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Oscar Marx thought that the ship would take over a year to build. It was actually ready to fly in a few months. Oscar Marx went through a few months of briefings, most of it involved long discussions with engineers and technicians. A technician told him, "This ship does not really have many 'solid' components in it. Since it is made mostly of shape-shifting materials, it was actually rather easy to build. We didn't have to build it according to any shape specification. Since it's a shape-shifter, the actual shape of the ship is irrelevant. It's much more difficult to build a ship if the ship is is required to have a definite shape." Marx asked the technician, "How much of the ship is actually made of shape-shifting material?" The technician said, 'About ninety-four percent of the ship's total mass is shape-shifting material. The other six percent is the warp drive. It's basically a huge lump of shape shifting material with a warp drive stuck in it."

After being briefed on the ship's capabilities, Marx was invited by Admiral Kozaren to take a tour of the ship. Kozaren and Marx went to the construction hangar where the ship was stored. There were about a hundred technicians gathered around the ship, making last-minute checks on all of it's systems. Kozaren took Marx inside, and showed him around. "The ship will be named the Fusion." Said Kozaren. Oscar Marx asked what the ship's classification would be. Kozaren said, "It will not have any self-explanatory designation, the fact that his ship has shape-shifting capability must be kept secret. The secrecy that will surround this ship requires that it bears no special designation."

Admiral Kozaren showed Captain Marx the way to the bridge. After looking around the bridge Captain Marx saw that the ship was equipped with the latest state-of-the-art electronics. Admiral Kozaren said, "You will find that the control system of this vessel is similar to the most recent class nine star ships. The only difference is this control panel here." Kozaren pointed to a large control panel near the captain's chair. Kozaren explained, "This control panel is for controlling the exterior and interior shape of the ship. The exterior of the ship can be altered to that it looks like almost anything. When you change shape, this ship can look like a Valdorian cargo ship, it can look like a Bozarkian battle cruiser, it can look like anything."

Admiral Kozaren said, "This is the first star ship with shape-shifting capability. Being the captain of this ship means you are taking on a great responsibility. Some of the missions we will send you on will be dangerous." Marx asked "How dangerous?" The Admiral said, "We could send you into Klingazon space, on a spy mission. You would have to re-shape the Fusion before you enter Klingazon space. You would make the Fusion look exactly like a Klingazon battle cruiser. After gathering intelligence in Klingazon space, you would return to Federation space, and then you would re-shape the ship, so it looks normal again."

Oscar Marx raised his eyebrows at that. The Klingazons were race of warriors. The entire Klingazon culture revolved around conquest. The Klingazons were obsessed with warfare, they believed that the highest honor was to die in battle. To Marx, it seemed incredible that the Fusion could be disguised as a Klingazon ship, and could fly into Klingazon space, hopefully fooling the Klingazons. Marx asked, "What about sensors? If I re-shape this ship so it looks like a Klingazon battle cruiser, can't the Klingazons just scan it, and find out it's not really a Klingazon ship?" Admiral Kozaren said, "This ship's outer matrix is capable of fooling most scanners. Being scanned won't be a problem. You know, Marx, I think you've been briefed long enough. It's time to take this ship out into space." Oscar Marx smiled, and said, "Yes Sir!"