Marvin sighed as he looked around the bridge of the Pendulum.
It was a modest bridge for such a large ship. The builders of the ship had put all cheap fixtures on the inside. Hard, uncomfortable bridge chairs. They seemed to pay attention more to the clubs downstairs... For all their loud thumping music, it did indeed bring a moderate income. Thats one thing they did right Marvin thought. The Nav and Ops stations were hardly ever used, The ship board AI, Wilson, did most of the work in those departments. Marvin eyed over to his weapons officer, Andrew Markov. He was a short man of Russian or possibly Slavic descent. He was a tough one. He helped numerous battles with the Nomads near Freeport 11. Everything that was thrown at the Pendulum he'd spared off with and ultimately destroyed. Marvin held a great amount of respect for this man. Over in Engineering was Juliana Barrow, a Liberty Navy defector once looking for work. She was quite easy on the eyes, not to mention doing her job well. Communications was manned by Alicia Simons, a hardy woman of which origins Marvin is not sure. She helped formulate Marvin's oh-so immaculate speeches. Marvin sat at the head of all this, in his uncomfortable captains chair. It was fitted for Marvin's 7ft highth but was not the most comfortable peice of furniture ever... The shipbuilders put very little into crew comforts. A single console was near the commander's chair in which Marvin rested, this is where Wilsons avatar appeared now and again to update on the given situation. It was silent, so much so that one could hear the faint dragging of Alicia on her cigarette. They deserve more than this he thought as he relaxed in his chair.
Charles Finn, one of Marvin's "Indentured Servants" as he affectionately called them rushed up to the bridge.
Fifteen of the loyal Malteese servants had been picked up by one of Marvin's many unnamed associates. He merely said they "were the best they had" and quickly took his payment of two million credits. They were quite loyal and fulfilled his every whim. At least, for now, untill the self-riteious ZAS caught up to him. Marvin chuckled at the thought.
"Sah, Miss Joy Pearson is here" Charles announced.
"Ah, good." Marvin replied. "Bring her in."
"Yes sah" Charles said, and walked out of the bridge. Marvin heard a wish of a door and a small, thin attractive woman appeared.
"We had an appointment?" She asked.
"Yes, yes of course" Marvin replied. She looked him over, not extremely surprised. The pair moved to a large holo-table, one that would ussualy project battle plans, trajectories and other navagational data. The woman seemed to coalease a small datachip out of thin air and attached it to the small outlet in the table. The semi-translucent surface shimmered and a model of the proposed redesigned bridge appeared.
"We fully mulled over your budget and took your proposal to the letter. This is our redesigned model. What do you think?" Miss Pearson said.
"Its quite magnificent" Marvin oggled the transparent model. It had nearly all he asked for. The command center of the ship was two stories. The main bridge including the ship captain's chair and all the stations were situated on a deck that overlooked the huge bow of the ship, the window that the captain viewed contained all the holo-screens, describing the status of nearly all the ships processes that werent defined to each of the individual stations. The window was directly in line with the massive support spine that ran down the bulbous bow and split into individual tributary-like sections. The captain's chair itself was made out of marble, padded with lush fabric from Rhienland's high-class sweatshops. The station's chairs were similar but less showy. The AI's pedestal was made out of solid granite, quite luxurious but yet still functional which Marvin quite liked.
"I'll TAKE IT!" Marvin almost-screamed. Pearson nearly jumped. Marvin just as quickly retreived a credit chip from his vest pocket and handed it to the slightly jumpy woman. She glady accepted, retracted the data chip from the large table and quietly exitied the bridge. The ship was to be renamed something in order to usher in the new beginning. Something more fitting of my personallity. Marvin thought...