Starchaser Ch. 04: Farpoint Welcome

On the other side of the up-down tubes was the kitchen where I saw and recognized all kinds of standard kitchen cooking things that would be found back home, like appliances, pans and utensils, but everything looked like it had never been used. Barrett said we were ordering from a food terminal that looked like a cross between an ATM and a kitchenette. We requested what we wanted by speaking. He requested something I have never seen before that smelled great and I ordered an omelet.

Our selections formed on plates that appeared a moment before the food did. Barrett ordered coffee and I said "make that two" and two mugs appeared one after the other. We took our breakfast to a table at the side of the dining room by a window and watched the deep red flow going by that looked like moving art. I looked at Barrett as we ate, at his masculine body exposed for my eyes to enjoy. Sitting without a single piece of clothing on our bodies, it just felt natural and the way it should be for two Spirits who have chosen each other, celebrating each other, wanting everything good.

My food was gone too quickly and Barrett's was gone faster. We carried the used dishes and cups to what Barrett called collectors by the kitchen and everything just vanished as I watched. We went down again using up-down tubes to the lower main deck which I recognized as the one we used to go to the Textile Lab. We were moving quickly together and everything on the way looked no different than when we were there before and nothing was out of place. What had changed when we entered the Textile Lab was our uniforms were there on our mannequins and they looked exactly how we said we wanted them to look.

His masculine Norseman warrior design with shiny breastplate and shin guards, the blue fabric underneath it all connecting it all together and lots of smaller plates covering lots of blue fabric made it look like an armored uniform. His arms were exposed below the upper arms and his thighs exposed above his knees capped with shiny plates atop his knee high boots also armored. Just lots of armored plates appearing on all parts of his uniform and somehow the gauntlet gloves still afford him bare hands? Not sure how that worked but it all made sense from an aesthetic point of view.

My uniform was a total hot body sexy babe suit with much less uniform to cover my body. It also had shiny breastplates, one for each of my big boobs and they accentuated my womanly shape with a sensible band around the back to make everything stay put. Nothing else down to the hips with a plunging panty waistband accentuated by a v-shaped crotch piece shiny armored plate over my fun parts for Barrett. Nothing on my thighs either down to the shiny kneepad shields at the top of the blue fabric knee high boots also covered with smaller armored plates like Barrett's.

The whole thing left a great deal of my skin on display from my chin down between my boobs to below my belly button, and then from my thighs to just above my knees where my boots that looked kinda like Barrett's and more feminine compared to his clompers. I was going to be on display and no doubt have lots of eyes checking me out, so my dream of being a hot superhero Norse-esque warrior woman was right there in front of me on my mannequin.

The next greatest thing came straight from Barrett's mouth, "You are going to like this Noel, all of the uniform is in the Print Buffers so putting it on only takes a voice command or a thought with the Neural Communicator implant." Just hearing him say that made me think I wanted one of the implant things he has had in his head since his Academy days. I decided then if they offered one to me they wouldn't have to ask twice. Then my Captain was again my favorite teacher when he said, "See how the Noel mannequin is standing? Stand like her." I looked at the mannequin in her powerful stance and I posed the same way. Then just like in I Dream Of Genie, our uniforms flicked from being on the mannequins to being on us.

The fit was good, no, the fit was better than good. I couldn't resist an urge to cup my breastplates in my hands and give my boobs a squashing push, "oh that is good, that is so... has to be the most comfortable thing I ever wore, and it's totally..." I turned to look down my back and moved my hair out of the way and realized it had materialized on me underneath my hair without any of my hair trapped underneath the bra fabric that was holding the breastplates in place, "...the coolest thing I have ever seen." I was thinking of how COMICON outfits I had seen, that were rarely as form fitting as our uniforms, usually left something that needed to be improved.

