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H. Beam Piper Mailing List and Discussion Forum
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Welcome to the Zarthani.net H. Beam Piper mailing list and discussion forum. Initiated in October 2008 (after the demise of the original PIPER-L mailing list), this tool for shared communication among Piper fans provides an e-mail list and a discussion forum with on-line archives.
 
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1242
David "PiperFan" JohnsonPerson was signed in when posted
08-30-2015
21:41 UT
 ~
> Jay P Hailey wrote:
>
> What is the orientation of decks and artificial gravity inside Piper's starships? I always
> just pictured them flat as the vehicle landed. But is that wat piper was really thinking?

Jackson's given a pretty good description of the situation but there's precious little detail about this in any of Piper's yarns. William Taylor once mentioned a scene where crew could see the cap insignia of an approaching officer before his head rose over the curvature of the deck but I'd be a damnthing if I could ever find it in a story.

The best details we get about this are the descriptions of the hypership shell Conn and his fellows find on Koshchei (and in some of the observations about the reconfiguration of the contragravity ship~Harriet Barne~ to an interplanetary ship) but it can be convoluted and difficult to follow.

The best specific references come from ~Space Viking~. Here's Trask noting the damage to ~Nemesis~ after the raid on Beowulf: "everything had been patched up, or the outer decks around breached portions of the hull sealed." And similarly, during the battle with ~Enterprise~ above Audhumla: "wedge-shaped segments extending six to eight decks in were sealed off in several places."

That's not much but it does fit with Jackson's "onion" metaphor quite well.

Well shot!

David, in Victoria, BC
--
"A lot of technicians are girls, and when work gets slack, they're always the first ones to get shoved out of jobs." - Sylvie Jacquemont (H. Beam Piper), ~Junkyard Planet~
~
1241
Jackson Russell
08-30-2015
18:42 UT
 The interior of the space ship is designed like an onion. At the core you have the artificial gravity generator. Next level is crew quarters where the floor is sharply curved all around the core. At the outer-most level the floor's curvature is easily dismissed. Basically, it is like a tiny subterranean planet. When on another planet, it would seem that the gravity stays on, or people would slide/fall in the direction of the planetary gravity well. Basically, the floor plan is like a Russian nesting doll in spherical form. Each level wraps around the previous and everybody walks on the surface of those spheres. There are no "flat" surfaces to walk on. Presumably, shuttles nest on the out levels like a fly on a ball, rise up through the bay doors then reorient themselves.

Jack

< replied-to message removed by QT >
1240
Jay P Hailey
08-30-2015
17:08 UT
 Did anyone ever answer this?

What is the orientation of decks and artificial gravity inside Piper's starships? I always just pictured them flat as the vehicle landed. But is that wat piper was really thinking?

Jay, in Spokane
1239
 Spam deleted by QuickTopic 08-30-2015 06:07
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