A Solar Alliance Military (SAM) Star Force vessel orbiting one of the far flung colony planets. Partly the starship is hidden in it's own shadow, as there's no atmosphere in Space to reflect ambient light, only the reflected "glow" of the planet being orbited. The starlight is scarcely enough to reduce the darkness, the edges sharp in vacuum. The main star that the planet is orbiting is out of this frame, behind the viewer.

The "Kanbera" is an Enforcer; a combatant starship employed by the SAM Star Force for long-range, extended duty independent patrols during peace-time, although they can be used in war. Not particularly well-armed, but intended to be fairly capable in a short combat encounter, some of the weaponry are disposables in order to provide heavier firepower without the usual mass and energy requirements of permanent weapons. The more modern SAM enforcers are cramped yet less so than previously was common, with a few facilities to ensure that a long tour of duty doesn't become too intolerable for the average crew-member. Sensor gear isn't as good as a typical DSER (Deep Space Exploration Research) vessel, but is generally superior to most other SAM spacecraft and interstellar vessels. SAM Enforcers are the most likely to be encountered as representatives of Solar Alliance authority, the equivalent of a form of “interstellar patrol” vessel. Astrogation, piloting, and propulsion control are located adjacent to the tactical command (The Solar Alliance version of the modern CIC on naval ships). Back-up manual astrogation and piloting are located at the front/nose of the vessel's hull in slightly domed area (not visible at this angle), and a manual propulsion control is located adjacent to the main propulsion. All interstellar and strictly space-capable craft have Twister Engines for main propulsion. Many military craft also have an alternative short-duration high acceleration rocket propulsion of some type.

All Solar Alliance interstellar vessels have huge retractable exposed radiators for cooling the fission reactors (these radiators must be extended when preparing for superluminal travel - but then are gradually retracted in pairs during superluminal travel as the outside temperature drops).

In addition to requiring shielding against radiation and avoiding the absorption of engine heat, flying through space at significant fractions of lightspeed is risky due to high speed impacts. To partially reduce the risks, Solar Alliance starships eject hot ionized droplets ahead of the vessel. The droplets also do double-duty to radiate their heat load into space before the vessel accelerates into and recaptures them in magnetic funnels for eventual reuse. These same heat-shedding droplets can ionize most of the atoms they encounter by stripping off their electrons. The ion-shield generator rim then shunts the resulting shower of charged particles - protons and electrons - off to either side of it's magnetic field, like a ship pushing aside water. The impacts which detonate in the shield, are going to be far ahead of the ship. Fortunately, almost all of the interstellar particles likely to be encountered are fewer than 20 microns across. The droplet shield is constantly renewing itself and recycles. The rim for the droplet shield can be seen just to the rear of the nose-cone.

The nose-cone itself can be seen as it often appears after transit through Para-Space using the Twister Engine. Made of ablative-yet-tough ceramics blended with with superconducting fibres to permit cooling, the nose-cone is usually cratered, battered, and worn from impacts, needing total replacement several times during the operational life of a Twister Engine starship. Transit through Para-Space is particularly rough on starships and their crews.

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I made the above image using GIMP and Mypaint, with both a mouse and a Wacom Bamboo Manga graphics tablet.