Space Wal-Mart

[Jessica Med-Beq]

After this trip on Asop that led to the exploration of an old Jedi Temple that dated back to the One Sith era, Jessica was back in the controls of a capital ship again. This time around, it is a bulk freighter carrying station components; it is displaying as such on the sensors of any ship in-system. As with all hyperspace-capable ships, all three of the inertial compensator, tensor field generator and hyperdrive were tested simultaneously on the Alexandria. But all of the main sublight tests were not conducted yet on this prototype she called a stealth carrier, nor were the weapons tests on these brand-new components, and the featured three new weapons: the Aroma, the Massage and the Kaeshana. These items were never tested in combat, but this is not the place for testing the carrier's tactical systems, nor is it the place to test command-and-control systems or its cloaking device. Once the Alexandria makes its reversion to realspace in high orbit over Dagobah...

"Julie, everyone and their dogs in the Rebellion expect that this ship is a little sluggish, especially given its escorts. You have the controls for sublight testing"

"Roger, roger" Julie responded, upon taking the pilot's seat.

"Open a channel to [member="Lokthra Dawning"]"

"Roger, roger" Marcia responded.

 

[Diysuperguy33]

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

Lokthra was aboard her new company's spacestation. It was a gigantic one, mostly built, but with some major upgrades in the works. Lokthra had only just gained ownership of the company one rotation ago, she called forth a friend to help her settle things with her space station and the company. The space station was what she particularly wanted help with, it had the main smaller inner section completely built, but it had half built hangers and dockyards for corvettes, freighters and various other low-medium tier ships. Thankfully they had a lot of credits to work with... With all the upgrades already done, and the amount of money still left. Well it concerns lokthra how the money was made...

"Mam we are being hailed, someone by the name of Jessica" Said one of the officer's.

"Oh wonderful. She's on time, send it through" Lokthra said gleefully "Hello Jessica, Hope your travels were well"

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"[member="Lokthra Dawning"], you will find that I have components to help finish the construction of the station, as well as 7 squadrons of 12 tugs apiece to help finish the construction of the dockyards"

Even though tugs were not usually grouped into squadrons, when the Butcher of Korriban wanted to get Ringo's orbital dockyards approved before the regulatory authorities, Jessica had to acknowledge that tug squadrons were often a fact of life that enabled organizational separation that made for effective work in orbital drydocks. What Lokthra will soon realize is that the Alexandria is a massive ship, almost as massive as the station itself. And, of course, since the sales of the larger ships are a little slow lately, the main revenue stream comes from the Neimoidian Yachts, Gunships and the AT-AT barges. May as well set up shop on Dagobah once this is all over, she thought, but it shouldn't come at the cost of the main facility on Ringo Vinda, so it should be limited to the distribution of the brand-new Aroma and Massage long-ranged weapons. Producing these things cannot be done with the limited space they would be allotted inside what they can possibly lease in it, if allowed to lease space in it afterward. As the components are ferried into the main hangar for deployment by the 84 tugs...

 

[Diysuperguy33]

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

"Why thank you," She said excitedly yet graciously.

"We don't have much up just yet, but I invite you to my office to share some tonic, and perhaps discuss some plans. I hear your quite the designer!"

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"I accept the invitation. I'm on my way; please transmit the coordinates"

So Lokthra didn't realize that I am carrying a dark secret pertaining to one particular planet? Mind you, that planet, while just a few hexes away from Dagobah, is a planet that lies outside of Galactic Alliance space, she thought. She was relieved to see that this accursed planet was never mentioned directly to her, no more than the faction with whom said planet is associated, nor even indirectly alluded to. By now virtually everyone has forgotten about that event, and those who still remember, either lived on the planet that was afflicted, or were parties in what transpired there. Marcia used the hidden, emergency caches to rebuild the destroyed slipways back on Ringo Vinda. Nevertheless, command-and-control systems tests on the Alexandria would seriously put the ship-wide neural net to the test. Once the channel with [member="Lokthra Dawning"] is closed onboard the Alexandria, its bridge is buzzing with activity.

"Standby for command-and-control tests. Launch all 84 tugs! Meanwhile, prepare the shuttle: I will meet with the foreman of the construction site myself"

"Roger, roger"

"What about me?" Julie asked.

"Conduct speed/maneuvering tests; then again I do not expect the ship to be overly maneuverable"

 

[Diysuperguy33]

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

Lokthra sent the coordinates to her. She prepared her half remodeled office for Jessica. Got the glasses out and the tonic. This would be the chance Lokthra had waited for, perhaps someone that could beneficially aid in the design process? She didn't know for sure. But everyone has their price?

She went back out to the command center.

"Father, could you get the tugs started while I entertain our guest?"

