Khtesiai Spy Ship

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One cool thing about the longevity of Traveller is the incredible amount of source material that exists. I was designing the deck plans for an Aslan ship and got to the staterooms. What does an Aslan bed look like? Or a toilet? Or even a chair? Well, turns out this has already been considered and published, way back in 1991 in Megatraveller Alien Volume 2: Solomani and Aslan. Toward the back are a number of Aslan ships, including deck plans for the Eakhau trader done by Rob Caswell. And there you have those things right there for me to... emulate. I have to say I like Caswell's versions of Aslan ships better than what's in Pirates of Drinax. They should all be smooth elegant designs and the Drinax version of the Eakhau looks like looks like a paper hat. Or an overturned version of what the British would call a chips container.


But here is my own contribution to non-linear ship designs, the Khtesiai Spy ship:

Khtesiai-class Spy Ship

The Khtesiai is not an impressive-looking ship, often compared to a dull black skipping stone in shape. It serves the Syoisuis as a spy ship charged with border system surveillance. Designed to observe and occasionally intervene to keep the terms of the Peace of Kaiear, its crews are dedicated, but their task is thankless. Their orders pit them against other Aslan as often as against Humaniti.
Designed for stealth, the Khtesiai is able to spend months on station, especially with its impressive 7g drives powered down. The dozen torpedoes stored on board are mostly launch platforms for surveillance probes, but can include plasma torpedoes for strike missions and, allegedly, thermonuclear warheads capable of destroying cities or capital ships. The pulse lasers and fast drive are used to discourage pursuit and to flee when discovered, not to fight.

At full crew, the Khtesiai is a crowded ship, with females outnumbering males who are often ill-suited to this quiet patient work. Instead, many Khtesiai crews utilize computer programs to replace their pilots and gunners, operating the ship with just six or eight females, with perhaps a patient male as titular commander.

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