Sunny at a later time returns to hangar where the ship is being held. Passing through all the various security systems in place and making it into the room he looks at how things are coming together and being setup.
He finds the old starflie naked and stripped with wire dangling in places and parts missing here and there. He goes around it to inspect it from all angles around and then with some pushes on buttons he lifts the creature upwards to look from below. Jumping up into the air, he floats up and under the cockpit and crawls into the open space to reach the engine compartment.
'Hmm... no sign of a new engine yet... seems that is still not done.' He thinks to himself.
He floats down and moves to the workbench as he then takes off his jacket and has on himself his hangar cloths to work in. He then starts opening holograms to display any work documented so far...
"Oh Sunny." He says surprised. "I didn't expect you to be here this quickly." He finishes as he sets a stack of paper on the floor (more or less drops it.)
He walks over to what Sunny is looking at and reads over his shoulder.
"Honestly Sunny I really think either this prototype EM Drive we were tossing around earlier or my laser design are going to be the best options. The EM drives thrust will be equivalent to the amount of power we can pump into it. Where as the laz engine will be slightly less equivalent with a better chance of working.
So the EM drive would pretty much make use of the energy given it to convert microwaves into thrust. This is very plausible however to get the kind of thrust we want we would need a reactor at-least a little larger than this one for a significant increase in thrust. That said I have seen IRG has an new form of reactor. If we could obtain one the size for this ship It would most likely be a sufficient power source for the engine. Now the Laz engine on the other hand while it uses typical propellant because the ignition system is composed of a compound laser and a multi layered fuel injection system. With less power you can obtain the Same type of thrust first through the intensity of the compounded laser. By adjusting the intensity of the laser you can either increase the rate of combustion or decrease it as the heat is raised and lowered. However the true beauty of this engine is the multi layered fuel injectors. Using a combination of H-fuel and MOX which have different flash points the engine ignites one which performs and is used for normal flight upon requiring more thrust for cruise a second gas is released behind the initial combustion point which creates a chain reaction as the plasma formed from the first combustion cause the second gas to com-bust just on the edge of the thrust manifold. This creates a violent explosion that forces the ship forward at increased speeds. Now while this is dangerous I believe it is very possible to do. There is a different version of the Laz Engine that we could investigate but I honestly think it might be less effective than either of these options."
As Hyun finishes he takes a deep breath as though he is coming out of a very deep dive. He blinks twice at sunny before returning to some body work where some radiation scarring had taken place.
Christian came through the lock and looked around. The bay was in the same ordered chaos it had been in the last time he had seen it. The Starflier was suspended in the spider web of cabling that kept it from moving, and the bay was still in free fall. He noticed maintenance bots drifting around on puffs of air, keeping the bay clean. Even so, the place had an air of disuse.
A brief whistle caught the attention of one of the bots and he tossed his flight jacket out to be placed in one of the lockers. The lighting system noticed the motion and started bringing up shop lights.
Christo took a deep breath and kicked off from the wall toward the main work bench. Glancing around, his habitual grin surfaced briefly as he saw paper scattered around under little pressor beams, keeping it on the surface of the bench. His attention jumped from stack to stack, trying to follow Hyun's wandering thoughts. The laser drive was a familiar argument, although it looked like they might have dead ended. This other idea, a multi-stage injection...
Without thinking about it, Christo reached out with a toe and slipped it into one of the anchors. He brought up the 3D modeling software and found Hyun's last work, making a fresh copy. On another screen, a telescope feed from Freeport 5 of Omega-41's primary showed a lensing effect from the gravitation of the neutron star. After 15 minutes of relative stillness, the shop lights dimmed, leaving Christo highlighted in a small pool of light, lost in thoughts of gravity and plasma.
Hyun crashes through the the shop door. "Whose... asghqagjqfhaahgqho" He yells as he forgets there is no gravity and hurdles into a pile of papers and equipment. Collecting him self and grabbing an anchor he turns his attention again to the intruder only to realize it is Christo. "Oh I had forgotten you came back. " He said in a surprised tone as he touch a holographic screen over his arm and silenced an alarm going off.
"So what do you think?" He said noticing the display in front of Christo. "I had planned to build a prototype but some other things came up. I still need to procure the elements for it." He said looking at the Starflier. "I won't lie its been rough without you around." He finished as he turned back to face Christo.
Christian's grin was more than a bit wry. "I'll nay admit that I'd rather a been here than in the body shop, yeah?
I looked over your plans, and what I see here is definitely different, mate, but I've got a thought for ye. What do you think about removing your second stage injection and replacing it with a gravitic compression module?
If we can hack tha, we ge' a fusion afterburner from your plasma rig with na chance of blowing the arse end out of the bird. We should be able to make it with Energy Field Equipment and Quantum Multiplexors."
"That is an interesting idea." Hyun stated as he floated over to the panel Christo was looking at. "And it will decrease the money for fuel. Huh, wish I had thought of that." Hyun states a little irritated at him self. "Diata." He waits for a second. "Please put in a requisition order for Energy Field Equipment and Quantum Multiplexors. Make it 1.5k each please." He finished as a red hologram took shape standing some distance behind him.
Christo relaxed back, and his expression relaxed with him. "I spent too many weeks with naught but tha damned neutron star ta look at, but it gave me some new thoughts, yeah?
Anyway, tha 'plexors should allow tha EFE ta react quick enough ta regulate any variations in the flow, so I suppose tha biggest problem will be ta make certain tha plasma doesna backfeed when it hits tha compression stage.
I'm thinkin tha can be covered with a bell chamber so tha plasma enters through tha neck oh tha bell and reflects off tha bottom and onta tha compressors. Tha would allow tha compressor ta channel tha thrust out without back flows, yeah?"
Hyun nods in agreement. "We will also install a fail safe as we don't want a literal Hydrogen bomb going off behind you. I,m thinking chromatic shield shield emitters place on the injectors as controls? If the pressure in the bell exceeds a certain level the 'restrictors' as we will call them will cut off the fuel supply." Hyun looks at Christo expectantly.
Hyun turned and looked at Diata. "Diata, when will the supplies be here?" He asked. "Once the model is done we will have to start fabrication. It would be nice if we could just move into that." He stated. "And yes, it is good to be working with you again." He finished.