I think for most science fiction stories concerning spaceships, the primary ship of the story is probably something that is very quickly and readily created.

I’ve taken my time at it, for reasons of not being that good with that sort of medium (at least not to the level I like), but I have finally created an image on GIMP!

Length: 2540 meters
302 Decks
7 KL221-B Fusion Reactors
3 Custom 900-meter Coilguns of Adjustable Diameter
12 Navigational Towers
48 Tower-mounted navigation lasers
120 Multi-barrel PDC emplacements
55 Magazine-fed Missile Launch Systems with 5-missile capacity

To lay out some specifics;

The central sphere was constructed from a cratonic asteroid that was 1070 meters in diameter; it was, oddly for an object of its size, a proper geoid, despite not possessing enough mass to do so under the effects of gravity. Much of that asteroid still exists, resulting in the “bumpy” edges of some parts. This outer shell is approximately 50 meters thick – and given the strength of cratonic material, this provides those inside the ship with ample protection from cosmic rays and enemy attacks.

At the fore is the armored cone that protects from enemy attacks (though largely is just for absorbing micro-meteor impacts). Such shields would be common place on any ship in space that doesn’t possess any kind of fantastical energy shields or something to that effect. This will always face the direction of travel. At the center of this are the apertures for the three massive coilguns that run most of the length of the ship. They have covers that are quite thick that close when not in use, to protect from any random object (or missile) from being able to fly inside.

You may notice the small dots around the rim of the cone; these are covers for the retracting point-defense cannons. The preponderance of them are on the rim to give them the best arcs of fire, though there is a secondary ring of additional PDCs further back to cover the rear of the ship better. These are purely-military in function, and can be used to shoot incoming enemy missiles or to attack soft targets at extremely close range. There are 120 of these point-defense cannons, though each “individual” cannon would actually be groups of gatling-style multiple-barreled weapons that would fire thousands of rounds per minute. When you have massive swarms of missiles coming in, your goal is not going to be single precisely-placed shots, but to put out a veritable wall of counter-fire to make sure you kill that missile.

The red towers contain sensors but also powerful navigational lasers. Another feature that any spaceship would possess if it can afford the power (and heat cost), these will always be active, targeting objects heading towards the ship. Tiny objects can be incinerated, while larger objects can be targeted on one side, which would cause the object to change course as heated material blasts off. There are twelve towers in total, each holding four lasers for a total of 48. I have not yet crunched the numbers to determine how powerful they are, but I will get around to it. These lasers are, incidentally, just as effective against incoming missiles.

The ring behind this is the famous Equator Ring! The collections of four boxes are actually the lovely transparent titanium windows, which are quite large at 30 meters in width.

The two blocks behind the Equator Ring are the main landing bays of the Craton. There is one more on the other side, and these are 40 meters by 80 meters.

The rings behind that are the Craton‘s zerodrive. While it is necessary for part of these to be external, they don’t do anything exciting visually when activated. I’m sure if there was ever a film of my stories, though, they’d probably glow and make a wum-wum noise as they charged up.

Finally, the long fins are radiators. Any spaceship would require these. When you have massive reactors pouring out incredible amounts of energy, you will have to get rid of that heat somehow – and in space the only way you can do that is by radiating the heat away as light. That means that these fins will usually be glowing a faint red at any given time, and during times of very high activity (like after a jump or in combat) they would glow more. There are three of the fins, which is the most efficient arrangement.

The Craton does have small maneuvering thrusters (not shown), but largely moves by thinning the veil between realspace and zerospace in front of it; the gravitational attraction of zerospace pulls the ship towards it. The ship does this repeatedly many times a second, creating a generally constant pull. It can also position this field in any direction around it! Though this does not dump its current inertia, it does allow it to alter course quite smoothly, and also rotate freely while moving as it wishes. This means that if the Craton is being chased, it can rotate to bring its coilguns and frontal cone to bear on its pursuers while still moving away from them or rotate to give a nice broadside as it passes an enemy ship!

Incidentally – this form of gravity engine is totally a physics violation. They are aware that this contradicts known physics within the setting, and have created “neo-physics” to attempt to explain this all and understand the universe better.

They are unaware that they are trying to see to the bottom of the sea by peering at its surface, and a deeper truth, the eldritch truth, lies beneath.