小红帽 (Xiǎohóngmào or Little Red Riding Hood)
Fenris Class Mark IV Light Bulk Transport
Ballestra Shipwrights Express Freighter
Ownership: Private - Douglas Mercor
Tonnage: 2,600 tons
Dimensions (LxBxH): 178x136x55 feet
Crew Quarters: Configurable between 4-8 crew berths
Auxiliary Craft: Two six-man short range shuttles
Speed: Class 6 Pulse Drive
Fuel Capacity: 50 tons (approximately 600 hours operation)
Cargo Capacity:
Main Hold: 300 tons
Two Secondary Holds: 50 tons each
Eight Bulk Storage Holds: 20 tons each
Passenger Quarters: 4 double or quad occupancy rooms, 2 larger rooms with special equipment
A Shipyard can convert any of the Bulk Storage Holds into an additional passenger berth reducing cargo capacity and increasing passenger capacity..
Decks: 4 habitable decks and 2 equipment decks.
The habitable decks are the Upper Deck, the Main Deck, The Passenger Deck, and the Cargo Deck. The equipment decks are the Alpha Equipment Deck and the Bravo Equipment Deck
Crew (6): Douglas Mercor (Owner/Captain), Hsu T’ang (Cargomaster), Pango T’ang (Engineer),
Wendolen Te’Lanna (Pilot), Aris Dubois (Technician), and Rudy Martinez (Security)
Image Note: The image of a Fenris Class ship to the right and those at the end of the document,
are of a Mark I model of the class. The Xiaohongmao is a Mark IV model. See "Class Versions" below for a discussion of the differences between the various models and how the Xiaohongmao differs from the available images.
The year 2504 was an exciting one for Douglas Mercor. Douglas was one of the younger sons of the powerful Mercor merchant clan. Family tradition held that children of the clan worked from a very young age as apprentices in diverse positions within the family business to learn a wide range of skills. Generally after two or three decades in which they had worked over a score of different working apprenticeships with gradually increasing levels of responsibility the family member would then settle into their ‘adult’ career. The career is chosen based on the aptitudes and preferences they had shown in the apprenticeships.
Douglas had found that he particularly enjoyed and excelled at working on the family’s freighters as well as working as a trader-at-large. And so after his apprenticeships he was given his first ‘real’ job - Captain and Trader of the Mercor Clan fast freighter Lullaby.
Douglas had just taken the ship clear out to the edge of the Verse on his first run when disaster struck the family. The Alliance declared the family outlaw. The family assets were seized, family members ‘disappeared’ or died in confrontations with Alliance forces and the clans vast network of trade routes and allies disintegrated.
Douglas used his emergency funds to buy new identities for himself and his ship. He became Mayhew Douglas and the ship became the Xiaohongmao. The Xiaohongmao he kept the ship in the outer systems of the Verse to avoid the Alliance and as Mayhew Douglas became something halfway between respectable trader and an outright smuggler; carrying legitimate cargos where they could find them, grey cargos to fill in the gaps, and some outright black cargos when necessary to survive.
For two years Xiaohongmao operated out in the beyond ducking Alliance patrols and smuggling when he had to and then the Unification War broke out. Then the Alliance had bigger issues than chasing down the few remaining members of the Mercor Clan. Douglas Mercor and the missing Lullaby were forgotten.
During the war the Xiaohongmao aided the independent planets by hauling cargoes and high valued personnel. Using Xiaohongmao’s speed and the skills Douglas had learned as a smuggler to break Alliance embargos and blockades. But the independent planets finally lost the war Xiaohongmao was left operating alone again.
But Douglas had not been idle about what had happened to his family during these years. He had carefully been gathering rumors and investigating the charges the Alliance had leveled against his family. Over time he was able to piece together a partial picture of what had happened. While in its heyday the Mercor clan had no qualms with working with the Alliance they didn’t have the strong Alliance connections like most other major trading clans maintained (ie they didn’t regularly bribe Alliance officials to gain trade advantages), And because of this Clan Mercor was almost destroyed.
A rival trade clan, the Yang-Truon Merchant Cartel, decided the time was ripe to made a move against the Mercor clan. The Yang-Truon had Terrance Patton in their pocket. Patton was a high ranking Alliance politician the Yang-Truon had help climb to power with very large political contributions and other more private and illicit payments. It was Patton who was the Alliance official who ‘discovered’ Mercor’s illegal activities and ordered them outlawed. Patton seized billions in Mercor assets and funneled most of it right to the Yang-Truon cartel. About a year after the accusation Patton was killed in a traffic accident; although some rumors say it may have been arranged because of a falling out with the Yang-Truon for his skimming to much off the top of what he was seizing of the Mercor fortune). Since the Alliance was otherwise occupied with the Unification War, and since there was never was any real evidence that Mercor had done anything wrong, the Alliance just quit its prosecution of the family. The damage was already done and the Alliance certainly didn’t acknowledge it had been wrong or make any reparations… they just dropped the issue and forgot about it.
Douglas has tracked down the few surviving family members and loyal family retainers that remained. He has reestablishing what is left of this clan’s business and began to expand it but has just recently turned control of the business over to his cousin Veronica. He found he prefers the freedom of being a single ship trader and Veronica has a sharper administrative mind for the project anyway.
Douglas has gone back to using his real name. He decided to keep the ship’s new name as Xiaohongmao rather than changing it back to Lullaby. He keeps all of his fake papers for being Mayhew Douglas upto date and hidden just in case. Secreted away on Xiaohongmao is Lullaby’s old papers and transponder unit - just in case the ship needs to switch names again.
All of the crew he had originally started with have been replaced: one died in a shooting, one got married and moved on, three others he promoted and transferred to other Mercor ships as they fell under his control. The last of them, the grizzled old engineer Markus Tannerman, retired just a few years ago once he was sure the ship had a qualified engineer to replace him. The current crew, and how they came to be crew, is described below.
All of the crew he had originally started with have been replaced: one died in a shooting, one got married and moved on, three others he promoted and transferred to other Mercor ships as they fell under his control. The last of them, the grizzled old engineer Markus Tannerman, retired just a few years ago once he was sure the ship had a qualified engineer to replace him. The current crew, and how they came to be crew, is described below.
Crew
Douglas Mercor
Responsibilities:
Primary: Captain, Owner, Master Trader
Secondary: Backup Pilot, Backup Astrogator, Backup Engineer, Backup Cargohand
Origin:
New Canaan, Blue Sun
Appearance:
Caucasian male, 46 years old. Usually well dressed but not overtly so.
Blue eyes, short cut wavy brown hair, clean shaven, average build, left handed
Educated and articulate speech, a bit given to being playfully overly clever. Very loyal
Background:
Douglas was the third child of a dynastic trade family based on New Canaan. He grew up knowing wealth and privilege but also being expected to work for the family business. At the age of nine he began working as a cabin boy on one of the family’s major freighters and he has worked just about every ship position since.
When the Mercor clan was demolished. Douglas initially wasn’t sure what happened. He knew his family was fairly apolitical, at least as much as such a prominent family can be. They were honest and law abiding and traded fairly. But then the family was accused by the Alliance of selling restricted tech to rebellious factions just before the Unification war broke out.
When the trouble began Douglas had just been given his first command with the family, the Fenris Class freighter Lullaby. He had also been given a long-time family retainer - Markus Tannerman - to serve as his engineer and try to keep him out of trouble and a full crew of experienced personnel to run the ship.
When the Mercor clan was demolished. Douglas initially wasn’t sure what happened. He knew his family was fairly apolitical, at least as much as such a prominent family can be. They were honest and law abiding and traded fairly. But then the family was accused by the Alliance of selling restricted tech to rebellious factions just before the Unification war broke out.
When the trouble began Douglas had just been given his first command with the family, the Fenris Class freighter Lullaby. He had also been given a long-time family retainer - Markus Tannerman - to serve as his engineer and try to keep him out of trouble and a full crew of experienced personnel to run the ship.
During the troubles Douglas took the ship and crew into hiding. He used his emergency funds to create a new identity for the freighter to hide it’s association to the family. And thus the Lullaby disappeared and the Xiaohongmao was born.
In the years since Douglas learned enough that he believes that the accusation against his family was false, or at least grievously exaggerated by a corrupt Alliance official who was in the pocket of one of his family’s competitors. Fortunately the Unification War broke out and the corrupt official died which ended the Alliance pogrom against his family. While the family was already smashed and scattered and without their fortune and vast trade network at least the Alliance is no longer interested in them one way or the other.
Given the way the Alliance treated his family Douglas no longer feel it necessary to remain a decent law-abiding citizen. He isn’t exactly out to get revenge on the the Alliance but he doesn’t respect them either.
He maintains his Master Trader license with the Trader’s Guild and with it operates with a very respectable front. The vast majority of his jobs are actually legitimate. But he is also now well connected with the shadowy world of the Smuggler’s Guild and deals much more in grey and outright black cargos than his family would have ever condoned in the good old days.
In the years since Douglas learned enough that he believes that the accusation against his family was false, or at least grievously exaggerated by a corrupt Alliance official who was in the pocket of one of his family’s competitors. Fortunately the Unification War broke out and the corrupt official died which ended the Alliance pogrom against his family. While the family was already smashed and scattered and without their fortune and vast trade network at least the Alliance is no longer interested in them one way or the other.
Given the way the Alliance treated his family Douglas no longer feel it necessary to remain a decent law-abiding citizen. He isn’t exactly out to get revenge on the the Alliance but he doesn’t respect them either.
He maintains his Master Trader license with the Trader’s Guild and with it operates with a very respectable front. The vast majority of his jobs are actually legitimate. But he is also now well connected with the shadowy world of the Smuggler’s Guild and deals much more in grey and outright black cargos than his family would have ever condoned in the good old days.
Hsu T’ang
Responsibilities:
Primary: Executive Officer, Cargomaster, Paramedic
Secondary: Cook, Backup Security
Origin:
Reginia, Georgia
Appearance:
Asian male, 38 years old. Cauliflower ‘boxer’s’ ears, repeatedly broken nose
Grey eyes, short-cut straight black hair, clean shaven, short but muscular build
Given more to Chinese in his speech, colorful cursing, gruffness hides heart of gold
Background:
Hsu is from a wealthy and very traditional chinese family. His family disowned him when he was caught using the training the family had given him in their secret knowledge of the ancient martial arts to fight in public cage matches.
After a series of injuries ended his competitive fighting career Hsu trained to become a paramedic. During this time he meet and married Pango. However his marrying a gweilo (outsider) caused his family to change from just disowning him to actively try to kill him for the ‘shame’ he had brought the family. Hsu and Pango jumped on the first freighter they saw and have been with the Xiaohongmao ever since.
When he jointed the Xiaohongmao he originally was hired as the ship’s medic and as a cargo hand. There isn’t a lot of call for a medic (except for when there is) and just slinging cargo was a bit dull and Hsu was getting bored with the job. But Hsu loves puzzles of all sorts, especially those that are worked by hand and involve all three dimensions (like blacksmith puzzles) and he found that HOW cargo is stowed, so the load was perfectly balanced to maximize how much the ship could hold with the least impact on the ship’s performance, was a kind of grand scale puzzle. He became very good at ‘solving’ these puzzles and was rewarded by being made the ship’s Cargomaster.
Douglas has also learned to deeply respects Hsu’s wisdom and how his gruff nature but caring heart helps him keep people in line without alienating them and so has made him the ship’s executive officer, running the ship when Douglas isn’t available and keeping the crew from getting slack.
The crew also loves Hsu’s extra spicy traditional chinese cooking which earned him the spot of being the primary chief for the crew.
After a series of injuries ended his competitive fighting career Hsu trained to become a paramedic. During this time he meet and married Pango. However his marrying a gweilo (outsider) caused his family to change from just disowning him to actively try to kill him for the ‘shame’ he had brought the family. Hsu and Pango jumped on the first freighter they saw and have been with the Xiaohongmao ever since.
When he jointed the Xiaohongmao he originally was hired as the ship’s medic and as a cargo hand. There isn’t a lot of call for a medic (except for when there is) and just slinging cargo was a bit dull and Hsu was getting bored with the job. But Hsu loves puzzles of all sorts, especially those that are worked by hand and involve all three dimensions (like blacksmith puzzles) and he found that HOW cargo is stowed, so the load was perfectly balanced to maximize how much the ship could hold with the least impact on the ship’s performance, was a kind of grand scale puzzle. He became very good at ‘solving’ these puzzles and was rewarded by being made the ship’s Cargomaster.
Douglas has also learned to deeply respects Hsu’s wisdom and how his gruff nature but caring heart helps him keep people in line without alienating them and so has made him the ship’s executive officer, running the ship when Douglas isn’t available and keeping the crew from getting slack.
The crew also loves Hsu’s extra spicy traditional chinese cooking which earned him the spot of being the primary chief for the crew.
