◈ The forward hexagon carries my bridge, my crew and my throat to the dark. Three decks, stacked. A central ladder threads all three; three lifts sit aft of it. The port and starboard lifts board on the Common deck — the middle level — and run the length of the keel — past the tanks, the refinery and the cooling stacks — to engineering and the drives. The hab lift stays inside the hexagon as an alternative to the ladder.
Command at the bow point for the widest field of view: helm, navigation and the primary sensor station, with the small-arms locker stowed on the bridge. A short central corridor runs aft from the bridge between the cabins. To port, the captain’s cabin and the pilots’ cabin (berths A & B); comms & secondary sensors to starboard, with an airlock on the starboard quarter. The lower hexagon is left open. Reached by ladder and the hab lift only — the long lifts terminate one deck below.
The working deck. Mess / galley fills the forward triangle. Medbay to port with the medical officer’s cabin immediately adjacent; gym to starboard, stores aft-starboard. A single airlock opens on the port quarter, beside the port lift, with its changing room and pressure-suit lockers. This is where the port and starboard lifts are boarded for the run aft along the tanks.
The forward docking bay takes the bow point — a hard-dock for mating to stations. Aft of it, eight four-berth cabins line the runs — 1–4 to port, 5–8 to starboard, forward to aft, each berth lettered A–D — the last pair tucked into the narrowing stern triangles (32 berths in all, far more than the dozen-odd she usually carries). Stores / cargo amidships. Ladder and hab lift only.