Granger's Garden
Granger's Garden as a Setting
Granger's Garden is a seven year old Utat station. It is broken in, but not broken down, as Mr. Granger himself is fond of saying. The first thing to change aboard when he took control was the station's policy about firearms. Guns are allowed aboard… bullets ain't. Or at least, not unless they're bought special on-station. And on-station, the only ammo that is sold is a light shot suspended in a gel medium, a reduced penetration round that won't damage even interior walls. As a newtech ammo, it costs twice as much as regular ammo. People with 'Tought as Nails' automatically convert damage from this ammo to stun, as if they were wearing body armor.
Currency
Granger runs his station by the book. He is meticulous about his book keeping and business practices, including forcing everyone to pay with Alliance Credits. However, it is still legal to use untraced reserve notes, instead of account transactions. To step around possible problems with rim and border world clients, he has a metallurgy shop aboard, where he will gladly convert precious metals into cash money for only 5%. He will in turn sell the metal (in coin form) back to anyone who wants it at market price for the metal. This is a very reasonable transaction fee. Incredibly reasonable, in fact, and many visitors mistakenly assume that the station owner is an amiable and generous fellow because of it. This is not the case.
Worker's Wage
Granger pays his folks legal wage, usually 9 credits per month for least skilled laborers, plus room and board. Those that volunteer to share a room with another worker get an additional 2 credits per month. All workers are allowed the equivalent of canned food (although it's actually fresh, since it comes directly from the station). Those that opt to take protein equivalent meals earn an extra credit per month as well. On certain festive occasions, Granger allots half a credit in casino chips to his crew. In theory, it's to allow everyone to have a drink, and maybe a little fun. In truth, it's to get those people who usually don't frequent the casino to come in, and maybe spend some of their wages there.
The Abattoir Boys
Mr. Granger usually doesn't associate with his crew too much. He makes an exception with the men hired to work the slaughter house. He is much more generous about those free casino chips with these burly guys. And, once in the casino, Mr. Granger pulls one or two back into his private lounge to discuss 'opportunities'. Opportunities usually amount to disposing of… well… let's call it organic matter. Needless to say, if you mess with Mr. Granger on his station, you will end up in the pig's feed trough. Because of his generosity to this particular group, he can always count on a handful of burly fellows, good with blades, to come to his aid if things get tense. Use Bully Boy stats but switch Knives and Brawling skill levels.
Products
The station grows a number of plants, including; wheat, rice, potatoes, tea, coffee, tobacco, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, peppers, onions, garlic, soy beans, peas, corn, broccoli, carrots, barley, hops, cannibus, poppy, and various cooking herbs. In addition, two of its botanical segments are used for experimental plants.
Along with plants, the station has a number of animals raised for food, including sheep, chickens, goats, dwarf cattle, pigs, shell fish, fish, and snails. While not strictly plant or animal life, cyanobacteria (Spirolina) forms the backbone of much of the Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) of the station, and is the primary ingredient in making Protein Paste, almost a byproduct of the system rather than an intended result.
From the animals come leather, wool, and lanolin, along with eggs, milk and meat.
Crew
Owner: Mr. Darnell Granger
Darnell Granger is six feet tall, athletic build, with golden brown skin and medium length wavy black hair, usually held back by silver clips. He wears business suits of the absolute latest style, and smiles like a shark.
Darnell Granger was the son of a very successful businessman. Unfortunately, Darnell's father was so successful because he had no problem stepping outside the law when it suited his needs. Darnell, as eldest child, was groomed to replace his father in the family businesses, and showed great promise. Unfortunately, after the end of the unification war, the alliance turned its eye on the actions of Granger Senior, and soon Darnell's father ended up dead in a very bloody shootout with the Feds. With all family assets frozen, Darnell set out creating his own legitimate business empire from virtually nothing. Now, with a small fleet of light transports, and the Utat station to his name, he has a very comfortable revenue stream.
Success hasn't come without a price. The first element of interest in Granger's life is his father's old associates. Some come to him for assistance, some to collect unpaid debts, and some to try to muscle their way into his businesses. In addition, his growing activity is beginning to get him noticed by megacorps who don't like him cutting into their monopolies. He has thus far assuaged them by bringing their franchises and products aboard his station, but he isn't sure how long that will last. Because of the people interested in him more than his own actions, the Alliance has also become keenly interested in his activities, being more of a burden than assistance.
Because of this, Mr. Granger has armed his station with 24 combat-capable shuttles. His living quarters are a double lined self-contained vessel, and he has armed guards with him virtually all the time.
Despite these precautions and enemies, he has determined that he will not cease living life just to postpone his death. He moves about the station freely, encouraging his workers, playing hands at the casino, holding company conferences, wooing lovely women, and occasionally traveling.
Commander: Elizabeth Blackston (O-5)
Elizabeth is of average height, showing a little roundness as she ages, with a usually-furrowed brow, and intent stare. She has a sharp mind, and is constantly playing a mental chess-game of what could go wrong, and trying to ensure contingencies for such events. Elizabeth works an average of 14 hours a day, and is probably headed toward heart attack.
