• Welcome to the new COTI server. We've moved the Citizens to a new server. Please let us know in the COTI Website issue forum if you find any problems.
  • We, the systems administration staff, apologize for this unexpected outage of the boards. We have resolved the root cause of the problem and there should be no further disruptions.

Supernatural phenomena?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Black Globe Generator
  • Start date Start date
Ever hear of "Dawson's Christian"?

It is a Sci Fi song of note that I have been adapting to MTU...

Orig text:

Jayme Dawson was the Captain of the Christian and her crew,
And he flew and fought the Christian in the War of '82.
Now the Christian was the tightest ship 'tween here and Charlemagne,
And the crew of Jayme Dawson was the same.

On patrol in sector seven, keeping watch on Barber's sun,
They were jumped by three light cruisers though they wern't a match for one.
As they came to general quarters and they sent out the alarm,
Dawson's crew was sure they'd finally bought the farm.

No one living saw that battle though the fleet was quick to leave.
When they reached the site they found a scene no sane man could believe.
Dead in space lay three light cruisers, cut to ribbons all around,
But no sign of Dawson's Christian could be found.

There are stories of the Dutchman, the Celeste and Barnham's Pride,
There are stories of the Horseman and the Lady at his side,
But the tale that chills my spirit, more because I know it's true,
Is the tale of Jayme Dawson and his crew,
Yes, the tale of Dawson's Christian and her crew.

(instrumental interlude)

I was second mate on Hera's Dream, a freighter of the line.
We were shipping precious metals to the colony on Nine.
It was on the second watch of that most uneventful flight,
When the pirate ships appeared out of the night.

Now to me there was no question, for they had us four to one,
And you can't fight dirty pirates when your freighter has no gun.
So we stood by to be boarded by a party yet unseen,
When another ship appeared upon our screen.

First we thought it just a pirate, but the vector was all wrong.
Then we thought it might be rescue, but the signal wasn't strong.
When she didn't answer hailing, we all felt an unknown dread,
For we saw her shields were up and glowing red.

Now the courage of that single ship is shown by very few,
But we never knew a ship could fly the way the stranger flew.
Never fearing guns or numbers, like a tiger to its meat,
The stranger then attacked the pirate fleet.

And the strangers beams burned brighter than all beams I'd seen before.
And the strangers shields were harder than the heart of any whore.
As the battle rent the eather, while we watched and shook our heads,
The pirate ships were cut to bloody shreds.
The pirate ships were cut to bloody shreds.

Just as quickly as it started then the fighting was all done.
For the pirate fleet was shattered and the stranger's ship had won.
Though we tried to call and thank her, not an answer could we draw,
Then she dropped her shields and this is what we saw.

There were thirty holes clear through her and a gash along one side,
And we knew that when it happened, that no crew were left alive.
For the markings all said Christian, deep inside us each one knew,
'Twas the tomb of Jayme Dawson and his crew.

Now instead of flying off, the stranger then began to fade,
First the hull, and then the bulkheads as we cowered there afraid,
For as the Christian disappeared, the last to slip from view,
Were the bones of Jayme Dawson and his crew.
Yes, the bones of Jayme Dawson and his crew.

There are stories of the Dutchman, the Celeste and Barnham's Pride,
There are stories of the Horseman and the Lady at his side,
But the tale that chills my spirit, and I swear to God it's true,
Is the tale of Jayme Dawson and his crew,
Yes, the tale of Dawson's Christian and her crew.

It is stuff like this that I add to to my Traveller Universe

Marc
 
Ever hear of "Dawson's Christian"?

It is a Sci Fi song of note that I have been adapting to MTU...

Orig text:

Jayme Dawson was the Captain of the Christian and her crew,
And he flew and fought the Christian in the War of '82.
Now the Christian was the tightest ship 'tween here and Charlemagne,
And the crew of Jayme Dawson was the same.

On patrol in sector seven, keeping watch on Barber's sun,
They were jumped by three light cruisers though they wern't a match for one.
As they came to general quarters and they sent out the alarm,
Dawson's crew was sure they'd finally bought the farm.

No one living saw that battle though the fleet was quick to leave.
When they reached the site they found a scene no sane man could believe.
Dead in space lay three light cruisers, cut to ribbons all around,
But no sign of Dawson's Christian could be found.

There are stories of the Dutchman, the Celeste and Barnham's Pride,
There are stories of the Horseman and the Lady at his side,
But the tale that chills my spirit, more because I know it's true,
Is the tale of Jayme Dawson and his crew,
Yes, the tale of Dawson's Christian and her crew.

(instrumental interlude)

I was second mate on Hera's Dream, a freighter of the line.
We were shipping precious metals to the colony on Nine.
It was on the second watch of that most uneventful flight,
When the pirate ships appeared out of the night.

Now to me there was no question, for they had us four to one,
And you can't fight dirty pirates when your freighter has no gun.
So we stood by to be boarded by a party yet unseen,
When another ship appeared upon our screen.

