Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 6:18 pm
All ships have internal inertial compensators and artificial gravity. You knew that, right? That is why 'up' and 'down' have meaning onboard, and g forces are rarely felt, though outside your hull 'up' and 'down' have no meaning at all. That's the price for evolving in the gravity well of a planet.
A violent enough maneuver can momentarily overload these devices.
Hesperus' 'handbrake dock' is a complex maneuver. Consider rotating a laden Python around 180 degrees, while maintaining a rotation matching the station, and firing the retros to guide the ship to park in reverse.
Naturally it panics station staff, and has the pilots awaiting dock staring in disbelief.
Yes, it's of questionable legality, but then a lot of Hesperus' doings are of questionable legality. He's almost always the "usual suspect" in minor crime, and has a record with several police and security organizations. There's a bounty on him, but not enough for the professional killers to bother with. Police, pirates, and the occasional rank amateur soldier of fortune is all he has to watch out for. (Or a disgruntled commander who bought a trumble off him.)
And many of those I shake off his trail. For all his misdeeds, he's not a bad guy - even likable.
A violent enough maneuver can momentarily overload these devices.
Hesperus' 'handbrake dock' is a complex maneuver. Consider rotating a laden Python around 180 degrees, while maintaining a rotation matching the station, and firing the retros to guide the ship to park in reverse.
Naturally it panics station staff, and has the pilots awaiting dock staring in disbelief.
Yes, it's of questionable legality, but then a lot of Hesperus' doings are of questionable legality. He's almost always the "usual suspect" in minor crime, and has a record with several police and security organizations. There's a bounty on him, but not enough for the professional killers to bother with. Police, pirates, and the occasional rank amateur soldier of fortune is all he has to watch out for. (Or a disgruntled commander who bought a trumble off him.)
And many of those I shake off his trail. For all his misdeeds, he's not a bad guy - even likable.