Hidden Sun

The Hidden Sun is a wingless starship, shaped like an elongated letter “A” that flares out at the the rear and has a rounded tip at the front. Its reinforced hull is white with specks of dark gray and four V-6000 light-speed engines sit at the rear of the ship just above the shuttle bay door. The ship features four gray landing feet, each as big as a house. The Hidden Sun measures 1000 feet in length and is 400 feet high (including the landing feet).

The starship has 25 decks with the bridge and the bridge crew’s living quarters being at the very top of the ship (Deck 1) and the shuttle bay consuming the majority of Deck 25. The Hidden Sun has enough room to accommodate 1000 passengers.

Designed in secret by a small but powerful group of individuals, in conjunction with the United States Military and technological innovations (some stolen) from over 1000 worlds, the Hidden Sun was created to be more powerful than any ship the Ptevos had in their arsenal. Under the rule of Rex Saasha, the Ptevos were a ferocious enemy, attacking and enslaving worlds across the universe in an effort to usurp their technological know how and use their citizens as free labor. Earth had been at the forefront of interfering with the Ptevos activities. What started off as a small group of protesters with spray paint and signs, had grown to several military starships. Captain Smoke and his crew were the front line of defense against the Ptevos. Over the years they had intercepted and destroyed several Ptevos ships, stopping the Ptevos from enslaving aliens and stealing their resources. Word had reached back to Rex Saasha about Captain Smoke’s transgressions and he quickly sent the Ptevos’s best military mind to kill him and enslave the people of Earth. General Zarafat led a small but powerful team of starships and battled Captain Smoke and the Clipper across the universe, but could not best her. Over the years the two continued to battle and each achieved marginal victories, but as with every conflict between two strong beings, it eventually had to end. General Zarafat caught Captain Smoke off guard and was able to destroy the Clipper.

Six months later the Hidden Sun was completed and the now shipless Rexford Smoke was given command. V, part of the cabal against Rex Saasha,knew with their huge resources, the Ptevos were developing new, more powerful weapons everyday. He set in motion his own plan to install a secondary line of defense should Captain Smoke fail. No one could have guessed that his plan featured a twelve year-old boy named Brandon Sparks.

Author’s Note:

The Hidden Sun was originally going to be a two-part ship. During the final battle in Brandon Sparks and the Hidden Sun, the ship was going to split apart, leaving most of the ship behind. The ship is very large so to have 89 people living on it, seems strange, Imagine going on a cruise on one of the larger cruise ships and there would be only 89 people on board. They probably need more than 89 people just to run the ship. I am a fan of Galaxy Quest and maybe that is where I got the idea for a two-part ship, but in the end the starship ended up in one piece.

The design of the ship started off being very basic. I imagined a big floating letter A. I decided to go wingless because I just didn’t see a need for wings in space. That might change as the BSU expands and I add new characters and new starships. An important decision was establishing the size of the Hidden Sun. I thought within the dimensions I had established, 25 decks was appropriate and I would fill in the space as the story grew. I never truly mapped it out on paper other than making notes of what room or object was on a certain deck. I tried to scatter out different places on the ship so that it felt large. I always thought if the characters had to travel to get where they wanted to get, that would give the ship the feeling of space and presence.

The name for the Hidden Sun came to me pretty quickly, and once I gave it the ability to survive flying through a star, the name stuck. Aside from that, the name just sounds cool to me. I like to think that someone is going to pick up Brandon Sparks and the Hidden Sun, not knowing what it is about and turn to their friend and say, “What is a Hidden Sun? Is this story about a cloudy day?”