This is a Claravian* womb ship, so called because it contains amnions, which are metabolic suspension capsules that allow missionaries to survive STL interstellar travel.
This is a port-side view of the craft. It’s forward end is covered by a polymerite impact shield, with small multi-sensors dotted across it. A ring of four force projectors encircle the craft providing forward motion.
The pressure vessel (the orange capsule-like structure covered by the impact shield) is roughly the size of a shipping container. A single airlock is located at the aft end of the ship.
Missionaries of the Bright Way use womb ships to carry out the Great Commandment, to find other sophonts dwelling among the stars.
Because yinrih are incapable of fully losing consciousness without dying, they cannot sleep away the journey. Instead, amnions work by speeding up the missionary’s time perception while presenting a simulacrum to their nervous system while suspending their other metabolic processes. Missionaries in metabolic suspension are still aware and able to interact with the ship’s systems through a Matrix-like interface.
The handles along the sides of the craft asist in maintenance EVAs performed by one of the suspended missionaries using a remotely piloted micro mech.
This particular womb ship is named the Dewfall. It has the distinction of being the first and only womb ship to actually encounter sapient life after dozens of millennia of fruitless searching.
*A human coinage meaning Of or relating to the Bright Way. From Latin Clara Via
All sounds pretty good!
I also kind of imagine you could control the micro mechs from SIM. It’d look really, really strange from the outside - sudden bursts of movement, followed by a long pause as the pilot gives them the next command - but feasible?