Pango T’ang
Responsibilities:
Primary: Engineer
Secondary Backup Technician, EVA Specialist, Cargo Hand
Origin:
Reginia, Georgia
Appearance:
Pacific Islander female, 33 years old, usually wearing overalls and a tool belt
Brown eyes, short but bushy black hair, very short, stocky and muscular, right handed
Soft spoken, introvert. Prefers to listen and understand than to speak. Natural peace-maker
Background:
Pango is from Regina, Georgia where her lower-class family worked the mines. With a lot of scrimping and saving her parents managed to get her into a good technical school where she learned she has a natural gift in working with machinery.
Her education was mostly in mining engineering but after a mine collapse killed her father she developed a phobia of being underground - not claustrophobia, she is fine working in the tight spaces, but the feeling of tons and tons of mass over her head is overwhelming for her. Because of this she changed the direction of her remaining education towards spaceship systems and in particular spaceship drives.
Her education was mostly in mining engineering but after a mine collapse killed her father she developed a phobia of being underground - not claustrophobia, she is fine working in the tight spaces, but the feeling of tons and tons of mass over her head is overwhelming for her. Because of this she changed the direction of her remaining education towards spaceship systems and in particular spaceship drives.
She met and married Hsu on Regina and fled with him from his family’s persecution of their marriage. On the Xiaohongmao she was originally a cargo hand and backup engineer but she quickly proved she was quite capable and became the ship’s Engineer when Markus Tannerman retired.
Pango is still an associate member of the Miner’s Guild. Because of this, her mining engineering training, and her family background, she has a natural knack for getting along with miners. This often proves very useful when calls on outworld outposts, as many of them are mining ventures. She freely uses her skills in mining engineering to assist them with any problems - as long as she can avoid actually going into the mines themselves.
Pango is also a very talented amature artist and has painted the walls and overhead in several crew areas of the ship to soften them up and make them happier and more friendly to be in.
Pango is still an associate member of the Miner’s Guild. Because of this, her mining engineering training, and her family background, she has a natural knack for getting along with miners. This often proves very useful when calls on outworld outposts, as many of them are mining ventures. She freely uses her skills in mining engineering to assist them with any problems - as long as she can avoid actually going into the mines themselves.
Pango is also a very talented amature artist and has painted the walls and overhead in several crew areas of the ship to soften them up and make them happier and more friendly to be in.
Wendolen “Wendy” Te’Lanna
Responsibilities:
Primary: Pilot, Astrogation
Secondary: Associate Trader, Cargo Hand
Origin:
New Dunsmuir, Beaumonde, Kalidasa System
Appearance:
Caucasian female, 25 years old, prefers to wear a jumpsuit with ship’s logo
Green eyes, long wild curly red hair, tall and athletic build, quick moving, ambidextrous
Tends to talk in wildly enthusiastic bursts with the words often running together.
Background:
Wendy was born and raised on Beaumonde. She can’t ever remember not loving to fly. She got into hang-gliding when she was 12. She earned her atmospheric pilot’s license when she was 14 and her provisional spacecraft pilot’s license at 15.
When the Unification War broke out she answered the call to arms and joined the Alliance military to put down the rebellion. She served during the war as a pilot on a 4,000 ton Alliance Patrol Boat the Duǎn jiàn.
After the war was over she mustered out with an honorable discharge. However some of the things she saw in the war had been bothering her. She isn’t no rebel turncoat, not at all, but perhaps the rebels had some real grievances that should have been better handled… not that they should have rebelled though… but the Alliance should have been more willing to listen and worked out some of the more real problems that those that did rebel had before they did so.
During her service in the Alliance Navy she earned her Master Pilot rating with the Pilot’s Guild and returned to Beaumonde to train fledgling pilots. That was where she met Aris Dubois, who was attending classes as a student pilot. They began stepping out together and fell in love. When Aris’ father found out where she was Wendy decided to stay with her.
After the war was over she mustered out with an honorable discharge. However some of the things she saw in the war had been bothering her. She isn’t no rebel turncoat, not at all, but perhaps the rebels had some real grievances that should have been better handled… not that they should have rebelled though… but the Alliance should have been more willing to listen and worked out some of the more real problems that those that did rebel had before they did so.
During her service in the Alliance Navy she earned her Master Pilot rating with the Pilot’s Guild and returned to Beaumonde to train fledgling pilots. That was where she met Aris Dubois, who was attending classes as a student pilot. They began stepping out together and fell in love. When Aris’ father found out where she was Wendy decided to stay with her.
When they were looking for a quick way off planet Wendy spotted the Xiaohongmao and decided it would be a fun ship to fly. Fortunately the Xiaohongmao was currently without a pilot since her last one had just married and decided to take up a more steady lifestyle as an administrator for the Pilot’s Guild here on Beaumonde before starting raising young’ns.
Aris Dubois
Responsibilities:
Primary: Technician, Cargo Specialist (electronics), Ship’s Database Manager
Secondary: Backup Engineer, Backup Pilot, Backup Astrogation, Cargo Hand,
Backup Medic (medical equipment operations)
Backup Medic (medical equipment operations)
Origin:
Ariel, White Sun
Appearance:
Caucasian female, 24 years old, Prefers and slacks and flowing pastel neosilk blouses
Blue eyes, long straight platinum blond hair, tall and willowy, often hesitant in movements, very introverted, almost never talks to strangers, but highly educated/cultured when she does
Background:
Aris was born and raised on Ariel as the only child of a wealthy criminal family. She is a genius with a photographic memory and a real thirst for learning. However she was emotionally and physically abused by her father and he kept her at home without friends where he could control. Even when she went to University to earn her Electrical Engineering and Communications Systems degrees she was required to live at home under her father’s control.
When she was 18 Aris, who had just gotten her advanced degrees, ran away from home. She skipped from planet to planet trying to keep out of her father’s grasp, who sent several minions out to bring her home. Originally she had joined the Tech Guild which enabled her to find quality jobs but then her father found out about it and used her guild connection to track her. So she has abandoned her membership in the Guild and goes it alone.
Jobs are harder to find without the guild but Aris found that working as a spacer wasn’t too bad and had the advantage of keeping her mobile. When she turned 21 she found herself between berths on Beaumonde after her last captain started to get to handzy. She decided to take a break and get her pilot’s license to improve her scope of her job opportunities. It was then that she met and fell in love with Wendy.
When she was 18 Aris, who had just gotten her advanced degrees, ran away from home. She skipped from planet to planet trying to keep out of her father’s grasp, who sent several minions out to bring her home. Originally she had joined the Tech Guild which enabled her to find quality jobs but then her father found out about it and used her guild connection to track her. So she has abandoned her membership in the Guild and goes it alone.
Jobs are harder to find without the guild but Aris found that working as a spacer wasn’t too bad and had the advantage of keeping her mobile. When she turned 21 she found herself between berths on Beaumonde after her last captain started to get to handzy. She decided to take a break and get her pilot’s license to improve her scope of her job opportunities. It was then that she met and fell in love with Wendy.
When Aris’s father found where she was on Beaumonde she was forced to flee again. Wendy come with her. Wendy secured them crew berths on the Xiaohongmao but it took a bit of finagling. The ship needed a pilot just then but had never run with a dedicated ‘technician’ crewmember before. But Douglas wanted Wendy for his new pilot bad enough to create the position for Aris as part of the package. Its a decision he has rarely regretted as Aris turned out to be a brilliant addition to the crew able to keep the ship's electronics in perfect working order as well as backuping just about everyone else’s jobs.
Rudy Martinez
Responsibilities:
Primary: Security, Hydro & Aeroponics Specialist, Cargo Specialist (Biologicals),
Backup: EVA Specialist, Backup Technician (Environmental), and Backup Medic (Pharmacist)
Origin:
New Melbourne, Red Sun
Appearance:
Hispanic Male, 35 years old, usually wears rugged military style clothing and a few weapons
Brown eyes, brown buzz-cut hair, average height, and very powerful build
Rugged and handsome. Acts much less intelligent and less coordinated than he really is
Background:
Rudy looks, and acts, like a rugged and tough as nails mercenary… and a bit of a charming but stupid ladies man. He usually has a fairly low-wattage stare that makes people assume he’s just there for the muscle. In reality he’s probably the most educated person aboard Xiaohongmao other than Aris.
Rudy is a man of passion. He is passionate about his weapons. He is passionate about brawling. He is passionate about women (many, many women, on many planets). He also has another really nice passion which is his loyalty to his friends.
But he also has a secret life: Rudy holds degrees in botany, biochemistry, horticulture, and ichthyology (fish). His favorite passion of all is his flowers and gardening. Only his closest friends get to see this side of him. He also doesn’t talk about his childhood except with friends - a bit odd since he had about the most normal childhood of everyone on the ship. Rudy comes from a large, close knit extended family living on the islands of New Melbourne. His family was firmly middle-class. Mostly working in raising crops on the limited land available (new Melbourne is largely oceanic) and, of course, in the enormous fishing industry of the planet.
Rudy is a man of passion. He is passionate about his weapons. He is passionate about brawling. He is passionate about women (many, many women, on many planets). He also has another really nice passion which is his loyalty to his friends.
But he also has a secret life: Rudy holds degrees in botany, biochemistry, horticulture, and ichthyology (fish). His favorite passion of all is his flowers and gardening. Only his closest friends get to see this side of him. He also doesn’t talk about his childhood except with friends - a bit odd since he had about the most normal childhood of everyone on the ship. Rudy comes from a large, close knit extended family living on the islands of New Melbourne. His family was firmly middle-class. Mostly working in raising crops on the limited land available (new Melbourne is largely oceanic) and, of course, in the enormous fishing industry of the planet.
Douglas originally hired Rudy temporarily as a bodyguard for just a single bit of shady commerce. The deal went south and Rudy saved Douglas’ life in the resulting disagreement but at the cost of taking a bullet of his ownself. Douglas had to raise planet rather quickly just then but wasn’t about to leave Rudy behind. Rudy woke up some days later in the Xiaohongmao’s sick birth having been patched back together by Hsu.
Rudy stayed on and became a valued member of the crew… especially when he learned to trust them enough to let them see past his gruff facade. It was his idea to turn one of the secondary holds into a hydroponics and aeroponics bay and he keeps the crew flush with fresh produce, fish… and flowers.
While Rudy loves to womanize for the shear fun of it he has a very, very firm policy that he only does so with women he doesn’t work with. He is a perfect gentleman to the female members of the crew and they have learned to just roll their eyes when they see him working his magic on other women when they are in port.
Rudy stayed on and became a valued member of the crew… especially when he learned to trust them enough to let them see past his gruff facade. It was his idea to turn one of the secondary holds into a hydroponics and aeroponics bay and he keeps the crew flush with fresh produce, fish… and flowers.
While Rudy loves to womanize for the shear fun of it he has a very, very firm policy that he only does so with women he doesn’t work with. He is a perfect gentleman to the female members of the crew and they have learned to just roll their eyes when they see him working his magic on other women when they are in port.
The Ship
Overview
Fenris Class ships have four habitable decks and two equipment decks. From the Dorsal to the Ventral these decks are: Upper Deck (Deck 1), Alpha Deck (Deck A), Main Deck (Deck 2), Bravo Deck (Deck B), Passenger Deck (Deck 3), and Cargo Deck (Deck 4).
The Alpha and Bravo decks are equipment decks run most of the length of the ship. They provide power, life support and other utility access to the decks that adjoint them (Alpha supports the Upper and Main decks and Bravo supports the Main, Passenger, and Cargo Decks). They do not have proper passages or compartments but are riddled with crawlspaces for the crew to be able to get to various systems that are housed here.
Where the Alpha and Bravo decks have bulkheads that are exterior bulkheads (the outer skin of the ship) these areas have sensors, communication arrays, heat exchangers, and other systems needed by the ship to operate in space. These are especially dense in the area above and below the Bridge in the nose of the ship and above and below Engineering in the aft.
It is assumed that the reader of this document is familiar with the Firefly Class of ship, in particular Malcom Reynold's Serenity. Fenris class ships are nearly the same size and serve much the same role ans Fireflies do so at several points comparisons to that class are made in this documents. However it is important to remember that Captain Reynolds purchased a junked Firefly and reconditioned it where as the Xiaohongmao is a much new ship in significantly better condition. She has more updated equipment, almost no jury-rigged systems, and has a much more clean and 'ship-shape' appearance both internally and externally than the Serenity. Captain Douglas, with his personal wealth and family connections, has considerably more resources than Captain Malcom does to keep his ship in working order, such as performing maintenance on a more regular schedule, replacing worn-out systems rather than jury-rigging them back past their useful lifetimes, and having a well-stocked inventory of replacement parts.
Class Versions
The Fenris Class has five versions (Marks I - V). The Xiaohongmao is a Mark IV Fenris. The images attached to this file are stock footage of the original Mark I version so there are some changes between it and the Xiaohongmao.
Mark I (pictured version)
The ship had a single large cargo hold. The ship’s ladderway was centrally located extended through all four decks.
Mark II
A major upgrade to the ship’s electronics but had severe maintenance issues. The cargo hold was removed entirely and instead the ship ‘docked’ cargo modules to its ventral surface. The ‘chin’ area under the Bridge was reworked as a aft facing cargo management compartment to monitor and control cargo module docking. The Grav Spinner and Pulse Drive were both enclosed into a bulb shaped spinning compartment (much like a Firefly) so that they were both contained and could be better maintained.
