Selia settled into a seat, in the officer’s mess hall aboard the Enterprise. She had been here a few days, now. She was currently the official ambassador and liaison between the Sol Refuge and the Sylnari Remnant. She had learned a bit about the local economy, which was actually pretty sparse. Their factories were being fueled by the materials they got from the asteroids, but they lacked the infrastructure for planetary mining. Still, they had enough to produce the everyday goods they needed, and they were pretty good with recycling which helped reduce the cost of consumer goods. She had also learned a bit about their own agriculture. They had two entire decks that were dedicated to agriculture. Massive hydroponic bays produced vegetables, fruits, and fish for their people, while livestock was raised in artificial fields. The livestock population wasn’t large, and as a result, the products from them were luxuries that only the wealthier among them could afford. Which basically meant those with high rank, and a good track record.
Their Ration Credit was effectively a form of currency, but with an expiration date. People got them monthly, but their earnings were calculated daily. She was told all about how the Ration Credit works when she was given a ration card. Around here the average person would spend about thirty-eight credits a day for a decent living. For a bare living with only the basic necessities, a person would typically spend about twenty-two credits a day. A meal could cost anywhere between half a credit or ten credits. Income was also fairly interesting, a person got a small amount of credits daily based on their rank. With ten credits gained per rank level, which means at the lowest rank crewman you get ten credits. However they technically have sixteen ranks, and at the highest rank, you get a one hundred fifty credits from the rank bonus. Thing is most of those higher ranks are relics from a previous era. Which means the best rank to hope for is R10 captain with a hundred credit bonus. The bonus was only part of the system, but the rest of your income is determined by your performance review. Income is capped at three hundred credits a day, so the rank bonus just makes it easier to get a high daily income around here.
Anyway, when it came to getting a meal around here, she was granted a fair amount of credits. Meaning she could afford anything on the menu, but she didn’t really care for the more expensive items on the menu. Seeing as she preferred fish and it was available quite cheaply here. Which is why she had a plate of fish in her hands. Which she had set on the table. Shortly after she sat down, another sat down across from her. Someone she recognized to be one of the ship’s elders.
“Settling in okay?” asked Misaki, she set her own plate down, which had some kind of meat and vegetables wrapped in something, along with a side of what she knew to be rice.
“The quarters you guys set up for me are quite comfortable,” said Selia, referring to the quarters they had given her on deck four. The room had been redecorated to better suit her physiology and the atmosphere had been replaced with water. She had been quite impressed at how quickly they had made the change, the only thing that bothered her was that the water was a bit too highly charged. Thing was the entire ship had a slight charge to the atmosphere, she had a feeling it might be due to glitch in the life support system, though. “Just one question, is your life support system having problems, or is there some other reason for the charge in the atmosphere?” asked Selia after a brief pause.
“No, we actually like the charge in the air, but it has nothing to do with the life support system. Actually we are generating the charge in the air,” said Misaki as sparks began to fly between the fingers of the hand she raised to show Selia. Selia just stared in surprise, her mind had gone blank for a moment before she stuttered and said, “I, uh, have never seen a surface creature with that ability, but you are literally a power source aren’t you?”
“We do generate quite a bit of electrical energy, and we have an organ that can store quite a bit of energy. The charge in the air is just caused by the small amount we leak,” said Misaki. Before Selia could respond her attention was drawn to the viewports. Out of the large open viewport, she could see a ship enter the field of view. It was one of the refuge destroyers, what drew her attention was the damage that she could see from her seat. A massive hole could be seen in the hull, that speared right through the ship and out the other side of the hull. Seeing her gaze, Misaki told her that it was just the Scimitar returning for repairs.
“That looks to have been quite the hit. How long do you think it will take to fix?” asked Selia.
“Just a couple of days. We already knew the ship was coming in for repairs, so all we need to do is remove the damaged modules, install the replacements that have been prepared, and then patch the outer plating,” said Misaki, describing a simplified version of the repair process. Not being an engineer, her description was the best she could do. Her estimate wasn’t far off either, since she had spoken with engineering the other day about the repairs. Thanks to their use of modular design the ship could be repaired quite quickly and efficiently. The internal plating and reinforced bulkheads having also helped greatly in containing the damage the ship sustained to a handful of sections. Something she didn’t mention was that the damaged modules would be taken apart and salvaged for usable materials.
“Sounds like your engineers know a thing or two about ship repair,” said Selia.
“One of the reasons, we use modular ship design is because it allows for faster ship repair. Not only that, but it makes ship retrofitting cheaper and easier,” replied Misaki.
“Well, I don’t know much about ship design theory, but that does sound correct to me. Anyway, I have been wondering something. Why is your gender ratio so unusually skewed towards females?” asked Selia having noticed that most of the population appeared to be female.
