Chapter 166 - Touring a Starship

Ceres was visibly excited, so much so that he immediately got out of his Swift Storm exosuit and patted almost every inch and panel of the airlock.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing! Stop playing around and help me shift the exosuits out of the airlock. You’ll get a tour later!” Pris grabbed his shoulder, trying to pry him away from one of the diagnostic panels.

Ceres relented, but he couldn’t keep his eyes away from the detailed technology and infrastructure built into the starship. He had never been in a real starship before.

The other squad members exited their exosuits, stretching their limbs and making way for Pris and Ceres to lock down their exosuits. “Latch the arms and waist as well, we don’t want the exosuits flying off when the ship is accelerating.” Pris pointed out to Ceres, who complied.

Ceres reached to the back of the platform near the feet of the exosuit, pulling up a ladder-like frame that had straps attached to it. Ceres quickly strapped the arms, using velcro to hold them in place against the ladder-like frame.

A few short minutes passed before all eight exosuits were strapped. “Okay, we’ll shift them out one by one. Activate the Floa now.”

The platform holding the exosuit began to levitate, fighting against the artifical gravity of the starship. “It’s a bit of a waste of the energy to have Floa create gravity, then fight gravity again.” Ceres pointed out.

“Sorry, this ship doesn’t have a very precise artifical gravity system. It’s all or nothing, and I don’t think the other members would be very happy if we turned off the gravity system everytime we shifted an exosuit.”

Ceres worked with Pris to stow the exosuits away into their respective comparments into an armoury room just before the airlock. Shai’li and Victoria were intrigued by the starship and were checking out all the displayed weapons and equipment in the armoury, themselves also never having been in one before.

“Heh, you guys look like rookies.” Xander laughed as he watched Shai’li’s childlike expression of curiousity.

“Fuck off old man, you only got here about a few hours earlier, what’s the difference?!” Shai’li argued, pushing Xander out of the way to explore more of the ship.

[NO MOVING RANDOMLY ON MY SHIP UNTIL THE TOUR IS DONE!] An shrill female voice yelled on the announcer, causing Shai’li to freeze in place.

“Amelia is right.” Tyson took off his helmet and mechanical add-ons. “It’s dangerous for you guys to just move around the ship without knowing the general layout or what certain things do.”

[Uh, I’m too lazy to get up though... Pris, can you do it?] Amelia yawned.

“Of course!” Pris gave a confident look and pointed to herself. “I’m the best engineer on this ship right now, follow me!”

Ceres couldn’t disagree – he did not know about the details of the ship beforehand. None of the squad members knew until they reached the ship, upon which an automated tour was done and Amelia was subsequently assigned as the main ship’s operator.

However, Pris wasn’t going to let up the chance to show her prowess over others, smugly leading the members. Josef, Xander and Riker didn’t join as they had already done a tour, heading to another part of the starship to relax after the exhausting wargame.

Pris tapped a nearby panel on the wall, allowing a holographic 3D projection of the ship’s layout. Their current position was marked with a big red dot. “Welcome to the Corym! It’s not a big ship, about the size of a generic corvette design. The entire emphasis of the Corym is stealth and espionage, so the sensors are the main bulk of the ship.”

Pris pointed to the red dot. “We’re now at one of the airlocks. There’s a total of three airlocks, but Airlock #3 is the largest by far. Every other airlock can only accomodate two exosuits at a time. They are generally used as emergency or for repairing external panels.”

She then led them to the center of the ship, where there was a spiralling staircase around a firemen pole, allowing access to the other three levels. “We’re at the lowest level right now. The airlocks, engines, engineering and hydroponics are in here.”

“Hydroponics?” Ceres asked curiously. “Why would a combat vessel need hydroponics? Can’t they just eat nutri-paste?”

“The Corym is designed to do long stealth missions, which sometimes involve drifting in deep space for upwards of three months or so. This allows the crew to be somewhat self sustaining by growing fast-grow vegetables that can be harvested within a month. No one really wants to eat nutri-paste of an entire year if they could help it. Think of it as more of a morale issue rather than a practical one.”

Ceres nodded in agreement, but he wondered if it was because the previous owners just really didn’t like nutri-paste at all. He had been eating nutri-paste for the majority of his life, so it wasn’t really a problem to him if therr were no hydroponics at all.

