by Dain White
“All hands, new transit in 20 seconds” I said automatically, my entire attention focused on the numbers counting down, my world consumed by the moment. You could have danced naked past me with a beer in each hand, and I might not have noticed. Well, I wouldn't have noticed much, anyway.
“Captain, engineering. Janis recommends 600% for slipspace generators...” Gene trailed off into some terrible place where engineers go to die inside.
“Steady on Gene. You know you want to see this, right?”
“Um” he answered, as eloquently as the moment allowed.
Right then, the clock hit zero. I hauled back on the yoke to 50, then pushed it back down to level into the new pipe at 35. Predictably, a bare moment later, another massive beam blazed past. I swear I could feel it's heat on my toes.
I checked the boards again, but we were holding green. So far, so good... but the credits hadn't started rolling past just yet.
“All hands, secure for free fall.” I said over the 1MC, cutting the burn and psuedomass at the same time. As we bounced into null-g, my coffee made a gurgling sound in the back of my throat as I swallowed it again.
“Janis precess to course, please”
“Precessing, sir”
As the stars wheeled past the forward port, I watched the field energize with my finger over the big red button... waited... waited... and right as it came up, pressed EXECUTE as we hurled into the Mallory Lights.
*****
Null-g was as welcome as it ever is, disorienting or not, it's so much nicer than rattling around in my station, trying to not fly out of my crash bars.
“All hands, stand down from battle stations. I am setting condition yoke at this time. Shorty, I need ramp up on the main gun to nominal levels immediately, this isn't a very long hop”.
Here we go.
“Ramp up, aye” I said, getting that familiar tingle again, that itch. As afraid as I was, I craved the feeling of rampant danger that swirled around me, just out of reach, just out of sight. I loved it, every terrifying moment.
I tried to focus on my screens, reeling in the delicious horror of the moment. All across the board, power output was way, way up. Incredibly high, in fact. Values were so high I felt like I was dreaming – I felt an overwhelming urge to pinch myself.
“Janis, we haven't had an opportunity to chat about our new power output yet.”
“Yes Jane, I know.”
“Janis, this model of nova cannon is rated for a specific range. I am afraid I am not enough of a physicist or engineer to even guess what this will do if we use these values.”
“I understand Jane.”
“It's not that I am scared to try, Janis. I know there's some wiggle room, these guns are designed to take all sorts of power fluctuations and continue to function, but this... this is way more than a fluctuation.”
“Jane, would it be helpful to visualize a simulation to failure?”
“Well, I would prefer that over an actual failure, of course! Can you simulate this accurately?”
“Of course Jane. If you check your screen, I have cloned your console, during ramp-up and charge-off phases for the cannon.”
“I see that Janis, this is... astounding. So we have this at normal currents... and if I fire, it simulates?”
“Yes Jane. Note the current rate limiter control. You can charge and fire, and increase the rate. As you proceed to failure, you should be able to review the values on your console and work a safe limit.”
“Janis, have you already progressed this simulation to failure?”
“Of course Jane. I am afraid you are correct. This is too much power for the current configuration.”
I ran through the simulator a few times, increasing the output, watching the levels. Right away, before it failed, I could see the weak point.
“Janis, the weak point of this system is the flux gates.”
“That was my conclusion as well.”
The flux gates carry the load when the cannon discharges, they hold the load briefly, then close a circuit back to the pumping chamber when the gun ramps back up. At this amount of current, the flux gates overload when the weapon discharges, almost certainly arc welding a massive section of deck in the process.
This is not common, but it's not unknown. Even at normal current, the amount of energy being tossed around between these systems is massive. Usually, flux gates that aren't maintained to a showroom shine, even a slight patina might be enough to increase resistance enough to cause flashover. Of course, I keep our flux gates at tip-top condition, so they are able to handle a lot, more than I expected – but nowhere near the amount we have to work with.
“Janis, this is bad news. Before I tell the captain, do you have any suggestions?”
“Yes Jane, I do have a suggestion, one that I think is a novel approach that should allow nearly unlimited power input to the charging chamber.”
“Janis, are you referring to gateless discharge?”
“Yes Jane, I am. You are very knowledgeable on this subject!”
“Oh, not really. It's not really unheard of – when I left the service it was on the horizon. I remember hearing about a research program they were starting, but it was all very theoretical, and not something that they were actually experimenting with.”
“Jane, I recently located information on the Milnet regarding an experimental program that has demonstrated progress in this field, and shows considerable promise. The progress reports and related data from the program are now onscreen.”
I flipped over the new report and slid through it to the juicy bits. It looked pretty interesting, and was probably the framework for the new guns coming off the line right now, in fact. The output curves were astonishing – but the failure rate was unacceptably high.
“Janis, this data looks good at first, but... they blow the gun up about ten times for every time they get it to fire.”
“Yes Jane.”
“Do you have a solution to the reliability issue?”
