"So where do we stand?" Amara asked, settling into her chair across from Tanya's desk with a steaming cup of coffee and the focused attention that meant serious business planning.
Tanya pulled up the project status displays, showing the week's progress from their beacon testing mission. "Better than expected, honestly. We have sufficient calibration data to map the probability patterns, and I now have a good theoretical understanding of how it all works. Cameron thinks he'll have the navigation black box programming completed within the next few weeks."
"And Janet?"
"She's become completely fascinated with the beacon drone design. Wants to develop a few variants using the knowledge she gained from exploring. Some optimised for deep space deployment, others for high-traffic systems where they might need additional shielding." Tanya highlighted the preliminary sketches Janet had submitted. "She's got good instincts for practical applications. If not for the theory."
Amara nodded approvingly. "Excellent progress. Which brings me to why I'm here. We need to discuss your presentation for the Trexlor show."
"The beacon network and navigation black box should be impressive enough," Tanya said, though she could already sense where this conversation was heading from Amara's expression.
"For insiders, absolutely. But most of the attendees at Trexlor, including the technically sophisticated ones, aren't fluent enough in vortex travel mechanics to immediately grasp what you've accomplished." Amara leaned forward. "They'll see improved navigation and think 'nice incremental advancement' rather than 'revolutionary breakthrough.'"
Tanya felt her pragmatic instincts bristling, wanting to argue. "The technology speaks for itself. Anyone with a space travel background will understand the implications once they see the demonstrations."
"Understanding and being wowed are different things," Amara replied with business manager directness. "You need something that makes people stop in their tracks, something that screams 'this person is building the future' before they even understand the technical details."
"You want a showpiece." Asked Tanya, studying Amara's body language to see if there was a way out of this.
"I want a statement. Something that announces Tanya Furrow as a shipwright worth contracting for the impossible." Amara consulted her Tablet. "Three to four months isn't much time for a complete design and testing cycle, but—"
"It's completely unrealistic," Tanya interrupted. "Even with the workshop's fabrication capabilities, designing and building a functional ship in four months means cutting corners on testing, safety verification, integration protocols—"
"What about asking your Gardener for assistance?"
Tanya had been carefully avoiding relying too heavily on Sage's capabilities, partly for educational reasons and partly because she wanted to maintain some independence in her shipbuilding development. But for something this visible, this important to establishing her reputation...
//Query received. Mission parameters being developed,// Sage's mental voice carried what sounded like interest.
"Sage is listening," Tanya said aloud for Amara's benefit.
"Oh, Sage, that's a nice name. ok, here's what I need. What I need is a flagship vessel that is not for practical use, but for making a statement. Something that demonstrates your capabilities at the absolute bleeding edge. Beautiful, dangerous, impossible-looking. The kind of ship that gets featured on the exhibition promotional materials because it's too striking to ignore."
//Proposal: Design challenge with performance metrics. Success criteria: creation of spacecraft that generates significant positive attention at Trexlor exhibition. Reward: access to advanced fabrication artifact from personal collection.//
"What kind of artifact?" Tanya asked, curious despite herself.
//Classification: Quantum manipulation tool. Functionality: enables real-time modification of Quantum relationships within defined parameters. Applications: Enhancing material at a quantum level.//
Tanya felt herself perk up immediately. The applications for that kind of technology were incredible. She would be able to start building a framework around Quantum Enhancement.
"What would be the success metrics?" she asked.
//Quantifiable audience engagement. Positive media coverage. Professional inquiries regarding commissioning similar vessels. Measurable impact on Furrow Technologies' industry recognition.//
"How could you even measure those things?"
//Information networks provide comprehensive data on exhibition response, media analysis, and professional communications. Success metrics can be objectively assessed through multiple data streams.//
Amara was watching this exchange with obvious fascination. "So your Gardener is proposing a formal challenge with a significant reward for success?"
"Apparently." Tanya considered the implications. Having Sage's active assistance would make the timeline more manageable, but it also meant accepting that she couldn't yet handle this level of project complexity independently. She wasn't that worried, she wasn't powerful enough to stop time or even slow it down.
