Cool. Sorta reminds me of a "hard" science fiction concept I came up with myself a few years ago, except mine ruled out FTL propulsion as well as artificial gravity, energy shields and most other technologies that we're not likely to have in the next couple of hundred years, if ever. I also used the stacked deck arrangement for my hero ship, which relied on more or less continuous accelleration/decelleration to produce gravity.
I look forward to watching this as it develops.