(I don't own B5 JMS dose)
David led Louis out of his office and down one of the corridors towards a turbo lift junction, the red doors opened with a whoosh and the two men entered, the lift itself was cylindrical in shape and over two meters tall, it had red carpet and the walls had a pale blue almost white tint to them, running around the middle of the lift there was a raised yellow belt and attached to the bet where several handles in a dark grey.
David grabbed one of the handles and turned it anti clockwise a small light turned on and David indicated for Louis to grab a handle.
"Shuttle bay two" he said then a faint whirring hiss was herd, and much to Louis astonishment he felt no lurch or any indication that they were moving besides the whirring and a light that seemed to shine and then go out every few seconds, a few moments later the doors whooshed open and there where in a large room overlooking a cavernous space, the room had a bank of consoles on the far wall and two men wearing overalls where checking the instruments over one was standing and the other was sitting.
"Afternoon lads" said David with a smile, the two men turned and smiled back at him
"Afternoon boss" said the larger of the two men as the other went back to his work
"How are the kids Patrick" he smiled
"There good sir, very good Brian has just finished the last of his remedial heavy equipment training and is being sent out to Proxima as member or Earth Force Medical Emergency response team"
"Good" David smiled
"Oh aye it's good" said the other man as he turned around "and if he could stop bragging about it we may just get the final instrument cheques done before shift change"
"Oh I ain't that bad Herc"
"Yeah you are," he chucked turning back to the consoles, David just smiled at the two men
"Is number three ready?" he asked before Patrick could bite back
"Aye sir she's ready to go"
"Excellent prepare for a launch"
The two looked at each other before Patrick sat down next to his work colleague
"Right away sir"
The doors on the left opened with a whoosh onto a metal gangway, David lead Louis out onto it and onto a separate platform with its own safety bar and sitting on the safety bar was a small console, as Louis joined him he pressed a button and the entire platform began to lower to the ground.
"The original base took Earth Force engineers three years to excavate the original dock and that was with a mixture of nuclear ordinance and custom made heavy equipment, it only took my engineers three months with my own heavy equipment to do all of this," he smiled indicating to the vast expanse around them, "the original landing bay was set up for zero g environment and as soon as we installed the gravity plating we had great difficulty in landing and supplying this rock so we had to redesign or replace the doc" he explained as the two came to a halt at the floor of the docking bay, the ship they were headed for was an older Earth Alliance light shuttle that had been modified, its hull was no longer a dull matt dark grey, but a pearlescent white the once round exhaust thrusters had been replaced by two vertical rectangular box engines that began to glow red.
"So you redesigned it" Louis said as he took in the vast cavernous space
"Indeed we did, a complete redesign and expansion" he smiled "as you can see we have a three story shuttle bay and storage for around nine to ten light shuttles like the Galileo" he indicated to the nineteen meter by sixteen meter shuttle.
"So where leaving your base?"
"What I need to show you is not located on the rock"
"Oh and where is it"
"Your about to find out" David smiled and walked into towards the ship.
The internals of the ship where quite large but Spartan, and the main control bridge was situated in the head of the ship, the control bridge was thirteen foot long by twelve feet wide, the main control console was a crescent shape facing a dodecahedral transparent aluminium, the set up was almost identical to the bombardier cockpit in a B17 bomber, behind and to the left of the command seat was a second seat with a console on the wall, it was the main defence/offence console for the shuttle controlling the four turrets located on the ventral, dorsal, starboard and port for the ship for defence and two heavy cannons that where strong enough thanks to modifications to take on arrange of targets from multiple fighters and up to a frigate and everything in-between, on the opposite wall was another seat and console that had what appeared to be a scanning platform, and to the rear wall was a final console that had a schematic and deck plan of the shuttle that sat between two doors, the left door was the one they had come in from that had a corridor leading to the entrance/ exit, and the other lead to crew quarters that had three double bunks.
David sat behind the main control console as Louis took the position on his right, he noticed that the console was not powered on but could be with a simple touch.
The console in front of David came alive and with a muffed hum so did the ship, a strange chirping sound cut through the gentle hum of the activating engines.
"Galileo to control" David spoke firmly
"Control here sir" the response came quickly and sharply
"Are we cleared to launch?" he asked, there was a pause for a few moments before the answer came
"You are cleared to launch sir"
David smiled as he input the corresponding commands into the console, the only indication that the journey and even begun was the view through the main cockpit window, Louis was quite unnerved that he hadn't felt the ship move and quite queasy as the craft flew through the now open hanger doors, they where thick and heavy with teeth that locked into each door sealing them with an airtight lock.