He recalled the corvette he saw in the Museum in Zone 1, which did not have any hydroponics. That was a Legion design though.

“Engineering down here is where we perform repairs, prints and tests etc. Any damaged exosuit or ship component theoretically can be repaired here. The ship doesn’t have a refinery module, so extracting directly from asteroids is impossible.” Pris tapped a door on the same floor as the airlocks, revealing a clean sleek workshop, though it was quite cramped.

The workshop only had space for one exosuit at a time, and it seemed like the maximum number of engineers who could be in there at the same time was two. Ceres could already tell how frustrated he would be shifting the exosuits in and out from the armoury to the engineering workshop. It was a compact ship, after all.

“Other than that, there’s a few critical piping and vents here that help to circulate air and heat throughout the ship. Try not to puncture them or crawl through them, they are NOT human sized.” Pris warned as she pointed up to the ceiling which had a consecutive series of square air filters spread out over the entire passageways.

The walkways also had an repair panel every now and then, allowing the engineer to crawl into the piping system and fix it where possible.

The entire vessel was designed to be as long haul as possible for three months or more, so the ability to self-repair and fix everything was critical.

Pris skipped over the engine section, simply warning them to not enter if they were not an engineer unless it was an emergency. Ceres already looked forward to learning more about it later.

“Next floor! Follow me!” Pris ordered, leading them back to the spiral staircase. “This isn’t the only way up to the other floors, there’s a few simple lifts for heavy stuff. In the event of Floa’s artificial gravity failure or power failure, the staircase and firemen pole is your best bet.”

The next level was a lot more sleek and presentable than the blocky rugged first level. “Here is where the bunks and recreations are, towards the front of the ship. Towards the back is the power and life support system, separated from each other.” Pris activated another holographic projection on the next floor, showing them.

“Nice, are the bunks better than what we got back on Athen?” Shai’li asked.

“Oh yes, they are amazing!” Pris replied cheerfully. “Anyway, nothing much to really see here, next floor!”

Ceres was a bit intrigued by the layout of the ship. It didn’t seem to be designed for combat, with a fair amount of wasted space and underutilized infrastructure. He would have expected a combat corvette to be a lot more cramped and bristiling with weapon systems.

Climbing up the staircase, Ceres noticed this level was far more luxurious than the other floors below. The staircase led directly into something like a hotel lounge, carpeted with gold and white patterns, along with a series of delicately crafted chairs placed facing each other.

“Don’t be fooled by the appearance.” Pris warned as she walked over to a notoriously large glossy wooden table, tapping the surface. The ornate surface slid away to reveal a technologically advanced screen.

“This entire lounge is the sensor suite, disguised to look like a general luxury lounge that is common in most diplomatic starships.” Pris explained.

Shai’li whistled in appreciation, running her hand over the holster of the leather chairs and the soft surface of the accompanying pillows.

Victoria was already lying down on one of the sofas, still cluchting her rifle while she used her multi-terminal in the other, enjoying the plush exterior.

“So they used to act as a diplomatic mission, but it was actually filled to the brim with active sensors...” Tyson frowned with a knowing look. “This isn’t good.”

“What do you mean?” Ceres was confused.

“It means this ship was previously the property of a Dynasty members. I can’t think of any other group that would be allowed to run diplomatic missions on behalf of the Loeric Empire. The color scheme on the carpets and furniture also are a dead giveaway. I suspect it’s the Dynasty of Xi.”

“Well it doesn’t matter because they donated the ship to the rebellion.” Pris shrugged.

“No, it does. I don’t know how the rebellion got their hands on this ship, but there’s two ways this could go if we ever get exposed.” Tyson argued back.

“One, the ship was stolen from the Dynasty, and they are looking to take it back. A single reveal of our position and it’s over, they’ll be all over us and give them the justification for military intervention.”

“Two, the ship was donated to us by that Dynasty. This means they have an active role in the upcoming offensive. If we’re revealed to be utilizing private hardware from another Dynasty, it will spark a political outrage unlike anything we have ever seen before.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, the Dynasties were always at odds at each other. They were already attacking each other convoys through private mercenary outfits and privateers!” Shai’li waved her hand in dismissal.

