Astral Queen, starliners and cargo pods

[FormerLurker]

Kirk is comparable to Captain Yelland in The Final Countdown, while Merick is comparable to Captain Stubing. Each is a good commander, according to his ability to run a tight ship, but their responsibilities are vastly different. And the military aspect of Kirk's service has with it responsibilities that Merick, like Stubing on The Love Boat, just never had to face (and Merick as much as admitted he didn't have what it took to do so).

 

[J.T.B.]

Could Astral Queen be a "starliner" -type transport vessel of the cargo pod variety, with no warp drive of her own, capable of docking with any robot or manned warp-sled pseudo-starship for passage between star systems? There's nothing in what Kirk or Daly or anyone else says in "Conscience of the King" to discount that possibility.

If that was the case, though, wouldn't Kirk have had to talk to the captain of the tug about its itinerary, not the pod?

 

[Wingsley]

The designation of a craft does not have to be because of being warp-drive-equipped (or lack thereof), nor is it necessary that all spaceships have to have impulse-drive-only to be called a "ship". But there's nothing wrong in the TOS Universe with an FJ-style towable pod having impulse power only, either.

 

[Timo]

If that was the case, though, wouldn't Kirk have had to talk to the captain of the tug about its itinerary, not the pod?

The one out here is that the Astral Queen was already "on orbit station" - so the choice whether to take the Karidian Company aboard or not would not affect the route or the schedule of the ship, regardless of whether the Astral Queen was that ship, or merely a particular passenger cabin aboard some greater whole. Perhaps some lowly steward could handle Kirk's request, with the skipper of the vessel not even needing to know?

It's just a tad odd that Kirk would personally know this steward - and that he would be addressed as Captain. But one might follow from the other, with "Captain" being a private joke Kirk shares with this Daly guy he knows so well.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Wingsley]

If that was the case, though, wouldn't Kirk have had to talk to the captain of the tug about its itinerary, not the pod?

Not necessarily. You're assuming that the warptug / warpsled is already attached to the pod while in orbit. That need not be the case. Perhaps the pod is scheduled to leave orbit on its own impulse power, fly on its own power to the outer edge of Planet Q's star system (or perhaps a little beyond) and rendezvous with the tug/sled at established coordinates. Even if a pod only has one-quarter impulse power capability, and the rendezvous point is, say, three light-hours from Planet Q, it would take several hours to reach the rendezvous point for pickup. During that time, Captain Daly would be piloting the Astral Queen in its own right. Once docked with the tug/sled, Daly and his crew would simply be concerned with the normal operations of their pod (mostly internal matters). The piloting of the tug/sled would be up to the tug's/sled's crew, assuming it has a crew. (Woden was a robot ship, after all.)

 

[Wingsley]

First: I love this line of discussion
Second: it made me pull out my old FJ technical manual. And here is where I get confused. I don't see where he had any of the named Ptolemy class tugs labelled as the astral queen. Am I missing something here?

You may have misunderstood what I suggested.

I wasn't saying that Astral Queen was a Ptolemy-class starship. I wasn't suggesting that Astral Queen was a warp-engined starship at all. Rather, that she would be an impulse-powered starliner-pod, perhaps similar to what FJ drew in the Tech Manual.

 

[PCz911]

An FJ transport container can carry 500 passengers, per the technical manual. It seems a pretty big leap to think that not being able to accommodate a few karidian players would be believable in that circumstance. If, as some have suggested, a tug can carry multiple pods, the. It might have double or more that capacity.
I'm more inclined to think that the astral queen is some tramp freighter plying the spaceplanes. Maybe it's because the whole "queen" name reminds me of the African queen with bogart. (Ok, not THAT small. Lol) Just my thoughts.

 

[Wingsley]

I doubt very much that Captain Daly called up the Players and told them "Gee, I'm sorry we don't have room for you."

The way Kirk and Daly were talking, it seemed more like the Astral Queen simply left orbit early without the Players, and no notification.