The Bridge, or the equivalent of it on the torus-toting pathfinder, was much like it’s two sister ships. Just enough get lost in on most of the floors and walls – a vaguely repeating tactile ridge, enough to feel one’s way around once you learned the pattern… one could fine one’s place in the bridge, a feature not extending to the ship’s halls and elevator.
It was the largest continuous space on the ship, because it cheated – there was no ceiling. Rather, the odd moment when Counsellor Grerbe made it on to the bridge, she had to mind hose walking on both the floor on which she stood and the floor above it; the whole level was mirrored. Conversations while on duty often happened as one officer acted as stalactite to another’s stalagmite – and it was easy enough to jump from one side of the bridge to it’s inverted half.
Of the walls not being standable, one was a great window – One of two proper windows on the ship, watching stars and asteroids cartwheel slowly as evidence of the ship’s constant roll. A roll needed to give the toruses some semblance of gravity and habitability.
That window was interrupted on either side by sensor arrays – mostly obscured by wall but still needing various spectra of light to operate. Those still on at the moment were more for recording star movement than anything else. They faced the wrong direction to do most research work.
Consoles, at desk height, from either deck, had some blinking lights to them – but nothing important. They were mostly tactile display, so they could remain functional when any radiation was a liability. Some looked more awkward than others – pieced together bits of human tech, thrown together – and indeed they had been, between the point of arrival and the decision of non-contact.
Of the remaining central space, there were two objects of note, besides the exits and the door to the Counselor of Navigation’s quarters;
A double-high projector of sorts, spanning the height of the two decks; the bottom and top sixth used for controls, the center 2/3 being as movie appropriate 3d projection area as could be had. Along it was a quiver of rods, used as pointers when required, as orders included not just stretching to point out a detail in the display.
The other object was the Counselor of Navigation’s stuffed chair. It’s not even a recliner, just a big stuffed chair. Because she was convinced she needed a captain’s chair after depression-watching star trek but regulations wouldn’t let her have anything like in the shows.
The captains’ quarters are fairly large – due to preference, “down” is Short Jump Drive containment and “Up” is the entrance door.
Exiting the bridge are the dual elevators – the can take you to different decks or the toruses. If you don’t know what you are doing, you can definitely wait through multiple re-orientations that shouldn’t have been needed.
Past the elevators is spare parts storage. This is a military ship meant for long missions – they have duplicates ready. Bisecting this room is the rear observation/ejection tube – normally weightless, in this case having a small amount of gravity as the ship rolls. The central shaft of this can be loaded with equipment from adjacent floors, and is used to launch relay probes when required. This is usually oriented towards Earth during their mission.
The ejection tube runs from the exterior hull of the ship , past part of the navigation computer, and to the Short Jump Drive containment.
In the center of Short Jump Drive containment is a series of magnetically & gravimetrically contained Strange Matter forms provided by Plyd Traders. The Goo aliens believe these forms were harvested from a neutron star – or more likely a collision between neutron stars – much less shaped. While not a black hole, the set of forms is massive enough to substantially bend radiation – enough to have stable orbits within the containment area. So don’t intentionally expose it to radiation. Ever.
The forms were offered to the Goo Aliens specifically because they were likely to have a significantly lower casualty rate while developing this method of travel. This, along with FTL charts – is the very reason for the Goos developing FTL travel.
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