Chapter 35 - The Corridors on the Flighty Temptress (Patreon)

These are the images I consulted with when building the FT's corridors in my mind.  This will be an important image to have locked in your mind during an upcoming chapter.

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“Why am I not surprised that you even made your corridor design unique?” she joked.

“The corridors are like the arteries of the ship, moving power and people throughout,” I answered, gesturing around, happy to talk about the ship, like I was a proud father. “My research indicated this rough octagon shape would strengthen the ship’s overall structural integrity. The floor material is similar in appearance to carpet, but I took inspiration from flooring typically found in a freighter’s cargo hold. It’s actually an anti-slip, anti-vibration, soft gel coating.”

“I really like the color scheme,” she said. “You’d think this red-orange and silver color palette wouldn’t work, but it actually does.”

“Not my work, I’m afraid,” I answered, taking it in myself. “That choice was made by my girls. The color pattern here is based on a tiger, a large predator feline native to Earth. Much of the rest of the interior design work was done by Commander Data and he came through big time for me, once again.”

“What are these ribbed protrusions on either side of the corridor every 10 meters or so?” she asked. “Internal force fields?”

“Correct,” I answered. “These sections can be independently activated as needed, to keep the deck from decompressing or to prevent movement. They’re the backbone of my counter-boarding program. Each of these units has its own backup internal power supply and emergency lighting, should the ship lose power, for whatever reason.”

“They’re quite oversized compared to the ones on Enterprise, from what I can recall. I’m assuming they’re capable of giving lethal shocks if touched.”

“Correct again,” I answered. “If someone is boarding my ship, they’re my enemies and I want the ability to set the force fields to a lethal setting. The power requirements to kill a Collector warrior, for instance, is quite high.”

She nodded, looking thoughtful at my answer, thankfully not condemning me for being bloodthirsty or something silly like that, or asking how I knew even that much about Collector physiology.

“Merely making more power available to the force field generators shouldn’t make them this thick, though,” she said confusedly, still examining each section.

“Good eye,” I said. “You’re right. Each section here can be sealed physically. Hardened, interlocking doors like those you’d find in a shuttlebay can be deployed. The two doors are recessed and come from either side to close and lock and will seal the section even if the entire ship lost power.”