Ravens of Eternity

168 Throttling Up, Pt A salesman in a wonderfully-pressed semi-formal outfit slapped a hand on the hull of the used ship next to him.

“This bird can fit up to 900 cubic meters of standard goods,” he said, “such as your traditional flour noodle dish with delicious homemade red sauce poured on top.”

Eva, Miko, and Amal all gawked at the beautiful frigate in front of them. It was sleek and held organic curves, as though it was a seed with short wings.

Miko scanned it with her baton, pulled down its base operational data points straight to her brain, and shared what she found with the other two. According to what they saw on their DI, the ship was slightly larger than most frigates of its class.

It sat at 150 meters long, 68 meters wide, and 42 meters high. It had a robust, flexible structure that utilized a specialized force-cancelling armor. Any ballistic weapons fired at its hull would, with proper calibration, bounce off harmlessly.

Or at least, prevent any severe punctures.

A battery of six guns stuck out of each of the turreted defense domes above and below the ship. Their domes didn’t stick out of the ship like swollen sores – instead, their domes were set into the frigate’s hull, and appeared to be a part of it. But they most certainly had an incredibly wide angle of attack on their side of the ship.

The frigate was relatively well armed and armored, despite being classified as an all-purpose Wayfarer Class vessel.

Miko noted its powerful combat components – B-ranked Gungnir Ballistic Autocannons combined with B-ranked AntiKinetic Armor Plating. Combined with its targeting intelligence and relative agility, the ship was clearly among the best frigates in the galaxy.

.....

“The design is immaculate,” said Miko. “Perhaps better than any frigate we have seen thus far, except maybe modern Drogar frigates. Let’s take a look inside.”

The three walked up its ramp, led by the salesman, who kept showing off various features of the ship as they passed. He pointed out this technology and that improvement and how it was the best choice, and so on.

Though the other two listened with intent, Eva more or less tuned him out. She was far more interested in experiencing the ship for herself, without anyone standing in between. Instead all throughout the tour, she simply reached out and touched the ship. Felt the walls, pushed buttons, opened panels, that sort of thing.

At the top of the ramp, they were immediately met with the ship’s huge cargo bay – 900 cubic meters exactly, which was about the size of thirty typical shipping containers. The long kind, anyway.

At the same time Eva marveled at the size of the cargo bay, Amal similarly imagined what it could hold. In her mind’s eye, she saw huge crates filled with medicine in one corner. Another had clothing and sundries. Perhaps another held crates of foodstuffs.

They took the gravity lift in the corner up to the ship’s middle deck, which slid up its transport tube with little effort. The salesman led them through to Engineering, which was a vast room filled with the ship’s most critical systems.

Miko’s eyes bugged out as she looked at each of the components all around. Perhaps the most prominent were the engines at the far wall, and the power plant right in the middle. But there were certainly many more modules and systems all over engineering, each one with a terminal or two next to them for direct access.

More than that, there were tool cabinets, storage spaces, a small breakroom, and even mechanical assistance drones.

Miko waved her baton at each of the systems in Engineering and pulled down their operating data as well – coolers, nanorepairs, atmospheric controls, graviton generator, teleport drive, and environmental regulator. They were all top-of-the-line B-ranked components, and she practically salivated as she pored over their specifications.

She was practically a kid in a candy shop, and was all but lost to her own thoughts.

Just outside of Engineering was a hallway that led to the four largest sections of the ship itself. These were Habitation, Recreation, Commissary, and Hygiene.

Inside of Habitation were a number of bunk beds, 8 of them exactly, which allowed for a maximum of 16 crewmembers. Not a bad amount for a ship that size.

And although the space was cozy and compact, there was still plenty of room for their personal effects. Just not a lot of room for privacy. Each of the bunks were set into thick walls, and was well-enclosed on all but one side. Certainly a challenging position for anyone who was even remotely claustrophobic.

Still, there was plenty of room, and each bed had small terminal touchscreens that the occupant could pop out and play with. That certainly helped make things feel less constricted.

Directly attached to Habitation was Hygiene, which was little more than a communal shower with private commodes off to the side. There were also lockers set into the wall over in the dry half of the room.

On the other side of the main hallway was where the Recreation and Commissary sections were located.

Although they were regarded as separate, both rooms were actually connected directly to each other, separated only by a transparent glass wall and sliding doors. Eva toyed with the wall’s transparency through a terminal off to the side.

As she played with its sliders, the glass would shift itself between transparency, opacity, and every state in between. Amal had to slap her hand to stop her from playing with it too much.

A number of screens and terminals ringed the walls surrounding Recreation, with a few in private booths in the corner. All could be used for a variety of things, such as watching ‘Casts, playing digital games, or simply using them as temporary personal terminals.

Scattered everywhere were cubby holes that had the space to store all manner of media, electronics, and other such sundries.

On the other side of the sliding doors was the Commissary.

This had four cozy table booths with comfortable benches and adjustable soft lighting. Along one wall was a robust kitchen with plenty of storage for foodstuffs, containers, tools, and utensils. All manner of appliances were set into the appliance slots along the walls, which gave the crew a variety of ways to prepare and cook their food.

