Hypothetical Colony Ship(s) Concept
Three-Four ships in orbit around a denser, more mass-having vessel which drives them primarily. In my head this orbit is either artificial with something tethering these ships and turning on this central rod-like vessel. It is 5 am for me, so understandably I may be incoherent.
Still, this central rod could be a massive engine, being the primary driving force and leaving more space for the society inside the three to four ships in orbit.
Orbit could also be artificial through tethers which rotate along the rod, pulling along the ships.
I briefly considered it being the source of artificial gravity, which could work but more likely each ship would have its own source. Possibly even all three able to pull on one another and orbit one another without this engine rod thing at the center.
I must sound insane. I am not a physics person and this may not be the most correct subreddit for this, but it IS for a sci-fi world I'm building. My passion for space is one thing but my understanding of physics is another. I understand the basics, of course, and I've looked into and researched things over the years. However, I'm no expert and find myself often a tad confused and feeling a wee bit stupid.
I'm asking if in hypotheticals this could work, given any amount of /something/ exists TO make it work and would it even be reasonable to make something like this beyond the aesthetics.
Overall my main goals are that each ship has artificial gravity or simply some way to generate enough gravity to have a great enough pull to simulate earth. I get that all things have gravity etc etc. anyways, that and I want the ships to be capable of linking up with one another for colony folk to exchange from one ship to another. These ships do not travel at light speed, and are meant to be generational ships, not cryosleep n such and so on. So they're essentially functioning societies. Or need to be. The ships can travel in bursts of speed but they are built to drift and move slower.. sort of bursts of speed to escape greater gravity pulls, certain scenarios and so on. These ships remain near one another. I'd say the reason theres three of them and not just one is to lessen the size and thus mass of each, making them a bit less of a hazard and to give a higher survival chance. Just because one ship goes down or fails doesn't mean the others will, thus ensuring again, more survivability...
Anyhow. Any help is appreciated, and I understand some of this may be impossible or sound plain stupid to those with better understanding regarding space travel and physics.