As the battle ended Melia glanced at Erisa and saw she was still standing there lost in thought and paying very little attention to her surroundings. So she turned her attention to the ship. Asking a question that had been on her mind for awhile now.

“I have been reading about your ships, and I have noticed there isn’t any mention of battlecruisers. Why is that?” asked Melia.

“That is a good question, and the roots of the answer can be traced back to before the founding of the empire. In short, the empire has never used battlecruisers ....” said Megumi.

“Wait! Never? Not even a single design?”

“No, it hasn’t. The reason why can be traced to our roots as I was explaining. Before the empire the Solean people were a collection of loosely aligned nomadic fleets. Originally these fleets were more unified and known as the Sol Refuge, but our nomadic tendencies led to these fleets spreading out to the point that a single unified government became untenable. Still the old government persisted in an altered form, but changed its name to the Solean Alliance. Anyway back to the main point. Being nomadic our people back then had a limited ability to field capital ships. As such most vessels of my size were more often than not, either an industrial ship, a city vessel, or a carrier. In fact for the first nine hundred years of our starfaring age we didn’t even field battleships, and it took us twice that for dreadnoughts, and four millenia for superdreadnoughts. The reason for this being our nomadic nature. As nomads we chiefly gained our resources through one of four methods, raiding, trade, salvage, and asteroid mining. We were also capable of orbital strip mining, but more often than not most worlds worth using that tech on were already home to the mining facilities of a more sedentary race. All of this lead to a fleet philosophy that required small to midsize ships that were fast, durable and hard hitting.

We also needed stealth as it was critical for a raid mission or evading unwanted conflicts. In our fleet philosophy battlecruisers simply didn’t fit. Sure they had the hard hitting and fast part down, but they lacked in durability and were too large for normal missions. In addition they were expensive to maintain and repair. Which for a nomadic race are major drawbacks. Not only that but when it came to combat ships of that size we prefered ships designed for slugging matches. Ones that can take a real beating and dish one right back. As we often fielded capital ships as the guardians of our core fleet. Tasked with protecting our more important industrial and city vessels against attack. This meant the chief requirements for our capital ships was durability, protection, and firepower. Speed and maneuverability was less important back then for capital ships. In fact the majority of our capital ships in that era were heavy cruisers, that featured strong armor, stealth and a solid array of heavy weapons. By the time the empire was founded our fleet design and military philosophies were already well set. Our admiralty saw little reason, and resisted the idea of changing our fleet design philosophy during the founding age,” said Megumi.

“In other words, you had no experience with battlecruisers by then and chose not to build any,” said Melia.

“It was more complicated than that, but we had gotten pretty good with designing fast engines that partially nullify the mass of equipped ships. This meant we could design battleships that were just as fast as our enemies battlecruisers and just as or in some cases more maneuverable as well. And since battleships are typically better armored and shielded with equivalent or better weapons than a battlecruiser. The battleship almost always wins in a one on one engagement,” replied Megumi.

“Wait, are you saying that you can fill the same role as a battlecruiser?” asked Melia ignoring the hand waving in her face.

“Well yes. Battlecruisers because of their powerful engines and weapons, lend themselves to roles requiring rapid maneuvering such as flanking attacks. I’m just as maneuverable as any battlecruiser, but I carry more than five times the armament. Along with ten times the protections of comparable allied battlecruiser designs. This makes me far more flexible than a battlecruiser,” said Megumi with what sounded like pride. It wasn’t the first time Melia noticed that the AI had emotions. “Now you should probably start paying attention to Erisa. Seeing as she has been trying to get your attention,” said Megumi. Melia suddenly noticed the hand waving in front of her face. Which was merely the latest in Erisa’s attempts to gain Melia’s attention.

“Sorry, do you need something?” asked Melia as she focused on Erisa. Erisa muttered something under her breath and then replied, “I have question and the AI seems to be busy. The disrupters considering how they work, shouldn’t they have allowed the ship to outright destroy her foes in that battle she described to us?”

“Sorry about that I have her using most of her processing power on a few simulations. Actually no. All materials actually resist being disrupted. Some materials resist better than others, and apparently there are ways to treat a material to protect it against energy weapons including disruptors. Neutronium for example is highly resistant allowing a ship armored with that stuff to withstand multiple hits. As for the Darkations as near as I understand it, their ships had some sort of bio-energy running through the hull that made their organic hulls remarkably tough and enhanced hull regeneration. According to Megumi this energy made it so that her plasma weapons did more to their hulls than the disrupters,” said Melia. While Melia and Erisa were discussing the finer points of advanced weapons and their counters, Megumi thought back to her first days.