Mark III
The electronics were reworked again to a system that was much more rugged. The cargo hold returned and had a central cargo area surrounded by a large U shaped upper cargo deck. The ‘Chin’ under the Bridge restored to the Mark I version. Cranes were added to the overhead to move cargo between the levels. The ladderway was shifted starboard and a lift was added to port. The ‘Firefly’ bulb was removed since it seemed to be causing more problems than it solved and so more powerful Ion drives could be mounted.
The Ship is 18 meters longer and the extra length allowed the he Shuttles docks to be rotated so the shuttle docked lengthwise with the ship rather than crosswise as well as adding a workroom, parts storage bay, and shuttle airlocks on the main deck. Landing struts were replaced by fixed landing skids. Photovoltaic cells were added to the tail fins.
Mark IV (Xiaohongmao)
The upper level of the cargo hold was compartmentalized into bulk storage holds or passenger berths. The aft third of the cargo bay was separated from the forward section, the lower level was further divided into two secondary cargo holds while the upper level became passenger berths. The lift and ladderway stopped at the upper cargo level rather than extending all the way into base of the ship. A more efficient fusion engine was added and the Pulse Drive was upgraded from a class 5 to a class 6. The landing struts were reintroduced and were given extra articulation and could now orient laterally from the ship as well as down and ‘grasp’ large object to allow for safer docking or for towing cargo modules.
Mark V
The Mark V was more a small passenger ship than a cargo ship. The air intakes were all consolidated into a single larger intake outboard on each side. The Upper Deck was almost tripled in width and lengthened by 20 meters the deck became a deluxe passenger deck with several large staterooms, a dining room, dumbwaiter to the kitchen which was relocated to the Main (crew) deck. The bulk holds were still available for the version but usually the space was all converted over to passenger berths. The ship has a serious flaw in that it doesn’t have enough escape pods for all the passengers if both shuttles are not available for evacuations.
Moving about the Ship
There are two primary means of moving about the upper three habitable decks of the ship: the Lift and Ladderway. The term ladder may be a bit confusing for a landlubber - a ladder is shipboard parlance for stairs, the Ladderway is a stairwell connecting the Upper, Main, and Passenger decks.
Access between the Cargo Deck and Passenger Deck is via a separate ladder (set of stairs) in the Main Cargo Hold. Thus people entering the ship through the Main Cargo Airlock (the primary entrance to the ship), must climb one ladder to get to the Passenger Deck before they can gain access to the rest of the ship. This is an intentional security feature of the Fenris Class allowing the crew to prevent outsiders who might have legitimate reasons to be in the Cargo Holds from having access to any of the rest of the ship.
It is also possible, although much more difficult, to get about the ship inside the bulkheads and tween deck areas using the service crawlspaces. You’d have to have a pretty good knowledge of the ship and its much slower and more difficult to do so, but useful in an emergency.
Ship Access
Access to the ship from outside is possible through several airlocks. One forward, one aft, three dorsal, and two ventral.
The primary access point for the ship is the Main Cargo Airlock which is the forward airlock. It is located on the Cargo Deck in the Main Cargo Hold.
The Cargo Deck also has the two ventral airlocks, one is in the center of the deck in the Main Cargo Hold. The other is a concealed airlock, hidden in the Secret Cargo Hold.
The Passenger Deck provides access to the Aft Passenger Airlock. However, while to actually reach the airlock you descend a ladder and the airlock itself is on the Cargo Deck, but is not accessible from that deck.
The Main Deck, just forward of the Engine Room has the two docking bays for the Ship’s shuttles. The shuttles dock on the aft dorsal area of the ship’s ‘wing’ with their nose nestled into an alcove which contains the umbilical connections for the shuttle and an airlock into the ship. The same airlock has a second exterior door that allows EVA access to the dorsal surface of the ship even if the shuttles are docked.
The ship also has several escape pods. These pods can be used for emergency egress and, if used, the hatches where they were were fired, could be used to enter the ship.
Airtight Doors
Pressure loss is the second worst nightmare of a spaceship (the first being fire). Every area of the ship is separated from others with airtight doors so that if one area loses pressure the others shouldn’t.
Fenris Class ships use air-tight doors similar to those used on the Firefly class. The doorway is roughly oval shaped but wider on the top than the bottom. About 90% of the door, when it is open, is stored in a space in the bulkhead to one side of the doorway. The door has a single heavy hinge that is at the bottom of the door and it moves to one side and down or the other side and up on this hinge. In the open position, both because of gravity and a heavy spring, the door is not balanced and wants to fall back into the closed position. An electro-magnetic plate in the door’s recess cavity normally holds the door in the open position. If power is lost to the magnet, if a handle is pulled on the door, or if a command is sent to the door from a control panel in the ship then the door slams and locks shut.
Control panels in most compartments of the ship have a ‘panic’ button which cuts power to the the airtight doors on the ship. The Bridge and the Cargo Deck Control Center have controls which allow for closing each door independently or in sets. The only way to open a door once it is shut, and provided it isn’t locked, is to slide it over and up brute strength (a normal person can do this with an effort, a very weak or badly injured person would not be able to).
The electro-magnetic plates which holds the doors open have a tiny capacitor and siren attached to them. When the plate loses power the capacitor, the capacitor continues to power the door for a single second while also powering the siren. Hopefully enough time for someone standing in the doorway at the time to get clear.
The doors are heavy and armored with a small window in them to see into the next compartment. They also have a small sensor that shows, on both sides of the door, what the atmospheric pressure is on the other side. This sensor has its own battery in case ship’s power is lost.
It is a cardinal sin to spacers to ever do something that would interfere with an airtight doors operation unless it's part of repairing some problem with the door..
Defensive Systems
The Xiaohongmao is not a warship. Still the verse is not a friendly place of late and it’s just common sense to be ready for a bit of bother. Note that Fenris Class Ships, as many other classes, can be converted to carry as many (or even more) weapons as warships but they are, in their core, freighters. They lack the armor, structural integrity, and internal cofferdaming of a true warship and as such can not take nearly as much damage as a warship before they are destroyed. This was made especially obvious during the Unification War when the Independent Systems converted many freighters into armed combatants but they proved unable to stand up to the rigors of combat against the Alliance’s true warships. The Independent’s losses were tragically high.
Huntsman
One of Xiaohongmao’s two shuttles, the Huntsman, is armed with two light autocannon.
Each autocannon only has ten rounds but they could be effective weapons against another ship or a ground target. Armed shuttles are frowned on by the Alliance but Douglas bribed an Alliance official to get it legally registered.
Gunroom
In the Chin of the ship, just under the forward end of the Bridge, is the “Gunroom” this is a small special hold that has that open to space forward and below the ship. This hold is designed to carry a wide variety of weapon systems from heavy energy beams, to auto cannons, to rockets.
Currently it houses a coil gun mounted on an articulated arm that can be extended out of the ship and angled to aim the gun around a wide forward, to the sides, above, and below the ship. A coil gun is a small, fast firing small caliber version of a rail gun. It uses magnetic forces to accelerate small pellets of depleted uranium to hypersonic speed.
Coil guns are not anti-shipping weapons. It is primarily used by the ship to defend its Main Cargo Airlock when in potentially hostile environments. Still… it might be able to crack a light space hull or the window of a spaceship. It’s useless against the armored hulls of military ships and so the Alliance doesn’t have any problem with civilians having them.
Electronic Counter Measures
The Xiaohongmao carries fairly decent electronic countermeasure (ECM) systems. ECM are systems used to trick or deceive the sensors. It can be used to make the Xiaohongmao look like something she isn’t, help her avoid detection, jam communications, and defeat weapon targeting systems. Most ships have some fairly weak ECM systems but Xiaohongmao was outfitted with military grade systems when she worked for the Independent Systems during the Unification War and she still has those systems hidden away in secret compartments of her Apha and Bravo decks. The Alliance would not approve of a civilian ship having these systems.
Drones & Decoys
Aris and Pango are very good at building little surprise packages that have turned out to be incredibly useful from time to time. Often they build these into old 55 gallon drums so that they are likely to be overlooked. To help with the deception the valve into the top of the drum leads to a separate compartment that runs the entire length of the drum and is usually filled with some innocuous substance, like syrup, to fool Alliance inspectors.
The Alliance is unlikely to like these types of tools. Some of them may pass with a frown - like a Comm relay or a Peeping Tom. But others fake NAVSATs and Babblers are definitely illegal.
The Alliance is unlikely to like these types of tools. Some of them may pass with a frown - like a Comm relay or a Peeping Tom. But others fake NAVSATs and Babblers are definitely illegal.
NAVSAT trajectory decoys
In a back corner of the Main Cargo Hold is a pallet of eight 55 gallon drums. However these barrels are really disguised short range ECM drones - homemade NAVSAT trajectory decoys. Each barrel has a powerful but short lasting thruster, a ship’s beacon set to mimic Xiaohongmao’s signal, and an ECM emitter to help add to the confusion. In an emergency this pallet can be positioned over the Main Cargo Hold’s Ventral Airlock and dumped into space. A few seconds later each barrel begins to broadcast that it is the Xiaohongmao and then they go jetting off in different directions.
Communication relay satellite
Two other 55 gallon drums in the Main Cargo Hold are communication relay satellites. The Xiaohongmao can drop one of these off somewhere and then fly somewhere else and relay their broadcast symbol through the drone to keep their true location concealed. These can also be used as a ‘crybaby’ to broadcast a false distress signal to draw away noisy Alliance vessels that are getting too close to something the Xiaohongmao doesn’t want them to stumble across.
Flashbang
Another 55 gallon drum in the Main Cargo Hold is a little package which the crew calls a “flashbang” This drum is designed to be dumped off the ship, the ship then flees the area and gets clear. Once the Xiaohongmao is clear the Flashbang detonates. It is a very powerful electromagnetic pulse device to dazzle, or even burn out, the sensors and other electronic systems of any other ships that stay or moved into range of where the Xiaohongmao dumped the flashbang.
Peeping Tom
Another 55 gallon drum kept in the Main Cargo Hold, This one is filled with stealth ECM systems, sensors, and an encrypted transmitter. It is designed to be left in a location and keep the Xiaohongmao apprised of what is going on there without being detected.
Babbler
Xiaohongmao usually has two of these 55 gallon drums tucked away in her Main Cargo Hold. A Babbler is a 55 gallon drum with very scores of small but powerful transmitters. When activated it floods the communications channels all at once with hundreds of hours of compressed data transmissions - old movies, random TV commercials, snippets of com chatter. fake astrogation data, etc. It confuses and jams the communication systems of anyone in range when it activates. Additionally, in the middle of all the chaos, is concealed several computer worms. When an active communication systems listens to the chatter it also ends up uploading the worms into the computers that run it. From there the worms replicate and spread through adjoining computer systems and begin to wreak havoc.
Bomb-bay (potential only)
Potentially the Main Cargo Hold, with its large ventral airlock, could be used as a bombbay. Especially with the cargo crane mounted in the hold overhead being used to move weapons out of the airlock, orienting them any way needed, and then releasing them. It's possible to use the crane this way with huge pallets of missiles or mines to turn a Fenris into an impromptu missile boat or minelayer. Xiaohongmao has never been used this way but it’s possible.
Gundeck (potential only, requires major refit)
Another possible modification for a Fenris Class ship that Xiaohongmao has never had. The entire area of the Upper Deck Common Room and Kitchen can been rebuilt in a shipyard to be a Gun Deck with heavy weapons.
Rear Weapons Hardpoints
Normally Fenris class ships have two structural plates on either side and above of the Pulse Drive to reinforce the Pulse Drive cylinder. During the Unification War Xiaohongmao had a modification done that added weapon hardpoints to the underside of these plates. Xiaohongmao has been known two medium anti-shipping magnetic space mines on these hard points to use against someone pursuing her. Such weapons are illegal so Xiaohongmao doesn’t carry them unless she is expecting trouble.
Chaff & Flare Dispensers
Built into the structural plates on either side of the Pulse Drive are small high speed launchers for dispensing chaff and flares behind the ship to confuse any weapons homing in on the ship as it tries to run away from. Chaff and flare dispensers are legal and actually fairly standard on most ships of this size.
Emergencies and Evacuation
In every compartment of the ship is an emergency locker with several supplies: One or more breath masks and Bod Pods, a fire extinguisher, a multi-tool, drinking water, and emergency rations.
Bod Pods
Bod-pods are, according to most spacers, one of the worst inventions - ever - even if they do - rarely save a life. They are very cheap, very easy to use, and take up little space when stored. They look a like bright yellow bodybag. Once you climb in one and pull a cord and the bag seals and inflates. There are no legs, no arms, no windows. They will keep you alive if atmo is lost but you are helpless once you are inside until someone rescues you. The bag has 2 man-days of life-support. Almost every compartment in the ship has a locker with a couple of these monstrosities for last ditch efforts to save yourself if you can’t reach a shuttle, escape pod, or space-suit. Most spacers say (only partially jokingly) that they would just prefer to die quickly rather than die dumb in a Bod Pod.
In the event of a catastrophic emergency the ship has several methods of evacuation.
