Starships were meant to fly!
I know I said last week that I'd take this one off, but inspiration struck over the weekend. I hit upon the design aesthetic for our hero ship in DISTANT WORLDS, and I had to share some of my sketches.
In a later post, I'll go into more detail about the design and how we arrived at this, because it was tough to land on something that didn't look like anything else before it. But for now, enjoy this early concept for Starless Midnight, SEV-01.
![Technical sketch of the "Starless Midnight" spacecraft with labeled sections for research, habitat, and command. Transcribed Text: ENGINEERING SECTION VARIABLE GEOMETRY DISPLACER UNITS (2): SMALLER UNIT RETRACTS AND CONTRACTS COMBINED WITH SUB-LIMINAL UNIT: ION MAGNETIC DRIVE HABITAT SECTION INCLUDES: LIVING APARTMENTS, CENTRAL PARK, XENO-ZOOLOGY AND PRESERVE, SERVICE QUARTERS, UNIVERSITY RESEARCH, SCHOOL FACILITIES, AND LIFE DECK SHELTERS LAUNCH BAY: SHUTTLES, ONE-MAN EXPLORER CRAFT, ETC. COMMAND AND RESEARCH INCLUDES: CROC (COMMAND RESEARCH OPERATIONS CENTER[RE]), LABS, MISSION OPS, COMMUNICATIONS, FORWARD REPULSOR BEAM AND SENSOR, SECONDARY REPULSOR BEAM [P/S], DEFENSE WEAPONS PLATFORM [P/S] STARLESS MIDNIGHT [SEV-01] ARGONAUT-CLASS EXPLORER](https://distant-worlds.ghost.io/content/images/2025/09/Starless-Midnight-SEV-01.png)
Thanks to my BFF Mark Farinas, who is a far better illustrator than me, who's aiding me in designing the Starless Midnight. I'll share more as we go because I've been mad sketching. Characters. The ship. Uniforms.
Before I let you go, here's a poster based on James Bama's NBC promo art for the OG STAR TREK and also inspired by the work of Jerome K. Moore, comic cover artist for the STAR TREK comics.
