The crew came to the consensus a few weeks out that while the ship's decor was pleasant, the Aries needed a more personal touch and so some of the more artistic crew members began putting a few things together, but the Captain had something in mind for the walls of the briefing room. Something she'd been planning since before they launched from the starbase. The crew had thought it had just been for posterity, maybe Starfleet records, but she had other plans.
I wanted something more personal to the ship for decorations other than the paintings from TOS that are going to crop up here and there, so I took the frames, flipped them so that they fit a more widescreen view, built a partial observation deck for a Starbase, dropped the Aries outside and did up four renders with all 40 of the crew spaced out over the four shots. A lot of work for a background set of wall hangings, but worth it.
It's not always practical to beam down supplies directly to an area or hotspot. Sometimes you need overland transportation, and that's where the anti-grav MULE comes in. Easily assembled in a cargo bay, the MULE can be broken down to make room for other cargo or can be assembled and left intact as needed. Equipped with a modest cargo space, a tractor emitter on the front end for towing capability and an optional roll cage, the MULE can get your personnel where they need to be when transporters just won't cut it.
I do have plans for the MULE, and yes there's historic significance and a personal one for the name. It's not elegant, but it's not supposed to be. Assembled from anti-grav-units, two portable fusion power units, a portable tractor emitter, some venting from Engineering and low-power impulse for thrust, the MULE is a combination of tech just sitting around the ship begging to be used in a different way. She's not pretty, she's not elegant, but she'll move your cargo and give somebody a tow.
The Zodiac class tries to maintain some sense of personal space, but as a smaller ship it has smaller living quarters for its crew. Lower ranked crew members don't have to share rooms, but their personal quarters are a simple bed, a wardrobe and the bathroom with an optional chair. The Zodiac crew, outside their busy and rack time, is expected to use the lounges and other public areas on board to spread out a little bit and unwind.
This is undecorated. This would be an empty room a crew member might walk into first day on the ship. The door does close, I assure you
There is a shelf next to the bed that runs the length of the back wall (you'll see it in the Senior quarters below) for decorations and knick-knacks and other personal effects, but this is definitely cramped. At least they don't have to share.
Department Heads and the more senior officers on board the Zodiac class get a more standard size set of living quarters on board the Zodiac. With a bedroom, office/lounge and a bathroom, these are closer to the regular rooms on board ships the size of the Constitution. With a lot more breathing room than the Junior quarters, as well as a decent lounge chair outside of the desk and chair combo of the office, there is plenty of room for personal effects and a bit of privacy when one gets woken up in the middle of the night by a department member and they need to get dressed.
Tried to do something a little different with the space but borrowed the idea of an expanding set of quarters from the Motion Picture and TNG. In this case, instead of opening into an office and just having a moving wall to split it up, I'm moving the bedroom along away from the bathroom and opening it up that way.
These are not the quarters of the Captain, the XO or visiting VIPs. Their cabins are even bigger. Although the Captain's quarters are the largest. Won't be sharing those probably until next week.
Again, this is undecorated as I plan to decorate for each of my characters and save out each version as it's own file so I wanted a clean base to work with, which this is.
Credit where it's due:
Uniform textures by JamesJAB
I like it.
