RE: NAC units, was Odd FT Idea

You wrote: 

>Sounds like the merchant navy would be the most likely to go there.  

Definitely.

Going >out with a hold full of frozen colonists and coming back empty 

Not quite empty, just not with massively profitable cargos.  Some 
things might be easy to extract in a short time--furs, agricultural 
cargoes, etc.  But in interstellar trade that's not exactally big-money 
items unless there's, say, a special recreational drug--think Virginia 
Colony with tobacco.  Or perhaps unique gems--glowstones from 
Zarathustra. (Which weren't true gems, but fossilized remains of 
jellyfish that glowed when heated)

>running. Hiding a few Q-Ships amongst those helpless merchants could 
be a >nice surprise for the raiders.  It might make for an interesting 

I was thinking the easiest type of Q-ship to do up would be a fighter 
carrier based on a heavy transport hull.  Rip out the cargo space, and 
you can stick four fighter groups, a bit of armor, and some weapons to 
boot.  This is good because first, Privateers and pirates aren't likely 
to have large ships out there, and we all know fighters are much more 
lethal vs. small ships, and second, raiders won't likely have fighters 
'coz they'd be difficult to replace.  Also:  Are those launch tubes or 
cargo loading hatches?	"Do you feel lucky, punk?"

John M. Atkinson