[b][i]EFG Curious, Airlock[/i][/b]

The small retinue of Curious’ officers was gathered at the airlock, ready to leave. The sector controller couldn’t keep her mouth quite shut: “You seen how gobsmacked they were by the morale sector? What do you think they do for fun, XO? Brood in their seat? Euris should fit right in then.”

“Hey!”

“Enough.” Aurigae palcated them, “We are going to represent our people on this tour, try to do your best, behavior including? If you feel the need to bounce off the walls, I suggest magboots.” the XO smirked. She could not wait to see the Narix ship herself though, and more so to see what it could do. The turrets on the Vanguard class were nothing so looming as the P-15s on Faira capital ships, but what they lacked in caliber, they made up with numbers.

“Has the commander told you anything about the CO?” Omicri inquired, but Aurigae could only shake her head. “You know the Commander, she would be more interested in cutting him open to figure out how he works, rather than getting to know the person. Speaking of whom… Attention!”

The Faira lined up and stood ramrod straight as the Commander and the Narix finished up their tour of the ship.

“... And here’s the last stop, your new reinforcements, Primarch. Captain Aurigae, my XO; Lieutenant Farsa, our Oracle; Specialist Xyth, sector controller; Specialist Omicri, my Master Engineer, and Specialist Euris, my Master Navigator.” Astra made the introductions, each of them saluting as they were named before coming to rest.

“Quite the ship you have, commander. I never would have thought to put a part of a city onto a ship. We will have to keep this information classified, else our troops will want them on our ships.” Adaris joked as they arrived back to the airlock to meet the new crew.

The primarch looked over his new crew for a few seconds, trying to assign a memorable feature of each of the Faira suits to a name before gesturing towards the airlock. “Well, on board with you. No point standing here. Mind the change in gravity.”  before turning to Astra. “Will you be joining us, commander?”

Following the group into the Latanos’ hangar, he turned to face the Faira crewmen and outstretched his arms in a welcoming gesture. “Welcome aboard the Latanos, your new temporary abode.” he spoke up over the sounds of the busy hangar. “Would you like to visit your quarters first or should we move straight to your stations?”

“Thank you for the invitation, Primarch, but I have my own orientation to conduct. There will be another opportunity, I’m sure. Until then.” Astra said, giving the depating crew a salute. [i]You better return them safe.[/i]

[b][i]NSS Latanos, Airlock[/i][/b]

As soon as they were through, the Faira started looking around.
“Stars it’s bright in here!”
“And how did your species evolve to grow this big in this gravity?”
*knock knock* “What is this? Iron?”
“How are there so many souls on board? My head feels like an anthill.”
“Focus, people!” Aurigae’s voice cut the cacophony of questions and remarks.
“Sorry.” answered the quartet simultaneously.

[i]”I’ve been given a group of children...”[/i] Ascari struggled not to faceplam.
With a silent sigh, he took a deep breath to answer all the questions. “I am sure you will get used to it soon, and your quarters have been modified to better simulate the conditions aboard your ships. Our homeworld features a lot of forests with thick undergrowth. When we started to walk on two legs, we had to grow bigger to see more. The small ones perished while the tall ones bred. Depends on what you are referring to. It could either be steel, aluminium, titanium, plastic… There are a little over two thousand crew, marines and pilots on board. Mostly so we can change shifts even if we take losses.” Finally, he turned to Aurigae. “Gramercy, captain.”

“It’s why I’m here, Primarch.” Aurigae smirked, “If you would show us a place where we could stow our few belongings first, we would be ready to get straight back to seeing what you would have us do.” the XO moderated, leaving the others to stand still and quiet for now as she scolded them with a gaze.

“Very well, follow me.” the primarch set out with long strides. Reaching what appeared to be a door, the inside only revealed a two by two meter cabin. Stepping in and waiting for the Faira to enter, he selected a deck on a panel beside the door. The door closed and the occupants could feel the room moving upwards at a rapid rate. Ten seconds later, the elevator came to a halt.

