Nexus

The Nexus is a junction station within the Core of the Daban Urnud where four large shafts meet, each leading to the lowest-numbered orb in one of the Orbstack’s four stacks. It functions as a convenient transfer point for senior personnel and inter-stack movement; in practice, it is treated as the meeting place for high-ranking representatives of the four peoples aboard the ship. Four Nexi are spaced evenly along the Core.

Description and layout

• Four cavernous orifices open in the Core wall, each the terminus of a roughly twenty‑foot‑diameter shaft that runs “down” to a ball valve at the top of an inhabited orb. Beyond each valve lies an orb a mile across within the Orbstack.
• From outside, this section of the Core is wrapped in a torus of offices, meeting rooms, and ring‑corridors used by the ship’s “Command.” Accounts describe this torus as having been physically partitioned amid conflict between the Pedestal and the Fulcrum: hatches locked, partitions welded, guards posted, and cables severed.
• The Core nearby carries a moving conveyor‑ladder that ferries people up one side and down the other; the Nexus itself serves as a service corridor/elevator shaft more than a public concourse, and is not a frequent haunt of the Command.

Connections and conventions

• Each Nexus connects to the first orb of each stack: Orbs One, Five, Nine, and Thirteen. By convention, the lowest‑numbered orb in each stack houses higher‑ranking members of its people, making the Nexus the natural transfer point for leadership‑level movement.
• Community assignment by stack is reported as: Orbs One–Four for Urnudans, Five–Eight for Troäns, Nine–Twelve for Laterrans, and the remaining orbs for Fthosians.

Noted activity and access

• Access into an orb from the Nexus is controlled by a massive ball valve, actuated from the shaft wall; keyed controls have been observed.
• During operations conducted inside the ship, travelers reached the forward‑most Nexus via the Core and used its shaft to approach Orb One.

Status

Active; used as an interchange within the Core and surrounded by partitioned Command offices reflecting the Pedestal–Fulcrum split.