The last chapter got me thinking, just how big is the Ark? I feel like you’ve probably said it in earlier chapters, but I’m not good at retaining details like that.
I actually never did clarify this, so you didn’t forget anything.
To be honest, it’s hard even for me to get a good idea of how big the Ark is. I’ve kind of left it open-world so I can tack things on and rearrange as needed. To give some of the scope, though, I can confirm the following details:
The Ark does not have separate ‘floors’ per se. It’s laid out in a corkscrew, with each “Level” consisting of one 360-degree arc of the coil (I really hope that terminology is mathematically correct). Level One is the smallest of these coils, and it’s twice the size of a football field (American, so roughly 115k sq ft total).
Add to that enough living quarters for over 10k people with space left over to spare (more people shared than expected, remember that part). Basic medical clinics on every level, with extensive medical facilities making up roughly half of the same level that Sophia and Tyche reside on. That level alone took Sophia an hour just to walk about a third of the way to the other end. Yes, she was limping, but a very determined hobble, mind you - stiff muscles, not pain.
Then there are the public eating areas, of which I want to say there are roughly twelve, each about the size of an Ikea food court. There are also storage facilities for replacement parts needed around the ship, a botany lab big enough to grow small trees (Insert Winter Holiday of Choice Here chapters), a marine biology lab the size of a respectable lake (watercraft were banned for safety concerns, implying it was certainly big enough for it), and an aeroponics lab.
This is just the stuff I’ve actually mentioned! I can’t even pretend to know enough about architecture or any other discipline necessary to hazard a guess as to dimensions of the ship, but it is definitely gargantuan. Sophia even mentioned in a Chapter 23 that she has a poor idea of how big the Ark really is.
I’m sorry I couldn’t give specifics, but I hope this at least provides something resembling an answer to your question, @geprg.
