Dome of Souls (Book 2 of 2, after Story Less Told)

Ch14: Zephyr Makes Some Friends

Zephyr strolled through the old clunky ship to get a feel for her before the mission. He always liked engines, making his way to the engine room to see what obsolete junk she had. A young scruffy mechanic entered the engine room to find Captain Zephyr checking a console.

"Evenin, Sir." he said with a heavy southern accent, returning to his tool box and crawling under a generator coil.

"Chief Engineer Ranger Wallace. So what brings you here?" he asked.

"Just general upkeep. Every day, check the coils, look for stress cracks. Part of the job, sir." he said tinkering away.

"No, I mean this ship. I've been going through the files and most of the crew ended up on this ship because they jacked something up just bad enough to get demoted but not bad enough to be kicked out entirely. So what did you do to land here?"

"Born human I guess. Osirians seem to think we are pretty stupid, so unless you are a particular genius breed and carry yourself like it, you kinda just end up wherever."

"Pissed about it?" he asked.

"Honestly no, I don't mind. I actually like the idea of a ship like this, something basic and simple, small enough to learn and work on. She was built by humans you know." he noted.

"Seriously?" asked Zephyr, looking alarmed and intrigued as he sat down.

"Yea, Part of the re-fit. Used to be a stealth strike fighter from the Earth, prototype class, but the Osirians thought it was a bad idea to have warships."

"Doesn't look like a human ship." he said looking at the console.

"They just built a sheet-metal shell around it so it looks different, but aside from that it's just an old SFD." he shrugged.

"That's just lazy. They didn't even bother to design a new ship" he asked.

"We aren't important enough for a brand new design."

"We have 3-d printers that print ships, it takes like 8 hours to make one, how lazy can they be?" barked Zephyr.

"Well sure, you could print a new ship, but they didn't want it to just be a smaller version of another ship. Looks cooler to build a shell around something. And ship design is difficult, everything is already done before, so nothing looks original. If it's too functional everyone complains that it doesn't look unique, if it looks unique then they pick it apart on how impractical it is. Remember the Earth Fleet I-79's" he asked.

"Oh yea, looked like a bird in flight ready to dive on their prey." Zephyr smiled.

"Everyone loved them unless you served on one. That skinny neck took a full 5 minutes to run down and it served no purpose. You need to get to the bridge and from the engine room you may as well call a taxi or the battle will be over before you get sat down. I mean there isn't even really a reason to have a bridge on the outside anyways. Nobody uses windows to navigate anyway and sensors can run right to the bowels of the ship where it's safe and armored. We just keep putting the bridge on top or in front because it looks cool. Big iron ball would be just as aerodynamic in a vacuum. That's why Osirian ships are mostly just balls with all the fragile stuff in the core and kilometers of armor. Doesn't look as cool as the Sopdu, but we take one shot anywhere after the armor is damaged and its game over." Wallace yawned.

"The Anubis, had it re-named." Zephyr bragged.

"You don't say...not very Osirian but I dig it. Sopdu just sounds like a puddle left by an old wet sock." Wallace chuckled.