The Quarry

[Rage Menelas]

[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Urtyre was a wonder to behold, an amazing feat of astronautical engineering! It was a world like nothing Ryan could have imagined...

Sitting astride an important trade lane, Urtyre was originally constructed to fulfill a dual purpose: convenient resupply of ships and strategic control of a vital artery of federation space. Since its completion, however, it had grown into a world teaming with life, housing several hundred million people. Nearly all of the races of humanoids were represented there, for this was the very heart of the Ka'Osafete Federation. As such, it was the main headquarters of its navy.

Now Urte was a trinary system, having three suns, and their combined light created quite a show. The celestial beauty of it was somewhat lost on Ryan, however, as he strained to get his first clear glimpse of Urtyre. Charlie had brazenly touted the magnificence of this artificial world and so his apprentice was dying to lay eyes on it. Unfortunately, his first look produced as much confusion as it did clarity and more than a little disappointment. She appeared to be nothing more than a funnel with a long spike sticking out from her center. Undeterred, he continued to look on and her image gradually sharpened enough to make out more of the details of her construction.

There was another section just aft, or sun-ward, of the funnel. It had wide, flattened sides and was spinning independently of the forward section, which appeared to be quite stationary. He could make out large flat ovals adorning its far lip, which appeared to be completely exposed to the suns of Urte.

Ryan glanced now along the length of the mast, for that is what the spike had turned into. Mooring buoys speckled its length, and a fleet of immense ships were stationed there. He counted twenty-five of them lined up like sleek greyhounds awaiting the starting gun. The contours of these monsters were quite different from the small silver inbound crescents. Ryan looked at the closest dreadnought, studied it minutely. It was a long cigar with flattened multi-faceted sides of strangely chimera-like hue. They were literally encrusted with strange devices... or were they weapons...? He couldn't be sure, but these were undoubtedly warships of the mighty Federation Navy.

Now they closed on the structure itself – Saar'floe following Pam-sae's lead – heading toward the apex of the funnel, which had blossomed into a huge spaceport. Ryan could make out an incredible honeycomb of hanger bays there, a barrage of crescents darting hither and yon, like fastidious little worker bees carrying honey to the queen.

“Standby here and let me get clearance for us to dock,” Charlie's voice reverberated through the bridge air, coming seemingly from everywhere at once. Ryan smiled. It had caused his heart to jump into his mouth the first time he had heard it, sounded like the voice of God, bouncing off the bulkheads like it did. Now he was used to it – amazing what you could get used to...!

“Sure boss,” he conceded, still ogling the huge ships looming menacingly on all sides. Man, what he wouldn't give for a camera...