"Well, I didn't get an answer back to my Neural Net message, but, apparently, the Rogue High Command did hold a discussion about it. I encountered a triplet of Rogues today, and, after convincing them that I had meant to be "caught" so that I could talk to them, they told me that they had no interest in Kansas, and, as far as the Rogues were concerned, not their problem.
Unfortunately, the Rogues and the local law enforcement managed a case of mutually assured destruction involving Nova torpedoes at point blank range. I ended up being the only survivor by virtue of not actually being engaged. The comm logs, while entertaining, are not worth entering into the record.
That being the case, all I need now is to keep the Hellfire Legion from deciding that I am a PitA. Since I am not inside their network, I'm just going to have to find them again. Easier said than done, but I should be able to manage eventually."
"I had just gotten Silk_Road undocked from Pueblo in Colorado when I got a message over the Net from someone that identified himself as a senior Hellfire Legionnaire.
After a brief conversation to verify that I was legitimate, he provided me with a disposable comm code to get a message off to [HF] High Command."
[08.04.2015 15:27:47] [HF]-907-Striker: Good day.
[08.04.2015 15:27:59] [HF]-907-Striker: I was told you wish to contact the Legion for business matters.
[08.04.2015 15:28:01] Silk_Road: and to you, sir.
[08.04.2015 15:28:43] Silk_Road: Yes, I am interested in the Junction wreck in Kansas, and certain parties recommended that I ensure that I would not
[08.04.2015 15:29:09] Silk_Road: be borrowing trouble with you folks by contacting you first.
[08.04.2015 15:29:18] [HF]-907-Striker: *raises an eyebrow*
[08.04.2015 15:29:36] [HF]-907-Striker: So you're after an old wreck.
[08.04.2015 15:30:09] Silk_Road: I want to refurb it into a functioning research station.
[08.04.2015 15:31:24] [HF]-907-Striker: Then that's something you need to discuss with the higher ups via an official communication channel.
[08.04.2015 15:31:31] Silk_Road: Similar to Ames, but not as a ZOner installation.
[08.04.2015 15:32:16] Silk_Road: I can certainly do that. Is there a specific comms circuit I should use?
[08.04.2015 15:33:16] [HF]-907-Striker: Send it to the [HF] High Command.
[08.04.2015 15:33:38] Silk_Road: I will do that, then. Thank you for your time, sir.
"Engineering is in a panic this morning. We came out of the transition from the Kansas to Magellan jumphole to find that we had lost a bit over two weeks. Ship's systems, both Nav and Engineering, show us having entered the Kansas wormhole on 822/05/01, but Nav immediately threw a critical warning on exiting the wormhole. Automatic stellar tracking verified our location, but stellar drift indicated that we were plus fourteen days from entry.
Freeport4 is providing us a tiger team to assist with a survey on the ship's systems, but I am not in any great hurry to take her back out until this gets resolved.
On an unrelated note, I guess it is time to get back in contact with the Junkers. We still need to get project off the ground. The first step is going to be to get the project station emplaced so that I have a decent working environment."
Chuck began rummaging through his archives looking for previous correspondence with the Junker Congress.
Three weeks in sick bay, and the only reason I am still alive is an experimental hostile environment pressure suit.
Between my old military Bio-Stability Monitor and the suit's built in Med-Statis Band, the rescue team found me in an induced coma, but the reduced oxygen requirements kept me alive and with 9 minutes left on the system. None the less, I don't recommend it.
The base has been in a holding pattern while I have been out. I guess I hadn't been doing as well managing strategically as I had tactically. I sent out a contract to BoWEx this morning; hoping that they pick it up. My only other contacts, and they aren't recent, that haven't turned us down is OSI. It seems a bit out of the way for them, but I'll give them a yell on the next phase of the project.
"It has been a while since I used this log; seems all my entries recently had been for the JWRP and Hirschel in the official log book.
Anyway, after a brief jaunt down to Gran Canaria to visit mom, Silk_Road and I ended up in the Taus. The IMG and I still get along well, and we even maintained the social fiction that there are no political difficulties in our collective past. In their defense, I don't think anyone from the current bunch except Jack actually knows our collective past. I am pretty sure those were all newer members."
Chuck snorted, then continued on.
"Jack actually offered to induct me into the IMG. Not sure whether that is meant to be a subtle apology, or looking to snap up what he sees as a useful talent. Jack is about the most political miner I've ever met, so it could be some or more of the above.
