Nopileos looked out of the window again. The ferry had almost arrived at its destination and was in the process of decelerating. The Boron spiral that belonged to him and Sissandras was now not much smaller than this shipyard. His scales tingled at the thought, not many Teladi could call something as large and valuable as that their own. Well… apparently it wasn't his and his egg-brother's anymore, but belonged to the Xenon or something even more terrible. Whatever it was, sooner or later he would go back there and find out.
The green position lights blinked silently beyond the windows as the docking carousel quickly swallowed the ferry. Moments later the docking clamps engaged with a distinct click and a tiny jolt, pulling the small space vehicle into an empty docking bay. All around Nopileos, Teladi unfastened themselves from their sitting-tables and got up. Only a few had baggage with them since most were workers or heads of department in the shipyard. Returning from a few light recreation periods on the nearby planet Platinum Ball, their possessions were kept in their quarters aboard this station.
Disembarkation was usually a disciplined affair with the Teladi, unlike the Argon whom Nopileos had once seen jostling and shoving impatiently to form a queue. Naturally that was not very efficient. No Teladi, of course, would behave in such a completely pointless and counter-productive fashion, so he was all the more surprised when he noticed a small tailback had formed in the walkway ahead. Some of the passengers were making indignant snorting noises, looking beyond them, there appeared to be some problem with the narrow docking tunnel just outside the ferry. As Nopileos shuffled closer to the airlock, he gleaned from the comments of the travellers standing further forward that there was someone standing outside the tunnel, blocking the way and forcing the passengers to squeeze past. Not a clever thing to do in a corridor that was barely wide enough to let a middle-sized Teladi carrying a suitcase pass without touching the walls.
He found it was actually two shipyard workers in company uniforms, standing pressed against the walls of the tunnel facing one another, while the hissing passengers jostled past them. Teladi did not tend to suffer from claustrophobia, but this was too much! What were these two creatures doing there?
The Teladi in front of Nopileos squeezed himself past the lizard in the brown uniform, still clutching his squawk cubes. Nopileos tried to do the same but the uniformed Teladi, silent until now, stopped him and spoke.
"Isemados Sibasomos Nopileos IV?"
"Shh? Yes?" answered Nopileos, completely taken aback. What in the name of the egg had he done wrong this time? He thought hard for a moment, but nothing sprang to mind.
"Welcome aboard the Seizewell shipyard, colleague-son of the Shipyard Director and grandson of the Ceo!" intoned the second uniformed Teladi with genuine enthusiasm. "We are very pleased to be able to welcome you to our modest company, and hope we will all strive to turn this opportunity into great profit!"
Son of the Director of the shipyard? Nopileos spread a claw to indicate his lack of understanding, stretching the webbing.
"Can we get moving sometime soon in front?" called an angry traveller from behind.
"I am colleague Yayandas", said the first Teladi, "and this colleague Alindreos" - he pointed at his companion, who courteously tilted his head and blinked briefly at Nopileos. "Please follow us, valued colleague – before someone gets the idea of informing the union!"
Nopileos did as he was asked and followed the two shipyard workers, while behind him the tailback cleared – finally – and the remaining passengers disembarked in an orderly fashion.
The young Teladi was disturbed and puzzled. First, this was all highly unusual, since even the main Board members themselves would never be personally escorted when travelling on a scheduled flight. So why had they decided to meet him right in the airlock – in the most unsuitable place imaginable, instead of greeting him in the arrivals hall? Why had they greeted him personally at all? He was the grandson of the Ceo, true – but deference did not come with family membership in the Teladi Trading Company. And what was the reference to his being the son of the Director of the shipyard about? Who would be interested in whose direct descendant he was? With the Teladi, care of the brood had always been the provenance of the next generation but one: the grandfather brought up his grandchildren, and between egg-parents and their issue there would be – at best – a comradely relationship. It was all most peculiar! Nopileos came to the tentative conclusion that, possibly, someone could have found out about his major stock market coup and had therefore chosen to treat him as a respected and established personage. On the other hand, it could be known that he occasionally inclined towards unusual views and actions, and that someone wanted to keep a friendly claw on his shoulder.
