Midas

Locked: prestige hull reserved for pilots who have earned a secret achievement.

The Treasury was the Federation's advertisement for success. The Midas is the Federation admitting that, past a certain net worth, the point of a ship is no longer to go anywhere — it is to be seen having the ship. Every surface a hand might touch is gold; every surface a hand will never touch is also gold, because someone, someday, might check. The structural alloy is electrum, chosen over cheaper metals that would have performed identically. The viewports are cut from a single block of synthetic diamond, for a clarity no passenger has ever once remarked upon. There are no weapons — a Midas does not fight; it is escorted, insured, and, if the worst occurs, replaced. The drive merely sips fuel and the hull is armored far past any sane requirement, because the one indignity its owner will not tolerate is failing to arrive. The Federation builds exactly as many as there are billionaires willing to commission them, and not one more. It checks.