The Neophyte'S Serendipity

Vital Statistics

Registered Name: Neophyte’s Serendipity

Aliases:

Registered Owner: Vincent Torres

Captain: Vincent Torres

Registration Number: NX-1138

Manufacturer: Cold Fusion

Construction Shipyard:

Launch Date: June 27, 2778

Make: Medium Cargo, converted from Large Scout

Model: CF1811-B, ‘Yampa’ class light freighter

Centerline: 131 feet

Beam: 48 feet (fusilage), 110 feet (wing-tip to wing-tip)

Dry Weight: 310,000 pounds

Passenger Capacity: 5

Cargo Capacity: 44,000 pounds

Sub-Luminal Drive Type: Two High-Output Heavy Ion

Super-Luminal Drive Type: None

Sub-Luminal Cruising Velocity: 80,000 MPH

Sub-Luminal Maximum Velocity: 100,000 MPH

Super-Luminal Cruising Velocity: N/A

Super-Luminal Maximum Velocity: N/A

Mean Earth-Luna Trip Time: 2.5 hours

General Description

Its normal port of call is the Earth Ring Station where Vincent lives, however he has been known to spend months aboard the ship while traveling back and forth across the solar system doing business.

The Serendipity began life as a military scout ship and was acquired by Vincent at auction after it was, of course, stripped of any and all weapons and other military hardware. The ship does however, still have its military grade hull armor as to remove it would destroy the vessel entirely.

Vincent has spent a great deal of time and money upgrading the ship and has added, among other things, a pair of the fastest ion drive systems available on the market, particle shields that have been modified to within military specs for repelling weapon’s fire, incredibly advanced computer and sensory systems, and numerous weapons systems that push the borders of legality for a private citizen. The ship has a clean record and Vincent is not in the habit of trafficking in controlled materials, but he does like to be prepared and just loves tinkering with the ship whenever he has the time and money to do so.

The Serendipity is an intrasystem ship only, meaning it has no superluminal capabilities, although Vincent is currently stashing money away to buy a high-end traction drive for the vessel. Currently, its maximum velocity is around .54c or ¹⁄₂ the speed of light which allows him to make extremely fast runs from planet to planet within the Sol system. It is important to note, however, that operating at such velocities consumes enormous quantities of fuel and energy, making such ‘sprints’ very expensive. Because of this sprinting ability Vincent tends to receive a lot of priority business which makes him a comfortable living and a fairly well known captain in the Sol system.

The Serendipity has something of a cult following among other small shipping operators and has won the Sol intrasystem relay race four years running. A race which has pilots push their vessels from the Earth Station out between Mars and the Mars Station, through the asteroid belt, past Titan, then threading the rings of Saturn and dashing back into the inner solar system for a hard line to Mercury, around the sun and past Venus, returning to Earth Station as quickly as possible. The Neophyte’s Serendipity regularly wins the race by the margin of at least a day, sometimes three.

Sensor Systems of Note

Advanced combat tracking system with IFF and 16 target simultaneous tracking. Internal and external bio and radiation sensors. Surface-mapping system.

Defensive Systems of Note

Heavy ablative armor High-energy planar particle chielding

Offensive Systems of Note

2 ventrally mounted heavy particle beam turrets, 1 dorsally mounted heavy laser cannon turret, 2 fusilage mounted medium range missile launchers

Special Features of Note

Several large hidden compartments with cloaking systems

History

Spoilers

Status: In Service

When I was in my teens, my dad bought a ski boat. It was this awesome, glowing white with sea foam green accents, 21 foot long aquatic machine. I loved it, and still do to this day. In point of fact, I love boats of all kinds. Anyway, we were kicking around ideas for the name of the boat, because all boats ~must~ have names. It’s maritime tradition. Anyway, we kicked names around for a bit and the one that people liked the most was Beginner’s Luck, but it was decided that we didn’t want it to sound like we’d won the lottery or something, so we translated it into Latin, thus, the Neophyte’s Serendipity.

Well, we ended up not using the name for the family boat, but I liked it so much that I hung onto it for a bunch of years and when I needed a name for Vincent’s ship, it seemed like a no-brainer to me.