FC

Mercer-class survey ship

NV Dawnward

A forty-year-old survey hull that opened a reach. Lightly armed on purpose: a gun at the mouth of somebody else's sky reads as conquest. She is a mobile laboratory, a diplomatic habitat, a node-seeder and — the part that decides the trilogy — a provenance authority.

Operator
Open Reach Survey
Registry
Open Reach registry, out of Highreach
Series
Wide Sky
Drawn as
As refitted, 2316 — the second yard period, before the Sable throat.
Sheet 1 General arrangement — profile, looking to port 72.0 m overall · 144 frames at 500 mm
D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 Mast blister — Mast blister · frames 52–66 · published 1-01 Dorsal companionway head — Mast blister · frames 66–72 · published 1-02 Bridge — Command deck · frames 4–24 · published 2-01 Chart room — Command deck · frames 24–32 · published 2-02 Ready room — Command deck · frames 32–38 · published 2-03 Master's day cabin — Command deck · frames 32–38 · published 2-04 Forward passage — Command deck · frames 38–46 · published 2-05 Forward lock and muster — Command deck · frames 46–58 · published 2-06 Mast base watch station — Command deck · frames 58–70 · published 2-07 Maintenance well and mast housing — Command deck · frames 70–78 · published 2-08 Mast shack — Command deck · frames 78–92 · published 2-09 Comms shack — Accommodation deck · frames 8–16 · published 3-01 Observation gallery — Accommodation deck · frames 16–28 · published 3-02 Officers' row — Accommodation deck · frames 28–46 · published 3-03 Sick bay — Accommodation deck · frames 28–40 · published 3-04 Crew racks — Accommodation deck · frames 40–60 · published 3-05 Berthing — Accommodation deck · frames 46–62 · fixed 3-06 Ship's office — Accommodation deck · frames 62–70 · fixed 3-07 Relay station — Accommodation deck · frames 70–82 · published 3-08 Access trunk — Accommodation deck · frames 82–90 · published 3-09 Forward stores — Machinery and mess deck · frames 6–16 · published 4-01 Mess — Machinery and mess deck · frames 16–34 · published 4-02 Galley — Machinery and mess deck · frames 34–52 · published 4-03 Boat bay — Machinery and mess deck · frames 34–52 · published 4-04 Engine room — Machinery and mess deck · frames 52–80 · published 4-05 Workshop — Machinery and mess deck · frames 80–88 · published 4-06 Spares locker — Machinery and mess deck · frames 80–88 · published 4-07 Wardroom — Machinery and mess deck · frames 88–96 · published 4-08 Drive space, port — Machinery and mess deck · frames 96–138 · published 4-09 Drive space, starboard — Machinery and mess deck · frames 96–138 · published 4-10 Scrubber housing — Machinery and mess deck · frames 138–144 · published 4-11 Forward instrument bay — Survey deck · frames 6–18 · published 5-01 Cartography bay — Survey deck · frames 18–34 · published 5-02 Science bay — Survey deck · frames 34–46 · published 5-03 Survey annex — Survey deck · frames 34–42 · published 5-04 Survey ring passage — Survey deck · frames 42–58 · published 5-05 Survey bay — Survey deck · frames 58–78 · published 5-06 Phase floor — Survey deck · frames 96–120 · published 5-07 Aft exchanger — Survey deck · frames 120–140 · published 5-08 Forward hold — Hold deck · frames 6–26 · published 6-01 Main hold — Hold deck · frames 26–66 · published 6-02 Port stores bay — Hold deck · frames 66–80 · published 6-03 Pallet racks — Hold deck · frames 66–80 · published 6-04 Aft hold — Hold deck · frames 80–104 · published 6-05 Coolant trunk and main run — Hold deck · frames 104–132 · published 6-06 Aft lock — Hold deck · frames 132–144 · published 6-07 Forward access trunk — Ventral deck · frames 8–24 · published 7-01 Ventral bay — Ventral deck · frames 24–52 · published 7-02 Seed racks — Ventral deck · frames 52–68 · published 7-03 Ring main gallery — Ventral deck · frames 68–96 · published 7-04 Drive frame and inspection grating — Ventral deck · frames 96–138 · published 7-05 Reaction stores — Ventral deck · frames 138–144 · fixed 7-06 Engineering boundary — legacy plumbing aft of here, never re-trued by the yard Cowlings begin — the aft third Scrubber housing 1 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 FRAME
Sheet 2 Deck plans — 7 decks, looking down 11.4 m maximum beam

The pressurised bubble at the top of the spine, and the survey gear in it.

