Re: FT: FTL Smorgasboard

On Fri, 22 Mar 2002 11:51:59 -0800 Brian Bilderback 
<bbilderback@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Most Science Fiction backgrounds takes one of these methods of FTL 
travel and base an entire naval & commerce culture on it. Has anyone 
ever cotemplated a fictional background where 2 or more of these 
different methods are ALL available? <

This sounds very like Brian Stableford's Hooded Swan universe, in which 
there are multiple varieties of FTL drive. All of the names escape me, 
but "phase-shift" and "mass relaxation" are two that come to mind; 
there are at least 2 others -- and that's just human tech. It is 
implied that aliens may do things differently.

Why does a ship have one and not another drive? Tech level is one 
reason -- one method was discovered first (duh!) and the others came 
later.

Perceived capability is another: some drives are considered to be better
suited for certain jobs (e.g., small or large transports, working in 
distorted space, etc.); what makes the Swan revolutionary is that by 
combining alien Khormon knowledge with human technology, they have come 
up with the fastest ship yet built using a drive normally thought best 
for big, slow liners.

And, of course, there's cost. The hero of the books spends a certain 
amount of time flying the equivalent of tramp steamers, where the drive 
you have is what the owners can afford or care to pay to put into a 
hull. This is obviously related to the previous points as well.

Stableford doesn't spend too much time going into societal 
ramifications of this arrangement; he has bigger fish to fry, in his 
opinion, and the method(s) used to travel between stars are only 
important as a mechanism for moving stuff around. The only space combat 
scene in all 6 books is short and requires no action from the good guys 
(the bad guys shoot at a bad time and blow themselves up). Still, 
there's plenty of stuff to build on there.

Phil
----
"I think... I think I am! Therefore I am... I think?"
				       -- The Moody Blues