They then went out the hallways and into the front section of the middle deck. This was Ancillary, and had a mix of various functions. This was the home of the ship’s sensor suite, communications array, and emergency life support.

There was also a separate storage space that the crew could use, and it was large enough to almost fit a small hopper inside. Plenty of room for most anything they needed to bring.

Miko took notes in earnest as she studied the ship’s layout. To her, it was an incredible use of space. Although the space was packed tightly, it was intelligently done so that every component, system, or module was easily accessed and maintained.

As a group, they all went back into Engineering and took the lift up to the third deck. There, they went down a hallway, which was flanked by the Officer’s Quarters, Captain’s Office, and the ship’s Datacenter. Up ahead was the cockpit, which they decided to check out last.

At the Officer’s Quarters, they noted how much room there was for them. There was space for six, with each one having access to their own individual semiprivate rooms, which were laid out one after the other.

They were relatively thin, but still had enough room for a bed, a small desk with a terminal, and plenty of storage space all around. Each one had vertically-telescoping doors, which provided them with a modicum of privacy.

At the very end of the Officer’s Quarters were a couple of personal hygiene booths, which were roomy enough for one. Sometimes two.

Across from the Quarters was a smaller hallway that split that space into two again. The more prominent and open room was a spacious office with copious amounts of storage, as well as a state-of-the-line terminal.

This was no doubt the ship captain’s office. It was perhaps the most regal and well-decorated room in the entire ship.

Opposite that was the ship’s Datacenter. Although they didn’t enter it, they could see through transparent titanium sheeting the many servers, routers, and databases installed inside. All of them sat in large racks, row after row after row of them.

Blinking lights showed they were all active and in pristine working order.

It was here that all of the ship’s intelligences converged and operated out of. A ship this size with many components and people to oversee required a great many intelligences to keep things in order. Overall operational, systems monitoring, navigation, networking, power management, targeting, teleporting, everything.

Afterwards, they decided to check out the bridge, which was where all the action truly happened. It was, in a few words, roomy and elegant and beautiful. The dash was designed with sleek, organic lines, and had multiple screens above and around the pilot and copilot’s seats. Behind them were two more seats with large terminals and multiple MFDs, ready to assist flight operations with whatever was needed.

Typically, navigation, communications, and repairs were handled at these stations. They could also control the ship’s defensive turrets from here.

Amal realized that the most amount of space was designed for the crew’s happiness and comfort. Sure, the utilitarian spaces and sections were incredibly tight. Engineering in particular was basically a sardine can filled with machinery and oil.

But the Crew and Officer’s Quarters, combined with Recreation and Commissary – they were large! If the designers had reduced their size, they could have squeezed in much more cargo space.

Or at least space for many more components, or even ship defenses.

Instead, the designers opted to give people the luxury of large rooms – something oddly difficult to come by while traveling in space.

As the salesman concluded his tour, he led everyone back down and out of the ship, where they were able to take another good look at its beautiful design.

Then he hit him with his final pitch.

“So the Solaris Mark V is one of the best Wayfarer Class frigates in the entire Federation,” he said. “Robust power plant, thick armor, powerful guns, fast engines, huge cargo hold... It’s perfect for the kind of work you’re looking to do.”

He stepped in closer to them, as though he was about to share hidden knowledge, or dangerous secrets.

“Best part,” he continued, “we’re having a deal on this exact one. We’ll waive your initial deposit and throw in an extra ten percent discount if you sign before next cycle. What do you say?”

Eva looked at the beautiful ship. Her heart ached to fly it, to feel its yoke in her hands, to see how fast it could cruise. She wanted to know how such a gorgeous ship could move, and she felt a deep desire to run back upstairs and climb into the pilot’s seat.

Miko had similar desires. She was filled with a need to work on all those modules, to understand them in their entirety. Then spend her time tweaking and optimizing each one to their needs. She had already spotted a few when she studied them earlier.

Amal too was enchanted by the frigate. She imagined where it could go, what people they could visit. She imagined its crew quarters filled with amazing people who wanted to help – medics and technicians and soldiers. And also its cargo bay – she imagined it filled to the brim with all of life’s necessities. Food, clothes, medicine.

“Okay, hit us with the price,” said Amal.

“40 million,” he said.

Although he fell into a wide grin, the three gawked at the astronomical price.

“W-we’re not exactly that rich,” stammered Eva. “Forty mil’s a bit much more than we can handle right now. Could we maybe lower things down a bit?”

The salesman’s smile wavered slightly, but did his best to keep his attitude bright and positive.

“Really?” said the salesman. “40’s already a serious steal! Especially considering this old bird’s Certified Pre-owned! Come on!”

The salesman quickly gathered up his composure and cleared his throat.

A sale is a sale, he told himself.

“Well anyway,” he said, “how big of a gap are we talking about anyway? Depending on how small it is, maybe we can come to some sort of deal?”

Amal and Miko quickly turned away and pretended to not even have heard the question, which left Eva to deal with the salesman by herself.

“Oh not much,” said Eva. “I’d say we’re only about, oh, 35 million short.”

The remnants of the salesman’s smile immediately turned into a sour frown.