Sleeper class Fast Trader

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Sleeper class Fast Trader
Type: AF Fast Trader
Category ACS
Size 200 Tons
Hull Configuration Slab Hull
Streamlining Streamlined Hull
Tech Level TL–12
Engineering
Computer Model/2bis
Jump J-3
Maneuver 3 G
Fuel Treatment scoops, purifier
Armaments
Hardpoints 2
Accommodations
Staterooms 1
Personnel
Crew 1
High/Mid Passengers
Payload
Cargo 80 Tons
Fuel tank 61 Tons
Construction
Construction Time 1.8 Months
Origin General Products
Year Operational 685
Price
Cost MCr54.49
Statistics
Quick Ship Profile AF-BS33
Universal Ship Profile AF-C2833S
Images
Blueprint Yes
Illustration No
Source
Also see Free Trader
Canon Unpublished, fan design
Designer Adrian Tymes
Era Third Imperium
Reference Fan: Adrian Tymes
Designed with Mongoose Traveller High Guard rules, but portable to other versions

The Sleeper class Fast Trader is a civilian free trader. Since a jump drive or maneuver drive rating over 2 is uncommonly high for a free trader, having both of these at 3 qualifies it as a Fast Trader.

Description[edit]

The Sleeper class Fast Trader is one of the most plain, boring designs known to Charted Space. Its smooth, near-featureless, rounded-rectangular-prism slab hull has been compared to giant pills, raw construction material, and other visually unappealing designs. It is well known as a tramp trader, famously used by those who wish to live apart from society since it only needs a single crew: an astrogator. Pilot and engineer training are recommended but the Virtual Crew software can fly the ship in non-emergency or even mild emergency conditions. While a Sleeper has life support for two sophonts, the internal layout assumes there will only be one when not docked or landed.

Its main feature is a massive cargo hold that takes up almost all of the lower deck. It is designed to accept up to nine 4A cargo containers, with room for additional loose cargo such as spare parts and crew supplies, which usually wind up being stored at the curved front and back of the cargo hold. The cargo hold's front and rear can unfold into ramps to allow direct loading and unloading of cargo containers, most often via the cargo crane operated by the crew from the bridge. If access to the supplies at the ends of the cargo hold is needed during flight while the cargo hold is packed, the cargo crane is typically used to deliver them to the lower deck airlock entrance.

While the ship class has a modest ability to support the addition of weapons, it is not well designed to add turrets. When armed at all, the most common option is to add forward-facing fixed mount missile launchers, so as not to use significant additional space or draw additional power. As is, the ship must shut down maneuver drive and engage in jump dimming to enter jump.

With just one crew and a ship's computer that can run Jump Control/3 but is usually mostly idle, highly sophisticated entertainment programs are nearly ubiquitous on ships of this class. They are not standard as part of ship construction, whatever the popular conception of this ship class is, and so are not listed in the official specifications in this article.

Image Repository[edit]

Not available at this time.

General Description & Deck Plans[edit]

  1. Deck Plans for this vessel.
    Sleeper deckplans.png

Basic Ship Characteristics[edit]

Following the Imperial Navy and IISS Universal Ship Profile and data, additional information is presented in the format shown here. [1]

Basic Ship Characteristics [2]
No. Category Remarks
1. Tonnage / Hull Tonnage: 200 tons (standard). 2700 cubic meters. Streamlined Slab Hull.
  • Dimensions: Maximum: 30 meters long by 15 meters wide by 6 meters tall
2. Crew Crew: 1 Astrogator. 1 virtual Pilot provided via software.
3. Performance Acceleration: 3-G maneuver drive installed.
  • Jump: 3.
4. Electronics Model/2bis ship computer.
5. Hardpoints 2 hardpoints, neither one used.
6. Armament None.
7. Defenses None.
8. Craft None. Vacc suits required for EVA (extra-vehicle activity). Rescue Balls for crew escape not normally carried, relying instead on the expected sole occupant getting into a vacc suit in an emergency.
9. Fuel Treatment It is typically equipped with a fuel purification plant and fuel scoops.
10. Cost MCr54.59 (no architect's fees, those having long since been paid). MCr49.041 in quantity.
11. Construction Time 1.8 months standard, 1.3 in quantity. Ordinarily made in quantity.
12. Remarks A free trader that only needs a single crew, with internal space optimized for use by said single crew.