Mast blister · frames 52–66 · published · S12 B3 ch11 Mast blister Dorsal companionway head · frames 66–72 · published · S12 B3 ch11 1 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 PORT STBD
  1. 1-01 Mast blister Fr 52–66 published S12 B3 ch11

    'the little pressurised bubble at the top of the spine where the survey gear lived, and where, if you killed the lights, the reach came in on every side'.

  2. 1-02 Dorsal companionway head Fr 66–72 published S12 B3 ch11

    The climb up from the command deck.

Key

  • Command
  • Navigation
  • Survey
  • Science
  • Engineering
  • Propulsion
  • Power
  • Life support
  • Habitation
  • Medical
  • Galley & mess
  • Stores
  • Cargo
  • Access
  • Communications

Grade of every figure on these sheets

  • published Stated in the books. If a drawing disagrees, the drawing is wrong.
  • derived Arithmetic on published facts; the working is given.
  • fixed Canon was silent here and the drawing decided.

Principal figures

Canon fixes the mass, the frame run and the hull's age directly. The length follows from the frames; the beam is the drawing's own decision, bounded by what the books rule out. Each figure says which it is.

  • Length overall

    72 m

    derived144 frames @ 500 mm

    Frame 140 carries the scrubber housing (S12 B1 ch25), so the frame run reaches at least 140; 144 closes the stern. Spacing of 500 mm is the value that makes the published internal distances work — see the engine-room hatch check below.

  • Beam

    11.4 m

    fixedspec ruling 2026-08-01

    Bounded above by her survey mast being 'made for a hull twice your beam' (B1 ch02) and by 400 t at seven decks. A slender hull is also why she reads 'smaller than the record makes her' (B2 ch02).

  • Height

    16.8 m

    derivedseven decks, floor heights below

    Hull only. The receiver mast stands above this.

  • Mass

    400 t

    publishedS12 B1 ch09

    'four hundred tonnes of ship falling dark along a line an alien had drawn on a chart'. Corroborated B3 ch05. She departed B1 nine tonnes over quota.

  • Hull age

    40 yr at 2312

    publishedS12 B1 ch01, B2 ch01

    'forty-year-old array plumbing'; 'forty years of patched-and-repatched'. Laid down c. 2272.

  • Complement

    50 berthed; 8–9 principals on watch; 90–100 in crush

    publishedS12 B2 ch18, B3 ch10, B1 ch11

    The three published figures are not in conflict: fifty permanent berths, a working watch of eight or nine, and 'ninety souls, a hundred if they're small and the scrubbers behave' as evacuee capacity.

Systems

Main drive

published

Four-feed drive, two mains rings, eleven casing sections

Feeds are numbered; feed three is sacrificial through the relief path, outward, sparing the core. Cowlings cover the aft third. Damage at Ostry concentrated in casing sections three and four.

  • Full-burn sprint ceiling70 minutes then the mast starts working her spine like a crowbar
  • Feed cavitation limit90 seconds at full flow Silva underlined ninety. Twice.
  • Span crossing requirement120 seconds at full flow She has ninety. The gap is the plot.
  • Held at the Weir6 minutes at full flow, cavitating for five of them
  • Sprint doctrineOne run. It is the second run that tears her.

S12 B1 ch17, ch23, B3 ch21

Ring main

published

Seam-coupled ring main, numbered banks

Shutdown order, in the words of the book: 'Mains, ring, dorsal array, the warm breathing hum that lived under every deck plate.' The drive and the mast share one power budget — the reserve is good for four mast-hours a day at full gain.

S12 B1 ch09, ch10

Deck field

fixed

Held by the seam tap, on the same budget as everything else

Gravity follows the power state, not the drive state — which is why the field dies in the same breath as the mains and the ring: 'Mains, ring, dorsal array, the warm breathing hum that lived under every deck plate.' Nobody walks during the dark passage after that order; every body in the chapter is strap-borne. The draw is steady-state and low-amplitude, the opposite loading profile to a traversal, so it is enormous in total and negligible in damage. That distinction is Vale's whole finding.

author ruling 2026-08-01, as bounded by canon validation

Deep-field receiver mast

published

Dorsal spine, unfolds to full survey spread

Built to count gravel at a thousand kilometres and say which pieces were lying about their mass. Forty years old, upgraded twice, undocumented — the schematic gives up in places. Struck to Highreach yard stores at the first refit and craned out whole; the replacement is rated for a frame two sizes up.