“Deck 46: habitation.” a female voice announced as the door opened. Leading the group across the hall, he placed his tacpad on an orange panel beside a door marked *Faira Crew Quarters* and stepped aside to let the Faira inside. The room simulated Faira gravity and lighting, but was otherwise a standard Narix accommodation: a bed and a locker for each crew member, two large shared lockers and a table in the middle.

“I understand you do not require sleep, but you are entitled to the same living quarters as any other crew member. I shall wait outside. When you’re done, we can get started. If there is something that needs to be added or changed, let me or the ships quartermaster know right away.”

“This is… luxurious even by civilian standards, trust us, this will do fine. We do not require sleep as you do, but some rest time is needed to recharge - the lamps in our suits can not sustain us indefinitely. Does the Latanos have an observation deck that could be exposed to direct starlight? Failing that, multi-spectrum lamps on the ceiling would do. If you give me the parts and a power grid access point, I can set us up.” Omicri noted.

The Faira went in the room, each emptying a few little suit compartments into the small lockers and returning to the elevator. Aurigae explained a little further: “If you intend to engage our Mindspace abilities like we would have on our ships, then please consider that would extend the rest time significantly for some of us. Lieutenant Farsa can farseek for about eight hours, Specialist Xyth can track craft with your fleet traffic only for about two, unless they are assisted by other instruments. I could probably crash-jump the Latanos several light years in an emergency, but you shouldn’t count on me for several days afterwards.”

“There are two power outlets next to each bed, sufficient to charge even our suit power cells. But before you start engineering your own solution, I advise you to take a look into the shared lockers. One of them contains something the Faira’Hexus sent over two days ago, I think they called it a ‘Portable Light Berth’, if that sounds familiar? Anyway, specialist Xyth, the air traffic control center is near the ventral decks. Prefect Fien will take you there. specialist Omicri, Engineering is in the aft section. Adept Adaris will take you there, he will be your direct superior. The rest of you, follow me to the combat information center, where your work stations will be. Only you, me, my Narix XO and the marines have access to your quarters. Were you given the ship deck plans and access codes we sent?”

“We were. You have your guides assigned people. See what you have to work with and report to me your expected recharge schedule so the CO can plan accordingly.” Aurigae instructed on the matter, saluting off the engineer and sector controller. “Primarch Carthus Ascari, I am relinquishing command of our personnel to you as of this moment.”

[b][i]NSS Latanos, Command Section[/i][/b]

The command section, except the auxiliary CIN, was in the very core of the ship. Passing through two checkpoints that would put a road barricade to shame, the combat information center opened before them. Entering from the rear, the room was separated into two sections. The rear section was raised over the front section and housed the sensor and navigation stations on the left and communications on the right. In the middle was the commander’s and XO’s station that could supplement any of the CIC’s stations. In the forward, lower section were two helmsmen and gunnery control station. The sensor and navigation stations were missing one officer each to make room for Farsa and Euris. Likewise, there was no XO to be found.
“Lieutenant Farsa, specialist Euris, your stations are on the left. Hope you don’t take working with radars, lidars and subspace detection equipment personally, lieutenant. Specialist, Narix navigation officers are responsible not only for keeping track of this and other ships, but also feeding maneuver information to helm and setting up subspace jumps. I take it you have ample experience in these fields and since both of our species rely on the same, or more precisely a similar phenomenon for FTL travel, I don’t expect problems.”

Turning to Aurigae, he continued. “The XO’s job is fairly self explanatory, but there is a secondary function to that. When the commanding officer is off duty or otherwise indisposed, you’ll be in charge of the entire ship. And since the Latanos is the lead ship of the Fifth fleet, then by extension, all elements of the Fifth Fleet present. That is why I’ve sent additional information to your ship information system account, you can access it through any public terminal on the ship or thorough your suit. Questions?”