Second in Command: Ryce Volstaff (O-4)
Volstaff is a number of years out of higher education and something of a wunderkind. He is medium build, not overly bulky, and has youthful good looks. He is on a fast track up the ladder of corporate success. He is also very mercenary in his ideals, and his salary on Granger's Garden won't hold his interest much longer. He sees the position as a stepping stone to something more important, and closer to the core.
Chief Engineer: Michael Rowe (O-3)
Michael is middle aged, with a tall, athletic frame, and chiseled features. He speaks in a smooth baritone with absolute confidence. He is a mechanical genius, and has a strong work ethic. His only real fault is his unwillingness to delegate responsibility for any task he has even the slightest bit of uncertainty about. Because of this, he works a lot, and his personal life suffers. While it's only known to himself and Mr. Granger, Mr. Rowe is paid more than twice that of any other crew member, and Mr. Granger feels that he earns every credit many times over in saved maintenance cost.
Chief of Security: Clair Mendelson (O-3)
Clair has brown eyes, and black hair, is …ummm…? Clair disappears in a crowd. This is intentional. It's a cultivated gift, bordering on supernatural. Clair served three years in Alliance Special Forces, the last three years of the war. She has the keen senses of perception of an investigator, and a good nose for trouble. Her gig aboard Granger's Garden is, at least in her mind, something of a vacation retirement.
Chief Science Officer: Dr. Thomas Feng, PHD (O-3)
Thomas is a man almost in his fifties, with a distinguished academic appearance. His gray hair is combed over slightly. He wears either sterile lab jumpsuits with safety glasses, or casual business attire. Mr. Feng is a good scientist, but a glory hound, and is likely to take credit for the work of those under him. He has published several academic papers on work taken from his underlings, and earned a bad name in scientific circles because of it. Because of this, he has found himself reduced to working an out-of-the-way farm in space. The only bright spot is that the station is doing some exciting work with agricultural varietals.
Chief Medical: Dr. Patricia Baker, MD.(O-2)
Mid-Forties, with angular features and brown hair, Patricia wears small glasses, and her middle length hair pulled back in a pony tail. She can have a good bedside manner with her patients, but is slightly overbearing to her underlings, and adamant in her policies. Dr. Baker is a fine surgeon and feels underutilized in her position aboard station, but the salary and low work-load allow her to pursue medical research.
Lead Botonist: Dr. Su Man Rong, PHD(O-2)
Dr. Su is moderate height with black hair and gray eyes. He has a chubby face, and smiles most of the time. He is consumed by his passion for science, and has a fiery enthusiasm when discussing botanical matters. This zealous desire for discussion led to his dismissal from Floracorp for supposedly divulging trade secrets. While it meant a large pay-cut, he was happy to come to work aboard Granger's Garden, because of the Owner's allotment of two entire botanical segments for his experiments, one for new consumer dwarf-plant varietals, and one to use as he sees fit.
Lead Zoologist: Hiram Uldman (O-2)
Hiram is one fancy diploma removed from shit-kicker farmboy. He was born and raised on farms, and went to college to learn zoology, and husbandry from the scientific viewpoint. While science is a large part of his work, most of it is sweat and labor, and common sense. Hiram leads the team that manages the animals aboard.
Loadmaster: Eshwardutt Patel (O-2)
Eshwardutt is short and thin, with dark skin, eyes and hair. He speaks with an almost undiluted Earth-that-Was proper English accent. His relatively low status of loadmaster has made his parents look down on him somewhat, and a slow shame has forced him to seek extralegal means ot increase his income and status (at least in the eyes of his parents).
Chief Traffic Controller: Andre Beauchamp (O-1)
Andre is short, just over five feet, and stout, with legs that seem proportionally too short. He walks with a distinctive waddle, as if he has a minor leg injury, which he doesn't. His face is rather mole like, with beady eyes and a rather long nose. On-duty, Andre is professional enough, taking his duty seriously, but is most likely to make off-color jokes, or play harmless practical jokes. Off-duty, Andre loves wine (beer actually), women, and song. He is very alive and animated, and great fun at most gatherings.
Second Traffic Controller: Felicia Beauchamp (O-1)
Andre's sister, taller than him, rather plain looking with dark hair and very pale skin, she is soft spoken and bookish. Her brother's boisterous behavior embarrasses her. She is most likely to be found in her off hours in the Companions' parlor having deep philosophical or ethical debates with other intellectuals.
Superintendent: Carlina Andrews (O-1)
Carlina is in her late twenties, with blond hair, and a flight-attendant manner. Her duty aboard is to act as liaison to all non-station people aboard. She arranges room and shop leases, and organizes meeting areas for special occasions. If people wish to hire out engineers to perform ship repairs, or lease out a drydock, or cargo space aboard, she's the one to talk to.
Market Deck Shops
The following is a list of shops on the Market deck (10). Starting on the inside wall, top right and going clockwise;
Williamson's Fine Clothing (1 employee)
Orwin Masters proprietor: Heavy lidded, well groomed, and polite, Orwin is a good businessman, but a bit of a bore.
