Docking Canopy

A docking canopy is a branch- or vine-like formation that allows up to four Tiny or two Small starships to attach to a Huge or larger biomechanical starship. The canopy takes up two expansion bays, and one can fulfill the hangar requirement for a carrier-class vessel. The starships attached to the docking canopy move with the larger ship, and the canopy provides a narrow passage between each docked starship and the larger vessel. Moving through this passage to the vessel to which the docking canopy is attached or back to the attached smaller ship takes 1 round of starship combat or 10 minutes. In addition, if the larger starship benefits from self-repair while vessels are docked, an engineer attending the process can amass the repair capabilities of the starship and any docked biomechanical craft as a pool of Hull Points; the engineer can then distribute these Hull Points among the starships linked by the docking canopy.

A docking canopy doesn't enclose docked ships the way a hangar bay does. Therefore, a science officer can use the target system crew action to target a docked vessel instead of a specific system on the starship that has the docking canopy as an expansion.