Farsa was the one to first to ask: “What is the range on the subspace detection? I want to know whether I should substitute. Also, can your instruments track a ship into a jump?” she turned to face the Primarch.

“The sensors are enough to track subspace movements within one system, and yes, we can track a ships full course through subspace. If we recognise the ship’s signature, we can even tell what ship it is. As for inter system travel,  anything travelling through an intersystem corridor gets out of range very quickly. We can usually detect incoming intersystem signatures about eight seconds before they arrive.”

“You misunderstand. In conjunction with the Specialist and your helm, we can get the Latanos to jump using the same channel of the jump node, or guide the rest of the fleet in. It puts a bit less wear on our drives if our fleet jumps that way, as all of the motivators work to sustain a single one dimensional pathway. Is that something worth trying?”

“We do not recommend continuing combat like that though, our preliminary research shows that Mindspace travel and high energetic discharges do not mix well.” the navigation specialist quipped in.

“Ah, I see. Then the answer is no, to my knowledge, our drives cannot send several ships through the same corridor. Every ship has to create its own jump point. However, it is worth trying. I’ll bring it up when I meet with the chief engineer.”

“I’d need to pour over the files and service history of everyone in that command if I am to know a thing about leading them out of the dock much less on mission, that alone can take days.” Aurigae noted, “Perhaps you should not give me that sort of responsibility from the start. Your people and ours think and behave differently on very fundamental levels. May I suggest I start with only the cruiser?” [i]Not to mention I never commanded anything bigger than a battlegroup, and that’s the size of one of your lances.[/i] she thought, but kept that for herself.

Noting the captains response, the primarch nodded. “Of course, that is one of the reasons why the other Narix command team is still on board. Both they and I are here if you require anything. Even Artorias the Indomitable didn’t become one of our greatest military leaders overnight. But some circumstances are beyond our control. Who knows what awaits us on the other side of that jump node? In 32 hours, you might be the last surviving member of this ships officer corps. But let us hope that won’t be the case.”

[i]Yes, let’s.[/i] Aurigae thought bitterly, suddenly not feeling sorry at all for the Primarch for having to deal with the Commander Astra on first contact. She used her access codes to link all the data feeds she would need into her suit to have everything on hand. “Curious reports red for undocking, we are likewise… green?” [i]I’m getting a headache.[/i]

“Thank you, XO.” Carthus was about to take his seat when he paused, remembering something. “Yes, life tip: Condition White - ship docked, skeleton crew. Green - standard operation. Blue - ship about to attack or otherwise in an abnormal situation. Red - ship damaged, under attack or otherwise in a very bad situation. Black - ship lost. As for regular colors: green, white and orange are good, red and black are bad.”

[b][i]NSS Latanos, Engineering Deck[/i][/b]

Upon exiting the monorail that took them to the aft section, they were greeted by yet another checkpoint, this time accompanied by massive blast door with an air lock. Behind it was engineering itself, a ring encircling the main reactor, separated by bulkheads into six sections, each responsible for a different group of subsystems - main control, power management, life support, propulsion, weapons management and FTL control. Entering from the left side of the ring, Adaris led Omicri counterclockwise through the ring, explaining the purpose the various sections served before reaching the foremost sector.

“An here is the heart of the thing. While all sectors can operate independently, this is where all the information aggregates. Like a switch on a local area network. For security reasons, each sector has direct access to escape capsules on the outer ring walls. The main reactor is inside the ring, while the backup, smaller one is in the front.” he pressed a few controls on his tacpad. A horn accompanied by a vocal radiation warning played in her suit. “If you hear this, seal your suit and make to the nearest airlock for decontamination. Green lights with a symbol of an atom with a splitting core mean radiation, red lights with the same symbol mean lethal dose. Personnel files of everyone you will be working with are waiting for you in your intranet mail. Before I answer any questions you might’ve, what specialisation were you? Or were you a general engineer, a bit of everything?”

