“Good morning everyone, it is your favorite Youtuber Steller_Drifter here with todays news!
It’s a lovely Martian morning. Weather on the surface has reached a balmy 45° Fahrenheit, and yes I am using Fahrenheit cause fuck you.
So today we’ll be looking at history. Specifically, what exactly happened 50 years ago when the Big question was answered. Are we alone in the universe? And let me tell you it was a hell of an answer.
Let’s look at the state of affairs before The Answer. The year was 2221. Elon Musk’s Mars colony was thriving, we had started mining the asteroids, and the first mega void colony at Ceres was under construction. Earth was still a shit show, no one trusted the government as usual, and popular support for Martian independence was at an all time high, here and on Earth.
Now this is where it become hard to separate fact from fiction. You see, no government on Earth wants to admit to the existence of ETs. The whole ‘Oh everyone will panic cause ordinary folk aren’t ready to accept it’ argument. Bitch we know Earth isn’t the center of the damn galaxy! We’ve known for years, and we have so many movies, shows, books, and not to mention the Not-Safe-For-Work stories on Reddit 3.0. Humanity is dying to see alien life! The most people would say is ‘Fuck Yeah! About time.’
So when the Event happened no one knew because the government agencies kept it quiet. However, the Ceres Project caught it all on tape. And I got the full film. Uncensored and unedited.”
The video cuts to feed from Hubble’s Grandchild, the deep space telescope stationed out near Ceres. The video shows what looks like a fleet of ships passing over the Kuiper belt. Three Larger manta ray shape ships with rounded heads, a single massive ship at the center of the formation shaped like an orca whale with no fins and full of sharp angles and flat hull plating. Surrounding them is a constellation of smaller ships who’s details can’t be made out with the exception of those that look like simple ovels.
As they fly over the belt several of the larger asteroids suddenly accelerate and launch themselves at the larger craft. Just as this happens dozens of engines light up and charge out from hiding in the belt and lances of energy begin to strobe between the ships. The video pauses.
“That’s right. It wasn’t a mining accident, no pirates from the outer planets, not flying purple people eaters. Two alien fleets decided it would be cool to start shooting each other. So when Mars decided this was too important to hide, they said ‘screw you’ to the disinformation Earth was throwing around and sent a wide beam broadcasted to the whole damn solar system. Off course everyone was confuse cause of all the conflicting stories. Then things really got interesting.
The governor of Mars at the time was Elon Musk’s son X Æ A-12 Pronounced X Ash A Twelve. And when he sent the broadcast, he had no idea what was about to happen!
But first a message from our sponsor."
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Hobo Station: Main Dome, The Cardboard Box
August 10th, 2272
Tom pumped his legs as fast as he could! She would not get away! And it was working. He was gaining on Rasputin.
As they rounded a bend locals jump out of the way of the two humans, in security uniforms, running by at break neck speeds. “I would hate to be whoever they are chasing down.” One commented dryly as they passed.
Tom pulled almost abreast of Rasputin as they approached The Cardboard Box. He was going to beat her! “No head start can save you from me” he shouted as he slowly passed her. But out of the corner of his eye he caught a swirl of purplish energy swirling. “Don’t you DARE…” he didn’t get to finish as Rasputin shot past him, leaping almost 3 feet in the air with every step. He could see around her feet a zigzagging pattern of energy, acting as a compounding spring. “Cheater!” Shouting didn’t stop her but Tom felt somehow better.
He came to a stop just outside the bar and grill, underneath the box hanging like an old timey pub sign. “I am not buying pancakes for a cheater” he panted, pointing at Rasp.
“I just said the last one there is paying. I never specified any rules.” She said with a smirk.
“Fine! You win, but I’ll get you for this.” he promised.
Walking in they were led to a table that looked like it had been made from cardboard. Just like almost every other major piece of furniture except the bar itself. That was a proper stained wood construction. The two story high walls were decorated with a variety of knickknacks from various races. A string of Christmas lights, a skull that looked almost like a cross between a T-rex and a shark, large wooden pegs, and pulsing multicolored glow sticks.
A quick order was placed, and the pancakes started to cook. “So Rasp, about Stalker.” Tom started.
“Yes?”
