Travel Between Worlds

Brain Ships
Brain Ships, which Lezarouth derisively calls “b-with-b,” or “box-with-a-brain,” are the standard vessel for trave between worlds, or, betweening. They represent the most highly sophisticated development of the lifetech industry.

Structure
The main structure of a brain ship is, as Lezarouth terms it, a great steel box, often split into decks and rooms. Some have an oblong shape for aerodynamics, many are quite boxy. Military ships often have a “keel,” a steel pillar that runs the length of the ship, and projects forward in a spike that is used for ramming maneuvers. The brain is typically located in the aft of the vessel, wrapped about the keel. Any organ necessary for sustain the brain are before it, or, alternatively, wrapped about the forward part of the keel.

Gravity is simulated by the mind-moving of a bed of lifetech yeast under the lower deck. A different strain of yeast, growing on the jambs of access ports, creats a mind-stilled barrier that restrains vapors, but allows people to pass outside with use of a small force. It is important to grab hold of the handles on either side of the port, as, once the barrier is pierced, the air will push like a strong wind, and can blow a man helplessly out into the void.

Betweening
Travel between worlds is the main function of the brain of a brain ship. By enormous concentration and energy, the brain creates a wave in the void that brings the ship, in the matter of days, distances that even light cannot travel in a year. The effect was termed an Alcubierre Wave back before the Cataclysm, when it was created by machine. Once the wave has begun, the ship, and those within it, can see nothing of the void around. It cannot change course, nor stop, until it has reached the place it set out for. Indeed, the brain goes into a dead sleep immediately upon raising the wave, so great is the energy expended.

Betweening is not without hazards. If there is an error in the raising of the wave, say, if the brain is jarred in the process, the wave may overtake the vessel, crushing it.

At the appointed time the wave deteriorates, and the crew set about figuring out where they are. If the brain is in good health, and the pathfinder done careful math, and the charts were accurate, the ship should arrive within 20-60mlml of the destination world. If not, the ship may be hundreds or thousands of mehlmaul away, or even, in the case of a dropped digit in the pathfinder’s calculations, light-years away. Raising a second wave and betweening again is difficult and dangerous for most brains, unless substantial stores of water and nutrients are available. A starving brain forced to raise a wave is likely to make the problem worse, if it does not crush the ship. Crews that find themselves ten thousand mehlmaul away will likely come by mind-pull, though they may be months at it, but those left deep in the void are likely to chance a second wave. Mind-pull is very weak in the void, and neither brain nor crew are likely to have the stores needed to survive the years such a journey would require.

Mind-Pull
An entirely separate brain lobe from the portion that raises the betweening wave. Mind-pull works upon the natural attraction between objects. Its force is thus variable depending on the closeness of worlds and suns. Thus, a ship moves fastest in orbit, and slows as it gets further into the void. The increasing power of mind-pull is not without an upper limit, however. Large worlds can, if approached carelessly, overpower the mind-pull.

Mind-pull is the same force that is used in most flying craft. The considerable appetite of flying craft should give one a sense of the enormous energies required by betweening, since a brain-ship that has no strength for betweening can still mind-pull for a long time.

Due to the difficulties of air and wind and the heat of air-return, many vessels never land, but those that do require only a bullet shape and foils to hold it steady.

Arms
[Full Article: Firearms of the Latter Days]

Gun-ports may be sealed by the same yeast used around access ports. Other ships have the guns in the void, and the gun-crew must don void-skins or else work in rubber suits at the end of access tunnels. This has the effect of slowing their work and increasing reload time, but some feel that the mind-still compromises the speed of the projectiles, a critical issue give the speeds and distances of travel. The living guns, which reload themselves, had not been invented in Lezarouth’s lifetime.