The shower goes pretty quick, the nanobotic water tickling on my body and the temperature just right. I quickly dry myself using essentially a big blow dryer in the ceiling, because water is precious and every drop not used for making the laundry is a drop useable for hydroponics or human consumption.
I dress in a new, and way too tight, uniform, clinging to me like a second skin, except in the crotch. It's very similar to a G-Suit, used by fighter pilots back when we still lived on earth, but is way tighter and extremely light. It also integrates a belt with a holster, which is empty as of right now, a small pouch, safety straps for flight seats and an interfacing system to monitor the wearer's vitals. Such design features are common in military applications and not in civilian ones. Making me aware of Aurora's enormous power once more.
I leave the room and am greeted by Jeyne, who hands me a cup of steaming black coffee and a data pad. I go into the main living area, whilst taking a glance at the pad. It contains a lot of Data on my new ship, lots of technicalities and some data sheets on the layout and propulsion systems. I sit down and take a closer look at the propulsion systems.
They're unusual in a lot of ways, with the engine pods located at the front and slightly offset, with smooth cut outs along the hull for the exhaust gases. The engines themselves are unconventional but ingenious in their design. Effectively powered by the energy released when metallic ions break out of a structure when the metal sublimates in the near vacuum of space. As a metal, if you can say that, solid-metallic hydrogen is being used, a metastable form of hydrogen created in extreme pressure. The process is accelerated by pre-heated fluorine gas, which will both support the reaction of the fuel but also react with the fuel violently to get even more power out of it. The end exhaust gases are 90% hydrogen and 10% hydrofluoric acid, being propelled at speeds in excess of 58% of the speed of light. Translated, this engine has a lot of power and is efficient at the same time.
Even more interesting is however how the fluorine gas is getting preheated. Essentially its being fed through coils around the nuclear reactors powering the ship and both increasing engine efficiency and reactor cooling. However, it's not just all positive, for example, we're cooling the nuclear reactors both with water and with the most reactive element known to mankind in relative close proximity to each other, which means if there's a leak then we get hydrofluoric acid in our reactor cooling circuit which is hooked up to a heat exchange to the secondary cooling circuit which is hooked up through a heat exchanger to the ship warm water system and the electrical generators.
Now that we've covered the engines and the reactors I look at the crew facilities, well, they're simple yet luxurious. The crew quarters aren't the biggest but they fit 3 people each, one male and his 2 female assistants and co-workers. Each room has its own bathroom with nanobotic showers. The rooms are all on a circular hallway around the ships core facilities, the bridge in the very middle with a customisable control layout to suit the needs of the pilots. Directly behind is the kitchen and dining room and we'll actually get real food aboard the ship. Behind that is the living and activity room, containing a small gym and the most powerful consumer electronics we have built until now.
It isn't just luxury though, even with bone and muscle growth enhancing mods it's necessary for us to follow a strict training routine in order to offset the effects of zero gravity, and even with more people than I and most pilots are used to on board, the electronics are necessary to keep us sane in the dark void of interplanetary and even interstellar space.
Between the living room and the hangar is a facility that surprises me, the cryogenics bay, according to the schematics I read, it appears that about 5000 human embryos will be travelling with us. And the worst is something that was supposedly impossible, everyone on board is going to be frozen as well, in something called semi-cryogenic-stasis, I don't understand what it is, but it appears that Aurora has found a way to safely keep adult humans in cryogenic suspension and revive them.
If I am honest, I thought it was impossible. Both interstellar travel but also cryogenic suspension of adult people.
If feel someone tapping my shoulder gently and I look up from the pad. I see Jeyne looking directly into my eyes.
"You did realise that your coffee is empty, right?" She asks sarcastically.
"Er...yes..." I answer, realising that my coffee cup is, in fact, empty.
"Then why did try taking a sip from an empty cup of coffee? Do you want more?" She smirks at me.
"Of course I want more coffee." I answer and hold out my cup. She quickly pours me more and she looks like someone out of a documentary, like a waitress from a diner around 1950, and she looks great at it.
Her hair up and in a ponytail, her makeup on point, just enough to look good and not enough to look fake. Her blouse light blue and her skirt a darker shade. The hem of her skirt barely above her knees and an apron on top of that. It's also obvious that her boobs aren't supported by a bra. Something that would have been impossible, for someone with her chest, on earth, because of the gravity, but is common nowadays.
"He likes what he sees, eh?" She smirks and looks at my crotch.