Shuttles
The ship carries two short-range shuttles. Each shuttle is designed to carry two crew and eight passengers and has life-support for 20 man-days.
The Vault
At the aft end of the Upper Deck of the ship is a compartment called “The Vault.” This is the most armored and shielded area of the ship and is designed to protect the crew even in the most dire of disasters - crashes, radiation storms, etc. The Vault can also be jettisoned from the ship and serves as an 8-man lifeboat. If jettisoned the Vault has life-support for 40 man-days
Escape Pods
The ship carries four two-man escape pods (two in the Bridge and two in the Crew Passageway. These escape pods fire vertically out of the ship and have 8 man-days of life-support.
Shuttle Airlocks
In the ready rooms attached to each of the Shuttle Airlocks are space-suits for each crew member EVA work plus two other general purpose space suits. Outside each airlock is a compartment with a small repair scooter which is normally used to maneuver (fairly slowly) about the exterior of the ship during repair EVAs. It has an umbilical that can be attached to a space-suit in emergencies to provide up to 2 man-days of life-support.
Cargo Airlocks
In a Starboard Equipment Bay in the Main Cargo Bay are six general purpose space suits. They each have 8 hours of life-support.
Deckplan
Upper Deck (Deck 1)
The upper deck does not run the entire length of the ship. It is only about a third of the length of the ship and is located amidships. The compartments of this deck (from bow to aft) are:
Common Room
The entire forward end of the Upper Deck is a large open area shaped like a D with the flat end aft. The curved forward bulkhead and much of the overhead is made of large windows providing a magnificent view outside the ship.
Along the curved forward bulkhead under the windows is a long couch. At the end of the couch on either side are large sets of shelves and storage cabinets for books and games. Aft of these cabinets on the port side is a small table with several chairs where crew can play games together, have a quiet conversation, or do some work. On the starboard side are several comfy couches and armchairs arranged to view a large entertainment center mounted on the starboard aft bulkhead (the forward bulkhead of the kitchen storeroom).
Along the curved forward bulkhead under the windows is a long couch. At the end of the couch on either side are large sets of shelves and storage cabinets for books and games. Aft of these cabinets on the port side is a small table with several chairs where crew can play games together, have a quiet conversation, or do some work. On the starboard side are several comfy couches and armchairs arranged to view a large entertainment center mounted on the starboard aft bulkhead (the forward bulkhead of the kitchen storeroom).
The port side of the center area of this large room is a large round table for ship meetings, meals, and socializing. Aft of this table is a large archway leading into the kitchen. Concealed in the carpet under this table is an access hatch to the lower levels of the ship.
Aft of the common room are three distinct areas. The Kitchen, the Kitchen’s Storeroom, and a passageway aft to the Lift, Ladderway, airlock and Vault.
Upper Deck Passageway
A passageway extends aft from the Common Room connecting the other compartments of this deck. Aft of the Kitchen and Kitchen Stores it has a short cross passageway that leads to the Lift and Ladderway while it continues further aft to the Dorsal Airlock and the Vault.
Where the passageways cross are four airtight doors, one sealing of each direction of the passageways. In the overhead at the center of the intersection is a mirrored dome so crewmembers can see who is coming down the other passageway to avoid collisions. The mirrored dome is a one-way mirror and inside has a camera security system that can be monitored from the Bridge, Captain’s Office, Engineering, or Cargo Deck Control Center.
Kitchen
On the port side of the ship, just aft of the Common room, is a full kitchen.
The Kitchen is open to the Common Room via a broad arch A similar arch opens the kitchen up to the Upper Deck passageway to starboard. Pango has painted these arches with climbing grapevines and little flowers making them look like trellises.
The port bulkhead is a set of cabinets with a built-in sink and washing station. The cabinets continue around on the aft bulkhead where they have several built-in kitchen appliances.
The center of the compartment is dominated by a kitchen island for food preparation. The center of this island has a small ship’s stove inset in it. A ship’s stove is designed to operate safely on spaceships where open flame are usually very dangerous. It has built in fire-suppression systems and environmental systems to gather in carbon monoxide and smoke before it escapes into the general atmosphere of the ship.
Kitchen Storage
On the starboard side of the ship, opposite from the kitchen, is a storage room for kitchen supplies. Access to this compartment is through a hatch into the Upper Deck Passageway.
Laundry
Just aft of the Kitchen Storage compartment is the ship’s Laundry. Here is a small but efficient washer and dryer, several storage compartments, a table for folding clothing, and a clothing rack for hanging clothing.
Lift and Ladderway
Aft of the Kitchen and Kitchen Storage is a cross passage. To the port this cross-passage leads to a Lift (elevator). To the starboard it leads to a switchback Ladderway (stairwell). Both the Lift and the Ladderway provide access to the lower decks of the ship down to the Passenger Deck.
Halfway down both the Lift shaft and the Ladderway to the Main Deck are sealed hatches that provide access to the crawl spaces of the Alpha Deck.
At the point where the two passageways intersect there is a spherical mirror mounted in the overhead that provides viability to crew down the cross passages to avoid collisions. The mirror is a one-way mirror with security cameras inside to provide a view to the command deck and captain’s cabin.
Also at the point where the passageways intersect all four routes can be sealed with airtight doors. The doors can be individually opened or closed manually but are designed so they automatically close if a ‘panic’ button is tripped from several locations in the ship or if power is lost.
Crew Vault
The aft airtight door at the intersection leads into “The Vault” The Vault is the most armored, protected, and shielded area of the ship. It is a circular chamber with eight crash couches (the location where a ninths couch would be is where the door into the vault is located). In the center of the chamber is a heavy ladder leading up to a circular airlock hatch overhead.
This compartment serves three primary purposes:
1. Dorsal Passenger Airlock.
This compartment serves three primary purposes:
1. Dorsal Passenger Airlock.
The outer hull of the ship around the overhead hatch is a universal docking ring. The entire compartment can be used as an airlock and if the ship is docking in space to a larger vessel it often uses this airlock for the connection.
2. Emergency Shelter
This armored and shielded compartment is the crew’s emergency shelter. If the ship is about to encounter especially hazardous conditions - radiation storms, solar flares, meteor showers, etc. the crew they can shelter in this compartment until the threat passes.
3. Escape Pod
The entire chamber is able to be jettisoned from the ship as an escape pod. One of the crash couches has primitive navigation controls and the pod has thrusters which can be used to steer, albeit very clumsily, to dock with a rescuing spaceship or to make an emergency landing on a planet.
Alpha Deck (Deck A)
This utility deck runs most of the length of the ship and has four general sections. This deck has several crawl spaces to provide crew access to the environmental systems, power conduits, and other utilities that run through this deck.
Dorsal Avionics
The forward end of the Alpha Deck, which is over the Bridge and forward crew berths is about 1.5 meters thick to accommodate powerful sensors, avionics systems, and the ship’s primary communication array.
Central Alpha Deck
The area directly under the Upper Deck provides life support and power both to the upper deck and to the the crew quarters area and the engineering area of Main Deck.
Upper Wings
Many of the systems contained in the ship’s wings are accessed through crawl spaces from the Central Apha Deck, others are accessed from the Bravo Deck For simplicity all the systems in the ship’s wings are described in the Bravo Deck area of this document.
Shuttle Docks (exterior only)
Fenris class ships are able to dock two shuttles or exterior fuel pods. The docking harpoint for these are aft on the dorsal surface of the Upper Wing. One on each side of the ship.
Note: the stock images of the Fenris Class ship attached to this file are of the Mark I version of the Fenris. The Xiaohongmao is a Mark IV which is slightly longer in this area of the ship and has the shuttles dock lengthwise rather than crosswise.
The nose of the docked shuttle is held sheltered in an alcove aft and into the raise portion of the ship’s ‘wing’ where it mates with utility umbilicals and an airlock to the shuttles side. This side airlock was a significant improvement over earlier version of the Fenris Class, which has shuttles dock crosswise and then were accessed via a ladder to a hatch in the ventral side of the shuttle. By using the shuttle’s side hatch individuals and cargo can be moved more easily between the shuttle and the ship.
While the Shuttle Docks and their umbilical connections are considered part of the Alpha Deck and described here, the airlocks and the docked shuttles are part of the Main Deck and described in that section of this document.
Aft Alpha Deck
This area of Bravo Deck is the area to port, starboard, and Aft of the Grav Spinner. On both the port and starboard sides it has the upper aspect of the Grave Spinner’s Mag Clamp which stabilizes the Spinner, controls its speed, and houses some of of the Inertia reduction systems.
Just outboard of the Mag Clamp are a pair of dorsally firing thrusters which can be fired to pitch the tail of the ship down and its nose up. This area also has a lot of Heat Management radiation surfaces to radiate waste heat into space.
Aft of the Grav Spinner and on either side of the Pulse Drive the Alpha Deck narrows and extends two structural wedges back providing additional structural support to the Pulse Drive’s exhaust cylinder. The rear most end of this structure, right next to the Pulse Drive’s exhaust cylinder are two (one to port and one to starboard) small but rapid firing chaff and flare dispensers for ship defense. On the Xiaohongmao, the underside of this reinforcing structure on both sides has been modified to include a weapons hardpoint. Xiaohongmao used this during the Unification War for a couple of defensive weapons, but she rarely uses them now.
Main Deck (Deck 2)
This deck runs nearly the entire length of the ship. From the bow to the aft of the ship the areas of this deck are:
Bridge
This compartment is the command and control center of the ship. It is shaped like a D with the flat end aft. The room is actually half again as high as the rest of the deck (¼ above and ¼ below the normal range of the Main Deck, extending into area normally used by the Alpha and Bravo equipment Decks.
The rounded forward bulkhead is composed mostly of large windows providing an unobstructed view outside the ship. Along this curved forward bulkhead is a sunken walkway where crew can walk to look out the windows. There are two short (four steps) ladder down to this walkway, one on either side of the Pilot’s station.
The rounded forward bulkhead is composed mostly of large windows providing an unobstructed view outside the ship. Along this curved forward bulkhead is a sunken walkway where crew can walk to look out the windows. There are two short (four steps) ladder down to this walkway, one on either side of the Pilot’s station.
In the center of the room is a raised platform (so the deck is even with the rest of Main Deck). At the front end of this platform is the pilot’s station. Aft of the Pilot’s station on the Port side is the Captain’s station. Starboard of the Captain’s station is the Electronics station.
Aft of the three command stations is the back bulkhead of this chamber in the middle of which is an air-tight door to the Crew Passageway.
The aft bulkhead behind the Captain’s station and the Navigator’s station are four small rooms (two to each side) The room closest to the outer bulkhead on each side is a small two-man escape pod. The inner room on the Captain’s side is the ship’s armory. The inner room on the Electronics side is an equipment locker.
Accessible from the walkway around the command stations just under the Captain’s station is a hidden hatch that leads to the Utility Room described in Deck B. The upper half of this Utility room is the space under the command platform, the lower half is area that is normally part of Deck B.
Crew Passageway
This Passageway runs about third of the the length of the ship along the ship’s centerline on this deck. It runs from the airtight door at the forward end that leads to the Bridge back to another airtight door which leads to the Engineering Passageway.
In the middle of this passageway are small airlocks to a pair of two-man escape pods, one to port and one to starboard. These escape pods fire vertically out of the ship.
Just forward of the escape pods, and again just forward of the aft airtight door, rungs built into the bulkhead which assist the crew in using the hatches above and below to access the service service crawlspaces in Deck A and B.
Along this corridor on the port and starboard side are several hatches to the crew’s quarters.
Crew Quarters
The Fenris Class is designed to provide for some degree of customization for the crew berths. Usually this class of ship runs with a crew of four and so the default is four fairly large berths (each about half again as large as those on a Firefly). However the class is also designed to easily divide these rooms into two smaller rooms so a ship could actually have up to eight small individual berths.
Xiaohongmao currently has divided three of these compartments into smaller berths and kept one full sized giving them seven compartments.
Most of the berths have some common elements: A Wash Area, a Bunk, and a Dresser.
Wash Areas
Tucked into one corner of each crew berth cabin is a compact lavatory. The wash area is separated from the Bunk area by a bulkhead. The lower third of this bulkhead is metal and the upper two-thirds is a nearly opaque polymer. The side of the wash area that opens into rest of the cabin can be closed off with a shower curtain.
The floor in the area is slightly sunken with extra drainage. The outboard bulkhead has a sink and shower head built into the bulkhead. Under the sink is a commode which retracts into the bulkhead when not in use. Since water is much easier to recycle than paper the commode has a built in bidet and dryer for cleaning the crewmember after use. Above the sink several drawers are built into the bulkhead for storage of toiletries.
Bunks
The bunk takes up two-thirds of the outboard side of the cabin. It is actually a combination several storage compartments and a retractable mattress. The mattress can be ‘deployed’ for sleeping or ‘retracted’ to become a couch. The space shown in the floorplan is the bunk in ‘retracted’ mode. It takes up another quarter meter of space into the cabin when deployed.
Area A of the diagram are three storage compartments that run the length of the bunk. The sloped side is hinged at the top and allows access into these storage units. Because of how the door flips up to access these areas the crew refers to them as storage flippers. The top of these flippers is useful as a shelf and at the ‘head’ of the bunk has a console with a reading lamp and intra-ship communication panel.
