This is a Claravian* womb ship, so called because it contains amnions, which are metabolic suspension capsules that allow missionaries to survive STL interstellar travel.
This is a port-side view of the craft. It's forward end is covered by a polymerite impact shield, with small multi-sensors dotted across it. A ring of four force projectors encircle the craft providing forward motion.
The pressure vessel (the orange capsule-like structure covered by the impact shield) is roughly the size of a shipping container. A single airlock is located at the aft end of the ship.
Missionaries of the Bright Way use womb ships to carry out the Great Commandment, to find other sophonts dwelling among the stars.
Because yinrih are incapable of fully losing consciousness without dying, they cannot sleep away the journey. Instead, amnions work by speeding up the missionary's time perception while presenting a simulacrum to their nervous system while suspending their other metabolic processes. Missionaries in metabolic suspension are still aware and able to interact with the ship's systems through a Matrix-like interface.
The handles along the sides of the craft asist in maintenance EVAs performed by one of the suspended missionaries using a remotely piloted micro mech.
This particular womb ship is named the Dewfall. It has the distinction of being the first and only womb ship to actually encounter sapient life after dozens of millennia of fruitless searching.
*A human coinage meaning Of or relating to the Bright Way. From Latin Clara Via
This is a playground to get lost in while daydreaming.
I have some stories set in this world, but the narrative and characters serve the worldbuilding and not the other way around.
I use Obsidian.
While he does have a degree of direct control over the capital complex, in the vein of a genius loci, the low data rate of the ansible network means he can't directly observe everything that's going on in Partisan Territory, though the government would very much like to tell everyone that the Great Leader is always watching. He's a deliberately ambiguous character. Did he initiate the genocide of Wayfarers, only relenting at the plea of his advisors? Or did the genocide start with the disorganized secularist warlord states that Firefly united under the Partisan banner, and Firefly put a stop to the atrocity after returning to Focus from his failed missionary journey? How did the the other two missionaries die during the time their womb ship was incommunicado? Did Firefly kill them in a nihilistic rage? Or did he make a final prayer to the Uncreated Light to save them as their amnions failed, only turning his back on his faith after the prayer went unanswered? Did he also die along with the other two missionaries, with the Partisans propping up his corpse a la Weekend At Bernie's in order to have a unifying symbol to rally behind? Did he die some time in the intervening millennia? Surely sheer entropy would get to him eventually, suspended metabolism or not? If he is alive, is he sane, or have the millennia worn away his mind? Is he still a wanderer (apostate) after First Contact, or has he reconsidered his beliefs in light of the existence of other sophonts among the stars, and now wishes to embrace the natural death he's fled from for 33 millennia? You get the picture.
The Partisans are just my sink for all my grimdark ideas. The Lonely Galaxy is actually meant to be much more upbeat. The Partisans are mostly in the background. As far as ideologies go, there's also the hyperlibertarian Spacer Confederacy, the capitalist Allied Worlds (which currently enjoys a degree of cultural and economic hegemony in the system), the unstable middle man between the AW and Partisan Territory that is Moonlitter, and the politically ecclesiocratic and economically distributist planet Hearthside.
The main thrust of this setting is that the yinrih are all alone, just like humanity, crying out into the blind uncaring cosmos. Our First Contact is also their First Contact. Most sci-fi involves a galaxy-spanning meta-civilization of countless alien races. Some works have humans all alone, but none I'm aware of have just one other species, just as surprised to meet us as we are to meet them.
Low stakes slice of life stuff, believe it or not. A human has to negotiate a yinrih bathroom, a yinrih and the human she's lodging with have to deal with a broken air conditioner, a yinrih tries Texas BBQ for the first time, etc.
I love it. I'm also the sort to do world building as a daydreaming thing, but I've fallen off it in the last year or so. Trying to spend less time on distractions so that the creativity has more room. Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed reading House of Friendship!
Much appreciated! Been thinking of looking for a writing community to have my work critiqued. I know I said on the Neocities page I'm not an aspiring author, but it would be nice knowing whether and how much I've improved over time.
It can be so hard to find people who will read world building stuff and give worthwhile feedback, but so rewarding - hence the community. I hope you'll post more of your work, and don't be bashful about @ing or DMing me for feedback. I tend to cruise All so I don't always see things posted here unless I go looking.