Castle in the Sky (Kaori, Jorus Merrill, PM for Invite)

[Juro Tanaka]

Juro Tanaka - Shogun of Asahi, Owner of Tanaka Orbital Shipyards, leader of his people, and father of three - stood upon the the observation deck of Orbital Shipyard-A. He could see the bare bones of a new ships being laid into position as swarms of workers set about welding, bolting, fusing, and generally doing all the labor involved in such a project. Around him stood a newfound friend, [member="Jorus Merrill"], and his AI turned XO turned companion, Kaori.

The ship before him was to be the shining example of all Asahi had to offer militarily with the advent of new technology brought about by their recent reintroduction to the galaxy at large. The bones before him would take their shape as the largest ship Asahi had ever produced. It would command whole fleets from lightyears away. It would coordinate forces in the heat of battle with flawless precision. It could outmaneuver, out plan, and out fight any enemy it encountered with tactics, speed, and finesse.

It would be the mighty heart of the Asahian fleet. A powerful symbol of military might. An indomitable figure of war.

It would be... a Castle in the Sky.

[member="Kaori"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Juro Tanaka"]

"There's some command ships that angle to be the heavy hitters," Jorus opined, pondering the plans, "an' then there's some that aim for tactical utility. Republic went for the former -- MC180 Remembrance-class. It's what they wanted, got tons of guns, but it's unsubtle as all feth. Fringe, eh...Fringe sort of relies on a bunch of unique command ships, though their Permanence is nothin' to sniff at as far as strategic mileage goes. But if we're talkin' this kind of speed, coordination, finesse...well, I can't think of an equivalent anywhere out there. What're your tradeoffs? I see some of it here in the plans, but spell it out for me."

 

[Juro Tanaka]

"Trade off?" Tanaka said, confused for a moment. He was quickly learning Basic, but his accent was very thick and he was still unfamiliar with various words, sayings, and slang. "Please, forgive. My Basic is... not good. You mean balance? The Akagi is... how you say? Light arm? We leave many guns from design. Make room for star warriors, I think is word? Much anti-air. We place En-cryp-ted Hypercomm. We buy from your contacts. Fringe, I think. Also Ranger Transceiver and Dedicated Energy Receptors. Many Receptors. New technology give the Akagi very good coordination ability. [member="Kaori"] will be installed in one. This one. Her sisters will be put on next three."

His Basic was terrible, but passable. The Asahian accent was very evident as his R's became L's and vice versa. He hoped that with practice, he would achieve a better grasp of the strange language. When that was done, he might even try to learn how to read and write in it.

"Akagi will be greatest ship in Asahi Fleet. It will coordinate all fleets in range. It is fast, very fast, and will be used as Flagship in engagements. Asahi fleet core will be carrier ships and star warrior ships. Use fast tactics, light-ning warfare, and rapid maneuver. Most ship we see from data given by your contacts tell us most enemies use heavy ships. Heavy arm. We will out maneuver heavy arm ships. Use star warrior ships to pin in place. Use fast battleship to pry apart weak point. Speed is our greatest ally. Kaori and her sisters will coordinate this. They will become the mind of Akagi ships. They will be final link in the tactics. To coordinate all fleets. To communicate with all ships, even in hyper-space. To create and respond to battle tactics. The Akagi will be heart and soul of the fleet. Kaori, Haruna, and Airi will become Fleet's mind. With this, Asahi fleet will become formidable on the battlefield."

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Juro Tanaka"]

Jorus was not, as it happened, a man accustomed to going without idiom. He'd been free with it when he had his sister to translate, but she was off doing Force knew what to Asahi's songsteel mines or something like that. Tanaka was obviously chewing at the linguistic bit, an above-average mind trying to force a fire hose of ideas through too small of an aperture. The result was speed, but Jorus kept up. In terms of making contact with remote worlds, this was not his first rodeo.

