Well there are some things they hand wave away for the sake of the storytelling ability, and I presume runing out of air isn't a problem for a ship that still has power and intact life sustainers but 40k ships are very explicitely not self sufficient, they lay in massive stores for long hauls. That's not to say vastly smaller number of persons couldn't eek out a lifestyle somehow, especially on some of the larger level, but self sufficient, hardly.
Naviagators, Warp Travel, Stations of Passage, The Maw, help me make sense of this.
Normally ships aren't self sufficient, but a well maintained arboretrum, a lux net (or just carefully rationed power), and only a remnant of the crew left, would make it possible for a ship to drift for decades without that crew realizing it. I see potential for an endeavor
lurkeroutthere said:
Well there are some things they hand wave away for the sake of the storytelling ability, and I presume runing out of air isn't a problem for a ship that still has power and intact life sustainers but 40k ships are very explicitely not self sufficient, they lay in massive stores for long hauls. That's not to say vastly smaller number of persons couldn't eek out a lifestyle somehow, especially on some of the larger level, but self sufficient, hardly.
Doesn't Lure of the Expanse have a section that deals with a ship that's been floating adrift for many centuries?
IIRC the ship was the Light of Terra?
kenshin138 said:
You know I've always thought that the Helmsman did the non-Warp piloting and the Navigator did all the Warp piloting. This made some of the warp encounters seem odd to me. "Why would the Helmsman be needed to avoid a shoal? The Navigator steers the ship..."
But, it seems this is not the case most of the time? A helmsman steers based on coordinates and positions given to him by the Navigator while in the warp? I much prefer this actually.
Now I feel dumb.
I don't know if it's accurate but I think navigating the warp is like Sean Connery navigating red route one in the movie Red October.
A few people are busy while everyone else just stands there trying not to crap their pants.