Memories Of Ice

The work on The Wild Rose was finally complete, it had been given a sleek white coat, stronger engines and weapons and general upgrades to the body of the ship to make it appear more sleek and unlike a ship that had once belonged to Pyre. On the coat of the airship was several red stripes and two large red rose decals on each side of the airship.

Roisin and the others were examining the ship as the scaffold was being taken away.

"It looks perfect!" Roisin cheered.

"Finally we've made it our own" Ariel nodded as she patted Roisin on the back.

"No more Academies, or cities, we're our own bosses now!" Ashe smiled. General Summers approached.

"Thank you so much for your help, General Summers" Anya smiled at General Summers.

"It was no trouble at all, you are all my daughter's friends, so, to me, you are all family" He nodded.

"I love the new engines, those should speed us up a tad" Lotte said as she examined the engines.

"Hmm, is it me or is the ship taller?" Wes asked.

"Indeed it is, we removed the original cockpit and meeting room, and installed another deck in its place, on that deck we've placed a medical bay in the rear of the deck and an observation deck. Then we added a new cockpit and meeting room above" A mechanic explained.

"Ooh! We're gonna need to find ourselves a doctor then" Lotte cheered.

"I do have a little bit of medical training, I was taught it back home" Ariel smiled. "I can learn more, if you want" Ariel said, as she turned to Roisin.

"Hmm? Oh, am I the Captain?" Roisin asked, looking slightly stunned.

"Well, the ship is kind of named after you" Ashe chuckled.

"Oh, right" Roisin nodded, then turned to Ariel. "If you want to become our doctor, you have my permission" Roisin smiled.

"Thanks, Ros" Ariel chuckled as she hugged Roisin.

"That's Captain Ros!" Roisin laughed as she hugged back.

"Want to come aboard?" General Summers asked as he walked toward the cargo hold.

"Heck yeah!" Roisin nodded, and followed, the others also followed Roisin aboard. As soon as they walked into the hold, they noticed how new even this area of the ship looked.

"Whoa! It looks like it's brand new!" Wes smiled as he ran his hand along the smooth metal wall.

"Yep, we removed all the panels on the walls, the fewer things that identify this ship as a former Crystech property the better" General Summers smiled. The group followed the General into the engine room, that could now be accessed from the hold.

There was now more room in the engine room, and better lighting. The engine appeared smaller itself, but still gave off a bright blue glow. All of the pipes and wires had been arranged into access panels for easy access. General Summers turned to Lotte.

"I hope we did well in here, Ms. Wynd" He chuckled.

"Did well? You've made it ten times easier to work in here! You even added a chair" Lotte said enthusiastically as she pointed to a small chair in the corner of the room.

"Well, we did add that in case of turbulence and the like, but it's pretty comfy too" The General smiled, he then began climbing the ladder into the living area. The whole kitchen had been replaced with a much more modern look, the cupboard doors were all red and the worktop was grey, across the other side of the room was a large dining table where there had once been unused storage cupboards.

"This is amazing! I'll be able to cook all kinds of things in here" Ashe smiled. General Summers smiled and hugged Ashe.

"I'm glad you like it, honey" He nodded.

"Hmm, how much did you change the bedrooms?" Roisin asked. The General looked down the corridor where the bedrooms were located.

"Well, we actually made all of them slightly bigger, but we refrained from changing the decor too much, as I think you would like to decorate them yourselves" General Summers explained.

"Thank you, General" Roisin smiled, as she headed toward the lounge, as she opened the door she was surprised to see the room looked completely different, it had a similar layout of chairs, but it had a large screen TV, coffee making facilities and even a vending machine. "Whoa!" Roisin said, looking surprised.

"Yes, we put a lot of care into the lounge, we wanted to make a place where you could all enjoy your downtime" Summers smiled.

"Thank you!" Roisin said. "This will do just perfectly" She added as she scanned the selection of chocolate bars in the vending machine.

"Right, now let's go see the new areas of the ship" Summers said as he headed back toward the kitchen and pulled down a ladder from a hatch on the roof in an unused corner.

As everyone reached the observation deck, they were taken aback by a huge glass wall that surrounded the front of the ship.

"Huh, I didn't spot this from the outside..." Wes pondered.

"That's because this isn't a window" Summers winked, he typed on a small panel and the window disappeared in a flash, revealing a solid steel wall. "It's a holographic projection of the view from the other side. It offers a fantastic view for relaxing, without sacrificing defence" He explained, before heading into the medical bay.

In the medical bay there were three beds and cabinets surrounding the room, it had all possible emergency equipment that could be required.

"So this is my new home" Ariel said as she looked around.

"If you require any medicines, let us know" Summers nodded, he headed back out of the door and climbed a ladder to the cockpit, the others followed him up.

The cockpit was filled with consoles and switches, at the front was the pilots chair, and a window facing forward.

"In here we've added much more capability, instead of the pilot being the one who must do everything, secondary and tertiary pilots may now use consoles dotted around, its less of a cockpit and more of a bridge, to be honest." Summers smiled.

"Hmm, if needed, can the ship still be flown with one pilot?" Roisin asked.

"Yep! The option is there for how every many pilots are required" General Summers explained.

After the tour of the ship, the new crew had a toast, and shattered a champange bottle against the side of the ship, for good luck.