“Yes, I do. The failure rate is caused by circuits that are not flexible enough in terms of the range of current they can carry, or accurate enough in regards to the timing of the switch, to dump the charge back into the chamber.”
“And you think you can write a more accurate circuit?”
“Jane, I don't think a hard-coded circuit can accurately be built to handle the process. I will handle the circuit in real time, as a second-order process.”
I thought about this for a bit. On the one hand, she's definitely fast enough for the task, and on the other hand, she's smart enough to adjust the circuit to meet the needs of each charge. I realized I was out of hands, and didn't have any sort of meaningful objection to her plan.
“Captain, I have some news for you sir”
“Is it good, or bad?”
“Sir, that depends on your frame of reference.”
“Shorty, some people see a cup half full, others see it half empty. Because I am the Captain, I see it full, because someone just filled it. My frame of reference is impervious. What's up?”
“Sir, we are going to need to modify the gun configuration a little bit.”
“Very well, Shorty. Will it go bang?”
“Yes sir, we think so, sir” I swallowed.
“Now Shorty, when I say bang, I want to be clear I mean, out the correct end.”
“Yes sir, of course.” I laughed as confidently as I could.
“Do you need Gene, Shorty?”
I thought for a moment. Speed is of the essence, and Gene is as good as it gets. It's an easy decision.
“Sir absolutely, if he is available. We will need to pull the flux gates.”
“I understand, Shorty.”
“You do?” I was amazed.
“No. They sound absolutely awful though, and I can't wait for them to be gone. Gene. I need you on the gun deck with tools handy to remove a flux gate or... many. Shorty, you guys are going to need a very large, very high capacity bus, right?
> I was momentarily caught off-guard by his grasp of the process. “Correct sir, I was thinking of using gold. It is a great conductor and we have quantity... or is that too spendy?”
“I think it's a fantastic idea, Shorty. Gene?”
“Well, we can definitely build those busbars with gold... Maybe we open a few cases, sir?”
“Can you build me a box with a magnet we can trigger at range? That way, if the case blows, we don't lose the gold.”
“No problem Dak, building a box would be far easier than figuring out those crates. Give me a few minutes for supplies, and I'll fabricate a bomb-proof box in the cargo bay.”
“Gene, don't spend too much time on this. Time just isn't on our side. There are people slipping behind us right now, chasing us with bad intentions. While I would prefer we were going faster, this is as fast as we can go given our current course.”
While he spoke I was moving fast, plasma rig up and goggles down. I was carving off an entire set of the nicest, most polished flux gates you have ever seen, but strangely, I didn't care. It was bad technology, and I wanted the absolute best for my gun, nothing else would do.
The captain came back on comms, “Gene, you were right about Duron. We are blazing through a densely packed, highly energetic and very hot area – this is absolutely fantastic stuff, amazingly good hull plating. ”
“Captain, with the hull energized to our current limits, you could probably land on a star if you had to, but it would be a pretty tricky approach.”
“Tricky? Nah. I could do it.”
“Only you, Dak. No one else could.”
“Well, let's hope we never have to find out.”
“Amen to that, sir. Okay, it's not pretty, but I have a box built. Can I borrow Yak again?”
“Gene, he's heading aft now. Shorty, I would like you to head on back to the cargo bay as well please.”
“Aye Captain.”
I got up, and went.
*****
“Yak, I need you suited up” Gene said, the moment my head was through the inner lock.
Here I was again, on station to move heavy and possibly deadly explosive things, suiting up, I worked through the procedure, over, and over. Nothing more serious. Gene is back at the crates, but at this time has built a stout little metal box. That man is seriously good with a welder.
“Gene, comms check.”
“Check. Let's work from the very outside of where Red was, Yak.” he said, looking to the forward corner. I nodded, and headed up, catching a grabber below the catwalk right above it, then gently kicking down to the floor, carefully holding on to the cases and pulling myself down. Gene was on the floor with a toolbox, heading over doing the left-footed clickstep with his magnets on, but I preferred the direct approach. I was already clipped in and ready to work. He was a close second, though, and we made short work of unclipping the pallet.
Moving it was pretty easy for me, it was a heavy mass, but it wasn't really unmanageable. Gene and Jane both look sideways at me when I do this, but they are both shorties.
“Gene, what's the plan here?” I ask, as we approached the ramp.
“Well, we're going to break the pallet, and shift a case into that box there, and set it, as slowly as we can, into open space.”
“Then we go to a safe distance and trigger? What if it blows up?”
“Well, the captain doesn't care, we need that gold. At least one, maybe two cases.”
“What are you building with this gold again... a bus? What is that?”
“It's a bridge, Yak, for the current to flow across, though I am not sure why we are building it. If they used it to push the overload back into the firing chamber...” he mused off looking aft into space. “I'll be damned, Yak! Now I know why!” He laughed.
“Why?”
“Well, Yak... because they're not holding the charge at all, waiting for the chamber to reset, they just shove wattage back into the chamber, pre-loading a shot even faster.”
