So, Commander Altsain became a bona fide Fuel Rat, and soon accrued five successful rescues to her name.

However, the Diamondback Explorer she had been using, the Fuel Rat Jenny, had some limitations. It was the perfect Fuel Ratting ship (and will remain the first and only option when the call comes in to rescue a client 20,000+ light years away) but it could not do anything else. Its 8 ton cargo bay was perpetually stuffed with fuel transfer limpits, meaning the Commander either had to rush back to a station to pick it up whenever a call came in (which just does not work for a Fuel Rat) or sit in empty space, listening to GalNet, until a call arrived.

Neither option was ideal.

The Commander decided that she needed a ship that could perform Fuel Rat rescues at a drop of a hat, but would otherwise ply the spacelanes looking for work – perhaps doing favours for friends of Shadow President Winters.

Such a ship needed to have plenty of modules and yet be able to jump long distances. Well, that could only be an Anaconda, the Commander thought, and so she recalled the Winters 4 President from its hangar and started to refit it. However, halfway through, she got a bit disenchanted with the process. Choosing an Anaconda for this work seemed a bit… obvious. Surely there was another choice…

Enter the Queen of the Stars, a Beluga liner. Seconded from Cosmic Flipper Spaceways, the Queen was given a nice new paint job, and underwent an extended refitting process.

To begin with, all but two business class cabins were removed. In their place were fitted two 32 ton cargo bays (for limpits and a little light hauling), a 6A Fuel Scoop and a 6D Shield Generator (which was quickly upgraded to a 6A, for reasons that will become obvious).

An Advanced Discovery Scanner and Detailed Surface Scanner were installed, engineered for long range and lightness, as Fuel Rats go to many unexplored systems during their rescue runs. A quick honk or twelve can net a not insubstantial amount of Credits in an evening of Fuel Ratting.

The Power Plant, Thrusters and Frame Shift Drive were all A-rated (never needed when the Queen of the Stars was doing short haul flights), the latter engineered with a Mass Manager. Fully laden, the Beluga would nudge 35 light years which, while not Diamondback territory, works well enough for a Fuel Rat.

Finally, some offensive options were added – after all, the Queen of the Stars needed to be a multirole ship when not Fuel Ratting, and there was always the chance for a little bounty hunting or pirate lord assassination…

Not wanting to tax the Power Plant and Distributor all that much, the Commander opted for two Cannon, two Multicannon, and a single Beam Laser. Kill Warrant and Wake Scanners rounded out the fit, along with Shield Boosters and a wide-angled Frame Shift Interdictor (can’t be too many Belugas fitted with one of those…).

The Queen of the Stars was ready!

Shadow President Felicia Winters had some jobs for the Commander, and so she took the Queen of the Stars to the border of Federation and Imperial space to help out some corporations that had declared they would pledge themselves to Ms. Winters, if only they could throw off the yoke of Imperial oppression.

In the course of this work, the Queen of the Stars was interdicted by a foolish Asp Scout, which was duly dispatched with shields barely needing to recharge. This made the Commander a bit more foolhardy than advisable, and when she allowed a Dropship to interdict her, the Queen of the Stars barely escaped with 52% of hull.

So, one vital question had been answered – yes, the newly refitted Queen of the Stars could fight, but it had to pick its targets very carefully!

Soon enough, while ferrying passengers on a sightseeing tour, the call came through – a stranded Commander needed the help of the Fuel Rats. Within minutes, the Queen of the Stars was at full burn, racing towards the client!

This time, the client was in an Imperial Cutter, which would have been truly miserable for a rebuy. Commander Altsain was happy to help and, after locating the Cutter in a very empty system, the client was back on their way (the majority of calls to the Fuel Rats seem to be from Commanders who ‘just took a detour…’).

The final assessment? The Queen of the Stars is a fantastic ship. It is a little light when it comes to combat, but has incredible agility for such a large ship (just watch that inertia near a station), an array of weapons that is respectable, if not awesome, a great deal of speed, and enough cargo/passenger space to get the job done.

And the cockpit is just a nice place to be.

Commander Altsain thoroughly recommends the Beluga. Don’t take it into a war zone and it will do everything else you ask of it.