Veria
Aerus Menagerie
19:52 Local Time
September 10, 2019

While the Riotanian Merovess was absolutely amazing, there was no shortage of incredible animals to be found. It was like a safari, though there were many different biomes showing the diversity of life. In addition to the grassland, rainforest, volcanic and desert biomes, there were also the tundra and alpine tundra, not to mention the part of the ocean that was included in the menagerie.

The ocean portion was divided into three distinct sections. The first one was the smallest, and that was the fresh water pool. To make sure that the fish remain healthy, it is the only pool that has a hard shield around it so the water wouldn't be contaminated. The other two pools were of equal size, with one being tropical and the other being more temperate. Since there were species that migrated throughout the year, the wall separating the two wasn’t solid. Instead, there was a forcefield that was able to recognize a species and let it through. Apparently the animals living in those two sections avoided the forcefield like the plague at the beginning, but a few millennia and generations later, and it wasn’t an issue.

The most interesting biome of them all, to me, at least, was the tropical rainforest biome. It wasn’t all forest, and it couldn’t be otherwise no one would ever see the animals living in it. Instead, there was a large grassland that animals had to enter to reach one of the rivers that flowed through the biome. It was there that we saw many different species of animals that would be called dinosaurs on Earth.

It was clear that none of them had been taken from Earth, as they were like nothing I, or any of the people who were born on Earth had ever seen. The majority of the animals found there were large scaled creatures, though some of them had fur as well. And while the large reptilian animals were very cool and I had to take a moment to scan them all as we slowly flew past but, none compared to the small lion-sized reptile that Abi pointed out.

Had someone not known it was there, the Idathi Qhuvox would have made short work of them. It was a chameleon-like animal, in that it could change the color of its scales to perfectly match its surroundings. It looked nothing like a chameleon, however, as it didn’t have the distinctive head shape or eyes, nor did it have the long tongue.

Instead, it used it's incredibly sharp claws and teeth to ambush prey. If Abi had not been highlighting it as it stalked its prey, we never would have seen it. When it did strike, it quickly and easily killed one of the smaller herbivorous animals that was grazing. While other members of its herd looked up for a moment when the qhuvox struck, they quickly went back to eating as the cooling corpse was dragged away.

We didn’t stick around to watch it eat, but everyone scanned it before moving on. While scanning a dragon afforded a similar ability, it was clear that they worked in different ways. A dragon’s camouflage was more akin to a shroud on a ship in that it affected the space around the dragon to hide it from sight, where the qhuvox needed to alter its scales directly to achieve the same outcome.

The final stop on land before we continued on to the ocean part of the menagerie was the volcanic area. It was the smallest biome in that it was only a few square kilometers in size, but it was the only one that had its forcefield active at all times. This was because there was a small volcano that was prone to minor eruptions, but also because of the animals that were found there.

Many of them were animals that were of species that originate from dungeons. After being tamed, they were removed and then bred, and the offspring were brought here. All of them had some or complete immunity from fire, and they reflected that in different ways. Some were able to swim through the small lava flow without being harmed, while others were on fire; either fully or partially.

It was here that my friends and I found something familiar, which also made it clear that animals found in dungeons on Earth could also be found in dungeons elsewhere. That was the wyvern, or a pair of wyverns, rather.

“They’re a rather new addition to the menagerie, having been added nearly two hundred years ago when they were still eggs. It was quite the attraction, especially when people were allowed to see them hatch. Each egg was taken from a separate clutch, with one male and one female. I believe the female just laid her eggs recently, but it will be a long time before they hatch,” Abi explained.

“I thought wyverns could only be found in dungeons on Earth,” Ben said.

“They, and many different animals can be found in dungeons all over the galaxy, some are just much rarer than others,” Abi replied. “These wyverns originated from the Saurian world of Pazagua. A man there delves into a dungeon where they can be found frequently and he spends many weeks inside taming one. Once a new one is tamed, he brings it back home and lets it roam his massive property along with the hundreds of other wyverns. It’s surrounded by a forcefield and is quite the attraction on his own.”

