Science Fiction Trivia

[RockDoctor]

It's not "fuel", per se, but it is motivational power … in Alastair Reynold's Revenger trilogy, ships use solar sails for most of their manoeuvering.

That's very ... naval.
Does, at some point, Nelson get resurrected (or used to train a battle computer) to bring back the noble art of literally stealing the wind form someone else's sails?

[Disembodied]

It's not "fuel", per se, but it is motivational power … in Alastair Reynold's Revenger trilogy, ships use solar sails for most of their manoeuvering.

That's very ... naval.
Does, at some point, Nelson get resurrected (or used to train a battle computer) to bring back the noble art of literally stealing the wind form someone else's sails?

The series has a very deliberately naval/piratey feel to it, including broadsides, secret treasure stashes, maps, prosthetic limbs etc. And the solar system has been broken up into a million little fragments, each with tiny black holes at their centres to provide gravity, so it's all clusters of little islands swinging around the sun.

[RockDoctor]

The series has a very deliberately naval/piratey feel to it, including ...

Gaah. <throat tickling gesture.AVI> <projectile-vomit.GIF>
There was a volume in the Man-Kzin Wars series where someone (or a collaboration, I forget) re-hashed Treasure Island. Which I'd never read, so I was probably 100 pages into it before I realised what was going on. I don't think I actually finished it - a rarity for me - and I'm not inspired to read any more RLS, however disguised.
Totally unrelated, I've just discovered that, probably as a spin off from the 2016 film "Valarian and the City of 1000 Cara Delavignes", some "Official" account has uploaded 40 (all) episodes of the "Valarian & Laureline" animated series to YouTube (link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G3anX6 ... ZUYRBthL5B). Which may be utter kitsch, but is at least it's own kitsch.

[ffutures]

Totally unrelated, I've just discovered that, probably as a spin off from the 2016 film "Valarian and the City of 1000 Cara Delavignes", some "Official" account has uploaded 40 (all) episodes of the "Valarian & Laureline" animated series to YouTube (link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G3anX6 ... ZUYRBthL5B). Which may be utter kitsch, but is at least it's own kitsch.

Thanks - I quite enjoyed the film so I'll take a look.

[Disembodied]

, I'd like to know if there are 5 examples of sci-fi works (books, games, movies, tv series, etc.) where the space ships get their fuel from the stars. Same old rule, no two examples in the same "boat" (universe/author).

In Stargate: Universe, the Ancient starship refuels by scooping fuel from a star's corona:

https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Light

[Commander_X]

[...]
In Stargate: Universe, the Ancient starship refuels by scooping fuel from a star's corona:

https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Light

Big D receives the chalice with an well deserved extra MBP for the main example I was looking for to expose with this request.

[Disembodied]

OK, let's try … five named bars/pubs/inns/drinking establishments in science fiction. They can range from elite hyper-gin palaces to low dives, but they should have a name, and the nature of the business should be principally (if not exclusively) the retail sale of drinks - so e.g. Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe would not count, as it's primarily an eatery.

Usual rules, one per author/universe.

[RockDoctor]

OK, let's try … five named bars/pubs/inns/drinking establishments in science fiction. They can range from elite hyper-gin palaces to low dives, but they should have a name, and the nature of the business should be principally (if not exclusively) the retail sale of drinks - so e.g. Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe would not count, as it's primarily an eatery.

I can drop the Hot Chalice-shaped potato by diving straight in with the "Draco's Tavern" in one of Niven's minor universes. Actually, since I don't think there is any action anywhere else, this might as well be "the DracoTavernverse".
Sited on Earth, in the wilds of the Siberian Taiga (Niven seems to think the area is devoid of human habitation, which is odd since he's scion of an oilfield family, and that's an area at least partly replete with oilfields and associated settlements. I met my wife just two days travel along the Ekaterinberg-Norilsk railway line form her county town), the Tavern services crews and sightseers from the "nearby" spaceport. Earth and Hom.Sap are very much 4th rank in this universe - they just provide landing area, maybe some refuelling for the ships (that's never delved into) and refuelling/ entertainment for crews and passengers. Including food, alcohol and "other entertainments" - one of the species involved gets it's high off battery-powered "sparkers" that fry their braincells in a trivial, recoverable manner. Which counts more on the "beer/ entertainment" side than the "food" side.
The bartender/ narrator tells stories he hears from the clientele, and sometimes indulges in alien drugs/ entertainment, which would be a pretty damned stupid thing to do with terrestrial species, let alone alien physiologies.

[RockDoctor]

e.g. Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe would not count, as it's primarily an eatery.

I think that one (or other) of Zaphod's drinking arms would disagree you about Milliway's prime function, Plate-Captain.

[Disembodied]

"Draco's Tavern"

That's one, definitely!

[Cholmondely]

How about the Vacuum Bar in Local Midnight (by Blaze O'Glory)?

