Ship Description

The Kuiper Class is a utilitarian design sparse on aesthetics, much of the mandatory safety equipment appears to be an afterthought. The same applies even to necessary features such as lighting, door mechanisms, furniture, and plumbing. Summer's Gift was revamped during an extensive stay on Miranda. The internal appearance has a brass and wood veneer with matching hardware in most of the 'public' spaces, but the ugly Kuiper class is not entirely hidden.

Bridge

The Bridge is a baroque combination of parts from half a dozen different vessels. The metals and plastics vary in appearance, the monitors and screens seem ill fitting and mismatched.

• The Door to the Bridge can be locked with a formidable lock, opened with the Captain's Key, or from the inside.
  
• Just outside the Bridge is a pull ladder that leads to a short jeffrie's tube, leadin up to the forward top-hatch. The Hatch is pressure sensitive, split sliding door. It will only open if the pressure is equalized on both sides. So it will not open in vacuum, unless the ship is depressurized.

Medical Suite

Formerly the owner's suite, this space is cramped for a medical bay. The original bunk was replaced with a medical bed. A 14 year old medical scanner and computer was fitted into the space above and beside the bed. There is a high-lumen surgical lamp mounted to the ceiling over the medical bed, a scrounger's find from Miranda. The original safe built into a small desk is still there. The rest of the room is composed of cabinets holding medical supplies and equipment.

The small bathroom was modified to permit easier use by injured crewmen. The bath does hold the various shampoos and toiletries of the crew as it is used by most crewmen for showers and such.

The medical suite attaches to the Ward Room through a simple door.

Midship Lounge

• There is a pull ladder that leads to a short jeffries tube, leadin up to the forward top-hatch. The Hatch is pressure sensitive, split-sliding door. It will only open if the pressure is equalized on both sides. So it will not open in vacuum, unless the ship is depressurized.

Starboard Crew Dorm

The starboard crew dorm is a 7 x 7 foot room with a 9 foot ceiling height. There is bare deck on the floor, metal walls on all four sides in industrial grey paint. There are places were it's blistered and pebbled, mostly in the areas where the piping and the conduiting have heated or cooled the surrounding air more than the general atmosphere. There is some staining, to be expected on a ship this age, and most of it is around the rivets where the sections of metal have been joined to span the space, much like drywall will be taped and mudded and then painted over. Otherwise, the paint job is smooth enough, nothing flaking off.

Standing at the door and looking to the rear wall, everything is built in from corner to corner. Left rear corner is a locker, about 24 inches wide and about 5 or so feet tall top to bottom and 20 inches deep. There are vents in the door and it's likely it's one of those lockers with shelves on the inside. Attached to the righthand side of the locker is a 20-inch run of desk matching the depth of the locker. You stow things in the shallow drawer beneath it. There is recessed lighting in the cabinets above the desk and they can be brightened and dimmed with a dial switch. Above the desk is a run of overhead cabinets rising to the conduiting and the pipes about 8 feet above the deck. The desk is outfitted with a desk chair on wheels and it can be pushed all the way in under the desk to make room. There is a clamp on the undercarriage of the chair to allow it to be fastened to the deck. The two halves of the clamp assembly, on deck and chair, can folded in rest position, again to maximize on mobility and space.

The rest of the space from desk to rear right corner is the bunk. It's 3.5 feet wide and goes all the way to the wall. It's 24 inches from the deck to top of mattress and the base is a full-length storage drawer. Above the bunk is a foldaway bunk of the same dimensions, folded flat against the wall.

In the rear wall behind the desk and at headboard height above the main bunk is a 4-inch shelf sunk into the surface of the bulkhead. It runs from the locker to right rear corner. In the top inside edge of this recessed space is a light strip to provide light to see or read by. Built into the shelf is a console straddling the boundary of the desk/bunk edges. The console is angled for viewing and has the door lock controls, intercom controls, lighting controls, data ports to plug into the ship's Cortex system, a clock with alarm, a radio/media player, and thermostat.

Standing at the desk looking back at the door to the quarters, the doorjamb clears the bunk edge by a scant 8 inches and likewise clears the corner of the room on the other side by 6 inches. There is an integrated control panel in the jamb on the left, over the foot of the bunk and it is similar to the headboard console, minus the radio/media player. Centered at the top of the jamb is an emergency lighting fixture and the jamb itself is painted with glow-in-the-dark paint, for times when the main power fails. On the long run of wall opposite the bunk, there is nothing to break up the space except for light strip starting 6 feet above the deck. It's 4 inches wide and the wall continues to the pipes overhead without further features.

Back to Plan Descriptions

Aft Workroom

• There is a pull ladder that leads to a short jeffries tube, leading up to the forward top-hatch. The Hatch is pressure sensitive, split-sliding door. It will only open if the pressure is equalized on both sides. So it will not open in vacuum, unless the ship is depressurized.

Engine Room

• Outside the engine room is the transverse corridor. It provides access to the two upper aft cargo containers. There are also two hatches in the floor at opposite ends of the corridor leading down to the Lower Deck.

Passenger Container

The Standard Passenger Container provide adequate if cramped space for four passengers, or eight with double occupancy (with a fold down bunk). It resembles a sleeper car on a train. A narrow corridor leads past a linen closet. There are four doors with simple mechanical locks (basically just latches). At the end of the corridor is a small head. The floor of the head is equipped with a small ridge and drain to permit a simple hose-based showering system. It is not comfortable, but second class customers did not pay for comfort.

Each room is identical. It contains a small bed, desk/vanity, pull out drawers under the bed, and a single fold up chair built into the floor. There is lighting, and an adapter to link datapads into the ship's cortex system.

Weapons Pod

This half container appears from the outside to be a standard half sized container. If you open the doors it appears to be packed tightly full of metal crates. However, this is a facade. The facade pulls open to reveal a small space dedicated to the ship's defense. The room is dominated by a circular turret walled off about five feet high. Inside is a light machine gun with two boxes of ammo. Also there are the controls for the 20lb cannon housed in the base of the turret. When activated, the turret pops down beneath the hull for 360˚ arc of fire.

The rest of the room is lined with sturdy storage space for the cannon's rounds, as well as additional rounds for the machine gun.


Summer's_Gift
Mutineers