Drunkard's Walk Forums

Hey gang, been working on this for a while (mainly since I included it on the Prometheus Forge template) and I'd like some feedback. It's all wiki'd as well.

---

{{Shipbox
|shipname = Ki
|shipimage =
|caption =
|hull = Dyson Tree (Comet Nucleus)
|length = 3.2 km (1.2 km for comet nucleus, plus 2 km for trunks)
|width = 0.95 km
|height = 1.01 km
|mass =
|drivetype = Biological Solar/Magnetic Sail ([[Engine_Technology#Slower_Than_Light|Speed])
|driverating = Max velocity 0.005c
|weapons = Biological Lasers
Magnetic grapples.
|manufacturer = ACP Engineering Company
|owner = ACP Engineering Company
|flag = [[Prometheus Forge]
|faction = None
|registry = ACP-T-001
|datelaunched = September 2013
|purpose = Prototype, with Food Production, Botany Lab, and others as needed
|crew = Varies, but mostly drones
|auxvehicles = Varies
|status = '''Active'''
}}
{{planetbox
|name=Ki
|image=
|orbit= Same as [[Prometheus Forge]
|diameter= 3.2 km (1.2 km for comet nucleus, plus 2 km for trunks)
|gravity=Negligible
|year=
|day=
|temp=
|atmosphere=None
|waterice=92%
|population=Varies
|political= [[Fenspace Convention]
|government=[[Prometheus Forge]
|capital=N/A
}}

''Created By: [[User:Cobalt Greywalker|Cobalt Greywalker]''

Created as a second attempt by [[Greenpeace Crolis|Greenpeace], Ki grew far faster that that previous attempt. This was in part because Greenpeace had worked out some of the kinks, and in part by her having a small comet nucleus pulled in from the Kuiper Belt to plant it on.[[Eddie] was planning on a comet mining expedition anyway, this just meant he was inspired to move several to [[Prometheus Forge] space. The sunshades were a bit overkill though.

Greenpeace's plans for brother and sister Trees for Ki have been put on hold, as Ki itself provides immense amounts of space and seems to have some sort of awareness (which means [[A.C. Peters|A.C.] is reluctant to allocate further resources to the construction of more).

Ki's existence was not widely known until after the Boskone War, as it was placed 3000 KM down-orbit of Prometheus Forge to keep it out of the way. Afterwards it moved to its current station 50 KM away.

== Appearance ==
A 1.2x0.95x1.01km comet nucleus with 3 huge tree trunks growing out of it (2km tall by 330m wide at 14 May 2014.The branches triple the total width to get enough light to the leaves of the trunks.)

== Known Vehicle Quirks ==
* ''OK, this is weird:'' As a living organism, Ki tends to respond to things that those inside it don't or can't notice. This usually results in odd changes to the interior environment. While unsettling to people inside, it causes unusual adaptations to the various plants growing inside.
* ''What the? Where'd ''that'' come from?:'' Something of a corollary to the above quirk, furniture (all wooden, natch) tends to appear and disappear as necessary. And equipment tends to integrate '''itself''' into the structure if left alone for more than a few minutes.

* ''Bio-what?:'' Ki has, or seems to be developing, biological versions of some technologies. This includes the bio-lasers and carbon-nanotube based magnetic grapples it uses for defence, the organic fibre optical conduits for data transmission and lighting, and the lift tubes for internal transport.

== Trivia ==
* Ki shows signs of an awareness that, while not sapience, is similar but unlike the sentience of small animals. As such, Greenpeace (at A.C.'s urging) is careful of who she introduces to the Dyson Tree.

* The first indication of the inbuilt drive system was when Ki went off and grabbed a small (200 metre-ish) rock. When the [[White Stallion] caught up, most of the rock had been absorbed for additional nutrients.

== Notes ==

{{Prometheus_Forge}}
{{places}}
{{spacecraft}}
[[Category:Spacecraft]
[[Category:Space stations]
[[Categorylaces in Fenspace]
[[Category:Main Belt]

It might be a good idea to mention (or link to, if it's written) Greenpeace's first attempt.

Oh, a technical note: you don't need to specify the line breaks at the end of each line in the bullet-lists. (That can save you some time when typing in any future entries...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

OK, I've put Ki into the Wiki. Is it just me or is the wiki getting complicated? I had to alter two templates and three pages to get everything right for this. It's probably just the fact I was putting in a Main Belt station, but it still felt a bit complicated.

Sounds like we might need a couple more templates.

Actually I think it's the number of templates Cobalt's complaining about.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

It's not so much the templates as templates, the matching pages, the Main Belt page, and making sure I matched the existing layouts (which is why I've just tweaked the Spaceships template). It was just all the niggling things at once. Like I said, it was probably the fact Ki is a Main Belt station.

You're doing some complicated things, Cobalt. (Most of the Fen make a distinction between "ship" and "station" and "location", but A.C. doesn't.) It isn't surprising the documentation is going to be complicated as well...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

.... holy shit, I just thought of something while sweeping the decks.
Okay. Old project that I used to work on with a friend: silicon based life-forms, sapient, highly inteligent, form of living starships. They synchronised closely with their pilots; close to a mating-bond - more like the seemingly-psychic bond shared identical twins. Pilots entered mating bonds with other pilots, and their ships likewise; ergo they reproduced simultaneously, thus ensuring a future pilot-ship bond.
Now, take this and apply it to Fenspace Treeships. New tree-ships start out as seedlings that bond to an infant. They grow up together, the young tree-ship taking on the dimensions of a space fighter at the young adulthood stage, and so on until you have the eldest of them all: the massive tree ships of those who live to be incredibly old - say four- to five-hundred years or more.
I think this would be the true Fen-equivilant of Jyuraians. Throw in Nippon-inspired ninja-pirate action for more authenticity (because, after all, the original Jyuraians were pirates that caught the fancy of a Tree-Goddess).
Thoughts?

My first thought was "When did he go Boskonian?" as I imagined someone biomoding a baby and a tree to do this.

After calming down and thinking about it, I got over my immediate knee-jerk reaction and considered this. Fen-realistically, you'd need a second-gen Tree to even start. And Ki won't be doing that for decades, not sure about the Yggdrasil-class.
Then you'd need to cross-biomod both the tree and a person to make the link, and make sure the biomod was inheritable and both bond-partners were (to borrow a phrase) fruitful.

Quite frankly, if a person wants to live that long there are other, much easier ways to go about it.

Yes. But are they that COOL.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

Besides, who said it was a biomod in the 'traditional' Fen sense? I see it more as you said, Cobalt - more like a co-evolution, as much as it was for the fictional Jyuraians.