Services System 2

Life support systems in each compartment are typically considered to include gravity control, atmosphere control, temperature and humidity control, and general air particulate and dust suppression. Above a pair of gravity plates are shown in the raised position revealing these systems.
Under the far plate is an example of a compartment fire suppression system. The system is made up of a pressurized Fire Suppressant Tank and an isolation valve, as well as fire sensors. The system is under the control of an LCP, which can be powered by a backup power cell if ship's power is interrupted. A data lead which connects to a number of sensor systems allows the LPC to detect a fire in the compartment. When a fire is detected the Fire Suppression Valve opens allowing the pressurized fire suppressant to flood the compartment through nozzles in the overhead panels. A fill cap allows for filling and pressurizing the system.
Under the forward grav plate is shown a return vent, an emergency life support system, and gravity control.
The return vent has a Return Vacuum Filter, which along with the Vacuum Booster Pump is used to collect dust and particulate matter from the air return. The return vent collects air from just above the deck using a labyrinth intake. This prevents any object larger than dust bunnies from being sucked into the system. A drain collects any excess moisture which may be entrained into the system.
In the bulkhead, next to the return vent is an example of a supply vent. The LCP on the Ventilation Impeller Unit controls both the supply and return vent equipment. The impeller is a nested grav pump designed to move air through the system. Before entering the impeller the the air is treated for temperature control and humidity. The Humidifier, or Humidity Control Unit, adds water if the air is too dry and dehumidifies the air if it is too humid. It therefore has both a water supply line and a drain.
The temperature and humidity are typically set from a local adaptapanel, though they can be overridden by environmental controls on the bridge and in engineering.
Between the supply and return vent is the Emergency Life Support system. It consists of a tank of oxygen/nitrogen mixture capable of replenishing the air in the space in the event ship's life support fails, such as in a power interruption. To this end it contains a rechargeable power cell. It also has its own LPC, which measures the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air and keeps both at the proper levels. The nitrogen is used primarily to keep the compartment at a proper pressure. The LCP also controls isolation valves on both the supply and return vents to prevent the air from being sent to other compartments, which will have their own Emergency Life Support Systems. A Rebreather unit, which is powered from ship's power if available or an emergency rechargeable power cell if it is not, can extend the duration of breathable air by 10 times using the exhaled carbon dioxide and water to make breathable oxygen. This is enough life support to keep at least 5 sophonts alive for a minimum of 4 days. The Rebreather has its own impeller that will move a sufficient amount of air to maintain operation of the system, although there is no humidity or temperature control.
At the farther forward end of the diagram is the LCP that controls the compartment gravity. A DC power system normally keeps the gravity at the setting desired. A Central Inertial Compensation Detector (CIDC) feeds information to the LCP to allow it to also compensate for acceleration effects from the maneuvering drive. An Emergency Gravity Power Cell will maintain gravity in the case of a power failure. The power cell can typically maintain gravity for days if required. In the case of a local power outage the LCP is capable of maintaining acceleration compensation on emergency power as long as it can get information from the CIDC over the Control Network.

Service Systems Example

As can be seen in the diagram piping and conduit for service systems typically run inside walls or bulkheads. Pictured are a local 400 Hz Power Panel, a Water Delivery Unit and a standard passageway Adaptapanel, commonly used in this case for internal communications, compartment environmental control and computer access.
400 Hz Local Power Panel: The 400 Hz Local Power Panel has controls for Solid State Switches and mechanical interrupts or active switches. The Solid State Switch has no moving parts and can be controlled remotely through the control system or locally. Active Switches provide a physical breaking of the current path (which is why they are sometimes called breakers). Solid State Switches have no moving parts but interrupt current through material modification. As the result of a biasing signal the material either becomes a conductor or an insulator. In the ancient past only small currents could be controlled in this way. Modern solid state switches can handle thousands of amps.
Water Delivery Unit: The water delivery unit can provide water at a controlled temperature to whatever container is placed under it. It can produce water at any temperature form ice cold to boiling hot. There are typically such units in every stateroom, at routinely staffed duty stations, such as the bridge or engineering control, and in various passageways. Galleys typically contain several with attachments to make filling pots easier. Advanced units can add flavorings and even carbonation and such units are typically installed in mess rooms and galleys.
Adaptapanels: Adaptapanel was originally a trade name for a now defunct Solonami controls company. The name has passed into common usage to describe the touch control panels often used for front end displays on starships.

