Star Islander

“''I want no problems on our journey, which, if no unexpected problems or emergencies develop, should take forty one days. This is no interstellar speed ship.” —Carlo Sabatini on the Star Islander''

The Star Islander is a Melchior transport ship.

Origins
Originally mass produced by Master System long ago as a freighter with its sister ship, the Star of Islam, it was repurposed to be a transport vessel for the Presidium. It later secretly and illegally modified by Earth Administrators to have much more information and customization than a normal ship of its class would have, and to endow its pilot with a modicum of free will.

Technical
As an Assim Class interplanetary ship, it was large, slow, and had very little maneuverability.

Sections
There were two pressurized sections of the cabin. One was for people, the other was for animals. The animal section had cages that were not very large and was otherwise pretty dark and unpleasant. Both sections spun while in space to create artificial gravity.

Boarding
This ship was never designed to take off from the ground except in emergencies. Indeed, it’s impossible to imagine how it ever managed to land on Earth in the first place. The passenger cabin is boarded by going sideways through an open air lock, then into a room that contained twelve huge, plush chairs with oversized backs in three rows of four each. A network of planks was laid inside so that people could enter even at a forty five degree angle.

Auxiliary Rooms
From the main cabin, there were several rooms. The two rooms in the back were the captain’s room and the electrical room. The captain’s room had a bed/chair that was connected to the pilot and from which most of the ship could be controlled. In the electrical room were several maintenance objects as well as a mindprinter. Between these two rooms was a door which lead to the animal section of the cabin, wherein many cages and crates were housed for the transport of animals. Further aft from this point the artificial gravity ended, and it was here and the sections beyond and below that almost all of the actual goods were stored for transport, although it was not well explored in the books.

Three rooms also were at the front of the main cabin. The center door lead up to the Bridge, the door on the left lead to the toilet, and the door on the right lead to an automated shower. The shower was essentially a cylindrical tube with one side open. One stood within the tube until the side closed shut, and then one was engulfed in a tremendous stream of liquid. The shower had three cycles that left the bather dry and very clean.

Main Cabin
The main cabin, called the passenger cabin, was a marvel in itself. With a few commands in English and manipulation of hidden controls the original chairs could vanish deep into the floor and be replaced by large reclining leather seats that could go all the way down to become quite comfortable beds. The chairs swiveled a full 180 degrees and were placed at equal distances around a polished laminated table. The rear of the cabin was empty for walking and exercise and had three doors leading to the other rooms. The front of the cabin also had three doors leading to the bathroom, shower, and Bridge respectively.

Bridge
The Bridge was a small section with four stations with chairs for humans to sit in. From here, humans could interface directly with the ship’s pilot and control the ship itself.

Lords of the Middle Dark
Captain Sabatini used this ship to transport Chu Li, Deng Ho, Chow Dai, and Chow Mai from China Center on Earth to Melchior. After trying to take over the ship, the four passengers were caught by Sabatini. In retaliation, Sabatini brutally raped and enslaved Chu Li, who was really Song Ching, a beautiful girl, and otherwise brutalized the Chow girls. Traumatized by it all, along with the death of every family member he had ever known in the Technologist Cell, Deng Ho committed suicide.(reference?)

Touched and regretful of his death, Sabatini did what he could to give Deng Ho a respectful funeral by launching him out of the air lock with a few quiet words. Chu Li however, pushed Sabatini into the air lock as he did this and tried to launch him into space. Sabatini was clever however, and managed to escape to an emergency hatch within the air lock where he could survive.(reference?)

After some trial and error which resulted in Chu Li’s blindness, Chu Li and his companions managed to take control of the Star Islander, but its pilot could not get them away where they would not be traced. Therefore, they had the pilot forge their records and they proceeded to Melchior as patients instead of prisoners.(reference?)

Discovered early however, they become prisoners anyway. An escape was necessitated, so, with the help of Raven and Manka Warlock they left Melchior and once again boarded the Star Islander with Reba Koll, Hawks, Cloud Dancer, and Silent Woman. The ship’s pilot, now modified to be totally independent, elected to join the new band of its own free will. The pilot relieved Captain Sabatini of command and accepted its new name, Star Eagle, from the band.(reference?)

Star Islander left Melchior and, once beyond traffic control and detection, turned and headed for the mothballed fleet of Universe Ships. They were chased by chief of Melchior Security Arnold Nagy and four Melchior Fighters. Using some risky maneuvers the Star Islander managed to send these fighters directly into another group of thirty six automated fighters from the Universe Fleet, where they were quickly dispatched.(reference?)

Pirates of the Thunder
Free from further molestation but badly damaged, the Star Islander made its way to a Universe Ship that would soon be named the Thunder. They boarded the vessel via tractor beam, but the Star Islander was totaled in the process.

Later aboard the Thunder, Star Eagle commanded maintenance robots to cannibalize the remains of the Star Islander. The small transmuter and comfortable chairs were duplicated and used throughout the new vessel, and what wasn’t used for spare parts or consumed by the massive transmuters onboard the Thunder for fuel was transformed into a pressurized enclosure for Arnold Nagy, Isaac Clayben, and Sabatini.

So ended the Star Islander.