Design
Size
The AES-Ardent measures 600 metres from the ship’s prow in the cephalic module to the keel in her thorax. Due to a tapered design, the ship’s width varies considerably: the thoracic module has a diameter of 200m, while the ship’s widest point as measured from between the rearmost traversal brackets is 400m across. Each of the secondary modules is 100m wide. While much of the ship is traversable with multiple mobility modes, a people mover system is threaded between the modules to allow for rapid mass transit.
The Ardent’s crew manifest allows for up to 1000 operatives aboard. According to Alliance standard nomenclature, the Ardent’s size and complexity gives it the designation of a Melchior-class ship. This is the fifth-largest category recognised by the Alliance as a vessel rather than a mobile installation a la Geostation Kessler. It is roughly 18 times as large as the standard Alliance fighter craft, and twice as large as a Salmanazar-class interplanetary freighter.
Cluster Command system
Modular orbital installations were developed by several Alliance species prior to first contact. The ability to remove, repair and replace components of a spaceborne construct without compromising its core functionality or removing it from situ is an essential factor in the longevity and stability of the Alliance’s ansible relays, Lagrange gates, voidports, and the like.
Modular mobile voidcraft are considerably rarer. The Alliance standard for such vessels is the CC (Cluster Command) system. A CC ship like the AES-Ardent can be compared to a terrestrial aircraft carrier, where the bulk of the ship – i.e. the cephalothoracic modules aboard the Ardent – provide vital functions like comms, energy, life support, and habitation to their own dedicated crew (A-COM) and to the craft docked aboard (the secondary modules).
The design is deliberately interdependent. Without her secondary modules, the Ardent is just a flying greenhouse: self-sufficient, able to move and communicate, but lacking the tools to fulfil her mission and all but incapable of landing safely in the uncharted regions she was built to explore. Without the primary modules, the Ardent’s divisions could not survive for long: while each secondary module is a sophisticated voidcraft in its own right (with its own in-flight life support and means of propulsion), they are dedicated to mission functions and cannot indefinitely sustain a crew without primary support.
In addition, the manifold collapse drive that allows the Ardent to cross vast interstellar distances is built into the primary modules. The secondary modules are capable of local space travel and atmospheric flight, but any division severed from the rest of the Ardent would be cast adrift until contact and support is re-established.