With a go ahead from the man, I went deeper into the IMG turf than I have ever been before, and am currently on the IMG shipyard, Singapore. The bar isn't any great shakes, but then, most of them aren't. With a hologram of a fusion torus projecting from my pad and a bottle of whiskey and some unused glasses on the table, it didn't take long to gather a couple of friends. I spent most of the afternoon discussing ways to optimize output, going back and forth in that way that engineers do.
I don't think we came to any great new insights, but the banter was nice. The shipyard folks have a much different perspective than the Junkers I've been working with for the last six months, and that helped put some distance between work and the people I lost last week. I am still waking up in the middle of the night, a useless scream of, "No!" as the image of Contraption disappearing in a flash of heavy weapons fire and the energy release of a ruptured fusion bottle dances painfully across my mind's eye."
A quick pause, obvious determination not go down that road, and Chuck settled into a more professional mindset.
"I think I'll take Jack up on working with the IMG, although I don't think I want to formally join the organization. I've never yet been to a shipyard that didn't need at least five more senior engineers than it had, and having prior experience as a Naval Architect will be a plus.
It will also get me a look at how the IMG goes about their various technologies. Having a good understanding of Zoner, IMG, Hessian and Corsair techniques will definitely be useful for working with the power distribution aspects of the plant when it comes time to build the prototype. My biggest concern there is that the IMG mindset on jump drives isn't what I'd call positive."
Chuck leaned back, taking a sip of his drink.
"That seems to be it for now. Life is what happens in between the plans."
As expected, the yards brought me on. I am part of an engineering tiger team that deals with blue print snafu situations and other miscellanea. I am also part of the actual blue printing team, so, there is sort of a catch-22 but I seem to be the only one that cares.
My first assignments have been managing the documentation of three new build Shishapangma class transports. This wouldn't be much of a challenge since the IMG actually wants these things done to a standard build. The main problem is with the diversity of parts, and the fact that one of the owner/operators wanted Dulzian turrets instead of Charons.
I have to admit, it is nice being back on a regular yard schedule, but I am now spending most of my spare time doing documentation for my own project. At least working on setting up a new base has given me a better feel for what a Survey and Research vessel will need.
It doesn't seem like a decent particle accelerator is going to be viable, but a race track would also be horribly vulnerable in the environments that such a ship is likely to be wandering through. On the other hand, the processor and circuit modifications that we added to Sleipnir can be incorporated into a new build ship, allowing me to mount Gunboat Solaris arrays. I figure that I can get away with those without offending the various governments; that would definitely not be the case with the Cruiser arrays I had on Sleipnir. While it won't be as good as having an accelerator on the ship, we should be able to do more external data collection.
If the plant meets my expectations, we'll have the power for everything we need in about a tenth of the space. Being able to remove the fusion chamber and the various safety features attached to the plant will definitely be a boon. Keeping the ship small enough to prevent too many raised eyebrows is high on the list of goals.
My initial thought is somewhere in the vicinity of the larger liners; that should give us plenty of space without someone screaming, "Warship". With that in mind, I figure we'll still be flying with a Transport shield. I am pretty sure I could hang a Cruiser shield off the plant without problems, but, if she fights that capably, every one of the Houses will invoke Capital ship law, and we'll have the Demon Murphy's own time getting anywhere.
Off on a tangent, but related none-the-less, I have been reading an Old Earth author by the name of Larry Niven. His Man-Kzin wars are some off the wall stuff, especially the parts before they "discovered" hyperspace. Anyway, one of the things that intrigued me was what they call a catcher field. The stories are not particularly heavy on technical details, so I ended up designing my own using existing mining tech. The result is an array that feeds raw materials, water ice in this case, into a the start of a processing system. My processor purifies the water, stores part of it and splits the remainder into hydrogen and oxygen.
As long as the ship isn't in cruise, any ice field supplies all basic operational requirements except food for the crew. I am told that someone successfully mounted a Bio-Dome on a ship once, but I am thinking it is not something I want to try on a vessel that will be getting near high-energy gamma and x-ray sources. It seems safer to stick with inboarded supplies. I will admit that the appeal of "fresh" air would be nice...
Just noticed the time! I am hoping to get over to Minato Harbor before the base food court shuts down for the night. One of the guys told me I need to try the new Thai restaurant. No idea what it is, but he seemed to think it was awesome.
Shipboard fusion plants generally come in one of two configurations, a single loop torus or a some variation of multiple loops. Most of that is determined by how you want to use space within the hull and how much computational and "environmental" control you are willing to put into the design.