“Hundreds? And they’re all tamed?” Mason asked. “That would be one hell of a security force.”

“Some of the wyverns there were hatched over the years, but the majority of the eggs are sold to help keep the rest fed and safe. You’re right about them being a good security force though,” Abi said. “There have been no less than eight attempts to capture live wyverns or their eggs from the man’s property since people became aware of their existence, and not one of those was successful. Wyverns are a tier A animal, so they’re quite powerful already. Combine that with the stats they gain from their owner, and they’re quite formidable indeed.”

“Only tier A? I thought they’d be tier S.”

“There are only six recorded animals that are at tier S, and from what I’ve seen, intelligence plays a big part in it,” I replied. “Wyverns are pretty comparable to dragons, but I bet they got the short end of the stick when it comes to intelligence.”

“You’re correct on that. Pound for pound, wyverns are nearly as strong as dragons are, and they have the ability to breath fire as well. Unfortunately they’re more instinctual and don’t have the capacity for higher thinking. Perhaps, they will finally break the tier S threshold given enough time, but that’s a ways away.”

---

After checking out the volcanic biome for a little while longer, we headed over to the ocean biomes next. While the overall surface area was much smaller than the landmass next to it, it made up for it in total volume. The enclosure themselves still stretched hundreds of kilometers from the edge of the island, they were up to ten kilometers deep in some places.

Even with their massive size, the three biomes had the fewest amount of visible wildlife. There were some decent-sized marine mammals here and there, but they mostly consisted of a large amount of smaller fish.

Had we not been in the menagerie, then we probably would have taken the Grasshoppers beneath the waves. Unfortunately there were a large number of submersible vehicles present which would have made it a nightmare to navigate without either disturbing the wildlife or giving our position away. Rather than just hover over the ocean, we decided instead to head back up to the space station. It was already a few hours past our usual dinner time anyways.

Though we had been in the system and on the space station for over two days now, none of us had tried out the food available from the multitude of restaurants on board. After getting out of our armor, Zaszi and her team, as well as a number of others followed us there where we crammed into one of the restaurants recommended to us.

The one we chose was one where the chefs actually cooked the food in front of you. Since there were so many people in our party, that wasn’t exactly a job that one chef could do all by themselves, so there were four chefs that worked together to cook a ridiculous amount of food. As they prepared, it seemed as if they were making a stir fry, or something similar to it. The first chef immediately started fileting a whole fish while the second one retrieved some fresh cuts of some sort of red meat. At the same time, the third chef began chopping up a large amount of vegetables very quickly and the fourth and final chef was mixing a bunch of different ingredients together.

They talked as they worked, and Abi translated what they were saying through the earpiece that I had been given when we got back to the menagerie. My friends all had theirs in as well, so it allowed the five of us to know exactly what they were saying. For those who didn’t have an earpiece, Zaszi and others acted like translators.

“This looks very familiar,” I said as four large cooking pots reminiscent of a wok were laid out on the cooking surface.

“You’ll find that most species you come across will cook food similarly to the way humans do, they’ve just been doing it for a lot longer,” Abi replied in my ear. “Much of it will look similar as well, though it might not taste the same.”

The cooking pots were left to heat up as everything else was being prepared, and as soon as they were done doing that, the four of them sprang into action. The fourth chef went from cooking pot to cooking pot, pouring some of the sauce he had made. While he was doing that, the other three chefs were doing the same thing with their own ingredients. After about a minute, there was sauce, fish, meat and vegetables in all of the cooking pots, and they got to work.

One of the chefs was rather flashy when he cooked, as he made a show of tossing the cooking food up into the air or threw small chunks of cooked meat into his audience’s open mouths. The others were more like teachers when they cooked as they explained everything they were doing. That was things like adding spices or telling everyone what to look for if they wanted to try to make the meal themselves.

Just before it was ready to be served, a bunch of waitresses came from the back with large plates covered in a layer of something that looked like rice, but clearly wasn’t. There were additional herbs and spices in the rice, but the grains were about twice the size and they were a very light pink.

