get the cheap low berths...

Another option might be temporal stasis booths, these booths actually slow down time within using artificial gravity generators and then exterior antigravity generators to mask them. So you create a gravity well where a photon climbing out gets severely redshifted thus internal time gets slowed down greatly compared to the rest of the universe.

 

[whulorigan]

Another option might be temporal stasis booths, these booths actually slow down time within using artificial gravity generators and then exterior antigravity generators to mask them. So you create a gravity well where a photon climbing out gets severely redshifted thus internal time gets slowed down greatly compared to the rest of the universe.

In the OTU, Stasis Globes are TL-26 (TL-23 for the hand-built, experimental (= unreliable) prototype) ¹ . Even if you are merely going to slow down time significantly as compared to true stasis, it seems to me that the level of difference in relative gravitational potential you would need to create would require a prohibitively high TL (even by TL-15 standards), and you would not likely find it outside a dedicated research facility or industrial manufacturing plant of some sort. Further, the object having its time slowed by gravity needs to be fully exposed to the lower gravitational potential; a human body would be crushed under its own weight (and this is not tidal forces over the length of the body due to varying gravitational gradient).

¹ T5.10, Book2 , p.236. ​

 

[kilemall]

I'm thinking Fast would technically need more support then just sticking them in a chair.



The moisture and dust problems alone for breathing and eyeballs drying out would mean at a minimum a goggle/breathing mask with self-cleaning to avoid microbe growth from the humid air. Dust and general microbe protection for the skin would require a hazmat-like or pressure suit. We can assume any infection would involve the microorganism being slowed down too upon any contact, so we can handwave that problem set.


You'd still want an active medical person to monitor and check on them. And 60:1 means they are going to go through slow motion digestion and eventually voiding wastes, so that means at least diapers and/or vacc suit-like catheters.


Strapped in so any jostling or hard maneuver doesn't set them up for a fall they can't react to. And enough life support to handle a mass emergency antidote to get them off the ship.


I can't see this being a thing except for colonization or troop ships, where dedicated people are on board to care for them, budget is an issue, and the time to get there makes the economics work. Even so, dedicated troop/merc ships at a minimum are likely to be willing to pay the extra Cr1000 per month to just pay for the life support (CT costs) and forego the sunk/opportunity costs, this would be for chartered/open ticket shipping or emergencies.

 

[Condottiere]

I wouldn't use this method longer than for one dose.

After that, artificial hydration and nutrition might be allowed for fourteen doses, though that's really dependent on how that's actually handled for coma patients.

 

[Grav_Moped]

The side issues (microbial growth, nutrition, hydration, excretion, humidity, and gravity control/inertial compensation) are the reason for having a specialized berth to support the passenger.

In ordinary gameplay, these issues with Medical Fast probably get handwaved.

My remark that it's like sticking them into a vacc suit and shoving them into a locker was about the game mechanics aspect of the concept, not the functional implementation. That is to say that it's a safety upgrade/alternate implementation for Low Berths that's consistent with the game's technology.

The space each passenger occupies is the same as they would in either a standard (0.5Td) or emergency (0.25Td) low berth. The space requirements are reversed because for short durations, the meds are doing all the complicated work rather than the berth's cryogenic systems, so the berth can be simpler. For longer durations, the berth will need to incorporate life support/waste handing systems, bringing its bulk up to that of standard low berths.

 

[Grav_Moped]

The thing is, under the standard Traveller cargo rates, there isn't much reason to use Med Fast instead of just talking a Free Trader captain into allowing you to travel double-occupancy -- it'll still be Cr4000 whether you're going one parsec or 5.

There's a bit more of a justification if pricing is per-parsec, since the opportunity cost of tying up 2Td of staterooms is higher on longer trips.

And if pricing is sufficient for a high-Jn (5 or 6) ship to recover costs over and above per-parsec pricing, the opportunity cost of a payload ton will really affect passenger costs.

 

[McPerth]

This is basically the shell of a Low Passage Berth stripped down to its life support systems (atmospheric pressure/temperature control, and gravity compensation), with automated injectors for Medical Fast and Medical Fast Antidote.
Unlike the standard Low Berth, there is no risk to this process. It requires TL 13 for the antidote; otherwise, the passenger is incapacitated for 60 days.

