The Past, Rewired

[thisDerius]

Derius stood motionless for a moment, brow furrowed in thought, quietly processing Donagan’s remarks. The idea of Alexandria as a battlecruiser wasn’t part of the original vision—no, the ship was never meant to merely contend. It was designed to pierce, to strike deep into the unknown and hostile corners of Sirius and return. But now, the suggestion sparked something else. A branching concept. A parallel.

He slowly turned toward Donagan, eyes settling with renewed focus. “The primary function of Alexandria has always been that of a battle carrier,” he began, tapping a few keys on his interface. “It's built to deploy drone wings, support ground teams, and carry out long-range recon and strike missions without relying on outside resupply. Cloaking, jump capability, AI integration... the works.”

He glanced back to the slowly spinning hologram of the Alexandria blueprint still hovering over the main console. The sleek, heavily armored hull shimmered under the soft blue hue of the projection. His mind was still anchored in its technical intricacies—but now, it split, forming a new thread.

“A battlecruiser, though... it’s actually not a bad idea,” he said aloud, more to himself than anyone else. There was a pause as he patted his suit, muttering under his breath. "Come on, where the hell did I... ah."

From an inner pocket, Derius retrieved a slightly worn but functional datapad. He exhaled through his nose, the sound laced with both fatigue and anticipation. With a few swipes, another hologram blinked to life. This one was different—more aggressive in design, all sharp angles and compact, brutal lines.

“Say hello to the Memphis,” he said, a hint of pride bleeding through his voice. “An older variant of the Liberty Interdictor-class Assault Battlecruiser. Don’t ask how I got my hands on this—just know that it took years, blackmail, and probably a felony or two.”

He rotated the projection for Donagan, exposing the hull’s thick plating, twin prow cannons, and recessed turret mounts designed to protect critical systems from flanking fire. The ship practically radiated firepower.

“Liberty got it right the first time,” Derius continued. “The Memphis was built for precision strikes and survivability in direct engagements. With the right structural changes and new tech, we could redesign something with similar strengths but built on Zoner or Phoenix engineering principles. Lighter internal mass, better energy routing, redundant shielding—hell, even more autonomy for crew-light ops.”

He let the image linger for a moment longer before flicking his hand to dismiss it.

“I’m not giving this blueprint away, not yet. But I can reverse-engineer the framework into something new. Something better.”

Derius leaned forward again, placing his black-plated cybernetic hands against the console as he shifted focus.

“There’s a deeper reason I’m chasing down IRG tech again,” he said, quieter now. “The IRG cell was modular. Brilliant. But not flexible. It served a single function—unstoppable, but singular. What I’m planning... is a complete redesign. A new generation of power cells that can adapt on the fly—tune output across ship systems, route energy to cloaks or weapons or jumpdrives as needed. Even reshape hardpoint loadouts through AI-controlled flux modulation.”

He tapped the table slowly, then looked directly at Donagan.

“I’ll keep these blueprints for now—until I get the first prototype working. When it’s ready, you’ll have everything I promised. But I need your patience... and your trust. This tech—if it leaks before it’s complete—would turn Freeports into warzones.”

And just as he finished, the low chime echoed through the chamber. One that he’d been waiting hours for. Derius looked to the console.

Transfer Complete.

The words blinked back at him like a quiet triumph. He exhaled. All the IRG data, the encryption trees, the buried schematics... it was finally his.

He straightened up, a rare smile crawling onto his otherwise worn face. “Good news, Donagan. We’re in. And now... the real work begins.”