I ran my hands over the lower torso fabric and integrated plates feeling the shape and contours with my fingers, the shape was exquisite and form fitting despite the obvious mass for whatever technology I knew Barrett had said was built into the uniform. I caught Barrett looking at me essentially groping myself, and of course I smiled a naughty bright smile, "What?!" I challenged him to say whatever he was thinking, but he just remained the quiet, smart man he is. These fit perfectly and everything was highest quality and, I looked again, it was seamless.

Barrett continued, "We are going to have to go through the whole familiarization thing on these uniforms when we can but we don't have time right now." He was talking but had already started out the entryway. "We need to be back on the bridge for the arrival sequence, it's not so bad to travel these distances when you can sleep and eat on the way is it?" I was following him checking out his ass as we neared the front of the port wing. "I think it takes about a fifth of the travel time from Earth just to navigate the Farpoint Station Arrival Sequence Protocols."

We were following the leading edge of the port wing with an unobstructed view of the deep red flow passing by and went quickly back to where the port wing met the central hull. He definitely looked great leading the way and I took full advantage of watching his butt and legs. My uniform felt like I was wearing a second skin, and it was a lot more than we had been wearing since we arrived on shuttlecraft +A when all our clothes came off us. I noticed him looking at me and it made me blush. I was again reminded of how much I love him looking at me.

Turning from the port wing leading edge corridor, headed toward the front of Starchaser along the lower main deck open space and directly into the up-down tube up side. The top bridge deck was the last opening at the top of the tubes, we passed through the situation room, the translucent display panels responded to us and I noticed. It surprised me but it occurred to me that it happened because of our uniforms so I just kept going to my First Mate command seat overlooking the holographic navigation display. I couldn't miss Barrett smirking at me again, having noticed something about me or about what I did. He was so attentive to me that he always made me feel wanted and I never want that to change about him.

The holographic display looping image was almost at the Farpoint Blue-White dot when suddenly the whole display changed. Starchaser became a miniature ship on one edge of the Navigation sphere and Farpoint station was a huge ball on the other side. Just the Farpoint Station ball kept expanding in size showing the distance was closing while the Starchaser miniature ship stayed on its edge of the holographic display. A series of gates that looked like a downhill slalom ski course on a mountainside was arrayed between Starchaser's position and Farpoint Station's surface. The gates had a glowing pulsing that showed the way the Starchaser image was going to go and went between them one after another. I could see it appeared to be a good defensive strategy, that if someone wasn't where they were supposed to be in the gates then it would be obvious they were not someone who should be approaching the station.

Of course there wasn't any feeling like we were doing any of the zig zags the Starchaser miniature ship was doing on the holographic display. It was all intuitively obvious to me what was going on and I used my finger to point to the path we would take to follow the path between the beacons that some of them had begun to show a sequence of colors. I looked over to Barrett and saw him watching me with delighted eyes and just about all the rest of his features. I didn't need a Neural Communicator to know he was well pleased with me. I blushed with a super happy feeling at being here with my man from the stars and I was exhilarated!

=N=

Farpoint Station rotates on a central axis making it necessary for vessels approaching the station to engage the station's Navigation System and Arrival Sequence Protocols. Navigation to ports, dockyards, entrypoints, and other features on the Dyson Sphere shell is centrally controlled for vessels approaching as replicating a previous approach to use previously received commands would present an astronomical improbability for recurrence and it would trip security protocols for an unapproved routing. An entire subcourse of Astronomical Navigation is dedicated to navigating to an orbiting body with rotation and revolution dynamics at all the Academies for Captains training schools.

The approach to Farpoint appears easy as the sphere resembles a disk traveling close to light speed. The size of Farpoint means slowing to sublight speed and maneuvering speeds occurs in close proximity to the outer surface of Farpoint Station. The station is barely observable in visible light bands due to absence of light sources outside the sphere, and forward scanners make the sphere easy to view in a wide variety of wavelengths. The structure takes on a spherical appearance as distance and closing speed decreases.

Only when gaps in the shell surface line up with the neutron star at the center does it become obvious how enormous the Station is. The surface of Farpoint on entering the Navigation System's designated channel initial beacons appears to be completely flat because the station has a radius of a planetary orbit. That factor alone makes approach to Farpoint much more complicated because in addition to the Station's rotation, the Station has an active "layer of protection" system that has kept the structure intact and functionally efficient for megaanna, and possibly milliards.

