On 28 May 2020 at 13:10, xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote:

> I'm pretty sure when an Oberlindes scion is going to have a ship built
> for his own purposes and the low berth is one possible life saving
> system, it's going to be the best money and science can buy. Ditto
> anything the Imperial Family might have to ditch into.
>
> And at the other end, early experimental berths might be scary
> things. Or 'refurbs' from dubious sources at backwater ports or in
> pirate havens... a true desperate measure.

It helps to remember that "low berths" along with fast drug, slow
drug and the low berth "lottery" were lifted direct from E C Tubb's
"Dumarest" series.

It's been a *long* time since I read any of the books, but I got the
impression that they were more intended for shipping livestock than
people. With livestock, if some don't make it, you just sell the
frozen corpses to a butcher.

In the books, the people using them were pretty much the same sort
who'd pay a coyote to sneak them across the US border. Desperate, and
willing to pay even knowing there's a chance they'd die.

Or the folks getting on those overloaded boats and trying to cross
the Med from places like Libya or Syria. Or going back some years,
the folks trying to cross from Cuba to Florida on improvised "boats".

ps. I believe you've got slow drug confused with fast drug.

Slow drug is named because it makes the world slow down from your
perspective. Fast drug makes the world speed up so a week in jump is
only hours.
--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com