Chapter Two Forty-Five Warp Testing and Updates (Patreon)

February 7th, 064 SDE:

Countryman weaved through the crowds of work crews and scientists going through the corridor. This part of the complex was dominated by labs and workshops for experimental modifications to existing hulls. They also had their own hangar to avoid interfering with military or industrial flight operations. Just today they were expecting several convoys from other rocks to arrive, bringing with them full loads of valuable minerals like titanium, tungsten, silver, and the like. Nothing really rare, but there was a shipment coming tomorrow that would bring them Erudite, material they need in large quantities for the growing fleet. Fortunately, they’d found a way to synthesize it, but since they had a natural source here in this system? They were going to mine it, as that would be cheaper and faster than synthesizing the material. Ephon crystals on the other hand were not native to the system. But they’d found a crystal that could, when bombarded with the right mix of particles, undergo a metamorphosis into the highly prized crystal. One which was used in modern computer systems, sensor arrays, comm systems and other applications involving subspace technologies.

Passing a couple of young ladies, he approached a security door and thumbed the panel. It slid open a second later to admit him. Ruri was in the room bent over a console, her back to the door and her labcoat draped over a nearby chair. He quickly closed the door and sighed. She wasn’t wearing much, just her panties, a light powder blue today. “So Ruri, dear? What happened to your clothes?”

She looked over, “Oh they ended up a little destroyed after my last foray into our broken test ship. I tossed them into the trash bin,” then she grinned and lifted her lab coat, “But look! I managed to avoid ripping up my lab coat! No need to replace this!”

Her naked chest was fully puffed up. Countryman didn’t say anything, he didn’t want to trample on the pride his partner was feeling at saving her labcoat, this one was her latest favorite afterall. Finally he changed the subject, “That’s good, but what about the ship? Do you know what went wrong?”

“I do. My initial conclusion of a system overload was correct. Although the exact cause did take some time to work out. Thankfully the black box survived.” She brought up the schematics, and highlighted two modules on either side of the hull. “The problem was here, the primary field stabilizers, I’ll put the full details in the report, but the short of it is they weren’t properly stabilizing the warp field. This resulted in undue stress on the hull and warp engines. The main computer tried to compensate by diverting additional power to structural integrity. Which prevented the bow section from imploding." She then highlights one of the plasma coils. “Unfortunately one of the plasma coils failed. The ship’s AI responded properly, but the jet of superheated plasma cut through several control circuits, and the main reactor cooling system. The system initiated an emergency antimatter dump midwarp while the containment bubble was collapsing. Unfortunately, it wasn’t able to fully execute the dump and some of the antimatter interacted with the internals. That’s what destroyed the rear end of the shuttle.”

Countryman noted that in his mind and concluded it must have been a very small amount of antimatter. Ruri and Vera had worked on designing and testing a smaller antimatter reactor during the later years of their time in the Storm. The design itself was already stable and proven technology; they’d even worked out a variant capable of being fitted to a fighter. While not as safe as fusion technology, antimatter was valuable for its ability to produce large amounts of power in short bursts. That made it the first choice for high-energy demands like warp drive systems. It was the very existence of the new class of AM reactors that allowed this foray into shuttle-sized warp drives, but as this wreck showed, small amounts of antimatter interacting with the internals were fatal to a ship. That factor was why they had elected not to install any on fighter-class ships, choosing the reliability of fusion modules instead.

They’d made a lot of improvements in fusion generator technology over the years, all geared to getting more energy out of the fuel they used. Their reactors could run longer on the same amount of fuel, resulting in a general increase in fuel efficiency, but the amount of juice generated per second hadn’t gone up that much. It hadn’t been a priority but it was also why they needed to use an antimatter reactor for the micro-warp engines. Even if their antimatter reactor tech hadn’t made the strides they’d made in fusion. The most recent projects involved cascading phased plasma arrays, they looked quite promising, but would represent a departure from the traditional fusion generators they’d been using for decades. They also wouldn’t meet the power requirements of a microwarp drive, but they might get closer. 

“I trust you’ll have this ironed out for the next test?”

Ruri nodded, “Aside from the overload, this was our best test yet. We are making progress and it shouldn’t be too hard to fix. I simply need to adjust the stabilizers and reinforce the plasma coils.” She sighed, “Usually I’d consult with Richards but she’s busy with the Enterprise refit.”

Countryman sat in a chair, “I can make some time to help, it’s right in my skillset too. I can start working on it this evening.”

She smiled and pressed against him, giving him a kiss. “Thanks Jac! I appreciate that.”

Countryman cradled her against him, and just sat there for a moment. The break being provided here was quite welcome. He relaxed a bit before finally speaking, “I guess we should start with looking over the flight data and see if there weren’t any other issues that cropped up.”