"Thank you, Isemados, you old egghead", mumbled Nopileos indignantly. His grandfather might be a rebel but he certainly took no risks.
"Colleague?" inquired the Teladi who had introduced himself as Yayandas. For a moment, Nopileos was tempted to reply that he had just verbally abused the Ceo, but the moment passed and he had second thoughts.
"A colossal construction, this shipyard", he said instead, looking pleasantly at Yayandas.
"Oh, yes. It most certainly is!" Yayandas seemed pleased by Nopileos' interest. He was clearly proud of his workplace and began, without hesitation, to drown Nopileos in a flood of figures, facts, turnover predictions and comparisons that painfully reminded him of one of Instructor Wohalimis' Profit Science classes.
Oh brother Sissandras, Nopileos thought, you and this Yayandas would really have got on well with one another!
"Colleague," he interrupted Yayandas, mid-word, after several agonising Mizuras, "where are we actually going?"
Yayandas adeptly concealed his irritation at the interruption and showed Nopileos into a lift that he had summoned Sezuras earlier. "Well," he replied, "first we would like to show you the yacht - which is your main reason for being here, isn't it? She's a real beauty! Then we have a business lunch with director Sibasomos planned. The Director is happy for you to change the order of events if you prefer, but…"
"Oh, no, that's fine. I'm actually very much looking forward to getting a closer look at the yacht!"
"That's what we thought," said Yayandas happily.
When the lift finally came to a stop and the door rose, Nopileos unconsciously held his breath for a moment. It had taken them straight to the highest balustrade of a gigantic assembly hall. The narrow, railed balcony encircled the entire hall and Nopileos could see down two, or even three, dozen metres into the depths. Beneath him on the floor of the hall, Teladi in white clothes were scurrying around, small as insects, efficient as robots. In the middle of the hall, however, something stretched so high that Nopileos' brow-scale suddenly turned several shades paler.
The spaceship extended like a giant, egg-shaped monolith with a flattened base. It was over twenty metres in height; broad in the stern with four huge, rounded, swept back external thrusters, which merged into the hull. Towards the top, the main body of the ship tapered a little to a bow topped by a large hemispherical cockpit in the exact geometric centre of the vehicle as seen from above. The hull shone a delicate shade of forest green, but many details of the ship's lines and some surfaces were delicately picked out in metallic silver. The ship appeared somewhat stocky, but also powerful and elegant – the shipwrights had created a masterpiece here, corresponding so precisely to the Teladi ideal of design that Nopileos allowed his gaze to slide covetously up and down the flanks of the ship for several sezuras, completely forgetting his companions.
They gave him a few moments before Alindreos, who until now had been silent, finally spoke to him. "That's how it is with most people the first time they see her." His scale crest was erect in mild amusement, but his tone was one of good-natured camaraderie.
"Colleague Alindreos here, is the leader of the Small Vehicle and Transporters unit," threw in Yayandas in explanation. Alindreos tilted his head for a moment.
"Brothers… I mean colleagues
is that… I mean that is… the Ceo's yacht?"
Alindreos waggled his scale-crest slightly. "It is indeed."
"I am… impressed!"
"Tshhhh!" the two shipyard-members looked at one another and hissed briefly. "And so you should be colleague Nopileos. What you are looking at here is a minor marvel. This ship is not only fitted with the four most powerful Boron ion motors that have ever been used in a private vehicle, but it also features the almost impenetrable 125 MW shields exclusively used by the Argon military – until now that is. Then there's the most ingenious on-board computer to be found this side of Xenon territory. And," Alindreos gasped quickly for breath before continuing with evident delight, "this yacht also possesses the most luxurious interior that you have ever seen in a ship!"
"But…" Nopileos began a sentence, his head spinning. His words however, were doomed from the start. His mind was a blank and he had no idea what he meant to say next. Alindreos saved him from this by immediately cutting in again.
"We are about to calibrate the newly-installed, super-responsive inertial damper. You will never again feel even the slightest shake, and never once be torn from your sleep, even if you are rammed head-on by a Xenon."
