Chapter 5

Kyle woke up the next morning, confused because he wasn't in his room, suddenly the memories of yesterday came rushing through his mind and he smiled. After removing the downloader earphone, he eagerly got out of bed and went to take care of his morning business. After he was done, he walked over to the closet and sure enough, his clothes were hanging up. He grabbed a set and got dressed before heading to the cafeteria. The ride in the elevator didn't take too long for which he was grateful because his stomach was starting to complain. He entered the cafeteria and looked around and immediately noticed that there wasn't any obvious place where he could get his breakfast. Noticing a group of Tchaas nearby, he decided to approach them and asked for help. One of the Tchaas immediately stepped forward and asked,

"Are you the new arrival by the name of Kyle?"

"Yes I am but I'm afraid you have me at a somewhat disadvantage."

"The disadvantage can be resolved, I am P'chai. You are seeking assistance?"

"Yes, I would like to order a breakfast but I am not sure how to do that."

"Come with me, I will help you."

P'chai led as Kyle followed, he took the time to look over P'chai and compare him to P'axi. Unlike P'axi, who had dark brown fur, P'chai had light brown fur with white spots. One thing he noticed about the Tchaas was their height, since he arrived, he only saw six Tchaas and none of them was much higher than three feet. Their eye and snout was very similar to wolf but their ears were very much Yoda-like. As Kyle watched P'chai walk, he also noticed that their knees were backward. P'chai spoke,

"This is where you order your breakfast; they will take your order and return with it." P'chai gestured toward several rows of frozen silver robots, "When you wish to order, merely touch one of them and give them your order. After you have given your order, you may pick a place to sit and the robot will return to you with your order."

"Thank you P'chai."

P'chai bowed his head slightly and Kyle turned to one of the robot and tapped it on the shoulder. Its green eyes lit up as it turned to Kyle,

"What is your order sir?"

"I would like four sausage patties, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and biscuits with grape jam, along with orange juice."

"As you wish, the order will be ready momentary." The robot turned abruptly and stepped through a small door behind the rows of robots. Kyle turned to find a table only to bump into P'chai.

"I apologize," P'chai spoke, "I only wish to ask you about the spaceship that you are designing."

"Well, come on, we'll talk about it while I wait for my order."

Kyle and P'chai walked over to one of the empty table and as soon as they sat down, P'chai asked if Kyle had used the downloader.

"Yes, I downloaded the custom file that Paoli gave me with basic information regarding ship technologies."

"Good. The files will help immensely but if you will allow, I would like to assist you in the designing process as well."

"Why?"

"I have dedicated most of my life learning every aspect of ship technologies. I believe I may be of great value in the designing process."

"Perhaps but how would I know that? I only have your word."

Before P'chai could reply, Kyle's attention was shifted when Paoli came through the door. Kyle waved and Paoli made a beeline to Kyle.

"Hey Kyle, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing well but I got a little bit of a quandary. P'chai here wants to help me with the designing of my ship and I know nothing about his education apart from what he tells me."

"Well, I can fix that. I happened to know that P'chai is the son of P'axi and he got top scores in engineering. If he's willing to offer his knowledge, I recommend you accept it."

"Well, P'chai, it seems that you've got a glowing recommendation from Paoli." The robot arrived with the order and Kyle dove in while P'chai and Paoli ordered their breakfast. After they finished their breakfast, Kyle invited P'chai to accompany them to Paoli's office and P'chai accepted. As they headed to the elevator, Kyle asked,

"Just out of curiosity, how do you tell the age of the Tchaas?"

P'chai replied, "The fur, all Tchaas are born white and the older a Tchaas get, the darker their fur become. The oldest among us will have black fur."

"You still have white patches, which tell me that you are very young."

"From Tchaas's point of view, yes, I am very young but from your point of view, I am old. Your life spans are approximately one hundred years unmodified, correct?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Tchaas's lifespan are approximately five hundreds years and I am only 85 years old. The average time it takes to change color is approximately one hundred years. The stages are this, white, light brown, brown, dark brown, black and as you can tell by my fur, I am only in my first stage."

"So why are you out here if you're so young?"

"I am on my pilgrimage. This is a rite of passage among the Tchaas and it begins when one is nearing their hundredth years." They arrived at the elevator and got on it. Kyle asked about the pilgrimage as P'chai answered,

"Before the development of space travel, it was the norm for our people to go on a pilgrimage and travel the world. This provides a hand on knowledge that cannot be learned from books and it also provide experiences. After the development of space travel and FTL capacity, we began to take our pilgrimage offworld. The pilgrimage does not end until the traveler feel he has learned enough and is ready to return. But those who return too soon are looked upon as someone who is not willing to put in the effort so there is a stigma against returning too soon."

"So, what is the average length of time this pilgrimage lasts?"

"Between fifteen to twenty years is the average. The shortest period was five years, made by a wealthy Tchaas who had built his own spaceship and used the ship to travel. The average Tchaas doesn't have that advantage so they would hop onto any ship willing to take on passengers."

"That's pretty dangerous considering what Paoli told me about the rest of the galaxy."

"Yes, many Tchaas have gone missing and are presumed dead."

"But you still sent people out on pilgrimage."

"Yes, our government has tried to stop the pilgrimage several times but each time, the public voted against it."

