Samsara - Captain Jon Lee's Modified C314 Skyhook

Samsara started out life as a stock C314-D Skyhook. Jon Lee needed a ship that was small, relatively cheap to run, and inconspicuous. Skyhooks are a relatively common sight in planetside spaceports throughout the systems, and are occasionally seen serving courier runs between worlds.

While an excellent planet-hopper, a skyhook is not designed for long-range interplanetary flight. The standard single-core Gurtsler Stardrive is underpowered given the mass of the craft, trading performance for reduced cost. Many skyhooks never engage their stardrives, serving out their operational lifetimes performing orbital lifts, which is their primary purpose.

Lee found himself hampered by his ship's poor stardrive. Without high acceleration, and the associated increased range, Samsara would have to wait for much narrower burn windows, and in some cases was unable to make longer hops. Lee's solution was to completely replace Samsara's stardrive. Under the watchful eye of S. West, Lee's engineer, the entire aft structure of Samsara was stripped to the frame. The Gurtsler and its emitters were removed, and replaced by a trio of Sutherland 320 cloud-induction engines. The three engines operate in synchrony, producing nearly 60% more acceleration than the standard drives. They consume a similarly increased amount of power to do so. The net result is Samsara can attain roughly 30 g when unloaded. The onboard compensation was modified by West to accommodate the increased engine power, but the system was not designed to cope with such powerful engines. As such, Samsara's frame, passengers and cargo experience up to 5 g of uncompensated acceleration during a full 30 g burn.

Somewhere along the line Lee picked up a regular "boxcar" 210 UCM module. The module has its own environmental control and is deep-space rated, but requires power from the ship's reactor, which is delivered via an umbilical link. The pod is rarely detached from Samsara's clamps, as Lee is not in the business of ferrying other people's modules from place to place, though on occasion it has proved wise to leave the pod (and its contents) in a safe place far from prying eyes.

When things are not going smoothly, Samsara's best mode of protection is stealth and sleight of hand. As is usual for atmospheric craft, Samsara has a closed-manifold hull. This limits leakage of EM energy from the ship's power system. When "running dark" Samsara is effectively invisible to passive sensors at even relatively short ranges down to 600,000 m. However, like all unstealthed craft, Samsara shows up strongly on active sensors.

Samsara is equipped with a programmable IFF transponder that some inflexible and uptight governments would consider illegal. In fact, the ship is really only named "Samsara" in Lee's head, it appears under many different names in port authority records.

Lee insists on a high level of maintenance, and West is always tinkering with something, leading his Captain to suspect that Samsara slips further away from standard specifications with each passing day. The recliner, sound system, and still in the engine room, for example, are non-standard equipment.

The internal configuration of Samsara is almost stock. The bulk of the internal pressurised areas are taken up by the cockpit, galley, wardroom and bunk room. The cockpit has seats for the pilot and copilot, and has an engineering station which is identical to the panel in the engine room. Behind the cockpit is the Captain's Bunk, which is small, to say the least, but offers a modicum of privacy and the only window outside of the cockpit. Amidships is the main bunk room, shower and head. Aft of that, the galley and wardroom lie within the wing roots and thus have slightly higher ceilings. The wardroom has two additional bunks, and contains the onboard medical gear. In a pinch, the wardroom converts into a workable infirmary, with sterile covers on the bunks and a foldout diagnostic/life support unit in the wall cupboards. A door in the aft galley wall leads to the ship's spine. A stairwell and lift provide access to the cargo module access ports, which are located below the main deck. An access shaft runs down the spine of the ship to the engine room. This shaft normally has no gravity generation, and is compensated when in a planetary field to ease movement through its narrow confines. The passage terminates in the engine room, where the stardrives and gravitational systems are located. The console in the engine room has access to all ship's systems. While intended for engineering purposes, the panel can be used to control the ship, and even fly it in an emergency.

Overall, the ship's interior is characterised by low ceilings and narrow spaces. Samsara was not designed for passengers and is housing six crew as opposed to the intended four. As such, most of the crew enjoy spending some of their time in the cargo pod, as it has a less claustrophobic feeling than the rest of the ship.

Samsara's Internal Layout