“When I Picked up his imprint, I noticed a similarity between him and a… old ‘friend’ of ours.” Tom took a quick drink then continued “Major Malevolence.”
Rasp drew in a sharp breath. “You sure? That has some implications.”
“More than you realize. Psi Corp has only really gotten established recently. They still haven’t finished a classification and identification system for mental disorders. If I’m right, then the major could be hiding something bigger that than just a bad personality. So in order find out for sure we have to compare mind states. Which means...”
“We need to catch Stalker alive” Rasp finished “Damn it!”
“Yup. It sucks but there you have it. There was something else I noticed. When I picked up on stalkers imprint it reminded me of the Major. But when I thought back to training with him, trying to remember his imprint, I noticed something odd. What do you remember? How did your first defense against his mind probe feel?”
“Like a dozen slimy worms trying to crawl in my brain. I hate remembering that.” Rasputin gave an automatic shudder. “I hate that guy”
“Right, but do you remember what sort of imprint he left?”
“Like…like a… I mean kinda smug…and slimy, Like worms. Ugh” she shuddered again.
“Ok Rasp, now think about what you just said. Where you able to make psychic profile that another telepath can verify? Did any of that correspond to what we were trained to notice during mental contact?”
“No…it…I mean I was…hmm”
“And every time you tried to pull up the memory of the Major what happened?”
“I…I compared it or him to worms.”
“And? Every reaction, Officer Smirnoff. What did you do?”
“Shuddered. In disgust when I thought of worms.”
“I am willing to bet that’s not all that came to your mind. You probably heard, felt, or smelled it as well. And I’ve never seen you react like that to anything.”
He saw Rasputin stiffen as the realization hit her. “That fucking cunt gave me a mental shunt! Motherfucker!”
“Not just you. When I tried to remember his imprint something similar happened. Only reason I could even correlate the two is cause I have the Stalker’s imprint mesmerized. No mental blockage is perfect and now we have a chance to prove what he is, and we can even submit this block as more proof. I’m willing to bet we aren’t the only ones he’s done this to.”
Rasputin slumped to the table, head in her hands. “Fuck.”
“Alright here you go, three plates of blueberry cakes.” Greegan interrupted the dour mode with the delicious breakfast treats.
“It’s Pancakes, Greegan” Tom said with a chuckle.
“Yes, I baked them in a pan. Isn’t that how you do it?” he looked puzzled.
“Yeah, but they are called pancakes”
“Why should the instrument of cooking influence the name? Why don’t you call rice cooked in a pot, Pot-rice?”
Tom grinned “If I tell you, will you tell me where you come from, and how you speak English so fluently?”
“Very well human, keep your secrets” He spun and walked off.
“That was a very random question Tom.”
“Well Rasp that conversation could have gone on for a while and I’m hungry. The best way to end a conversation with Greegan is to ask him exactly what I did. He’ll clam up and leave. Now eat those Pancakes before they get cold.”
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Hobo Station: Main Dome, Ver-katarri District, Apartment complex
Un-tarel had the day off. His roommates weren’t going to be back for hours, and he had only one thing on his mind. This Ver-katarri was going to sleep all day. He woke up, had a shrimp smoothy and crawled back into bed. The temp regulating blanket had settled on the perfect temperature and he could feel his mind slipping further into the deep abyss of sleep.
WHAM! The door flew open, and an unearthly screeching dragged him back from the brink. A figure with orange-red hair blurred around the room, babbling incessantly and incoherently. “Tre-La? What…” He could suddenly see her dark metallic green eyes hovering above him, blathering something about a date…or a human? And then ‘woosh’ she grabbed something from the table by the door and left, slamming the door behind her.
“What in the blue was that?” he muttered weakly before flopping back down into his pillow. “What the fuck just happened???”
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Hobo Station: Diplomatic council chambers
“…Furthermore, we suggest that all citizens travel in groups of...Please calm down, we are trying to…I understand ambassador. However…”
The various diplomats and heads of the enclaves we're not happy with the news. An individual who kills, not for monetary gain, but pleasure. On top of that there was no evidence of his passage through the station as of yet, and not even the semblance of a lead. Once the citizens got wind of this, terror would begin to spread.
