As amazing and incredible as staring at hyperspace was, I learned that you could only do it for so long until you started to get a little bored. Granted, it took nearly an hour for me to realize that. Luckily with the projected travel time LP calculated until we actually reached our destination, that meant I had plenty of time to burn in general.
Considering just how little I actually looked around my new spaceship since buying it, I figured a tour was in order. I was excited to see my new home.
"I'm gonna go check out the ship. Let me know if anything comes up that I should be aware of, LP?," I told my pilot.
"Affirmative, Captain!" LP happily said.
"Oh, and while I appreciate the mark of respect, you can just call me Nick," I pointed out, uncomfortable with the droid's formality.
"Understood, if that is what you prefer, Mr. Claus."
"Pffft, just Nick is fine," I couldn't help but chuckle at the droid's attempt at finding a way to address me.
"Nick… Understood," LP finally nodded. "I will keep you updated if any unforeseen developments occur!"
"Thanks LP, enjoy the flight in the meantime and I will check in later." I nodded to the droid as I got up and looked around the actual cockpit of the ship.
It wasn't very big, but it was big enough to seat three people decently well with the pilot, co-pilot, and technical stations. Granted, given LP's capabilities, he could likely run all three stations himself, but ideally they would be manned by others so he could focus totally on flying.
Something that reminded me, at some point I would likely need to recruit crew members that weren't just droids…
Well, that was for later, so for now; I just moved out through the doorway into the accessway that separated the cockpit from the rest of the ship. In said accessway were two sets of a half dozen storage lockers set into both walls, where–most likely–crew members could store their equipment or additional supplies as needed. Each one was empty, unsurprisingly, so I decided to claim one for myself… only to realize I didn't really have much to put inside a locker at the moment.
"I guess I can just put in my amplifiers for now…" I muttered to myself as I did just that, taking the devices off my ears and placing them on the upper shelf in the locker. "Hmm, I can't tell if only having one thing inside a locker is sadder than having nothing inside. Eh, I'll eventually fill it up."
I closed my locker and then moved into the main circular section of the ship.
"Hey guys, nice to see you're getting comfortable," I said to the triplet pit droids and Sir Gonkington as the former were currently deactivated and folded up, plugged into the latter in the ship's main living area.
"Gonk? (Power?)" Sir Gonkington asked in his usual distorted voice.
"Naw, you are doing enough as is," I waved him off. "After their charge is topped off, you can just hang out. If we ever need some extra juice though, I'll let you know."
"Gonk (Standing by)," Sir Gonkington hunkered down, continuing to feed power to his fellow droids from his internal fusion reactor.
Besides my droids and the closed entry ramp, this central area of the ship was built for crew members to just hang out in–resting and relaxing during long hauls stuck in hyperspace, with a couple of comfortable acceleration couchesto sit and relax in, which was a catch-all term for furniture with acceleration compensators installed in them so people didn't get negatively affected by the g-forces a ship moving at high speeds would generate. In the middle of the synthetic leather couches was a decently-sized holotable which could be used to project HoloNet broadcasts, surf said HoloNet, play games like Dejarik, and of course just serve as a regular table. Nearby in the corner was a galley area, with a built-in food synthesizer, a sink connected to the ship's water recycler, a food storage locker which basically acted like a fridge, an electric stove, and other small things like you'd find in most kitchens–all built ruggedly and securely into the walls of the ship. Nothing fancy, but it got the job done, and it was fully stocked!
"Benefits of buying it brand new, I suppose," I said to myself as I opened up the food storage locker and took a dessert ration bar. I took a bite and enjoyed the sweet flavor.
Other than that, this space of the ship was rather empty all told, with plenty of space to add additional features over time as more people started to live aboard it. I was always a minimalist personally, so unless I came across something particularly cool or interesting over the course of my travels I doubted I would fill up the space myself any time soon.
If nothing else the large recreational area could serve as additional storage if needed.
The very center of the ship housed its Quadex power core, thankfully protected from the rest of the ship by extra armor and having to move through a sealed door to physically access it. Thankfully though, it had a technical station attached to the wall on the outside of the access hatch too, so if there was anything damaged or in danger of exploding in the power core I'd find out about it without having to access the core itself… not to mention I wasn't an engineer, so I couldn't do anything about the hypermatter reactor that contained the power of a dying star if something was truly wrong with it. I planned to let the triplets handle that, but it was another reminder that I needed to learn how to do at least basic starship maintenance at some point just to be safe since I couldn't always hope to have my droids around to solve all my problems… just most of them.
