Julius found himself unable to tear his eyes from what could only be described as the most beautiful, stunning, and for lack of a better term, biggest structures he's ever seen in his life. That's including the Mega-Towers from the major cities of Earth. At no point as they moved closer to the structure did it seem small, and that's saying something considering the nearest object to the structure was the Sun. Oh yes, not a planet or a moon but the Celestial body that all objects in this solar system orbit. It took at least a minute before Julius was able to actually comprehend the scope of it and finally field Stella some much-needed questions.
“That's the ship?!” Asked Julius in a tone that would never be confused with anything but surprise and shock.
“Yes, you may not have realized it but when you mentioned the reason for the name you chose, you kind of hit the nail on the head, as Earthlings would say.”
“Okay, for one Earthlings was always such a terrible name for us. At least call them Humans or Terrans. Two, why in God's name is it so big? I was picturing something like, I don't know, smaller. That looks like it could hold a planet's population with no issues!” Exclaimed Julius.
“Almost but not quite. The Phoenix, like all Guardian Home-ships, were originally built as a colonization vessel. However, it was deemed that having the Sector base of operations for Guardians stationary was too dangerous. They then refit each ship to continue holding the same amount of people but with better offensive and defensive measures. I'll send you the schematics now.” replied Stella.
After Stella informed him of the transfer, Julius got a massive data burst from her directly into his brain. Taking a minute to let it settle down Julius began to sort through it all. The actual dimensions of the ship were staggering; at roughly eight kilometers long, four tall and two wide the ship was absolutely massive. The offensive and defensive capabilities were incredible to him as well, with broadside weapons spanning the length of the ship and missile batteries and torpedo tubes interspersed between them. To think, those were just a few of the weapon systems, the ship is eight kilometers long after all. For defense, chaff pods were scattered across the hull and roughly seventy-two shield generators made up the hexagonal-net of a shield surrounding the entire craft. Of course, all of these systems were way too much for a single person and an AI to use and maintain, so Julius couldn’t help but ask his next question.
“What’s the crew situation like? Looking at these specs, there’s no way I’ll be able to do all of this on my own. The ship is just too big for that. You could use the weapons but certainly not maintain them as well.”
“You're correct, at the moment the crew should be a total of about a hundred-thousand droids. However, please note that it has been quite a lot of time since a Guardian has been here so there could be some unserviceable droids as well.”
“How long exactly?” asked Julius, fearing he wasn't right in his assumption.
“Approximately 2,364 galactic standard years.”
“Great. So I'm gonna have to deal with a Sector of space that hasn't seen a Guardian in over two millennia. Sounds like fun.” Replied Julius un as sarcastic a tone as he could manage.
Julius looked back towards the massive ship that was now his home. They were actually landing now, entering a large hanger Stella just announced as Alpha-One.
Once the ship was landed Julius went and retrieved a black and red bodysuit. A bodysuit was a durable piece of nano-fabric that provided decent protection against most types of weapons. In addition, it provided a complete seal when exposed to vacuum due to the nanobots extending the fabric over the head to create a makeshift helmet. The helmet had no faceplate and relied on the nanobots to relay the visual signals from the outside, inside to the wearer.
Once Julius had the bodysuit donned, he made his way outside, what he now knows is a Class - II transport ship. Making his way through the cargo bay, Julius really couldn't help but admire the size of it all.
‘Man I really need to stop being surprised at the size of this place.’ Julius thought to himself.
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Continuing through, he finally reached the anti-gravity lift that'll take him to the Bridge. Giving the command to the lift, it took about ten seconds before the door slid open and Julius walked into a technological marvel. The ship had two main Bridges, one in the dead middle of the ship and another riding the top. Julius was in the top-most Bridge and taking in the details. A thick pane of glass-like material lined the Fore facing part of the Bridge and multitudes of monitors were arrayed at varying stations all around the Bridge. Of course, all of them weren't necessary as everything could be controlled by the Guardian and AI together but they gave the crew something to do if the Guardian had one. Julius made his way over to the Guardians Command Center.