Area B is the frame and mattress of the bunk. When retracted about a third of the mattress is stowed under the upper storage compartments. When deployed the bunk is wider and thus more comfortable to sleep on.
Area C is three more storage areas. Each is a large drawer under the bunk which can be pulled open the bunk is in the retracted position.
Area D is three hidden storage compartments, one behind each storage drawer and under each storage flipper. To access these compartments the bunk must be in the deployed position, then you can open one of the flippers, remove any of its contents, then remove its bottom piece.
Dresser
The dresser is a combo desk and storage area.
One ‘leg’ of the desk is three drawers. The other leg is a cabinet. Between the two is another drawer and a space for your legs when you are using the desk or to store the desk’s chair when it’s not in use. Three small shelves are arranged in a stack on one side and a longer shelf across the top.
Above the desk against the bulkhead is a monitor which can also be set to reflect to serve as a mirror (it can even magnify your reflection. On top of the desk on the side over the cabinet is a computer terminal linked to the ship’s library and entertainment database.
Captain’s Office
This compartment is the most forward cabin on the starboard side of the Crew Quarters area. The cabin is being used as the Captain’s Office.
A desk is situated slightly forward and starboard of the center of this cabin. A computer terminal is built into the desk. The captain’s large comfortable office chair sits behind the desk between it and the starboard bulkhead. Two stools are usually stuck in the forward port corner of the cabin but can be placed on the other side of the desk for crew to use when talking with the captain.
The starboard bulkhead of the cabin is entirely covered with built in cabinets, shelves, and drawers filled with books, curios, ship’s logs, paperwork, and charts.
The port bulkhead has the hatch out to the passageway on the aft side and a large portrait of the Captain’s father on the forward side.
The forward bulkhead on the port side is dominated by a large reproduction of an Earth-that-was oil painting - a three-masted sailing vessel of some sort battling through a stormy sea with the name HMS Lullaby visible on the stern. The starboard side of this bulkhead has an array of eight photographs of the Captain’s family from before the family was broken up by the Alliance.
The aft bulkhead on the port side has a hatch into the Captain’s Quarters. On the starboard side is a framed and very detailed map of the entire Verse.
Captain Douglas Mercor’s Quarters
The Captain’s quarters accommodations are fairly typical: bunk, wash area, and dresser. The entire floor (except the wash area) is carpeted in a plush medium grey rug.
The cabin is unusual in that it does not have a hatch into the Passageway but rather one into the Captain’s Office which is just forward of this compartment.
One unusual feature of the cabin is that the port bulkhead has a compartment that stores a table that can be folded down into the open area of the compartment and with two attached stools. The underside of the table, which is visible when the table is stored upright in the bulkhead, is a detailed monitor of the ship’s systems and their status. When the table is folded down into the cabin the bulkhead the table had been covering has a painting of a idyllic countryside, probably someplace on New Canaan.
Hsu & Pango T’ang’s Quarters
The aft starboard compartment of the crew berth section is the only cabin that was not subdivided into two separate quarters.
Pango T’ang did had some light bulkheads and a hatch around the wash area to to make it as separate bathroom. The wash area of the bathroom has been enlarged about 50% (usefull for showers for two). The aft bulkhead of the bathroom has a vanity with an extra washbasin.
Pango T’ang did had some light bulkheads and a hatch around the wash area to to make it as separate bathroom. The wash area of the bathroom has been enlarged about 50% (usefull for showers for two). The aft bulkhead of the bathroom has a vanity with an extra washbasin.
The entire aft end of the main cabin is dominated by the luxury of a full-sized bed. Hsu and Pango refer to this area as their Bedroom. The bed is flanked on on either side by nightstands, each with a reading lamp. The bed is covered with a thick, brightly patterned, hand-crochet quilt. The quilt has a lot of mistakes in it but is clean and obviously well cared for..
The forward bulkhead that is not enclosed by the bathroom is taken up by the Dresser.
The port bulkhead aft of the hatch out to the Passageway, is covered with Hsu’s collection of ancient martial arts tools and weapons. Pango has arranged a series of elegantly painted oriental screens in front of all this display so she doesn’t have to look at it all the time.
The entire aft bulkhead of the bedroom is hand-painted countryside scene dominated by a large tree. The upper branches of the tree spread across the overhead over the bed. In the spaces around and between the branches and leaves over the bed the overhead is painted with tiny dots of transparent paint that are invisible when the cabin’s lights and absorb energy from the cabin lights. When the cabin lights are turned off these flecks of paint glow and twinkle like stars over the bed. The flecks of luminous paint slowly losing energy until they go dark after about an hour. When the cabin lights are turned back on the paint gradually recharges to repeat the effect again.
On the aft bulkhead of the bathroom, on the side of the bed, Pango has hung a collage of photos of her and her family back on Regina and one large photo of the the Xiaohongmao landed on planet with the entire crew clustered together in front of her.
Pango has also painted a combined floral and geometric design around the hatch to the passageway and the hatch into the bathroom. These designs extend up over the hatches and across the overhead to the other hatch so they form a flowered arch between the doors that you walk ‘under’ to get between the Dresser and the Bedroom.
Pango has also painted a combined floral and geometric design around the hatch to the passageway and the hatch into the bathroom. These designs extend up over the hatches and across the overhead to the other hatch so they form a flowered arch between the doors that you walk ‘under’ to get between the Dresser and the Bedroom.
Wendolen Te’Lanna’s Quarters
The foremost cabin on the port side belongs to the ship’s Pilot, Wendy Te’Lanna. This gives her easy immediate access to the bridge of the ship in an emergency. The first thing one notices when entering this cabin is how spartan… almost barren it is. The deck and most of the walls are bare steel. The cabin has the standard bunk, dresser, and wash area which are clean and unadorned.
The cabin doesn’t seem to match Wendy’s bright and fiery personality. It’s a holdover of her days in the Alliance Navy when she was required to keep her quarters perfectly squared away and free of clutter and personal effects.
This cabin a bit unusual in that it has two hatches. Like most of the other it has a hatch to the Crew Passageway (this in the starboard bulkhead). The second hatch is in the aft bulkhead and leads to Aris’s Quarters.
The Cabin isn’t entirely barren. Wendy finds crocheting to be a way to calm her hyperactive mind so she can sleep. She’s not very good at it and the rest of the crew have learned to praise her efforts without speculating (at least openly) on what it’s supposed to be. Between her Dresser and the hatch to the passageway is a rack where she usually keeps her current project along with a basket of crochet hooks and several skeins of yarn.
The only other personal adornment in the room is a large framed photograph of an Alliance patrol ship in deep space and executing a pulse burn. This is the the Duǎn jiàn, the ship Wendy piloted when she was in the Alliance navy during the Unification War. The photograph is hung on the aft bulkhead port of the hatch over the head of her bunk.
Aris Dubois’s Quarters
Aris and Wendy make for an interesting couple - a case of the saying that opposites attract. They are almost polar opposite in personality and both of them have berths that reflect almost the opposite of what you would expect from their personalities. Wendy is a feisty redheaded gregarious extravert whose quarters are spartan and almost completely undecorated. Aris is a severe introvert, quiet, and guarded. She has very pale coloring which, when combined with her personality, cause many upon meeting her to consider her an ‘ice queen.’ But when you enter her quarters your eyes are dazzled by an explosion of colors - colors of every hue everywhere.
She has the standard bunk, dresser, and wash area but every EVERY surface of her cabin is covered in layer after layer of color. The deck is covered with multiple layers of throw rugs. The bulkheads and ceiling are draped in swaths of silk, the bunk is piled with badly crocheted but brightly colored blankets.
There are only two pictures in the cabin, both on the shelves of the dresser. Both are fairly small and framed in silver. One is of Aris and Wendy having a picnic together in a field on a red and white checked blanket. Wendy’s head is thrown back in the middle of a laugh and both of them obviously very happy. The other picture is of the entire crew of the Xiaohongmao clustered around a table in some spaceport bar obviously in the midst of gales of laughter while Aris blushes furiously.
Rudy Martinez’s Quarters
Rudy Martinez has two distinct personalities. He public persona of a gruff and fairly stupid womanizer, a mercenary and gun for hire. His personal persona, which he only shows to trusted friends is Dr. Martinez, Ph.d, the educated and thoughtful botanist and chemist. Walking into this cabin a person is confronted immediately by both personalities at the same time - a very disconcerting experience.
The cabin has the standard bunk, wash area, and dresser. The entire aft bulkhead from the bunk to the starboard bulkhead is a set of racks filled with plants. Many of the plants are those Rudy has judged are too dangerous to keep in the hydroponics bay - poisons and powerful drugs that he grows for their pharmaceutical properties or to sell in black markets. But mostly the plants here are flowers. Flowers of every shape and size. When you walk into the cabin you are slapped in the olfactory centers by overpowering smell of dozens of competing but delicious scents.
Then you have the bulkhead over the bunk which is covered with racks and racks of weapons. Several brass knuckles, eight different types of combat knives, a crossed pair of swords, a heavy machete, a stun baton, a cattle prod, a crossbow and quiver of high-tech bolts, five pistols of various calibers, a sniper rifle, a light assault rifle, a not-so-light assault rifle, and even bandoleer of grenades. The first time Aris saw the wall she immediately dubbed it Rudy’s “Shrine of Violence” and the moniker has stuck with the entire crew ever since.
Crew Gymnasium
The aftmost cabin on the port side wasn’t being used by anyone and so the crew has turned it into a Gym for their use. The hatch from this cabin to the Passageway is on the forward end of the starboard bulkhead.
The entire port forward corner of the cabin is filled with compact but complete universal exercise machine. The machine can be used for over a dozen different exercises and is partially automated with a computer to track each user's settings, progress and exercise usage.
The starboard side of the forward bulkhead has a treadmill built into it. The deck of the treadmill folds down to the cabin deck when in use but folds up against the bulkhead and out of the way when not in use.
The starboard read corner of the cabin has a weight bench and rack of of free weights. The rack has latches that must be released before you can remove one of the weights to keep them in place in case the ship undergoes rapid maneuvers or has a rough landing.
The port aft corner of the cabin is where the washroom would have been if the room had been used as a berth. Pango made use of the plumbing utilities to convert the area into a small jacuzzi bath. For safety the bath must be drained when not in use and, just in case someone is using it when there is a power loss to the gravity spinner, several emergency breath masks are racked on the bulkhead nearby. .
Engineering Passageway
This short passageway runs along the centerline of the ship and connects several several important elements of the ship together. It runs from the airtight door to the Crew Passageway aft to the airtight door to the Engine Room. It has two short cross passages that connect to the Lift, the Ladderway, and the shuttle docks. There are two hatches in this area that open into the Workroom and Engineering Stores.
This area is one of the more dangerous areas of the ship and has extra internal sensors and fire suppression equipment built into it.
This area is one of the more dangerous areas of the ship and has extra internal sensors and fire suppression equipment built into it.
Lift and Ladderway
Aft of the crew berth area is cross passage. To the port this cross-passage leads to a Lift (elevator). To the starboard it leads to a switchback Ladderway (stairwell). Both the Lift and the Ladderway provide access up to the Upper Deck and down to the Passenger Deck. Halfway between the Upper Deck and the Main Deck, and again between the Main Deck and the Passenger Deck both the Lift shaft and the Ladderway have sealed hatches providing access to the crawl spaces of the Alpha Deck (above) and the Bravo Deck (below).
At the point where the two passageways intersect there is a spherical mirror mounted in the overhead that provides viability to crew down the cross passages to avoid collisions. The mirror is a one-way mirror with security cameras inside to provide a view to the command deck and captain’s cabin.
Also at the point where the passageways intersect all four routes can be sealed with airtight doors. The doors can be individually opened or closed manually but are designed so they automatically close if a ‘panic’ button is tripped from several locations in the ship or if power is lost.
Workroom
A hatch in the port bulkhead of the Engineering Passageway opens into a small workshop. The bulkheads are lined with work benches with stations for machining parts, making electrical components, and other such work. This room also has Rudy’s biochemical lab where he refines his poisons, drugs, and other compounds. The power tools and chemicals used in this room are hazardous and the room has extra internal sensors and fire-suppression equipment.
Engineering Stores
A hatch to starboard across the passageway from the Workroom leads to Engineering Stores. This room is used to store spare parts for the engines, environment units, and other critical ship's system. A ladder bracketed to the inboard bulkhead shared with the Engineering Passageway aids crewmembers in accessing the hatch in the overhead and another in the deck which lead to the service service crawlspaces in Deck A and B.
Shuttle Dock Airlocks
Another cross-passage here leads to several chambers which form the Shuttle Dock Airlocks. The inner chamber is larger. It stores the EVA suits for the crew (three to port and three to starboard) plus one more general purpose space suit to either side (four suits total each side). Several lockers store tools that may be needed for external repairs to the ship and there is enough room for several people to dawn their suits at the same time.