//Educational value: advanced project management, integrated system design, performance-driven engineering. Skills applicable to future independent development.//
Tanya left the room without even saying goodbye to Amara; she was now focused on the new mission.
She tried to force an idea, but nothing came. Functional concepts spilled across the holo-displays; each was a solid, practical design that any dockyard would approve of. Modular miners, rapid couriers, even a luxury shuttle that could double as a research platform. All of it was competent. None of it sang. None of it had the wow factor they wanted.
So she did what she always did when a problem refused to budge: she buried herself in research. Tanya spent hours scrolling through Trexlor Ship Show archives, watching highlights from exhibitions past. The pattern was depressingly predictable: glittering yachts that cost more than a colony's annual budget, racing ships stripped down for pure speed, cargo haulers and ferries that bragged about efficiency like it was innovation. Scattered among them were sightseeing vessels with panoramic decks for wealthy tourists who wanted a view of some nebula without ever breaking a sweat.
"I can't compete in that space," Tanya muttered, closing yet another gallery of ships that looked like flying jewellery. "Even if the modular Rhu Shi system draws attention, solo mining isn't exactly a status symbol."
Draft after draft filled her displays. They were functional. Well-engineered. Forgettable. Nothing that would make someone stop mid-stride and think: I need to hire her. Nothing that screamed master builder in training. Nothing that would lure the right kind of applicants to Eden-Five.
The idea of designing a mech flickered briefly, then she dismissed it. Humans had tried piloted robots before, but the neural interface requirements were a nightmare. A mech had to balance, walk, and manipulate objects with human-like dexterity. A spacecraft was a different beast entirely with momentum, thrust, orbital mechanics. Mixing the two never worked. Well, at least for now.
By the third evening, frustration was setting in. She slumped into her chair with a tray of food cubes and flicked through extranet channels, hoping for distraction. A documentary about extreme sports auto-played, showing daredevils throwing themselves off cliffs with wing-suits and boards. Wealthy thrill-seekers chasing ever more dangerous highs.
Tanya sat up straight.
"A gas giant surfer," she said aloud, the concept solidified instantly.
//Query: clarification required. Gas giants lack solid surfaces for traditional surfing activities.//
"Not water surfing but atmospheric surfing." She pulled up reference images of Jupiter and Saturn, their swirling storms and colossal pressure systems. "A ship designed to dive into those atmospheric layers and ride the storms. Racing through asteroids is old news. But diving into a hurricane the size of Earth? That's something no one has ever done."
Her hands flew across the design interface, sketching shapes faster than she could filter the ideas. The hull wouldn't be rigid and boxy like most ships; it would need flowing lines like a dragonfly, wings that could flex and adapt. Transparent viewports for the spectacle, pressure-resistant hull chambers for survival, adaptive foils made from her enhanced materials to dance with the atmosphere instead of fighting it.
"The wings aren't just for lift—they're control systems. In the upper atmosphere, they glide on thermals like a sailplane. Drop deeper, they fold and reshape to ride pressure waves."
She added buoyancy chambers that could heat or cool captured gases, adjusting density on the fly. Want to descend into the diamond-rain layers? Cool the hydrogen. Need to escape? Heat it and rise like a balloon.
"And the rear section…" She shaped a wide stabilising surface, half-board, half-reactor housing. "It's the balance point. It rides the storm like a keel, but also harvests exotic gases while you surf. Adventure and profit."
She could already see the control systems in her mind. Not the detached, button-heavy consoles of traditional ships but something more visceral. A pilot's craft. Systems responsive enough to make it feel like you were riding with your whole body, not just issuing commands. It had to be a manual system with haptic feedback.
"This isn't just a ship," Tanya whispered, her pulse quickening. "It's a sport. An experience. Something only the richest, boldest lunatics would dare. Exactly the kind of showpiece Trexlor loves."
The more she refined, the clearer it became. It would be impossible with standard tech. That was the point. It would take adaptive materials, exotic field generators, bleeding-edge power systems and use the very innovations that set Furrow Inc apart.
"This is my statement piece," she said, almost breathless, as the first rough sketch solidified into a thing of beauty on her holo-display. "Not practical, not sensible. Impossible. And impossible is exactly what will make them pay attention."