“Lethal dose to you is not even a sunburn for me.” Omicri said, “I can not claim to be fine if I take a bath in the core, but I can most likely perform maintenance on the primary circuit once it cooled down a little or make emergency repairs in the contaminated area if necessary. And if all else fails, I have a personal shield installed on my suit.” the Faira said, recalling some of the specs that were sent her way earlier.

“I have about 170 years under my belt, I have the basic gist of everything I needed on the Curious, hence why I made Master engineer. That means nothing. I’ll need to go over schematics and safe operating limits of your tech if I am to perform to expectation. That said… I can’t wait to get my hands on them. I do like to tinker with engines in my free time though, I suppose that would do for specialization?”

“You’ve just volunteered for containment and cleanup, then! The power crew will like you.” Adaris bellowed with a hearty laugh. “But if you see red, expect to start those around you to start vomiting blood and dying in agony. What kinds of engines, magnetoplasma rockets? Combustion engines? Solid-fuel chemical rockets?”

“Ours use magnetoplasma rockets and Ion drives, but that is just work. For the last decade I’ve been toiling away on a gravimetric drive with Commander’s assistance, but it’s still some time away. If you had any other ideas for drives, I’d like to have a look at them off-duty.”  The engineer said, a sparkle in her violet eyes. “Back to the reactor at hand… It would help if you let us install a shield unit around it.”

“I’m not sure about the power requirements, our weapons can be power hogs. Perhaps the shield could start as a failsafe, only engaging in case of a breach to see how that works. That technology is still a mystery to us. If you would send me more details, I would look over them and decide. If you would like to broaden your horizons a little, I’m sure the hangar crew chief would let you work the strike craft for a time. Combustion engines, miniaturized components, solid fuel boosters and more. The reactor is encased in a cooled lead shell. If radiation starts leaking here, it means we’ve a big hole in the ship. As for the drives, I started at weapons engineering. Engines are not exactly my field. Besides, research and development mostly happens elsewhere, not on serving ships.”

“I beg to disagree, research should be done where it’s also applied. That’s where the information is gathered and where it can be best put to test. Any other transfer just dilutes it and provides a delay.” the Faira shook her head, but then waved a hand over it. “I am fairly certain I won’t be able to say the admiralty to give you access to the working of the technology, but a sealed unit working either off of its own power source or a buffer capacitor might be doable. It would be more of a meltdown measure than for any battle damage, but still, it might prevent some of those agonizing deaths.”

“Weapons engineering would be fun if my CO didn’t outclass every single one of us in that. Don’t let her personality fool you, Commander Astra may not have came up with our battle doctrine, but she’s the one who made it possible.”

“Those who have the minds don’t necessarily have the meat to be military. And many of the things you see around you are developed by private companies. It helps keep the economy going. If we can install the shield without gutting half the ship and we can support it while staying within limits, then we can have a deal. But it has to go through the primarch and the council first.”

He didn’t know what to think of the Faira commander. She didn’t strike him as bad, but in a private moment, the primarch made a few unflattering remarks.

“Those deaths should be prevented by not having a hole blown straight through our hull and containment.” [i]“Although truth be told, if we have to draw blades, the best thing that could happen is the primarch gets incapacitated and XO takes over. That or we’re all dead.”[/i] he thought grimly, but kept it to himself.

“True, but… Sorry, can’t say.” Omicri looked towards the ground, her face unreadable. “Funny thing though, your economy. How in the world did such unmitigated chaos manage to fund your nation into space I’ll never fathom.” she smiled.

“Has anyone told you how we unified?” Adaris raised an eyebrow.

“More unmitigated chaos?” The engineer snorted, “To us, that’s how most things your nation does seems like. We can not tell how it works, and yet, here you are.”

 “The death toll took years to count accurately. Before that? You’d find ten different nations struggling to make it out of the system. But you are right, sometimes I get lost in it myself. That’s why I don’t bother, and just maintain the ship. I suggest we get to that.”