"Fast carriers, eh? That'll go part of the way toward fixing the problems that me and some others see in the big carrier model of ship design." He chewed his lip. "If you want, I could take a look at the hyperdrive. I know hyperdrives better than anyone, commissioned the fastest drives in hundreds of years. No guarantees, but I might be able to get the Akagi's main unit up to class point-seven-five. I'm no fleet tactician, but with the ideas you're pushin', faster hyperdrive might be an asset."

 

[Juro Tanaka]

Juro raised an eyebrow at [member="Jorus Merrill"]'s last statement. A faster hyperdrive meant the Akagi could travel faster to where it was needed. However, unless the Yamato-class was also increased accordingly, the Akagi could end up unprotected in an unknown engagement area. It was a trade off that Tanaka couldn't really figure out if it'd be more beneficial or detrimental.

"My only thought is... Akagi get... too fast," he stated with a mild frown. "Too fast means too early. Too early means no help in battle. Akagi is very strong ship and can handle itself for a time, but too long and Akagi takes too much damage. If whole fleet moved point seven five hyper speed, Akagi becomes not too fast. This needs much thought, I think. I will show you hyperdrive anyways. Perhaps our design is flawed. May need more experienced eye. Asahian engineers are skilled, but hyperdrive is... 'new' technology. You may see something they do not."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Juro Tanaka"]

"I'm sure it's solid, but I'd love to take a look. As for the going-too-fast thing, it's easy enough for me to set it up so you can dial it down to just a class one to arrive at the same time as its escorts, but the way you're talkin' about hypercomms an' grand strategy, it's an edge that might be worth having in a situational kind of way. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. No promises." He tapped the Santhe/Sienar sonic servodriver at his hip. "Where do you keep the Akagi's hyperdrive design team?"

 

[Juro Tanaka]

Tanaka gestured for [member="Jorus Merrill"] to follow him and started down the hall. A few dozen feet, four doors, and two hologram projectors for [member="Kaori"] later, he entered the hyperdrive design team's conference room. On the walls and set up on holoprojectors were various hyperdrive designs, components, and statistics.

"This is Akagi hyperdrive design team. I will translate for you if you need," Tanaka stated to his companion. He then turned to the men and women in the room. "<This is Captain Jorus Merrill. He's here to help give a fresh set of eyes to our designs. Not that you aren't skilled in your areas, but he has years more experience and practical field knowledge that would be invaluably useful to us. Please treat him with respect. Also, he does not speak Asahian, but I will translate.>"

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Juro Tanaka"]

"Something worth knowin' about me, if you'll forgive me a moment's ego, to make sure you know that I'm not some outlander physicist here to steal your thunder - ah, make you look less capable than you are. I'm a pilot by trade. You're working with class one systems, military grade. I've commissioned ships with class point five and even point four." He grinned and tapped his temple. "And I can make a ship go point two. That's what I do. I love fast hyperdrives almost as much as I love my wife and kid. Will you let me take a look at what you've got?"

 

[Juro Tanaka]

Tanaka translated for his engineers and listened to their response.

"They are grateful for help, but do not know how you make point five hyper-drive without catastrophic failure," Tanaka said, translating their concerns. "All our testing show the hyper-drive suffering massive failure. Most ships do not survive."

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Juro Tanaka"]

"There's ways, there's ways. Shogun, honorable scientists, would you like to join me for a quick spin around the block? That is, ah..." He floundered for non-idiomatic words. "I've got a ship goes point five, in this system, my family's home, the Daragon. Pathfinder-class. I say it'll go point five, but I've taken it to point two reliably with my, uh, talents. That, an' there's a Brodo Asogan extragalactic breach point not too terribly far from here." His eyes gleamed with enthusiasm and, perhaps, a glimmer of hyperlight. "Want to go for a ride?"

 

[Juro Tanaka]

"Extragalactic breach?" Tanaka said to himself quietly with a mild frown. He then translated the engineers and scientists [member="Jorus Merrill"]'s offer.

