Pytheas - The Spear of Exploration

[Dave Synk]

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As in the foregone era of sea navigation and new land cartography, such was Dave adventuring in the realms of the unknown and absurd with his newfound studies, regarding the strange gravimetric anomalies around various sectors of Sirius.

Most of these days it was just him alone and his machines from one of the laboratories at Valravn, offering him all the feed and data required to test his theories and experimentations on the subject. For once he felt again in his prime time and doing what he knows best: to break the limits of knowledge and find new frontiers, as strange or sinister as they might be. After long hours without a break, one of Dave’s assistants dared to break his focus with a gentle heads-up regarding a message from Leviathan. He took the datapad holding his glare at some puzzling calculations he was focusing on and then shifted his glance to skim around reading:

"Got a surprise for you. Should pass in a few minutes near your deck. You’ll find more info when you reach the drydock. Don’t hold back."

Having a glimmering sense of curiosity and knowing how curious Leviathan’s surprises could be, he left the main research room where all his tools were to the lounge nearby to peer over the oversized observation window. And indeed it was of intrigue. Apparently a vessel looking like the head of a spear with sharp angles and rather elegant designs, was guided by the docking lights right into a mooring point into the Citadel’s drydocks. He recognized the designs and carried a light smirk on his face as his eyes were bright with anticipation and curiosity. He left the room speaking to his assistant to make order in his files and did not look back.

As he took the accelerating lifts, he took in the size of the ship as he got closer and closer to the drydock area. The vessel had a considerable size and was an imposing one, for an exploration vessel. As the vessel was approaching the drydock, the crew aboard sent technical specs of it and a copy of the owner’s technical manual, so by the moment Dave reached the vessel he had an idea of what this “Bulwark” class exploration vessel had in it. The crew that greeted Dave on the station had a request that was right on his lane.

“Good evening and thank you for having us arrive here. We’ve been told that this is the right place for a technical “uplift” even for such a brand new vessel?” The dockmaster from the vessel said jokingly, but showing admiration for the host’s ability in the topic.

“Ahh.. yes, Valravn, the cosmic pit stop for ship enhancements and whatnot. But yes, welcome aboard the Citadel. I was just told mere minutes ago about your arrival only to see this impressive vessel in reality. I know about it being the “newest” cool toy in deep space recon..” Dave continued the banter as he slipped curious glances over at the ship.

“Yes, we’ve been told that the final technical “send-off” to say so would be this place. We were glad to see your people do their technical magic. I must say, the vessel is well made and sturdy. Some sections even have a real luxury-level comfort. They couldn’t care less about that. Military grade equipment and weapon systems as well. It can face off targets… well as much as it can for its class. It could scare small sized vessels and it would most likely scare nebulas and asteroids with its intriguing telemetry arrays.” The dockmaster mentioned that he noticed Dave’s piercing and serious glance as he was most likely very attentive to the initial details.

Dave nodded, crossing his arms as he shifted his glance at the vessel. “So you’re saying there’s a good start to what I need to do. The specs I got from your crew were showing charts and power numbers typical of custom works. Meaning that part replacements could be obtained from their creators. Who manufactured this again?” He darted his glance furrowing one eyebrow at the dockmaster.

“Bristol Manufacturing, sir.” Nodded.

“Ah right, that construction firm.” Made a pause. “Well as you can imagine, I will not rely on corporate bureaucracy to change reactor components for a higher output, given that as you know, our technology is demanding an.. -“enhanced” to put it lightly-, power grid."

“I am aware, also a bonus, the vessel has a sizable cargo area and a small craft can also dock on it. Perhaps useful for an on-demand escort or personal craft deployment?.” The dockmaster kept a light smirk on his face as the exchange was going.

“Perhaps. I believe you’d require a consistent retrofit and enhance the possibilities of its exploratory nature?” Dave took a more serious glance, waiting impatiently at the man’s answers as he already knew what he needed to do with this vessel.

“Yes, fully. Make usage of what the ship has and add on it with your technical packages on top of it. Our duty ended the moment we got the ship in the drydock.” The man smiled at Dave as he extended his hand respectfully.

Dave replied to the handshake and offered a kind smile. “Thank you and it will be a pleasure to work on this marvel. It will take a while but technology is after all our greatest perk hmm? Do you have any vessels to take you back to your station?”

“Yes, our transport is on the way as we speak.”

Dave nodded and bid his farewells as went through the mooring tunnel getting aboard the ship. He had a satisfied smirk as he looked around. The interiors were sleek and the smell of new materials still lingered. The skeleton crew that piloted the ship to Valravn departed and slowly more Technocratic crew began to do their work of inspecting the vessels’ systems.

Dave went to the main bridge, sat on the commanding chair and accessed the vessel’s internal diagnosis and technical schematics. As before in his lab, hours passed and he just sat there studying all he could about the vessel’s power grid, weapon compatibility, and conceived strategies to gradually replace the key parts of the vessel with the more nuanced technology of the Technocracy. In the end, Leviathan did tell him not to hold back, right?

And he didn’t. In the following hours and days, he supervised and contributed himself with integrating high-grade level of research equipment, remade the research section of it entirely, but careful enough to feel the level of comfort found. The beauty about the Technocrats’ work in improving existing technology or vessels is that it is seamless. Beyond the same sleek white wall panel, they would carefully integrate intricate blocks of technology fitting like the pieces of a puzzle.

As time passed, the small drones darting inside and outside the ship’s hull, procedurally replaced each quarter of the vessel and adapted the component slots seamlessly to support and sustain the Technocracy’s technical packages.

The heart of the vessel, its reactor core was greatly improved and the power grid responded nicely. The vessel hummed in a way that if it had a mechanical soul, it would’ve been of happiness.

After a couple of good days, towards the completion of the retrofit process, a message from Leviathan came to Dave again on his personal pad.

“You created The Pytheas, the spear of exploration and carthography.”

He read that as he took another glance at the vessel wondering how many unknowns and frontiers this craft will break. He made sure that it had the means for that, as the veil of the unknown lingered upon its future, the Pytheas’ purpose was clear.

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Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding.
- Sovereign