Eureka Maru
From The New Systems Commonwealth Wiki
The Eureka Maru, or simply known as the Maru, is a cargo ship that is owned by Beka Valentine.
[edit] History
The Maru was first built by Ignatius Valentine and his friend Sid Barry. Sid left its crew when Beka was a child after a fight with Ignatius. Beka has spent most of her life on the Maru, and it has been implied that she was born and lost her virginity on board. She is very protective of the Maru and would never allow it to be destroyed; she also hates it when people insult the ship, including Dylan Hunt's frequent use of the term "bucket of bolts".
Beka Valentine and her crew often use the ship to make risky and illegal cargo runs, before rescuing Dylan Hunt from a black hole and joining his crew. The ship was built by Beka's father, Ignatius Valentine, and his friend Sid Barry.
Sid left the Maru crew when Beka was a child, after a fight between him and Ignatius. Beka has spent most of her life on the Maru, and it has been implied that she was born on board.
In episode 4 of series 1, Dylan states that Beka was captain of the Maru for 10 years, meaning she received official command of the ship from her father in CY 10077; in episode 16 of series 4, Harper states that possession of the Maru fell to Beka in CY 10081, the year her father died. Beka's original crew was composed solely of herself and her boyfriend Bobby Jensen; they later broke up and he was replaced by Seamus Harper as the ship's engineer (after he was hired by Bobby for a one-time deal on Earth). Rev Bem joined shortly after this and then another crew member named Vexpag was hired, however he died when his environmental suit ripped. He was replaced by Trance Gemini shortly before they found the Andromeda Ascendant and pulled it out of the black hole (they were hired by a Nightsider named Gerentex to salvage the Andromeda Ascendant). Since its crew joined Andromeda, the Maru was traditionally kept in Andromeda's shuttle bays, being used when the crew need to carry out scouting missions or sneak attacks due to its smaller size. Traditionally it is taken out by Beka during these missions, although Dylan has been known to pilot the ship on occasion.
[edit] Technical Specifications
The Maru is about 42 metres in length, judged by the scale of people against it as seen in episode 8 of series 5. It weighs approximately 12,000 tonnes. She is slipstream-capable cargo ship and is armed with lasers, missiles, and ocasonally mines that Andromeda installed, and has a three engine thrust system. The ship runs on hydrogen and anti-protons, or AP. The hydrogen combines with the AP in controlled reactions to create antimatter/matter reactions, and then makes several hundred megawatts. Most of the power is used to power the GFG (gravity field generator), which reduces the effective mass of the maru to a kilogram. The remaining power is used to accelerate more hydrogen in a dozen magnetoplasmadynamic drives which creates the thrust of a half million newtons.
[edit] Cargo Pod
The Eureka Maru has a large rectangular cargo pod that sits on the top of the ship. It is connected by metal struts and is held by magnetic locks. It is very large, and is almost as long as the Maru. The pod also has large doors that open on the top, and are used to deploy mines or to dump cargo. It can be detatched, has 2 airlocks, and can comfortable hold 2 slipfighters.