The adaptapanel has its own miniprocessor, memory, and multiple network connectors, which allows them to be connected to the Security, Controls and Communications Networks while preserving network isolation. Strong security protocols maintain system isolation to prevent an attacker from using an adaptapanel to bridge across networks for unauthorized access. Each panel can act as a communication display, control local environment, and act as a security pickup for area monitoring. Specialized panels (that is a standard panel with special programming) are often used to control access to spaces or operate Iris Valves under biometric control. Each adaptapanel has its own embedded Local Control Processor.
On the NdN each Iris Valve is serviced by a pair of adaptapanels. The pair act as door controls with the ability to perform handprint scans to determine access to restricted areas. When no access restrictions are necessary the panel can display a simple "open" or "close" button. The comm unit can allow contact with the other side of the door, for staterooms or secured offices. Environmental readbacks can indicate the status of pressure, atmospheric composition or even gravity, on the far side of the valve. In an airlock both the airlock and decontamination systems can be controlled through the panel.
The adaptapanels on NdN are set to a IISS standard pattern. The array of buttons to select panel functions runs along the bottom. The right side of the panel has mutable buttons displayed for each selected function. The left panel area is dedicated to the specific function. So it might display a hand scanner waiting for a handprint at a secure door, or a visual readback for comm use or an parameter display for use in environmental control. When not in use the adaptapanels typically display a ship specific wallpaper with a prominently displayed touch field to activate the unit.

Ship's Systems

On a modern vessel like the Nicolas de Nicolay most support systems are located safely out of the way in the areas between decks or in bulkheads.
Beneath the Grav Plates, located in a utility trench most of the power, fluid and air systems are located. In the diagram the grav plate has been raised and the systems can been seen clearly marked for the student. They will be described from left to right below.
DC Power System: The DC Power System is used to power many components aboard the vessel, especially systems related to propulsion, gravity and weaponry. The system has a positive and a negative lead. Typically there are several fore to aft runs on each deck.
400 Hz System: The 400 Hz Power System is used for many electronic and computer systems. Often at the loads it is itself converted to dc in many different voltages, but some components used the 400 Hz Ac itself. A 400 Hz power tap is shown in the diagram.
Control Network: The Control Network is the computer network that is interfaced to the actual systems which controls the vessel. This includes the control panels located in various compartments and control rooms, as well as Local Control Processors (LCP) which control almost every piece of equipment on the ship, Adaptapanels located throughout the ship, and ship's computers which run software dedicated to running the ship. In most ships there are two geographically isolated  fiber network trunks laid from fore to aft. On the NdN and all Leviathans the trunks are laid on the port side of Deck E and the Starboard side of Deck B. The line shown in the diagram is a local fiber line for the Control Network.
Return Vent: The Return Vent cycles air out of the space, usually through a number of cleaning and humidifier systems that will be discussed below. A sphincter valve, whose technology is very much like that used for Iris Valves, is used to isolate the vent whenever there is a bulkhead. The sphincter valve closes if there is too great a pressure differential across the valve. In the diagram a local return vent feeding into the main return vent from the right.
C-Fluid Return: Starships do not use water as the primary fluid for cleaning and waste disposal. Water is too valuable a commodity to be wasted in these uses. Instead a liquid called C-fluid is used in freshers for showering and other cleaning. The C-fluid is recycled in Main Life Support on Deck E. Like the Return Vents there is a valve at every airtight bulkhead which closes automatically in the case of a depressurization accident or excessive flow, such as from a catastrophic leak.
Communication Network: The Communications Network is a computer network dedicated to communications. It does not directly interface with either the Security Network (described below) or the Control Network. The purpose of this isolation is to prevent unauthorized access to either of the other networks through the Communications Network, which often carries traffic originating from off the ship and traffic which is unofficial, such as entertainment, as well as official message traffic. As for the Control Network there are two for-and-aft trunks, in the case of the NdN and her sister ships one runs on the centerline of Deck G and the other on the centerline of Deck B.
Black Water Return: Is the Main Sewage line. It transports waste return from the freshers for recycling. Unlike most commercial vessels Leviathan Class Starships recycle the water from its Black Water System. A transport fluid is also recycled once the entrained water has been extracted.
The ship also has a Gray Water System which is not shown in the diagram. This system receives excess water from the water delivery unit drains and humidity control extraction system (also to be covered later) and sends it to Life Support on Deck E. There is a valve at every airtight bulkhead which closes automatically in the case of a depressurization accident or excessive flow, such as from a catastrophic leak.
Water Line: Provides water to the water delivery units. As for other fluid systems there is a valve at every airtight bulkhead which closes automatically in the case of a depressurization accident or excessive flow, such as from a catastrophic leak.
C-fluid Supply: The C-Fluid system provides clean foam to fresher showers. The entrained dirt, germs and waste are separated out and the fluid reused. There is a valve at every airtight bulkhead which closes automatically in the case of a depressurization accident or excessive flow, such as from a catastrophic leak.
Security Network: Independent computer network used for secure communication, security video pickups, and door override controls. The system is primarily used by security personnel, although the ship's master and executive officer have the necessary access codes to use the system.

