Your little shuttle swings out around Dreamstar Station. Looming ahead in the darkness of space is the interstellar trader/courier CSS Chirikh.
A cylindrical freighter designed for atmospheric work -- though not for rapid maneuvering -- the CSS Chirikh measures some 80 meters from rounded nose to blunt tail. It's about 25 meters in diameter, although it tapers to some extent on both ends. The sublight drive units jut out from the rear, four massive thruster grids. The only weaponry evident is a ring mounted cannon turret just forward of the midships cargo bay doors. A personnel airlock is located 8 meters back from the bow of the vessel, and CSS Chirikh is painted on the side in multiple scripts.
As your shuttle scans the "Chirikh" the following information lights up on your terminal:
Transponder: CSS Chirikh, light cargo vessel
Length: 81.5 meters
Diameter: 25.2 meters
Hull: 20 cm. enhanced-crystal Duralloy
Power: Twin 250 Gigawatt Hydrogen Fusion Reactors
Sublight Drive: Ksreshta Industries Gravitic Drive
(NOTE: 150 G's max accel.)
Stardrive: Ksreshta Industries Class III Jumpdrive
(NOTE: 0.4 parsecs/hr pseudospeed)
Defenses:
(NOTE: KEAMS is Kinetic Energy Anti-Missile System, similar in concept to the modern CIWS Gatling cannon)
The terminal continues to scroll information to you...
Boarding the Chirikh, you would see that the bridge of the Chirikh is designed with zero-gravity in mind, and unless the ship is landed, the inertial dampers are set to provide just that. The engineering console and piloting controls are on the deck, with normal seats, but the weapons, communications, and astrogation systems are spaced around the curve of the hull with nothing but hand- or foot-holds to keep the operator in place. This saves space but makes things a little difficult for non-chiropteran pilots. An airlock leads to the outside at the rear of the control room, and a passage back into the rest of the ship exits from the middle of the back wall.
The terminal fades to black...