“But have they ever facilitated a potential civil war? The offensive that we’re launching is literally planetwide – any ‘support’ given by the other Dynasties would effectively force the Emperor’s forces to intervene directly to retain stability in the Loeric Empire.” Tyson pointed out.

“Furthermore, the Dynasty of Hawthorn won’t stand idly by. Since they have already agreed to the planetary unification by Oliver Athen, any intervention by the other Dynasties will warrant their own private forces entering the fight as well! This means we may potentially cause the fight to spiral out of control, going far beyond the means of the rebellion.”

“I don’t really understand why isn’t the Dynasty of Hawthorn already intervening right now? If they just sent their private forces down, all of us will be crushed in an instant.” Pris asked.

“We haven’t launched the offensive yet, but it’s assumed that they won’t intervene. This is because the Dynasty has already officially recognized Oliver Athen as the planetary’s adminstration leader. A militaristic intervention basically means that the unification has failed under the leadership they have chosen, which is akin to failure. It has been calculated that the chances of the Dynasty of Hawthorn entering the fight is quite close to zero.” Tyson explained.

“But this ship, this changes things...” Frowning, Tyson paced around the room, examining the lounge.

“Are you implying we should ditch the ship?” Ceres asked.

“No, but we should be absolutely clear and assured that this ship is in no way being tracked. If it were, we’re all screwed, along with everyone else participating in the offensive!”

An emergency meeting was called with the rest of the squad members. With Tyson explaining the situation to them, Squad C agreed to thoroughly sweep the starship as much as they could.

Tyson himself personally investigate every nook and cranny on the starship, including the piping and vents. Ceres was amazed at the paranoia and level of perfection that Tyson was taking this to, being reminded of Gwen Derfas from a long time ago.

Due to this, the tour was temporarily paused, but Ceres learnt a lot more about the starship thanks to the deep scanning that they were doing. He learnt about the circuitry and the way the starship was built modularly. However, one thing truly caught him off-guard.

“What?! No weapons?” Ceres gasped.

“Don’t be so shocked, it’s meant to be disguised as a diplomatic starship after all. Why would it even be armed? The warming up of the guns would be a dead giveaway in heat signatures anyway.” Amelia lazily replied as she lounged in the pilot’s seat, which was a elegant red memory foam chair. Ceres could already see the ‘Amelia’ shaped imprint in the chair.

Ceres frowned at the response, resuming his work of scanning the cockpit. Surprisingly, the cockpit was nowhere near the surface of the starship, instead covered defensively on the upper layer right next to the sensor suite.

Ceres never received formal training on starship design, which Amelia tried to briefly summarize for him.

One of the key concepts was know as the ‘Integrated Survivability Protocol’ that has been grown over time since Ancient Earth, but the formula remained the same.

“Firstly, the ship needs to avoid detection. That’s what the whole sensor suite and stealth panels on the exterior are for.” Amelia began drawing on a screen what seemed like an onion, annotating the outermost layer.

“If somehow we’re detected, then we need to avoid combat by running as fast as possible. That’s what the engines are for.” She crossed out the outermost layer.

“If we can’t run, then we need to avoid getting locked. Our sensor suite is pretty advanced, so we can actively cancel any electronic locks they try to paint on our ship.” She removed the next layer.

“If we get locked, then we need to reduce the damage as much as possible. Putting the cockpit on the exterior with a thin sheet of glass is tantaumount to sucide. Every competent gunner will immediately aim for the central command.”

Amelia showed a few early designs of starships from Ancient Earth and a few well-known holo dramas. “Some of the older designs had very prominent bridges where their entire command line was concentrated. One hit, and all your officers and bridge crew would be totalled.”

“Isn’t it the same for this ship? We don’t have a secondary cockpit.”

“That’s true, but it’s more of a size restraint than anything. But I hope you understand why almost every starship now don’t have their cockpit in the front or anywhere on the surface. They are almost always enclosed in the center of the starship like a protective onion, unless they are extremely confident in their shields.”

“Do we have shields?” Ceres asked.

“Nope. Running engines is already hard enough to mask, activating an energy shield to cover the entire ship is both energy-intensive and hard to keep under wraps.” Amelia shook her head.

