They don’t really have a Perform Action Step on deployment, right?
Can you slam when you deploy or is that a free action?
Correct. Deploying counts as "another effect" for the purpose of SLAM (per page 18 of the RR).
From the SLAM section of the Rules Reference.
"A ship can perform a
action only as the ship’s one action during the Perform Action step. Therefore a ship cannot perform a
action if it is granted an action from another effect."
The deploy rules (from the Dock section of the Rules Reference on page 10) :
"A docked ship is able to deploy from its carrier ship during
the System Phase by performing the following steps:
1. Choose a non-stationary, non-reverse maneuver on the docked ship’s dial.
2. Using the corresponding template, the docked ship executes the
maneuver using the front guides or the rear guides of the carrier ship as
if those guides were the docked ship’s starting position.
3. The ship may perform one action.
• While a ship is deploying, if the ship would partially execute the maneuver
and cannot be placed without overlapping another ship, the ship fails to
deploy and stays in reserve.
• A ship that deploys during the System Phase does not activate during the
Activation Phase."