PizzaGirl's Alter Ego
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Notes: 2 / 1 year ago from geekfights
Yggdrasil
I’m starting off my exploration of the list for the upcoming “Best Spaceship” episode by bringing up two ships that are not on the list. They’re not on the list because I would be willing to bet that most of you didn’t even know they existed. Both ships are creations of Dan Simmons, the first in Hyperion (the first book in the Hyperion Cantos) and the second in Endymion (the third book). This entire series is easily one of my favorite of all time (and I read A LOT)
Yggdrasil
The Consul remember his first glimpse of the kilometer-long treeship as he closed for rendezvous, the treeship’s details blurred by the redundant machine and erg-generated containment fields which surrounded it like a spherical mist, but its leafy bulk clearly ablaze with thousands of lights which shone softly through leaves and thin-walled environment pods, or along countless platforms, bridges, command decks, stairways, and bowers. Around the base of the treeship, engineering and cargo spheres clustered like oversized galls while blue and violet drive streamers trailed behind like ten-kilometer-long-roots.
-page 30 of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
These are giant trees, crewed by a priesthood who manage the ergs, sentient (but not sapient) beings who have the ability to make these huge fields.
Raphael
The Raphael is an archangel class courier ship. There isn’t a picture of it and I couldn’t find any instance where anyone had tried to draw it. As far as physical description the only one offered is this:De Soya had never considered torchships beautiful—gourd-shaped, the command and weapons mod dwarfed by the huge Hawking drive and in-system fusion-thrust sphere—but the archangel is actively ugly in comparison. The courier ship is a mass of asymmetrical sheres, dodecahedrons, lash-ons, structural cables, the Hawking-drive mounts, with the passenger cabin the merest of afterthoughts in the center of all that junk.
-page 54 of Endymion
The ship is capable of traveling vast distances (faster than light of course) in days. The unique thing about this ship is that when it reaches velocity, it kills its passengers (or rather fails to protect them), completely liquefying them. It then resurrects them (passengers are infected with a parasite co-opted by the Catholic church to be available only to members) to deliver their message. Resurrection is not a pleasant process but the advantage of being able to beat any other ship to a destination is beyond value.
Here’s a telling of pre-launch:“One minute thirty seconds until initial acceleration,” comes the metallic voice, and de Soya realizes that he is talking to an idiot machine. He hurries to strap himself in. The bands are broad, thick, and almost surely for show. The containment field will hold him—or his remains—in place.
“Thirty seconds,” says the idiot voice. “Be advised that the C-plus translation will be lethal.”
“Thanks,” says Father Captain Federico de Soya. His heart is pounding so fiercely that he can hear it in his ears. Lights flicker in the various instruments. Nothing here is meant for human override, so de Soya ignores them.
“Fifteen seconds,” says the ship. “You might with to pray now.”
“Fuck you,” says de Soya. He has been praying since he left the courier’s recovery room. Now he adds a final prayer for forgiveness for the obscenity.
“Five seconds,” comes the voice. “There will be no further communications. May God bless you and speed your resurrection, in Christ’s name.”
“Amen,” says Father Captain de Soya. He closes his eyes as acceleration commences.
-page 55 of Endymion by Dan Simmons
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On diametrically opposite sides of the speed versus comfort balance, I think both of these deserve a shot at being the best spaceship.
-K
Have you seen something like these ships before? Let me know at karin@geekfights.net, @geekfights, or here. Notes
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