"Rrrr… do they do that?"
Alindreos spread his claws. "So one hears..."
"But don't worry", butted in Yayandas. "Very few places are safer than this ship. Doesn't it look like an egg?"
"Indeed it does, oh Brother Yayandas," replied Nopileos, still stunned. When Ceo Isemados had promised him his yacht on long-term loan, Nopileos assumed it would be something on the scale of a small atmospheric shuttle – something similar to the tiny Hatchery ferries, which the egg-pupils would occasionally use for their excursions.
"You will work your way to great profit with the yacht – and help bring us all great prosperity," said Yayandas, with real conviction in his voice.
"Certainly," replied Nopileos mechanically. "Can we have a look at it from the inside now?"
"With the greatest of pleasure", agreed Alindreos. "Over here." He showed Nopileos and his colleague the way, leading them along the walkway. Beyond the first corner a small platform appeared, set into the floor. It led to the next balustrade down, which was about half way between the floor and the ceiling of the gigantic assembly hall. The three Teladi made their way onto the spacious platform, which began to sink smoothly downwards.
Nopileos could not help noticing that Alindreos was watching him intently out of the corner of his eye. It was obvious: both shipyard-members were very proud of their respective areas of responsibility; Nopileos assumed that Alindreos expected his enthusiastic agreement regarding the ship – and he was quite prepared to give him that satisfaction. In fact he was looking forward to being impressed by the much-vaunted "luxurious interior".
The platform floated to their destination and touched down gently. The balustrade on which they were now standing looked similar to the one above, except that all around the breadth of the hall there were illuminated glass panels set into the walls, giving a view into a number of offices. In addition Nopileos spotted an entrance tunnel, which stretched from the end wall of the hall like a small bridge between balustrade and yacht.
"The layout of this spacecraft", explained Alindreos in a tone of voice that could have come from an advertisement, "is intended to provide the largest possible usable interior space, with maximum comfort and the least possible wastage of space by machinery. You will see that it has been an outstanding success!"
They stepped into the tunnel and through the open main airlock of the ship, giving them a clear view into a spherical room with a flat floor, which was lit with a subdued shade of red. "This is the lift", explained Alindreos, not without pride. "The transport compartment is spherical and uses its own gravity generator. You will soon see why that is. Come!"
Nopileos went in. The warm, slow pulsing light of the spherical lift compartment was accompanied by a gentle throbbing hum; Nopileos immediately felt exhilarated and more cheerful. The door closed silently – and a split-sezura later opened again. The lift must have undergone an enormous acceleration, but inside one couldn't feel a thing.
"The command centre," said Alindreos simply.
Nopileos stepped out and looked around. They were in a spacious circular room, in the centre of which the tube of the lift-shaft continued upwards to the height of two Teladian fathoms. Nopileos' glance flicked around and caught on the huge, hemispherical window that stretched across the entire room like a glass dome, the lowest edge almost a Teladi-height above the floor and rose sharply before curving round. "Great…" he mumbled, astonished, stifling the addition of the word egg. He could imagine, vividly, what an amazing view of space one would have from here! He walked round the lift column with slow steps until he had made a complete circuit of the floating platform which hung invitingly a claw's width above the floor and moved gently as if bobbing up and down on a slight sea swell. Nopileos did not wait for his companions' invitation and went, without hesitation, onto the platform, which immediately started moving and carried him swiftly upwards. Alindreos and Yayandas stayed behind and watched him.
On the top of the lift-shaft column was the heart of the yacht; here, exactly on the longitudinal axis of the ship, was the command chair, mounted in such a way that it could swivel freely in all three axes. Several important operational controls and indicators were situated on a dashboard, which rotated with the chair, and Nopileos surmised that the shipwrights had attached great importance to reducing the number of instruments to the absolute essential minimum. The experience of space flight was clearly the priority here – not the technology that made it possible. The large, crystal-clear window was almost within claw's reach above him – space would never get any closer.
