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The Hopeful, often known as 'The Hopeless' by its crew, is the primary setting for the Story Clear and The Hopeless. It was involved in a battle decades ago which it lost and has remained a derelict in orbit around the planet Mars since then. Mars itself went through a war with Earth and its inhabitants were all exterminated save for one single Salmitton that now calls The Hopeful home. Clear, the Martian, has spent her entire life aboard the ship and works as a salvager to provide the materials that the ship's Artificial Intelligence, known as Note, needs to continue age-old repairs. She often shares the ship with a handful of other crewmen including Hebedee and Green. The ship's captain, known to Clear as Icer, was somehow frozen in time within the ship's Command Deck just as it was burning up during the attack. Clear cannot be made captain by Note because the previous captain is technically alive.

Description

External Description

Clear describes the ship's appearance as a worm curled into an arc shape. The name of the ship, "The Hopeful", is printed on the outside of the ship, apparently in English[CatH 1].

Condition

See also: CatH Post 2

Page 1 is where The Hopeful is probably most vividly and fully described. The ship is not only in a state of disrepair but the ship's A.I. is also attempting to conserve energy and so most of the lights either don't work or they're dimmed. Old blood stains, which are discoloured to brown, mark many areas of the ship that Clear has grown used to despite their probable sinister history. Perhaps most importantly the ship's engines are shut down and the Hopeful is described as "always silent". The ship's size remains undetermined, however Clear compares it to the size of a small country on Earth. Because the ship does nothing but orbit Mars, Clear thinks of the ship more as a spacestation. There are no stairs anywhere in the ship except for a single set of metal stairs that lead down to the floor of the Hangar[CatH 1].

After returning to the Solar System The Hopeful is given some general maintenance and is in its best condition ever; the computers tended to stay online for longer, before the almost mandatory blue screen of death[Ext 1] appeared, the vending machine outside of the medical bay has been serving its cans of pop lukewarm instead of piping hot and the lights didn't feel the need to resort to strobe effects just because someone flushed a toilet in one of the ship's billions of rooms. To make it worse, a sub-A.I. keeps flushing all of the toilets at the stroke of midnight each night[CatH 2].

The Death Trap

The "Death Trap" is a patch of the ship that Clear often trips over and could, potentially, injure herself. Hence why she dubs it the "Death Trap"[CatH 1].

Shields

Atmospheric Shields

The only shields that The Hopeful currently has online are the atmospheric shields, obviously designed to keep atmosphere inside, which are used around the exit of the Hangar. This allows people to walk freely around the hangar without needing to open and close gigantic airlock doors every time a small craft needs to leave The Hopeful[CatH 1].

Living Quarters

Clear's Room

Clear's room isn't far from the hangar and the Command Deck, where Icer is (citation needed). Clear spends a lot of time in her room when not salvaging, drinking and listening to music on her bed. The washroom has a steam-based shower for cleaning[CatH 3].

The Dreamviewer

See also: Dreamviewer

TBA

Green's Room

Green's room is much further away from the standard living quarters as is, in fact, not one of the intended bedrooms at all. The room is covered in plantlife that Green has created, including vines and bright flowers. The plants live all along the corridor beyond the room too, as well as the chirping bugs that seem to live there too. Instead of a bed there is a gigantic flower with its petals curled round to be used like a blanket[CatH 4].

Aurora's Room | Kiron's Room

Aurora's room was supposedly the largest of the living quarters that Kiron Nightstrider was able to find. His own room was next door to hers[CatH 5].

Pully's Room

Pully, like Clear, often finds solace in her own room where she's likely to be drunk[CatH 5].

Ltexi's Room

The video in Ltexi's room has been broken since she claimed the room, which she desperately wants to get fixed so she can watch homemade pornography on it[CatH 2].

Medical Bay

The original medical bay was a simple affair with very old and poor quality equipment that handed been used for decades[CatH 6]. However once Dr Alexis Thrain signed on the medbay was quickly improved. It was retiled, extended greatly and given new equipment including medical beds, computers, diagnosis equipment and the all-important bacta tank[CatH 7]. Clear also put an old TV from Earth in the room with its DVD player, only able to play a single DVD called "The Room[Ext 2]", to keep people entertained inside the bacta tank. While Princess Aurora Briarose was onboard, her casket was kept in the medical bay where it also first arrived[CatH 8]. The room also has training equipment for physical rehab[CatH 5].

Command Deck

The Command Deck of The Hopeful was somehow frozen in time during the battle decades ago. Why or how remains a mystery as The Hopeless itself has no such functionality that Clear has been able to find. Just at the door of the Command Deck is the ship's captain, frozen in time, just as she is about to die. Flames wreck the room behind her and she is even being set alight, frozen in that moment. Because her badge is burnt Clear cannot gather to woman's complete name but is able to make out what looks like Icer and thus calls the woman thus. Clear's commonly dubs the Command Deck "Icer's Room"[CatH 1].

