Countryman rested against the wall in the lift. The entire thing moving towards the lower levels. In a few minutes he had a meeting with this Matriarch. It was apparent that she was the current leader of this group. He was looking forward to the meeting. Especially since he suspected that these were the space nomads he had been hearing about. Helping them repair their ships would go a long way towards forming decent relations with them, and he was interested in those minerals they had to offer. Being in good standing with the locals would help in finding and taking care of the local pirate problem. He was also getting the impression that the Rykoni were a lot more powerful than the Union was aware of. At least that was looking to be the case in this part of space, and he suspected that the war with the Cylovans had played a part in that. They were likely too busy fighting the Cylovans to maintain the patrols they needed to keep the Rykoni in check. The other sedentary civilizations like the Alliance were likely in a similar state.

He paused at that particular thought, but he knew it was true. As much as they didn’t talk about it, they were without a homeworld. In recent years that fact didn’t matter as much as it used to. Their children never knew the homeworld, and the search for a new one didn’t really matter to them, and frankly it didn’t really matter as much to him either. Honestly, he had never cared for that ball of rock, but its people were a different story entirely. Now that they were gone, the place didn’t mean as much as it used to. However, it was still the sacred cradle of humanity. He and the other members still wanted to return one day, but the search for a new homeworld had begun to take a much lower priority. No their first priority was now to simply survive, and grow. Much of their time was also being taken up with the conflicts with the Rykoni and the Cylovans. Meeting a fellow nomadic race could prove interesting.

The lift came to a halt and he stepped out into a corridor on the lowermost deck. He turned left towards the airlock. There was a large room at the airlock that was used for ships docked beneath the Enterprise, and when not being used for shipyard purposes it was an auxiliary cargo bay. The room wasn’t far from here and it had viewports that would provide a view of the ship below.

Countryman entered the room to find the Matriarch and two other alien females waiting at the airlock gangway. The three alien females were completely naked, but with the way their fur had puffed up from the energy in the air concealed their multiple pairs of tits. The viewports behind them gave him a good close view of their ship. It was a good view, and he appreciated the utilitarian design of the cruiser. Function over form was the clear priority, but they had managed to give it some grace without damaging the function. He closed to a respectful distance from the Matriarch, and said, “Welcome aboard the Enterprise.”

“You said we could negotiate face to face here, but I would also like to know more about your people. We are wanderers and meet a lot of people, but this is the first time we have met you,” said the Matriarch. Countryman nodded and returned a gentle smile before gesturing to the door, “Certainly, but I can think of a few more pleasant places to have this conversation. I think the recreational park area on deck 285,” then he checked the time, and continued, “shouldn’t be too busy at the moment, unless Forrest decided to schedule a war game without telling me.”

“War game? Why would war games be fought in a recreational park?” she asked with a tone that sounded curious.

“You will understand when we get there, but suffice to say the park takes up the entire deck, and the five above it. The deck below also plays a role in the environment on that deck. The deck is a popular recreational destination hence being called a park, but it is also where our marines and ground troops practice the art of war. Their war games have also become a popular entertainment, and in a way fill in the role that sports did for our ancestors back on the homeworld,” replied Countryman as he led the way to the door. The aliens followed him, and they passed a pair of guards guarding the door.

“I look forward to seeing it then, and are all your corridors this dim?” she asked commenting on the low lighting.

“Yes, we save a lot of fuel by just dimming the lights. They are connected to the internal sensors and turn off when no one is in the room, and before you ask the charge in the air had nothing to do with the life support system,” answered Countryman. the Matriarchs ears twitched, and she replied, “I was just about to ask about that. It feels really weird walking around with my fur all puffed up like this, but if it ain’t your life support what is causing this?”

“I am afraid that would be us. We generate a fair amount of electrical energy, and that energy is responsible for our charged environment. We find it quite comfortable, but we have been told others don’t,” replied Countryman as he stopped to key a console and open the lift.

“Personally I just find it weird, but the lighting isn’t much of a problem. Anyway, my officer was speculating that your people are nomadic like us,” said the Matriarch as she followed him into the lift. Her gaze studying the controls.

“We don’t talk about it much, but yes we are,” replied Countryman as he sent the lift on its way and then turned to regard her.

“Our clan left the homeworld some eight hundred years ago, and some of the clans I have met left their own homeworlds even earlier. How long ago did you leave your own?” asked the Matriarch as she tilted her head slightly.

“Seventy-four years. However, our race first developed space travel some hundred and fifty years earlier. Just don’t ask why we left the homeworld, most of us aren’t quite comfortable sharing that information yet,” said Countryman.

