Re: Jumps, energy and black globes

The Jump "Drive" is a very high-power fusion plant which charges the
"Zuchai Crystal Energy Sink Array".  These crystals fortunately are the
only devices capable of storing the great energy quanties needed for
jump.  Also, they have a "memory" of the energy as it was placed in
them; this allows discharging at the same rate as charging, but also
makes them prone to input power fluctuations.  The electrical energy
from these is then gated into the "Lanthanum Hull Net", in a peculiar
ordering of segments, which is controlled by the "Jump Governor".  The
Hull Net is first "warmed up", with about 20% of the stored energy, and
then strongly energized by the crystal's energy to rend the orientation
of the ship in the multispace and transition it into the alternate jump
dimension.

The hull net remains energized at a low level throughout the trip to
maintain a little pocket of "our" universe around the ship.  Should
there be a hole in the net, a finger of the jumpsace will poke into the
ship.  Should much of the net be destroyed prior to jump, it would not
be possible to achieve the initial insertion into jumpspace, and no jump
would have taken place.

> Ah yes. These fellows also think gauss guns are silent. Which they are, if
> they
> fire projectiles at subsonic velocities, and so have penetration comparable to
> airguns - or if they fire in vacuum, in which case anything is silent.

Actually, wouldn't they be about as silent as a pistol with a silencer?  The
only noise is from the round flying through the air; there is none of the
"report" due to the hot gasses escaping from the end of the muzzle at high
pressure.

> Yep. You can use this energy. At least, according to High Guard, which I
> quote:
> "If a ship absorbs enough energy to make a jump, and is supplied with
> sufficient fuel, it may jump at the end of the turn."

The Starship book doesn't mention anything about Black Globes or
alternative charging methods in the Jump Drive chapter.  I haven't
completed the Weapons and Defenses chapter yet, so I don't know if the
practice is reported there.  Given the technology reported in the book,
it would seem *possible* to gate energy from the Black Globe (if it can
be issued in an even stream of sufficient quantity) into the Crystals.
In practice, this would seem risky by the new technological explanation.

A related example, unrefined fuel can occasionally cause the Jump
Drive's Fusion plant to hiccup, causing a dip or surge in output.  This
dip or surge is stored in the Crystals and cannot always be detected
(strange...) or compensated by the Jump Governor when the Ship is
transitioning into jumpspace.  Result -- misjump! With possible system
damage, temporal or spatial displacement.

Get this book.  It's fun for people interested in Technology and
Engineering.  On the other hand, it's probably a little too technical
for people who rarely wonder why things work.

Talking about extra capacitors, anyone ever design a ship which has
piles of extra capacitors? I designed some ships which would burn the
reserve capacitor energy to feed infrequently-used things like weaponry
and active defenses.  This allowed my power plant's excess capacity to
be burned on needed agility to run away.  The ships may not have had
much stamina, but boy could they evade! By the explanation given of
Zuchai Crystals, they will break down after 2-3 hours of storing charge,
so a less-dense method of charge storage would now have to be selected
for this design strategy to work.

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James T. Perkins		    Traveller Mailing List Administrator
Tektronix Digital Systems Division	     "Load Auto/Evade, Beowulf!"
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