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Grapeship Ownership
Grapeship in flight 2
Image from Zatoon
A Grapeship accelerating between wormholes
Almost all grapeships are owned (or otherwise controlled by mutual agreement) by modosophont groups and individuals, rather than by transapients or archailects. Most modern examples use conversion drive technology which has percolated down from transapient level-tech. Interstellar grapeships which use wormholes require permission from the Nexus Archai to do so, but this permission may be withdrawn at any time.

Most grapeships carry additional 'grapes' (spherical sub-units) which belong to different groups or individuals, and these may leave the 'stem' at various points in the journey and travel to a different location. In many cases these 'grapes' will be swapped between grapeships during the transit between wormholes, and each grape must incorporate an independent propulsion system to assist in this exchange. In systems controlled or assisted by transapients or archai the grapeship or individual grapes may be accelerated by the High Road system, a reactionless drive tug that can speed up journey times significantly.

Grapeship ownership varies according to polity, situation, and local laws and regulations. There are big transport and passenger corporations, as well as ships run by clades and their organisations. Some ships and individual grape subunits are owned by private individuals, and some are the property of formal or informal collective associations.

Some grapeships and individual grapes have a permanent resident population, either virtual or incarnate, and these residents act as assistants, guides and hosts to any travellers en route.
Grapeship 3
Image from Mark Ryherd
 
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Appears in Topics
Daily LifeEconomicsInterstellar Transport
 
Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev Anders Sandberg and Steve Bowers
Initially published on 31 October 2001.

 
 
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