aberrant_type | anatomy of a spaceship.

The good ship Seeker.

Exterior.

Seeker is shaped like a silvery oblong with a slightly concave bottom in the air. When they're grounded and have to maneuver without flying, they sprout chubby little legs like caterpillar legs all over their bottom part. A careful observer will notice slight pitting on their outside, indentations that actually house sensors that can see, hear, and project sound. They also house senses beyond those that belong to humans. Seeker can 'taste' radiation, for one, and see outside the human visual spectrum.

Seeker does not have any doors or windows apparent from the outside. There is an arched shape always a slightly different color from most of Seeker's exterior printed on the outside; passengers should board there. When they walk towards the ship they will simply jump from being outside to being inside, with their entry point being the cockpit.

Seeker is colored steel grey for the most part, but the ship's exterior ripples with patterns of coppery orange and tarnish green that change with Seeker's whims and mood. The ship's skin is actually made up of thousands of overlapping 'feathers' or scales, usually laid flat to present a smooth exterior. They can be raised up if Seeker wants, making them look spiky. The ship can display other colors, but those three are the default.

On the outside, Seeker looks as big as a small school bus. They're bigger on the inside.

Seeker can survive underwater, which is probably where Hange will stash them when they're not directly needed. They can also connect to wifi and cable.

In a 15-foot radius around Seeker's 'body', and in all areas inside the ship, Seeker controls what Hange will refer to as a "gravity field." In this field, Seeker can levitate and manipulate objects. Seeker can levitate items up to their apparent body size, and struggles with objects larger than that. They can float humans, animals, and other small objects around with ease. Seeker, with practice, will also be capable of fine control within the gravity field; with practice Seeker will be able to transfer three dozen eggs from one glass bowl to another without cracking even one of them (this will be one of the early exercises Hange sets her ship).

Seeker can also use the gravity field to carve wood, cut stone, and generally manipulate objects - the field serves as the ship's hands, essentially.

Observers will notice that this gravity field can also serve as a weapon. Seeker can pick up rocks and strafe cities and the landscape in general from above, or float close to water and direct a stream of water like a firehose to batter enemies. Seeker is primarily a research vessel, but Hange intended her ship to be able to defend themselves.

Interior.

The ship contains several main areas: the cockpit, crew quarters (Seeker can comfortably house five people, more if they don't mind crowding and lack of privacy), kitchen/dining room, central laboratory (the largest and most central part of the ship), gardens (3 separate areas), and antigravity area (a sort of empty room meant for staging various environments, holding water and supplies, staging various activities... the antigravity area is an undefined zone, basically).

The cockpit: Seeker does all the driving, so all the captain (Hange, for now) does here is issue commands and advice, at least for the most part. There's lots of exposed substrate for Hange to grow plants in, and holoscreens and real screens are stationed around this area to display information on flight path, observations Seeker is making, books (similar to a kindle), and movies or TV channels. There are seats bulging out of the floor at various points. There are also raised, translucent blisters on the floor, which open at Seeker's will to receive passengers. These are direct interface points with the ship, also made to cushion human passengers when Seeker has to do really intense maneuvering. Humans aboard will find that the blisters will open when they're needed. At that point they should climb right into said blisters (nude is preferable actually, because for longer-term stays Seeker can catheterize people, provide intravenous nourishment, and also directly interface with passengers' brains by going around the eyes with the same method Newton was said to use when he stuck a needle around his own eyeball.

Crew quarters: they're small. They easily fit one person, two at a crunch. There's a bed, restroom/bathing chamber, screen (the same as the type appearing in the cockpit; Seeker can display what a passenger would like on these screens), and desk/dresser/tiny closet to store personal supplies. The walls are bare substrate right now, because Hange intends to grow greenery up and around them to make the tiny cells a little more inviting.

The bed flips up like a temporary bunk in a train to reveal another blister of the kind that appears in the cockpit. If passengers are caught off guard or in emergency situations, they can climb in the blister right there and be safely enveloped by Seeker, without having to make their way to the cockpit.

Kitchen/Dining: there's a stovetop and oven there. Seeker is going to learn to cook, and passengers can cook if they want to. There's a tiny little galley table and a space-agey type fridge for storing perishables, and various drawers and cupboards constructed so they won't swing open and send their contents tumbling if gravity cuts. It's utilitarian and not a very inviting space. Also part of the kitchen, there is a tiny nondescript door just beside the fridge. Going through this door brings you to the MEAT ROOM. All the walls are living meat; cascades of blood wash over the MEAT WALLS and are absorbed into the floor for re-circulation over the MEAT. One MEAT WALL is beef, one MEAT WALL is pork, and one MEAT WALL is lamb. It's a lot more practical to have a MEAT ROOM and regrow cuts of meat than it is to bring livestock aboard! A MEAT ROOM is cruelty-free! A MEAT ROOM is economical! Seeker runs electrical current through the GROWING MEAT to tone it so it'll be especially delicious to eat. Guests are not advised to spend much time there. Nothing bad will happen, but it's pretty creepy.

Central laboratory: it's big and it's a lab. It's pretty sterile and the most normal place on the ship. Hange will probably do her best to acquire as much equipment as possible. Secured, airtight containers to house specimens line the galley. There's shelves for books, more of Seeker's projected screens, fridges, a couple microscopes, a hood for working with more dangerous chemicals, and a centrifuge. There's also a metal table with a drain on it that Hange uses for work space generally, but that could be re-purposed to hold a patient. In general if Hange needs to do medical work, benign or scary, this is the go-to area.

Mental.

Avatars.

Abilities: a summary.