When everyone had a plate placed in front of them, the chefs did something that was rather interesting. As if by some unheard and unseen command, the four cooking pots rose off their cooking surfaces and began floating towards us. Whenever they got close to a plate, they would tip over slightly and the spatula would dish as much of the stirfry as the person wanted. When that person signaled to stop, the cooking pot would level back off and then float off to the next one.

“Now that’s an interesting use of Telekinesis,” Ben said from beside me. “How hard is something like that?”

“Given enough practice, not too hard,” I answered. “I probably wouldn’t be able to lift the pot just yet, just from the amount of food in it, but I think I could do it. Well, as long as I could see the contents, at least. They must have done this a lot to be able to do it without looking.”

There was more than enough of the stir fry to go around in case anyone wanted any seconds, so it was combined into one cooking pot and then they got started on dessert, even while we ate. This was less cooking and more preparing, as the same waitresses brought some fresh ingredients, but there were some frozen ones as well.

The fresh ingredients were two different kinds of fruit. One of them had a hard husk like a coconut, but the inside was a dark red, with a texture similar to that of an apple. Each of them was roughly watermelon sized, and after being extracted and cubed, the chunks were tossed into a pan that had been heating up.

The second of the two fruits was something that looked like a blackberry, color and all. After stirring the first fruit in the pan, the berries were put in a bowl and crushed by an invisible force, and then they, too, were added to the mixture. It was only cooked for one or two minutes or so at high heat, and then the heat was lowered almost completely. At that point, four large tubs were placed in the area between the cooking surface and where we were all eating, and bowls filled up any extra space.

When someone’s plate was empty and one of the chefs had recognized that fact, they were asked if they wanted seconds. If the answer was yes then they were given more of the stir fry, but if not they were offered desert. Some people passed, simply because of how filling the meal was, but many people took them up on the offer. The dessert was quite literally ice cream, though the direct translation, according to Abi, was ‘frozen cream,’ while the two fruits translated into ‘Ch’Akra Fruit’ and ‘Dwarven Black Fruit,’ respectively.

There were four different types of ‘frozen cream’, though none of them were the chocolate, vanilla or strawberry that was common on Earth. The chefs knew that many of us were new to this area of space, so they allowed each of us a small sample before we chose. I was partial to a mint chocolate chip myself, but every single one of the flavors available were better than any ice cream that I had ever tasted.

The tastes were hard to describe, but the one I chose was almost as if someone had combined Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with coffee flavored ice cream and something else entirely. There were no chunks to speak of, but it was the closest comparison I could think of. After a few scoops had been dropped in my bowl, some of the fruit was ladled on top of it, and it was pushed towards me.

As I scooped some of the mixture into my mouth, I couldn’t help but close my eyes and appreciate the taste. I had had two desserts since arriving at Veria, and both blew any dessert from Earth out of the water. There was a gentle pressure on my arm, and I looked down to see that Vixa had closed her jaws just above my wrist.

I laughed and she closed her jaws a little tighter, but soon let go. I waved Zaszi over and explained that Vixa wanted some dessert too, so she waved down one of the chefs and let him know. She was given the same opportunity to try which flavor she wanted first, but she chose one of the other flavors.

She barked when the chef only gave her one scoop, causing everyone who was paying attention to laugh. The man gave her one more scoop and then topped it with the fruit and pushed it towards her. She immediately attacked it, going between the topping and the ice cream below it, but soon whined and scratched at her head.

She growled when I started laughing again.

“Don’t eat it so fast and it won’t hurt like that,” I warned her.

She barked softly and then went back to her own dessert, eating it far more slowly than she had been previously.

After we all finished eating, we found that our meals had already been paid for. I didn't need to think about it long to know who had taken care of it. After telling Abi to thank Ercan for all of us, I handed one of my credit chips to Zaszi and asked that she tip them for us.

"Jonathan, if everyone's meal has already been paid for, then the chances are that they have already been tipped as well," she said with her arm outstretched, the credit chip in hand.

