Because Book 2 of the Sarbotel Rising duology, Ilse’s Game, is coming out later this week, I’m doing something a little different for this week’s Shipyard Sunday and talking a bit about the Guardian Star Clipper from my short story “Repel Boarders!” found in the Raconteur Press anthology Space Marines. The story is set in the same story universe as Ilse’s Game, the Seuthen Story Universe, a fantasy setting with some science fiction elements, but I’ll do a post specifically on that later.
Designing the Star Clipper
My goal when I sat down to write “Repel Boarders!” was to write a fantasy space marines with a sort of swashbuckling, Age of Sail feel to it and a key aspect of the story was the ship – the Guardian Star Clipper Tempest. Coming up with a design for the Tempest served a dual purpose: it helped me to get into the mindset to write the story and it helped with actual writing of the story because it gave me a clear idea of what the exterior of the ship looked like and the rough layout of the decks.
The first step in coming up with a design for the Tempest was to figure out the over design language for the ship, something science fiction, but also something fantasy. I decided to go for a look inspired by Captain Nemo’s Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and set out to find some good reference images. I admit, I was surprised by how many different variations of that submarine there are, but I definitely had plenty of inspirations to draw on. My secondary inspiration were some of the theoretical designs for solar sail spacecraft to give the Tempest a more fantasy Age of Sail feel.
The Guardian Star Clipper Tempest
Guardian Star Clippers are starships constructed with and powered by magic and were originally built by the people of the planet Seuthes as exploration craft with limited armaments. In normal space, clippers use devices called gravitic buoyancy cylinders, or just buoyancy cylinders for short, for propulsion. Buoyancy cylinders interact with the gravitational forces of a nearby planet or star, or, less efficiently, of the galaxy as a whole to move vessels equipped with them along a chosen plane, or planes, of gravity. When faster methods of travel, faster-than-light travel, are required, a star clipper will instead use its sail arrays, which are planes of magic energy projected by the ship’s masts, to shift into thru-space (or, as the Dii call it, the Shadow Realm) and then “ride” the currents of magic that weave their way throughout the universe.
After Seuthes was attacked by the Corrupted Dii a race of magic-using aliens, the Guardians upgraded the armaments and defenses of their star clippers. The most visible of these upgrades are the armored sniper positions on the tops of the secondary masts and the four-battery gun compartments located on either side of the ship’s airlocks.
The overall length of a Tempest-class star clipper is just over 600 feet with the circular airlock in the image above being about 10 feet in diameter.
The Seuthen Story Universe
As mentioned above, the Star Clipper Tempest featured in the short story “Repel Boarders!” which is set in the Seuthen Story Universe. In the chronology of that universe, the events of “Repel Boarders!” take place shortly after the events of the Sarbotel Rising duology. There are more stories coming in this universe, so be sure to check back often for announcements and other news – and, of course, more Shipyard Sunday posts.