"Of course Dawn. Daddy's here to save your day again" He said in a joking fashion.

Lokthra returned to the office and waited for her special guest.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

As expected, Julie [Jutland] found the Alexandria to move and maneuver like a sleepy Hutt, all the same as the Providence-X, and the Alexandria is supposed to fill a similar role to the Providence-X, only with a cloaking device. With stealth it is seemingly easier for the ship to afford not being overly maneuverable, but Jessica had to use Force-speed to get to the shuttle from the bridge. Julie and Marcia gasped, upon seeing Jessica using Force-speed to run at the speed they expect of a 100-meter dash; it became clear to them that Jessica overtook Julie in nearly every aspect of Force-usage. But upon arriving at the hangar, her body was more than just a little exhausted, even though her Force-batteries weren't: she was rather short of breath, her heart would pound and beat a lot faster than usual, and she would feel the need to drink. Hopefully, she would be able to do so with tonic (so long as said tonic wasn't alcohol-based in nature). For now, she used Force-healing to stabilize her bodily functions, but no more than that. But she did input the coordinates of the nearest docking bay as the destination inside the station, where [member="Lokthra Dawning"] awaited.

"Requesting permission to depart hangar"

"All clear"

Upon departing the main hangar, it was really short, like a neighborhood speeder trip in a surface city. And she wasted no time getting to the next docking bay, close enough to the office of the foreman of the whole project. And the outer hull was finished, it was more of a question of finishing the inner systems and the internal layout, for which she was in a design meeting with Lokthra. That, even though the ribs and frame were mostly in place.

 

[Diysuperguy33]

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

Lokthra could see Jessica's shuttle landing, the idea's she once had, now seem possible. Lokthra quickly fixed her suit before waiting in a form position, waiting for who she considered being one of the only hopes for the company.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

In Jessica's mind, [member="Lokthra Dawning"] had ideas but limited clues as to how to implement them. She then walked a short distance to the office that Lokthra asked her to meet at. She would be ready to talk about the Sabrina waste heat recovery devices, the ship-wide neural net, among other components. But she soon realized that the long-range weapons she called the Aroma and the Massage couldn't be sold under these names; she needed to think of alternate names for these things. Yet she knew that these things couldn't be tested in full view of everyone else, but Julie tested the engines' emergency thrust in the background: the Alexandria maneuvered like a catatonic Hutt, but it could fly at the speed expected of medium cruisers or so. Once she entered the half-remodeled room Lokthra called an office, she noticed that the green-faced Mirialan readily wanted to take a seat, but she had to lean to enter the office's door due to her near-Wookiee frame. She found a cup of tonic right in front of her, and she has caught her breath by now.

"I'm Jessica. I may be wondering what design issues are still unresolved"

 

[Diysuperguy33]

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

"All work no play? That's fair" Lokthra put down her tonic.

She walked back to her desk and pulled out a note. She then handed this note to Jessica

"The previous owner had planned some upgrades so he could start mass production of larger ships. At the moment this station can only truly mass produce fighters, bombers, and other smaller ships. I don't have the blueprints or planning process, it seems to me he did it himself or with close friends help. I honestly don't know what they were thinking with the design, so I'd like to create a new one and hopefully save money by keeping what is already built. Did you have any ideas? Most else on that list is self explanatory. Anything else you can help me with?"

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"The key here is to outfit retractable docks: you want docks that can adjust to different ships being outfitted. You know by now that, for a given dock, you can't assume that the next one after the one under construction is going to be the same as the last one. Retractable docks mean that retractable ribs are necessary. For regulatory purposes, as long as the size of the station with the drydocks fully extended does not exceed about 2400m in its largest dimension, and that it remains lightly armed, the Alliance will approve the station for operation. With a ship-wide neural net, the computer mainframe can have extra redundancy without the need for bulky computer equipment: the nodes are about the size of handheld datapads or even smaller than that, and they can be placed in every critical location! Plus, for the living quarters to be kept at comfortable temperatures, waste heat recovery devices can be hooked up to the reactors to power the life support systems and the droid recharge stations" she told [member="Lokthra Dawning"], while outlining the solutions she have to the items on her client's checklist. "I apologize if it seems like too much information at once: I often seem to get highly enthusiastic when it comes to the design of ships or space stations"

If this station could only mass-produce attack craft, it just doesn't have orbital docks. Then again, thermo-hydraulics are the key to operate functional retractable docks, she thought. Meanwhile the aforementionned ship-wide neural net and waste heat recovery devices are being tested onboard the Alexandria by Julie and Marcia, alongside her crew. Sure Julie could tell minute differences between the speed and maneuvering of ships that size, but for all things computers, Marcia is the go-to lady. And even for thermodynamics, there's no discussion to be had: Marcia had more talent for that.