First we thought it just a pirate, but the vector was all wrong.
Then we thought it might be rescue, but the signal wasn't strong.
When she didn't answer hailing, we all felt an unknown dread,
For we saw her shields were up and glowing red.

Now the courage of that single ship is shown by very few,
But we never knew a ship could fly the way the stranger flew.
Never fearing guns or numbers, like a tiger to its meat,
The stranger then attacked the pirate fleet.

And the strangers beams burned brighter than all beams I'd seen before.
And the strangers shields were harder than the heart of any whore.
As the battle rent the eather, while we watched and shook our heads,
The pirate ships were cut to bloody shreds.
The pirate ships were cut to bloody shreds.

Just as quickly as it started then the fighting was all done.
For the pirate fleet was shattered and the stranger's ship had won.
Though we tried to call and thank her, not an answer could we draw,
Then she dropped her shields and this is what we saw.

There were thirty holes clear through her and a gash along one side,
And we knew that when it happened, that no crew were left alive.
For the markings all said Christian, deep inside us each one knew,
'Twas the tomb of Jayme Dawson and his crew.

Now instead of flying off, the stranger then began to fade,
First the hull, and then the bulkheads as we cowered there afraid,
For as the Christian disappeared, the last to slip from view,
Were the bones of Jayme Dawson and his crew.
Yes, the bones of Jayme Dawson and his crew.

There are stories of the Dutchman, the Celeste and Barnham's Pride,
There are stories of the Horseman and the Lady at his side,
But the tale that chills my spirit, and I swear to God it's true,
Is the tale of Jayme Dawson and his crew,
Yes, the tale of Dawson's Christian and her crew.

It is stuff like this that I add to to my Traveller Universe

Marc
 
Traveller lore tends to be a collection of urban legends that are told in startown bars late at night. A lot of these stories are simply told by those who are bored and trying to pass time and tend to be stuff that happened to the "friend of a friend." Tales like the Mary Celeste and the Flying Dutchman are very adaptable to Traveller. In fact, they're probably widely believed.

A lot of Traveller tales can probably be put down to sensor equipment malfunction and equipment operators who were impared in their judgement (be it from being drunk, high, ill, or simply tired).

1. Misjumps are probably the single biggest source of spacer tales. "You know, the Scout Service will tell you the Vorynim-Steiner Trade Route stopped being used because of economics, but I know differently. This ex-INI guy I spoke to in Trevor told me the real reason was that ships kept disappearing on that route. I mean, like go into jump and never show up. Nobody knows why. Weren't very ship, either. Like one in ten. Got too high, Scouts closed the route off."

2. Battlefields probably are another place of supersititous belief. "Don't go near Zimaway. You know what happened there. Two of the Emperors of the Flag fought it out there. You can fly around there still and get sensor shadows of huge ships that aren't really there. You'll sometimes even get lock-on warnings and IFF codes from that time."

3. "Ever been to numbered systems in the spinward end of the Zharvan Reach like 106-116? Probably not, I guess. See, if you look at the map, they're the closest jump route to the Tarvid and Leshy worlds. Instead everyone goes through Margrave instead. Ever wonder why? Our captain on the "Zheng He" did, figured she could shave a month off of the route. That whole system is haunted. Yeah, I know. But it is. The moment we arrive, the jump drive goes on the hex, and we land on this one moon in Zharvan system. Survey said it was uninhabited, but you know those Scouts got pretty lazy. They didn't check this place out. The world was covered in ruins, like entire cities made of stuff that looked like obsidian. And the ruins, nobody lived in them. Nobody needed to, the ruins themselves were alive, and they knew we were there..."

4. Weird one-of-a-kind aliens would probably the source of constant tales as well. Like psionically powerful "siren" aliens or shapeshifters who can convince entire crews they look perfectly human even though they're really hideous creatures. Many of these (after repeated retellings) would probably gain all sorts of strange powers, like being able to teleport vast (jump) distances and so on. Many of them would have strange (and unlikely) feeding habits, like savoring just the cartiledge in human beings and feeding on it.

Others are stories told for a very specific point, usually for the benefit of the teller, by use of some example that happened to "someone else" in a similar situation who made the wrong decision.

1. Tales of captains who spaced stowaways might fall under this category, perhaps spread by potential stowaways who wanted to create atmosphere for them to be treated better. For instance, one tale might be that a captain who found a stowaway while in jump tossed the poor sod out of the airlock -in jumpspace-. Then the ship was the victim of the ghost of stowaway who at first was just seen as a movement in the shadows. Then things started vanishing, equipment started getting sabotaged. Then there were the screams and babbling coming from places like the -inside- the fuel tank, empty staterooms, and deserted hallways. Persistent desperate knocking heard coming from the -outside- of the ship, specifically the covered windows. Then people started to vanish...

2. Skilled crew might resent those who are doing "working passage" and might spread tales about people who horrible, incurable and infectious illnesses working on starships for passage to spread the misery from world to world. "You know the Hexos Rot? No? It's some quarantine thing on Hexos, makes you into stark raving homicidal but only after a few weeks. There was this guy we picked up on Spencer who had it, signed on with the captain and everything as a ship's hand. I didn't like it, we couldn't check him out, just wandering onto the ship for employment to Lutien. But the captain said we were short-handed and instead of looking for qualified hand, we took him...big mistake. He had Hexos Rot..."