One of a number of chain stores, Williamson's is known for carrying affordable but businesslike clothing. Wearing clothing from here says firmly that you are middle management.
Garden Wool (1 employee)
Abigail Ventruse proprietor: Abigail is an older widower, a sort of grandmotherly type. She has a kind face and bright smile, and very keen ears. Her disarming nature puts her into a position to know a good deal about what goes on aboard.
Ms Ventruse holds the station contract to sell the wool produced aboard. In addition, she dyes, spins, knits, and weaves various cunning garments from this reliable fiber. "When everything else fails, rely on wool", she says. Along with station wool, she stocks wool related craft supplies from off-station. There is a strangely large number of folks who pass their long hours in the black by knitting, apparently.
Starharts Work Clothing (1 employee)
Maksim Ichkovich proprietor: Maksim is a boisterous fellow, a natural barker, bellowing the real and supposed benefits of his well-known work-wear.
Starharts are, of course, almost legendary for their reliability and durability. They ain't cheap, but you get your money's worth. "Why, one time, I was ejected into the black, and only lived because I was wearing a Starharts jumpsuit" and other similarly preposterous and humorous tales abound around these work duds.
Garden Dairy (one employee)
Xie Fu Rui proprietor: Xie found his way aboard by bizarre circumstances, abandoned by the crew of the ship he was aboard, and has taken the first available job. Cheese and milk aren't exactly his life passion, but he has quickly learned his profession and was originally waiting for a replacement to fill his job so he could head back home, but the truth is the job is as good as any he'd get at home, so he stays for now.
Garden Dairy holds the sizable contract for dairy products made aboard station. This includes cow, goat and sheep milk, and their byproducts. Any cheese not used aboard is his domain, and he is good at selling.
Fresh Fish-n-Fowl (one employee)
Tobias McLeary proprietor: Tobais came from a family of fishmongers, and moved on-station when the position was available. After his enthusiastic work selling the station's fish, he was also given the fowl to sell. So he has fresh chicken, duck, and a variety of fish and shellfish to sell. He frequently steams a few shrimp or fries chicken tenders to entice customers with the alluring scents.
Fresh Fish-n-Fowl has the station contract for selling excess fish and bird product, minus eggs. This is usually a pretty easy job, since both are fairly low cost, and readily available.
On the Hoof Livestock (one employee)
Agatha Lydia proprietor: olive skinned and occasionally temperamental, Agatha competes to sell her wares in the din of the market by day, and cooks elaborate meals by night.
On the Hoof Livestock holds the station's contract for selling live animals. This isn't a huge market, but most frequently involves chickens, and occasionally the milk producing varieties of livestock. With sufficient time, Agatha might be able to arrange some more exotic animal brought from off-station.
Garden Grocer (one employee)
Timm Nexvik proprietor: Timm is a nice, bespectacled, older fellow. His mellow voice is often lost in the chaos of the market deck, but he is patient and always willing to help.
Garden Grocer holds the station contract for fresh produce, and it is an abundant commodity, with some 40 kinds of commercial plant grown. In addition, he sells surplus honey. Instead of a few large deals that keep others in business, his stall has a constant stream buying a bulb of garlic here, a pound of carrots there.
Essence Foods (one employee)
Flower Wyn proprietor: Flower is a early twenties beauty, with the kind of enthusiasm that can easily be mistaken for forced. No, really, she's actually that animated all the time.
Essence Foods is the contract holder for Dehydrated foods aboard, and the stocker of most of the automated vending systems along the docking arms. The obvious benefit of dehydrated food over canned is that it weighs only about 1/3 as much. The problem with it is that it takes more preparation than canned food, which, in theory can simply be opened and eaten. Some people find certain dehydrated foods to be great snacks, like peas coated in wasabi (horseradish powder actually). One can also find other various puffed rice and puffed corn snacks available in the vending area.
P-38 Foods (one employee)
Buck Jenkins proprietor: Buck is ex-browncoat, and knows every soldier trick for making canned foods appetizing. He got himself a cookbook for sale right there in his store. Some of the recipes are inventive, some standard, and some are just silly. He's more interested in swapping stories than hustling to sell his wares, since they are a hot item and he don't have to work none too hard.
P-38 Foods holds the station's contract for selling canned goods. Along with Essence foods, he stocks the vend machines in the docking arms, usually with the most popular ready to eat foods like stews, noodle soups, various stocks, and a few vegetables. What remains is sold from the store on the market deck, and that's still a lot.
Super-Funky-Zap-Fun (one employee)
Fang Tu Man proprietor: Fang is a geek, and it shows. He is also a bit pushy as a salesman, but he manages a good bit of business this way.
Super-Funky-Zap-Fun is a chain of shops that sells consumer electronics. One can order over the cortex and pick up the product at their nearest outlet, like the one on Granger's Garden station. Broadbands, game systems, and even some recording and surveillance type equipment is available here.
