Eureka

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• Next message: Michael Renjie Tom: "Re: Independence Day"
• Previous message: Mark Ma: "novels"

I had a hard time thinking of a subject line, but it's short at least. 
I've finally figured out what those round hemispheres are!  You know,
the ones which are located on the sides of every Imperial warship.

At first, I thought they had something to do with propulsion, in an
atmosphere; which is a trick we don't see the FPA Star Fleet do.  Then I
realized that if they can fly through the liquid metal sea of Iserlohn,
and fight inside the gas giant in the first movie, then flying in a
regular atmosphere is not a problem.  (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised
if they could submerge theselves in the sea like the Yamato!)

My second guess was that they had something to do with warp propulsion. 
The Imperial ships didn't have those scoop-like slits in their sides
which are prominent on FPA flagships such as the HYPERION and PATROKLOS.
But then I realized that the smaller FPA ships such as the "battleboat"
and the civilian freighters lack both of these features (slits & domes).

Then I finally figured it out.  All of the FPA ships are bristling with
antennae!  None of the Imperial ships have mast-like antennae.  This has
to be the solution.  I'm not quite certain, but I think they must be
used for radar-like scanning purposes as well as communications.  The
similarity to Tonio's weapon station (in the 1st movie) looks too much
like the domes to be a coincidence! 

Any other thoughts?  Anyone translate those ship cut-aways in the roman
albums?

Regards,
Scott Swoboda

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