Viridian Ship Catalog ยท Chapter 3
The Viridian Look
A Viridian ship looks intelligent and carefully grown without being organic. Spacers read the maker from the silhouette before the transponder resolves.
Materials and Marks
Plating. Pearl ceramic in a silk white, with almost no visible seams. Where layers meet, the seams are smooth and layered, not riveted or welded.
Glass. Dark teal glass for bridge windows, sensor apertures and observation decks. Luminous sensor apertures sit in dark hull recesses.
Status glows. Viridian-green light strips mark the hull's state: steady for a ship at rest, a slow pulse under way. The glow is a status mark, not decoration.
Sensor lattice. Fine lines recessed into the hull run between the sensor apertures. They are equipment, not ornament.
Medical marks. Quiet luminous bands and shapes mark a medical hull. They are plain bands and shapes with no characters, and every power's relief services read them.
Radiators. Curved radiator fins and vanes. Viridian does not fit decorative wings: anything that sticks out of the hull is a radiator or a sensor vane.
Clutter. Almost none. Hatches, locks and weapon covers sit flush with the shell, and the hull shows nothing a spacer could grab to patch.
Interiors. Quiet, seamless and carefully controlled. Lighting adjusts by itself, life support compensates for the species aboard, and medical alcoves are built into the crew spaces. The ship's AI is present everywhere without being intrusive, until something breaks. Then every panel needs a tool nobody has.
Crews. Concord crews wear medical whites and jade-black working dress.
The Three Hull Styles
Finless Manta Plate. A flattened wingless plate, smooth and curved, with radiator forms and narrow sensor vanes. Used for the smallest hulls: the Serenity, the Mercy and the VN-33.
Ring-and-Core. An elongated core enclosed by spaced structural rings of segmented modules, joined to the core by visible spokes. Used for the VN-43 yacht, the VN-44 research tender, the VN-54 survey ship and the VN-73 continuity cruiser.
Layered Shellcraft. Overlapping petal-like shell plates around a protected core. Used for the VN-45 medical ship, the VN-53 liner and the VN-63 frigate.
Telling a Revision by Sight
A revision changes the numbers, and the hull shows it. A spacer who knows the line can read a ship's suffix from a distance.
| Line | Revision | What shows |
|---|---|---|
| Serenity | C2 | A deeper shell plate over the aft body; a longer pair of radiator vanes |
| Mercy | C2 | A wide dark teal sensor crown on the nose; a second stores hatch on the flank |
| VN-33 | C1 | The smoothest shell of the three, with no extra radiator surface. The Classic |
| VN-33 | C2 | One more overlapping shell layer over the central body; a new dorsal hatch module |
| VN-33 | C3 | Larger swept radiator fins; a third flush light-gun cover |
| VN-43 | C2 | One more segment on the module ring; a larger sensor lattice dish on the core |
| VN-44 | C2 | A second shell ring behind the laboratory; a larger sample-store housing |
| VN-45 | C2 | A thicker outer shell band along the ward flank; one more module housing |
| VN-53 | C2 | One more cabin tier on the promenade shell; a larger pair of thermal fins |
| VN-54 | C2 | Two more instrument pods on the ring; a larger power housing at the core |
| VN-63 | C1 | Plainer shells with a few visible standard access panels. The Classic |
| VN-63 | C2 | One more shell layer and a sensor vane |
| VN-63 | C3 | Broad radiator fins across the dorsal shells; one more module housing |
| VN-73 | C2 | One more ward pod on the ring; a larger power housing |
Reading the Yard
A Viridian hull leaves its yard with a registry plate, a Service Seal on the Seal Terminal and a status glow that tells a dockhand whether the seal is current. The glow is steady viridian-green while the seal holds. A lapsed seal shows a bloom-rose band on the Seal Terminal (Chapter 4), and dealers and customs officers in the Concord read it from the dock.