  • Warm-up20 minutes before the floor is honest
  • Power share4 mast-hours a day at full gain

S12 B1 ch01, ch19, B2 ch03

Comms mast

published

Added at the second refit; stern-hung

'A comms mast that could reach both fleets at once' — and the reason she runs heavier aft after 2316.

S12 B3 ch05

Dorsal debris mount

published

One gun

A debris laser on the dorsal mount, rated for rock and optimism. It killed the first torpedo at four kilometres and would open a drive throat like a can at nine. She is unarmed by policy, not by poverty: 'Teeth would make her a party.'

S12 B1 ch09, B3 ch05, ch21

Environmental plant

published

Whole-ship thermal trim; scrubbers at frame 140

Sick bay's atmosphere is re-trimmable to Ostry's mix independently of the rest of the ship.

S12 B1 ch16, ch25

What was checked

The books state distances aboard this ship. The drawing has to produce the same ones or it is wrong — so it is made to, and the working is shown. These run again on every build; a compartment moved by a metre fails them.

  • “Boat bay to engine-room hatch is three metres” S12 B2 ch09

    Boat bay ends F52; engine room begins F52. Adjacent across the passage, 6 frames of run at 500 mm = 3.0 m.

  • “Galley is three metres forward of the engine-room hatch” S12 B3 ch11

    Galley ends F52, same station as the boat bay, opposite band.

  • “Cartography is three decks below the command datum” S12 B2 ch08

    D2 → D3 → D4 → D5. Cartography is on D5.

  • “The mast blister is three decks above the galley” S12 B3 ch13

    D4 → D3 → D2 → D1. The blister is on D1.

  • “Bridge to survey bay is about twenty minutes at a walk in the dark, via the sleeping mess, past the engine room, along the survey ring” S12 B2 ch23

    D2 bridge → D4 mess (F16–34) → D4 engine room (F52–80) → D5 survey ring → D5 survey bay (F58–78). The route exists and is in that order.

Service history

  1. 2312, Book One departure

    Nine tonnes over quota; mast uncertified; forty years of patch.

  2. 2312, Ostry

    Aft hold holed through; three compartments lose atmosphere; drive-room ring coolant line cut; number-two bank scorched; port stores bay opened to space.

  3. 2312, the run

    Feed two's regulation gone, feed three burned out through the relief path. Silva dies on the drive frame.

  4. 2312–13, first refit

    Main drive condemned. Dorsal plating off in sheets. Receiver mast craned out whole and replaced.

  5. 2316, second refit

    New drive, new galley, new stern comms mast. Still one gun.

  6. 2316, the Sable throat

    LOST. A corvette put a full rack into the starboard drive space at nine kilometres. She held the mark on one ring, crew taken off onto a Ferren hull. 'The last ring let go, and where the Dawnward had held her station there was a hard white bloom.'

What this drawing does not decide

A blueprint that answered everything would be inventing. These are the things canon has not fixed and this sheet deliberately leaves for a book to claim.

  • Length and beam are compiled, not published. Canon gives mass, frame count and comparisons only.
  • Whether the cartography bay, survey bay, science bay and forward instrument bay are four compartments or two — canon names all four but never relates them. This spec treats them as four spaces on one deck group.
  • Boat inventory. A shuttle bay is named separately from the boat bay (B1 ch04); whether they are one volume is never stated. This spec draws one.
  • The three configurations (as-sailed 2312, first refit, second refit) are not drawn separately. Only the 2316 arrangement is rendered; the history table carries the rest.
  • Hull cross-section. The only shape words in canon are dorsal spine, dorsal mount, ventral bay, drive frame, aft-third cowlings, flanks, quarters.

Compiled from

  • S12 B1 Wide Sky — chapters 01–26 (built, KDP-packaged, frozen)
  • S12 B2 The Widened Road — chapters 01–26 (built, KDP-packaged, frozen)
  • S12 B3 The Closing Sky — chapters 01–26 (built; author editorial pending)
  • series-12-wide-sky/FOUNDATION.md
  • universe-state/ships/other/dawnward.md
In the archiveNV Dawnward — Blueprint → RegistryService record and command history →