Freelance Traveller

Sheriff John Brown (Modified Type S)

designed by Peter Bradley

This article originally appeared in the January 2015 issue.

The Sheriff John Brown is a heavily-modified scout/courier owned by the local subsector branch of the Imperial Ministry of Justice. It began life as the Curies’ Curiosity, a stock Type S scout/courier commissioned by the ISSS, and then sold on to the IMOJ as surplus. It has been modified for use as a prisoner transfer ship, specifically, as a “sleeper ship”, where the prisoners are kept in low berths for the journey, to reduce the risk of break-outs.

The modifications were extensive, involving changes to large areas of the Type S hull. One stateroom and the existing common area were removed, with the common area being turned into fuel tankage and the stateroom converted to a new common area. Half of the ships fuel purifiers were removed, and the Air/raft hanger was converted to a small cargo bay, to give the ship a minimal cargo carrying ability as the lower deck bay has been re-purposed.

The lower-level fuel tank was completely removed, as the ship no longer needed the 14 week endurance of the stock design. Instead, the whole lower deck was turned into a low berth deck with 48 standing-type low berths installed back to back.

Entry to the deck is on the port side, where the probe drone hanger would be on a normal Scout/Courier, along with the only access hatch to the upper deck (the starboard side access hatch has been removed for security reasons). This area is partitioned off form the rest of the deck by internal walls, with only a single door leading into the low berth deck, again for added security. Space on the deck is rather tight, with little room between rows of low berths. To reduce the risk of prisoners trying to use the narrow confines to their advantage, prisoners are loaded singly, with only one conscious prisoner at any one time, and the next is not allowed on the ship until the previous prisoner is sealed in his low berth and “under”. While in flight, the whole deck is kept de-pressurized, including the entry room.

The ship has a regular crew of four: Jessica Berthold, pilot, navigator and captain; Robert Berthold, Engineer, 1st officer and Jessica’s husband; Dr. Karl Urdan, medic and legal affairs officer; and Lt. Justin “Justice” Jones, security officer and gunner.

The Bertholds and Dr. Urban are on 4 year contracts with the IMOJ, with only Lt Jones being a full time IMOJ employee. Normally, the Bertholds share a stateroom and the other two have one each, but the cabins can all be configured to double occupancy, if there is need to take an extra passenger along. This is sometimes required, normally either an extra security officer escorting an exceptionally dangerous convict, or a witness being taken to give evidence at the prisoners trial at the destination world.

The Sheriff John Brown has a roughly circular run though the subsector, picking up and moving prisoners from system to system as needed. Prisoners may be moved for any number of reasons, but some of the more common are for extradition for crimes committed on another world, and transfer to a off world prison from low-pop worlds without the facilities to administer the mandated punishment. Normally, the John Brown is carrying 24-36 prisoners, and will off-load less than half a dozen prisoners at any given stop, gaining a similar amount.