“Won't they melt the gun?”
“Nah, the optics of the gun are way capable, Yak”, Shorty said, kicking in towards the ramp. “The charging chamber is also unbelievably stout. The current isn't a problem for any part on the gun except the flux gates.”
“Why would they ever use them in the first place?”
“Well, Mister Onebull, flux gates hold the charge, then that charge ramps back into the breech when we recharge to fire.“
She stopped, thinking a bit.
“Well, that's what they did, anyway, as far as I am concerned. They certainly won't do it any longer on my gun!”
“Ma'am, I'm sorry. I must inform you, that at this moment in time, I am not keeping up, technically.”
“That's okay Yak. It appears that the service is experimenting with a new technique now, and Janis thinks we should as well. The current should feed back into the chamber just fine, but Janis and I had an idea, something completely new. We think we may be able to stimulate ignition of the beam energy, by adding additional energy into the cycle – overloading the failover, essentially. We're still talking about the math, but this gun will work.”
She smiled.
“Isn't it already ignited when it is fired?” I asked.
“Yes, but in a single event, a discharge of energy.”
“And you think you can make it a continual burning beam?”
“Yep. Cool huh?”
“What is the output Jane? Did you guys simulate an exawatt?”
“Did we ever, Yak, and then some. The tokamak is producing simply an amazing amount of energy right now. We are having to limit the energy to some extent to keep from overpowering various systems throughout the ship, but the systems that are able to use the energy, like the slipspace generator, and soon, the nova cannon will have access to tap deep into the well of energy.”
“Jane that sounds awesome.”
“It is!” She laughed. “It's really an elegant solution, the challenge is the timing, it's incredibly high energy, just massive unbelievable amounts. Janis has written switches that appear to test out. Her ability to produce simulations is almost beyond comprehension.”
Gene and I laughed. There isn't much she can't do.
“Well, she can't move gold.”
“Of course she could Yak.”
“Then why isn't she?”
“Excellent question. Janis, are you able to run the hoist?”
“Of course Gene, though I am unable to create a movement force sufficient to run it without assistance, as our slipspace gear doesn't support multi-homing.”
“Something else for the shopping list?” I asked.
Shorty looked over the pallet. “Gene, how expensive is top of the line slipspace gear, I mean, the very best money can buy?”
“About 16, 18 of those crates, Shorty.”
“Yikes, okay... we'll keep an eye open for salvage, I guess.”
The sound of the hoist starting suddenly across the cargo bay startled Gene enough to kick involuntarily and rise off the deck. Jane and I laughed as he fell upwards toward the end of his tether trailing a solid string of curses.
Even without Gene's help, moving the re-strapped pallet back over to the bulkhead racks was easy - Janis was absolutely perfect on the hoist, and anticipated our movements flawlessly.
“Captain, I have your box, and enough crates. Can we drop slip for just a bit, and run these out?”
“Gene, are these crates from anywhere near where Red was?”
“No, Dak, not according to Janis.”
“Well, just open them Gene. Use Shorty's magnet. I need those guns now. I can't stress this enough.”
“Opening, aye” Gene said, as Shorty passed over her magnet. We all took a breath, as he leaned over and popped the latch.
The case opened and we all exhaled, like we were on a synchronized breathing team going for the podium.
“Well...are we all dead?” asked the captain.
“No sir, the cases opened just fine, we're back on
track.” Gene said, obviously relieved. He closed the case and secured the latch.
“That's great news, thanks Gene. We'll have to save that box for later, I know it will definitely come in handy.”
“Aye skipper”, he said while kicking off towards the inner lock with the case. Jane and I each grabbed cases of our own and followed as quickly as we could.
*****
“Janis, do your gravimetric sensors have enough resolution during slipspace to plot the Starry Dawn and her escort?”
“Not directly, sir. At this time we are nearly a third of the way through this sector. I have 4 corrections to make, but we should be able to slip through it without dropping.”
“Do you think they may have dropped slip, Janis?”
“I think it likely, sir, though I am afraid I don't know about the AV vessel. Unfortunately, they didn't get in range of my network. If they have an AI on board, as Pauli thinks may be likely, they could be on our course.”
“Janis, you said directly. Can you indirectly locate their position, through extrapolation?” If I was learning anything around here, it was that many things were possible. Janis had an uncanny, unfailing track record.
“Not with enough accuracy, sir. I am afraid my best range-to-target is likely 12.8 million kilometers, they are almost certainly stopped sir, or considerably slower.
“Nice.” and I meant it. Even if she was off a few hundred thousand kilometers, they were a very long ways off. Not far enough, of course.
“Folks, Janis has about twelve and a half million kilometers of lead on our pursuers, and we are navigating the Lights at speed. We will not be coming out of slipspace for this run. Gene, how are the buses coming?”
I felt like our ship was constantly being downgraded to inoperable by these crazed gearheads and gun freaks. Of course, I will allow they have done an impeccable job.