Transporter Room
The transporter is a subspace device that allows almost instaneous movement of an object (or person) between two points. Transporters dematerialize, transmite and than rematerialize whatever they are targetted on. The act of transporting is often refered to as 'beaming.'
There are several different types of transporter technology - most available on any starship or shuttlecraft.
Transporter Room[]
The use of the Transporter Room is the most common and safest form of transporting. Whatever is being moved is safely entered into the tranporting matrix, and can easily be transfered to another transporter room or to an area with enough open space for whatever is being transported. The maximum range of a transporter room, without interference, is 40,000 kilometers.
Limitations[]
It takes 30 seconds to calculate an area to beam someone to - this is cut in half if the area has an active transporter room or signal amplifier. It takes 30 seconds to lock on to a target offship and beam them to the transporter room. This time is cut in half if a signal amplifier is used. The time is doubled if there is a lot of interference (radiation, weapons fire, certain weather conditions, magnetic shielding etc). It is almost impossible to beam someone off-ship if they are moving (Requires Knowledge [Transporter] 20).
A transporter room can only transport targets to itself or from itself, though it can be linked with Site-To-Site transportation to move certain people around very quickly.
Most transporter rooms are designed to beam only six human-sized targets at a time.
Transporter room can not beam things on or off-ship if there is shield interference. The amount of time it takes to beam a target to or from a cloaked vessel is tripled, and quite likely to result in a transporter accident (see below).
Site-To-Site Transporting[]
Site-To-Site Transport
Site-To-Site transporting allows quick transportation throughout a single ship. This draws more power than the transporter room (as the job of the transporting matrix becomes the job of the area sensors) and is slightly more dangerous than using the transporter room. It is much quicker, however.
Site-To-Site Transporting can be used in conjunction with a Transporter Room to beam targets from offship directly to sickbay, a cargo hold, the brig or anywhere on the ship. This conjunction can not be used in reverse.
Limitations[]
In order for site-to-site transporting to work, the sensors must have definite locks on the targets. If sensors are offline or the target has scrambled their signal, than site-to-site transporting is impossible. It takes 15 seconds for a willing, unmoving target to target themselves and transport to another area of the ship. Site-to-Site transportation can not be done to different ships. If a target is moving, it is much more difficult for a site-to-site transport to function (Requires Knowledge [Transporter] 30 to complete).
Emergency Crew Transporter[]
Most starships are equipped with a ship-wide emergency transporter. In times of crisis or potential destruction, the emergency transporter can be activated to immeditately send all registered crew members (or registered targets) to the ship's escape pods. The emergency transporter requires a great deal of energy, and many systems (life support excluded, of course) may shut down temporarily (1d2 minutes) to allow for use.
Limitations[]
Must be set in advance and calibrated to seperate crewmembers (or targets) from non-crew members.
Cargo Transport[]
Cargo Transporter Pad
At least one cargo hold on every starship will have a cargo transporter.
Limitations[]
These can only be used to transfer non-organic goods. Anything organic will be left behind or, if the safeties are deactivated, will be destroyed in the cargo transport matrix.
Transport Pattern Enhancers[]
Pattern Enhancers work as portable transporter rooms. They consist of three cylindrical devices, set in a triangle formation no more than 10 meters from one another. Transporter rooms can easily link to pattern enhancers and beam targets directly to the ship (or to the enhancer). Transport Pattern Enhancers can also be linked to another set - provided they are on the same planet.
Limitations[]
Can be destroyed and damaged, interfering with any occuring transport. They can also be hacked into, linking the pattern enhancers to another transporter room.
Emergency Personel Transporters[]
Emergency Personal Transporters (EPTs) are coin-sized devices that can be attached to a target and activated. They immediately transport the target to a pre-set transporter room (provided they are within range). Use of EPTs should only be used in emergencies, as the odds of a transport accident occuring are slightly greater than other types of transporters.
Limitation[]
EPTs only work for a single target, and are single-use devices. The circuit is completely fried after use.
Special Operations with Transporter Technology[]
There are some special, specific jobs that can be used with transporter technology:
- Disabling Active Weapons: A transporter can deactivate active weapons on targets, and prevent them from use for 1d2 rounds upon arrival. ]
- Linking Transporter Rooms: If two transporter rooms are linked, it greatly increases the speed of transport between two ships and can allow for site-to-site transportation between the two vessels. Transportation range is decreased to 10km when transporter rooms are linked.
- Medical Transport: Though skill (requires Knowledge [Medicine] 20 and Knowledge [Transporter] 30), a doctor can beam cancers, babies, foreign objects and other things from a patient's body.
- Locked Transport: Transporter rooms can have their security settings modified so only specific people can use them. This can be set to crewmembers, individual people or even a certain race. Locked Transporter Rooms prevent those people from beaming from the ship, but they do not prevent people from being to the ship.
Transporter Accidents[]
Phase Discrimination
While incredibly rare, there are several different kinds of transporter accidents:
- Transporter Psychosis: Victim suffers begins to suffer insomnia, paranoia, halluncinations, various levels of hysteria and may experience spasms of pain in their extremities. It is treatable with minor neural-reconstruction and at least a week of rest.
- Phase Discriminator Malfunction: This is an issue where the transporter can not distinguish between the target and things around it. This can result in the victim having rocks, leaves or nearby objects embedded in their skin. Whether the victim survives or not depends on the extent of the malfunction.
- Transporter Death: This can occur if there is a malfunction with the transporter matrix or severe interference during the transmitting phase of transporting. The target will appear either at the designated tranport area, or rematerialize in their original location - either way, they will be dead.
- Disappearance: This occurs when, for whatever reason, the intended target never appears at the designated area. They literally disappear.
Radiation, weapons fire, heavy interference, weather, cosmic analomies and temporal analomies are some of the things that can interfere with transporting a target. Still, transporter accidents are incredibly rare.