One of The Bright raised a tentacle. An interesting species that somewhat resembled a furry octopus with three eye stalks. It raised its two bioluminescent bare tentacles that gave off brilliant swirls of colors. The translator read the photon signals it gave off and translated it into spoken language. “What do you mean you can't tell us what species is doing this? We deserve to know.” Ambassador Shines-Like-The-Moon-on-the-Water demanded.
The Traxian ambassador began “I understand your frustration however...”
Chief Maxwell butted in “We do not want the suspect to know we're on to him until we have a firm lead on who this fellow is and how to find him. Until we do security cannot risk letting him know that we're on to him.”
“So you admit to knowing what species is doing this.” Ambassador Shines accused.
“That is correct” Maxwell confirmed “However, we will not be relaying this information to you yet, as it would do more harm than good. All we can tell you is that you should tell your citizens to travel in groups, try not to be out during the night cycle, and warn people that more attacks are possible until the suspect is caught.”
“Isn't there surveillance cameras all over the station? Why don't you just pull that up? That would solve the mystery rather quickly don't you think?” the Ver-katarri ambassador asked rather condescendingly.
“One of the first things we tried” answered Chief Varn with a scowl “It appears the system was compromised somehow. We cannot find any data”
Various calls of “ridiculous” or “impossible” were thrown around the chamber. Chief Maxwell just sighed and gave a look to the human Ambassador, Sir Stevens.
At that moment his pad chimed an alert and he looked down to see a report from the Maintenance department. Apparently one of the techs had found an anomaly. He looked up to Varn and inclined his head to the door. Leave the arguing to the diplomats, he had a killer to find.
A few minutes later he and Varn called up the tech. “What do you have for me”
“Well Sir I was going through some of the maintenance logs for the area where the last killing took place. I was instructed to do upkeep after the forensics techs did their sweep. A small transfer node was throwing off unexpected errors. It was designed for simple information transfer. Somehow it had collected and stored a call from your officer. The node simply wasn't designed for long term storage of audio messages but for some reason this ended up there. That was causing errors.”
“Can you figure out why?”
“Well, I can certainly try but I'm no forensics tech. I sent the file to your pad.”
He shared a look with chief Varn and played the recording “This is officer Jhorn, I heard someone calling out for help one of the service tunnels. It sounds like they’re injured. Send a medic to my location.”
“Dispatch copies officer. Sending medical assistance.”
“But Dispatch has no record of a call from officer Jhorn” Varn declared confused.
“Yeah. This is not good.” Maxwell confirmed.
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Hobo Station: Trade Negotiations, Commerce Building
August 11th, 2272
Today Tom got to do one of his least favorite jobs. Functioning as an organic translator for the symbiotic Torvanahal. A race of neural symbiotes who's primary form of transportation was a semi-intelligent giant walking fungus. A dozen stumpy legs surrounded the base of its main trunk raising it about a half a foot off the ground. The trunk itself rose about 6 feet high, and the cap looked a bit like a Robin Hood hat. The flesh of the Shroom had a luminescent quality and was somewhat translucent. Almost like a cyan glow stick. Other parts of it took on a grey color and were completely opaque.
The room they were in had a gentle yellow hue, a round table, and a information terminal in the wall. Currently the Torvanahalian was talking. That is to say, Tom’s mouth was talking but he wasn’t the one saying the words. It was a strange sensation. Alien minds were a very unusual experience. Normal human thoughts was like the flow of a river, whereas the Torvanahalian was more like a water slid. Rushing around much faster. It made sense. As far as he knew the every one of the symbiont’s cells, besides its primary neural cluster, doubled as brain tissue. It would make for increased brain activity.
“And you can guarantee that these ‘potatoes’ will satisfy our hosts needs?”
“Absolutely!” the human salesperson confirmed “And as part of this deal we are including preparation instructions for a number of dishes. However, as this is an Earth crop any sales you may find yourself doing with other species must be recorded and we will expect royalty fees.”
“Fees?”
“Absolutely, as outlined in the galactic trade charter, any crop or product directly derived from Earth is the property of the company that sold it to you. It’s not a huge royalty, but it can add up over time.”
“You are a canny businessman. Very well the deal is acceptable. I did not expect humans to be read up on trade regulations quite so quickly.”