Fusion Plant

The heart of any ship is its fusion power plant. Without jump drive a starship is trapped in real space, but without its fusion plant it's passengers and crew are at the mercy of the hostile environment of space. Every system on the ship from gravity to life support to propulsion to lighting depends on power from the fusion power plant. Not even a single missile or probe could be launched without power.
All fusion plants have basically the same components. Small craft generally have an integrated power plant, with all major components on a single skid. Even a ship as large as 200 dtons will typically have such a plant. A larger ship, such as a Leviathan, will have several subassemblies dispersed into individual systems.

The fusion reaction takes place in the containment vessel. On most skid mounted fusion plants the containment vessel is mounted horizontally. The Leviathan's containment vessel is mounted vertically. The fusion plant consists of six stacked containment vessel segments. Each vessel segment is an  independent fusion bottle capable of producing the plasma reaction, the tiny captured star, that converts hydrogen into helium releasing energy as heat and radiation.
The reaction is started in the Deuterium Warm Start Reservoir by the Laser Ignition System. Once the fusion reaction has been started it is conveyed to the proper fusion containment bottle by the Cold Start Ignition Manifold.

Once the fusion reaction is fully productive the balance of the hydrogen gas becomes plasma. The plasma is passed through a Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Generator that directly produces DC electricity. This power is used by the great majority of high powered components on the vessel, such as the main propulsion Maneuvering Drive, as well as many of the gravitic components aboard ship.
After it passes through the MHD Generator, which greatly cools the plasma, it is sent to one of two 400 Hz AC Generators. One is the main generation unit and the other is a back up. 400 Hz is used by many of the electronic systems on the ship, including sensors and control systems. It is then returned to the containment vessel by the return conduit.

There is a 400 Hz Generator Switchboard which distributes power from the generator room to the ship's 400 Hz Distribution System. There is also a MHD switchboard that distributes power to the ship's DC Distribution System.
Some of the systems in the Fusion Generator room are powered by 400 Hz, so there is a local 400 Hz power panel located there.

Because sometimes the Fusion Generator must be shut down for maintenance there is an Emergency Backup Power Unit. The EBPU consists of a Power Cell Matrix which can store enough power to keep lights, gravity and life support operating for a minimum of 2 hours. It can also keep most control systems on line and provide enough power for Fusion Plant Ignition, to restart the fusion plant after shut down. During normal operation a small amount of DC current is sent through the Matrix Interrupt to maintain a charge on the Power Cell Matrix. When power is lost some DC power is sent back through the charging line to power select DC systems, like the grav plate network.  Other DC power is sent to a DC to 400 Hz converter to supply power to select 400 Hz loads.

On the upper level of the Fusion Power Room is the Thermal Transfer Circuit. The TTC provides cooling to the containment vessels. A Primary Loop is used to transfer heat from the containment vessel. Combined with the magnet bottle system, which prevents the plasma from contacting the containment vessel the TTC prevents the very high temperature plasma from melting the containment vessel and plasma conduit. In the Heat Exchanger the Primary Loop transfers it's heat to the Secondary Loop that transports heat to radiator strips on the hall. Because of the NdN's stealth design excess heat can also be dumped to a thermal transfer matrix that converts the heat to energy which is stored in power cells for later use, or disposal. Thermodynamics limits the amount of heat that can be converted this way, but the ship can under many circumstances simple radiate heat away based on the probable position of observers. It is also possible to play with the specific wavelengths of radiated energy. In almost all cases lower TL sensor can be spoofed by a combination of techniques, allowing the NdN to safely shed excess heat without detection.