Gas Skimmers

Part of this is the result of a feul chat several weeks ago.

*****
Hydrogen Refinery Station "Red Eagle"
Orbitting gas giant Caelum Iota VIII
0830 hours.
*****

Cabel took another belt of rum before starting his preflight checks on
'Gin Sling'.
"Damn, I'm getting too old for this.  Intakes...clear, airfoils...check,
drive nodes..."

Everything was ready, as he finished strapping into the flight deck.
All that was required now was flip the release & head for the gas giant
floating below him like a giant, multi-coloured marble.   A deadly
marble at that, 3 pilots & ships hadn't come back last week.

Cabel was a gas-skimmer pilot, one of the half-crazies who dive into a
gas giant to collect raw hydrogen for processing to feul reactors &
starship drives through half the sector.  Like most of his kind, he was
an ex-fighter pilot, no one else had the reactions or balls to
deliberately go deep for the best hauls.  Cabel prided himself on always
returning with full tanks of the purest gas he could find.  Being paid
on the purity of his haul, this made each run very profitable, even
taking into account the cost of running a private 'skimmer.

With an audible "clunk", the 'skimmer dropped free of the station &
gently accelerated toward the gas giant.  This was the easy part of the
trip, with empty tanks, she literally danced across the sky.

"Come on, you greasy bucket of bolts, TURN damn you!" 'Gin Sling'
screamed in protest as she pulled a 4G turn towards the pocket of gas
detected by sensors as being 90% pure hydrogen.  Payday.
Cabel opened the forward ramscoops the moment he entered the bubble,
gulping gas at 100 tons per minute.
..5..4..3..2..1..tanks full.  Time to go.  With full tanks, she
maneuvered like a brick, but could still pull the 5Gs needed to escape
the gravity well.

" 'Gin Sling' to 'Red Eagle', requesting docking clearance for the
refinery."
"Go ahead, Cabel, we've got a priority fuel request by a military
tanker, so you'll cut a couple of days off the fill time if you're pure
as usual."
"91% this trip, Blade.	I'd like to see you do better."
"Best I every did was 72%, you pirate.	Don't know how you do it."
Blade shook his head over the pickup.
"Trade secret.	It's time for a holiday anyway, so I might let slip.
Where's the tanker headed anyway?"
"Unknown, but scuttlebutt says it's somewhere out on the KV frontier.  I
think they took some heavy losses out there, as there's a couple of
fighter transporters coming in to refuel as well.  They could be looking
for pilots."
"No chance, but I'll see if they're stopping anywhere civilized.  Maybe
I can catch a lift before the next liner."
"Good luck, 'Red Eagle' out. "

*****
Model XIV Aeroglide Gas Skimmer
Mass: 40 (4,000 metric tons)
Cost: 88 (88 MUCr.)
Hull: Very Weak (Fully Streamlined)
FTL: none
Main Drive: 10
Damage Track: 4; [o/o/o/*]
Crew: AI + 1 pilot
800 ton compressed gas storage tanks

Notes (PSB): The swirling clouds of gas can temporarily concentrate
themselves in pockets, which can be picked up with the right sensor
suite.	After surveys, it's found on some gas giants to be more
profitable to perform selective skimming than standard skimming, when
atmospheric conditions are right.  This can cut several days & 20-40% of
the cost of purification, even with the cost of skim ships.

A 'skimmer pilot earns 1,000 UCr/ton for pure unrefined hydrogen from a
gas giant, but due to atmospheric makeup, it's generally never more than
30-40% pure, although some gas giants are up to 80% pure, but these are
far between.  The ship's owner (usually a corporation, but sometimes the
pilot) earns an additional 3,000 UCr/ton for a pure cargo.  
This means a ship brings in ~1.1 MUCr per trip, with 5 trips/week being
average.  At this rate, it takes about 2 years to cover costs, but ships
are generally lost about every 3 years on average, so this only gives
6-12 months of profit per ship.
Pilots generally burn out after about 5 years, if they don't get killed
first.
Also, I use 1 thrust = 0.5 G. (5 m/s/s)

'Neath Southern Skies
http://users.mcmedia.com.au/~denian/
*****
They seek him here, they seek him there;
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven or is he in hell?
That damned elusive, Pimpernel.
	- 'The Scarlet Pimpernel', Baroness Emma Orkzy