Imagine a space battle between two warships **without inertial dampeners**. Obviously the ships would be limited to perhaps 4 gravities of prolonged acceleration, and could only perform short bursts of movement at higher accelerations, since the human body is a fragile thing. Even so, the forces involved at even these accelerations could be lethal if crew members were not properly protected.

Pilots/bridge-crew would likely be strapped into cushioned chairs to protect them from the myriad forces that would otherwise toss them about as the ship maneuvers. Other crew members, however, might have need of mobility in order to perform their jobs aboard the ship. Maintenance personnel and damage control teams, for example, would need to move around the ship in the middle of an engagement to put out fires and close hull breaches and do whatever they do.

So the question is: **how can the more mobile crew members be kept safe against the motions of the ship as it bucks and tosses itself around while still allowing them to move and perform their duties?**