The Dolphin-1 is the first interplanetary vessel built by the combined space program of the League and the Machine Army. It is assembled in an orbital drydock, its size rivaling that of the World-Station, although it in turn is dwarfed by the several-mile-long Watchtower. A slender cylinder, it is made up of multiple interconnected modules, each specially designed to contain manufacturing facilities, crew quarters, ritual centers, and storage holds. There is a biosphere that can produce its own food, science labs, and of course a massive engine capable of propelling the ship across interplanetary distances. This modular design inspired by the philosophies of the Hill-folk is expected to be the template for future spacecraft.
The Captain is a True Person, the First Mate is a Machine Soldier. The navigator is a Historian, the chief engineer is a Machine Soldier. The crew is similarly mixed, and while there is some friction between the two diplomatic teams meant to establish separate relations with whatever government the Watchtower possesses, they are bound together by their common mission, to relieve the station and conduct an overhaul in order to permanently expand its operational life.
The Dolphin-1 launches when the Wanderer is approaching its closest point to Paradisea, and the spacecraft uses Mnemosyne's own gravity to slingshot itself towards the closest planet to the Daystar. The precise calculations involved were conducted by the Historian-Navigator.
The Dolphin-1 then spins around and breaks, firing its engine to decelerate as it maneuvers alongside the Watchtower. A spinning hollow cylinder, the space station is several miles long, its rotational momentum creating artificial gravity which allows people to live inside it. The people of the Watchtower are strange – skin tanned by solar radiation, tall and slender with elongated facial features due to the subtly lighter gravity. They are a glum folk, quietly neurotic as they scurry around tending to the complex machinery, checking it obsessively for faults. Most of their knowledge takes the form of rote memorization, a religious consulting of old instruction manuals. They survive through hydroponics and aquaculture, and the addition of foreign crops offers a change in diet that endears you to them.
They are hesitant to allow you full access to the ship, but they do allow your engineers to survey different parts of the vessel under the guidance of their highest-ranking priest-mechanics.
The ship, you see, is alive.
Generations of people have imbued the ship with spiritual significance. It serves as their entire world and keeps them alive and protected from the vacuum of space. Their prayers fuel it, and the ship's spirit uses her magic to maintain what little she can of the fraying systems, to tell the inhabitants of fault lines and failures before they form, and to nudge the ship along in its orbit above the Wanderer. It is a symbiotic relationship; the ship keeps the inhabitants alive, and they maintain the ship.
Sometimes, the ship requires sacrifices. In the past this was done as a crude form of population control, but in the modern day it is largely decided by lot. At times, regime change meant that political enemies were sacrificed. Those selected were rounded up – mostly, they went almost voluntarily – and are vented into space. The priest-engineer assure you that ritual human sacrifice does in fact have power, and that such extreme measures were necessary to stay alive.
Your holy men commune with the ship's spirit to judge that for themselves. She takes the form of a woman with a face of cold, emotionless steel. Your holy men make it clear that continued assistance hinges on the fact that they cannot conscience human sacrifice; if she is correct that it was only a dire necessity, then their aid should supersede any further need for sacrifice.
The mind created for the Watchtower is cold and calculating, but also capable of self-preservation. Taking the long term and accepting your assistance will allow her to persist, no matter the state of her inhabitants; but also, your assistance is contingent on her maximizing their comfort and happiness.
The ship's spirit is cooperative, but there are other issues with the inhabitants. Needless to say, the Watchtower is an insular, conservative society that does not take well to change. There are riots over the belief that the outsiders are threatening the systems that maintain the ship, the engineer-priests resent the ability of your holy men to commune with the ship's spirit (a job reserved for them alone before contact), and there is culture clash between the inhabitants and the advisors. Still, the Watchtower will hopefully survive, and you will take the first step towards being an interplanetary civilization.