So, Commander Altsain had been perfectly happy using her Orca (the Exxon Valdez) for Fuel Ratting. In many ways, it is the perfect Fuel Ratting ship – it gives away some jump range to the likes of the Asp and Anaconda, but it is just such a nice ship to fly.

The problem started in a starport bar, listening to other commanders talk about their ships. One produced a photo of his Beluga seriously outclassing a Corvette outside a planetary outpost (who parked that hotel there?), and it looked properly good.

Before the Orca, Commander Altsain had been using her Beluga for Fuel Ratting… and now felt the impulse to go back to it. Yes, it was slower and more vulnerable to catcalls, but you could not say it was slow and, in terms of missions, it was just so much more capable.

The 128 ton fuel tank is also attractive to a Fuel Rat.

So, the Queen of the Stars was brought back out of the hangar, and given a new paint job.

The Commander’s new Fuel Rat decals were also applied.

All over the ship…

Work was done internally as well. The commander’s new relationship with Professor Palin was suitably exploited, and the engines of the Queen of the Stars seriously tuned – not to the levels of the Orca, but a boost speed well in excess of 400 metres per second would at least give the big ship some breathing room when danger arose.

This, it turned out, was the only real downside of the Beluga – the commander has no fears about catcalls or other gankers when in the Orca, but she is all too aware that the Beluga is a bit more…. vulnerable.

But so much more capable.

One of the two passenger cabins were removed (the luxury class was kept, natch), as work for Shadow President Winters usually requires just a single cabin to ferry VIPs around. Instead, the cargo bay was increased to 128 tons and a planetary vehicle hangar added so the Queen of the Stars could engage in planetary missions, and perhaps even visit the odd Guardians site if a rescue took place in their area of space.

The Beluga could now do everything that the Orca could (with the exception of travelling at blindingly fast speeds), but better – it had four times the cargo space, and the SRV added a whole new range of missions that could be performed. Add to that the 128 ton fuel tank (lovely!), some tuning to the FSD, and general weight reductions, and the Queen of the Stars could match the 40-odd light year jump range of the Exxon Valdez, but travel much further on a single tank.

The commander is now as pleased as a space pig in poop. So much so that she changed the paint scheme of the Queen of the Stars again, to give it a bit more flair.

If she had to put her finger on something that still needs attention on the Beluga… it runs a bit hot, which makes jumping away from a star after scooping a tad longer than it should. This really needs a low emissions power plant to fix, but the ship is already running close to its total power output (and that is on a stripped down overcharged plant), so will need some thought.

However, the ship is fully operational right now, and you may see it plying space around a station near you!