Built by the United States to search for planets suitable for habitation, the USS Cygnus was
one of the largest vessels ever built. It was commanded by Doctor Hans Reinhardt, a
strange but brilliant scientist, known for being theatrical.
However, the ship's search proved fruitless, and it was recalled to Earth. After they received
no reply to this order, the ship was deemed lost, and became known as the costliest failure
of all time. Unknown to those back on Earth, Reinhardt had taken complete control of the
ship and its crew. He spent the next twenty years developing new technologies and obsessing
over a black hole that he wished to travel in, through, and beyond.
When it was unlit, the exterior of the vessel was very industrial in appearance, with extensive
trusswork and antennas covering almost every surface. Groups of pipes ran the length of
the ship, giving it the appearance of an oil rig or refinery.
Nestled within this trusswork was the main body of the craft, mostly consisting of large,
transparent windows. When the internal lights were turned on, the appearance of the Cygnus
metamorphosed from that of a petrochemical facility into a Victorian era train station.
Unfortunately, this transformation didn’t continue inside the voluminous ship, as the
vast open spaces remained industrialised, dominated by trusses, pipes and storage tanks.
As the vessel was so large, the crew used a one-way tram system to move around. Rather
than being automated, each four-person tram was manually controlled using pedals and levers
on the front two seats, and didn’t appear to have any pre-set stations. Passengers could
stop and get off anywhere they pleased, with no apparent way to call a tram to board.
Separate from the main tram system was another one-way track. This ran from the prow mounted
docking area to the control tower through a tunnel mounted outside of the hull, allowing
visitors to skip traffic on the main track. Presumably there was a counterpart track heading
back the other way on the opposite side of the ship.
At the top of the control tower was the control room, one of the few places on board that
tied back to the original mission of the Cygnus. Why Reinhardt had some of his robotic crew
tending to these large globes isn’t clear, since he had long moved on from the ships
original mission.
Beneath the control room was a lavishly furnished dining room, though for a place seemingly
intended to impress guests, it was very small, especially compared with how spacious the
rest of the ship was.
Another odd use of space was the tiny crew quarters, with each member only allotted a
small room, with a single bed, closet and desk. This small space seems especially insulting
when the hallway the rooms were connected to was enormous.
One of the stranger facilities on board the supposed exploration ship was the gun range.
Reinhardts Sentry robots could practice or compete with one another by firing at small
glowing targets through what seemed to be holes in the outside of the ship. The room
somehow stayed pressurised despite being open to space, but apparently people could casually
walk around in vacuum just fine anyway, as seen when the crew of the Palomino escaped.
During the twenty years the Cygnus had spent away from civilization, Reinhardt had made
multiple modifications to it to enable his desire to take the ship through the black
hole.
This first of these was dealing with the unruly crew after they attempted to mutiny when he
refused the recall order. The hospital was converted into a facility to reprogram their
minds, effectively lobotomising them. They became living robots.
The vital technology that was to enable the Cygnus’s journey was its anti-gravity generators,
running on a newly discovered power source called Cygnium. The craft's probe ship had
a much smaller generator on board, but was only using it to safely gather data on the
black holes event horizon.
This raises the question of why Reinhardt intended to take the entire Cygnus through
the black hole at all. The probe ship by itself was a far more viable, and safer, alternative.
Taking that instead also allowed him to leave behind the Cygnus and his creations for the
benefit of humanity. Was he just being ostentatious, or did he love his ship and wanted to take
it with him? Afterall, he did name the element that the anti-gravity generators used after
the ship, rather than himself.
The decision to take the Cygnus through ultimately led to Reinhardts downfall, and the destruction
of the craft, as a storm of asteroids being drawn into the black hole struck the enormous
ship as it approached the event horizon.
Before its destruction, the Cygnus was a glorious vessel. It’s anachronistic outward appearance
was remarkable as a unique blend of different eras of industrialisation. Even the inside
of the ship, with its vacant hallways, spooky robot chapels and quaint electrical arcs,
had a strange haunted house feeling, and the cavernous scale of the main concourse enabled
some truly striking visuals.