Aft of this chamber is a airlock which can hold two two suited individuals. This airlock has three airtight doors: One forward into the ship, one to the side into the shuttle (if it’s docked), and one aft out onto the aft dorsal hull of the ship. When a shuttle is docked it creates a hard seal with the ship and the airtight the forward and shuttle airtight doors can be locked open for easier access to and from the shuttle.
Outside of the ship opposite of the aft airtight door from the shuttle, is a small alcove where a repair sled is stored. This little scooter can be used during EVA’s to move around the ship and to carry equipment for repairs.
Short-Range Shuttles (2)
The Xiaohongmao carries two short-range shuttles named Huntsman and Grandma
Size: 25x13x10 feet
Tonnage: 20 tons
Speed: Class 1 (thrusters only, subsonic atmospheric flight)
Crew: Pilot, Copilot
Life Support; 20 man-days
Fuel: 1 ton (1,000 hours of operation)
Cargo: 12 tons or up to eight passengers on fold-down benches.
Armament: (Huntsman only) 2 light autocannon (10 rounds each)
Smart Paint: (Grandma only) Grandma has paint composed of nanotech machines. This enables the pilot or co-pilot to change its paint scheme from inside the shuttle. The shuttle structure itself cannot be changed, just the colors and patterns of its external paint job.
Engine Room
The aft end of the Engineering Passageway ends in an airtight door. Behind this door is a flight of four steps down into a fairly large Engine Room. The engine room actually occupies both the Main Deck, Deck B, and the Passenger deck.
The center of the room is dominated by a large spinning cylinder. This is the Radion Accelerator Core (RAC) and is used to control the fusion reaction of the main engine.
Aft of the RAC, against the aft bulkhead, is the ship’s reactor. The Xiaohongmao’s reactor is trace compression block fusion engine. It includes four EVT29-6000-A120 pulse-feedback generators are arranged around the reactor in an X pattern and inject compressed hydrogen into the reactor then extract charged hydrogen ions and helium. The hydrogen is used to power the ship’s Ion and Pulse Drives. The helium can be used as an inert reaction mass in the Ion engines or is jettisoned from the ship.
Note: for those familiar with Firefly Class ships the RAC is the spinning thing in the Firefly Engine Room, the Firefly’s fusion reactor is actually in a utility area underneath the Engine Room. The Fenris Class puts both the RAC and the reactor in the same room and in line with each other where they work more efficiently. However the arrangement requires the Engine Room to be much larger than that of the Firefly.
Built into the aft bulkhead, on either side of the fusion engine the EVT generators are two Hydrogen-Oxygen Fuel Cells. They are needed to ‘prime’ the fusion engine back up to full power if it is ever turned off and needs to be restarted restarted from a cold state. They are also backup power sources for the ship. They have the added benefit of providing water as a waste product when they are in use).
The port and starboard bulkheads have the controls and engineering access ports for the ship’s two Kadmar Type IV hybrid ion drives.
Port of the ladder up to the Engineering Passageway the forward bulkhead has rungs which are used to climb up or down to a pair of hatches. The hatch in the overhead accesses crawl spaces in the Alpha Deck. Directly below this hatch is another in the deck of the room which leads to crawl spaces in the Bravo Deck.
Plates in the deck of the Engine Room can be opened to access the ship’s water, heat, and waste management systems which are located in the Bravo Deck under this compartment.
Grav Spinner (external only)
Aft of the Engine Room is the ship’s Grav Spinner. A grav spinner is a large flywheel that spins around the ship’s central axis of mass. In Firefly class ships the spinner is combined with the pulse drive and several other systems to create a single large ‘bulb’ at the aft of the ship which gives the class the distinctive look which it is named after. The Fenris class (except for than the Mark II) has a more traditional design with the spinner and pulse drive being attached to each other but still distinctly separate units and without a bulbous the outer housing.
Grav spinners take time and a lot of energy to get up to speed, but once one is going they take very little energy to remain operating, or if it has a source of gravity to work with, actually produces its own power which it can feed back to the ship. The Xiahongmao’s spinner, when it is in operations, spins around the central axis of ship and has a distinct blue glow emitted from 15 energy storage cells evenly spaced around its outer edge.
A grav spinner that is up to speed is a ‘sump’ which absorbs and then stores large amounts of gravimetric energy and then can use it in several ways important for a spaceship.
1. Screening
This is is an effect where the grav spinner neutralizes the pull of gravity experienced between two objects. In this case the ship and something else - usually a planet. This makes the ship effectively weightless when it is in a gravity well - although it doesn’t negate the ship’s mass so the ship still needs powerful engines to push it about.
2. Artificial Gravity
The grav spinner can release a low-level field of gravity in a bubble around the ship. This provides gravity for the crew to live and work in rather than having to deal with continual weightlessness or the complications of ships designed to use centrifugal forces.
3. Inertial Compensator
The spinner can absorbs and cancels inertia from acceleration to keep the crew from being crushed when the ship maneuvers. There is a serious limitation to this function though - the system needs to know the acceleration is coming so it can calculate how to counteract it. Because of this it doesn’t keep the crew from being shaken from external forces the ship’s A.I. didn’t see coming.
Occasionally this function of the spinner can become slightly out of synch with the actual acceleration of the ship which causes a bad lurching sensation as the ship’s accelerates and decelerates is not quite being countered at exactly the same time.
Rarely (fortunately very, very rarely) this function of the spinner might suddenly fail. If this happens and the ship accelerates powerfully crew can be badly injured or killed and while cargo and equipment can rip loose and hurl devastatingly through the ship.
4. Inertia Reduction
While the Screen can cancel the gravimetric attraction between the ship and other objects and the Inertial Compensator can absorb acceleration forces, there is a third critical element in moving an object - its mass. Mass is critical in how much effort it takes to move an object.
The grav spinner, by aligning the forces of the Screen and the artificial gravity fields against each other can artificially negate much of the ship’s mass for short moments. This, combined with the Inertial Compensator, are critical to the operation of the Pulse Drive which can be used to nearly instantly accelerate the ship temporarily nearly mass-less ship to enormous speeds.
The grav spinner, by aligning the forces of the Screen and the artificial gravity fields against each other can artificially negate much of the ship’s mass for short moments. This, combined with the Inertial Compensator, are critical to the operation of the Pulse Drive which can be used to nearly instantly accelerate the ship temporarily nearly mass-less ship to enormous speeds.
Ion Drives
The primary drives of the ship are twin Kadmar Type IV hybrid ion drives, mounted one each to either side of the engine room, wide enough apart that they clear the grave spinner as they extend further aft out the aft end of the ship.
These drives use hydrogen ions and helium as reaction mass to propel the ship in space. The are nowhere near as fast as the pulse drive but are much more fuel efficient. When the ship is in atmosphere these drives operate as scramjets adding air which has been pulled in through air intakes as a reaction mass multiplier.
These drives are one of the reasons the Fenris class is categorized as a “Fast” freighter. They enable the ship to move quickly around over short distances.
These drives are one of the reasons the Fenris class is categorized as a “Fast” freighter. They enable the ship to move quickly around over short distances.
Pulse Drive (external only)
Xiaohongmao has the standard Fenris class ship’s Kadmar Engineering R7a59-Y Class 6 Pulse drive. This drive is the other reason the Fenris class is categorized as a “Fast Freighter.” It makes the Fenris class one of the fastest freighters in the Verse over long distances. Only passenger ships, couriers, some private ships, and military vessels are normally quicker. A class 6 pulse drive is about 50% faster than the class 4 pulse drives mounted by most Firefly class freighters or the Class 5 drive that was mounted on the earlier models of the Fenris class.
The Pulse Drive is located aft of the grave spinner on the ship’s central axis. It looks like a blunt heavy hollow cylinder. The interior glows with a yellow light when the drive is online. This light brightens just before a burn and then the ship ejects a powerful mass of radioactive ions out of the aft end of the cylinder when the burn occurs to accelerate the ship.
Pulse drives are the principal means of interstellar travel in the Verse. The grav spinner is essential to the safe operation of the pulse drive. The inertial compensator keeps the enormous acceleration from killing the crew and the inertia reduction makes the ship have temporarily less effective mass for the drive to have to push so it is easier to accelerate.
The Pulse Drive is located aft of the grave spinner on the ship’s central axis. It looks like a blunt heavy hollow cylinder. The interior glows with a yellow light when the drive is online. This light brightens just before a burn and then the ship ejects a powerful mass of radioactive ions out of the aft end of the cylinder when the burn occurs to accelerate the ship.
Pulse drives are the principal means of interstellar travel in the Verse. The grav spinner is essential to the safe operation of the pulse drive. The inertial compensator keeps the enormous acceleration from killing the crew and the inertia reduction makes the ship have temporarily less effective mass for the drive to have to push so it is easier to accelerate.
The pulse drive is, in some ways, a large space going afterburner. It uses huge amounts of fuel in a very short but powerful ‘burn’ to fling the ship forward as tremendous speed. Since there is almost no resistance in space after the burn the ship continues to move at that speed in that direction until something acts to counter it.
A single burn consumes almost 10 tons of hydrogen fuel in a single massive ‘afterburn.’ That is about one-fifth of what the Xiaohongmao normally carries. Because of this pulse burns are usually used to start long trips after the astrogator has carefully plotted a to make sure they will end up close enough to their destination to use their thrusters or Ion drives to cross any remaining distance.
Bravo Deck (Deck B)
Bravo Deck is the second equipment deck. It is located under the main deck.
This deck includes environmental and power systems lie the Apha Deck but also has some fairly significant systems not found in the Apha Deck such as the reaction control thrusters (RCS) and the “Chin” of the spacecraft.
The Chin
This is the area of the Bravo Deck located under the Command deck. It has three main sub-areas. The Gunroom, the Works, and the Utility Room
Gunroom
The Gunroom is a small compartment in the very forward part of the deck. The room can be used to mount light anti-ship weapons and/or heavy anti-personnel weapons and their associated sensor equipment. The Xiaohongmao does not normally carry anti-shipping weapons but does usually mount a light rapid firing coilgun (which magnetically accelerated ammunition, like railgun but on a smaller scale).
Mainly this weapon is to cover the Main Cargo Airlock in an emergency but it could, conceivably, be used to crack a window or light hull of another spaceship. It would be useless against a military grade hull. Since the weapon is magnetic it does not need chemical propellants or atmosphere to fire and can fire several dozen rounds per second. It’s magazine carries 1500 shots of depleted uranium shells.
The weapon is mounted on swivel at the end of an extendable ram. When in use a hatch is opened in the outer hull of the ship and the ram extends forward and down outside where the weapon has field of fire all around the front of the ship and in the area before the Main Cargo Airlock.
The Works
This is all of the exterior area of the deck along the outer hull under the Command Deck. This area carries the ship’s avionics, primary sensors, communication arrays, ECM, etc. The hull directly under the Command Deck, which is over the area immediately before the Main Cargo Airlock’s outer door, includes several spotlights and scanners for security over what is coming and going into the ship through the Cargo lock, this includes an Explosives scanner,
Utility Room
Most of Bravo Deck is not quite tall enough for a fella to stand erect so you end up doing a lot of crawling about through crawl ways and working on things on your belly. But the nose of the ship has some mighty critical systems that need a lot of tinkering so access to the Gunroom and the Works is provided by a room in the interior that is large enough for a guy to not feel all claustrophobic. This is because the upper third of it is actually the space under the raised platform in the Bridge where the three command stations are located. Access to the Utility room is via a hidden hatch in the Bridge, although this is standard for all Fenris class ships so it’s not a very tight secret.
Thusters
24 reaction thrusters are spread about the ship in 12 pairs.
The forward most pairs are located to port and another pair to starboard of the Chin. These are forward firing and used to decelerate or back the ship. Immediately adjacent and outboard of these are two more pairs, these oriented to fire laterally and used to turn the nose of the ship to port or starboard.
Two more pairs are located on the Cargo Deck directly below the Wings. These are Oriented diagonally away from the ship’s center of mass. These are used mainly to make minor adjustments to the ship’s position when it is hovering over an area before landing or while hovering and taking on cargo through the Ventral Cargo Airlock.
Located above and below the Ion Engines just outboard of the Grav Spinner. Two pairs (one over the port engine and one over the starboard engine) are oriented to fire dorsally. The other two pairs, located in the same places on the ventral side of the engines) fire ventrally. These thrusters are used to pitch the ship up or down or, if fired in opposite pairs (i.e. the port dorsal with the starboard ventral or vice versa) to rotate the ship around its long axis.
The final two pairs of thrusters are located directly between the Ion Engine’s aft end and the Pulse Drive. Both are aft facing and used to nudge the ship forward in delicate maneuvers where the engines would be too powerful.
The Wings
The Fenris Class has ‘wings’ to either side of the ship’s central core. While these wings are technically mostly on the same level as the Main Deck they are not considered habitables areas of the ship and so are categorized as part of the Bravo Deck. The wings have three primary sub-areas: The Air Intakes, the Fuel Storage, the Engine Pods, and the Tail Booms.
Air Intakes
Each side of the ship has three massive air-intakes. The forward four intakes feeds air into the Ion Drives when they are operated as scamjets. The aft intakes are used to gather air and interstellar hydrogen into one of two ‘Crackers’ which separates out oxygen, nitrogen and water for the ship’s environmental systems, and hydrogen for the fuel tanks.
