Cynosure.X International: Cyno's Role-Play: Supplements: First Contact: Niccola

Cyno's Role-Play: Supplements: First Contact

Niccola

The Niccola started off as a type G8 Survey ship. On her last stay in port she'd been rebuilt especially to hunt for and make contact with Plumies. Still, if she'd been lured deep into the home system of the Plumies, the prospects were not good.

Its hull is made out of metal, which made its magnetic drive system possible. And it is polished to blue-silver for a fine look.

Engine room

The engine room was a place of stillness and peace, save for the almost inaudible hum of the magnetic drive, running at half a million Gauss flux-density. It contains the giant drive shaft. The drave shafter is wrapped with yard-thick coils which could induce an incredible density of magnetic flux in the metal. Even the return magnetic field, through the ship's cobalt-steel hull, was many times higher than saturation.

Pressure Lock Image He seized the inner handle and tried to force open the door again, so that no one inside it could emerge into the emptiness without. He failed. He wrenched frantically at the control of the outer door. It suddenly swung freely. The outer door had been put on manual. It could be and was being opened from inside. He wrenched at the door again, jamming down his helmet with one hand. And this time the control worked. Taine, most probably, had forgotten that the inner control was disengaged only when the manual was actively in use. Diane raced away, panting. Baird swore bitterly at the slowness of the outer door's closing. He was tearing at the inner door long before it could be opened. He flung himself in and dragged it shut, and struck the emergency air-release which bled the air lock into space for speed of operation. He thrust out the outer door and plunged through. Radar Room Image The Niccola is very well equipped, radar-wise. The immediate job was the completion of a map of the meteor swarms following cometary orbits about this sun. They interlaced emptiness with hazards to navigation, and nobody would try to drive through a solar system without such a map. Diane handed over the transparent radar graph, to be fitted into the three-dimensional map in the making. She set up two instruments which would measure the angle, bearing, and distance of the two planets now on this side of the sun--the gas-giant and the oxygen-world to sunward. Their orbital speeds and distances were known. The position, course, and speed of the _Niccola_ could be computed from any two observations on them. Scan At this instant, which was 04 hours 25 minutes ship time, the alarm-bell rang. It clanged stridently over Baird's head, repeater-gongs sounded all through the ship, and there was a scurrying and a closing of doors. The alarm gong could mean only one thing. It made one's breath come faster or one's hair stand on end, according to temperament. "There's a contact, sir," he said curtly. "No. There was a contact. It's broken now. Something detected us. We picked up a radar pulse. One." The word "one" meant much. A radar system that could get adequate information from a single pulse was not the work of amateurs. It was the product of a very highly developed technology. Setting all equipment to full-globular scanning, Baird felt a certain crawling sensation at the back of his neck. He'd been mapping within a narrow range above and below the line of this system's ecliptic. A lot could have happened outside the area he'd had under long-distance scanning. The all-globe scanning covered every direction out from the _Niccola_. Nothing appeared which had not been reported before. The gas-giant planet far behind, and the only inner one on this side of the sun, would return their pulses only after minutes. Meanwhile the radars reported very faintfully, but they only repeated previous reports. "No new object within half a million miles," said Baird, after a suitable interval. Presently he added: "Nothing new within three-quarter million miles." Then: "Nothing new within a million miles ..." The skipper said bitingly: "_Then you'd better check on objects that are not new!_" "Only one suspicious object, sir--and that shouldn't be suspicious. We are sending an information-beam at something we'd classed as a burned-out comet. Pulse going out now, sir." Diane had the distant-information transmitter aimed at what she'd said might be a dead comet. Baird pressed the button. An extraordinary complex of information-seeking frequencies and forms sprang into being and leaped across emptiness. There were microwaves of strictly standard amplitude, for measurement-standards. There were frequencies of other values, which would be selectively absorbed by this material and that. There were laterally and circularly polarized beams. When they bounced back, they would bring a surprising amount of information. "It will be a Plumie ship, sir," said Baird very steadily. "At a guess, they picked up our mapping beam and shot a single pulse at us to find out who and what we were. For another guess, by now they've picked up and analyzed our information-beam and know what we've found out about them." "I'll check, sir," said Baird. "We picked up no tuned radiation from outer space, sir, but it could be that they picked us up when we came out of overdrive and stopped all their transmissions until they had us in a trap." The new setup began its operation, instantly the last contact closed. The three-dimensional map served as a matrix to control it. The information-beam projector swung and flung out its bundle of oscillations. It swung and flashed, and swung and flashed. It had to examine every relatively nearby object for a constitution of silicon bronze and a rounded shape. The nearest objects had to be examined first. Speed was essential. But three-dimensional scanning takes time, even at some hundreds of pulses per minute. Nevertheless, the information came in. No other silicon-bronze object within a quarter-million miles. Within half a million. A million. A million and a half. Two million ... Radar had to be informed of all orders and activity, so it could check their results outside the ship.

Weapon System

The Niccola has twenty-four rocket tubes; twelve tubes on each side of the ship. Each one of these tubes can be fitted with either chemical explorsive warheads or atomic warheads. The trajectory of the rocket can be pre-planned and plotted before launch. Once launched, the warheads will follow the planned path. The only other controllable option for a warhead in flight is forced detenation.

The warheads are designed for long range assault. Within the first mile, the warheads travels relatively slow. But after ten miles of no-gravity, they accumlulates a terrific velocity. Each warhead could reach the 10 miles mark in about 45 seconds.

Atomic Warhead

Blast Radius: 10 miles.

Damage-control parties put on pressure suits and take combat posts with equipment!_" Damage-control parties reported themselves on post, in suits, with equipment ready. "_Damage-control parties attention! Arm yourselves and assemble at starboard air lock! navigation room crew's quarters mess room