The station's immense size enabled Avalonia to design space faring vessels on a scale that dwarfs their counterparts in other sectors of the Galaxy. A LRSS or Long Range Survey Ship has an overall length of between 1,200 km for a System Support Vessel and 10,000 km for a Discovery Vessel. A CCDSC or Cutlass Class Deep Space Cruiser by comparison is a compact, fully self-contained starship with high maneuverability at 0.9 km length yet at 900 m it is a bigger vessel than the largest of most other civilizations space faring vessels though it routinely has a crew of 1 Captain. The CCDSC is designed to operate independently for extended periods yet can be maintained and supported by LRSS when away from Farpoint Station. The LRSS System Support Vessel has internal docking facilities for hundreds of DSCs and the LRSS Discovery Vessel has internal docking for thousands of DSCs.

The LRSS design is identical regardless of length and is designed to be useful as a planetary elevator amongst other purposes. The length of a LRSS is determined by the size of the planet for which they would be useful for performing the planetary elevator mission, which is just one of several missions the ship type is capable of performing. The LRSS cross section dimension is uniform for all LRSS constructed lengths and that measurement alone would dwarf most other civilization's space stations. The longest LRSS exceeds the diameter of some civilization's primary planet. Yet in respect to Farpoint, even the longest LRSS is insignificant.

Phased Transportation was discovered as part of the Farpoint Propulsion System that was already in use with operational LRSS. The feature uses the Propulsion System drive unit much in the same way that it enables a ship to travel in Hyperspace Dimension. It was previously discovered that communication through the Propulsion System was essentially instantaneous throughout the known Universe and since the LRSS was the first Avalonian-Farpoint vessel, its size was thought to be an absolute quantity. As the mechanics of the Propulsion System were studied, it was found that smaller versions were capable of the same Hyperspace Dimension, down to the lowest limit for an operational vessel which was designated the Cutlass Class Cruiser.

Early LRSS because of their size, had a crew complement of tens of thousands making them veritable cities in space. Phased Transportation made it possible to crew the ships with far fewer people than before as they could move considerable distances from one part of the ship to another in no time. The earliest LRSS were built on a 1,200 km design and a commute would involve hours of internal transit system time to travel a longest distance equivalent to the separation of Los Angeles and Denver, or London and Vienna.

Original LRSS crews were reassigned according to the new crew requirement as new LRSS and Station maintained LRSS refitted with Phased Transportation went into service. The reduced crew complement of approximately one crewmember for every km of ship length became the new Avalonian space faring vessel standard and the original crew complement could now support twenty LRSS of the updated design. Modern LRSS are still in production on Farpoint Station.

The CCDSC was designed before Phased Transportation was discovered. Hull number one was in the initial stages of construction when Phased Transportation was incorporated into the Propulsion System architecture. A Lexan Matrix hull is a molded as a single piece, formed from bow to stern and the timely adaptation of the Farpoint Propulsion System with Phased Transportation made all DSCs a single design. The original crew complement planned for a thousand was reduced rapidly as the automated systems were introduced taking advantage of the new technology. The Central Cortex Processor capacity was expanded and augmented with a monitoring system to support automated systems that made crew redundant for maintenance and monitoring ship's systems. The only critical element that cannot be automated is a Sentient Spirit Captain making one person an essential crew requirement. The CCDSC design is in continuous production with tens of thousands in active service.

Station Maintenance for LRSS and DSC is done at Farpoint Station with facilities dedicated to each of the LRSS and DSC Fleets. Co-located in the LRSS Fleet Maintenance Facility is the Starfighter Maintenance Facility for LRSS assigned Starfighters. Away from Farpoint Station, both CCDSCs and Starfighters can be maintained by any LRSS which provide a full service repair and reconstitutioning capability for both types of vessels. Starfighters have a history of such services but DSCs have only been routinely serviced as the type has never had a failure that required higher level support.