Stardate 2-4-3421459 SDE, Solean Central Shipyards (Graviterra Galaxy, Last Light Starsystem)

Megumi stretched her body as her avatar stepped out of the pod. From the walls a series of photon emitters generated a wave of light that ran over her bare skin and removed the traces of fluid clinging to her skin. She waved a hand and a mirror was holographically projected allowing her to inspect her new biomech avatar. She had spent months designing the thing to her satisfaction and she wanted to see if the pod had grown it, to her specifications. It seemed the pod had managed replicate her desired appearance. She looked a lot like a Solean in their true form, with one major exception. Instead of talons she had human feet. Her wings were tightly folded on her back and covered in light scale-feathers. Patterned in gold and silver, scales also lightly coated other parts of her body. Scales ran up her legs in with a spiral pattern, and a number of thinner scales coated her stomach and underboobs. Creamy white skin was exposed on her shoulders and the top of her boobs. Her pink nipples could also be seen. Scales also coated both of her arms in a similar spiral pattern to those on her legs. She had a few gold and silver scales on her cheeks as well.

Overall she stood at a hundred and thirty centimeters tall, which was a little on the short side for a Solean female. She had lovely silver hair that fell to her waist, and framed her round face. She had large gold eyes that just seemed to take everything in, a small mouth and nose. Overall she looked cute, especially with her small boobs and butt. Spreading her folded wings, she began to access her internals. Finding that the systems were exactly the way she had specified. Hidden in her right arm was an internally mounted light dual-modal plasma cannon. Her wings were also fully functional, and she had an internal shield generator. Under her scales was a web of fibre armor that could stop most small arms, both ballistic and energy based. Most important though was her internal micro-drive making her capable of limited starflight.

Feeling satisfied with her appearance, and feeling her avatar to be functional she folded her wings. Crossing the room she opened a box and pulled out the outfit waiting for her. Which was a simple white top, and a grey skirt. There wasn’t any underwear with it, but she didn’t expect there to be any. The Soleans were both shapeshifters, and telepathic so it came as no surprise that as a race that they were lacking in modesty and as a consequence their clothing tended to be revealing. She only understood the concept, because she had been taught about it, when her caretaker taught her about diplomacy. She dressed in the outfit and walked out of the door. At the same time she felt her connection to her primary core vanish. She wasn’t surprised, today was the day that her core would finally be installed in a ship. It had been ten years since her core first came online. Which meant that it could be argued that today was her tenth birthday. Which for an AI marked the end of their equivalent to a childhood.

Walking out the door she ran into her caretaker. A young woman of seven thousand years, which for a Solean was still quite young. Few races were as long-lived as the Soleans and the only race she knew with a comparable lifespan were the Star Dragons. Which was one of the reasons why it was often said the two races were cousins. She didn’t know if that was true, but she wanted to find out. Her caretaker was of average height, with a modest bust and a well filled figure. She currently looked Terran her racial characteristics having been shapeshifted away. Which was quite normal while aboard a ship or station, since they didn’t want to damage the floors with their talons. Which is also why her avatar didn’t have talons, since she didn’t want to damage the floors either. Sure the scratches were easy enough to fix, but it was considered common courtesy not to damage someone else’s floors.

“Good to see you are up. How are you feeling?” said her caretaker.

“I feel fine, but it is a little disconcerting not being able to feel my primary core. Good to see you too, Talia” said Megumi.

“Well, you will just have to put up with it for a couple of hours,” said Talia

“So are going to tell me, what kind of ship I’m being installed on?” asked Megumi.

“I forgot to tell you?” asked Talia.

“You did, but you did seem stressed last time we spoke,” replied Megumi.

“Sorry about that. You’re being installed aboard the ISS Constellation. A Sovereign class battleship, measuring 12,340 meters in length with seven hundred and forty decks. Armor is 2120 meters thick in a type four overlord configuration. With integrated energy plate generators for added protection when needed. The hull and plating is composed of Xeos alloy. For shielding the Constellation is outfitted with type nine multilayered Excalibur class energy shields. As for armament your primary battery is composed of eight hyperdensity plasma cannons. The data on those will be loaded to your core during the installation so don’t worry, but for now I will tell you they are designed for use against capital ships and super-capital ships, so they don’t work well against small targets. Your secondary battery consists of 7,500 Super Heavy Phased Plasma Beam Banks, 35,000 Standard Mount Phased Plasma Beam Banks, and 2250 Subatomic Disruptor banks. You have a tertiary battery consisting of 100,000 banks of Hellfire Plasma cannons. Additional armaments consist of 18,000 integrated torpedo launchers, one spinal mounted ASC, and 20,000 drones.

As for propulsion you will have both a type four warp drive, and a type one hyperwarp drive for ftl. For sublight propulsion is primarily achieved by eight heavy duty Startech Industries Plasma Pulse Wave Engines. You have eight hundred additional sub engines for maneuvering,” said Talia.

“Sounds like a good ship, but I was kind of hoping for something bigger like an Excalibur class Superdreadnought,” said Megumi with a bit of a pout. Talia chuckled, and replied, “I know, but there aren’t any dreadnoughts available much less superdreadnoughts. You're quite lucky to have gotten a battleship.”

“We are in the middle of a shipyard complex the size of a solar system, that builds hundreds of millions of ships every month and your telling me that not a single dreadnought was available?”

