Where are we?
Builder Station is an ancient artifact of the reconstruction of the El Nanth system. It is described as a 750,000-year-old construction shack.
History[]
The Builders (the telepathic species has no "word" for itself) came to the Ane 750,000 years ago for the answer to a pressing question. In exchange for that answer the macro engineers agreed to rebuild the El Nanth system. At the time the El Nanth system had six large rocky planets, but only one class M planet. The rosette of six class M worlds was built and the station is the legacy of that construction.
Since its construction it has been occupied by various races. El Aurians and Orions both have used Builder Station as their empires waxed and waned. Other races before them also took advantage of the well placed station. With the Station reopened by Therilan in the Earth year 2010 Builder Station is back in business.
Features[]
The basic structure of the station is large docking bays around a much smaller central hub. The bays closest to the hub are the ones currently in use. The docking bays are held together top and bottom with square tubes that always enclose the docking bays. The tubes are a kilometer on a side. The docking bays themselves are 4x5x10 kilometers. There are 60 such docking bays. It is the largest known construction in known space, outside of the rosette itself.
The station is filled with strange and advanced technology, such as the red membranes that serve as airlock doors in the docking bays. These membranes reach out like amoebas and grasp ships on command. They open at the location of airlocks. No one has a clue how they work.
Cargo lifters are one of the less strange technologies. These anti-grav cars with soft seats for two to six and a cargo bed area are lousy in the station. It has been noted that the central computer moves these lifters around empty. They have been seen to move empty, and lifters seem to be distributed throughout the station by need. Any are considered far game unless someone is watching it. The lifters are not standard anti-grav technology but work in conjunction with the station's artificial gravity source. They are inert lumps of metal off the station.
Similar are the soft controls that assume an interface familiar to the user when touched. Likewise there are soft computers, chairs and desks. The "toadstools" as they are called look like brightly colored versions of their namesake until you sit on one. Once it reads your intentions it morphs into the chair you want, or expect, if you didn't have a want. Even the biological waste collectors (toilets) adjust to your needs when used.
Long gone from the station are the soft tools. These baseball-sized dull silvery spheres could morph into tools as simple or as complex as the user required. The joke on those that took them is like the other soft objects they are dependent on the station power to work. Once removed their life span is brief.
Current[]
Builder's Station has a city sized population of Humans, Orions, and Aneilogs at this point. Those not working archeology of the station or local planets are building ships in the local box. The primary design is the dilithium stingray. They are also turning out container pods in several configurations.
Builder Station is also making the mine machinery for Aurora as well as station components and the ships to haul this gear into place. Aurora has much that is useful.
In general only the smallest percentage of the station is in use. Large areas are cold, shut down because they have been damaged by crystal flower. A local space born life form that eats structure. Their currently exists neither the people or tools to repair these areas.
The station doubtless contains archeology, anything from dull to fascinating beyond words. The Orion A/V shows the concert and the palace melodrama were recovered from Builder Station.