“Stella, have you interfaced with all of the ship's systems again? I know it's been a while since you've been back.”
“Affirmative, Guardian. The ship is awaiting you to address it.” Replied Stella in her usual monotonous tone when discussing official matters.
“Very well. Phoenix, this is Guardian Julius Starborne, G.I.N. Alpha-175991. Can you confirm?” Asked Julius to what seemed like thin air.
“Confirmed Guardian Starborne. Welcome Aboard. Link to GuardianNet established. Link to GalNet, established. Please recite the Guardian Creed to accept full command authority.” Replied the Ships VI.
The first thing Julius noticed was that all of the non-organic voices seemed to be feminine to him. The second thing was that it asked for the Guardian Creed, something Julius had never heard of before. He was just about to ask Stella when it blasted into his conscious mind like a rocket.
‘I really need to get used to this access to all information thing and soon, otherwise I might just go crazy.’ Thinking that Julius began to recite the creed.
“I am a Guardian. A beacon in the night. Bound by nothing except the Code. I was born of the stars to protect those who live within their light. I am a Guardian. I am a guiding light, a rock in the stream and I will be there when they call, now and always. May my shield be strong and my sword still for as long as the stars still burn. I am a Guardian.”
“Guardian Creed confirmed, full command authority transferred to Guardian Julius Starborne. I await your command.” Replied the Phoenix, fully transferring all command to Julius.
Julius took a moment to have the ship's VI call up a simplified information diagram on all the ships systems. Looking through the diagram, Julius couldn't help but noticed the diagram was still extremely long so he set it to major groups only and had it mark each one as either green, yellow or red depending on its status. From there he could go into more detail but it was a bit much for him right now.
After telling Stella to keep an eye on the GalNet for any situations that we could assist in, Julius left the Bridge and made his way to the area that would be his quarters. The quarters weren’t very far from the lift to the Bridge. While most grav-lifts went anywhere the person had access to, the Bridge and other command areas had special lifts that only went to certain areas like the Captains or Guardians quarters. The lift didn’t open up into the quarters themselves and instead led into an airlock or gray-area considered one of the most secure areas in the ship.
The quarters themselves were mostly spartan in nature, not many decorations except some pictures of places Julius has obviously never seen. There was a food replicator and a metal table with two chairs against the wall and a single bunk in the far corner next to a screen showing an outside view of the system's star. Julius stripped off his bodysuit and dropped it in the corner without any care for finding a basket for it. Laundry was just another thing Julius had to ask Stella or the Phoenix about. Dropping down onto the deceivingly soft bunk, Julius was out before his head even touched the pillow, the day was too much for him right now and he really needed the break to assimilate everything.
Roughly half a day later, Julius awoke from a notification ping sent by Stella. Considering she was in his head, she was very considerate when trying to communicate with him. After all, she could just barge into his mind and start telling him things but instead, she sends pings, like a text message or phone call when you first get them.
Julius yawned before saying, “Yeah Stella, what’s up?”
“Julius, after scanning through the GalNet it appears that since the last time there was a Guardian, the populace has decided to do as they wish in the sector and have been conducting wars and a lot of illegal activity.”
“We should’ve figured that though, found anything that needs my intervention immediately?” asked Julius as he started to think about what he was gonna do about the new issues.
“I have actually.” replied Stella, continuing on she said “Based on location and importance, I’ve found a few. One of the issues is slavery, there are several slave ships within a days flight that we can liberate. Aside from sla-” Julius cut off Stella before she could finish the listing.
“No, we don’t need to worry about anything else right now. Let’s get to those ships and liberate the Slaves. No one should be deprived of their freedoms and rights. Besides, I strongly dislike slavery. It’s distasteful.”
Stella acknowledged the new mission and set a course for the closest ship. It would only take a few hours to get there and Julius needed that to get prepared. After getting dressed in a new bodysuit, that was apparently delivered while he was asleep by the VI’s server-bots, Julius made his way over to the armory to find his armor and weapons.