Need for Theed: Apailana

[Ashin Varanin]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Like everything else about Naboo these days, the Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps headquarters was beautiful, battle-scarred, officious, formal, insular, prim, accomplished, pedigreed, and unimpressive. Lacking in initiative, funding, hope, ambition...[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Graying engineers and silver-haired executives and Alec karking Rekali sat around a table in a sumptuously appointed boardroom full of artistic and historical merit. This was not the first such meeting. It would not be the last such meeting. This particular gathering, fortunately, had a particular purpose: Alec had requested a review of an existing project, a long-overdue remake and update of the classic J-type diplomatic barge. Working title: Apailana-class. She had a list of elite customers lined up for this and other vessels, with promises of bespoke everything. Now to deliver.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]The room was still reeling, eyebrows raised, from her announcement that she didn’t intend to take a personal hand in designing everything. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Oh, I get that it’s the done thing,” she said, “but I don’t actually know a whole lot about shipbuilding, and less about luxury ships.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Indistinguishable silvering execs shared glances. “Ms. Rekali,” said one -- Jasper, or possibly Bates -- “we understood that you were a Force-sensitive majority investor. Force-sensitive majority investors [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]always [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]take a personal hand in designing flagship projects, normally accelerated projects. And since we’ve already been working on the Apailana for three years-”[/SIZE]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“I’m not a Forcer.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“But you walked through the door.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“No, I didn’t.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“I’m afraid you did, Ms. Rekali.” Several people nodded.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Was the door open right before that? Or right after, I guess?” She’d flunked Intro to Causality shortly before dropping out of the Levantine Astronautical Academy.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“I’d just shut it.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Few seconds, then? Close enough. And I was reading something when I came in, right?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“I believe so.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Alec shrugged. “So let’s talk about the ship.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]The J-type designation covered several disparate unique or semi-unique Old Republic-era vessels. The J-type diplomatic barge, specifically, was a big, loud, chromed-up, swept-wing, four-engine luxury yacht with a wingspan as broad as a corvette was long. It had been used by one apparently legendary queen-slash-senator a very long time ago. (Not, incidentally, the queen after which it was named, but her predecessor. Naboo folks were picky about these things.) From the tenor of the conversation, Alec had surmised that the original vessel was destroyed by terrorists at the onset of the Clone Wars, or maybe that was another, similar J-type. She couldn’t quite keep them straight. Those two J-types looked virtually identical except for the four large engines. Idly, she wondered where they’d put the engines on the other one, the skiff. That one looked better; cleaner profile. But this was the one that the Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps had been aiming to resurrect as a flagship product; the others could wait. [/SIZE]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[SIZE=14.6667px]As far as she could tell, the Apailana stayed very close to the original J-type diplomatic barge in spirit and function. She didn’t much [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]like [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]that spirit or function, but she could grow into it. Even if the ship was blindingly slow at sublight. Average for its size, of course, but who settled for average? But she’d said she wouldn’t interfere, and anyways the Apailana looked to have so much else going for it that shoehorning in killer engines probably wouldn’t do much good for the reactor. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Fortunately, she could get behind the hyperspace side of things. The original J-types had boasted uniformly solid hyperdrives; one had been pushing 0.7. This one had a Silk hypertransit package: killer navicomputer, proprietary routes, class 0.5, and a backup at class twelve. She noted several other components by Silk, mainly defensive countermeasures modules that she knew intimately. Low-volatility chaff/flare, tractor shroud, cap drains. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“So you’re not going with just Nubian components?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Many glances exchanged, many emotions poorly concealed. “We have…” said Bates, or perhaps Jasper, “...a complex history with Nubia StarDrives in its variegated incarnations.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Bless you.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Hm?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]With difficulty, Alec kept a straight face. “Go on.”