“Ha ha. Humanity is quite aware of market intricacies. You would not believe how quickly those rules were translated. Well, I need to go draw up the agreement, I’ll have it to you before tomorrow. Pleasure doing business with you.”
Tom felt the link between himself and the E.T. fade. He focused on the Torvanahal’s mind. ‘If you don’t mind my asking, what do you need such a large supply of starchy food for?’
‘Ah. Tom. Thank you for your assistance. And no, I don’t mind you asking. These hosts of ours require quite a lot of calories to grow to a proper size that will allow them to accommodate us. Before we had reached into the stars, the foodstuffs on our planet only facilitated slow growth of this mycelium species. Only a small fraction of us have hosts at any given time. Recently we have started a breeding program to create an improved, as well as more numerous hosts. We were able to acquire quite a lot more foodstuffs from trades with other species. However, the improvements have had an unexpected side effect of increasing the required calorie intake of our hosts.’
‘I see. And what led you to humanity?’
‘The stories of your calorie intake. It was quite impressive. We figured you would have foods on your planet of sufficient nutritional density. Now I don't mean to be rude, but I do have to be going.’
‘Of course, my apologies. Until next we meet.’
As the Torvanahal left Tom Checked his schedule. Interrogation of a suspected pirate. It was going to be a rough day.
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Hobo Station: Dockyards
Rasputin was having a good day.
Today she got to oversee the inspection of a Scre,skrak,skauter ship.
The Scre,skrak,skauter were some nasty pieces of work. Xenophobic militaristic supremacists, they recently finished a war with the Lygotti after a coalition of nations stepped in and forced a cease-fire. Rumor had it that a number of Lygotti had been kidnapped or held prisoner. The Scre denied it of course, but with the borders of their inner systems closed no one could verify it. The Scre claimed that no impure would be allowed to “touch the lands of the truly faithful”. Agreed upon non-interference laws would not allow one nation to infringe on the beliefs of another nation so no investigation could be done.
If that wasn’t bad enough, then their appearance affected their reputation even more. They had the abdomen of a spider, combined with what would be a thorax. The abdomen shapes varied among those she saw, from fat and wide, to thin and long, and everything in between. Six legs sprouted from the front of the thorax-abdomen. The upper body however appeared to be humanoid in shape. The most Rasputin had ever seen was armor cover Scre. She could make out two arms with three fingers and a thumb. A standard looking helmet with slots for four eyes, two large lower eyes and two smaller upper eyes. Not a lot to go on but the armor was absolutely designed to intimidate with a lots of spikes, sharp edges, and harsh glowing symbols.
Most dock workers and security were rightfully frightened of them. Which was why Rasputin was there. And why a complete inspection was done. No skipping paperwork, no glossing over crate inspection, and no exceptions. Not on her watch.
That was what led her to being waved over to several large crates marked as food stuffs. As she stalked over with a massive grin on her face thoughts of rubbing regulations into their face, or even possible arresting one of the Xenophobic fucks passed threw her mind.
“What’s up Born-Alone-In-The-Void?” She asked the Bright dockworker who was scanning the offloaded crates.
He waved his glow-tendril over his translator. “Not sure. Crate is supposed to be refrigerated. Picking up heat inside. Also spoiled air. Biological contaminants.”
“Basterds trying to sell spoiled food. Oh, I’m going to enjoy this. Alright Void, let’s get her open.”
Born-Alone-In-The-Void waved over a loader mech. Swapping out its grasper for a multitool the mech accessed the crates controls and began to open it.
“What is the problem here? Why are you opening this crate? We are falling behind schedule. This is unacceptable and you will cease!” One of the armored Scre demanded striding over.
“Potentialy improper perishables transportation and storage violation. Doing a physical check.” Rasp replied not even looking at the figure. “I don’t imagine your captain will be very happy, but that…”
Rasputin froze mid-sentence. The container opened as she spoke. She was not expecting what she saw. An unarmored Scre, and what looked like four Scre children, all wearing O2 masks. The adult looking at Rasputin pulled down its mask. Her primary eyes looked a lot like a humans and the secondary ones above those were a solid red. She didn’t appear to have a nose on her face and the lips seemed fairly human too. Before any of the stunned individuals outside the container could say anything, She said two words in English. “Please. Sanctuary.”
