Question about OiS

POSTED BY: Rekka2
UPDATED: Sunday, January 18, 2004 16:17
VIEWED: 7907
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DRAKON

Saturday, January 17, 2004 12:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Shiny:
I always just assumed that Early was sophisticated enough to know how to disable any alarms prior to boarding the ship...after all, his ship was apparently able to approach Serenity without triggering any of the proximity alarms

Proximity alarms I will give you. Different stealth/cloaking technology may make his ship look nothing more than some abnormal heat bounce off the engine wake.

[Even then, I would do a quick turn to "clear baffles" (look at blind spots) instead of blowing it off]

But the hatch alarms? All you need is a limit switch mounted against the hatch. Wire it so any break in the line triggers the alarm (switch closed when hatch closed. Make is small enough, and any tiny opening in the hatch breaks the switch, sets off the alarm. Early can't wire around the switch from the outside, he has to open the hatch first to do that, and that sets off the alarm.

So the hatch alarms have to be in disrepair or not maintained. An open hatch is a big danger on a spaceship, so not maintaining it seems kinda extremely negligent.

Of course maintenence costs money.

"Wash, where is my damn spaceship?"

SHADOWKATE

Saturday, January 17, 2004 6:31 PM

Okay I admit I know next to nothing about submarines, but it seems to me that most people wouldn't put alarms on the doors. Think about it:

You're in space on a ship. If someone was going to try and break in via a hatch, you'd probably be able to detect the ship and be prepared. And if you needed to open a hatch, you wouldn't want an alarm (which can be very annoying) going off.

However, with this theory, it seems to indicate that the Firefly has some design flaws (I think at some point its mentioned that they leave a wake of heat and thought that they were just picking that up) or maybe its just because Early was flying a very small ship. I did wonder if maybe he had a larger ship somewhere, since his didn't look up to intersteller travel.

SAINT JAYNE

Saturday, January 17, 2004 6:58 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Drakon:
So the hatch alarms have to be in disrepair or not maintained. An open hatch is a big danger on a spaceship, so not maintaining it seems kinda extremely negligent.

It seems that every hatch would have an alarm, but it is only necessary to sound that alarm is there is an emergency, no? Early must have gone through the regular airlock procedures to get into the ship, and an alarm would only sound then if Wash set one up. Perhaps a surprise visit in space was not something they were expecting.

I would agree the crew had lack of foresight and caution here, but it's still believable.

DRAKON

Sunday, January 18, 2004 8:57 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Shadowkate:
Okay I admit I know next to nothing about submarines, but it seems to me that most people wouldn't put alarms on the doors. Think about it:

You're in space on a ship. If someone was going to try and break in via a hatch, you'd probably be able to detect the ship and be prepared. And if you needed to open a hatch, you wouldn't want an alarm (which can be very annoying) going off.

But, opening a hatch on either a sub or a spacecraft has far different consequences. The cat may get out of your house if you leave the door open. But on a spacecraft, all the air leaves with the cat. That just ain't good.

You are right that such an alarm would be annoying, which is why all noise alarms on the boat (submarine) have a cutoff switch, that just kills the audible alarm and not the blinking light. (Or in some cases, changes the blinking light to a steady on light)

DAMN! That's it. Someone cut out the audible and forgot to turn it back on. No one was in the bridge at the time, so no one noticed the light flashing when the hatch opened.. geeze, I am getting senile.

"Wash, where is my damn spaceship?"

DRAKON

Sunday, January 18, 2004 8:57 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Shadowkate:
Okay I admit I know next to nothing about submarines, but it seems to me that most people wouldn't put alarms on the doors. Think about it:

You're in space on a ship. If someone was going to try and break in via a hatch, you'd probably be able to detect the ship and be prepared. And if you needed to open a hatch, you wouldn't want an alarm (which can be very annoying) going off.

But, opening a hatch on either a sub or a spacecraft has far different consequences. The cat may get out of your house if you leave the door open. But on a spacecraft, all the air leaves with the cat. That just ain't good.

You are right that such an alarm would be annoying, which is why all noise alarms on the boat (submarine) have a cutoff switch, that just kills the audible alarm and not the blinking light. (Or in some cases, changes the blinking light to a steady on light)

DAMN! That's it. Someone cut out the audible and forgot to turn it back on. No one was in the bridge at the time, so no one noticed the light flashing when the hatch opened.. geeze, I am getting senile.

"Wash, where is my damn spaceship?"

MOMAW

Sunday, January 18, 2004 11:28 AM

River did send off the fighter by herself, but wasn't there some discussion about Early being part of an organization known as "Red Glory"? Did she hear/sense/intuit that, or recognize the markings on the ship? Perhaps Red Glory is made up of people that will kill you on sight if you have one of their ships. Sort of like stealing a police car and expecting to sell it to the scrap yard without a hitch.

Other possibilities include;
- Issues with transference of ownership on spacecraft makes it all but certain that the Alliance will eventually learn that the ship was sold, when and where; they'd be very interested in such information. Better that the ship vanish without a trace.

- They wouldn't be able to sell it at all because they aren't the lawful owners. It seems like a very Alliance thing to do, strangle up on ship manufacturing and sales. Plus they just fought a nasty war mere 6 years ago, so they're mostlike combing ship records carefully to make sure the browncoats aren't cropping up again.

- River acted on her own iniative and got rid of the ship because it disturbed her. Well, disturbed her more than she already is.

- It had some sort of undefeatable anti-theft device. How River would detect such a device is open to speculation.

- The writers just didn't feel like dealing with it.

How Early got into the ship? He's really good, obviously. You could probably do some interesting things with induction from the outside of the hatch. Or has anybody considered the possibility that River was already outside at that point, and he got in because she left the hatch unlocked? Though one wonders, wouldn't he see her exiting the ship. Mmm, no, I don't like that, makes him look stupid. Or even better, that she knew all this was going to happen and unlocked the hatch for him because she already had her plan worked out. I like that, makes River seem even more bizarre.

And why is everybody saying it's MAL's fault if the airlock closure sensors aren't working? Go yell at Kaylee! Or rather don't, just mention it nicely and offer fresh fruit as a bribe. If it's something to do with the ship's workings or innards, Captain Dummy isn't going to be the one to deal with it. So far the extent of his demonstratable mechanical skills is connecting wires after somebody else shows him where the part goes. The idea that they can't afford to fix them doesn't really work: if a hatch isn't closed and they break atmo, they all die. So airlock sensors are definitely high on their priority list.

GOATUS

Sunday, January 18, 2004 2:24 PM

Remember when Wash got serenity to dock with niska's space station without being detected? if a humble cargo ship can do it then boba fetts must be able to ;)

SHADOWKATE

Sunday, January 18, 2004 4:17 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Drakon:
But, opening a hatch on either a sub or a spacecraft has far different consequences. The cat may get out of your house if you leave the door open. But on a spacecraft, all the air leaves with the cat. That just ain't good.

You are right that such an alarm would be annoying, which is why all noise alarms on the boat (submarine) have a cutoff switch, that just kills the audible alarm and not the blinking light. (Or in some cases, changes the blinking light to a steady on light)

However that is the point of most airlocks. The idea being that you can't open up one of the doors (say the inside one) with the outside one being open so that the air stays in.

However I think that Saint Jayne is probably right, there is probably the correct procedure for going in and Early followed it.

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