Command Centre

The Command Centre is the secondary command location for the ship, should the first be at risk. As the Command Deck is frozen in time, The current crew members of The Hopeful normally use the Command Centre to meetup and discuss moments of urgency, which is rarely. The Command Centre is one of the rooms that still has most of its lighting and is much brighter than other areas of the ship. It was a semi-circular platform at the front, just before a bank of consoles that are on a slightly lower level to the platform[CatH 1]. Behind the platform are rows of chairs where people would gather to watch briefings and the like (citation needed). The platform, as Clear later learnt, is very old technology meant for use with Organic Intelligence - a computer system designed to hijack a sentient's mind and plug them into the ship, acting as the ship's mind. Now the Artificial Intelligence serves that role instead (citation needed).

Processing Plant

The Processing Plant is the room designed to create food from grain. The huge food processors are constantly working at all times, even when no food is being poured into them. Nobody has figured out how to shut them down, despite the fact that they are never actually used due to the ship's crew being so small[CatH 9].

Synthetics Laboratory

Discovered by Wai when he acted as the ship's A.I., the synthetics laboratory houses machines that can process organic material into other organic materials - such as hamburgers can be turned into clothes. Wai was even able to use it to replace his skin[CatH 5].

A.I. Hub

The A.I. Hub is the housing containment for the ship's A.I.. This is where the central store for the program is found and from there the A.I. governs the entire ship. The A.I. itself exists on a software chip that is plugged into the mainframe[CatH 10]. In different consoles of the room different A.I.s are stored, though only the primary A.I. has a personality and presence of mind (citation needed).

Hangar Bay

The Hangar of The Hopeful is very wide, allowing accommodation of many smaller vessels, however it is also a scene of debris, clutter and even old blood stains. The route from the rest of the ship to the Hangar is a metal grate stairwell that reaches up to a small box-like room made entirely of windows to see all of the hangar. These are the only stairs in the entire ship. This room is adjoined to the corridor by a door that swirls like a flower when opening and closing.[CatH 1]. It was only recently cleared up somewhat by the Rebel Alliance droids when the ship was under repairs, but it is still mostly unusuable. It is where the crew's personal ships will dock, including the Bug and the Æon ships belonging to Kokoro Lymn and Ffion Heul (citation needed).

Ships

The Bug

The Bug is a shuttlecraft usually contained in the hangar of The Hopeful. It is named thus because Clear believes that it looks like an insect. Although Hebedee wanted to call it "The Butterfly", Clear thought it was too ugly for such a sweet-sounding name. The ship has two wings that will raise when the ship is activated and closed when not in use, taking up less space. It has just one single door to get into the ship. The ship is generally run down and as dilapidated as The Hopeful itself. It can fit around eight people, though Clear is sure she could fit more in with a squeeze. It has its own bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and a cargo hold for storage. In the cockpit the seats are described as having metal belts with pink-laser straps for visibility in space. The ship's take-offs and landings are notoriously bumpy[CatH 1].

The Lightstaff

Main article: The Lightstaff

TBA

Engine Room

The engine room is the section of the ship where the mechanisms for the engine are located. Here a person may check the calibrations of the engines and make whatever adjustments they wish[CatH 11]. However usually this is all done by the ship's A.I. rather than manually, so the room gets little attention (citation needed). There are known to be at least two engine rooms in the ship, one of which is closer to the Command Centre than the engines themselves(citation needed).

The Power Core

The original power core of the ship had to be replaced by Admiral Ltexi during the Medieval Era, which was a fuel-based engine[Pan 1]. In a room sectioned off from the engine room is the power core. The power core Clear found on the ship in the Modern Era was very out-dated power engine that provided energy for the ship's systems, the sub-light engines and the hyperdrive. It was replaced by the a new energy source stolen from The Boss and The Oh My Love!. This new device is merely named "the power core" by the crew. It uses organic matter to infuse it with energy. A single sentient being can provide a great deal of power for the ship's systems, but at the cost of that person's existence[CatH 11]. The new engines, the Bagan Noz Drive, uses up a lot more of the power core's energy (citation needed).

Bagan Noz Drive

Clear had a whole new Faster-than-light drive installed, replacing the old hyperdrive system that The Hopeful had. The Bagan Noz Drive is one of the fastest jump drives known in the Perseus Arm, but that comes at a cost. The drive allows the ship to circumvent space-time by moving through another dimension, commonly known as Tartarus. Tartarus is a dangerous and volatile dimension that will cripple lesser ships. It also uses a great deal of energy that only something like the Power Core that Clear stole could possibly provide. Tartarus is much faster than the hyper dimension that a hyperdrive would go to as time is renowned to be malleable in Tartarus (citation needed).

Hebedee's Workshop

Hebedee, before he died, designated a small alcove room as his workshop where he could tinker with the goods that Clear brought back from salvaging missions[CatH 3].