Greyman set down the report and turned to his viewport. Looking out at the dark sky, he could see the Enterprise hanging above them in the void. Yet she wasn’t alone, work on the Avenger had begun last month and already her ventral hull structure was taking shape, locked in place by gravity locks, while techs and worker bee drones maneuvered the massive structural beams into place, where they would be slotted into a set of interlocks before being fused together. The base of the skeleton featured a ring with radial structural beams curving out along the curve of the future hull. At key points, new rings were laid to provide crossbeam support.

They were making rapid progress, and in about a week work would begin on her dorsal hull structure. Meanwhile, they’d also started framing the ventral hulls of the yardships Reliant and Meiyo, but they weren’t as far along as Avenger was. Meanwhile with the Enterprise, they’d made excellent progress with her refit. Her internal power relays and transportation network had been adjusted for the new layout and she was ready to start receiving modules. They’d be building out her updated command deck and upper deck residential areas over the next few weeks. In about a month they’d be ready to slot in her fusion reactor modules. The main engine retrofit would take a bit longer to finish but those modules would be ready just a couple of weeks after the fusion generators. Around the same time they’d be building out the revised engineering decks. A rate of progress only possible thanks to the sheer number of techs and apprentice techs they had pouring over the ship. The factories were fully staffed as well, and new modules were constantly coming online. Still they were taxing their industrial machine to the limit building these massive ships.

Greyman was quite glad they weren’t building very many ships this large. Each one represented a significant investment of manhours and personnel. They’d be hard pressed to replace such ships as well. That was part of why they’d chosen to build only the four carriers. It was pretty much all they could afford. Personally he’d have liked adding a couple of battleships to the fleet, but that wasn’t in the cards. They’d gone over it in council, and while a battleship might fit into their fleet, they had any number of issues to actually solve before they could use them. Not to mention, they’d agreed that in the short term that a few extra cruisers would be more useful to them than battleships. Hell for the same reasons they’d axed battleships, they’d nearly left the carriers off the drawing board as well, but the advantages of warp based fighter deployment might just make carriers viable enough to justify investing in such large vessels. Given how few ships they’d have, every ship would need to pull more weight, and they did have a limit to how many they could man. Their comparatively tiny population for a starfaring culture was one of their greatest limitations.

Ruri’s artificial babysitters however, might just represent a solution to their manpower shortages. He’d spoken with Countryman on the issue and the older man had raised valid concerns about employing such machines in military capacities. AGI gone rogue scenarios had plagued science fiction since the genre’s birth. It was a good story, and not without merit either. Greyman believed such risks could be managed if they approached the issue correctly. Current generation AGI systems had something of a childhood period, where they would learn and develop. Yet not every military system would need a full AGI.

He’d recently received a test report on the viability of robotic infantry. The result was interesting, the design of it was humanoid with an armored chassis similar in appearance to a fully armored marine. It worked fairly well, aside from one notable issue, power. Even the latest power pack systems didn’t allow the robotic infantry more than a couple hours of operation before they needed to recharge. They also weren’t capable of complex thinking due to relying on standard AI. Still they’d make a decent replacement for grunt work.

They’d also looked into robotic workers for basic industrial tasks and there seemed to be some applications. Yet they couldn’t avoid AGI entirely, some applications of robotic troops would require it. Any kind of pilot drone able to effectively fly a fighter and compete with the elites of their current pilot corps would for example need to be an AGI. Less advanced fighter drones had also been considered, but they weren’t really an option for them. Low eco meant combat losses were harder to replace. Hell there was a strong argument that all current gen fighters were underarmored and needed extra protection and more robust shielding around the cockpit to ensure all pilots made it back.

Turning away from the window, he made his way out of the office and into the general command center which was an exercise in busyness. He weaved around the busy officers and walked up to Misaki who was managing a collection of apprentice operations officers. “How are we looking?”

“Well on schedule, sir. Several transports just left the mines at Fragment 13 with full loads. Two modules for Enterprise just came off the line and will be heading up within the hour for installation. Nineteen class four structural beams slatted for the Reliant are being loaded in hanger 4...”

“Just another busy day as usual, is it?” commented Greyman, “Now about our friends, any peep from them?”

“So far not really. There was some chatter about our deorbiting their rocket, but that was rather expected. Still it's a bit early for their tech level to be putting things in space, especially since they are at war with each other.”

Greyman sighed, “Well nothing we should get involved in, just a real mess. I’m not entirely comfortable with interfering with their...”

“I wouldn’t really call it interfering sir, if we hadn’t done anything, it would have disintegrated over a populated area, possibly leading to a few deaths.”

“Wouldn’t have changed much, they are killing each other.”

“Maybe not, but we had sent a ship out.”

Greyman sighed, and then handed her something, “Right, well on a different note. I need you to take care of this.”

She looked it over, “An agricultural ship? Not a bad thought, I’ll see if I cannot find a few engineers with time to spare on a design project.”

“I’ll leave you to it then.”