Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega: Part 16: Deck 1 - The Codicil: Command Nucleus, City Dome Three, and the Stratonome

The Codicil is an outrigger part of Warden, attached in a rather awkward-looking way to the main hull of the huge ship. In fact, the Codicil was laid down as a completely separate vessel, and attached to Warden as the core hull for a flagship of a colonial space navy. Once intended as a battleship, the hull was converted during construction to a massive command-and-control facility, with some of Warden's most powerful sensor arrays attached to it. The sleek, clean lines of the battleship shown in the blueprints ended up a boxy, almost forlorn attachment to the colony ship's bulk.

The Command Nucleus was the heart of Warden during the colony ship's early years. Essentially taking up most of the Codicil, the Command Nucleus is, or was, a de facto starship on its own, meant to be detached someday from Warden. Its large sensor arrays and interior space consisting of crew quarters, bridge facilities, labs, and machine shops, indicated it was meant to become an exploration vessel, scouting out Warden's surroundings, including other star systems, as well as fulfilling its role of flagship of a potential navy. It is now mostly empty; the mutant wars that raged throughout Warden took their toll. The counterattacks by the crew eventually bled the Command Nucleus dry, so that when the evil mutants finally attacked en masse, it was undermanned. The remaining crew fought heroically, and the mutant army's back was broken. But the crew had been killed to the last man, with no one to halt the looting done by the remnants of the mutant horde.

City Dome Three is a small, efficient bedroom community that once housed the crew of the Command Nucleus. It is now an eerie, empty place, with the few visitors to it telling tales of ghosts and invisible monsters haunting the neat, friendly-looking streets and neighborhoods.

The Stratonome is an unusual section of the Codicil, attached almost as an afterthought when room for it on the main hull of Warden was not available. It is commonly called the Air Deck, and was designed as a sanctuary for avians. Its three-kilometer height, augmented by holographic projections of even greater altitudes, seems to stretch on forever. The hulls are designed to be cliffs well-suited for use as aeries. The floor is a great grassland, teeming with prey animals for the raptors, and is also home to a variety of plains-loving herbivores, from horses to giraffes. The aft of the deck contains a series of lakes, ponds, and marshlands. An aesthetically beautiful deck, the Stratonome was as affected by the radiation disaster as any. Many mutants resulted, though the great wars passed this deck by. Mutations range from the more "common:" the massive thunderbirds and giant flamingoes good examples of gigantism; to the bizarre: the three-clawed flying fungoids called the obb, which take down prey with a combination of intense radiation emitted from their single eyes and psionic abilities. However, three main mutant species dominate the deck.

The flynn are winged humans. They have an allergy to grass and soil, so spend their lives on the wing, exulting in the sheer freedom of flight. While vegetarians (non-intelligent plants only!), the flynn seem to absorb sunlight or a facsimile of it, and can generate a blinding light from their outstretched wings. Generally benevolent, they take little interest in most others, though they will aid those in need if within sight of them.

The hawkoids are vaguely humanoid raptors. They are aggressive, and view most other life as prey. They are always on the hunt, battling the flynn and the great eagles for air superiority. Hawkoids evoke fear in those they attack, a terror so great as to paralyze most victims.

The houyhnhnm rule the grasslands. Intelligent horses, these mutants have impressive mind powers and an equally impressive opinion of themselves and their natural superiority. They use devolved humans as servants, treating them affectionately as pets. The houyhnhnm are aware of intelligent humans and humanoids, though rarely see them, outside the ever-moving flynn. Should they encounter such, they will at first mistake them for devolved humans. When they realize the mistake, they will be immediately apologetic. Still, they maintain an air of condescension that is unmistakable.

The culture that has developed on the Air Deck is loose to the point of non-existence. The numbers of the flynn keep the hawkoids in check, and the houyhnhnm maintain a fairly benevolent society, at least to those they consider intelligent. Still, the flynn are flighty and short of attention, the hawkoids scheme constantly, and the houyhnhnm are oblivious to the growing unrest among the devolved humans.

Next: Part 17: Deck 1 - The Agrifrigate: City Domes One and Two, Garden Domes One and Two