Port Authority Land Lock by CheyenneCM

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Port Authority Land Lock

POSTED BY: CHEYENNECM
UPDATED: Sunday, September 19, 2004 12:02
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Friday, September 17, 2004 7:12 PM

In Jaynestown a Port Authority land lock was placed on Serenity to keep it grounded. I have several questions about this, if I may. I would like to hear answers and ideas please.

1) How exactly does a land lock work? The engines were running, but the ship wouldn't lift off.

2) Why did Wash seem to be stymied by it, as if he had never seen such a thing? Surely someone with a reputation of being such a wondrous pilot would know what a land lock is.

3) More importantly; why was the land lock (circuits, relays, whatever) not disconnected long ago by Wash, Mal, or Kaylee? In their line of work, a speedy getaway can literally be the difference between life or death.

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"If the snow on the roof is too heavy then the ceiling will cave in. His brains are in terrible
danger."
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Saturday, September 18, 2004 12:43 AM

NEEDLESEYE

1) I assumed it was magnetic in someway, ground based docking type of idea for security, regularly used that requires permission to land and leave, probably just code transmission. The port authority can keep you there if they choose, sort of taking away your keys.

2)I thought his reaction was just suprise.
"WTF! How'd that get there?"

3)If it was magnetic, I don't think there's much could be done to disable it, except from the outside with Inara's "help". I don't know what all the switches Wash was flipping were about, but I thought it was akin to an old car I once had that was sorta quirky. If you didn't start the car just so, it wouldn't start.

This is just what I thought, and I'm not techno-babble inclined. so you'll probably get plenty of other replies that say needleseye needs to stick to sewing. :) hehehe

Keeper of Jayne's goggles. 8)

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Saturday, September 18, 2004 1:56 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

The biggest problem I had w/ that sequence was that Serenity didn't seem to be docked anywhere but in an open field. There didn't seem to be any structure or pad that would serve to physically keep Serenity from taking off. I prolly should watch that one again, just to be sure.

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

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Saturday, September 18, 2004 4:59 AM

SGTGUMP

Well earlier in the episode, Jayne made mention of Anti-Aircraft weapons being used against him during his escape. Maybe a 'Land Lock' happens when the Serenity has Anti-Aircraft locked onto it and Wash knows that if he tries to space, he will be destroyed. The Serenity isn't a little shuttle like what Jayne was riding in.

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Saturday, September 18, 2004 7:19 AM

EBONEZER

I think the land lock itself is 'beamed' to the ship via radio or satilite waves, and connects to some device or switch on the ship that keeps the ship from taking off.

I also think that this 'switch' is akin to tailights or turn signals on our cars, you gotta have one, which is why nobody tampered with it or took it off Serenity. Its probably connected to the cortex as well, so if it IS tampered with or taken off, the Aliance is alerted which would bring even more attention to Serenity then Mal would like to have.

And Wash's reaction was definatly more of a "WTF? Where's this come from? Who did this to us?" then a "Oh my god, i have no idea what this is!"

-----------------------------------

Four out of five dentists reccomend calling Ebo a girl.

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Saturday, September 18, 2004 7:31 AM

WILLOWY

Sounds like a force field to me.

"Once, in flight school, I was laconic..."

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Saturday, September 18, 2004 1:56 PM

WATFALHURST

I'm thinking more along the lines of OoG where Wash extends transmission of their MAYDAY by linking through the navigation channels. Who receivied it would have to come to a stop and then weed out the signal. Land lock on a frontier planet would be similar, beam a signal into the particular ships nav frequency, they receive a LANDLOCK message and obviously can't go anywhere because they can't plot a course out of atmo. That would also explain why Wash wasn't too surprised when the signal released. I figure he had assumed he had broken the code himself instead of the Port Authority releasing it. Of course on a Core planet such as Ariel LandLocks would be more comprehensive - Electronic, Physical and probably include military(or at least PA personnel as well)

Of course this is just m humble opinion and I could be wrong (doesn't happen too often though)

some people juggle geese

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Saturday, September 18, 2004 6:35 PM

CHRONICTHEHEDGEHOG

I don't think you can just land anywhere, even though it is just a scrap of dirt where they land, I assume it's designated space near the factory. As they've obviously mastered gravity in the 'verse they can probably lock down the gravity in any place making it impossible to take off.

check out my WIP firefly roleplay system at www.estador.co.uk/firefly

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Saturday, September 18, 2004 10:43 PM

AGEHN

I always imagined it as a magnetic thing. Even though the landing pad is just a dirt field with no fancy markings or metal, there could be a large electromagnet buried under it, and that field is always used as a landing pad.
But I like the theory about messing up the nav systems, too.

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Sunday, September 19, 2004 7:36 AM

CHEYENNECM

Hmm... I don't know. If the land lock is routed through the cortex, or the nav com, why not just disconnect them, or take them off line, then take off?

In Our Mrs. Reynolds, Saffron took the nav com and the cortex off line, and Serenity was flying just fine. She was holding course just fine.

In Bushwacked they were ordered to release control of their helm. To me, this says that ship controls can not be overridden as the Port Control land lock seems to do.

So again, I ask, how, what, and why not disconnect it?

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
"If the snow on the roof is too heavy then the ceiling will cave in. His brains are in terrible
danger."
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

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Sunday, September 19, 2004 10:10 AM

VELOXI

Well, I assumed that the location Serenity landed was some sort of designated landing area, and that when the land-lock went into effect, either a magnetic device or a physical clamp kept the ship in place.

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Sunday, September 19, 2004 10:20 AM

EBONEZER

The main reason i don't buy the magnectic or clamp thing is because Serenity is basily landed in a field. And if if there is some sort of "landing pad" underneath the ground with electromagnets or whatever, why did they go through the trouble of covering it up?

If its a landing pad where ships are REQUIRED to land, wouldn't they make it obvious that "Hey! You guys are supposed to land here!" by leaving the pad not covered with dirt?

I just can't swallow that.

-----------------------------------

Four out of five dentists reccomend calling Ebo a girl.

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Sunday, September 19, 2004 12:02 PM

AGEHN

That does seem odd, but I guess I assumed it had been covered over by dust and wind over time, and since only cargo ships and rarely a buyer who didn't go straight to the magistrate landed on the pad, they found it more efficient to focus on mud digging than keeping the pad clear. But it looks like its been an empty field for a very long time, though, so I dunno..

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Sunday, September 19, 2004 12:02 PM

AGEHN

Gah, double post

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