The Lounge

The Lounge, named 'The Observatory' by Admiral Ltexi, is an elongated room that juts out of the ship as a big, glass dome. This affords people an ample view of space Main article: Pan Post 65 | See also: Space mamelotC within the ship. The room has a bar where Clear will store some drinks[CatH 12].

Superweapon

TBA

History

Space Camelot

Main article: Pan Post 65 | See also: Space Camelot

Humans from the planet Earth discovered an ancient ship beneath the landmass of Britannia in 501AD, which they named Camelot[Pan 2]. Led by King Arthur, the humans ascended into space in the hopes of colonisation and conquest[Pan 3]. They came to Mars where they came across the Jupiterian Empire under the leadership of Chancellor Ctatherine. The Jupiterians were suspicious of the humans because they had also found a ship identical to Camelot, which they called The Hopeful. It was in orbit around Mars as a derelict and Admiral Ltexi was in command of it. She wanted to study Camelot to compare to her own ship and so she temporarily joined the Camelot Crew[Pan 4].

Clear and the Hopeless

Main article: Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc)

The Hopeful, nicknamed "The Hopeless" by its current owner Clear, once orbited Mars as a long-dead derelict from a past conflict. Clear, the last of her species the salmittons, would seek salvage from the abandoned Martian settlements to both trade and, more importantly, to submit for use in repairing The Hopeful itself - a never-ending task for the ship's A.I., Note. However, Note's primary function was to ensure that the planet Earth was always within sensor range and when, suddenly, the Earth seemed to disappear from the Sol System, Note activated the long-silent engines and jumped across the galaxy into the Perseus Arm[CatH 1]. However he ran out of fuel quickly. Under the assumption that Note would return them to Mars, Clear and the new crewmember, Green, went to trade on a station for more fuel. Hebedee, the ship's mechanic, stayed onboard to investigate the missing Earth[CatH 4]. When the two women returned, Clear was upset by the experience and sealed herself in her room. After Clear refuses to search for salvage, Green and Hebedee accept an invitation to a mysterious crystalline ship to get the salvage needed by themselves[CatH 3]. Clear then travels to the ship too, using one of their transport ships because Green and Hebedee took the Bug[CatH 13]. When Clear returns with Green, she also has a mysterious power source that they stole from the ship, Oh My Love!, however the device absorbed Hebedee into it as energy and Note had to inform Clear that the human was dead and couldn't be returned to life. After much reluctance, Clear agrees to put the power source into the power core of the Engine Room to fuel The Hopeful[CatH 14].

Note immediately starts jumping through the Perseus Arm again but comes to a sudden stop when The Hopeful is caught in an anti-warp generator on an icy planet called Ledus. Clear goes down to the world and turns off the gravity well. Note, however, doesn't wait for Clear to return aboard and jumps without her, leaving her stranded[CatH 15].

The Living Daylights

Main article: The Living Daylights

The Hopeful underwent some repair work that meant it was running better than usual, which is not saying much. The computers tended to stay online for longer, before the almost mandatory blue screen of death appeared, the vending machine outside of the medical bay has been serving its cans of pop lukewarm instead of piping hot and the lights didn't feel the need to resort to strobe effects just because someone flushed a toilet in one of the ship's billions of rooms[CatH 2].

Notes

Britt's Commentary

"The original inspiration for the large and poorly manned ship, along with Clear being the very last of her kind, came from the BBC[Ext 3] TV Show named Red Dwarf[Ext 4]. However I wanted a more run-down, broken ship than Red Dwarf, which mostly seems in working order albeit empty of people. The most important factor I wanted to include was a sense of mystery and a sense of character. I wanted The Hopeful not just to be a ship, but to be a presence. I hope that the continued mysteries of The Hopeful can continue on throughout the entire Clear and the Hopeless series, with more and more to learn about the ship's history." - Britt the Writer

References

External References

Clear and the Hopeless References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 CatH Post 2, CatH Page 1, Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc), Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 CatH Post 83, CatH Page 3, The Living Daylights, Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 CatH Post 6, CatH Page 1, Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc), Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer.
  4. 4.0 4.1 CatH Post 3, CatH Page 1, Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc), Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 CatH Post 23, CatH Page 1, Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc), Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer.
  6. CatH Post 17, CatH Page 1, Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc), Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer
  7. CatH Post 19, CatH Page 1, Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc), Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer
  8. CatH Post 20, CatH Page 1, Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc), Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer
  9. CatH Post 16, CatH Page 1, Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc), Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer.
  10. CatH Post 19, CatH Page 1, Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc), Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer.
  11. 11.0 11.1 CatH Post 9, CatH Page 1, Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc), Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer.
  12. CatH Post 84, CatH Page 3, The World of Tomorrow, Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer.
  13. CatH Post 7, CatH Page 1, Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc), Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer.
  14. CatH Post 9, CatH Page 1, Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc), Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer.
  15. CatH Post 10, CatH Page 1, Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc), Clear and the Hopeless written by Britt the Writer.

Pantheons of the NeSiverse References

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