General Store (one employee)
Constance Slade proprietor: Constance runs her shop like a real business person ought to. She is not glitzy or showy, but tries to get her patrons the best deals possible on the items they need.
General Store ships all of its products in from off-station, and so fills the niche of 'other'. She sells rope, wire, some small furniture and fixtures, all sorts of odds and ends useful to light freight haulers or folks living aboard a station.
Rawhide Leather (one employee)
Joseph Campbell proprietor: Joe is a mid thirties fellow, a little soft in the middle, but likes crafting with his hands, and is a skilled leather worker. Most of his work comes in the form of requests for custom gun rigs, which he's more than happy to make.
Rawhide Leather holds the station's contract for leather goods. Joe gets the tanned hides and works from there, usually making them into finished goods, but sometimes selling whole hides. With kid and sheep skins along with cow skins, he has a fair variety of products available, from belts to full coats to ladies' gloves.
The outside shops on deck 10, starting top-right, and going clockwise:
Office of Metallurgy (one employee)
Brian Ansel proprietor: Brian is educated and looks it. He has pale skin and fair hair with a rather thin and angular build. Brian found the position aboard after fairing less well at asteroid prospecting than he'd hoped.
The Office of Metalurgy is simply a small five by ten shop with some simple instruments to analyze the purity of metals, and two safes. Readouts show current market values of all precious metals in as close to real-time as data transmission from official offices allow.
Licencing Office (one employee)
Orden Long proprietor: Mr. Long's appearance screams bureaucrat. He is every DMV employee that has ever wasted your precious time, pale skin, slicked back black hair, pursed lips and squinting eyes. He is wasting his life in the miserable hell-hole of Granger's Garden, and insists on bringing everyone into misery with him.
This is where all official Alliance paperwork can be requested or turned in, and where registration fees can be paid.
Meat-Snak! (one employee)
Toby Galston: Toby is young, and just out of the gangly pimply stage. He's tall with athletic build, hooked nose, dark eyes and big smile.
Meat-Snak! produces various kinds of jerkies, mostly for immediate consumption as snack foods, but the product can be bought in larger quantities for shipboard supplies.
Kamil's Kabobs (one employee)
Berny Weisman proprietor: Berny is doughy, balding, and pale, but is an excellent cook. He named his business Kamil's Kabobs because he thought it would sell better than Weisman's Kabobs.
Kamil's Kabob's produces and sells a good deal of goat and lamb kabobs, as well as a few others, like beef, chicken and shrimp. The scent of this little booth is enough to bring most people to his counter.
Inner G (one employee)
Tera Thompson: Early twenties and thin, very thin, heroine chic thin. She is hyper, and obviously uses the product she sells.
Inner G is a pharmaceutical concoction inside a synthetic sugar, suspended in carbonated water. It comes in nine exciting… Ah, who cares? This is the stuff people guzzle to get wired when they need to pull triple shifts. Inner G is a fine product of the Hyper-Life company, a subsidiary of Blue Sun Corporation.
The next two small shops are empty
Detention Cell
The last small shop area on this deck has been converted to a detention cell to hold thieves or roudies until they can be transferred to the jail on deck 2
Personnel Deck Shops
The following is a list of shops on the Personnel deck (2). Starting on the outside wall, top right and going clockwise;
Pack N Heat (one employee)
Lisa Ling proprietor: Lisa is a tiny waif of a woman, with golden tan skin and black hair (with a red streak in front.) She is usually reading the latest Guns'n'Girls magazine, and dreams of making the cover. She is helpful and well informed on her wares, and while the station policy prohibits the carrying of lethal ammo aboard, she can arrange for such purchases to be conveyed to a customer's ship.
Pack N Heat is a gunbunny shop. It has old faithful wheelguns, and all the latest polycarbonate cerametal SMGs. Lisa holds a Class III dealer's license, and therefore carries arms restricted to Law Enforcement agencies and personnel. She will sell these to anyone with proper license. Just go up to the licensing office on deck ten and… good luck.
Karla Kurl (one employee)
Karla Kostrzewski: Karla is a mid thirties low-rent kind of lady. She dresses in what might be considered a classy way… out on the rim. Core folks would take her for rim-world trash. But, she is good at doing hair, somehow managing feats with her five inch nails. Karla is a very good source of information, and will freely discuss station politics with anyone in her styling chair.
Karla Kurl is a two-chair salon (so she can work on a cut on one client while setting or drying another), well equipped with all that is needed to do inhuman things to your hair.
(The next shop is vacant)
New News (one employee)
Lloyd Peevley proprietor: Lloyd is a late-middle-age, rotund and balding man. He pedals news and magazines, both hard copy and digital, and he has an opinion about everything. He is something of a conspiracy theorist, and sees patterns in information that probably aren't there.
New News is a small news stand, with racks of magazines, as well as an incredibly well indexed digital information system, where people can gather data with lightning speed to any portable data device.
Beauty Nails (one employee)
Rondella Jefferson proprietor: Rondella is a heavy-set but pretty lady with chocolate brown skin and long weaved hair. She dresses in vibrant colors and her voice can almost carry through a vacuum.