"Most will accompany you, as will I," Tanaka said after listening to the response. "Dr. Sakai will refrain. He possesses a... heart sickness and feels his.... excitement would complicate the sickness."

Tanaka knew that Sakai had a heart problem. Specifically, a heart murmur. The reality was the Sakai had a phobia of high speeds and flight, which was ironic that he made hyperdrive engines for the Asahian Fleet. The Shogun thought it was hilarious, but the man did good work so it wasn't an issue. He felt Sakai staying behind wouldn't benefit the scientist in any way, but Tanaka figured it would probably be worth the lack of urine smell later.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Juro Tanaka"]

"I'll be sure to provide Doctor Sakai with full sensor readouts, holovid, and engine stress workups. I'll ask for my ship to come by within the hour, if that's suitable."

Forty minutes put them on the Daragon. The Pathfinder-class was the size of a frigate, armed like one too, but maneuvered like a ship one tenth its length, to say nothing of its mass. Also, two people could fly it. The current crew involved the little Kushibah Miktik, the taciturn Wookiee Beyyr, and the socially awkward, armor-encased Resu known as the Iron Giant. They'd served as his crew for a long, long time. Once the Shogun and the design team were aboard -- much of the design team set up camp in the hyperdrive room, though some opted to observe from the bridge -- Jorus took the pilot's seat and got to work.

The Daragon jumped to lightspeed, class point five. The navicomputer was not, as it happened, engaged. For all intents and purposes they were flying blind, capable of running into a star and dying instantly. When a member of the design team saw fit to comment, Jorus turned and grinned, and his eyes were burning with the same blue hyperlight that danced outside the viewports. A purpose-build spedometer began to tick down from 0.5. It reached 0.36 before the ship trembled and shuddered its way through the Brodo Asogan breach point.

"Time to open her up on the straightaway."

0.25. 0.22. 0.20. 0.18. 0.19. 0.18. 0.21. 0.20. 0.20. 0.20.

Reversion.

Another galaxy lay before them, very close, a relatively tiny elliptical one without spiral arms. Hands shaking, sweating profusely, Jorus sat back in his chair. "Companion Grek, it's called, farthest one out of their galaxy's seven satellites. Rishi Maze is the closest; my people did a lot of business there. Firefist is the next closest, though that's already pretty far. Only one I've ever heard of who's been here is me, with my family and crew, just a handful of times."

He turned the Daragon away from Companion Grek, and let them look down on their home galaxy.

 

[Juro Tanaka]

Tanaka sat glued to the seat he sat in and simply stared out of the viewport. The view was amazing but the way they'd arrived was far, far more so. His heart was racing, which wasn't the greatest thing for him according to his doctor, but he didn't care right now. The shogun peeled himself away from the back of the chair and looked at [member="Jorus Merrill"] with an unreadable look on his face.

"That was most terrifying ride in my life," Juro stated bluntly, evenly, and calmly. "I like this hyperdrive."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Juro Tanaka"]

Eyes half-lidded, Jorus smiled and leaned back against the headrest. "I'm partial to it myself. Now, just so we're clear, point-five is as high as the ship'll go with anyone but me at the helm - I've never seen, heard of, or flown a ship that'll do above point four. But I can sure give ya the number of the folks who make this ship. My wife and I were the shipwrights, mostly her -- she's better at this than I am. I kinda specialize in ugly freighters. Yeah, I'm rambling." He stood, with effort. "Think I'm gonna take a sonic shower and a nap before we head back. I'm sure your folks have more than enough to do down in the hyperdrive chamber; feel free to poke through my star charts for this area. We're at a point I've been known to use, so there's some jump options if you want to take her for a spin. Just watch out for stobor."

With a wave, he slid down a ladder and was gone.

