Chapter 5.
The craft was built in orbit around a barren planet, which was the seventh planet out from her sun (her home world was the fifth planet out). The planet was rich in the raw materials necessary for construction. Mining, refining and fabrication was conducted on the planet surface. Components were then carried into orbit where the ship was assembled.
Construction and fit-out took just over 12 years, during which time the crew was selected and trained. Based on an average lifespan of one hundred years, it was agreed that in order to maintain the integrity of the race, a minimum of ten thousand people would be required. Birth rates would be rigidly enforced so as to avoid over-taxing the life support system.
The ship itself was three thousand five hundred feet in length with a diameter of just over two thousand feet. A single pulse-drive engine was mounted in the rear on the central axis. Eight maneuvering engines were mounted equidistant from each other radially around the circumference, four on the front quadrant and four on the rear. Spare parts and non-perishables were mounted on the exterior, leaving the entire interior for habitation and life support.
The spacecraft had been in flight for twenty-three generations when Zuri was born. The last of the four accompanying races had been discovered exactly one hundred eighty years prior to her birth.