An Earth Cargo Service sourcebook...

[Captain Whosits]

Okay, over the last few months I've become more interested in the civilian side of the Star Trek universe, specifically the two episodes of Enterprise that dealt with the 22nd Earth Cargo Service.

So, recently, I've been thinking on writing a small sourcebook on the Earth Cargo Service. It would be divided into different sections.

1: History of the ECS up until the formattion of the Federation.

2: The challenges that face an ECS ship and crew (ranging from the Orion raiders that attack the trade lanes to the shady Tellarite traders)

3: The ships and station of Earth and the ECS (for the ships I'd have the J, Y and DY-500 class as examples) as well as the technology of the time (plasma pistols, missiles, and that sort of thing)

4: Famous ships and crewmembers of the ECS that you might encounter.

I think that would be about it. I'm trying to work out a history and use statistics for the Decipher books (I'll have to ask permission from those people that have made up the stats for the J and Y class though).

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Captain Whosits.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

The Cargo Service/Authority probably formed about the same time as the unified earth government, to combine the different trading groups (national or corporate) operating at the time. The J and Y classes are probably standardized templates that Earth spacedocks produce, and there's a few different designs purchased from aliens or just predating the ECS.

You can either try and figure out the post-monetary New World Economy, or just hand-wave it, but it's going to be significantly different from the way merchant ships operate now.