“None are scheduled to be completed this month. I had to pull a few favors to get the Constellation moved up in the queue just to get you a battleship. Sorry I couldn’t get you that dreadnought you wanted,” replied Talia.

“I’m glad you tried though. I think I can live with a battleship,” responded Megumi. Talia then asked her to follow her. She followed her down the corridor and past a number of viewports. Outside the viewports an endless field of berths and ships under construction could be seen. The berths were lined up in orderly rows with enough space between them to provide ample room for ships to maneuver. Tugs and workbees were flying around the field doing various tasks. Some of the ships had beams of light running over them. As the light ran over the hulls, the metal seemed to grow at a rapid rate into the desired shape. Megumi wanted to sit there and watch, but she had to keep up with Talia. After a number of rapid turns, and a couple of lifts the came to a shuttlebay. In the bay, were a number of shuttles standing by for passengers. Talia led her to a shuttle to the left, and they boarded the shuttle. She had barely settled into her seat, when the shuttle took off. Exiting the bay, and entering the void. Megumi looked out the window of the passenger shuttle, and began to imagine what it would feel like to actually swim in the void.

She had experience with simulations, but as she was finding with her avatar. Simulations were nothing like the real thing. The data she was receiving from her avatars nerves was far more vibrant than any simulation. She was enjoying every little sensation as they were all new to her. From the subtle sensation of her clothes rubbing against her skin, and scales. To the more noticeable sensation of the chair hugging against her small frame. She was brought out of her thoughts, by the chuckling of her caretaker.

“What's with the laughing?” asked Megumi.

“You look like an adult, but act just like a little kid. It's adorable,” said Talia. Megumi knew she was referring to the presence of wings and scales, which for Soleans were a marker of adulthood. Around their five hundredth year they manifest their secondary racial characteristics which include their talons, scales, and wings.

“I’m not a child! I’m ten years old, and I’m getting a ship,” said Megumi with a cute pout.

“Sorry to tell you, but in most cultures ten years old is still a child,” said Talia as she ruffled her hair. Megumi turned away.

“Don’t pout, you will grow up in time. Besides being a kid isn’t a bad thing. You should enjoy your childhood while you still have it,” said Talia as a ship came into view. On its hull in big pure white and bold letters was emblazoned the name ISS Constellation and under it was SFR-45567595-EEE. Which she knew to be the ships registry number, the triple E after the number indicated it was not the first ship of the name, but just the latest ship to take the name Constellation. The hull of the ship was a sleek black. Its shape was mostly that of an elongated saucer, with numerous small towers rising from the hull. Many of the rising towers were topped with turrets and launchers. At the rear of the hull which flared out, six thick pylons extended from the craft. At the ends of each pylon was a massive nacelle where the ships FTL engines would be mounted along with most of the maneuvering engines. Their were two pairs of nacelles running above and below the centerline of the hull, with the final pair being mounted parallel to the centerline of the hull. Indents were spaced at regular intervals on the sides of the saucer where the doors to the ships many shuttle and drone bays were located.

Overall she thought the ship looked beautiful, and she knew this ship would be her body likely for the rest of her life. She couldn’t feel it yet, but she knew that right now her main core was being installed into the ships central mainframe, which would be buried somewhere in the center of the ship. Protected by an outer casing of reinforced plating, secondary shield generators and internal force fields. The core would also be protected by security drones and internal turrets. In fact a ship’s AI Core was the single most protected system in the entire ship.

The shuttle docked in one of the massive side bays. A powerful barrier kept the atmosphere in the ship, and allowed shuttles to launch and land freely. Carrying workers and materials in and out of the ship. The bay itself was beautiful to her eyes. Sleek lines, and every surface plated in sturdy plating. Shuttles hanging in mounts from the ceiling and a constant flow of traffic.

“Come on, I’m going to show you around and introduce you to the captain. You will be with him a long time so I hope you two like each other,” said Talia as she led her into the ship.

Present day, ISS Constellation:

Looking back, she realized Talia was right she was still a child then, and she had much to learn. Her first captain had taught her a great deal, and she found herself wondering what he was doing now. She had kind of lost track of him after he had been promoted to rear admiral. She had tried to keep in touch, but with the war that had proven difficult. Chances were he was probably a lord protector by now, and a highly revered elder. She was broken from her thoughts when her latest and fifth captain spoke to her.

“Erisa agrees with our plan,” said Melia.

“In that case, I’ll bring the warp engines online. Tell the crew to brace. My dampers aren’t fully restored yet so the jump will be a little bumpy,” replied Megumi as she went about the task of bringing her ancient engines back online. Deep within the damaged nacelles four massive engines began to hum as they powered up. These were her warp engines mounted in the naccelles that were mounted above and below her primary hull. It took the engines several minutes to cycle up, and then the ships massive frame came about. Breaking her orbit for the first time in millions of years. While her engines began to warp space itself. In an instant the ship accelerated from low sublight to FTL velocities. True to her words the crew received a moderate jolt from the jump, and soon the ship was cruising along at low warp towards a system with materials that would help accelerate the repairs.