3. Traders might spread tales about alien races or other worlds to reduce trade with them. For instance, that a ship carrying a group of Droyne passengers goes into jumpspace, and when it comes out, it's fully crewed by Droyne. "I'll tell you, some people think the Droyne the spaced the crew, but I don't think so. They were using them Coyn things and -transformed- the crew into more Droyne..."
 
Traveller lore tends to be a collection of urban legends that are told in startown bars late at night. A lot of these stories are simply told by those who are bored and trying to pass time and tend to be stuff that happened to the "friend of a friend." Tales like the Mary Celeste and the Flying Dutchman are very adaptable to Traveller. In fact, they're probably widely believed.

A lot of Traveller tales can probably be put down to sensor equipment malfunction and equipment operators who were impared in their judgement (be it from being drunk, high, ill, or simply tired).

1. Misjumps are probably the single biggest source of spacer tales. "You know, the Scout Service will tell you the Vorynim-Steiner Trade Route stopped being used because of economics, but I know differently. This ex-INI guy I spoke to in Trevor told me the real reason was that ships kept disappearing on that route. I mean, like go into jump and never show up. Nobody knows why. Weren't very ship, either. Like one in ten. Got too high, Scouts closed the route off."

2. Battlefields probably are another place of supersititous belief. "Don't go near Zimaway. You know what happened there. Two of the Emperors of the Flag fought it out there. You can fly around there still and get sensor shadows of huge ships that aren't really there. You'll sometimes even get lock-on warnings and IFF codes from that time."

3. "Ever been to numbered systems in the spinward end of the Zharvan Reach like 106-116? Probably not, I guess. See, if you look at the map, they're the closest jump route to the Tarvid and Leshy worlds. Instead everyone goes through Margrave instead. Ever wonder why? Our captain on the "Zheng He" did, figured she could shave a month off of the route. That whole system is haunted. Yeah, I know. But it is. The moment we arrive, the jump drive goes on the hex, and we land on this one moon in Zharvan system. Survey said it was uninhabited, but you know those Scouts got pretty lazy. They didn't check this place out. The world was covered in ruins, like entire cities made of stuff that looked like obsidian. And the ruins, nobody lived in them. Nobody needed to, the ruins themselves were alive, and they knew we were there..."

4. Weird one-of-a-kind aliens would probably the source of constant tales as well. Like psionically powerful "siren" aliens or shapeshifters who can convince entire crews they look perfectly human even though they're really hideous creatures. Many of these (after repeated retellings) would probably gain all sorts of strange powers, like being able to teleport vast (jump) distances and so on. Many of them would have strange (and unlikely) feeding habits, like savoring just the cartiledge in human beings and feeding on it.

Others are stories told for a very specific point, usually for the benefit of the teller, by use of some example that happened to "someone else" in a similar situation who made the wrong decision.

1. Tales of captains who spaced stowaways might fall under this category, perhaps spread by potential stowaways who wanted to create atmosphere for them to be treated better. For instance, one tale might be that a captain who found a stowaway while in jump tossed the poor sod out of the airlock -in jumpspace-. Then the ship was the victim of the ghost of stowaway who at first was just seen as a movement in the shadows. Then things started vanishing, equipment started getting sabotaged. Then there were the screams and babbling coming from places like the -inside- the fuel tank, empty staterooms, and deserted hallways. Persistent desperate knocking heard coming from the -outside- of the ship, specifically the covered windows. Then people started to vanish...

2. Skilled crew might resent those who are doing "working passage" and might spread tales about people who horrible, incurable and infectious illnesses working on starships for passage to spread the misery from world to world. "You know the Hexos Rot? No? It's some quarantine thing on Hexos, makes you into stark raving homicidal but only after a few weeks. There was this guy we picked up on Spencer who had it, signed on with the captain and everything as a ship's hand. I didn't like it, we couldn't check him out, just wandering onto the ship for employment to Lutien. But the captain said we were short-handed and instead of looking for qualified hand, we took him...big mistake. He had Hexos Rot..."

3. Traders might spread tales about alien races or other worlds to reduce trade with them. For instance, that a ship carrying a group of Droyne passengers goes into jumpspace, and when it comes out, it's fully crewed by Droyne. "I'll tell you, some people think the Droyne the spaced the crew, but I don't think so. They were using them Coyn things and -transformed- the crew into more Droyne..."
 
One interesting side not about the Bermuda Triangle: The area where ships tend to be lost is a "minefield" of Methane Hydrate deposits. Bubbling methane lowers the density of the water well more than enough to account for initial swamping... and breathing methane is hazardous in concentrations well below noticeable.
 
One interesting side not about the Bermuda Triangle: The area where ships tend to be lost is a "minefield" of Methane Hydrate deposits. Bubbling methane lowers the density of the water well more than enough to account for initial swamping... and breathing methane is hazardous in concentrations well below noticeable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top