Fuel Storage
The primary fuel of starships is Hydrogen. Fenris Class ships normally carry 50 tons of hydrogen in a supercooled liquid state in tanks in 5 five ton tanks in each wing. Additional fuel to extend the ship’s range can be stored either in a detachable container taking up the space of one of the ship’s shuttles on the ship’s shuttle docks, or stowed the cargo hold. The ship’s bulk storage bays are not normally able to store supercooled liquid hydrogen but could be modified to do so.
Fenris class ships are designed to create their own fuel from gathering interstellar hydrogen and hydrogen from planetary atmospheres. This both extends their fight time and reduces operation costs. They cannot make more fuel than they use in flying around so they still do need to ‘tank up’ when they can but they can do so less often than most other classes of ships.
Typically freighters of this size consume about 1 ton of fuel for every 10 hours of flight time but the Fenris Class - as ‘fast freighter’ with extra engine systems - usually only gets about 8 hours of flight time per ton but can make up slightly more than the difference with their hydrogen gathering systems. Overall they average about 12 hours of flight time per ton. This means that a Fenris - carrying 50 tons of fuel, has the same range as a Firefly that carries 60.
Overburning increases speed by approximately 15% but doubles fuel consumption. Each pulse burn expends approximately 10 tons of fuel.
Engine Pods
Fenris class ships carry two outrigger engine pods on the ‘tips’ of their wings. For Xiaohongmao these are HL-Knight 34 mod-4 units. These pods are designed to operate as turbine engines at low atmospheric speeds and convert into ramjets at supersonic speeds, and as pure rocket engines when the ship is not in atmosphere. There are mounted on a movable hydraulic swivel which can rotate the engine 210 degrees in the vertical axis and 20 degrees in the horizontal. These pods can be used to provide the Xiaohongmao with VTOL capabilities.
Tail Booms
Outboard from the Ion Drives the ship has two long tail booms that extend from just aft and outboard of the grav spinner well aft of the ship where they thin and spread into a set of tailfins. These tailfins are maneuverable and covered with of photovoltaic (solar panel) materials. (not seen on the attached images of the ship since this was not introduced until the Mark IV).
In atmosphere the fins maneuverability is used to provide stability and maneuvering to the ship in flight. In space, or when the ship is landed, the fins are angled to gather solar rays and convert them to energy.
The rest of the boom’s surface area is covered with heat exchangers and is used by the ship’s heat management system to radiate waste heat to space.
Each boom has a single crawlspace to access it for mainances. This crawl space is accessed from the Bravo Deck. However, when the booms are being used to radiate waste heat these crawl spaces are uncomfortably hot to be in..
Landing & Grasping Struts
The ship’s four heavy articulated struts are stored in compartments on the same level as the Passenger Deck but are considered part of Bravo Deck since they are not accessible from the Passenger Deck and are not considered habitable parts of the ship. One is on either side and above above the cargo airlock.
These struts seem slender for a ship this size but are incredibly tough and designed to handle rugged terrain and hard landings. Each ends in four articulated ‘toes’ which can be adjusted for rough terrain or to grasp large objects.
These struts seem slender for a ship this size but are incredibly tough and designed to handle rugged terrain and hard landings. Each ends in four articulated ‘toes’ which can be adjusted for rough terrain or to grasp large objects.
If the Xiaohongmao is docking nose or tail first with another ship, space station, or in a docking slip the two struts on the side of the ship towards the object being docked with (usually for or aft) are used to ‘grasp’ the object being docked with to hold the Xiaohongmao in the correct position and to keep any sudden shifts in position of either the object or the Xiaohongmao from causing a collision.
The aft struts can also be used to grab and hold cargo pods which the Xiaohongmao can then tow behind her.
The Rump
This is an area of Bravo Deck at the aft of the ship not taken up by the Engine Room. This area of the ship includes the equipment for water reclamation, waste management, and heat management.
Water Reclamation
Most Fenris class ships operate on tanked water with some minor collection from their hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell. But the Xiaohongmao has a very small but efficient closed water loop that recycles most of her used water so it can be used again. This loop is located in portside ‘Rump’ of the ship behind the engine room and over the hydroponics bay.
Heat from the engines is used to sterilize grey water and then the water is run through the hydroponics bay’s systems to give it a better taste before it is put back into the culinary system. Inevitably there is some water loss which the ship can make up from waste from the hydrogen-oxygen cells and from moisture collected with the air intakes. The ship carries 20 tons of fresh water in one of the bulk cargo bays as a reserve in case the water reclamation plant breaks or can’t keep up with peak demand (like if the ship is carrying cattle).
Waste Management
Every ship has waste and needs to deal with it. Most of the Fenris Class ship’s waste management systems are in the bottom of the “Rump” of Bravo Deck behind the Engine Room. These systems perform a some recycling when possible and then remaining waste materials are usually flashed to ash with engine heat then the ash is stored in small holds in this area. The ship can jettison the ash to space but prefers not to since, unless the ship is accelerating, the ash just follows the ship and ends up electrostatically clinging to the hull in an ugly mess. Dropping the ash in a gravity well (i.e. planetary atmosphere) is much cleaner. However in some places, especially in the outer systems, this ash can actually be sold as a fertilizer since its very high in organics and low in toxins.
Heat Management
Heat management is always critical in a spaceship. Too much and you all dehydrate and die. Too little and you freeze to death. Environmental systems spread the perfect amount of heat around the ship where it’s needed. Excess heat is spread over the hull to radiate into space or run through a cryogenic unit to eliminate. In an emergency the heat can be focused into superheating metal pellets which are then ejected from the ship. The management of this entire process occurs in the starboard side of the ships ‘Rump’
Passenger Deck (Deck 3)
The Passenger Deck is the largest deck of the ship. Not quite as long as the Main Deck but several times wider. It is arranged in a U shaped around the Main Cargo Hold (which is on Deck 4 but extends up into this deck). The Open end of the U ends on either side of the Main Cargo Airlock and forward Landing Strut storage bays.
Passenger Deck is a bit of a misnomer. Fenris class ships tend to see a lot of specialization with this deck and while its possible to configure the ship to have all passenger compartments on this deck is is far more common to have to have the forward 2/3 of the deck configured for cargo and only the aft 1/3 for passengers. Xiaohongmao uses a fairly typical arrangement of having several bulk cargo holds in the forward 2/3 and a small array of passenger accommodations further aft.
Bulk Storage Holds
The Xiaohongmao has eight bulk storage holds (four on each side of the main hold). Conveyors and Pumps carry bulk cargos (liquids, grains, etc.) up from the main hold to the top of each of these holds to load them for transport. Upon arrival access ports at the bottom of each hold can release the cargo back into the main hold where it is gathered into containers for shipping or received into pipes or conveyors to offload them directly into the customer’s holding tanks outside the ship. Note: the aft most hold on the port side is always used by Xiaohongmao to carry 20 tons of fresh water as part of the ship's water cycle and emergency reserve and so is not available for other cargos.
A catwalk runs along the bulkhead providing crew access to these holds. The catwalk is open out into the Main Cargo Hold on the side away from the holds.
Cargo Deck Control Center
On the upper edge of the bottom of the U shape of the Passenger deck the catwalks that access the Bulk Storage Holds comes together in a larger platform that extends a short way out over the Main hold. This is the Cargo Deck Control Center. It has a console of controls that manages almost every aspect of the cargo holds of the ship and the airlocks into them. Including regulating the environment, loading and offloading the bulk cargo holds and operating the overhead gantries and cranes in the main hold.
Catwalk and ladders
To the port of the Cargo Deck Control Center is a ladder (stairs) down to the deck of the main cargo hold. In the bulkhead aft and starboard of the control center are rungs which can be climbed up to access the network of gantries and cranes connected to the overhead or down to the deck of the Main Cargo Hold.
Aft and to either side of the Control Center and running the entire length of the U around the main hold is a catwalk that provides access to the bulk storage holds and can be used to oversee activity in the main hold.
There is a hatch along this catwalk that accesses the lift shaft’s machinery for maintenance. The interior of the lift shaft has rungs in the bulkhead that could be climbed to access other Decks of the ship. On the opposite side of the ship is a concealed hatch that opens up to a hidden compartment under the bottom turns of the Ladderway
Airtight Door
Aft of the Cargo Deck area is bulkhead that separate the cargo area from the passenger area of the ship. Directly behind the Cargo Deck Control Center is an airtight door providing access between the two areas.
Passenger Area
In the Xiaohongmao the area over the Secondary Cargo Holds has been arranged to accommodate passengers. This area is separated from the cargo areas by a bulkhead with an airtight door. It is separated from upper levels of the ship by the lift and ladderway, both of which can be locked off.
The passenger area has 4 Passenger Berths which are about ¾ of the size of the crew berths on the Main Deck. Like the crew berths each passenger berth can be divided into two separate cabins. The Xiaohongmao is currently configured with two of the berths divided so it has two large compartments and four small ones.
Passenger Lounge
The central compartment of the Passenger Area is the Passenger Lounge.
In the center of the forward bulkhead of this room is the airtight door that leads to the cargo area of the ship..
To port of the forward airtight door and against the forward bulkhead is a small desk with a computer terminal for passenger use. The computer is air-gapped from the Xiaohongmao’s computer systems so passengers cannot access the ship’s systems or databases from here.
To starboard, opposite of the desk is a comfortable two person couch that is called a “Love-Seat” by the crew for some reason. Attached to the bulkhead starboard and over the love-seat is a cabinet containing several books and games for passenger use.
To port and aft of the computer desk is a hatch that opens to the Lift. This hatchway can be locked from the Bridge, Captain’s Office, Engineering, or the Cargo Deck Control Center to prevent passengers from accessing the upper decks of the ship. ‘Behind’ (further port) of the Lift is an area of machinery that operates the lift. This machinery can be accessed from either the lift tube or from a hatch along the catwalk in the cargo area.
To starboard, opposite of the Lift is the Ladderway. Like the Lift, the hatch into the ladderway can be locked remotely to secure the upper decks of the ship. Underneath the ladder on this level is a hidden compartment that is accessed via a concealed hatch along the catwalk in the cargo area.
Aft of the lift tube is a couch for passenger use. Behind this couch is a Lavatory for passenger and crew use. Opposite of this on the starboard side of the ship is a small kitchenette for passengers to use.
Aft of the lavatory on the port side of the ship is one of the passenger berths that has been modified by the crew to serve as the ship’s sick berth. Opposite of this, on the starboard side is another passenger berth that has been modified so that it can serve as a brig or as a variable environment cabin in case of a passenger who cannot tolerate the ship’s normal environment.
Along the aft bulkhead of the passenger lounge are five ‘hatches’ The center hatch is an airtight door into the Aft Passenger Airlock. To either side are two small passenger berths. The hatches into these cabins are not standard metal hatches but rather are lightweight opaque polymer siding doors. Someone inside the cabin can ‘lock’ the hatch with a latch for privacy but it would be easy to destroy or remove the hatch if needed.
Lift
In the forward part corner of the Passenger Lounge is the bottom level of the Lift. This elevator provides access to the upper decks. The crew can remotely lock the hatch accessing the Lift at this level to prevent passengers from having access to the upper decks of the ship.
The lift operates on a hydraulic ram underneath it that pushes the lift up, rather than by cables attached to the top that pull it up or lower it down. In the event of a critical failure the lift can’t ‘fall’ but, as the hydraulic system looses pressure, would slowly lower back down to this level.
Inside the lift shaft there are rungs attached to the bulkhead that can be used to climb to upper levels in an emergency. “Behind” the lift shaft (further port) is the machinery for the lift’s operation. This machinery can be accessed either from inside the lift shaft or through a maintenance hatch along the catwalk in the cargo area.
Inside the lift shaft there are rungs attached to the bulkhead that can be used to climb to upper levels in an emergency. “Behind” the lift shaft (further port) is the machinery for the lift’s operation. This machinery can be accessed either from inside the lift shaft or through a maintenance hatch along the catwalk in the cargo area.
Ladderway
Opposite of the Lift, on the starboard side of the ship, is the Ladderway (stairwell for landlubbers). Access to the Ladderway is through a hatch that, like the Lift’s can be remotely secured by the crew to prevent access to upper levels of the ship.
The ladder (stairs) in this ladderway are ‘switchback’ stairs, meaning the go up halfway to the next habitable deck then end in a landing before continuing the rest of the way in the opposite direction so that on every level the ladder is accessed from the port (inboard) side with the ladder “up” being aft and the ladder “down” being forward. A at the landing halfway up between each habitable deck is a maintenance hatch leading to crawl spaces for each equipment deck.
On this level, under the ladder, is a secret compartment. The compartment can only be accessed via a small concealed hatch on the catwalk forward in the cargo area.
Lavatory
On the port side of the ship, aft of the Lift, is a Lavatory for passenger and crew use (each crew member has their own tiny lavatory in their quarters but this is more conveniently located for those working in the cargo areas). In the lavatory are three compartments: a shower, a sink, and a commode.
