We just got a brand new ship. It's still called the New Jerusalem but it's significantly larger now. It is about the size of earth and carries a crew of 1 million both human and non human. Although technically under the command of Jmmanuel, now more often Commander Taaya is running the show in order to free up Jmmanuel's schedule more.
Our photography and video equipment don't work on the ships due to all of the EM energy. But even if they did, photos and videos aren't allowed for ship and crew Security reasons. So I have to use earth illustrations to give you somewhat of a visual and pardon me if they look a bit Star Trekky. I can only work with what I have to work with.
We previously had 18 decks. Our decks are now as follows:
1 - Pilot's deck
2 - Commanders & VIP Quarters
3 - Commanders & VIP Quarters
4 - Commanders & VIP Quarters
5 - Commanders & VIP Quarters
6 - Great Meeting Hall
7 - Navigation & Communications
8 - Crew Quarters
9 - Crew Quarters
10 - Crew Quarters
11 - Community
12 - Recreational
13 - Educational Complex
14 - Medical
15 - Land Ecosystem
16 - Marine Ecosystem
17 - Biosphere & Agricultural Labs
18 - Science Labs
19 - Security & Ship Storage
20 - Ship Operating Systems
21 - Ship Operating Systems
22 - Flight Crew Quarters
23 - Flight Deck
PILOT'S DECK
This is where the ship is operated from. Think Star Trek bridge.
There are 3 side-by-side Commanders chairs. The brain waves and DNA of the Commanders are programmed into the seats, then read by the ship's operating system.
This prevents anyone who might capture the ship from operating it.
In front of the Commanders seats are the pilot and navigators chairs. These too read the pilot's and navigator's brain waves and transfer those and their telepathic commands to the ship operating system.
They can also manually operate the ship if necessary but their instrument console is also safeguarded to respond to commands only from them in the event the ship would be captured.
On their console are symbols (shown at left), each having a different function.
For example, this is the symbol for jumping null time (hyperspace) or pinpointing a landing location.
Two devices on the sides of the ship highlight 2 parallel lines converging on the jump null time or landing point. This is displayed on a screen
that comes up behind the pilot's and navigator's instrument console like so:
Also in front of the pilot and navigator is a large viewing screen that looks something like this:
However, they can view 360 degrees around the perimeter of the ship and also above and below the ship.
There are also about a dozen other crew members on the pilot's deck when the ship is in operation, each of them with a different specialty that pertains to the ship's operation and crew's welfare.
Most command ships are armed with very advanced scalar weaponry but different ET races differ in whether or not their ships are armed and what weapons they carry.
COMMANDER & VIP QUARTERS
There are no curvy staircases as shown above,
a lift takes you from level to level.
They changed the configuration of the Commanders and VIP's quarters to multi level units to make them larger. Their units occupy 4 levels. The crew quarters occupy 3 levels.
They still have bedrooms with work stations and attached bathrooms, a kitchen and dining area, a living area.
Jmmanuel still has his meditation atrium although he and I redesigned it, his private conference room and office.
The walls and ceilings are still holographic so you can change the scenery and the closets still automatically clean and sanitize our clothing.
Crew can decorate their quarters any way they wish and a virtual reality type tech is still used to do this.
GREAT MEETING HALL
Great Meeting Hall Conversation Area
The Great Meeting Hall where the star nation meetings are held remained unchanged. Where the red arrow is pointing are conversation areas for breaks during the meeting.
At the front of the hall is where the host star nation sits to conduct the meeting. Behind them is a large area where holographic images can be displayed.
There are still smaller conference rooms, lounges and the VIP dining room with food prepared by cosmic trained 'chefs'.
VIP Dining Room
Special Mission Planning room
NAVIGATION & COMMUNICATIONS
Navigation has remained basically the same except for updating some tech. Commander Dathaar still heads up Nav as well as the Special Mission Planning Unit.
Nav is where fleet movements are coordinated (among other things) and earth missions are planned by a special mission unit headed up by Dathaar. They plan out the mission down to the smallest details then meet with those conducting those missions.
Communications now shares a deck with Navigation. My 'partner in crime' Dak Vaal heads up Communications.
CREW QUARTERS
As with the Commanders and VIP quarters, the crew quarters were made multi-level. They're the same as the Commanders and VIPs quarters in design.
COMMUNITY DECK
Everyone loves the Community deck Jmmanuel designed himself so we kept it as is except for moving the educational center to its own deck.
Jmmanuel designed it in a concentric circle pattern. The outermost circle is where the MagLev train makes its stops.