"Oh," I replied, blushing slightly.

We soon left the restaurant and everyone headed their own way. We had been in the restaurant for nearly two hours and the time had just flown by. Tomorrow would be a pretty busy day, so after saying goodnight to everyone, Vixa and I headed to our room aboard Abi.

Zaszi and her team, not to mention Abi herself, had decided that they weren't going to take any chances with my safety going forward. For the time being, that meant sleeping in the safest place in the known universe, even though there was a room on the station reserved for me. Ercan had increased the security on the station itself, however it wasn't enough to sway the people that needed swaying.

After the usual bedtime routine was over with, I climbed into bed, wondering what tomorrow had in store. I had no doubt that one of the beta through echo teams were already scouting out the area to make sure it would be safe. Wherever ‘it’ was. Only a small number of people knew where we were going tomorrow, and none of them gave more than a little hint. I had wracked my brain trying to figure out where we were going, exactly, but hadn’t had any luck.

Vixa had eaten both dinner and dessert, but she had gone over to her bowl as soon as we entered the room to eat what was there. The feeder knew that she hadn't eaten her lunch so it didn't dispense additional food, but she ate it all the same. Once the bowl was empty, she had a quick drink of water and when she teleported over to the bathroom. A few moments later she came running out of the bathroom and hopped up on the bed. Stopping over for a quick petting, she then curled up in her spot and gave herself a quick bath.

As she was finishing up, I called out to Abi and the lights turned off.

"Goodnight you two," I said as I pulled up the covers and got comfortable.

Abi replied and Vixa gave a little yip, and then there was silence.

---

Menseio Station, orbiting Veria
Jonuth Kidravia’s Ship - Abi
06:30 Ship Time
September 11, 2019

As Vixa and I entered the cafeteria, I saw Zaszi and her team, as well as a few other Spectres raise their glasses of coffee in the air. I didn't know whether they were saluting or toasting, but my mom and dad were one of those other few.

[What's going on?] I asked.

My mom turned toward me with a wan smile. [Just remembering some fallen friends. We all knew someone who died during 9/11, so this is the day we choose to remember them.]

I was suddenly sorry for intruding on them. 9/11 had happened nearly three years before I was taken out of stasis, but everyone knew about it. The reason that so many people had died in the two towers was because an anti-teleportation field was erected around them, similar to the ones employed by the Hellraisers when they attacked us outside of the dungeon. With them up, it was significantly harder to extricate survivors from the buildings. Even with enhanced strength and abilities, the process had been extremely slow. Too slow to rescue more than a few hundred people, total.

Not wanting to intrude any further, I made my way over to the buffet line to get the two of us some breakfast. My friends filled in shortly afterwards, and we sat down to go over their options for the first half of the day.

“So Ercan is taking me on a tour of the shipyards this morning and then we’ll be heading up to his office with Oya to work on some initial ship designs. You four have the option of coming along with, or you can each do your own thing until then,” I said.

“Initial ship designs? What for?” Mason asked.

“Tich and Xigios both told me that as it stands, only a handful of ships in the Scyftan Navy could go up against the ones that are currently on their way to Earth. One of the first things I’ll be doing after Dhir is dealt with is working on overhauling the entire fleet. I can get a headstart on that now and then whoever wins the bid to construct the ships will be able to get started right away. In the meantime, Ercan’s people are going to build some prototypes of the designs we come up with, so we can see how they perform. That way we’ll know whether or not any changes need to be made before they go into full production.”

“Who are you kidding? You’ve already decided to go with Ercan’s company. Why bother going through a bidding process at all?”

“Mason brings up a good point,” Ben said. “I’ve been reading up on your people, and while your father was alive, he was working on changing the government to more of a democracy. There would be a prime minister or president who would handle most things, but the military would fall under the king’s purview. If you’re planning on following in his footsteps, then you don’t need to go through the charade of a bidding process, you can just choose what company you want to contract things out to.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple,” Anja replied. “While you’re right that it would be under his purview and only his purview, he can’t be seen immediately going to a company that is not Scyftan as soon as he takes back his throne. By going through the bidding process, he doesn’t have to deal with the backlash there might be, as he will be seen going with the company that will do the best work.”

