Puddle Jumper



The Puddle Jumper is the Human nickname given to a set of small ships used by the Ancients found by the Atlantis expedition in 2379. It was coined by John Sheppard, an experienced pilot, who found a serendipitous double meaning when describing the craft. The nomenclature of the ship was immediately protested by Rodney McKay and Aiden Ford, who preferred "Jumper ship", although their suggestion was rejected. They are operated via neural interface, and so the Ancient Technology Activation gene is required to activate and pilot the ship. The Asurans referred to these ships as "Gateships", possibly indicating that the Ancients also called them that in their language.

Design
The design of the Puddle Jumper is of a cylindrical shape, with two inner sections. The front section contains the cockpit of the vessel with all control functions, four seats for passengers and a large viewport at the front of the ship. The aft section contains a passenger and storage area with a hatch in the back to access the jumper. Outside, the vessel contains a weapons and engines pod on both the port and starboard sides. A large view port occupies the ship's forward section, with a smaller port at the stern for individuals in the back. The ship can support roughly a dozen individuals in the event of a rescue (including seats for the pilot and co-pilot in the forward compartment), though this is not recommended for extended travel time.The cargo area also serves for additional seating within the jumper for more than the flight crew.There are no rest facilities aboard the craft, nor are there any emergency escape pods. A partition may be lowered to separate the forward and rear compartments, and the rear contains junctions by which basic ship functions, such as drive pod control, may be accessed. Though the Puddle Jumper can be piloted by hand controls, these may be secondary, as the craft interfaces with the mind of the pilot. On-screen geographical readouts as well as relevant technology may be immediately put at a pilot's disposal with a simple thought. A center console sits between the pilot and co-pilot seats. The craft is capable of impressive speeds,but perhaps even more impressive are the breaking thrusters.The ship must aslo therefore possess advanced intertial dampeners for the safety and comfort for its occupants. The Jumpers can be used as bombers by attaching explosives to the bottom of the craft and later releasing them.Puddle Jumpers are susceptible to Electromagnetic Fields. Rodney Mckay designed a virtual prototype for a hyperspace window generator for the puddle jumper. In 2380 Rodney Mckay develops a way to install a hyperdrive in a jumper, though the hyperdrive has a range of only 2,000 light-years.

Attachments
A various assortment of items can be attached to a Puddle jumper, typically on the underside of the vessel, or can be carried. Examples include objects that need to be launched (that can be carried, such as a Naquadah generator), or a grapple. As the jumpers are used on a regular basis by the Atlantis expedition to explore planets, their jumpers have been equipped with a large amount of Starfleet equipment. All of their jumpers possess plenty of food, medicine, weapons and other supplies on board, suspended over the seats in the rear compartment by rubber netting and behind the seats in the forward compartment. As off-world teams are likely to come under fire, there is a healthy supply of weapons, and tactical vests on board, including type 3-A compression phaser rifles, type 3-B phaser rifles, type 3-B compression phaser rifles, type 3-E phaser rifles, type 3-E phaser pulse rifles and type 2-F phasers. There are lights built into the jumper for seeing underwater.

Weaponry and Shields
The Jumper's weapon systems consist of at least 12 Ancient Drone weapons, the Puddle jumper is equipped with two weapons pods, located on both sides of the ship at the front end in hidden hatches. Each jumper utilizes drone weapons which fire by command of the pilot's thoughts. These pods must be extended before the drones can be fired. Radek Zelenka was also able to modify the cloak on a puddle jumper to act as a shield against the pressure of ocean water. The Puddle Jumper is only armed with 12 Drones. The jumpers can be used as bombers by attaching explosives to the bottom of the craft and later releasing them. It was theorized by Dr. Rodney McKay that these drones could also be used to pilot the Jumper, although this was never tested. It is assumed that the craft would not be very maneuverable or fast, however, it would require very little power.

Cloak
Puddle jumpers are equipped with an cloak, making it completely invisble visually and from sensors. The jumper cloak cannot be penetrated by sensors and cloaks the full interior of the vessel and it's occupants if the aft hatch is open. The jumper cloak is not limited to the size of the craft. The cloak can be removed from a jumper and implemented on other objects or ships as long as they are compatible. The cloak may be engaged when the ship is in flight, or when it had landed and powered down. However, through major system modifications, the cloaking generator can be "reversed" to act as a shield, but this drains the jumper's power far too rapidly, making it almost useless in a combat situation.

Time machine
An Ancient scientist named Janus created at least one Puddle Jumper, known as a Time Jumper, which is capable of Time travel by means of a device installed in the cargo hold. In the main timeline, this experimental technology was banned by the Lantean Council in order to prevent dangers associated with time travel. A Time Jumper was encountered by the Atlantis expedition in an alternate timeline and Stargate Command in the current timeline.

Control crystals
Gateships, like other Ancient technology, utilize crystals to control its systems. These crystals are located in the rear section of the ship behind the bench seats and in panels hanging from the ceiling. As most of the control conduits go to the rear section of the Gateship, it is possible to control the ship from that location as well. The control crystals, such as the one for the cloaking generator, can be removed from a Jumper and implemented on other Ancient ships.

Engines
Gateships are equipped with two anti-gravity drive pods, which may either be extended or retracted during flight. The engines of gateships also allow the craft to hover silently above ground in one spot. This, in conjunction with the cloak, has proven to be a useful ability in surprise attacks. Gateships are also capable of reverse flight. As they are also capable of operating underwater, gateships may also be used as submersibles. The power of these engines, while impressive for a craft of their size (capable of flying through a star system in a matter of hours) is greatly exceeded by that of larger capital ships, such as those of the Daedalus-class, capable of making the same cross-star system trip in a matter of minutes.

Communications
The Puddle jumper utilizes a subspace communications system to facilitate real-time communications between locations, although it is not as powerful as the ones on the rest of the Ancient fleet or the Deep space carriers.

Heads up display
Like many of the other onboard systems, the heads up display of a Gateship is entirely intuitive. Appearing on the main viewing window of the Jumper, it displays pertinent information about anything the pilot is thinking about. It also activates automatically to display important information to the pilot, such as nearby vessels, weapons fire or anomalous energy readings.