The next circle in contains the ship's shops and stores, restaurants, etc. There's a live theater building, an 'outdoor' concert bandshell, a museum, a medical center, a spiritual center. In front of the shops and stores are outdoor cafe type areas.
The next circle in is the path the smaller hover vehicles operate on, that are used to travel shorter distances around the ship.
The innermost circle contains a large lake with beach, grassy picnic areas, beautiful flower gardens with walkways and seating areas, the crew kids playground.
This is the busiest deck on the ship.
RECREATIONAL DECK
The Recreational deck is another busy deck and it was completely redesigned to look like an outdoor city inside the ship.
Achille and I designed it and decided to go with a botanical/nature look. We split the one huge crew dining room into several different dining rooms, keeping the waterfall lagoon in one of them. We added a new larger office for Aron and Achille. In the teen gaming lounge we added a cafe.
This deck also contains several lounges, another live theater building, another concert hall, an art studio where art classes are conducted, a dance studio, the holodecks and more.
EDUCATIONAL CENTER
The ship's educational center got moved to its own deck along with the "day care/preschool" facilities as the crew was outgrowing the old educational center and we've added some new classes. One of them being a cosmic culinary class conducted by some of the VIP deck 'chefs', So we added a large commercial kitchen and a "lunchroom" with cafe manned by culinary students and autobots. A definite plus because now students don't have to leave the center and go to another deck to eat.
MEDICAL
Medical remained pretty much the same with the exception of adding some upgraded tech.
Commander Kelshay heads up our medical facilities. They include a hospital, diagnostic beds, surgical beds, medical technology beds, a laboratory, decontamination chambers, cryo storage, birthing rooms. We also have medical transport ships.
LAND ECOSYSTEM
Honestly the agricultural students could tell you more about their land ecosystem than I could.
All learning in the ET educational system is hands-on and this is their project.
They grow stuff there. That's all I know. LOL
MARINE ECOSYSTEM
The Marine Ecosystem is like one of our oceans where the aquabiologists (we call them marine biologist) study marine life. They also create hybrids of marine life that have longer lifespans than our marine life.
BIOSPHERE & AGRICULTURAL LABS
The biosphere is an enormous domed structure where the ship's food is grown. Light is produced by the dome material itself.
The biosphere is attended to by autobots similar to the one pictured above.
There are also agricultural labs where all types of gardening are studied
and utilized - aquaponic, hydroponic, etc. Mainly they try to develop varieties of food plants and crops that will grow where they shouldn't be able to grow, in order to increase food production.
SCIENCE LABS & OFFICES
Commander Rylanth heads up our Sciences Offices & Labs. He's knowledgeable about every branch of science there is.
SECURITY & SHIP STORAGE
As one might expect, Security on the ship is very tight. There are security stations throughout the ship and at every entry/exit. Scanners on the sides of the walls read one's DNA.
There's also a Security office where the entire ship can be monitored.
This is also where the brigs are located and monitored - although they seldom
get used unless we're transporting a captured adversary somewhere. Prisoners are contained by a forcefield.
SHIP OPERATING SYSTEM
The next two decks contain the ship's operating system that also provides life support to the crew.
It's headed up by Commander Cham.
FLIGHT CREW QUARTERS
Our smaller ships receive routine maintenance every 2 hours earth time. At the requestion of the flight deck crew, we installed an apartment like quarters for them as they work such long hours and crew quarters are all the way up on decks 8, 9 and 10. Just saves them a bunch of traveling back and forth.
THE FLIGHT DECK
The flight deck is where our smaller craft are housed and take off from.
Viewer Questions
DO THE CREW HAVE TO WEAR UNIFORMS?
Yes and no. While on a command ship they're free to wear what they want or nothing at all. (Many ET races don't wear clothing.) When they leave the ship on a flight or whatever then they must wear the royal blue compression suit of the Collective, identifying them as members of the Collective. The different star nations can add their own identifying features, however.
DOES YOUR CREW GET PAID?
No, they're all volunteers and the ET's don't have financial systems like money. We provide whatever they might need or want free in return for their volunteerism. Some ships do have credit systems where a crew member earns so many credits per shift worked and then can use those credits in the ship's stores. But those ships are the exception.
WHEN YOU SAY "A SHIFT" HOW LONG IS A SHIFT?
Between 12 and 16 earth hours typically.
DOES THE CREW EVER GET TIME OFF?
Yes, they work 3 of our months on, then get 1 of our months off.
DOES IT EVER GET BORING LIVING ON A SHIP?
No, not really. Aron, Achille and I plan plenty of crew activities to keep everyone occupied in their off hours. At least I've never found it to be boring.