It took another week before their new ship arrived. In that week they had been training their magic, fighting skills and language skills. Using their drone the twins could now speak passable solar common with the others. They preferred using the mental link but Lisa had forbidden them from using it unless it was an emergency. This would encourage them to improve on their communication skills.
All the humans were currently in a side room looking at one of the displays showing a full view of their new ship. Ship is a generous term, It couldn't move under its own power and had to be towed everywhere it went. With its current camouflage, it looks like an asteroid that was about 300m in diameter. The Camouflage was a physical attachment to the spherical ship that would help fool advanced sensors and telescopes.
The humans and the 2 dwarves boarded a shuttle ship to transfer to the new ship. Before they even arrived at the new ship the old ship had already jumped out of the system.
"That didn't take long, I guess we smell" Jania giggled at her own joke.
"I don't smell" came from Null personal drone.
"She not being literal, she was talking about how quickly they left. They couldn't even wait for us to get settled into our new home" said Chris. The reality was they were tired of this babysitting mission and wanted to get back to more meaningful work.
They talked for a little bit before reaching their new home. They entered the hanger and parked next to the other two ships. It was Bolat job to give them a tour of the new home. The ship was separated into 6 main segments and a central core. The sphere was separated into 2 equal halves and each half was divided into 3 equal segments.
The Hanger was located in the lower half of the ship. The other two segments in the same half were the engineering lab and material storage. When the party made it to engineering they were disappointed to see that it was empty.
Bolat at least had the sense to look apologetic. "Sorry, but you will find the rest of the areas will be like this. They have stripped everything of use and only left us with enough to keep the ship operational. Us dwarves aren't known for our charity". He was disappointed in his race, He believed that there was something special about the humans and that they may regret being so stingy during first contact.
The group then relocated to the upper level using the gravity tubes. Each segment had two tubes running between the lower level and the upper level. One tube had gravity set to up and the other to down. This allowed each person to float between the levels. Each tube also had a ladder in case the gravity system wasn't working.
Once on the upper level, they toured the other segments of the ship. The upper level was home to the living quarters where each person had an individual room that had a single bed, shower and toilet. The rooms had been hastily adjusted for use by humans instead of dwarves. The other two areas were a communal space and a training space. These spaces only had the bare minimum as well.
"It will take a little work, but the good thing is we can design these spaces the way we want." Lisa wasn't worried, she was relieved this gave them an excuse to set up the ship to their preferences. She knew that the twins had fabrication equipment on their ship and she had faith they could build almost anything she wanted.
The final section was a spherical segment in the middle of the ship. This was where Bolat and Vark would be staying but they weren't alone. The ship came with a small crew of 6 enforcement dwarves who were responsible for keeping the ship up and running as well as monitoring the humans. This included the power system, life support etc. The gravity in this section had been set up to mimic the dwarf's homeworld.
With the tour over, Lisa was keen to work out what their new home could do.
"So what exactly can this ship do? Does it have weapons, shields etcetera?"
"Sadly, it can't do much. It never did have a weapon system and its shield crystal has been removed. They have also removed the refinery machinery. The only thing that has remained is the survey equipment as that will be required for us to do our jobs." Vark like Bolat believed that this pettiness might come back to hurt them. He had paid for the ship but it was other dwarves that had removed everything but at least they gave him a good discount.
To his surprise, the humans had taken it quite well.
"That ok, so it's a blank canvas, we can do something with this. But first, we need a name for our new home. Any ideas?" asked Lisa.
Null and Infy were the first to suggest a name. "The Golden Chariot, it perfect we already of 2 of the horses and this ship needs to be towed"
"What is it with you two and Apollo?" asked Chris, he was a bit of a history buff and he had recognised the name of the twin's ships as Apollo horses.
"Zero would tell us stories about the past and he said that Myself and Infy remind him of Apollo" replied Null. The other didn't miss the fact that he just implied that Apollo was a real person. They couldn't think of anything else so agreed.
Their new home would be called the Golden Chariot.