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>Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 07:46:54 EDT
>From: davis@licre.ludwig.edu.au
>Subject: cherryhlist

Markus writes and draws:

>With the main mass of the ship dragging behind the dock, wouldn't that
>imply lots lateral force on the docking cone, not only pulling, but
>twisting it? Perhaps the ships were radially aligned:

That wasn't the impression I got from the text, though.

>On second thought, though, I would conclude that grapple and cone are
>not the same.  (If they were, all ships would have to be (un)loaded
>through the nose, which was not the impression I had after reading).

This sounds much more likely to me.  Another jarring point though is that 
when debarking they always travel "down" in the lift to a lower level.  
Since the ship is docked and they are able to walk on the floor, surely the 
exit must be "up"?  Maybe the term is only convention though.
 
Jo writes:
>Lesley thought the Mahendosat were
>British. I said they weren't bastards enought to be the British but then
>we fell to arguing over how to pronounce "a".
>	She pronounces it "ah" like a finger being stuck down your throat.
>I pronounces it "ay" as is a query. Curiously enough we couldn't decide
>if it meant "yes" or "no". Most of the time a mahen is answering a question
>they reply with the very or a negative of the very. E.g. Q: "You got that?"
>A: "Got." This may not be just pidgin. Irish is the same. There is no word
>for "yes" or "no" in Irish (which is why you never get a straight answer
>in this country :-). Maybe mahen is the same.
>	However if "a" is pronounced my way, then the Mahen must be
>Canadian, eh?

That's interesting about the Irish, I never knew that.  You left out one 
other possible interpretation, though; they could be New Zealanders, ay?  
That would explain why they head for the territory of other species all the 
time...   8^}

David writes:
>Hey!  I missed the part where we found out they were gravitic wave
>drives!!

I don't think we did, it was put up as a possibility.

>It means the shields must:
>1) Have mass and be loosely tied to the ship, thus in danger of
>	being lost in a turn.

Except why distinguish between them and "realspace"?

>2) Have some sort of gyroscopic effect, and be incapable of being
>	redirected.

Possible.

>3) Draw so much power that they can't be used at the same time as the
>	drive.  (though at Urtur, a sensible hani would just use the
>	drives at very low power and turn *very* slowly.)

Nothing really to support this.

>or, my favorite,
>4) They use the same mechanicals (the jump-vanes) as the jump drive.

Mine too.  I think this is the most likely from the description.

An interesting difference between knnn (and possibly t'ca) ships and other 
Compact ships: there are several references to hani ships "dipping into the 
interface" even on the long jumps (as opposed to manoeuvring or 
acceleration), and being incapable of changing vector or communicating 
during jump.  The methane breathers seem to dip far further into 
hyperspace, and are clearly able to communicate and change vector there.

I think that drawing somebody did before (Jo?) was a good one, but there 
may be another level further down through which the knnn commute.

Ian Davis                                  davis@licre.ludwig.edu.au