The sickly feeling that seemed to ooze over Louis began to reach a point where he could no longer contain it and he dashed for the crew quarters and into the latrine, the sound of heavy retching and coughing could be heard gushing from the closing door a whoosh of water later Louis came back into the cock pit pail and with a slightly green pallor to his skin.
"Are you ok"? Asked David
"No" he responded shakily "this ship is unnatural I am not used to not feeling nothing at the take off or the lack of feeling any motion in this ship" he said retaking his seat
David just nodded
"it is a little unsettling not feeling any motion the first few times but you adjust to it" he turned back to his console "if it makes you feel better I can turn down the inertia dampener" Louis nodded appreciatively, David tapped a few keys then made an anti clockwise move while holding his fingers on the console, and instantly at the feeling of slight trembling beneath his boots and a slight almost insignificant weight against his chest colour began to return to his face.
"Thank you" Nothing more was said for a few minutes as Louis was returning to normal, the green in his cheeks was subsiding and the regular tone of his flesh was begging to bleed through the almost paper pale skin tone
"We will be arriving in three hours at the most"
"I'm sorry what?" Louis blurted in astonishment "We left from the Hawking belt didn't we" Louis asked astonished, the Hawking belt was the renamed asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
"Yes" said David as his seat turned so that he was facing him
"I thought we were heading for a ship to jump us the rest of the way"
"No, the shuttle is more than fast enough"
"This is impossible"
David simply smiled,
"Nothing is impossible; there are only different levels of difficulty"
They spent the majority of the journey conversing over the engine and how it was possible for the ship to make such speed, and then going over some more of the info that David had given Louis on organisation and structure suggestions along with some in-depth annualises on Earth Force space tactics and the inadequacy of said tactics against a technologically superior foe like the Centari.
"Now while the Nova dreadnoughts sheer firepower alone would give pause to even the most powerful of known war ships, its lack of speed and maneuverability mean that without its escorts and fighter screen it is..."
"Shuttle Galileo you have entered Earth space, you will be escorted to alliance base alpha for inspection" David groaned in annoyance
"Negative Earth control my flight path was cleared by order of Earth Force Command Priority Gold"
"Authorisation code and command clearance"
"Authorisation code Ten Brake Alpha Strike Strike Bravo"
"Command Clearance Platinum"
"Stand by"
It was a tense few minutes but the reply came from a much more shaken voice
"My Apologies sir you are authorised to land, once again I apologise for any inconvenience" the communication ended with an abrupt click.
"What the hell was that" asked Louis his accent thickening "I have never heard of Platinum clearance before"
"Platinum is a specialised code used only for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President of the Alliance" he said as the shuttle moved down and made its way through its re-entry window, flames suddenly danced at the cock pit screen as the shuttle powered down through the sky, Louis was astonished that there was no jerking or turbulence, then just as suddenly as the flames appeared they were gone.
"re-entry successful" David said as he turned to face Louis "and err, just to address the elephant in the room the reason I have the code is because the Alliance brass want exclusive access to my tech and don't want anything to get in the way of what I'm designing and manufacturing"
"Ah"
"Yeah, they gave me and the company free movement from the rock to earth so that I can work without having to wait for parts and equipment" the shuttle turned and headed for the next destination.
They flew at pace over desert for a few moments before the shuttle began to lose altitude then dead for a landing base where a crane like frame work was waiting for them, as the shuttle came to a halt the crane frame work suddenly came alive clamping down on the shuttle.
"Here we are"
"Where is hear exactly"
"I like to call it Area 52"
(Time Skip)
"Three months, three long laborious months but finally and gleefully I christen this ship the NX-01 Sarajevo" the crowd of workmen and their families cheered in the dry dock as David smashed a bottle of Champaign on the armoured hull of the ship "may all who sail in her be blessed" the applause from the small gathering may not have been defining but it was heartfelt.
David raise d his hand for some silence and as it petered out David smiled once more
"But none of this could be accomplished with you and for that I applaud you" David clapped loudly and proudly to his workers, "and I would like to invite all of you for the madden voyage of earths and indeed humanities first ship that has its own gravity"
David noticed a woman he had never seen before in the crowd, she looked of European decent with dark brown almost black hair, she was wearing a suit and had black framed glasses that suited her angular face, seemed to be taking notes, a reporter maybe after wiped his lip with his thumb he discreetly tapped the emblem on his suit lapel, the suited security beside him responded by touching his cuff links.
"Now enough of this talk let's celebrate" there was applause and some cheers as David stepped into the crowd to mingle with his crew and there families.