Meridian Dockyard

Meridian Dockyard is an orbital industrial hub featured in The Emerald Semaphore of Keta-9. It serves as the primary salvage and repair station for decommissioned relay equipment, where Cassian Merek operates his workshop.

Located along the outer ring of Orbital Relay Keta-9, the dockyard is a sprawling network of floating platforms, docking clamps, and maintenance bays. It is primarily automated, with slow-moving cranes and robotic tethers handling heavy payloads.

Function

Meridian Dockyard specializes in the disassembly, repurposing, and storage of obsolete comm-nodes, antennae, and relay nodes. It also houses temporary living quarters for salvage crews, providing basic life support and minimal shielding against orbital debris.

Merek uses the dockyard to source components necessary to track anomalies in the Keta-9 Semaphore signal. Its unmonitored corridors and hidden maintenance tubes provide crucial access points for the protagonists to evade Director Halver’s surveillance.

Structure and Atmosphere

The dockyard’s platforms are connected by narrow catwalks and tethered bridges. Lighting is provided through intermittent floodlamps and emergency beacons, giving the environment a patchwork of deep shadows and glowing highlights. The constant hum of servos and distant metallic clanks creates a sense of vast, industrial isolation.

Role in the Story

Key sequences in the film occur in Meridian Dockyard, including the assembly of improvised signal scanners and chase sequences through floating maintenance bays. The dockyard emphasizes the physicality of the orbital environment and contrasts with the confined interior spaces of Glassloop Archives.

Production

The set was designed using modular platforms suspended with wire rigs and slow-moving mechanical rigs to simulate orbital microgravity. Visual effects enhanced the sense of vast open space surrounding the platforms while maintaining close, claustrophobic angles for character interactions.