Suddenly: New Ship

As I'm wondering, we get an alert, “We have company,” over the coms… Bob's watching, apparently.

We run to the bridge and see it on the screens: A tug. It's a Small ship, only seats two: The draw if the thing is the little issue that it has a Heavy weapon mount - the only Small ship that can - and in the turret no less, so it can fire in any direction with no warning. The intent of the thing is to mount a Tractor Beam (or more accurately, wrap the ship around a tractor beam) and use a Mass Simulator to handle the size discrepancy for towing. That's not what anyone uses them for. But… familiar… biomechanical… I sit down and act as the science officer, running scans as the others discuss things.

“Why are we in sensor range?” Frank seems upset. Understandable, the goal of our ship's build is to not get in range in the first place.

“It just appeared out of nowhere… check the logs,” Bob defends herself.

Frank does, “Okay, yes…” she pauses, “Funny though… it doesn't have the usual warping of a Drift jump.”

As I finish my scans, I smile and interrupt, “Ah, finally found it,” I turn to everyone, “It's mine. No crew. I manifested it. Please draw up beside it, I'll go board.”

“You can just…” Gregory blinks, “...make a starship, just like that?”

“Within certain limits, yes,” I shrug, “it has to be tied to a person,” who can't be a subordinate: No granting them to Leadership followers, a cohort, a Conjuration sphere summon, etc, “and the ship's capabilities are based on theirs. This one is tied to me.” The Pilot sphere and the Personal Starship option… it costs two feats, but they're combat feats, and those are free from Heroics when I'm involved. “Do you want one?”

They look at each other, “Let's… give yours a bit to avoid ‘oops’ moments, all right?” Bob chuckles.

“Yes…” Gregory agrees, “While it turned out great, I'm still a little nervous about unintended consequences.”

I shrug, “Okay. Still… mind letting me grab mine? And yes, it is running stealth and long-range sensors, we can sync the drift engines and continue on. She can keep up.” Although admittedly individual ships would be better if we had a good mothership setup: Mothership has a Drift Engine, Cloak, fuel synthesizer, other utility items, and docks for the ‘children’. The ‘children’ can then go all-out on weapons and shields.

“Yeah, we can pull up alongside her…” Frank shrugs as he gets into pilot mode and starts doing so, “...are you okay with the vacuum transfer? We don't have a breaching pod.”

Very, “I know Starwalk, yes.” Also, I don't need air, my armor can provide air for over a week, my spells can provide air, I'm functionally immune to radiation (it's treated as either a poison or a disease, and I'm immune to both), I have a constant fly spell… oh yes, and I won't stay dead because of two distinct options. Yeah, I'm good.

“Okay… we'll be close shortly.” Frank nods, and I head to an airlock. It doesn't take long to get there, nor for the lock to cycle, and them I'm in space, nothing between me and nothing save for a suit of armor ultimately made from congealed magic… which also means I get my first in-person look at my new, baby ship.

Thirty meters long from bow to stern, it has a design aesthetic reminiscent of a hawk… which is appropriate, as it is a living thing: I went with a bioship. The hull is dark brown and seamless, the beak is the main airlock, the eyes are sensor nodes, the feet are the landing gear, and so on. Yes, there's some things that a bird would not have, like the turret on her back (a Heavy Solar Cannon for now) and the cargo hatch underneath… but she'll do. I climb into her beak, wondering if making the mouth the main entrance was wise, and soon enough I'm inside.

And I'm immediately glad I wasted the build points on a luxury interior. She only has crew space for two… but the seats on the bridge are plush, the floor is marble tiled, and the walls show the outside (they're video screens). From either of the two chairs on the bridge, the illusion is almost perfect: I may as well be sitting in space. It's nice. Then I link up to the Consciousness Upload Drive via an Accelerated Datajack (from an Instant Upgrade spell), and it's better: I suddenly AM the ship. The engines are my legs, the turret my arm, the sensors my eyes, the reactor my heart… it's a rush.

…which also means I feel it when my curse warps the ship. It's painful as ‘my organs’ rearrange and ‘my skeleton’ reforms. It's over in a few seconds, but when I look at ‘myself’ I find I'm basically in a pornstar body… a nude pornstar body, bent down on her hands and knees like she's taking it from both ends. The landing gear is now a set of human-like arms and legs, the two living suites are in the huge boobs, the wings are gone… if she wasn't thirty meters from nose to rump, I would do her.

I run her through her paces: She still works just fine… but ugh. Well… I suppose that also puts paid to my plan to use an Infiltration Skin (it's powered armor that looks like a regular medium race). Shaking my real head, I disconnect, and summon a Conjuration Companion to play engineer and Science Officer for me (I plan to play pilot and gunner). The summon will only be able to pull off one at a time for now; I'll be able to do both due to the Consciousness Upload Drive.

I start a tour of the ship, calling over to the party, “My curse got the ship too, but everything is otherwise in order; I'll have one of my summons handle sync, and we can be off. Over.” I give the appropriate orders as I walk off the bridge.

“Awknowledged,” Frank replies on the coms, “let us know when you're ready to give tours. And, umm… wow, I am so glad I don't have to fly that. Over.”

“Thanks,” I reply through gritted teeth, “over and out.”

The halls are lined with the same biological screens as the bridge, showing the same scene: It's like I'm walking on a platform through The Drift, with portals to the actual rooms on the ship. Both quarters are nice: Each has a small living room, office, washroom, kitchenette, and bedroom: Better than my apartment back on Earth. Engineering houses the power core, shield generator, Gray Cloak, and so on in the rib cage. Engines are in the legs, and the cargo hold is in the pelvis… her womb.

I then start in on the real reason I picked a bioship: It's a creature. The Lead Plating spell removes that nasty radiation vulnerability (and I hope makes her look slightly less lewd), Celestial Healing should recover her hull points quickly, the Energy Resistance spell should hopefully make her take a little less damage from some weapons. I'm looking forward to being able to properly buff her up with higher level spells: I am so looking forward to level six.

The Drift transit is otherwise uneventful, and soon enough we're at our destination….