As these words hit the stunned Rasputin she saw movement from the corner of her eye. She went straight into combat mode. In a flash her sidearm was out and pointing straight at the Skre next to her. Turning to the Armored figure to her left she saw his own weapon was pointed not at her, but at the individual in the crate. “Drop the weapon.”
The started Scre stared at her. “By Scre,skrak,skauter law these are criminals who according to our laws and the tenants of the Faith must be returned to the cradle for punishment.”
That damnable clause again. These folk were obviously refugees. There had to be some way to get around it.
“I renounce The Faith and my Citizenship.” Four smaller and weaker voices pipped up. “Renounce. Renounce. Renounce. Renounce.” Rasputin grinned at this. She had her opportunity. She replied “Sanctuary Granted.”
“What!!” Absolute shock sounded from the Scre crewmate.
Rasp took advantage of his shock and placed a call. “Dockmaster. Lockdown the Scre ship ‘Indignation’ and get an armed security response in here. We got a diplomatic incident on our hands.”
Moments later Station Security with riot gear and plasma rifles swarmed the deck. Soon after she could see Scre boiling out of the ship. The that one she had held at gunpoint scuttled over to a large figure among the oncoming crew. A few hush words, and gesticulations to the crate and the other figure began stomping over. “Ok guys get ready for some shit to go down. What ever happens follow my lead but try not to kill anyone. I’m going to try and piss the big one off. Don’t interfere at first.” No way these poor souls would be taken from her. She began to reach into that part of her mind were the power flowed.
“These are our citizens, and you will release them!”
“I’m going to have to say no. They requested asylum which means they have provisional citizenship pending an inquiry into their background.” That was completely false but she was willing to bet this asshole didn’t know that.
“They are members of OUR race therefor they are our citizens. If you continue to hold them, you will be accused of abduction and…”
“Unfortunately, that is untrue. These Scre have renounced their citizenship.”
“Irrelevant! They are part of the sacred Faith! Our laws dictate none my leave the inner worlds without consecration, least ruin is brought upon us all!”
“I don’t remember that as one of the rules of The Faith”
The figure recoiled as if stunned. “How did you know that?!”
Got you now bitch. “You just told me.” grinned Rasputin “But now that I have confirmed that you are lying to me, I can tell you that they have renounced The Faith too. So at this point they aren’t your problem.”
At the first statement the Scre captain clenched its fists realizing they’d been played for a fool. The revelation that their precious Faith had been renounced set it to shaking in fury.
Time to add insult to injury “Yeah, that was my idea. You would not believe how quickly they dropped it. Like sack of wet shit. So, you can take your ridiculous Faith, shove it were the light don’t shine, and fuck off.” The Scre was right on the edge. Muscles tensing, legs trotting in place, hand clenching and unclenching. ‘One final push’
Rasp had one word definition in her translator package, specifically put together for these types of situations. With a motion she unlocked the file, flipped the Scre the good old bird, and spoke.
“Bitch”
Rasputin could almost hear the camel’s back breaking as the bitch froze for a second, twitched and then lunged at her. A fist flew right for her stomach where Rasp had prepared a special surprise. As the armored glove collided, gather psychic energy absorbed the blow, but Rasputin threw herself backwards as if the punch had connected. She flew back about 6 feet, falling on her back.
“You Sub-species Filth! I’ll will rip you to shreds and feed you to my spawn! The Faith will not be insulted without punishment!” As they advanced toward Rasputin shouting the whole way she stood and let the power bloom around her. Farther back in the hanger one of the Scre jumped and began to run toward the unfolding altercation. As if it knew something. But it was too little too late.
Energies swirling around her now, her eyes glowing a bright purple, Rasputin reached out to her opponent. The captain realized its error as they were lifted 3 feet off the ground…and slammed down again. She lifted her victim up again and hurled it like a ragdoll into the side of a random container pinning them there. “For assaulting an officer of the law within the jurisdiction of this station you are hereby placed under arrest. Please do not resist.”
“NO!” The first Scre that Rasp had talked to drew a blade and charged at her. She could see some of the security personal raise their weapons towards him but before he could get close enough to warrant shooting him she raised her hand, focused a bolt of energies together and shot it at him like a cannonball.
