Ning looked around the massive station, fully made out of metal. He had to wonder just how many planets they likely had to mine to get this much metal.
'Well there are so many planets out there anyway,' Ning thought. As he looked, his eyes slowly looked upwards, and through one of the many glass ceilings that were laid out, he saw something that surprised him quite a bit.
"Wait, we're walking sideways on the cylinder?" he asked. When he had just looked up, he saw the vertical rod that joined the 3 circular metal tubes.
"Oh, of course. Is this your first time in a service station, young boy?" the dwarf asked.
"I'm afraid it is," Ning said and continued looking when he realized something. "Wait, there's no artificial gravity here, is it? The station must be spinning then, to give us an illusion of gravity."
"Yes," the dwarf said. "Well, you know how expensive artificial gravity devices can get. They can barely afford it for the ships. Imagine having to add it to the entire station. That would be a lot of waste when we can just spin in."
Ning nodded. They were then taken to an office where the captain had to go through some formal reporting on what they had done.
Ning being the only 'survivor' of the ZSS Unity III had to give his side of the explanation.
Fortunately, he knew what he had to say, and so they were dismissed after the report.
Ning walked out of the room and made his way away from the people to do his own thing.
As he walked, he looked at the clothing of the people that walked past him, all of whom seemed to be a member of the federation, basing it on the badge they were wearing.
"You should change your clothes," Saphandra said.
"I should," Ning said. "I should look for a clothing store or something."
"Can't you just create some?" she asked.
"I like buying clothes. Helps me understand the culture around here when I go around, buying things."
"Also, I haven't eaten in a while. I should do that too," Ning said.
As he walked along the pathway, he found a lifting platform, that was taking people up through the ceiling to the main station at the center.
"Right, where is everything exactly? System, can you give me a simple map?" he asked.
<Understood.>
Ning looked at the map of the station and realized a few things. The whole station had 3 rings, each of which was attached to the main station at the center.
The rings were each massive, with an inner radius of about a kilometer. They were all connected with multiple metal arms to the center that was each about 15 kilometers long, making it a long journey to get to the center.
What surprised Ning most about this place was that there were people living at this station.
Not just staying for a while, but actually living here. They had made their home here, families that lived for generations.
The two rings on top and bottom were separated as residential areas. This was where the people lived.
The middle ring was reserved for the federation business, which was where he currently was. There were many hangers along the side of the ring where the many ships were kept at.
The main station at the center was reserved for something else as well. This was where the food was grown and was also the location where all the main machinery was.
This was where the energy for the entire station was generated.
"Well, for now, let's get on that platform. It should take us to the central hub which we can use to travel to either of the residential rings," Ning said.
While the platforms were down, he got onto it. There were places there where he was supposed to strap himself, so Ning did as told.
Once he was strapped in, the platform moved up.
At first, it was quite slow like a normal lift, but as seconds passed, it picked up speed and ended up going so fast that in just 2 minutes, Ning had crossed the 15 kilometers long distance.
"Whew! What the hell was that? So fast," he said to himself.
The platform had flipped somewhere along the way and now, Ning should have been somewhere where the centrifugal force wasn't keeping him.
However, since there was artificial gravity in this place, Ning was forced to walk.
"Oh hey, they have a moving walkway here. Well, the hub is some 30 kilometers long, so this will be good," he said and got on one of them that went in some direction.
There were markings telling him where he was going, and he knew which ring he was moving towards, but since they were both the same, he just kept going.
There were people around him that looked at him curiously for his clothes. It wasn't until a little longer than Ning realized that they weren't simply staring because his clothes came from a different culture.
But because he was wearing a cloth that was clearly torn at places and completely bleached after having spent so much time out in interstellar space.
Ning saw the sun start to come up from one of the sides and the redness entered his vision.
Fortunately, not even a minute later, some panels appeared on their own to close off that section of the walkway.
Still, they needed the sun to give light to the plants that were growing in the hub.
A few minutes later, Ning finally arrived at the end of the hub where he got into another platform to go towards the residential section.
The platform once again moved slowly before ramping up in speed, and in another 2 minutes, Ning arrived on the ring where he got off.
He looked around at the people there and instantly knew what he had to first do. "Right, where is the commercial section? I need to find some clothes for myself."