The Passenger Fast Berth is Cr50,000 and 0.25Td. It can maintain a passenger in Fast Mode for 60 days. It has a 60-day self-contained power and life support supply, but normally operates off shipboard power. TL 13.

The Survival Fast Berth is Cr200,000 and 0.5Td. It can maintain a passenger in Fast Mode for up to 10 years. It has a 10-year power, medication, and life support supply. TL 9 (But TL 13 is required for passenger transport use because that requires the antidote).

Each Fast Berth costs Cr3,000 per use up to 30 days. When used for extended periods, each two months cost an additional Cr2,000, or Cr12,000 per year. The Survival Fast Berth is pre-stocked with 10 years of Medical Fast Drug.

Fast Passage costs Cr4000 at standard Traveller rates. In ATUs with per-parsec and promptness surcharges, it costs Cr3750 plus 1/4 of the the per-ton-per-parsec rate adjusted by the promptness surcharge.

Its primary use is for carrying passengers on high-Jump ships with little payload space. In this application, there is no social stigma to its use. (Normally, using this or low passage would have an effect on perceived SOC equivalent to repeated failure to spend to demonstrate a suitable lifestyle -- mid passage would count as only a single such event.)



From a game mechanics standpoint, it's the same as putting the passenger into a vacc suit, dosing him with Medical Fast, and shoving him into a locker for up to two months.

Not to frustrate you, but this is not new...

Accordint Traveller Digest 21, page 40, article named Suspended Animation, from TL12 on the low berths are no longer freezing the users, but slowing their metabolism with fast drug, and latter administrating th eantidote to revive them.

 

[Condottiere]

Cut Fast Drug

Speaking of which, merchant ships optimized for a fast turnaround, don't really want passengers out of it for ten days, so instead by cutting the drug by six, it should be divided by seven, which is slightly less than eight days, thirteen and three quarters hours. That would be a sufficient duration to put them under just before launch, accelerate to the jump off point, and come out of it slightly after exiting, which makes the passengers mobile enough to disembark under their own steam.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Not to frustrate you, but this is not new...

Accordint Traveller Digest 21, page 40, article named Suspended Animation, from TL12 on the low berths are no longer freezing the users, but slowing their metabolism with fast drug, and latter administrating th eantidote to revive them.

Doesn't surprise me, as I'm not claiming this is something particularly novel.

I hadn't seen that reference, of course.

I hope that implementation had an appropriately higher survival rate.


Basically, it's a synthesis of two separate game mechanisms, each with their own purpose and literary antecedents. Low Berths are the "suspended animation" trope, modified by a risk factor probably brought in from the Dumarest stories. Medical Fast is meant to address the problem of characters barely surviving a violent encounter only to die anyhow because advanced medical help is a couple of Jumps away.

MedFast has to be low-risk in order to serve its function of keeping a character alive to reach the hospital. Edit to add: It also should be expensive, because it's a "free saving throw against dying" token. Low Berths have to be risky to keep them from being the preferred means of travel even when cost is not necessarily an issue.

This all gets hidden by Traveller's per-Jump cargo and passenger rates. There isn't a market for expensive-but-safe high-density passenger accommodations because the opportunity cost of a ton of payload is kept artificially low at higher Jump numbers.

 

[Condottiere]

Dumarest has both tropes.

When I calculated it out, if you used a cut variant of the fast drug, it was something like twenty eight and a half Credite Imperiale for eight and a half days.

In terms of life support, while they are under they would only be expending a three and a half hour's worth.

 

[McPerth]

I hope that implementation had an appropriately higher survival rate.

The article was for MT, where death due to low berth in nearly unheard of (though health effects are not that uncommon), but does not distinguish for survival rates among freezing (TL9-11) or low berth (slow drug, TL12+)...

 

[Grav_Moped]

Dumarest has both tropes.

When I calculated it out, if you used a cut variant of the fast drug, it was something like twenty eight and a half Credite Imperiale for eight and a half days.

In terms of life support, while they are under they would only be expending a three and a half hour's worth.

That assumes that less than a standard dose has the same effect but for a shorter duration. It's possible that it doesn't work that way -- perhaps duration is constant and reduced dosages simply don't affect the entire body (this could be very bad).

 

[Grav_Moped]

The article was for MT, where death due to low berth in nearly unheard of (though health effects are not that uncommon), but does not distinguish for survival rates among freezing (TL9-11) or low berth (slow drug, TL12+)...

Ah, ok. Thanks!