Sonja nodded and picked up where her sister left off. “Now that doesn’t mean that all of the contracts will go out to Ercan’s company, as there very well might be a Scyftan company that builds better fighters, weapons or armor. If that ends up being the case, then he can create more jobs for his own people which would make everyone happy, especially with how bad the quality of living is currently. It should be a pretty big change when Jonathan takes over.”

“I didn’t know that the two of you were versed in politics,” I said. “You’re both right, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet about the form of government. Thankfully I’ve got months to get ready, and I’ll be working with my sisters to decide that. As it stands, however, Ercan’s companies will probably be chosen for ships and weapons. Maybe mechs as well, but that is dependent on how they fair in the trials they'll be going through."

"Armor and light craft, especially fighters will be built here. There are a few companies who do good work for either, and there was one company that was considered the best in the business when it came to fighters. Unfortunately the man who owned the company was a big supporter of my father, so Dhir's people came down hard on him. He was forced to sell the company for basically nothing. It might be worthwhile to give it back to him."

“Let me guess, a Dhir supporter is now the owner of the company?” Mason asked.

I nodded before taking a sip of coffee. “A reward for helping with the coup, and from everything I’ve read, he’s just as bad, if not worse than Dhir is. The man isn’t the only one, either. Dhir had a lot of supporters, and many of them were rewarded with business and ships and the like. It’s going to be a pain in the ass dealing with them all, especially since we need to round them all at once. Every single one of them has more than enough resources to disappear if they slip through the cracks. At that point, they’ll be a threat until they’re found.”

“There are really that many?” Anja asked.

I nodded once more. “He had a lot of help with the coup. People from the navy and government were involved, as were private business owners. Some of them can be dealt with by a single person, but others have large estates with some pretty beefy defenses. Those will require a small army to overcome, so all the planning will be left to the experts. Anyways, whether you decide to accompany me or go off on your own, you’ll need to be back here by 16:00 to clean up and get ready.”

“Ready for what?” Ben asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know, but Ercan asked that a bunch of us be ready to go by then. I think it’ll be the five of us, our parents, my sisters, Tessa and her parents, and then some of the dragons going. All I know is that it’s going to be indoors and binoculars would be on hand if we didn’t bring any of our own. He was really cryptic about it.”

“I think I’m going to pass on the tour,” Ben said. “I’ve picked up some Pygmaean here and there, but today would be a good opportunity to actually start learning the language. So far Ava has been translating for me, but it would be nice if I could actually understand what I’m hearing and seeing.”

The twins looked at each other and nodded before turning back to us. It was Anja who spoke for them, "I think we're going to do the same thing. Maybe by the time we leave we'll actually be able to hold a conversation."

I nodded and looked to Mason next, who answered without prompting.

"You guys know me and languages. Learning French was an absolute nightmare and I have no plans on going through something like that again. Not anytime soon, at least. I'll join you on the tour. Besides, I believe you said something about each of us getting our own ship at some point. I think I'll get a head start on that."

I chuckled upon hearing his reasoning. He was unnaturally bad at French and had to take summer school during our freshman year of high school. He also wasn't wrong about what I said, but it would be a while to go before any of them took ownership of a ship costing billions of credits.

"Alrighty then, we should probably get moving. Your AIs will let you know when you need to get ready to go, so I guess we'll see you then," I said before I turned and looked down at Vixa who was curled up on the bench beside me. "Are you coming as well or are you staying around here?"

She made a little chirp-like sound and then tucked her nose under her two tails.

“Okay, but I better not hear any reports about you going from table to table begging for food.”

She growled and gave me the evil eye as she whipped her tails towards me, causing everyone to laugh.

“See you guys later!”

