A few minutes later, the Orville's shuttle successfully docked with the mysterious giant ship. At last.
Immediately afterward, Captain Ed, First Officer Kelly, ship's doctor Claire, security officer Alara, the robot Isaac, and little Annie, who had insisted on coming along, finally managed to open both sides of the airlock with Alara's immense strength. They got their first real look inside the mysterious ship—and were stunned by what they saw.
As it turned out...
It was an ecological ship?
Ed and the others saw what seemed to be a complete, self-sustaining ecosystem inside. It had mountains, fields, rivers, forests, villages, roads, and even a simulated blue sky with white clouds overhead.
And from the looks of things, there were traces of intelligent life here, not very far from them, either. As for whether the ship was divided into multiple levels, they couldn't tell yet.
"I've never seen anything like this!"
"Annie was right all along. Compared to this, our Orville really is just a junk heap?" At last.
"This universe is even bigger than we imagined!"
With his feet on the soft, mountainous soil, breathing the fresh air and taking in the scent of nature, Ed looked at the bushes and towering old trees around him. He couldn't hold back his honest thoughts any longer, and admitted for the first time in front of everyone that his Orville might really be a "junk heap."
"That's right."
"This must be a giant ecological vessel. No wonder it's so big..."
"It has to be this big to sustain a natural cycle!"
"Maybe it's a colony ship, too, designed to maintain a basic supply of resources through its ecosystem during long-distance space travel?"
"See?" At last.
"This place seems to be able to sustain its own ecosystem. This is the largest ecological ship