[/SIZE]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Anciently, we sourced most of our components through them, to the point where we were often spoken of in a single breath. Our designs, their components. But in recent years, what with our political turmoil-”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“And not to impugn their quality,” another cut in.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Certainly not. But for some years now they have been making replicas of our ancient designs and selling them under the Nubian brand name, with the same designations. Not illegal under interstellar law-”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Because there is no interstellar law,” said Alec.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Quite right, Ms. Rekali. Under Naboo law, of course, we feel we have a firm claim to our intellectual property, but that goes only for this world and its environs.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Ahh. And you don’t want to go to war, legal or otherwise, because Shel’tah is a karking genius and Aurora is huge. So this…” Alec gestured at the holographic blueprint of the Apailana. “This is your strategy. Let them keep making the ships you made a thousand years back, and make new ones, better ones, based on the same spaceframes, the ones your firm designed. But without using Nubian components. Well, it’s passive-aggressive as feth, but I think I like it. How can I help?”[/SIZE]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[SIZE=14.6667px]The general idea, it transpired, was to make this elegant, unarmed ship absolutely impregnable. They’d already secured molecular shield generators -- a stunningly nasty technology -- but they’d left room for other solutions. Which was where Alec came in. Because they’d done their research: they knew she was heir apparent to Clan Rekali, and they knew she had a long history with the Underground. It turned out she was actually use to them apart from her money and sales connections.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Defensively speaking, what they wanted were options, and it turned out that Clan Rekali could provide them. Indirectly, anyway. ArmaTech had a new project on the way, and part of it had gone to market: the Aegis shield receptor node. Individually useless, totally worthless...except that ArmaTech was also developing a specialized shield projector capable of donating shield strength to a staggering degree. Alec had a fairly clear idea of how much detail she could give (and she was sure that her picture of the Aegis system was incomplete), but when she laid out the basics, eyebrows rose -- this time, in a good way. A station or vessel outfitted with the under-construction projector could donate its shields, splitting them up among any number of vessels outfitted with receptor nodes. Instant cruiser-grade shields or better, [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]on top of [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]the molecular shielding. And at minimal power cost to the Apailana.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Clan Rekali had the access; they’d contracted with ArmaTech and Clan Vereen recently. Alec stepped outside and made a call. [/SIZE]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Once she’d demonstrated her worth, such as it was, the meeting shifted tenor. Now came a new sort of question, carefully phrased, oblique enough that it took her a good couple of minutes to understand where they were going with this. They wanted to know just how much old Fringe tech she could access. Ships destroyed or captured by the Underground, old caches, forgotten border posts, that sort of thing. The Fringe Confederation was defunct, burned out, thanks in no small part to the Underground. There were times Alec regretted her small but prolonged role in changing the face of the Unknown Regions. This wasn’t one of them.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Ohhh - I get it. You want a bite-me. A B1-TM3 missile deactivator suite. That’s heavy hardware. We generally rate that around the same effectiveness as twenty point-defense emplacements. That’s a [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]lot [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]for a ship this size, even if you look at it as a corvette. I think the manufacturer recommends never installing it on any warship under heavy cruiser size, unless it’s a...oh.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“A dedicated countermeasures vessel,” said Bates, or possibly Jasper, with a satisfied smile. “Ms. Rekali, the Apailana is absolutely unarmed; its combat survivability is inextricable from its ECM capabilities.”[/SIZE]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Alec chewed her lip. “You got the room?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“For the missile deactivator or something very much like it, yes.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Well, for starters, you don’t want the salvage. Iron Crown will sell these suckers. The firm’s a lot bigger than most people think; it just relies on common brand names. Owns half the Unknown Regions and everything from the Sluis Van shipyard to the Banking Clan. Yes -- they own the Banking Clan. Far cry from a Fringe parastatal. They’ve got a serious sideline in unique ship components, though they do most of their branded Unknown Regions export business a good ways from here.” She pointed at the floating schematic. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m still dubious. I’ve gone up against these things before, from the outside and the inside. They’re bulky, they’re power hogs, and they’ll boost your crew requirement, so better be prepared to shoehorn a few more bunks in.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“That’s been foreseen.” A polite reminder that she’d pledged not to meddle in the design.