Ceres nodded. This meant if they ever got into a confrontation, the stealth vessel would take a pounding directly head-on.

“Stop being a worrywart, we’re not going to get into a fight with another starship at all. We’re a stealth vessel! Relax!” Amelia stretched her limbs and yawned, relaxing into the pilot’s seat again.

“You’re not going to leave that seat ever, right?”

“Yup.”

Ceres continued scanning the electronics, trying to find any electronic device that was out of place. The internals of the cockpit intrigued him – it wasn’t much different from how an exosuit was designed, just a lot bigger and with more things to worry about.

He headed back to the sensor suite, where just about everyone was done with the sweep and waiting around. Shai’li and Xander were bickering as usual, while Josef was showing off his own personal knife to Riker. Victoria was still clutching her rifle on the sofara while Pris desparately still tried her best to make small talk with her, to no effect.

“Any luck?” Tyson asked as he climbed up the spiral staircase. Everyone shook their head in response.

“I think you’re overthinking this, Tyson. Even if your assumptions are true, We can prevent it. We simply need to make sure the ship is not detected.” Xander pointed out.

He wasn’t wrong. As long as Squad C did their jobs right, the stealth vessel would not be exposed at all for the entire mission.

Tyson fell silent for a moment, contemplating.

“He’s right, we just have to do our mission perfectly, just like we practiced.” Riker spoke up, with Josef nodding in agreement.

“You’re right, but at least we ensured we’re not exposed right now. First and foremost, we need to move this ship further away from Athen to reduce the chances of detection.” Tyson suggested.

[On it.]

The ship slightly vibrated as the engines kicked into an extremely slow burn, with Amelia carefully throttling the output to prevent being detected. She tailored the speed to make it seem like an asteroid was drifting under intense solar winds from the local star.

“We need to do a few ship drills to ensure we’re ready for anything that happens. You are all newbies here, so for the moment I’ll be leading the drills.” Tyson stated, bringing up the projection of the ship.

“The AI can run a few simulations of certain events, like pressure loss, power failure, or pump failure and so on. I will assign your roles and secondary roles, try to spend the rest of the day to learn as much as you can. We’ll do the drills tomorrow.”

The squad nodded in response. “’Dumpling’, you’re with me.” Pris motioned for Ceres to come over.

“Most of our duties will be on the lower deck. We need to learn about every compartment there. We will also have to double up as power and life support experts – well basically we’re the ship’s engineering crew.” Pris explained.

The vibration and humming of the engines that permeated the hull began to slow down till there was none. [Alright, insertion burn completed. We’re enroute to rendevous with a similar asteroid further away, about a day or more.]

“This ship sounds really slow, can’t we move any faster?” Riker complained.

“We need to reduce our signature as much as possible. If we move too fast, the active stealth system won’t be able to keep up with the camoflauge. Just imagine we’re acting like a floating asteroid now.” Tyson explained on behalf of Amelia.

The squad broke up, heading to their various stations. Ceres still hadn’t checked out the bunk, but having seen the luxurious lounge and recalling the remark by Pris, he was already excited to see the room. “Would it be as good as the room I had in the Queen’s Tower?”

Reaching the second level, he tapped the sliding door to open, gasping at the sight. “What?! It’s just a basic shared bunk! It’s no different from what I had at the rebel base!”

“Of course, you guys get the ship crew bunk.” Pris smirked, pointing over her shoulder to the much more luxurious bedroom opposite. “We get the diplomatic treatment.”

Slightly peeved at the blatant discrimination, Ceres tried to find if there was another equally luxurious bedroom that he could use, but there wasn’t any.

“You really think a stealth vessel designed for fifteen people would have fifteen diplomats? It’s more like one diplomat and the rest being basic crew members.” Xander patted his back before squeezing past him into the shared bunk.

Pris laughed at the sight of the frustrated Ceres, finally amused that she had found a way to irritate Ceres. “I’ll see you at the engine room in an hour. Enjoy your shared bunk!”

Ceres breathed deeply, controlling his emotions. To be honest, he wasn’t sure why he was so peeved . Perhaps it was the expectations being raised so high after seeing the luxurious lounge. “Maybe I should sleep in the lounge instead...”