“Remember that storm that brought us to this part of the galaxy? Well, what the Supreme Protector didn’t mention is that storm changed us. It changed us so much, we can’t even claim to be the same species we were before the storm. At least we look the same, even if we don’t grow as tall as we used to. Which is why we have not given you a name for our race. We have not yet, been able to agree on a new name for our race. The only thing we do agree on is that the old names, no longer apply. As for why we have so many more girls, than boys we believe it has to do with the changes in our DNA,” replied Misaki. Listening to all that, Selia wasn’t entirely surprised. This wasn’t the first instance, she had heard about, of a species, or members of said species being changed by an anomaly. In some cases the changes were entirely beneficial, others the results were mixed or downright detrimental.
“I have heard about species being changed by anomalies before. Doesn’t happen often, but enough that we have records of. Anyway are you sure your species has gotten smaller, and that it isn’t just that you’re just maturing slower,” said Selia
“We are as certain as can be given the time frame. As near as we can tell, we physically stop aging around fifteen years of age. Around the same time, our new powers awaken rather painfully and quite debilitating as well,” replied Misaki. The conversation continued for a short while longer, before shifting to mundane things. One of the things she learned, was that they weren’t concerned by the shift in gender distribution. Not only that, but they were encouraging polygamy as one of many methods to increase population growth. Finishing up their meals, they cleaned up and left the hall to lower decks.
The exited a lift on the lower decks and entered a hub of activity. They had entered a part of the ship called Aka district. Everywhere they looked were shops and stalls. The ceiling was open for several levels, allowing them to see walkways above. Dozens of young girls could be seen walking around in groups chatting amicably with their friends. A couple of boys were passing by with a girl or two on their arms, clearly out on a date.
Some older women were also out and about. Carrying metal baskets and shopping at the stalls, all around it looked to a very busy day. The walkways were all crowded with the hustle and bustle of the day. This wasn’t the first time Selia had been in the district, but it had been nowhere close to how busy it was today, when she was last here. When Greyman had been giving her a tour of the ship, at Countryman’s request. The tour had only covered the common areas, more restricted zones like the science labs, the factories, and the brig were avoided, however. She figured all the extra activity was due to an event of some kind that was drawing the people into the corridors and markets of the ship. Amidst all the activity she noticed a girl running towards them and shouting, but not in the common tongue she had heard so far.
The girl looked to be young, and energetic. She was wearing a short white top, and contrasting black mini skirt, along with her long black hair was done up with a pair of black ribbons. In her hand, she was waving around an electronic pad. The girl herself was a little over a hundred and forty centimeters tall, with a modest chest, small frame, and a cute face. Her skin was a lovely shade of tan, and she regarded Selia with her large brown eyes as she approached.
She stopped before Selia and stuck her free hand out and said, “Hello, I’m Mary, and you are?” Having already been exposed to this ritual before, Selia only took a moment to remember what she was supposed to do. She then shook the other girl’s hand and introduced herself. The girl then turned to Misaki and held up her pad.
“Elder Misaki, I have something I would like to show you, preferably somewhere less public,” said the young girl, Mary.
“Sure, I know a good spot,” replied Misaki and led the girl, with Selia in tow to a nearby lounge. It was a game lounge with a number of people playing holographic card or board games. Along one wall was a bank of consoles where some people were playing video games, and there was a backroom for those that wanted to play a VR game. Misaki led them to a counter and talked briefly with the woman manning it, before they were led to a private room with a holographic game board, that can be used for either a card or board game depending on how you set it up. It was currently set up for use as a card game board and even had a couple of practice decks on the table for a starship themed card game. The backs of the cards had the image of two ships duking it out on a field of black stars. The room itself was of utilitarian design with grey and white walls and no decoration. The game board table was located smack in the middle of the room and was large enough for four people. On either side of the table was a bench, that would allow two people to sit comfortably at the table. Misaki walked over to the table and sat down, and Mary joined her, while Selia initially remained at the door until she was waved over to the table.
“So what did you want to show me?” asked Misaki.
“Remember, how we are currently lacking in a light cruiser design? The last design having fallen far below expectations and had to be scrapped?” responded Mary as she plugged her pad into the holographic table, which immediately reconfigured and projected the image of a ship. Along with holographic text, and displays detailing modules and equipment included in the design. The image was a holographic blueprint the type used by engineers for starship design.
“Yeah, I remember that project. Shame we had to scrap that cruiser, if it wasn’t for those design flaws it would have been a promising ship. So this Star Knight is the new project you have been working on?” asked Misaki having read the text which named the blueprint as the Star Knight Project. While she wasn’t an engineer, she noticed that it was a promising looking design with a powerful engine, a decent power plant, and an excellent weapons layout.
“Yeah, well after that last cruiser failed we went back to the drawing board. This is what we came up with. I was hoping you could present it to the council,” said Mary.