History & Background (Dossier)[edit]

This ship class started as an exercise in logical extremes: with then-state-of-the-art TL-13 technology, how much ship could one crew handle? What advantages could a reasonably fast small trader bring? What standards could it usefully comply with?

These thought exercises had been milling around a design group at General Products when, in 684, the Interworld Trade and Transport Commission was established. This brought attention to the potential practical market for such a design. Funding was approved, thoughts turned into designs that could be fabricated, and the ship class put through testing in a remarkably short time. Partly out of convenience, partly out of a largely unstated desire to rush the class out to meet demand, slightly obsolete or less-than-optimized decisions were made, most notably the choice to make it to TL-12 standards to increase the number of shipyards capable of manufacturing and servicing it. This would prove fortunate for the ship class, given later tendencies in the Third Imperium to standardize basic support at TL-12 levels. This was initially going to go even further, making the ship at TL-11, but the advantages of Jump 3 in the designed frontier use case proved too good to pass up, though Jump 4 was not seen as sufficiently more useful than Jump 3 to justify in this class.

It is widely thought that the design group had no artistic talent whatsoever but this is not quite true. While the initial models did prove visually unappealing, a conscious decision was made to capitalize on that. The slab hull was deliberately made as featureless and boring as possible. This was the reason for upgrading the internal sensor array: to minimize the number of surface features normally used to establish basic sensor capability; sensors elsewhere on the hull are designed to lie flush with the hull as much as possible, making it look from a distance like they are not there. The intention of this was to make the class look unappealing to pirates and thieves; history has not given conclusive evidence but this seems to have achieved modest success. It is certainly the case that most customers of this class's freight hauling capability have not cared about the ship's looks.

As of 1105 the ship class continues to serve in its original capacity. So far as anyone knows, it may continue doing so as long as General Products exists.

Class Naming Practice/s & Peculiarities[edit]

Ship Interior Details: What small fame ship class has, is due to it having no true internal corridors. The two-deck airlock is the only thing that could be considered dedicated internal transit space. It is double-sized, combining what would be the class's two airlocks, with suit storage near the top deck entrance with exits to the outside and cargo bay on the lower deck portion. The hatch between the two decks can be and often is sealed to all except the lone crew, to allow that individual to operate from the bridge without physically interacting with anyone who is only present to help load or unload cargo.

The bridge, common area, and stateroom are all one big room in the front of the upper deck, with a fresher to one side and airlock to the other. Engineering is likewise a single room, taking the rest of the upper deck: jump drive arrays of zuchai crystals in front, one primary and two secondary fusion power plants behind them flanked by the fuel processors, then the maneuver drive at the back. There is room to walk between the various machines but the engineering area is a bit cramped compared to many starships.

The lower deck is almost entirely one large cargo bay with unfolding ramps front and rear. It has the airlock to one corner and cargo crane machinery along the same side. The front corners are given over to a modest sensor array that, minimal as it is, many see as excessive for the class's needs (though see note in the History section above). The cargo crane can extend a short distance beyond the front or back of the cargo deck, to pick up or place cargo containers from or to port-side transportation.

The maneuver drive's thruster plates slide down when the cargo bay's rear ramp is closed, to provide thrust at the midpoint between decks. They slide up as part of the process of opening the rear ramp, on the theory that they should not be in use while either ramp is open. This has caused unexpected complications for operators who sought to quickly drop their cargo; the general recommendation is to briefly shut down the maneuver drives if doing this, engaging only the lifters if quickly dropping cargo while hovering inside a gravity well.

Selected Variant Types & Classes[edit]

56 Representative Free-Trader (AF) Classes[edit]

§ == ( Please refer to the following AAB Library Data for more information: ) == §

Type AF Free-Trader


References[edit]

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Mongoose New Traveller This ship was designed using Mongoose 2nd ship design rules.
This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.
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