A vacuum bar is where you’ll find the loners and the losers, the weirdos and the misfits. That’s why we’re here, anyway: the crew of the Shockeye, tying one on in memory of our dear departed Keya. Absent friends, all that.
Shockeye’s berthed, safe inside this battered old trading station, orbiting some dusty little world, on the tail end of a run through half a dozen fringe systems. It’s not a busy place. Traffic’s light; maybe once every few hours a ship comes sliding in from out the deep, or launches out to crack a wormhole to some other star.
We glide up out the airlock, into the domed cage of the vacuum bar. The station’s hull spreads out, silver in the starlight, turning slow beneath our feet. Gives us a horizon we can all agree on, if we feel the need. We’ve got the place to ourselves almost: a few drifters here and there, suited and anonymous, but it’s the Shockeye’s crew making all the noise on the common band.
The planet and the system’s sun are out of sight, hidden down below the station’s bulk. All I can see are stars, stars, stars, and us just hang- ing here among them. We hook ourselves in, mating suit umbilicals to nozzles sprouting from the bar’s fretwork structure, dialling up a choice of poison, metered by the millilitre. Having one for her, shouting out her name on an open channel. We toast the life and mourn the death of Keya, spacer to her tiger soul.
Captain Malaco emerges last, clamping his feet onto the bar’s struts and stanchions. He’s the only one here not suited up; that silver carapace, that’s all him. Had his exoskeleton replaced. Started off with getting his kneejoints made airtight, apparently, after an accident in an airlock, oh, years and years ago. Then his foreclaws and dorsal plating, so I’m told, and it just went on from there. When your species strolls around inside a shell anyway, I suppose it makes a kind of sense...

[Commander_X]

Although the Mass Effect universe is quite rich with such places (Chora's Den, and Flux in ME1, Afterlife in ME2, and ME3, Purgatory in ME3), I'll go with The Vortex in Mass Effect: Andromeda.

[Disembodied]

How about the Vacuum Bar in Local Midnight (by Blaze O'Glory)?

Hmm … although flattering, technically it's just *a* vacuum bar - presumably one of many, and it doesn't have a name (or at least isn't given one in the story), so I have to rule it out.

Although the Mass Effect universe is quite rich with such places (Chora's Den, and Flux in ME1, Afterlife in ME2, and ME3, Purgatory in ME3), I'll go with The Vortex in Mass Effect: Andromeda.

The Vortex fits the criteria, though - that's two.

[Cholmondely]

Hmm … although flattering, technically it's just *a* vacuum bar - presumably one of many, and it doesn't have a name (or at least isn't given one in the story), so I have to rule it out.

Be like that then... Take this!!

The Final Eight in SpaceTown on Zaquesso from Cody's Coyote

Once he had docked at the station, he took the next shuttle down to the surface and made his way to a small, dimly lit dive in Spacetown called The Final Eight. It was early morning local time, and the joint was empty. The manager was busy doing admin on a compad and didn’t notice him as he strolled up to the counter.
‘Dos zumos malvado por favor, posadero.’
The manager, a huge bear of a man, looked up and a massive grin split his ancient, space-ravaged face.
‘Coyote you old rascal. It’s been a long time... como estas mi amigo viejo?’
‘I am well Esteban, very well... how are things with you?’
‘Life is good ’mano, very good... are you here for a while? Our spare room is yours for as long as you need it.’ As he spoke he selected a bottle from a shelf, eased out the cork and filled two shot glasses with a purple liquid. ‘A few tendays, then I’m away to the Halo... the Dark Star needs a hull job and there is only one place for that.’ ‘Too right amigo, those Griff shipyard fitters are wizards with hull plating... Salut!’
They clinked glasses and downed the fiery liquor... then both gasped. Zaquessoian evil juice is fearsome stuff. ‘Hades that was good... dos mas por favor.’
As Esteban re-filled the glasses he called through a hatch behind him.
‘Jessica mi querida, come see what the damned cat dragged in.’
A woman’s face appeared in the hatch, old and lined but still beautiful... her smile was like a sunrise on Zaonesdi. ‘So the trickster returns... welcome home, Coyote. Esteban, pour a shot for me as well please, I’ll be right there.’
Esteban filled a third glass as Jessica came out from the backroom... it was the start of a very long session.
He lodged with Esteban and Jessica at the villa they owned, up in the rolling, wooded hills around Spacetown. He actually owned an adjacent plot of land, but had never got around to building his dream home on it, the allure of space keeping him away for years at a stretch. He spent his time either fishing for samlon or walking the hills, only occasionally propping up the bar at The Final Eight. Even hardened spacers needed downtime, and his homeworld of Zaquesso was a very beautiful place. He and the two ex-spacers were very old friends and the time passed easy, recalling past escapades along the spacelanes, remembering old friends. The couple had been very astute traders in their time, amassing considerable wealth, and now had a very comfortable life, only running the bar as a ‘hobby’ as Jessica liked to put it. Coyote knew there was more to it than that, much more... old spacers themselves, they loved spacers and spacer banter. The bar was a haven for any spacer, grounded or not... and Esteban was always generous with his credit. Three tendays passed.

Famous Planets OXP Zaquesso description:
This world is fabled for its exciting Zaquessoian evil juice, a fiery liquor distilled from the purple xagave cactus. But the jewel of Zaquesso is Crater Lakes Wilderness Reserve. Boasting spectacular scenery and superb samlon fishing, it is renowned throughout the sector. As is The Final Eight, a dimly-lit bar in Spacetown frequented by veteran spacers. Quality music and fine liquor in abundance, but keep your blaster handy.

[spud42]

low hanging fruit possibly, Ten Forward in STTNG