The elevator door opened and Paoli took them down the hall to his office, Kyle decided to hold off any questions until later and followed Paoli. They entered Paoli's office which was simple. A desk, two chairs for clients, and a door behind the desk.

"Now, normally I would meet my clients for the first time here but since I already know you, we'll skip this part and go on into the back room."

"Ok." They went into the back room which was even emptier than the front. Inside, there was a thin metal post that only came up to waist height. Paoli had them gathered around the post,

"The top part of this have a hologram emitter and it's connected to my computer. Now the hologram emitter is going to allow us to see the ship as we build it up. When I activate the emitter, several things will happen; first, the main hologram will appear above the post and since we haven't started a design, it'll just display our logo. Secondly, a hologram screen will appear just below the main hologram in front of you. This will have lists of all the technologies that you can put in. It's divided into categories and it also is how you will keep track of what you already put in. Stools will also rise up from the floor so you all can sit down. Any questions?"

"No."

"Alright, let's get start."

Paoli activated the emitter and sure enough, the main hologram appeared showing an owl in flight and the screen right below. The stools also appeared and they all sat down.

"First thing we start with is the body design," Paoli spoke, "we can either use an existing body configuration or you can completely design a new one."

"Why start with the body design, I thought it would be lot easier to start from inside out."

"It is easier but the end results are not very pleasant to the eye. So we pick a body design first and then build the rest from inside out and the computer will automatically modify the interior to match the exterior."

"All right, um, there's a picture of a spacecraft I use for my background on my laptop. I found it at www.kkinteractive.com." Kyle paused as he thought of something, "Can you access the internet from here?"

Paoli scoffed, "ha, I can access anything on earth from here. Just give me a minute..." Paoli managed to bring the website up on the hologram, "all right, found it, what's next?"

"Ok, click on the portfolio ... then click on graphic design ... now scroll down and click on spacecraft 1."

Paoli followed Kyle's directions and found the picture, "That's the body design you wanted?"

"Yeah."

"Well believe it or not, that's actually not very common."

"Seriously, I would've thought it was the opposite."

"Nope," Paoli shook his head, "anyway, now you've picked your body design, you need to figure out how you want to arrange the interior. IE, how many decks do you want, where do you want to put the bridge, etc."

"Um, I'm thinking two decks; bottom one for cargo holds only, six of them." The hologram of the spacecraft shifting to match Kyle's descriptions. "On the top deck, there'll be a hallway running down the middle from the bridge at the front to the engine room at the back. The room right behind the bridge will be living quarters. Six of them, right behind the port side of the living quarter will be the medical bay, and opposite that will be the recreation room. Behind those will be the engine room."

P'chai interrupted, "I recommend you add a kitchen as well. The replicator can replicate edible cooked food but it will not taste as good as regular cooked food."

"P'chai's right," Paoli agreed, "I've tried a replicated meal, and you definitely do not want to try and live on those. It'll keep you alive but the taste'll probably kill you within a day."

"All right, let put the kitchen between medical and the engine room. That should provide medical an additional protection from any accidents that may occur in the engine room."

"Good idea," Paoli adjusted the hologram, "what about shuttles. You might want a transport in case your ship's disabled."

"Mm, you're right, I didn't consider that." Kyle suddenly smiled, "You know, this just reminded me of something I drew after I saw my first F-22 raptors at an air show. Can you pull up an orthographical projection of the F-22?"

"Yeah sure, hold on a minute." Paoli typed into the hologram keyboard and brought up the projection, "here it is."

"Get rid of the horizontal tailplane, and streamline the canopy please." The F-22 lost its tail wing and the bulging canopy was suddenly deflated then streamlined. "Yes, that's it. Now that's the body I want for my shuttle, is that doable?"

"Yes, we can build that along with your ship. Where do you want to put it?"

"Let's convert one of the cargo hold into a hanger bay."

"Which one?"

"The front one on the port side."

"Alright. Now that the interior's done, let's start pick out your ship components." Paoli activated the screen in front of Kyle, "We'll start with the Power core."

A long list of power cores appeared on the screen and with the knowledge he got from the downloader last night, he shifted through the list and decided on the fusion reactor combined with Vox'gemius.

"Excellent choices, the Vox'gemius will quadruple the fusion's power output." P'chai commented, "Not many spacers will have Vox'gemius so that give you advantage. But I recommend you also get the solar cells. If you use this while within range of any star and shut down the reactor, it'll generate power and greatly extend the life of your fusion reactor."

"I don't need any of those bulky panels covering my ship."

"No, no, our cells are much more advanced than that. In fact, our can be literally painted onto the hull of your ship. The efficiency rate of our solar cells are hundred percent, that mean we use all of the energy that hit our solar cells."

"That's better than any solar cells I've seen back on earth. All right, I'll take it too."

"Ok." Paoli typed into the computer, "now here's the propulsions category."

The power core list was replaced with the propulsion which was short. Kyle went over the list and almost immediately, he made his choice,

"I'll have the Space Manipulating Drive, Gravity Drive, and plasma thrusters."

"All right. Go ahead and look up the sensors while I put in your choices."

Again, the lists were changed and this was the longest one of them all. Kyle spent the next fifteen minutes eliminating most of the sensors on the list. In the end, he decided to go with the Argus Multi-sensor Mark IV with the range of one light week.