SLEEPER SHIPS SERIES

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     The sleeper ships were the conceptual child of Doctor Tempa and grew from a natural progression of science up to the discoveries that had been made to date. The sciences of long term hibernation and genetic engineering were still in their infancy. The faster than light travel theories had no basis in any proven facts. Space stations were becoming more and more feasible. It was a logical step to build sturdy ships built to travel as fast as technology could make them go and point them at the nearest habitable planet they had discovered.

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     The first of these ships was called the “Winkle” after Rip Van Winkle. It had 6 freezing cylinders attached around the central human quarters and laboratories. This cluster was attached through a central corridor to the front “Wheel” of the ship where the bridge, navigation, work spaces, aquaponics, probes and landing shuttles were.

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     The basic concept was to gather the minimum number of crew member necessary to build and maintain a colony while the frozen embryos were revitalized and nurtured back to health. The size of the crew was debated during the construction of the Winkle and the figure of 150 was arrived at. The makeup of the cargo was to include the minimum number of genetic variations of each of the species they decided on to bring, ranging from 20 to over 100.

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     There were 1600 frozen human embryos on board as well to be thawed and birthed for the first few generations and to keep the gene pool varied enough to make the population viable. They had seeds and seedlings to start up the farming processes. While the first plants were maturing to harvest, they had supplies, 6 months’ worth for the entire crew even though the entire crew wouldn’t be revived until just before landfall.

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Once the base camp is established the crew is to terraform the final stages to complete habitation, construct the town and farms, and raise the population and life forms to a point where they can be self-sustaining.

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     There were to be 16 sleeper ships and at the time of Winkle’s departure (it being the flagship) two others were under construction.