Y Que

souverän Belt-racer Y Que

A homemade Ceres rock hopper becomes humanity's first doomed vessel to cross the Ring.

Story so far

Manéo Jung-Espinoza spends months assembling the Y Que from a little converted rock hopper, then secretly paints its name after slagging its transponder. It is barely more than a torch drive, crash couch, life support, and cameras, but Néo uses carefully plotted gravity assists to hurl it from the inner system toward The Ring without an Epstein drive. He shuts down almost everything during the long coast, exhausting its food and nearly all its water.

The unregistered ship slips toward the flotilla around the Ring on a ballistic course until the Martian frigate Lucien detects it and launches torpedoes. The Y Que crosses the Ring first. In a starless space beyond, an external force stops it from 150,000 kilometers per hour at ninety-nine g, smashing its pilot across the cockpit while the exterior camera continues transmitting images of darkness and then something unknown.

Appearance

The Y Que is a tiny, improvised rock hopper with a slagged transponder, a cramped single-person cockpit, a torch drive, and high-speed exterior cameras. Its systems are stripped to the minimum needed for a slingshot run.

Role

The Y Que carries the first human incursion through the Ring and records the first evidence of what lies beyond it.

Relationships

Manéo Jung-Espinoza — Manéo Jung-Espinoza builds and christens the ship as the vehicle for his bid at immortality.

The Ring — Its ballistic course takes it directly across The Ring despite the military quarantine.

Lucien — The Lucien detects the unregistered racer and fires torpedoes too late to prevent its crossing.

Sources — 1 recorded facts, by chapter

Chapter 1

A homemade Ceres rock hopper becomes humanity's first doomed vessel to cross the Ring.