 

[Juro Tanaka]

Tanaka nodded his thanks and gestured for the scientists to get to work. The shogun divided his time between perusing the star charts and overseeing the work in the hyperdrive, though he did admittedly roam the ship and take in the design. At one point he looked at the scans the scientists and engineers were taking and realized the wealth of data that was being gathered. A hyperdrive like this answered many of the questions and solved most of the problems they had been having with a hyperdrive faster than a 1.0 rating. In fact, it was almost twelve to fifteen times faster than the scans that were held under the Emperor's palace taken hundreds of years ago. This would be a major step forward in Asahian ship design. Tanaka secretly wondered if this type of hyperdrive could be mounted on another ship currently under initial construction. That would have to wait for a later time, perhaps. For now, the engineers and scientists were finishing up hyperdrive scans and moving on to discussing various attributes of the engine's construction and, potentially, making a faster version.

The shogun shook his head. An hour or two ago and they were having issues with making a 1.0 rated hyperdrive. Now they were talking about going as low as 0.5 or even lower. He doubted it would ever work and, quite honestly, even if they did it would probably be far too dangerous for any kind of use.

Seeing that the work was mostly completed, Tanaka busied himself with gazing at starcharts and various other components in the cockpit.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Juro Tanaka"]

After the shower and the nap, he found himself drawn to the hyperdrive room and the design team, where a first-contact translator droid was waxing eloquent over the labelling. Frankly, he'd forgotten he'd ever bought one from Dashiell, but that was a good droid and it did its job well. Through it, he soon found himself discoursing on exponential volumetric scaling for hyperspace bubbles, and what reasonable limits could apply to ships of the wall.

At which point he tossed in an anecdote, they pounced on it, and he found himself pulling up Void Station sensor data to punctuate and prove a couple of stories. One of the clips depicted a refitted Imperial II-class being evacuated. Without warning, the bridge tower and only the bridge tower jumped to hyperspace; the rest of the ship exploded moments later. The second clip depicted an even more ancient and decrepit vessel, a Harrower-class dreadnought pulled off Raxus Prime. It, too, lost its bridge tower to a hyperspace event.

"Warlord Sith Masters. What can I say. First one had my wife. There's a lot of things can be done with hyperspace bubbles."

 

[Juro Tanaka]

Tanaka listened to the talk of hyperspace bubbles only partially. His main focus was how to adapt the faster hyperdrive to the Akagi and maybe the planned escort that would accompany it.

"Mister Merrill," he said, his accent coloring his words heavily to the point where it sounded like he'd called the man 'Miller'. "This zero point seven five hyper-drive. Could it be installed on a more heavy ship? Not a carrier?"

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Juro Tanaka"]

"Fringe has a ship called the Chimaera, a big heavy command ship, that I've clocked at point five. 'Course, they ripped that drive out of a ship that came from way out here, a ship not many could understand. But yeah, a little faster than one point oh is doable for a full-sized ship of the wall. Expensive, don't get me wrong, and tough to get right, but doable. Potentially."

 

[Juro Tanaka]

"I am not afraid of money," the Shogun said with a mild hand wave at the issue. "If Akagi has zero point seven five hyper-drive, then the escort ships must have zero point seven five hyper-drive. This way, Akagi not... too fast. Not too early to fight. Escorts will keep up and stay with Akagi. [member="Kaori"] can manage hyper-drive. She will monitor ship systems and maintain ship."

With that, Tanaka gestured to the small hologram projector clipped to the shoulder of his uniform. He'd brought her along in the event she wished to give input as well.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Juro Tanaka"]

"An AI? You mentioned something along those lines, three sisters, somethin' like that?" Jorus grinned. "AI control coordination, now there's a tech I've never played with. A Pathfinder's heavily automated, but not semi-sentient. It occurs to me that havin' an AI to measure stress predictors on an experimental fast drive could be a serious boon. Well, two fast drives - your Kaze and the hyperdrive your folks are building. Good team you've got here."