Timeships

[Tom Kalbfus]

Here is the Timeship's Timeline:

The ANNIC NOVA originated from the Traveller OTU timeline, some Solomani agents, using ancient technology recently acquired the ANNIC NOVA and modified it with a time drive, and went back in time to cause a subtle change in the timeline, in hopes of creating a timeline more favorable to the Solomani, they forgot to take into account certain extinct viruses in Terra's past and did not take adequate precautions, their time ship was left orbiting Saturn before they were able to recharge their collector and return to their present.

Now how long before NASA sends a mission to recover ANNIC NOVA? This discovery was kept secret from the public, lest some rival powers like China or Russia find out about it.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I just thought of a way to go much further back in time, or forward in time in a single time jump, first put the time ships path close to a black hole, and you can add the black hole's time dilatation due to the general theory of relativity to the time jump. black holes are pretty small targets, so it takes an astrogation check to get the precise time jump that you want you also can't add more than the age of the black hole itself. If your path takes you right at the event horizon on a backwards time jump then you will go back before the black hole was created by the amount of the time jump. If you jump forward in time, you go after the black hole radiates itself away due to hawking radiation plus the amount of the time jump. Chances are that with a stellar black hole, you will emerge into a very dark universe with nothing but black holes, iron atoms, and photons.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Here is the ANNIC NOVA Timeship with floor plans, based on a compromise between the ones in Highguard and from the original adventure:

The room numbers are keyed to the original adventure descriptions, though obviously some changes were made with the substitution of the time drive that replace the two jump drives.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I made some corrections to my version of the ANNIC NOVA converted to a time ship. The scenario I'm considering is that this timeship appears several hundred meters away from the International Space Station today, more or less in the present. This appearance has some political ramifications, and the only people in a position to investigate this timeship is the crew of the ISS. The usual rules for making a jump don't apply here, as this starship is equipped with a time drive. The rule for the time jump is that the ship when it time jumps is only displaced in time, not in space, but for the purposes of making a time jump, the velocity of the timeship is considered to be "at rest" and the rest of the Universe is considered by the time drive to be moving in relation to the time ship. The timeship was in low Earth orbit when it made its time jump and when it arrived in 2018, it remained in low Earth orbit, and just happened to be a few hundred meters from the International Space Station when it arrived. When the multi-national crew sends astronauts to investigate the Timeship, the only major nation not represented is China.

The political leadership, fearing being left behind, during this exploration makes a desperate move, while the astronauts are aboard the ANNIC NOVA. China launches a missile at the ANNIC NOVA hoping to destroy it and thus eliminate the technological advantage the ISS participating nations would gain over China as a result of this exploration. The Sensors on the ANNIC NOVA detect the incoming missile, and while programmed to take evasive action, the only evasive action it can take to avoid the missile is to make a small time jump of 100 years back to low Earth orbit in the year 1918 AD, during the last year of World War I by the way.

Here is the sheet and floor plans and room key for the ANNIC NOVA converted to a timeship using the Highguard rules 2nd Edition: