The Xipi Totec in low orbit over Miranda. Uranus sets on the horizon. Visible are the metallic hydrogen tanks, the forward 2 of the 4 habitat rings, the noses of the two passenger shuttles (left and right of the aft H tank), one of the cargo shuttles (top of the aft H tank), the aft 4 of 6 total radiators, all six engines, 5 of 6 D-He3 tanks, and the FTL ring.
Overview
The Xipi Totec is an independent exploration vessel cobbled together from discarded pieces of mothballed Imperial craft. It began it's voyage with a sub-skeletal crew of 5, though it can and will pick up crewmembers as it goes along.
The ship uses D-He3 fusion for electrical power, and has 6 reactionless sublight engines for in-system maneuvering. These engines can use hydrogen as a reactant for extra power in case of emergencies. The main habitable section are 4 static rings in the center of the craft. The ship these were salvaged from spun on its axis to simulate gravity, though this ship doesn't do that. Instead 3 of the 4 rings have been modified to spin independant of the ship, using a trio of magnetic elevators to tansit between the spinning sections and the non-spinning sections.
Each of the rings can be equated to regular hexagonal corridor with 5 meter walls and 220 meters long, connected with a bridge pair every 60°. The aftmost ring doesn't rotate, so both it and the support structure inward of it (which, in the rotating rings, is used for the elevators) are in freefall. That ring is where the shuttles dock. The Xipi Totec has 4 shuttles: two passenger, two cargo, both SSTO-capable VTOL aircraft. The passenger shuttles are typically crewed with autopilot assist, while the cargo shuttles are typically uncrewed, though do have emergency crew capabilities.
Altogether, the rings have 14,300m3 of pressurized volume in ~1G, and 6,900m3 of pressurized volume in the docking ring and it's support storage area. A series of hexagonal and rectangular struts bind all the various parts of the ship together, some of which contain pressurized corridors. All together these areas constitute 72,800m3 of pressurized volume, all in freefall. Because they all interconnect, and the junctions are at strange angles, these hallways are colloquially known as the Rat Warrens. They're used primarily for piping and systems acess for maintenance, secondarily as storage, and tertially as "holy hell there are a lot of places to hide."
Hydrogen is stored in 2 spherical tanks in the core of the ship. The habitat rings are around their join. Pressurized corridors run across the length of the ship just inside of the rings, providing maintenance access to hydrogen piping out of the tanks. They join with the radiator layer, which is where the two fusion reactors are stationed. Outside of that are the 6 sublight engines, atop which are the D-He3 fuel tanks for the reactors. The FTL ring circles the whole ship.
The reactionless drives and FTL technology in combination keep the ship in an inertial reference frame at all times, unless acted upon by some other force (such as a tow ship, or the sublight engines when using hydrogen). This keeps the ship in freefall (or "microgravity" or "zero-G"), except for the rotating rings. Maneuvering the ship does not apply inertial forces to occupants or objects within due to all maneuvering coming from the reactionless drives.
Crew
The crew initially consisted of just Khasojj, Achiyaku, Atana, and Saik. They were the ones who assembled and launched the ship from the scrapyards around their home planet. Such a small crew for such a large vessel (even if it'd be considered small by imperial standards) necessitated them each to be able to perform almost any task aboard the ship. Even still, they've each specialized into favored roles.
The ship is run democratically, though they knew upon launch that some structure would be beneficial. They voted on each-other's roles, coming to consensus as to how each person should operate aboard the ship. The roles below indicate the results of these choices. Naturally, they have to wear multiple "hats". The primary voted-on roles are depicted below, subject to change as more crew is added. Empty roles are either not needed for most operations (Flight Commander) or are handled by whoever is available at the time.
| Role | 1st Watch | 2nd Watch | 3rd Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Role currently unneeded | |||
| Astronav Officer (ANAV): | Urilis Khasojj | ||
| Internav Officer (INAV): | Kolus Hamilton | ||
| Pilots: | Ninasisi Achiyaku, Ocho Atana | ||
| Flight Engineer (Chief): | |||
| Drive Officer: | Urilis Khasojj | ||
| Propulsion Officer: | Kolus Hamilton | Kaltano | |
| Payload Officer: | Ninasisi Achiyaku | Sayen Intiwawa | |
| Maintenance Officer: | Kari Blume | Max Perrin | |
| Life Support Officer (LSO): | Emile Saik | ||
| Consumables Manager: | Emile Saik | Sayen Intiwawa | |
| Closed-Ecology Life-Support Systems (CELSS or "Cells"): | Irick Corwal | Max Perrin | Inua Dzunukwa |
| Head Doctor (Doc): | Lial Merrow | Ocho Atana | Inua Dzunukwa |