Even though all modern Avalonian Combine vessels are built at Farpoint and contain the technology of the Station, each vessel must be recognized by Farpoint Approach Control as Farpoint's defense system is ancient and is programmed beyond the capability of Avalonian engineers. As such, the protocols are set and uncompromising and a failure to follow the protocols results in the activation of the automated Station Defense System that, once activated, cannot be deactivated until the initiated irreversible action is completed.

Farpoint's Station Defense System requires each ship to have its communication system active to enable and engage the Navigation Beacons. Avalonian protocols are in place for an emergency response to aid uncommunicative inbound spacecraft, and timeliness is critical to intercept the vessel before it reaches the electromagnetic perimeter. The electromagnetic perimeter is reached where the navigation beacons begin pulsing to add a visual cue to the approved route through the perimeter. The ancient station converts all non communicating incoming matter into raw materials for station use. The faster the matter approaches the station surface, the faster the station's automated systems respond with Phased Transport that reduces matter and deposits it directly into the materials depots for use in station maintenance activities and shipbuilding operations.

[ N ]

Starchaser's continuous connection to the Datastream had it immediately sequenced into the Navigation System on approach. From that moment, Barrett was only needed for highest level decision making with Farpoint Station directly interacting with Starchaser. No real higher order decision making is needed when the ship navigates the beacons. Every Captain at this point of the approach experiences the only time of command when their ship is operational and underway and Ship Command responsibility is reduced to crew safety and ship operations for the duration of the inbound navigation sequence, a complexity no different than when a starship is moored in dock.

Distance standards of the Avalonian Combine are based on basic measurements of Farpoint; the station radius is 60,000,000 km commonly referred to as 1 Farpoint Unit or 1FU. With a complete absence of matter within 100FU in all directions of the station, Farpoint is clearly visible in the holographic navigation display of every Avalonian Fleet Ship from the moment the ship is sequenced in the Navigation System. The dimensions of Farpoint rapidly expands to fill the display followed by the hologram showing finer details down to the features of the entry passageway that easily accommodates vessels as big as the longest LRSS Discovery Vessel.

With Starchaser inbound and navigation now linked to Farpoint Station Operations, Barrett was free to do as others have done for millennia; to celebrate with crew their return to the center of Avalonian Space, where all things Avalonian reign supreme and everything is focused on Spirit striving to be the best possible citizens for everyone to prosper. Celebrations happen on returning to Farpoint during the inbound navigation sequence as once the transit is completed, life resumes to normal and the ship resumes its own navigation responsibility clear of inbound lanes to continue moving to the intended port.

Since it was Noel's first time arriving at Farpoint, the experience was more valuable than a celebration would be. As the dark orb of the station seen through the forward windows continued to grow in size, it was soon seen through all three bridgedeck level windows. Barrett took seriously that Noel had already started her training as a Ship's Officer on the Bridge Deck and he used the opportunity to build her cognitive skills with navigation observations and ship functioning that the Academy would be hard pressed to replicate the actual event of her initial experience currently in progress.

As Captain of Starchaser, Barrett was managing everything for Noel to be ready for her first Farpoint experience. Crew rest and uniforms were both tasks done within the constraints of available time. Not done was a full tour of Starchaser which, if they had had had time, would have included a visit to all 4-corners of the ship, a reference to all spaces from top to bottom, bow to stern and from wingtip to wingtip on the inside and on the outside of the hull, and on every deck. The outside view would have been during an external walk across the hull to see firsthand the features that are molded into the Lexan Matrix.

Time ended up being the scarcest resource as often happens, yet they had a sustaining meal and, technically they did have a short tour of the lowest deck and the port wing when she first arrived on Starchaser. It meant that everything happened as it always had on Starchaser, right things happened because of timely preparation and flawless execution of a flexible plan. Noel fit perfectly into the flow of life aboard Starchaser, another proof she belonged where she was as crew and family.