Alien3
EEV - Technical readout
Source unknown.
The BD-409 is a small escape vessel capable of carrying up to five people and is 13.2 metres long with an L-shaped wedge configuration. At the trailing edge of the craft are three large titanium support struts which house ICC Standard retaining lugs for connection to the mother ship. The EEV's underside is latched directly to the mother ship's escape hatches and acces is made through these hatches via a large dock ring. The asymetrical 'L' section of the wedge contains the life support equipment and drive section, and is connected to the mother ship via an outboard umbilical up until the moment of launch. The hull is made from carbon, alloy and ceramic composites and is capable of withstanding sever re-entry angles.
Mission profiles for the EEV vary according to the situation. In the event of a disaster aboard a starship, the decision to abandon ship is normally given by the vessle's commanding officer. However, the nature of modern interstellar spaceflight forces staship crews to spend prolonged periods in hypersleep. If a crisis should occur while a crew is still in hybernation, there may be insufficient time available to revive them and the escape procedures would have to be handled by the automatic systems. In such a situation, the burden of decision making would be made by the crisis management computers aboard the mother ship. The ICC sets the rigid protocols for the crisis management systems to ensure that evacuation of a ship is initiated when ,and only when, failure to do so would result in the loss of life. If this point is reached, the mother ship's computers will send out a distress signal and begin the escape procedure.
Immediatly, all EEV units aboard ship will begin to prep for launch. EEVs are kept on a permanent 30 second standby, and at this point their onboard computers and flight recorders will boot up their command menus and have mission data downloaded to them from the mother ship's main computer. Aboard ship, the automatics will disconnect the crew cryogenic umbilicans and then drop the hypersleep modules via a series of transport tubes down to the escape hatches where they are autoloaded aboard available EEVs. As soon as the modules are secure aboard the EEV and plugged into the Escape Vehicle's life-support system, the onboard computer logs out of the mother ship's computer network and initiates its launch program.
At launch minus five seconds, if the signal to abort has not been received from the mother ship, the retaining lugs securing the EEV to the ship are pulled clear and the outboard umbilical detached. At launch minus two, the primary hull latches around the docking ring release so that the vehicle is attached only by two explosive retaining bolts. At launch minus zero, the onboard computer blows the bolts, allowing the pressure of the ship's atmosphere on the escape hatch to flush the vehicle clear of the ship. The entire EEV evacuation procedure, from the decision to abandon ship to launch should have taken no more than 45 seconds.
Immidiately the EEV is clear of the mother ship, the onboard computer begins to initiate search and rescue procedures, switching on a powerful distress and location beacon, while scanning the immediate sector of space for a suitable landing site or rescue vessel. The optimum flight profile and landing site would, in most situations, have already been determined by the mother ship's computers prior to launch and download to the EEV; however the onboard systems are fully autonomous and are capable of overriding the mother ship's decision should a better altenative present itself.
In general, an EEV will attempt to home in on the nearest navigation beacon (such as a space station or colony world) and will set course for that location. The BD-409's hyperdrive unit has a range of approximately 1.4 parsecs and the guidance systems will ensure that it retains sufficient thruster fuel for in in-system docking or a powered re-entry. Since the EEV's life support capabilities are limiteed, it will keep the crew in hibernation for the duration of the journey, monitoring their status by use of the internal bio-function monitors and catscanners, wakening them only for the terminal phase of the mission when rescue is imminent.
If a rescue ship appears within the EEV's scanning range, the onboard computer will attempt to hail the ship via the communications beacon and will manouvre to meet it. If no rescue ship appears, the EEV will continue on to its destination and will attempt planetfall there. The BD-409 has sufficient fuel for single powered re-entry, but not enough to sustain any prolonged atmospheric flight; thereofre if a colony beacon exists, the EEV will follow the colonies' landing beam directly down to their landing pad. If no such a beam exists, the EEV will select a suitable site from orbit and attempt a touchdown there.
The BD-409 is a 'dead-drop' vehicle designed to fall unpowered from orbit until it reaches the lower regions of a planery atmosphere, where it will use its thrusters to brake its descent. At this point the EEV deploys its tricycle undercarriage and jockeys on its limited remaining fuel for a landing site. If planetfall is made on an uninhabited or unexplored world, the onboard systems may elect to keep the crew in hibernation, awaiting rescue. However, in most cases the automatics will complete the revivification of the crew once touchdown is achieved. If the crew survive the touchdown and find that they have a prolonged wait in order for help to arrive, storage lockers are provided containing essential survival gear, a month's rations for each crew member and first aid equipment.
The BD-49 EEV system is noted for its flexibility and reliability; however the nature of space disasters makes egress from a starship a most hazardous affair and, despite the advances in technology, many lives are still lost. Escape procedures are so eleborate that the malfunction of a single component (very likely when a staship is suffering a catastrophe) can joepardise the entire evacuation, and even if all systems function perfectly, there is no guarantee of a succesfull rescue from the vastness of space. However, some chance is better than none, and given the lethality of most space emergencies it is hard to dispute the accepted wisdom of old space hands who insist the 'When in doubt, bail out'.
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