Everglow: The Trials Of Agaron

17 -The Endeavour

"Here she is! The Endeavour. Haven't been off world in a long time so she's a little dusty, but she'll get us to where we need to go."

Kori's smile stretched from horn to horn as he gazed up at the spacecraft that sat in front of them. It was enormous, easily bigger than a semi trailer truck back on Earth. It had a flat cone like nose, almost like a jet's air intake. Two sets of stubby wings flanked the craft on either sides, the front row being larger than the back ones. A long spine like fin stretched from the round glass cockpit all the way down the craft's spine until it reached the tail, where it splintered off into two diagonal tail fins. A massive afterburner sat beneath the two tails.

The whole craft was painted in that familiar black and white colour scheme that the city was also adorned in, however streaks of a copper like orange and a deep purple swirled around the curved surfaces of the hull.

Fischer stood in front of it, lost for words. It had always been on his bucket list to see a real life rocket. Although after meeting an alien, the bucket list idea had seemed like child's play compared to everything he had been through. 

"This. . . this is pretty cool. . ." he grinned.

Kori giggled and slapped him on his shoulder gently. "Heh, you're damm right it is!" 

He walked up to the docked craft and swiped his hand across a small touch screen that was embedded in the ship's side. A digital display lit up and a small holographic hand print appeared on the screen. 

By now Fischer was familiar with these bio-locks, as they were called. Trikka had explained to him a little while ago how they scanned the user's DNA to make sure it wasn't some thief trying to take what wasn't theirs. 

After reading Kori's hand, the little scanner turned from blue to a bright pink, signalling a confirmation. 

"I gotta say, I'm surprised at the amount of ships down here. I would've thought the biggest city this side of the galaxy would've housed hundreds of thousands of ships," Fischer stated as he gazed around the enormous hangar. 

There was certainly no shortage of ships. At a quick glance, he guess about five hundred or so, all lined up in neat rows with dedicated service teams constantly buzzing around the place. Sparks flew everywhere as the ships were either repaired or were fitted out with brand new equipment. 

"Well most people don't have a need for interplanetary travel. It's not something that is used often when it comes to basic civilian life. It's more the richies and the top dogs that have them for luxury and style points and all that. Instead of spending their merits on helping out the homeless or something like that, they all pour their wealth into pointless jumpships that they only ever take out once a plate," Quin explained with a distinguishable taste of disdain in her voice. 

Fischer shrugged her tone off and continued his fixation on the area that surrounded them. Goliath beams of metal stretched for kilometres across the hangar ceiling, all sorts of supports and beams sticking out. It reminded him of a spine, and the smaller supports were all the different nerves and veins branching out from it. 

Kori punched in a quick code and all of a sudden a sharp hissing sound echoed through the already incredibly noisy hangar. Jets of steam hissed from the side door of the Endeavour and a small ramp began to slide down. 

"Alrighty then, all aboard!" Kori boomed, waving his hand towards the ship's entrance.

Following Quin and Ko inside, Fischer once again found his jaw dropping open at the sight of the craft's interior.

It reminded him of the interior of the carcan's house. It was painted in a nice cozy white with black chair and tables. Bright neon strips of light lined the room. Looking from the outside, the ship definitely was small compared to the other goliaths that were docked in the hangar. A small door separated the cockpit from the rest of the ship and the sleeping quarters at the back were separated into four small dorms.