Most people know of the Travellers' Aid Society by the publicised benefits
accruing to members, and perhaps by their selectivity for membership - the
million-credit application (not admission - they can reject an applicant,
and they keep the million) fee, the access to high-class accommodations,
the free passages, the tourism services, and so on.
The TAS does not publicise their involvement with the well-known charitable
organization Compassion Corps.
The Compassion Corps acts principally to provide medical services to worlds
whose infrastructure is unable to support a medical establishment. This is
primarily through their two main arms, the Interstellar Free Healers
Society, and Starships of Succor.
Starships of Succor operate a number of specially-equipped hospital
starships (some may be decommissioned from stellar naval forces) which
travel to various low-population and poor worlds, where they stay for a
period of time to provide high-grade hospital treatments - especially
surgeries - that the world is not equipped for. Before a visit by a
hospital ship, an evaluation mission is sent, to determine the level of
need, and get a good view of what services will be most required. When the
hospital ship visits, it will stay for up to a year, depending on need.
Ships generally stay within a half-sector or so of a 'base world' where the
ships can get overhauls and resupply; there are generally no more than two
or three Starships of Succor in a sector-sized area. Services are free to
the patients, though voluntary payments are not refused, and are used to
defray operational costs.
A world that normally wouldn't meet the criteria for a visit may request
one; an evaluation team will be sent out, but the evaluation and
negotiation for the visit will also include an explicit requirement of
payment by the world's government to the organization. Such payments are
set on the basis of ability to pay, and must be remitted upon commitment to
visit. The evaluation team cannot commit a ship to visit; they can only
submit their findings and agreements for final approval.
IFHS is an organization of medical personnel who go where doctors are
needed. IFHS doctors are part of the Starships of Succor evaluation teams,
and when a Starship of Succor visits a world, there are usually several
teams of IFHS medical personnel who will go out to various parts of the
world, and take care of medical procedures and treatments that don't
require hospitalization. They'll also do what they can to teach locals how
to treat what they can with what's available, and IFHS teams will often
include infrastructure experts to teach the locals how they can bootstrap
their medical infrastructure, while staying within possible cultural
strictures.
Planetary-level disasters, where off-world aid is required, will also often
see visits from Compassionate Corps, to help take care of immediate needs,
and to assist in rebuilding medical infrastructure.
* * * * *
That's the basic background. What I'm asking for is any or all of the
following:
Designs for Starships of Succor - fully-equipped starships designed to act
as mobile hospitals, equipped for medical procedures of all sorts, and
ranging in tech from about TL4 up (to accommodate philosophical opposition
to high-tech usage), and smaller ships used to take a small group of people
to a world to evaluate the needs and negotiate visits, or to handle
"outpatient" services. Ships should be capable of landing on the surface,
possibly at class E ports where the port has been neglected so long that
it's nothing more than a beacon at the end of an open area of broken
ground.
Careers for the people that work for Compassionate Corps, both Starships of
Succor and Interstellar Free Healers Society - this should include the ones
that go out in the small ships as well as the ones that work on the large
hospital ships.
Stories about SoS/IFHS visits to worlds, whether told from the point of
view of the worker, the recipient of care, or a witness/bystander/family
member, and whether about an evaluation visit or a hospital ship visit.
Adventure scenarios. Your thoughts and expansions on the basic idea
outlined above. Basically, anything relevant.
Any of the above can include associated artwork.
®Traveller is a registered trademark of
Far Future Enterprises, 1977-2018. Use of
the trademark in this notice and in the
referenced materials is not intended to
infringe or devalue the trademark.
--
Jeff Zeitlin, Editor
Freelance Traveller
The Electronic Fan-Supported Traveller® Resource
xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com
http://www.freelancetraveller.com
Freelance Traveller extends its thanks to the following
enterprises for hosting services:
onCloud/CyberWeb Enterprises (http://www.oncloud.io)
The Traveller Downport (http://www.downport.com)
-----
The Traveller Mailing List
Archives at http://archives.simplelists.com/tml
Report problems to xxxxxx@simplelists.com
To unsubscribe from this list please go to
http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=HypynW7yqoxr8Dt1TuyTRiIBro0oaT25