It was still crazy to think I would be living next to something that likely provided more power than the entirety of Earth, way more complicated than I had ever dealt with if it ever broke down, and could quite possibly kill me if something serious happened with it by either flooding the whole ship with radiation or outright exploding into a massive fireball.
Thankfully the ship was brand new, so barring something seriously going wrong I shouldn't have to worry too much on that front.
Oh! It was also hard to forget about the ladder to the turrets, which housed my very own quad laser cannons!
Just like the future Millennium Falcon, there was one on top of the ship and one on the bottom, with gravity adjusted on both ends so you were always sitting 'right side up'. They could be operated remotely from the cockpit, but were noted to be more effective when operated by actual gunners–while also giving less to worry about to those piloting up front. Either way, as I sat in both seats and looked through the viewing widows I couldn't help but picture myself blasting TIE fighters in these babies one day–holding the grip of the joysticks and swinging the guns around while going pew pew
"Slow down, man, don't be tempting fate," I said to myself as I climbed back down the ladder and back into the ship.
I made note of the maintenance crawl-spaces on both ends of the crescent shaped wings of the ship, that snaked their way along the outer sections–giving access to all the hidden mechanical thingies that kept the ship functioning, and reminding me a lot of the Jefferies tubes from Star Trek in how they looked and functioned. I imagine that the pit droid trio and other smaller droids would make the whole place their domain in time, saving me from having to crawl around in them, and made me think about maybe buying a couple of mouse droids in the future to keep the corridors clean, since I loved the little squeaky roombas.
The left side of the ship held two rooms for actually living in, the single-sized bed in the captain's cabin and the L-shaped crew quarters that had two triple bunks that could comfortably house six crew members. The former was not as large as the latter, but obviously had plenty of space for a single person to make their own. And besides, both had to share the single refresher located between the two spaces, so it balanced out in the end. Like the galley, all the rooms were already made and fully stocked with basics too, and the beds themselves were honestly pretty comfy.
There were two empty storage rooms after that, which if I wanted to could convert into more living space or something else entirely later down the line. Maybe a dedicated electronic warfare suite or something along those lines?
One of the storage rooms connected to the room that housed the shield generator, which, like the power core, was something I would need to learn how to at least take care of if I didn't want to get my ship pasted by something hitting it real hard.
Finally, there was the right half of the ship which contained the cargo hold, which took up nearly a fourth of the ship in size alone, but for now was rather empty except for my speeder which was parked up against the far wall. It had a cargo elevator, to make loading and unloading stuff easier, along with an engineering station located against the wall housing the power core. I had big plans to see this space filled up and transporting things in time, but for now it held a whole lot of nothing.
From there one can access the medical bay, fully stocked with various medicines, supplies, equipment, a single bunk, and whatever one needed to handle most medical emergencies, or at least stabilize people until you could reach a proper medical facility. I fully planned to have it staffed by a medical droid in time, so I had access to the best medical care I reasonably could whenever I needed it. After all, there would be no telling what I'd run into out in the galaxy that could do some serious damage.
…Now that I think about it, I should get a checkup at some point soon and make sure I was all caught up on my various space vaccines. Last thing I wanted to do was drop dead randomly just cause I hadn't gotten my space flu shot.
Also from the cargo hold one can reach the ship's own machine shop, which was fully stocked with various tools, spare parts for the ships, and even fabrication equipment so that one could build their own stuff if needed. Said room also connected to the ship's engines next door, so at least minor repairs could be done from the inside of the ship if needed.
And next to the machine shop was the ship's small armory, safely locked behind a thick door and holding secure storage lockers inside that held… nothing at the moment.
"Speaking of which, I really need to buy replacements for the stuff Carste and his buddies stole. What assholes," I muttered to myself as I recalled how he took my blaster and stun stick, which meant I only carried a small vibroknife on me now. In time, however, I planned to have enough equipment in my armory to outfit at least a dozen people with heavy gear if needed.
After that, my tour of the ship was complete and I found it… kinda lonely.
Oh, don't get me wrong, it was awesome to own my own freaking starship/mobile home now, flying around the galaxy, and likely getting up to who knows what, but now that I had it I realized just how big and un-lived in the whole ship was. And while I counted myself as a loner and pretty antisocial, even back home I had people I cared about and could talk to whenever I wanted to. Now though… it finally hit me how alone I was.
Shit, I might need to get some organic crew members just to make sure I didn't go crazy! Or at least a droid that can carry a decent conversation. I was already muttering to myself… I didn't want to get space madness or something…
For now though, I guess I can use the time to surf the HoloNet for things to research and pass the time, see if there are any good holo-shows or movies or even games to enjoy, or ideally be productive and do something that would further my long-term survival better… I yawned wide suddenly–feeling bone deep tiredness. I could plot and scheme after I took a nap, as I realized that I was crashing; after all the exciting stuff I did today, I was feeling a bit out of it.
