The question comes down to how is the ship controlled?
Each of the ships components has controls either physical or computer controlled or both.
One would assume that the local controls would take precedence over the remote controls from the bridge, but that would depend on how the ship was designed
Is the bridge just a central point for monitoring and control of all the ship's systems, or do the remote terminals (for computer controlled items) defer to the bridge?
Is the computer on the bridge? Does the computer only take instructions from the bridge's consoles or can someone with the correct credentials issue commands from anywhere? (In which case passenger hacking could be a concern).
Take the power plant (fusion plus) as an example. It is supposedly a black-box that delivers power as needed and is cooled automatically. Local computer controls could easily be either subservient to the main computer or able to override commands from the bridge or a combination e.g. Safety systems may have local preference and other commands remote. Some items may even have manual override controls. e.g. shutting down the power plant in an emergency (or conversely starting the self-destruct sequence) that take preference to any computer controls.
If the main computer is physically on the bridge, what happens if it is unplugged (or shot)? Do the local systems stop functioning/shut down, go into a maintenance mode, revert to local control?
Does the captain trust his crew? Perhaps he is more afraid of mutiny than hi-jacking and uses advanced bio-metrics to authenticate and control the computer from anywhere.
What happens if there is an auxiliary bridge and it is giving conflicting commands to the main bridge? Which takes preference then - local systems, main or aux computer?
On Wednesday, August 19, 2015 5:00 PM, Anthony Jackson <xxxxxx@iii.com> wrote:
From: Jim Vassilakos
> Yet another dumb question from yours truly...
>
> Imagine that you're in the middle of a shipboard combat aboard a small merchant or scout vessel. IYTU, how important is it to take the bridge?
Depends a bit on how much you're disabling the ship as you go. From the bridge of an intact ship, you can:
* Modify gravity in particular compartments
* Accelerate without negating gravity
* Jump, assuming fuel.
* Manipulate life support
* Open or close doors
* Monitor internal surveillance, if present.
* Probably other lesser harassment.
All of these problems can be solved by disabling the systems that would be controlled from the bridge, or disabling the communications between the bridge and the rest of the ship. If you do so, the bridge becomes far less valuable.