Locking down the ship (Who's got the keys?)

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Greetings,
So, the ship lands at the Downport, arrangements are made with port personnel for offloading cargo and such, and the crew wants to stretch their legs. Breathe non-recycled air. Do some sidequesting. How exactly does one lock the ship, assuming the whole crew (all the players) wants to go exploring? Is there a physical key or keycard to the airlock? PIN code? Biometric ID? Connect to the ship's wifi and unlock it remotely?

Assuming physical keys of some sort, I suppose a spare key could be left with the port authorities for cargo access, or just leave the cargo bay open and lock down access to the rest of the ship.

Or no locks at all? Rely on port security to guard the ship, or lock the Landing pad?

Get themselves an NPC/robot assistant to remain onboard?

 

[CordwainerFish]

You can break into a lot of ships by trying "12345", "Klaatu barada nikto", or "867-5309".

 

[Sigtrygg]

anahl nathrak, uthvas bethud, do che-ol di-enve

 

[Condottiere]

Intellect - Allows a ship to understand and obey verbal commands.

 

[Ol'Weedy]

Intellect - Allows a ship to understand and obey verbal commands.

Extra! Imperial fleet rendered inoperable by massive helium attack. Zhodani saboteurs to blame!

 

[Saladman]

Within reason, pretty nearly any way the players want it to work the first time it comes up. But then they're stuck with those details in other circumstances.

There's probably a less fuzzy and more official answer implied in anti-hijacking software, but I forget at the moment where that's even located. I never did too much with it.

Personally I would expect any ship with the word "Trader" in the name to have some provision for leaving the cargo bay open and locking down everything else. Other adventurer class ships might not.

You can break into a lot of ships by trying "12345", "Klaatu barada nikto", or "867-5309".

I figure that's what's going on when a player with Electronics 0 tries to hack into something and actually makes it.

 

[ottarrus]

IMTU, the crew usually spends one day on 'ship's immediate business'... getting cargo delivered, refueling, and revictualing, getting L/S system refreshed, cleaning the passenger spaces [on free traders the crew does it unless they want to pay an extra charge for a service to do it] and so on.
At this point the ship is moved off the active threshold and placed in a 'parking pad' within the starport security perimeter.
This is the point where the ship and crew is ready for future business. They either look for speculative cargoes and freight to their next destination or they hire a broker to do it. They advertise for passengers for their expected departure date. AND then go looking for side jobs or just take a few days off and see the sights... you know, the fun part about traveling.

Ships security systems are some of the most robust on the ship. To enter the main hatch of ship that's buttoned down tight takes a three-step verification process: a crew card or key code, a biological scan [fingerprints, retina, or full body scan] with proof of life protocols [vascular or capillary blood flow, temperature sense, a movement command, etc.] and a voiceprint code with duress code protocol.
This prevents most casual attempts at piracy, but of course it doesn't fully prevent them. For every security system ever made there's a thousand guys trying to bypass it and the bad guys are always a step ahead of the good guys. Player character parties just LOVE to have that one guy with Electronics /Security Systems 5 skill so they can hack a corporate facility, so they shouldn't be surprised if somebody doesn't use the same tactics.
Various ship systems make security queries every few days. It might be something innocuous like asking what is in cargo lot 22, or asking about a favorite restaurant. For example, the engineer is busily working away when out of the blue the computer asks if the engineer is looking forward to shore leave on the next world and does he want the computer to automatically get a table at Tiny's Cafe'. The engineer knows that Tiny's Cafe' is on his homeworld and he hasn't been there in a decade. To pass the security check he has to tell the computer 'No, I haven't been home in ten years'. Failure to do so will cause the power plant to shut down to minimal levels [life support and commo only].

But as I said, a group of hijackers CAN get past all this. It just takes time, surveillance, and skill. And, of course, these are merchant crews, not IN crews with a drill rotation. Merchant crews will drill some of the anti-hijack protocols, but they never at drill all them and they almost never drill the ones they do know to the level of muscle memory and good reaction times.

 

[Condottiere]

What you want is something unique and unchanging.

Since our bodies undergo constant change, you need a couple of different reference points, with a margin of error of about ninety percent for each.