---

Zaszi seemed to accompany us by herself, but I knew that is what she wanted people to think. There wasn’t much of a chance that we would be attacked on the station, but I knew that there were at least four more people who were remaining invisible. Those were, of course, Zogyr and the other three remaining members of her team. It was kinda silly that I still didn't know their names, so I asked Abi to remind me to talk to them at the first available opportunity.

Ercan and his daughter, as well as a man I didn't recognize were waiting for us at the closest teleporter, and introductions were made right away.

"Jonuth, Mason, this is the eldest of my six children, Hayir. He is one of the lead engineers aboard this station, handling roughly a quarter of all construction and refitting that we do here. Hayir, this is Jonuth Kidravia, his friend Mason Reeves, and one of his ever-present shadows, Zaszi Alzizsi."

"Nice to meet you," I greeted, holding out my hand.

He quickly accepted the handshake and returned my greeting. "You as well. I heard what you did the other day. You have my sincere thanks.”

“Anytime,” I replied with a nod.

He went down the line and met my two companions, and then the six of us wasted no time heading through the portal. The floor wasn’t something that I had expected to see aboard a space station, as it was made entirely from marble, as were the little alcoves that the teleporters were nestled in.

“You know, this room looks somewhat familiar to me,” I said, looking over to Ercan. “There is a writer on Earth named J. K. Rowling, who wrote a series of books about witches and wizards. In those books was a place called the Ministry of Magic, which had a large atrium that had a dark wood floor, high ceiling and many fireplaces set into the walls. The fireplaces were a mode of transportation, as any witch or wizard could throw a special powder into a fireplace while calling out where they wanted to go, and they would be taken there immediately. This is pretty much the same thing, just not on such a wide scale.”

“That sounds rather interesting,” he replied. “This is the transportation hub for the entire station, allowing someone to get from one side of the station to the other, if they have the right clearances to be in those areas. You see those little orbs over each of the teleporters? They scan someone as they approach, and if they are allowed to enter that teleporter, then it will activate as soon as they step into it. If they aren’t allowed to enter that teleporter then the security will quickly figure out what is going on.”

I did, indeed, see the orbs he was talking about. They were white until someone approached, and they would either flash green or turn a solid red. When they turned green a person just disappeared. Two of the orbs had turned a solid red as we were making our way to the next teleporter we would be taking, and each time two members of the security team walked over and pulled them to the side. We didn’t see the outcome of either situation, but Ercan said that the person would be escorted to the right portal or be sent back where they came from.

We arrived in a long hallway with only a few teleporters, and Ercan, Oya and Hayir immediately started off towards a heavy bulkhead that was wide open, allowing people to come and go as they pleased. It was surprising to see some of the workers interact with Ercan and his family, as I wasn’t expecting them to be on a first name basis with any of them, nor joke with them as they passed.

We stopped just outside of the bulkhead and Ercan waved us over to a desk that was being manned by a petite Pygmaean woman. He spoke in Pygmaean, but Abi translated for me in real time.

“Good morning, Meli! I need three… no, two pairs of magnetic boots, please,” he said after looking at the feet of Mason, Zaszi and myself.

Mason and I weren’t wearing our suits otherwise we would’ve had magnetic boots just like Zazsi did, but it was no big deal.

“Good morning! One moment, please,” she replied, as she went into the back room.

Within a few seconds she had returned with the two pairs of boots in hand. The boots were much bigger than anything we needed, but I was sure that they would shrink down as soon as we put them on. I knelt down to remove my shoes, but I was soon told that wasn’t necessary.

“All you need to do is step into them,” Hayir said.

Mason and I did exactly that as soon as they were handed to us, and they shrunk and tightened up just the perfect amount. We tried walking around for a moment but found that there was no change at all.

“You’ll need these,” Oya said with a chuckle. “Just attach it to your shirt and then touch it when you want to engage or disengage the magnetic locks.

We each tried it a few times and then I looked up to the three of them. “Why are these needed anyways?”

“Because it’s much easier to build a ship in zero gravity,” Hayir replied without hesitation. “C’mon and you’ll see.”