The port most compartment is the shower, This small shower has a lightweight opaque polymer hatch door so that other people can use other areas of the Lavatory even while someone is in the shower.
The central compartment is vanity with a sink built into it and a metal mirror attached to the bulkhead behind it. Under the sink are a couple of cabinets where toiletries and cleaning supplies are stored.
The starboard compartment is a commode/bidet. Like the shower is has a lightweight polymer hatch for privacy if the commode is being used while the other areas of the lavatory are occupied. Since water is easier to recycle than paper this commode, like all of them aboard, has a built in bidet/dryer function for cleansing rather than toilet paper… sorry traditionalists.
Kitchenette
On the starboard side of the ship, opposite the Lavatory, is a a small but efficient Kitchenette. This room has cabinets and tables built along two of the bulkheads (forward and starboard) and is open into the Passenger Lounge for most of the other two bulkheads (aft and port). It includes a tea/coffee maker, microwave, sink, and a small auto washer for cleaning and sterilizing used dishes and utensils.
Sick Berth
The port most passenger cabin has been converted by the crew to serve as a medical bay.
At the aft end of the cabin is a bed secured to the wall (unlike the standard bunk units this bed does not have storage units built into it. In the bulkhead above the Bunk is a second bunk which can be folded down for another sick or injured individual.
On the port bulkhead aft, near the Bunk are two more fold-down bunks in the bulkhead. On the underside of these bunks as well as the one over the main bunk, where they are visible in the cabin when the bunks are in their stored positions, are step-by-step graphic instructions for common but difficult emergency medical procedures.
Between the two sets of bunks, attached to the port bulkhead on several articulating arms, is an Emaculo type Rg14 clinical multi-tool. This device includes medical scanners, a dermal fuser, a medical laser scalpel, surgical spotlights, and other such equipment as well as a fairly stupid medical A.I. that at least has a comprehensive, if basic, medical database.
Forward of the extra bunks on the port bulkhead is set of cabinets for storing medical supplies. One section of the cabinet is a small stasis unit for keeping perishable pharmaceuticals fresh. Many of Rudy’s ship-made medicines are stored here..
In the forward bulkhead of the compartment are three small chrome hatches, arranged vertically. These open into man-sized chambers with a slide out tray on the bottom. Hopefully these chambers never need to be used. Or, failing that they are used as cryostasis chambers where a critically injured individual can be placed into temporary suspended animation until the ship can raise a trauma center. If all else fails the units serve as a morgue to preserve bodies until they can be property disposed of.
To the Port of the morgue units is the enviromental equipment support them as well as the Secondary Cargo Hold below this area which is configured to be a walk-in freezer. Technicians hate working on this equipment if there is a problem with it since it requires actually getting inside one of the units since the maintenance accesses are there.
Secure Berth
This berth is a full sized passenger berth with some special modifications.
First, it is designed to serve as the ship’s brig at need - able to lock someone inside against their will. The interior is also specifically designed to limit the occupant’s access to its utilities and other ship’s systems.
Second, it has its own separate environmental systems and is airtight. This allows it to be used as a passenger berth for a passenger who has environmental requirements different from those of the crew and other passengers.
Third, since it has a separate environmental system and is airtight, it can be used as an isolation ward for a contagious passenger.
The hatch into this compartment is an airtight door which can be locked from the outside. In the bulkhead next to the door is a small airlock which can be used to pass things into and out of the compartment without opening the hatch. Such as food and medicines.
At the aft end of the cabin is a bed secured to the wall (unlike the standard bunk units this bed does not have storage units built into it. In the bulkhead above the Bunk is a second bunk which can be folded down for another individual. In the forward end of the compartment is a wash area (see crew compartments for more information) and a small vanity with a sink and metal mirror bolted to the bulkhead.
Passenger Cabins (4)
Along the aft end of the ship on this level are two passenger compartments that have been subdivided into four smaller Passenger Cabins. Each cabin is accessed through a hatch, however, unlike most hatches in the ship these are lightweight opaque polymer sliding doors. The doors can be ‘latched’ shut with a hook and eye bolt from the inside but could be easily broken into in need.
At the aft end of each is a standard Bunk unit (see crew quarters for additional details) except they lack the secret storage compartments of the crew bunk units. The area where the crew bunks have secret compartments is occupied by air conditioning ducts and returns for the cabin. In the bulkhead above the Bunk is a second bunk which can be folded down for another passenger.
On both the port and starboard bulkhead, forward of the bunk, are several hooks for hanging clothing and other possessions.
Aft Personnel Airlock
In the aft bulkhead of the lounge, directly aft of the airtight door to the cargo area, and in the middle of the passenger berths, is the airtight door to the Aft Personnel Airlock.
Beyond this door is a ladderway down to the outer door of the airlock. This airlock is typically used for ship-to-ship personal transfers.
The outer door of the airlock is sloped on the ventral aft surface of the ship. This is so even large ships can be maneuvered close enough to dock with this hatch and not run up against the ship’s Pulse Drive or Tail Booms. Xiahongmao can extend a docking tube to the other ship. The end of the docking tube has a universal docking ring which will mate with most other ships.
This lock is about a full story above the ground when the ship is landed but in an emergency can deploy an inflatable slide for rapid evacuation.
The outer door of the airlock is sloped on the ventral aft surface of the ship. This is so even large ships can be maneuvered close enough to dock with this hatch and not run up against the ship’s Pulse Drive or Tail Booms. Xiahongmao can extend a docking tube to the other ship. The end of the docking tube has a universal docking ring which will mate with most other ships.
This lock is about a full story above the ground when the ship is landed but in an emergency can deploy an inflatable slide for rapid evacuation.
Landing Strut Storage Bay (2)
This area is actually sealed off from this deck. it is the lower part of a larger space in the Bravo Deck above that houses the ship's two aft landing / grasping struts. When deployed the struts are extended through hatches below this area out of the angled aft/ventral surface aft and below the Passenger deck.
Cargo Deck (Deck 4)
This Deck has the main cargo hold, two (three really) secondary holds, and two equipment storage bays. Additionally, it has the main cargo airlock (forward), another large cargo airlock (ventral), and secret ventral cargo airlock in one third secondary hold. The Deck has many recessed brackets and hard-points to use to tie down and secure cargo pallets
Main Cargo Airlock
This is the ship’s main airlock and it has the same design as is used in Firefly class ships.
The outer door sloped outwards towards the top and is hinged on the lower edge. When opened It rotates down to become a ramp up into the Main Cargo Hold. Built into this large cargo door is a smaller personnel door. Which can also be used to exit the ship. The area around this personnel door has a docking ring so a docking tunnel from another ship can be secured to it to create an airtight seal for ship-to-ship transfers.
The inner doors of the airlock are two sliding doors that meet and seal magnetically in the middle. There is only room for about a half dozen people in the space between the inner and outer doors. Generally both the inner doors and the outer ramp doors are open at the same time to transfer cargo when the ship is on a planet..
Main Cargo Hold
This is the main cargo hold of the ship. It is slightly shorter but wider than the main hold of a Firefly class ship and is only about two-thirds of the height. She can carry approximately 300 tons of cargo in this hold. The cargo is usually loaded and secured to standard cargo pallets before being brought aboard and then those pallets are secured to the deck in the hold. A series of gantries and cranes mounted to the overhead assist with maneuvering and securing cargo within the hold.
Port Equipment Bay (often referred to by the crew as the Mule Bay)
In the forward hull of the ship to port of the Main Cargo Airlock, is a large alcove used for equipment storage.
The aft end of this bay is open into the Main Cargo Hold. The forward, port, and starboard bulkheads of the bay are lockers storing various tools useful in managing cargo and/or working planetside - cargo grav collars, hammers, crowbars, shovels, hand scanners, etc.
In the center of this alcove, when it is not being used, is stored the ship’s “Mule.” The MF-950 Flying Mule is a heavy and durable counter-grav sled used for pushing heavy cargo into and out of the ship and for a group traveling around planetside.
Starboard Equipment Bay (often referred to by the crew as the Bike Bay)
On the starboard side of the ship is another equipment bay of the same design. The lockers of this bay are used to store equipment useful for EVA and planetary exploration. The lockers contain several spacesuits and equipment for external ship repairs as well as a weapon’s locker and lockers with binoculars, hand-held sensors, and other tools. A couple of lockers have reinforced leather pullover jumpsuits, leather gloves, and crash helmets.
In the center of the alcove, when they are not being used, are a pair of Kawasaki Y45 hoverbikes. These are essentially small grav sleds with a large turbine engine mounted on them with a saddle and controls for steering on top of that. They are very fast and fairly dangerous. They are designed to have one operator with, optionally, one passenger behind them. They are used by the crew to explore and get around to places planetside in a hurry.
Ventral Cargo Airlock
In the center of the deck in the Main Cargo Hold is a large ventral airlock (the in the deck leading out of the bottom of the ship). There is only about a two feet of space between the inner and outer door of this lock so it not a very efficient airlock. But if both the inner and outer doors are open at the same time (in atmosphere or if the Cargo Hold is holding a vacuum. It is just large enough for a cargo pallet to be lowered out of or into the Cargo Hold
Main Cargo Hold Overhead
The Main Cargo Hold is two stories tall. Around the port, starboard and aft bulkheads, halfway up, is a catwalk providing access to the Bulk Storage Holds that line the Port and Starboard sides on the upper level. A metal ladder climbs steeply from the Main Cargo Hold up to the catwalk near the the aft bulkhead. Rungs attached to the aft bulkhead provide an alternative route up to the catwalk. (See Catwalk and Ladders in the description of the Passenger Deck).
Attached to the overhead (ceiling) of the Main Cargo Hold are a series of gantries and cranes used for maneuvering heavy cargo to their storage position. The cranes can lift cargo in and out of the ship through the Ventral Cargo Airlock or on and off of the Mule if it is used to bring it in through the Forward Cargo Airlock. The articulated main crane arm can actually reach out the Ventral Cargo Airlock and around under the ship to grab or deposit cargo. The cranes are operated from the Cargo Deck Control Center (see description in the Passenger Deck section).
Secondary Holds
Aft of the Main Cargo Hold Fenris Class ships have two secondary holds that are connected to the Main Cargo Hold. These secondary normally have their own environmental systems in the space between the two holds. They can be configured to hold special cargo in an environment different than the rest of the ship (such as vacuum, cold, moist, hot, etc.) Each hold can carry approximately 50 tons of cargo.
However in the Xiaohongmao has configured each hold to a set environment permanently. Because of this less environmental equipment was necessary and what was still needed was shifted to the deck above the Holds rather than between them.
This allowed Douglas to create a strictly aftermarket and off the books secret third hold in the space where the environmental equipment use to be., the equipment of which is in the bulkhead between the two holds.
Port Secondary Hold
Xiaohongmao has permanently configured its Port Secondary Hold as a Hydroponic and Aeroponics Bay. The Crew (mainly Rudy) uses the hold to grow fresh fruits, vegetables, and fish to supplement their food stores. As an added bonus, any excess produce and fish can usually be sold at port, especially in struggling outer worlds.
Starboard Secondary Hold
Xiaohongmao has permanently configured its Starboard Secondary Hold as a walk-in Freezer. It uses this bay as a cold storage for perishable cargo and to hold additional vittles for the crew and passengers as well as storing cargo that must be transported at freezing temperatures.
Secret Secondary Hold
Normally the bulkhead between the port and starboard secondary holds is crammed with the environmental equipment needed to manage the variable environments of the two secondary holds. However since the Xiaohongmao has permanently set both holds to just a single environment she was able to greatly reduce the environmental equipment that normally filled the space between the two Secondary Holds and move that equipment to the deck above. This allowed her to have secret cargo hold between the two secondary holds.
This secret hold is accessed from the Starboard Secondary hold (the freezer). This provides an extra layer of security for the hold. First - people searching the ship are likely to spend less time doing so in a freezing cold room. Second - with a few squirts of water and a few minutes to set the hidden hatch into the Secret Hold can have a layer of ice frozen over it. Matching the ice on most of the other bulkheads..
This hold is only about ⅓ of the width of the other secondary holds and not quite as long (the Aft Passenger Airlock takes up some of the aft end of this area.
This hold is only about ⅓ of the width of the other secondary holds and not quite as long (the Aft Passenger Airlock takes up some of the aft end of this area.
This Hold also has a ventral airlock that is hidden and very hard to see since the inner door of the airlock is the entire deck of the hold. The outer door is concealed in the ship’s hull plating with no exterior window or controls. The space between the two doors is about three feet deep which makes the hold yet another secret room in its own right. A secret room within a secret room - very, very unlikely to be found.
Both the inner and outer doors of this ventral airlock can be opened at the same time by entering the appropriate secret code from the Cargo Deck Control Center, the Bridge, the Captain’s Office, or from the Engine Room. When this happens… since the entire deck of the room is the airlock door, all the contents of the room are expelled from the ship.
The crew can use the secret ventral airlock to drop illicit cargos where they are going as the ship flies over the area, without even slowing down. Or it can be used to space the cargo if they are being boarded by the Alliance. Or it can even be used to smuggle people or goods on or off the ship while all the known airlocks are being watched.