Beauty Nails only has one station, and Rondella manages to keep busy even with the small number of women aboard. Much of her business is from the lady's from the cathouse across the way, who she treats with the same respect that she would any other client.
Macky's Barbor Chair (one employee)
Mackey Liu proprietor : Mackey is short, a hair under five feet, thin, and his black hair (always cut high and tight) is going gray at the temples. He is sociable and happy to give and get word from all parts of the 'Verse.
Mackey's Barbor Chair is just that. One chair. As he is located just behind the bar, he often suggests folks go have a cold one while they wait, bellows out the number of the next customer when he's ready. He doesn't really compete with Karla, since their clientele are usually pretty different.
Bangles, Baubles, and Bracelets (two employees)
Tisha Anderson proprietor: Tisha is a moderately attractive mid-twenties young lady, who was once very excited about her work, but having chosen rather poorly she watched her business struggle, until she brought on the young Mr. Mike Takamora in as a partner. Mike is thin, with wild spiked hair and chunks of metal inserted into odd places in him. Mike added piercing and tattooing to the services the tiny shop offers, and the shop now has its head just above water.
Bangles, Baubles, and Bracelets sells just that; shiny trinkets to adorn pretty ladies. Or men. They also have sterilized piercing equipment and tattooing guns. Tisha hasn't yet allowed Mike to being decorative scarification.
Heavenly Fragrance (one employee)
Elisia Abernathy: Elisia is a kind of flaky lady, whose look alternates between a far-off stare and a soul-piercing gaze. She is prone to believe most any tin-foul hat conspiracy or new-age rant.
Heavenly Fragrance sells perfumes, soaps, and other such amenities.
The single shop in the upper right quadrant next to the post office is:
All Lady's Wear (two employees)
E Liang Carpenter proprietor: E is a tall, graceful woman, with statuesque features, and an elegant demeanor. E has a young assistant, Kotone Mochizuki, just into her twenties, who seems miniature in comparison to E. Kotone is occasionally outspoken, but usually right when voicing a dissenting opinion. She has a natural eye for style that is blossoming under E's tutelage.
All Lady's Wear sells very good clothing, enough so that the female companion aboard does most of her clothes shopping on-station here. This gives the shop a very high degree of respectability, however, E has strongly considered moving the shop to the ring, out of the way of the sometimes roudy personnel deck.
Also found on the personnel deck are
Suds-n-Grub Bar and Restaurant (8 employees)
Goldey Farlinger proprietor: Goldey is a big, burly, scarred man. His forearms look like hams, and his hands can palm most other folks' skulls. Despite his size, and obvious wear and tear, he is good natured, and has a booming laugh. Goldey has 7 people working for him, another bar tender, two cooks, and four waitstaff.
Suds-n-Grub is the first thing most people notice coming on-station on deck 2, because they smell the food; good, healthsome stuff, not fancy, but filling, tasty, and reasonable priced.
House of Ladies (6 employees)
Marcus Valentine proprietor. Marcus is a tall, thin man, with deep eyes, and thin lips. He has a nervous look, and his eyes dart about. He controls the women working for him with nearly total domination. They, in turn, are starting to consider rebellion en masse.
The ladies:
Lilly Flynn: Medium height, zaftig build, and oldest of the girls. While fun-loving with the customers, she is protective of the other girls.
Tory Cander: Athletic build, dyed red hair, wild party animal, Tory has mostly lost a sense of self preservation and does dangerous stuff because of it, She, and Beck are most likely to roll a john.
Beck Oswald: Much like Tory in behavior, she is a wild spirit. She prefers platinum hair color. Beck was a street thief before coming aboard Granger's Garden.
Missy Riu: Maybe sixteen. Maybe a hundred pounds. Sweet, innocent, pretty little flower. She's begun cutting herself. Lilly fears this little girl is slipping from the 'Verse, into some private hell.
Nexi Valada: Tall, nearly six feet, and long lean build, Nexi likes men.. and women.. and sex. In another place, some head doctor might say she had deep-seated issues of trust or some load, but here, people just think she really loves her work.
The House of Ladies has private rooms, and a stage that faces Suds-n-Grub, where the girls perform either music or sometimes cabaret to entice the clients. Any performer who wants to take the stage on a Friday night had damn well better be more interesting to a hundred drunk men than half-nekked ladies.
The two shop decks in the ring have the following:
First shop module;
Garden-Fresh Coffee (one employee)
Felix Stanton proprietor: Felix is a young man moving into middle age, who enjoys fine food and fine wine. He is a skilled coffee roaster, and expert Barista.
Garden Fresh Coffee has the station contract for coffee and tea sales. This is a small niche market, and Felix makes the most of it by selling most of the coffee grown on-station in the form of high-priced fancy coffee-based drinks, which he expertly prepares. He usually has at least a small croud waiting for their coffee at just about all hours that he's open.
