Interesting things that could happen on a ship
- Thread starter HourglassMemory
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These are my thoughts;
It doesn't really sound plausible that a group of six scientists, who aim to explore, embark on a vessel that supposedly does "everything by itself". There is no ship, and never will be, that does everything by itself.
Navigation for instance; Here on Earth there is the use of autopilots on modern ships. The parameters put in to the computers running those programs are based on rigorous charting, and still there is the necessity of watchmen on the bridge for safety reasons. I can not even begin to imagine how a ship that does everything by itself could navigate uncharted waters. And if GPS or something equal was at hand, no expedition would be necessary. The world would be known.
I guess that scientists might be good cooks and cleaners, but I can not imagine them making cooking and cleaning schedules. They are onboard to explore, collect data and chart. I guess that with such modern equipment as you have on board they would be pretty preoccupied with exploration. And as this is a whole new world, they would have plenty to do with that, and be quite enthusiastic about it too.
I also think that with all this sensitive equipment; solar sails, energy propellers extracting energy from both water and wind, and whatnot, these six scientists would be in a serious jam if something technical went wrong unless they have at least one scientist along who understands and is able to repair the equipment. His (or hers) scientific research time would be minimized though, due to constant maintenance of said equipment.
With the above alone I would find the whole ship setting more plausable if you added a crew of at least six people; Three watchmen (one of which should have Captain status), an engineer, and a cook/steward. To have a minimum crew onboard would enable you to put the scientists in focus. The crew could simply 'be' there, in the background. Nobody ever reflects about service personnel anyway.
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They wouldn't need a balcony, there should be deck space enough for having breakfast outside.
Some ideas that popped into my mind;
They must have set sails from some kind of land, or where would this ship have been built? Anyway, the quality of the water itself could make for some interesting twists.
Since this is an unexplored world the ship could end up in areas with different water density. The ship could suddenly sink into the water and "land" on high density water way down into the ocean. It could happen quickly, and to the amazement of everyone they would still be able to breath even though they are now submerged. That would also enable them to see parts of the ocean from "inside" and just imagine what creatures might be interested to find them there! It would also be easy enough to emagine how they hit a "density flood" that pushed them back to the surface again.
They could also encounter a water rift, something like the 'parting of the sea', but with no land to account for it.
Water can also turn into ice and that could leave for some interesting happenings. Not exactly the Titanic scenario, but they might have to navigate around vast ice deserts. There they could find interesting new ways of extracting energy, say from a sudden powerboost from plankton-like life that like to play with the underwater energy extracting blades. These could also emit light for special effects. The lights could have healing properties, which they could find out about if someone fell into the water. (Well, why should everything they find be disastrous?)
They could also hit a part of the ocean with mighty geysers that would threaten everything, shooting up randomly.
You could have them find creatures that are able to control water, not unlike the Aliens in the movie "The Abyss".
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Some more things that kept popping;
The scientists could go mad with anxiety, not being used to travel on a ship. I mean, if ships had been a normal thing in their world, the whole seafaring experience could have been found in the annals of your worlds history.
How come, if your world is so semi-advanced, no exploration has been attempted before? Were there threats recorded from earlier? Is the assumption that the oceans are filled with water? Couldn't they be methane, or something or other interesting? There simply must be an explanation as to why this exploration has not occured before. Are these people who built this amazing vessel threatened?
Also; if these scientists are from different branches, their discussions alone should make for some good dialogue that could move the story forward.
I'm just curious...
The scientists could go mad with anxiety, not being used to travel on a ship. I mean, if ships had been a normal thing in their world, the whole seafaring experience could have been found in the annals of your worlds history.
How come, if your world is so semi-advanced, no exploration has been attempted before? Were there threats recorded from earlier? Is the assumption that the oceans are filled with water? Couldn't they be methane, or something or other interesting? There simply must be an explanation as to why this exploration has not occured before. Are these people who built this amazing vessel threatened?
Also; if these scientists are from different branches, their discussions alone should make for some good dialogue that could move the story forward.
I'm just curious...
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My God! Thank you for these replies!
Where do I start?
I'm afraid I'm not going to reply in this thread. For me to give you satisfying answers, I have to talk about the story in a very open way, and there's no chance I'm going to do that in such a 'public' place.
Sorry people-who-were-interested-in-the-story!
Anyway, if I feel that I can adress any other replies here, I will do so.
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