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What is this ship for? (2KTd Collector-1, hamster-wheel hull)

Yeah, it'd make a decent lab ship, but it's starting to approach the size of a Research Station after I dealt with my math error.

No problem, now it's a self-propelled Research Station!

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(You could build something like it at TL 13 -- the Sindalians' max TL -- using a Prototype Collector-2 that amounts to a 25% oversized Collector-1: 559m radius canopy, 562m spun ring for 2770Td spun.)
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You could build something like it at TL 13 ...
 using a Prototype Collector-2 
that amounts to a 25% oversized Collector-1: 
559m radius canopy, 
562m spun ring for 2770Td spun.
TL 13... hey, that's like my old stomping grounds of Collace/District 268!

IMTU, Collace is already doing precocious things with Jump tech (out-of-universe: exploiting the LBB2 loopholes to the LBB5 Jump capability limits) too.

So...

The CSS (Collace Starship) Saint Katherine is the field laboratory for the UCK (University of Collace, Kirkton) School of Astronautical Engineering. Normally, it's parked in the outer system of Inchin/District 268 so the researchers and students can consult for the starship assembly line at Inchin (it's specifically "not a starport" for treaty reasons) in between their regular work. Normal traffic between Collace and the Inchin factory provides cover for communication, personnel transfers, and resupply (including materiel and components for prototypes designed at the field lab). Armament is 10 triple sandcaster turrets, mostly automated.

The lab ship is accompanied on-station by the CSS Enrijai Caesar, a surplus XBoat Tender converted into a mobile robotic shipyard. It is capable of constructing prototype/experimental projects up to 300Td. Through years of student tinkering, the Caesar's power plant has been upgraded to Pn-2 to support the onboard shipyard. It is otherwise as-designed.

Routine personnel transfers and communication with Collace use two Type A3 Far Liners, the Vasa and the Great Eastern (jump space engineering students have a twisted sense of humor...). These are A2 Far Traders with upgraded jump drives; the cargo space left over after adding fuel tankage is filled with staterooms.

Personnel transfer to system mainworlds (in this case, Inchin) is via the two 95Td 6G shuttles, Mercury and Hermes. These are carried in the mobile shipyard during routine repositioning moves.

The station has a large number of 20Td lifeboats (20?). These are sometimes loaned out to (or "borrowed" by) students and/or faculty.

There's also usually at least one prototype/modified "student project" ship of 100-300Td nearby that is either in-work or in testing, with an unusual configuration or capabilities. It may or may not work as intended...

The exact location of the ship and station are not generally known, and this obscurity usually provides adequate security. If disturbed, both will jump to a pre-arranged secret rendezvous point in deep space. Personnel on the Caesar then transfer to the lab station for the trip back to civilization, and a tanker will eventually refuel the mobile shipyard so it can do likewise. (A couple of menacingly-persistent Arkesh Spacers ships provoked this response several years ago, and the recently increased tensions with Trexalon raise concerns that it could happen again.)

The Imperial Interstellar Scout Service posts a few Type S Scout/Couriers nearby for station defense (usually including at least one J3/2G variant, for single-jump reporting to Scout Base Collace). Detached Duty Scouts are sometimes tasked with this for a few weeks at a time when other IISS assets are unavailable. Fraternization between the Scouts and students/faculty on board the station is not unheard of -- and unless it gets out of hand, isn't really discouraged.

The IISS also has been known to provide technical advice and assistance, enabling researchers here to achieve TL 14 competency (though not on a mass-production scale that would affect Collace's TL). There is TL 15 capability in specific areas, but this is almost entirely on a theoretical basis.


Any "Weird Jump Drive/Jump Space Effects" scenarios you can come up with are possible here, as are attempted espionage and hijacking attempts. And of course there are opportunities for interpersonal conflict among the faculty and students.
 
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