Among Stars

Donut Ship

Finnea, also knows as Pom-2, was a planet of much beauty. It had stunning landscapes of high mountain ridges, long valleys, and the binary star of the blue Pom-A and red Pom-B gave it spectacular colors.

There were large oceans that shone in pink and orange colors on with blue and purple dancing on the waves on sunny days. Magnificent crystal formations of any colors of the rainbow had formed on most rocky beaches. Forests upon forests of teal and purple -leafed plants grew almost all over the planet.

It was this sight that a young scientist was watching as it was receding from her view. She sighed deeply, with a tiny twinge of longing inside her. But it was quickly replaced by excitement and hope for the future. She would become the chief scientist of one of the most advanced space stations in existence.

Despite still being under construction, the Sunstar Installation had completed habitats and the initial science decks. She was selected to be among the initial group transported there. The station was planned to be ready in five years and start full-scale operation a year later.

With a lifetime of studying sub-space bubbles, she now led a team to research the phenomenon on a dedicated platform. She couldn't contain her excitement.

But because sub-space bubbles — or spbubs, as she called them — were dangerous and very volatile in nature, a spaceship needed to be very special to reach there.

And she was. ISS Infinity. The first of her kind. As a great science platform itself, Infinity could accommodate about thirty people until supplies run out. Easily expandable for fifty people, life support sustained with fuel reserve upkeep.

Contrary to other space ships, Infinity used many kinds of fuel. Most ships just used energy emitted by stars to fuel them and provide them with energy to run and travel. But Infinity was different. She was designed to go where other ships couldn't, and stay for longer.

Infinity used energy and matter produced by a star to fuel its conventional engines and equipment like any other regular ship. But she also used gravitational particles, and most importantly, the energy and matter that it could collect from a sub-space bubble. It used that same energy to travel through the bubbles themselves.

A knock, then a door opening. A man walked in. He was not young anymore, but wasn't old either. He had a slight gray on his temples, but otherwise seemed in his prime. He was wearing a pale white overall-type uniform that had a plate on the left side of his chest. "Dr. Marco," the plate said.

"Mizuni," Marco said. His voice was clear, loud, and a tiny bit soft around the edges. Like he was consciously trying not to yell, but failing miserably. "The team wants you on the central deck," he said. "There's some talk about news and some procedures we must follow."

The young scientist, Mizuni, nodded and made sure her similar white overall-style uniform was decent, and her plate saying "Dr. Mizuni" was at least close enough okay.

"Sure," she said. Her voice was youthful and bright. She ran her finger through her bright red and spiky hair. Her skin was light teal color, and her eyes flickered slightly lavender in the dim light. She looked very young, like in her late teens, early 20s. She was exceptionally beautiful, her features almost perfectly symmetrical, and her face proportions exaggerated just so that she looked almost like a perfect doll.

Quasarian. The word is, that they originally came here from outside the galaxy thousands upon thousands of cycles ago. They were an exceptionally beautiful species, and most of them ended up as models or actors and actresses, or otherwise, in places where looks were everything. None of that ever interested Mizuni, though, and she had pursued a career in science since she was little.

She grinned and nodded towards Marco. "Let's go meet the team, then." Marco opened the door, and Mizuni followed. They passed a plaque of the ship itself, and Mizuni paused momentarily to look at it, then giggled at Marco.

"Marco. Are we really going to fly through the known universe, exit the other side of the Empire, fly beyond her borders, fly through a volatile sub-space bubble, and land on a space station? In a ship that looks like a large space-dildo that someone attached cybernetic donuts on both sides?" she said and tried to hold her laughter.

Marco grinned, then laughed aloud. "I've never heard someone describe it so, but when you put it like that, I have to agree," he said. "It does look like that. The sub-space drives do look like futuristic donuts," he said and laughed. "I have to remind you, Mizuni, that you designed the drives in the first place. Why did you design them to look like donuts? You have only yourself to blame," he added.

"Oh, ha ha, Marco," Mizuni said and smiled at him warmly. But it was true. Mizuni did design them. It's just that they contained a coil — essentially a particle accelerator on steroids — that just needed to be a circle, and they had to be balanced, so there was another one on the other side... So yeah. Donut ship.

"Wasn't me who came up with the space-dildo part, though," she said and grinned. "I bet they just pulled it out of some abandoned dock and told us it's 'the latest tech' and it's actually some old Terran tech from before the expansion," she added and then continued her walk forward. "Eh, nobody will see it anyway, once we're underway," she said.

"Mizuni," Marco said, with a slightly more serious tone. "How sure you about this tech? Will it work, or will we get blown to the next galaxy?" he said and lifted his eyebrow.

Mizuni stopped, turned around, and looked at Marco with a serious expression. "So, normally I would joke around and say something like 'that is the charm of it' and just laugh. But," she said and tapped her chin with her right hand index finger.

"Eh, let's go to the crew. I wanna tell the same thing to them anyway, so might as well tell it to you all at the same time. Let's go," she said and lead Marco towards the central deck elevators.