Monitoring
Spaceships are required to have a qualified deck officer On Watch at all times while Underway in normal space (N-space). It is also recommended practice to do so at all other times. There’s not typically a lot to actually do while one is on watch, you’re supposed to generally monitor the ship’s status and surrounding space, but in reality, the computer will warn you if something is up. However, the law says someone has to be in there.
Crew Positions
- Conn – The ship’s current commander (may or may not be the Captain) [GURPS skills: Shiphandling, Leadership, skills in the other roles are useful]
- Helm – Operates the directional controls [GURPS skills: Pilot (High Performance Spacecraft, Aerospace, etc), Navigation (Space)]
- Nav – Usually refers to plotting hyperspace jumps but is occasionally used to mean just N-space courses, though the two tasks are commonly linked [GURPS skills: Navigation (Hyperspace, Space)]
- Comm – Operates the communications gear [GURPS skills: Electronics Operation (Communications)]
- Scan – Operates the ship’s sensor suite [GURPS skills: Electronics Operation (Sensors)]
It’s not uncommon to pair roles, with Helm/Nav and Comm/Scan probably being the most common arrangement, although Nav/Scan and Helm/Comms are also used frequently. Except in an emergency, it’s rare for a person to have more than two roles.
Conn is usually only used if the ship has a separate person in command, for example when Alan and Oliver were the only crew of the Maldemar 732, Oliver as the mission commander put Alan in charge of the ship (Conn) but Alan would still be referred to as being in the Helm/Nav roles. Whereas aboard Spanial, Captain Karmen frequently sits Conn with Jennie at Helm/Nav and Ipan at Comm/Scan.
The above applies when a ship is being actively operated, at other times there is a generic role called ‘Watch’, used when the ship is travelling in open space and only a single person is in Control for monitoring purposes. Note that Military ships tend to be actively operated at all times and don’t use the Watch role.
On many ships, any station can actually be configured to do any job, but it’s not uncommon to use the terms to refer to specific workstations. Oliver will discover that aboard Spanial, the crew refer to one on the left as Helm, the one in the middle as Conn and the one on the right as Scan, or sometimes Comm/Scan.
Aerospace craft often have a slightly different set of terminology, because that’s how people are, but that’s for another day.
Layout and Controls
In small craft, such as aerospace shuttles, the spacecraft commander/senior pilot sits on the left. Most aerospace craft have an actual control column or joystick, whereas larger ships often omit them. There is no universal layout, but it’s common for the commander to sit centrally on larger ships to best communicate with crew.
Security
Spacecraft generally require a person to authenticate themselves to the computer in order to operate the controls. Security systems vary in level from inactivity lockouts to constant authentication.