"It's fantastic!" he said loudly and stepped onto the parapet surrounding the command platform. From here he had a good overview over the rest of the room. The large viewing window stretched far below and went just over a Teladi-height upwards in the gently sloping wall. Here there were more controls, switches and displays, but it still managed to avoid the impression of being overloaded, unlike the unpleasant, technical places, which passed for command centres in other space ships. In one spot there was even a small table with comfortable, woven sitting-tables firmly anchored to the floor and with further seating all around.
"Oh yes… and its design brought us a considerable profit!" explained Yayandas proudly. "Just wait until you have seen the rest!" Nopileos felt a desire to get straight into the pilot's chair, but he resisted the urge and took the floating platform back down.
Alindreos looked at him expectantly; he seemed to have something else up his sleeve and to be very curious about Nopileos' reaction to it. The three Teladi stepped back into the soft red glow of the lift compartment, which had waited patiently for them. The door closed again and almost immediately re-opened, without Nopileos being aware that the lift had moved at all. The other two Teladi made no move to step out of the compartment, so Nopileos took the first step – and abruptly stopped.
That was impossible. It simply couldn't be! He was standing in a large room, which was circular just like the command centre – except that the curvature didn't go around him; instead the floor curved up in front of him and soared upwards. There was no ceiling, the floor came back down behind him and made a perfect loop! The walls were absolutely straight, not sloping as the shape of the ship would have lead one to expect; the column of the lift-shaft ran up one wall and lead into a tube that ran over his head between the opposite walls in the exact centre of the circular room.
Both shipyard-members had also now stepped out of the lift shaft behind him. "So?" asked Alindreos.
There was only one explanation for this phenomenon. "The floor of this room is the outer skin of the ship", Nopileos thought out loud, but in an uncertain voice.
Alindreos hissed vociferously and waggled his ears. "Indeed it is! The yacht has three different planes of gravity - four if you include the lift!"
Nopileos was truly amazed. There followed another two floors, similarly constructed but differently divided up, in which the gravity generator was oriented towards the outer skin. Then Alindreos and Yayandas took Nopileos into the cargo hold. It was immense and in contrast to the previous rooms, the curvature ran around Nopileos exactly as it had in the command centre, and as it would in an ordinary circular room! Far above his head Nopileos noticed a huge, iris-shaped construction that he immediately recognised as an airlock like those often found in large transporters.
"The freight hatch", commented Alindreos dryly. "The gravity here is oriented towards the bow."
Nopileos' head spun, full of impressions and questions. "So the lift ensures that one doesn't notice the changes in gravity direction, right?"
Alindreos and Yayandas waggled their ears in unison.
"That's magnificent! Ingenious!"
"Tss-shh! Absolutely right! And it is a Teladi invention, the licensing of which will bring our company great profit!"
"The problem is, Colleague Alindreos", Yayandas interjected, "that only a few private individuals can afford it – for freight and fighter craft this is a superfluous luxury. What ship has more than one plane of gravity?"
Alindreos blinked. "Right, right..." he mumbled. "But we will change that, given half a chance!"
Yayandas tilted his head courteously for a moment then turned his attention back to Nopileos. "Ceo Isemados has so far not yet found the time to come and have a look at this spacecraft himself. He asks you, valued Colleague Nopileos, to give the ship a name of your choice and to register it. He would also like you to demonstrate the ship for him when the appropriate occasion arises. That is a great honour – the Ceo seems very taken with you."
"Tshmm… indeed, oh Colleague Yayandas" replied Nopileos, who was completely confused. His grandfather had mentioned that the yacht was being overhauled in the shipyard. Now it turned out, however, that he had not even seen it yet, let alone flown in it. It was newly hatched! And it must be worth an absolute fortune! The Ceo had shown himself to be surprisingly unconventional; but he would not have been the Ceo without an ulterior motive for making such a costly "loan". So what was the old warhorse thinking? To what extent was he hoping to profit – either financial or moral – from whatever Nopileos wanted to use the yacht for?
Farnham's Legend: The beginning of the X-Universe saga (X Games Book 1) Page 7