The three of them led the way with Zaszi taking up the rear, and soon we saw the ship that was currently being built in this hanger. It was an absolutely massive hangar; one that would easily be able to fit Abi and still have room to spare. In fact, the ship that was being built was about on par with Abi in length, but looked to be a bit thinner than she was.

It looked as if the frame of the ship was completely finished, and they were working on the hull plating next. There were eight areas that had the plating already secured, and there were eight long structural arms that kept the ship from moving around as they worked. As we watched, a small odd-looking transport ship flew into the hanger, bypassing two airskin shields as it did so. Its cargo was a dozen or so large metal plates, and the pilots got as close to the ship as they could, where teams of men grabbed onto the closest one and maneuvered it into place. Within two minutes or so, all of the plates had been offloaded and the ship moved to gather another load.

“Impressive,” I said.

“That was a little slower than the average, but it's to be expected when the guys up there are at the tail end of their shift,” Hayir said. “A well-rested team will usually take ninety to one hundred seconds to unload all of the inner-hull plates, and then they’ll immediately get started on securing them to the frame. Each team starts off by bolting their plate down in each corner, and then the four of them split up. Two of them will weld the inner hull from the outside and the other two will do the same from the inside.”

“Inner hull?”

He nodded. “Most ships you’ll find will have two hulls. The inner hull, which is usually thicker and much more protective. It’s also much harder to fix if damage is sustained. The outer hull, on the other hand, is built using hundreds, or thousands of smaller plates, depending on the size of the ship, and are designed to be replaced whenever they’re damaged or destroyed.”

“Think of it like adaptive armor on tanks on Earth,” Mason said. “I’m not absolutely sure, but I think something like the M1 Abrams is made out of rolled homogeneous steel for the inner layer, and then they use a matrix of other materials including ceramic plates and depleted uranium for the outer layer. The outer layer of armor can be replaced and its main job is to absorb the force of incoming rounds, as to prevent them from getting to the inner layer of armor, and the crew.”

I nodded in understanding.

“How are the outer plates even added? Are they bolted on? Or held on in some other way?” I asked.

“Once the inner layer is completed, there is another layer of ribbing welded on top of it. The ribbing comes pre-fabricated and has bolts sticking out of it, so if you’re in a hurry then all you need to do is bolt it down, but if you have more time, then you can bolt it down then weld the plates together. The ribbing can also be replaced if it gets damaged, but that’s a much more time-consuming endeavor, and one that can’t be done easily outside of a berth, or a hanger like this one.”

“That’s honestly not what I was expecting,” I admitted. “I figured you would have some sort of high tech way of securing the plating onto the hull.”

Hayir shook his head. “It’s better to go with something simple and cheap since it makes everything so much easier. All you really need is some wrenches, bolts and welding equipment and you could replace the entire hull of a ship if you had enough time on your hands. There have been some who tried using electromagnets embedded into the hull under each plate, but you can probably imagine how much that would cost.”

“First you need to install hundreds, if not thousands of electromagnets all around the ship, and then you need to get them power somehow, which would probably create structural weaknesses, depending on how it was done. You’ve also got the power consumption to keep in mind, since those electromagnets would need to be active all the time.”

“I see what you mean. I’m really glad I don’t have to deal with that with Abi. Her hull is quite thick and it regenerates within a few hours. She can also increase or decrease the thickness of her hull anytime she wants to, absolutely negating the need for plating. That being said, she could probably install and uninstall plating in record time if it was used, since she could soften the crystal allowing plates to be inserted. After that, all she would need to do is harden the crystal again, and they would be secured pretty well.”

“Ever since Abi became known, we’ve been trying to develop a new type of ship. It wouldn’t be made out of crystal like she is, but would instead be made out of a biomechanical material. If we perfected it, a block of the stuff could be placed up there, and with a signal it would form into a ship without the months of construction time. The theory is that once it was at the desired specifications that the biomechanical material could be ‘locked’. Once locked, the ship would remain at those specifications and would be able to regenerate damage taken, assuming it was supplied with raw materials. It wouldn’t be as fast as Abi can apparently regenerate, but it would be much cheaper than towing a ship somewhere to get repaired, which can take months depending on the damage.”