Daily Bread Bakery (two employees, this business takes up two adjacent shops)
Santos Ruiz proprietor: Santos is an old man, grandfatherly, and weathered looking. He is still full of life though, and greets his customers with enthusiasm. His son Eduardo works with him, and will probably take over the business when Santos is too old to continue working.
Daily Bread Bakery sells the standard bread-products produced on-station, as well as making other more home-made styles of bread and pastries.
Bi Tailor (one employee)
Bi Shen Huan proprietor: Huan is a small framed Asian man, with small round glasses. His voice is rather high and nasally, and his speech is quick and sharp sounding. He is the personal tailor to Mr. Granger, and in his remaining time serves other people aboard station.
Bi Tailor does not carry suits. Huan makes suits from fine fabrics, specifically tailored to the customer. Huan is an artist at this task, and can make thick-necked neandertols look like corp founders
In addition to these listed, there are four vacant shops in the first module.
Second shop module;
Karla Kurl Too (two employees)
Liz Strathford proprietor: Liz is early thirties, talkative, and a gossip. She's good at her work, and interested in the newest styles from the core. Liz's assistant is Beth-Ann, a country girl just learning the trade. Beth-Ann is pretty in a farm-girl kind of way, and has a deserved reputation as being easy.
Karla Kurl Too is Karla Kostrzewski's second shop, following the success of her first. She is now 40% owner, having been bought out a little at a time by Liz. Karla Kurl Too covers most of the business of the residents of the station while the one on the Personnel deck in the spindle covers passers-through.
Space Cowboy (one employee)
Nanzer proprietor: Nanzer is in his mid forties, but looks about sixty. He's burned out and a bit fried. It would take a planetary explosion to get any big reaction out of him, he's so mellow. He's missing his right leg below the knee. "Happened in the War" is all the more he'll elaborate on. No one knows his real name either, but public record shows it was changed to Nanzer 47 days after the end of the unification war.
Space Cowboy holds the station's contract for selling tobacco, Cannibus, and poppy based products. This head-shop smells like incense, and flowers, and weeds. It's also stocked with an eclectic assortment of odds and ends, interesting things that are all shiny and fascinating to the mind when its in an altered state.
Garden Leasing Office (staffed by crew members)
This is Carlina Andrews' office (see her entry above)
Grinder (one employee)
Neil Vendetti proprietor: Neil is a hard drinking man in his off hours, and can be sour and cross, but he slings his sandwiches with great speed when the loads of workers come to his shop for a quick bite at lunch.
Grinder serves.. well, grinders; six inch sandwiches in a plethora of styles. Along with using fresh meats, cheeses, and produce from the station, he also makes or imports spiced sausages and smoked meats, and a mind-boggling array of condiments. The Slogan on the sign; "Even if you can't see heaven from here, you can at least taste it", and many people aboard agree.
Sav-Mart (one employee)
Kathy Feldman proprietor: Kathy is a usually tired-looking middle age woman, with long brown hair that's going gray. She wears simple casual work clothing, and works herself nearly to exhaustion to pay for her grown son's medical education.
Sav-mart is a huge chain of general stores, and the station has a tiny version aboard. Most products found within are produced by mega-corps using cheap labor to pass the savings on to you. Expect Blue Sun products to abound.
In addition to these listed, there are three vacant shops in the second module.
This leaves a number of shops available for the GM to populate as they see fit, and covers most of the basics.
Imports and exports from the station:
Imports:
Solid Wastes, Food, Manufactured Goods, Fuel (for resale), Passengers
Exports:
Nonrecyclable waste and garbage, Produced food (9 tons per week), Livestock, Fuel, Passengers
Because of the relatively low volume of goods passing through the station, it's not a great spot for bulk transports. Most traffic coming through are mid-bulk and light transports; mostly those delivering, exporting, or looking for a cheap place to restock on victuals. There may be 50 tons of cargo coming or going from the station in a week, not including food and passengers. There are likely to be 20 to 50 passengers coming to and the same number of passengers leaving the station. Of passengers coming and going, 50% are from border worlds, 25% from Rim worlds, and 25% from Core worlds. This gives a reasonable chance of a few (2-4) passengers to be found on the same world or near enough worlds to make them virtually the same location.
Dimensions 814Wx280Lx695+1510H (not including solar mirror)
Tonnage: 98,000 tons
Speed Class: 0
Crew: 574
Fuel Capacity: 80 tons (emergency reserve)
Cargo Capacity: 3420 tons cargo, 160 tons fuel for resale
Passengers: 322
Agility d0
Strength d8
Vitality d8
Alertness d4
Intelligence d2
Willpower d4
Initiative d0+d8
Life 12
Perception d4
Slow Throttle (Major)
Complexity: Very Low
Price: 196,000 (not including cost of gear)
Maintenance Cost: 78,400
Gear: 128 escape pods, Food Production and Processing equipment, 32 shuttles, Medical Facilities, Nuclear Power Plant (Lead-cooled Fast Reactor, 20-year lifespan)
Overview
The Utat station was designed as an agricultural production facility, capable of sustained production sufficient to meet the needs of 900 people. While developed many years before, this station grew in popularity after the Unification War, as a way to make up for the lost agricultural production from wartime ravages.