“I’ll present it to the council, but I can’t promise that it will get through. We have used most of the rare minerals that we need in the asteroid field, and the fleet is preparing to depart. It may be sometime before we can build another prototype cruiser,” said Misaki.
“The fleet is departing? When?” asked Mary.
“The exact date is not set, yet. We plan to leave late next month, after our scouting groups have had time to recon the area,” said Misaki. Suddenly a device on Selia’s belt beeped and she pulled it out and pressed a button which displayed a holographic screen of alien text. She read through it quickly, and then said, “You remember that cruiser your scouts engaged?”
“I remember. They forced it to retreat, did you find it or something?” asked Misaki.
“Our scouts have indeed located the cruiser, it is in a system just nineteen lightyears from here. Seems you did more damage to it than you thought, mostly to the power systems. Our scouts scanned the ship and found evidence that some kind of cutting beam penetrated the outer layers and deep into the core of the ship. Severing the connections of thirty-seven power distribution nodes and inflicting damage to several critical systems. Nothing crippling mind you, but enough that they are holding position to conduct repairs. It seems they think it will take the ship a week to patch the damage and then they will limp back to port,” said Selia relaying what she had just read.
“Interesting I will make sure the council hears of this. It sounds like a good opportunity to get insights into Cylovan technology. Those beam weapons of theirs are rather impressive, but their armor is even more intriguing. Our weapons are specifically designed to penetrate heavy armor and yet they struggled to penetrate that armor of theirs,” said Misaki remembering the council meeting where they studied the recordings of the battle. The smaller vessels were easily dispatched thanks to their inferior armor, but they did make up for it with speed and maneuverability. The destroyers had superb shields, but they mattered little against shield penetrating torpedoes. Still, most other races didn’t have those torpedoes so it was easy to see how effective those ships could have been. The cruiser, however, was difficult to deal with, if they had encountered a bigger ship they might not have been able to deal with it. Their weapons were highly inadequate against its superior armor.
Around the same time Countryman was walking down a corridor, passing by young men and women in lab coats. Rounding a corner, he passed three doors before stopping in front of a lab on his right. Reaching for the controls he opened the door and walked inside. A young girl greeted him with a smile on her face. She was one of the newer scientists and her half Valorian heritage was obvious with her icy blue skin. She wasn’t all that tall at around a hundred and twenty centimeters tall. She was also quite cute.
“So you had something you wanted to show me, Delilah?” asked Countryman.
“Yes, sir,” said Delilah as she turned on the lab’s holoprojectors and started up a simulation.
“We have been conducting simulations as asked for improving our current weapons so that they can penetrate neutronium reinforced armor more effectively. Modifying our launchers to support a higher launch velocity helps, but neutronium is incredible. Honestly, none of our weapons reach yields close enough to deal crippling blows you want. Which is why we started looking into new weapon types. We don’t think we can refine a photon torpedo for the required yields, but a plasma torpedo is a different story. We had been looking into plasma torpedoes for a while now, and I would like to show you what we have come up with,” said Delilah.
“A plasma torpedo? I recall those being dismissed previously due to their short range. I take it you have a solution for the range issue,” said Countryman.
“Yes, the problem with previous designs is that the plasma is activated during launch. This plasma can only be contained so long before it begins to dissipate, and the plasma itself damages the torpedo. Hindering other aspects like guidance, which is fine for a short-range torpedo bomber, but anything else and it is better just to use a different torpedo type. We have come up with a way to use inert plasma in the warhead instead. The new torpedo will use a small antimatter charge to convert the inert plasma into active plasma. To maximize yield the plasma will start highly compressed and the charge calculated to supply enough energy to achieve fusion on detonation. Calculations show that the resulting reaction will be highly explosive. It should be possible to get a detonation yield in the multi-gigaton range if not higher,” said Delilah.
“I take it you have already reached the limits of simulations? Want do you need for further research into this new weapon type?” asked Countryman.
“Yes, sir. We aren’t ready for a prototype, but we do need to progress towards physical research. We need a steady supply of protoplasma for the research,” said Delilah as she handed a container of the stuff she need to Countryman. He examined it briefly looking at the glowing blue-green substance in the container he was holding. He was familiar with the substance, it was one of the reasons they had to leave the system. They had exhausted the system of the critical components needed to manufacture the stuff. It was made by including a mixture of hydrogen and three different kinds of exotic gasses. The hydrogen was easy to get and two of the gasses could be synthesized, but the last one had defied all attempts to manufacture it. These exotic gasses weren’t need for making plasma, but were if you wanted weapons-grade plasma. This stuff was critical for the manufacture and arming of Electro cannons. The same grade of plasma was also used in power transfer systems.
“I’ll see what I can do,” said Countryman before leaving the room.