“Biomechanical, huh? I suppose Oya’s project with nanites is the beginning stage for that?”

“That’s right,” Oya nodded. “The first stage was getting the nanites to communicate with each other and form the pre-programmed forms. We’ve still got a long way to go before we get anywhere close to our goals since we don’t even know how to go about creating a biomechanical material just yet, but we needed to start somewhere.”

[I bet you know how to do that, don’t you?] I asked Abi.

“Mhmm,” she replied, not in Mindspeak, but in my ear. “That’s something else that I can’t disclose until someone else figures it out first. It would change the balance of power dramatically once someone figured out how to make it. Imagine being able to create an entire fleet the size of the one enroute to Earth in twenty days, rather than twenty years.”

[That’s a scary thought.]

---

We soon headed over to an elevator, which took us up until we were on a gantry overlooking the ship. From there, we could see much of the internal structure, as the workers hadn’t yet started on the inner layer of the hull. It did give us a much better view of the work they were doing, as they seemed to be working from the ventral hull up to the dorsal hull, and they had started at the former rather than the latter.

They were truly a well-oiled machine. One of the cargo ships would come with a load of armor plates, they would be unloaded in around ninety seconds and then they would immediately bolt it down. After that, it only took a few minutes to weld everything together and they would move on. One thing I hadn’t noticed from down below is that every single plate interlocked, so they had to be installed in a certain order, to fit properly.

“How often does someone mess that up?” Mason asked, recognizing the same thing I had.

“Not often at all,” Oya said. “The veterans have been doing this for so long that they could do it in their sleep, and they make sure that the rookies don’t mess up, either. It just creates a whole lot of extra work for everyone and delays things. It’s a ten minute round trip for the cargo ship, so that’s how long the teams have to at least get their twelve plates interlocked together and bolted down. Teams with a lot of rookies typically need to go back afterwards to weld everything up, but the important thing is that the inner hull isn’t delayed.”

“What material are you using for that ship anyways? Titanium?”

“A titanium alloy, yes. It’s a bit stronger than regular titanium, and also about ten percent lighter. Most people can’t pay the price we charge for Warvynium and we’re pretty picky about who we outfit with it, anyways,” Ercan said.

“I still can’t believe you named it that,” I said with a chuckle.

“Hey! If you ever create a new alloy, you can name it whatever you like!” he replied, laughing himself. “Alright, let’s move on to more exciting things.”

What followed was three additional ships of the same model, all in different stages of production. The first of the three was one that had the outside almost completely finished, except for a spot on the top where the engines and power cores could be lowered into the ship and installed. Once that was done, they immediately got started on the rest of the internals, using the cargo bay and the opening in the top to load everything they needed.

The second of the three had all of the flooring and wiring done, and weapons, computers and other control systems were in the process of being installed. According to Hayir, the walls were one of the last things to go up thanks to the thousands of kilometers of cable that needed to be routed through the ship. By the time all the weapons and computers were installed, the opening on the ventral hull was closed up, which allowed the armor plating to be installed and the armor to be painted. Even after all that, crews needed to go through the ship and make sure everything was working properly.

If it passed all of the inspections and tests, it was time to put it through its paces. We weren’t going to be doing that, but we were taken on a short tour of the ship as the temporary crew got everything ready. It was like bees in a hive in that respect, as people were running back and forth, trying to keep to the schedule, though I suppose having the boss and his two children on board didn’t help things.

We stayed in the hangar as the ship departed, as the dual airskin shields prevented even a molecule of oxygen from leaving, even as ships passed through. It only took a quick throttle up with the twelve thrusters on the back of the ship, and the brand new ship was floating towards the vacuum of space. We watched until it was out of sight, and then Ercan turned towards us.

“Okay, why don’t we head up to my office now and you can tell us what you have in mind for the next generation of the Scyftan navy,” he said with a smile.