The station has the capacity to meet production via very old technologies, namely nuclear and solar power. The solar mirror used to focus solar energy onto the inside surface of the station's ring is capable of powering the agricultural deck at a range of 8 AU from Primus. The lead-cooled fast reactor is a replaceable module with a 20-year lifespan, and is more than adequate to meet the station's modest energy requirements.
The station was given its name due to the fact that when viewed from the side of the ring, it looks like a giant eye, so was named for the Egyptian Hieroglyph Utat, the eye of Ra that represents the sun.
The station's ring accounts for nearly 75% of the entire station mass, and two of the ring's five decks are dedicated solely to food production. The station is a virtually self-contained eco-system, and would require very little input except that it exports food material. Because of this, it requires shipments of organic waste material to feed the system. This material feeds an entire life-support system, that produces both food and atmospheric recycling for all the inhabitants. Humans can only consume about 30% of the biomass of plant matter produced aboard, but a good deal more of it is used to feed animals that produce additional food. The station produces about 840 man-weeks of food per week above and beyond what it needs to feed its own crew. The majority of this is canned or dehydrated, but a good deal is sold fresh.
Crew
The station, while highly automated, still requires a sizable crew. Standard crew compliment is as follows:
C&C 14
Freight Handling 50
Engineering 32
Security 32
Botany 96
Husbandry 76
Medical 20
Processing 142
Caretaking 80
The standard method of operation is three 8-hour shifts, two where production is operational, one when it is inactive.
Physical Layout
The station is divided onto two distinct physical parts; the spindle and the ring, connected by a tram system. The spindle has artificial gravity and decks that are arranged like a column, with the top of the column culminating in the connection with the ring. The ring uses centrifugal force to simulate gravity. The trams that allow cargo and passengers to pass between them can be accessed from any cargo area on the ring, and from deck 34 of the spindle. All interaction with other vessels is done on the spindle. Four T-shaped docking arms allow ship docking, and four ?spines' allow docking of the station's many shuttles.
A note on the deck maps
Each map has a picture of the station, either with or without the ring showing. For decks on the spindle, their location is shown as a red bar in its location in the spindle. For segments in the ring, their location is shown as colored bars in their relative place on the ring, with bars the same color as the segment's walls.
The Spindle Decks (Docking Arms)
Initial entry for everyone coming aboard will be one of the station's docking arms. Each has a total of 19 docking slips, designed primarily for docking with very small freighters. However, about 2 mid-bulk transports could be accommodated per docking arm, or more depending on their exact configuration. Four of the slips are only for very small, shuttle-size vessels.
Docking is done with the Personnel level of the docking arm. A freight lift is adjacent to each airlock, allowing cargo to be lowered to the cargo deck for easy transport to a nearby cargo deck. The corridor into the station has a number of vending machines, allowing for the purchase of protein, canned food, and beverage, as well as automated laundry services. In addition, each docking arm has a First-Med medical attention room in the event of medical emergency. At the cross-corridor, each docking arm has a shop for ship parts, stocked with a wide array of parts, filters, fluids, and such for small ships. The last room new arrivals encounter before entering the station proper is security. Half of the cargo level of the docking arm is consumed by the large tanks for refueling ships, flushing their waste tanks, and refilling their potable water. The other half is consumed by the automated cargo conveyors and cargo lifts to the personnel level.
The docking arms connect to decks 1 and 2, and decks 9 and 10. Decks 1 and 9 lead to cargo decks, and decks 2 and 10 lead to personnel decks. The docking arms of decks 9/10 are offset 90 degrees from those on decks 1/2 so that if you look straight down on the station's spindle decks, the docking arms for decks 1/2 would be at the 3 and 9 o'clock position, and those of deck 9/10 would be at the 12 and 6.
A note on the station lifts
While there are four personnel and four cargo lifts on the decks of the spindle, only one of each passes through the systems decks to deck 34 where the tram connects to the station's ring. See Deck 34 for their location.
Cargo Decks (1,3,4,7,8,9)
These are unremarkable cargo areas, basically vast open warehouses for storing the freight aboard station. Decks 1 and 9 see more activity since they are connected to the cargo deck of the docking arms.
Personnel Deck (2)
Deck 2 is modified on Granger's Garden from stock (which would otherwise be identical to deck 10), and has a more open floorplan. The deck is, generally speaking, a big open bar/restaurant (bar is on lower left, kitchen on lower right), with a stage for entertainment (upper left). Behind the stage is the House of ?Ladies', a brothel. Much of the performances on stage are burlesque, meant to entice patrons into the brothel. However, talented performers might get gigs performing for the crowd. The upper right quadrant of the deck holds the station's post office, and jail. Around the rim of the deck are numerous small businesses. The one directly across from the jail is the gun shop.