“At least your clan remembers, I know a number of clans that don’t even remember their homeworld. Our people left due to a natural disaster. We didn’t have jumpdrives then so we had to make our way between systems the slow way. Some hundred and fifty years later we found a new world, but not all of us chose to settle. A number of clans built their own ships and set out further into the stars, and continued to live the nomadic lifestyle we had gotten used to. Out of curiosity will I encounter any other clans of your people?” asked the Matriarch. Countryman looked down a bit and replied, “I don’t think so.”

They stepped through a door, and were greeted with a rolling field. They had been talking idle chatter for the last few minutes, and had not yet gotten around to negotiating the repair details. A nice gentle breeze moved through the field, and not far from their position was the edge of a forest. A river flowed out of the forest and passed a couple hundred meters in front of them. A small bridge that looked to be made of stone allowed one to cross the river.

The Matriarch and her entourage looked around and then one of them spoke up, “I have seen plenty of artificial environments before, but never one so large. How big is this park?”

“I said it takes up the entire deck. The height of the chamber is about sixty meters, but the chamber is nearly five kilometers long, and approximately four kilometers wide. It's big enough to fit a decently sized park, a couple of villages and a small town. Can’t actually place a city in here. We would need a much bigger ship for that, but this park covers a good variety of terrains,” said Countryman as he started down the dimly lit path. The entire park looked as if it was shadowed in twilight. This was thanks to the dim lighting that was favored on Refuge ships. In the distance what looked to be a town could be seen in the middle of the park. The town was also shrouded in shadows, and was used mainly for practicing urban warfare. When not in use it was more of a ghost town than anything else. Though kids did like to explore and play in the town. Which is one of the reasons they kept this place as clean as possible. Fortunately they didn’t use actual weapons here in the park, so they didn’t have to worry about their safety if someone accidentally left behind a training rifle. The only weapons issued for a mock battle fired a very low yield laser pulse. It stung when it hit, but it was safer than the paint-ball guns that were used centuries ago.

Looking around and following down the dark path, the Matriarch replied, “Saying it and seeing it are very different things. I must say you did a good job creating this environment. Is this a recreation of your native environment?”

“We can actually survive and even thrive in a wide variety of environments, and climates. This is just one of the more idyllic ones that were found on our homeworld. Although it was not tailored to match any given location on the planet. This actually took a lot of work to do, and one of the more difficult things to do was to get the sun cycle just right. The plants here only get sun so to speak for about four hours each day, but the lights do provide some energy to plants even now,” said Countryman.

“I can imagine. We have a few arboretums on our city-ship and getting things just right can be hard. Especially since you also have to balance your own energy needs and concerns with the needs of the plants,” said one of the Matriarchs aides.

“Yeah it is a headache and a half, but fortunately this isn’t my concern. Anyway about those repairs your ship needs. I had my engineers do a hull composition analysis. We can produce the Duranium based alloy you use easily enough. Albeit at a cost twenty-five percent higher than what it would cost for a similar quantity of Titan Alloy. That is the material we use for constructing ships, and most importantly used in the construction of hull plating. As for your damaged systems, my engineers inform me it will take about a week to patch them at a cost of 140,000 RCs, but we could do a full repair in two weeks for around 200,000. As for your hull damage we can repair that in about ten days for 300,000 credits,” said Countryman.

“I assume these credits you speak of are your internal currency. Care to give me something to use as a conversion of value?” replied the Matriarch.

“Pure Pholite is worth about 15k per kilogram, and pure Erentium is worth about three times as much. The repairs you need aren’t all that extensive. Our Battlehawks cost 800,000 credits to build, which means fixing your ship is still cheaper than building a new ship. Even if the materials you need are more expensive than the ones we use in ship construction,” said Countryman. The Matriarch had a thoughtful look for a moment before saying, “Those numbers seem a little low. We’re talking pure material costs aren’t we?”

Countryman smiled, and replied, “That would be correct. For labor, average worker pay is 42 credits a day for ship construction, repair, and maintenance. If we assume a project length of two weeks and assign one thousand workers that will come out to 588,000 for labor.”

She nodded, and said, “That seems more in line with what you would expect. I do think your material costs are a little low, though.”

“We use nano-fabrication to manufacture most of the materials we need. The use of nanites in construction greatly improved manufacturing times, and reduced costs across the board. Over three hundred years ago it would have taken about six years to build a ship half a kilometer in length. Around two hundred years ago to build the same ship would have taken two years. The introduction of nanites a hundred and fifty years ago allowed that ship to be built in two months. Nowadays that same ship can be built in about two weeks. This is because ship construction nowadays is really nothing more complicated than putting a puzzle together. All the components are simply built in a factory by nanites, and then the workers fit them together,” replied Countryman. Just as they crossed the bridge. The Matriarch studied a structure on the other side of the bridge, and replied, “I think your prices are reasonable. I would like to repair all of my ships, but with a slightly faster time table.”

“That will run the cost up a bit, but we can do it,” smirked Countryman as they began to negotiate in earnest.