I yawned deeply and headed for the captain's cabin, quickly shedding my boots and coat, and just falling onto it. Sleep took me not long afterwards.
---
When I woke up again, stretching a bit, I looked over to the nearby clock and realized I had slept for eight-or-so hours straight. Well-rested, I thought about what I actually planned to do once I reached Ord Mantell.
Since I didn't have Wookieepedia on hand, sadly; I had to rely on what I purely remembered about SW if I wanted to survive and succeed in this universe. While my knowledge about the early Empire period wasn't super comprehensive, I knew for a fact that, assuming I was in the right version of SW, that Clone Force 99 would be either already be on, or soon would be on, Ord Mantell working for Cid Scaleback, whom I planned to deal with very carefully, to get by after deserting and being hunted by the Empire. Making connections with them early would not only let me make lots of money to fuel SFO, but also ideally be in a position to help out and improve things in general for various people as they fought against the Empire that they'd end up interacting with.
I wasn't one to just sit back and do nothing if I had the means to make things better, and with the SFO I had the opportunity to do a lot of good if I was smart about it, big and small. But to make that happen, I needed to know the right people and be given the right chances, something that the Bad Batch is almost certain to provide in some shape, way, or form. In return, I wanted to do that best I could to help them deal with the problems they would face, since goodness knows they would face many.
Could I have avoided all these issues by finding some out of the way planet and staying there for the next two decades while everything worked itself out? Maybe, but that was the last thing I wanted to do for so many reasons, one of which being the huge number of lives I know would be lost, so instead I would fight and attempt to do whatever I could to make this dark galaxy just a little brighter and maybe help end the fight sooner.
Was it arrogant of me to assume anything I did would tip the balance? Yes, certainly, but that wasn't gonna stop me from trying!
Still, even if I had the bare bones of a plan doesn't mean I could rest on my ass and do nothing all the time, beyond the occasional break, so after cleaning myself up in the refresher, the sonic shower was so cool, grabbing a light breakfast, and saying hi to my gaggle of droids, I headed to the cockpit and sat next to LP.
Said droid turned his head to face me the second I stepped past the bulkhead.
"Morning, Nick! I hope you rested well and are feeling recharged," LP greeted me in a chipper tone. "We are still about a day and half out from Ord Mantell and there is nothing else to report at this time. All systems are green and the ship is running smoothly."
"I figured, but that isn't why I came up here," I explained. "Other than checking in on you, I wanted to ask if it was possible for you to, you know, teach me how to fly the ship? I mean, I doubt I will ever become as good as you, but if I'm gonna be your co-pilot I figure I should at least learn the basics, ya know?"
"Oh! That does make sense. Sure! I would be happy to teach you to the best of my ability!" LP said. "First off, let's gauge what you already know so I know what to focus on first. How familiar are you with the basic starship mechanics and operation systems?"
"...not at all," I said a little quietly.
"Oh… No worries! This is why RX units have pre-installed 'Starships for Dummies' manuals in our memory circuits!"
"I feel like I should be insulted, but honestly that fits me to a tee right now."
"Don't worry, Nick, you are only organic," LP said in honest pity. "You can't just download the information instantly, so for now I will run you through what you should know before you learn the basics. Assuming you pick things up well, I can see you doing basic flying in a few weeks or so!"
It was a start at least, and hopefully I would at least be passable in flying a starship relatively soon if for nothing else I just wanted to on top of more practical reasons. I just hope that it will be faster than it took me to get my driving license back home… since that was its own series of misadventures I really didn't want to repeat with a spaceship.
"Before anything else though, have you figured it out?" LP asked.
"Figured what out?" I asked in confusion.
"The name of the ship! It hasn't received its official designation yet."
Oh shit! How could I forget to give his ship a name! That was, like, super important! Heck, I'm pretty sure there was a belief that using a ship without a name was bad luck or something, and with the Force being a thing I really didn't want to tempt it.
But what should I name it? The For Profit? Finding Fortune? Freighter? Santa's Sleigh? Nothing to See Here? Fulfillment? Honestly, there was a lot I could think of that was fun and would be a kind of inside joke just for me, especially given my chosen name.
However, I wanted something strong yet mysterious sounding, that was on theme, but not in an obvious way, something mythological maybe… that's it!
"We will name her after the great eight-legged horse of legend from my homeworld, the fastest beast in all the realms, that allowed its rider to traverse many worlds, was sure-footed, and could never be stopped. She will be known as… the Sleipnir."
I totally nailed it!