Market Deck (10)
Deck 2 is fun. Deck 10 is all business. This is mostly where freight is bought and sold. 20 shops line an octagonal passage encircling the deck. Foodstuffs, leather, and wool products are for sale as well as some byproducts like soap and lanolin. While it might not be as exciting as other locales aboard, this deck is the business heart of the station. A particular business of note is the metallurgist, just beside the cargo lift at the top of the deck. While the Granger's Garden station will only deal in Alliance Currency, this office is more than happy to convert precious metals into cashy money, for only about 5%.
Drydock/Medical (5)
The station is pierced through decks 5 and 6 with three drydocks, capable of holding small vessels. Each are 35 feet wide, and 20 feet high. The two smaller ones are 38 feet long, and the larger is 55 feet long. They can accommodate any vessel that can fit within those dimensions. The smaller two are used mostly to maintain the station's fleet of shuttles. The larger may be leased out for ship repairs. To the left and bottom of the deck are cargo areas which hold small vessel parts, and tools. The upper right portion of the deck is the main medical complex, with emergency rooms, an operating theater, dental office, and medical labs.
Drydock and Laboratories (6)
The layout of deck 6 is similar to deck 5, but the medical area is replaced with numerous labs of a more general sort. Many are genetics labs for testing and crossbreeding varietals of plants. Included in this area is a cryogenics bank of all plant and animal species used aboard.
Systems Decks (11-33)
These decks are filled with the station's various systems, and therefore deckplans are not provided. Go shoot up some other portion of the station, gorramit!
Systems and Cargo deck of Station Ring
Shown on this map are three segments of the station's ring. The systems segment shows one of four transfer modules for wastes to be moved into the ring, and for potable water to be returned to the spindle. The cargo segment is typical for the location where cargo and passengers come and go into the ring. Note that the plan shows both cargo and passenger trams docked with the cargo deck. The food processing module is intentionally barren because the type of equipment will change with the type of processing done. The unmarked room is for scrap materials.
Shops, Companions' Guild, Crew, and Crew Dining ring modules
Most of the personnel deck of the station's ring looks like long stretches of the two right modules repeated. Rows of double occupancy rooms, with alternating central areas either filled with a mess hall or single occupancy rooms. Along with functioning as mess halls, these large rooms serve in off hours as all sorts of recreational spaces; exercise rooms, small movie theaters, civic meeting places, etc. A good deal of the rooms are vacant and available for rent. These are in segments nearest to the ?entertainment' segments.
The upper left segment is a shop segment, with 8 shops and a restaurant. There are two such modules in the ring. Lower Left is the Companions' Guild module. There are two registered companions aboard. The left side of the module has ?bedrooms' although, in fact, most of these are sitting rooms. Next to them are the baths. The baths can be rented without the services of companions, or with non-companion washers, or masseuses. To the right of these is the Companions' parlor, probably the most sophisticated meeting place aboard, where big business deals are as likely to happen as philosophical debate or games of chess. Three rooms off of the parlor are used for music, recitals, tea ceremonies, and the like.
Private Quarters, Casino, Bar, and Temple ring modules
The Upper Left segment shows the private quarters of Mr. Granger, adjacent to the casino. The double layered hull separated by vacuum (preventing sound), and blast doors of the inner core as well as the internal auxiliary life support systems make this private dwelling a nearly impervious bastion for the owner of the station.
The Lower Left segment is the station's casino. The left side area is the pit boss and security station. The casino is adjacent to the bar segment (shown upper right). The bar is called ?Tanked Up', a play on words, and a nod to the fact that the bar sits directly below the station's brewery. The various stainless steel brewing tanks can actually be seen overhead. The area above the bar on the map is a storage room. The open area to the far right of the bar is a stage (although it's not terrible apparent).
The temple segment is not actually adjacent to the bar, although they are connected on the map. The left side of the segment has a Christian church. There is a Buddhist temple on the right side and several open areas of the inclusion of other faiths.
Here is more information about Granger's Garden as a Setting
Notes:
First off… those deckplans are BIG files. You are warned. They should print off at 300dpi, but you might want to check the settings before trying to print.
Yeah… I'm never trying this again. The last piece I did this size was the Longbow, and that had much simpler style of deckplan. I'm guessing this station represents something like a month's work. So, I'm hoping ya fine folks get some use out of it.
EDIT: And I forgot to mention, the Serenity shuttle in the docking arm pic was stolen from Treybor. He kicks ass, and we all know it and bow to his utter awesomeness.
Some links to other pics of the station…
Station view from side of ring
Station view looking across ring
Station seen from aft (behind solar mirror)
Second view of station aft
Looking side-on to ring, solar mirror removed
Aft of station, solar mirror removed
My appologies to the relatively low quality of the model and lighting. When my computer died, it took my 3DS Max with it, and I've been resorting to an older version, with poor lighting capability. Until I get up to speed with Blender, I'll be somewhat hobbled i nthe model deparment.
As for rules, please note that the station's cost was calculated as if it had a speed of 1/2, since you can't actually use a 0 speed in cost calculation, and it should, IMO, cost less than a vessel with even a 1 speed.