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Fair enough. I’ll...uh, leave it to one of you to make the call. Iron Crown and I don’t have the best rapport, but they’ll jump at the chance to have their components featured in one of your elite transports. They’ll probably offer a whole lot more; do what you want with it. Just don’t make a chromed-up art deco Hellbore.” Alec chuckled at her own joke. She was the only one laughing. [/SIZE]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“So tell me about these sockets here, the four on the wings.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“The originals were designed for recharging N-1 starfighters, which have a hyperdrive range of under a thousand light-years.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Pretty standard for a fighter that’s not built as a scout.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Quite.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“And we’re resurrecting the N-1 as well, right?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“In due time, Ms. Rekali. What we’ve done is make the sockets omnicompatible with the various charging/docking ports we’ve developed.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Alec squinted at the diagram, with and without the fighters. “Hold on. You expect pilots to crawl out the tail and through the wing? Is there even space for that?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“No, no -- it’s a charging port. There’s no physical access for the pilots; they stay in their cockpits throughout the trip. That’s the way it’s always been. It looks elegant and it works.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Alec bit her tongue hard. “So. Omnicompatible?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Oh, yes. We mean to make this vessel compatible with a whole host of small craft options, both classic and upcoming. The Apailana will be able to carry a full four starfighters -- its own escort -- anywhere in the galaxy.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“The fuel tanks sure look big enough. Hyperdrive range must be in the six figures.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“If major routes are used, certainly. Four small craft without internal access may not be particularly impressive for a corvette -- but for a private luxury yacht, it’s respectable.”[/SIZE]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“So where did you find all this extra room? For the countermeasures packages, the Aegis, almost double the crew, plus those look like advanced inertial dampeners...how’d you free all that up? Not like this is the roomiest spaceframe to begin with.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Technological advancements, in part. Many components are somewhat smaller than their ancient equivalents, Dark Age notwithstanding. The arms races of the past decades have set us in good stead. For example, the original J-type diplomatic barge had redundant deflector shields, comprising a ray and particle component, as well as redundant ray shields. Very solid anti-warhead protection, absolutely stellar anti-energy protection. But very bulky. Most of the tail section, various other areas…” Bates, or perhaps Jasper, brought up the Apailana beside the nearly-identical original, then stripped them down to holographic cross-sections and deftly highlighted the numerous shield generators in the latter. Jasper, potentially Bates, was warming to his topic. “With a pair of high-end molecular shield generators, we get comparable coverage strength, drastically reduced combat power drain, and much less bulk. We’ve shifted other component equivalents to fit, and freed up areas here, here, and here for heretofore unspecified defensive augments. The Silkworm Hypertransit Package is also somewhat leaner than the old Nubian hyperdrive and navicomputer, even with the backup unit. We also saved space by removing the senatorial kitchenette and spa.”[/SIZE]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Then let’s talk about the downsides.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“First and foremost, the Apailana is a luxury vessel. Its target market doesn’t mind making a statement. As a result...this vessel is highly visible to every sensor-”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“And eardrum,” someone muttered.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“-known to man. It simply cannot sneak or keep a low profile. It has a large sensor cross-section, it’s visually striking and distinctive, and we don’t recommend attempting to fit it with stealth gear. Secondly, it has no conventional or offensive weaponry whatsoever. Nothing but countermeasures. Thirdly, its speed is merely average for a small corvette, comparable to the original J-type experience; sublight speed was not a design priority. And fourthly, there’s the small matter of the wings.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Thin cross-section, unimpressive armour, vulnerable fuel tanks.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Quite. Another holdover from the initial design, but unavoidable if we wanted to retain the distinctive look. For safety reasons, you understand. Specialized baffles and miniature field barriers make the tanks something of a sacrificial lamb -- should the countermeasures and excellent shields fail. The Apailana can fly without one or both wings, and will take no significant damage even from a serious fuel tank breach. A small backup fuel source in the main fuselage permits ongoing operation.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]They all seemed to find the list acceptable, and Alec couldn’t fault them. For what it was, the ship looked decent. Flagship-product-decent? Maybe, at that.[/SIZE]