Orion

The Orion is a massive, ancient deep-range starship, stuck in part of the superstructure of Puzzlebox, approximately ten light-years out from the Mess. It's immobile, though functional as a habitation and de facto headquarters for the Bonobian faction. Only a small percentage of the ship is usable, the rest sealed off with elaborate safeguards and security doors, most of which are impossible to bypass, by whomever the ship's former crew was. The ship is quite safe, having been carefully left and tended to by Puzzlebox itself, but having been stripped of any and all of it's useful parts. Because of the versatility inherent in Orion's workhorse-style design, it has become the ideal home for the Bonobians, allowing them to modify vast areas of what is available to them to suit their needs.

The Ship

As a spacefaring vessel, the Orion would have been a deep-range, multirole starship, able to cross space with relative ease, and reconfigure itself on the fly. Orion is approximately fourteen hundred metres long, and several hundred wide. Each deck is three and a half metres high, and there are at least a hundred of them. Only a few are accessible, all via the main deck, the spine of the Orion. It is theorized that the vessel is powered by a trapped microsingularity, using a process of vaccuum energy extraction. Magnetic field generators make up fully a third of the Orion's mass, used both to contain and mitigate the effects of Orion's gravity well, but also as an integral part of the ship's now-useless interstellar propulsion system. The ship is comprised mainly of two types of material; one is a nano-engineered crystalline composite, several orders of magnitude harder than most composites, and laced with superconducting fibres. The inner hull is a lightweight composite alloy that looks like and can be shaped like plastic, but is hard and cool to the touch like most metal solids. The interior architecture is smooth, curved lines with diode illumination, with all available areas smooth, well-kept, and brightly lit. Imbedded in the walls, behind pull-down panels, are computer consoles. However, the Orion computer has been belligerent at best, responding only to the simplest of inquiries. 99.99% of the Orion's systems are still locked out.

The Bonobian capital of the Mess

After discovering Orion on a vacation outing, Phoenix decided to transfer the home of the Bonobian faction from the burgeoning, crowded Mess's Bottomwarp to the more secluded, peaceful Orion, where there was room to expand. After several events that transpired between himself, and other factions, Phoenix regarded the Orion as valuable real estate for its protection as well as it's seclusion. Connected only by an n-space gate located in Bottomwarp, access is controlled in and out, and events are carefully monitored on-board to prevent violence. As a result of this security, Phoenix has taken the Orion and redeveloped it completely into a Bonobian locus of activity. Systems and areas have been converted for Bonobian use, resulting in an impressive array of facilities.

• Apartments - Converted crew quarters have been turned into residences for the general public, and Bonobians alike.
• Central Corridor - The spine of the Orion, the Central Corridor runs from bow to stern. However, most of it is inaccessible and used for crew quarters, so this now refers to the main hub room of the Orion. Most corridors are octagonal, 3.5 by 3.5 metres, whereas the Corridor is twice as wide. Here you can find a stage for small performances, couches, lounges, screens, and orderable drugs, as well as access to the rest of the Orion.
• Observation Dome - The eye of the Orion, the observation dome is a forward-looking bubble, arranged in what used to be a forward weapons mount at the very tip of the Orion. Now, a walkway takes you from the Forward Intersection approximately a hundred metres out to a round platform, letting you see one of the best views in the Mess. It's quiet and contemplative, away from everything.
• Holodecks - Fractally generated pattern environments, a combination of n-space compression and simulation, allow for enormous environments to be generated in tiny spaces. Two of these, with programmable environments, are available.
• Launch Bay - Three small spacefaring vessels are available for public use, the three fates, though they require signing-out before they can go anywhere. For those going outside, the bay containing the only functional set of space-doors on the Orion.
• Library/Galleria - A library and art gallery combined, this area has a moderately large stage for plays or concerts, a gallery level for showing artwork, and a library level with access to Bonobian records, the Mess's datasphere, and a secure Bonobian backup terminal.
• Upper Play Room - One of the largest stages available in the Mess, and certianly in Bottomwarp, the Upper Play Room is a converted module bay. Two hundred metres long and nearly a hundred wide, as well as fifty high, this area looks out onto space, on the exposed side of the Orion's hull. With a massive sound system and plenty of space, this area is typically a twenty-four hour party.
• Workshop - For the more studious types, a cargo bay was converted for use as a laboratory and manufacturing facility combined. Facilities are provided here for every kind of engineering imaginable, including biological, psychological, and conventional types. Consent safeguards are in place here, to prevent misuse of the facilities.

OOC Notes

• Orion's crew, origin and mission are all unknown to Phoenix, though OOCly he has a backstory all worked out. He may play with it at a later date.
• If you want to use the Fates (the singleships), or book the stages for performances, just ask. :)
• The interiors are violence-free; Phoenix has rigged it so that any tasping, fighting, energy discharges, that sort of thing, gets the user sucked into an n-space portal for holding. Safety first.
• Residences are available.
• The design of the Orion is based off of a 'Construx' ship that I built many years ago. I'm loathe to take anything that complicated and neat apart, so it's been sitting on a shelf, collecting dust, for several years. Despite the immaturity of the medium Orion was sculpted in, it's nonetheless valid.
• I've been thinking about Orion for a lot longer than I have Puzzlebox. Hence the...tenacious detail of my description. I might write more here later.

Reference Pictures

A couple of pics I snapped with my digicam, for reference in planning Orion out, I figured I'd post them, for the hell of it.

• [A three-quarter view of Orion's front end, perspective on what's exposed from the PB superstructure.]
• [A top-down view of the Orion.]
• [Overview, showing what's actually exposed and what's stuck inside Puzzlebox.]

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