Monday, April 27, 2015

W is for Wardroom (Star Morphs A to Z Challenge)

Click it.
We kick off the final week of the challenge today with a look at how the other half lives.  The wardrooms area is the main congregating point for officers on a starship outside of duty.  It's where they eat, relax, and probably also where they catch up on all that paperwork they haven't done yet.
The level of opulence in this area is dependent on the nature of your setting and the nationality of your navy.  Officers are by nature an elite if not elitist group, even in aggressively democratic societies.  In older societies and countries that still have aristocracies, most officers will have a noble honorific packed in their kit to go along with their rank.  It may not carry extra privileges while on duty (just ask Lt. Winsor), but a ship full of nobs will insure some posh amenities in their inner sanctum.

1. Lift Vestibule:  Because Officers are too good for regular lifts, they get a foyer.

2. Officer's Head:  Private Potties for the overlords.  There are two either because your setting still has gender separations, or because officer's just get extra.

3. Lounge:  Officers have a private bar.  A Bar.  They have one.  Of course, during an alert or twenty-four hours prior to a mission, the liquor will be locked up, but still.
Incidentally, the stewards that operate the bar, assuming they are organics and of an entrepreneurial spirit, will be making a killing amongst the crew selling stolen hootch from the officer's pantry.  Some will get knifed for trying to pass of bathroom gin that has been put in used liquor bottles as the real deal.

4. Galley: Not where the cooks prepare the officer's meals - where the chefs prepare the officer's meals.

5. Dining area: The officers eat at more intimate tables with comfortable chairs instead of benches.  There are still a few benches and tables available - they are used by midshipmen and in emergencies as impromptu operating tables during battle.

6. Officer's Pantry:  This is basically a high-security vault, except refrigerated.  Because officers must purchase their own provisions (meals are not part of their pay), they typically stock more expensive items than the typical pantry aboard ship.  Depending on your setting, this can include a wine cellar, humidor, aquarium or any other outrageous thing you can think of.
Oh, and coffee.  Good coffee.  Like Blue Mountain or something...

7. Captain's Table: Assuming the Captain's pantry and dining room aren't attach to their quarters, this is where the CO dines with their most senior officers.  The room can be placed under a sterile field for emergency surgery during battle.

8. Medical Aid Station:  For those who didn't know, it is a tradition aboard naval ships that the wardroom be used as a surgery during battle, which is why it is proper to remove one's hat upon entrance.   During WWII, all officer's tables in the fleet were lit by surgical lamps for that very reason.  This map honors that tradition by including a medic station as part of the Wardroom.  A pair of medical drones and lockers of supplies are on hand in quantities sufficient to convert the dining area and Captain's Table into a serviceable trauma ward.
Unfortunately, the drugs kept in this area, while secured, are sufficiently valuable on the black market that unscrupulous stewards may be tempted to steal some for resale either to the crew or on shore leave.

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