There was a wet sounding -Crack!- and he flopped back on the ground and didn’t get up. “Ok, boys move up. Let’s take control of the situation.”
A few hours later…
“’We’ve got ourselves a diplomatic incident’? Rasputin you have a gift for understatement. Not only did you arrested the captain of the vessel, you injured a member of her crew. She had some things to say about that.” Chief Maxwell was not entirely pleased.
“The Scre Captain did attack me first sir. And the other charged me with a knife.”
“Yes she did, after a conversation with you. I’m surprised she didn’t attack sooner.”
“I couldn't just let then take these refugees and execute them. I needed a reason to take complete control of the situation. What’s difficult is to be as insulting as possible without actually insulting them.”
“Well it worked. The Lygotti have agreed to take in the Scre,skrak,skauter refuges.” Maxwell let out a heavy sigh “Still, I don't think we've heard the end of this. You just can't make things easy for me can you.”
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Meanwhile, at the Cardboardbox
Greegan enjoyed running the bar. Getting to meet new species, learning new recipes, and today getting to watch Josh try and stumble through a date. This is going to be fun.
“So, I really didn't have anybody back on Earth. And there's a lot more opportunities out in the wider universe. And the pay I get working here is way more than what I would get back home. there is, surprisingly a lot of requirements for bartending on a space station. And of course, I get to meet aliens, man. I mean, first person I met here was Greegan, and he's a freaking dragon.”
“What's a dragon?” A Josh explained what exactly a dragon was Tre-La couldn't help but notice that he seemed on edge. Maybe he was nervous about being seen with her. No, don't be ridiculous he's the one who invited you on a date after all. Why don't you ask him? “Are you OK? You seem pretty nervous?”
“Now bet you mention it I have been feeling a bit on edge. Kinda like my spider sense is tingling.”
“Spidey sense? What's that?”
“Sort of like a danger sense. I can feel that something is off. It's an instinctual survival mechanism to let us know that either we're in danger or something's watching us. Kind of like when I saw you watching me.”
“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare so much. I didn't know it would affect you.”
“But if I had never noticed it wouldn't be here right now. Anyway, what about you? What brought you out here?”
“Pirates. My parents captained a cargo shipper. Apparently they were hit by a pirate ship that liked to leave no survivors. But my mom managed to hide me the captain's cabin. After the pirates left a patrol came across the ship and dragged it to this station. The ship was pulled apart for scrap and that's how they found me. As they cut the cabin in half, I fell out when it split. At least that's what they told me. I grew up on the station got a job in a clerical position, and I've been here ever since.”
“Damn, that's one hell of a life story. It's almost like the beginning of a superhero movie.”
“Superhero?”
And so the rest of the evening went. Josh explaining what a superhero was and offering to host a movie night. Which honestly sounded like a second date! This was almost too good to be true. As the date slowly came to a close Josh offered to walk her home. Something she gladly accepted, especially considering warnings station security had putting out about traveling in groups.
As they walked down the concourse heading towards the central tram that would take them to the Ver-katarri district another figure slipped out of the bar behind them, a decent distance back. And quietly followed after them.
Josh looked around, the hair prickling on the back of his neck. He couldn't figure out why the fuck was he so uneasy.
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Unidentified Star System: High orbit of an habitable planet
A beautiful green and blue globe floated through the darkness of space, vast tracts of ocean and landmass underneath a light dusting of clouds. A single moon orbiting the jewel beneath. As the sun slowly creeps up over the edge of the planet revealing the sparkling blue beneath, a faint glint can be seen near the moon itself. A ship sitting motionless in space. The prow of the ship sporting a metallic skeleton beneath a forward-facing spike. A solid keel running along the bottom much like the ships of old Earth. The front end of the ship just behind the figurehead is shaped like the front of two wooden ships bottoms sealed together. However amidships and the rear the ship take a more modern, militaristic look, with two cannons sporting three barrels each on both the top and bottom. Multiple smaller guns are easily visible, spread all across the ship. The engine baffles, large and armored, protecting the vulnerable rear. A superstructure rises from the top of the ship, just in front of the engine block. The architecture going from militaristic to a more aesthetically pleasing form. And there in bold lettering, welded to the exterior of the ship directly beneath gilded stain-glass windows, a name.
The Queen Anne's Return.