Single loops are easier to manage and generally take less monitoring and crew but take up more space within the hull, while multiple loops are actually smaller due to the reduced size of the individual rings, but, since the flow moves through a more complex path, they require a lot more management because you have to force the flow through all of the gyrations the smaller structure imposes. There are theoretical arguments in favor of multiple plants, but, under current design limitations, they tend to be ignored due to not yielding enough output when compared to the amount of space they take up. There are other issues, including a version of the square/cube law in relation to efficiency, but the space issue tends to be the deciding factor.
By kicking the whole fusion chamber up into hyperspace and using the inherent pressure of the that dimension to augment the gravimetric fields made by a jump drive, we should be able to get a "pinch" more potent than anything previously in human history. With no physical chamber on the ship, the entire active power plant will be no larger than the jump drive hardware. Since the ship won't be "wired" for a functional jump, the majority of the space that a traditional jump drive uses gets reclaimed. All the changes to the navigation, hull and skin of the ship simply won't be installed.
Safety procedures amount to monitoring the process and turning off the jump drive if needed, losing the entire fusion bottle in hyperspace. With the connection to the ship severed, a runaway fusion process won't be able to do any damage, it'll just dissipate into the background energy of hyper.
As a side note, we'll need enough capacitor storage to be able to do a system restart. It wouldn't do to be dependent on a shore power jumper cable.
Fifteen months of work, fifteen months of being part of the crowd...
Can't say the time's been wasted. The IMG have an incredible knowledge of robotics and automation. Leaving aside their gypsy-like existence and convoys, most of them tend to be loners, and this contributes to the need for as much of the ship to be automated as possible.
When you add, not exactly miniaturization, but close, to the fact that much of the ship's function doesn't need crew space, you can cram some amazing tech into pretty small spaces. That brings me around to my own activities when I haven't been working for the yards.
First, I sold Silk_Road to the crew. I'll miss that beat up Serenity, but I didn't need the ship while I am here and it gave me the cash to start working on my research vessel. The Zoners over in Tau-29 shipped in the hull of a Corvo class scout cruiser. They would have been more than happy to build a ship from the ground up, but my plans would have required me to gut the poor thing and start over.
Singapore is letting me prototype "Project Ganesha" in one of the bays on the condition that I buy all of the "off the shelf" parts from them. Since I was planning in that direction anyway, it works for me. We have also drafted formal language for all of the automation technology that comes out of the Project, including the catcher field and associated systems. "Alestones" may or may not catch on as standard equipment, but, if they do, Singapore will be paying me for the privilege of installing them.
My original thoughts on the current ship have undergone massive changes in the last little while. I originally intended a mobile lab, something custom made but along the lines of a Renzu liner. I am still thinking in terms of a research vessel, but, with all the things I have learned, especially the automation aspects, I can fit all of Sleipnir's ability into the Corvo.
Since the Solaris scanner arrays on Sleipnir were a, albeit Star quality, jury-rig, I added a dedicated processor array and rewrote the software. The Fearless class has nine cruiser turrets whereas the Corvo only has five gunboat turrets, so the array doesn't have the same scanning volume, but the processing capability is about thirty percent more effective. I may not be able to look at as much in a single glance, but I'll see a lot more detail where I do look.
Eventually, I'll have to get a hold of OSI. They put the Hyperspace scanner into Sleipnir, and the need for that data hasn't been resolved yet. It'll probably be a while before I can afford it, but it will definitely be something that needs doing.
I'll have a very comfortable ride but, between the smaller size and the automation, I won't have company for my travels; I also won't be putting other people at risk for my research.
After a couple of weeks of work, I have gotten myself the needed permits to move to a more research-centric location.
My original intention to try for Ames Research Station met with no better success than when Star attempted to move there, although, at least, this time, they deigned to reply. It is unfortunate that the reply was comprised of easily disproven lies, but, given our history, maybe it was inevitable. I suppose that is the Zoner mindset at work, attempting confrontation avoidance when addressing unpleasant truths.
In any case, while Heisenberg was not my first choice of facilities, it will be a workable solution. The fact that the facility is not factionally aligned will actually work in my favor as I will be able to reinforce the lab space to what I feel are adequate specifications without too many other people getting into my business.
I have forwarded a proposal to OSI that they provide a Hyperspace Survey Scanner MK II. I am hoping that they are willing to do that work as I was very satisfied with the one that was part of Sleipnir's fit. Speaking of which, after two weeks of forms, inquiries, correspondence and approval Rheinland isn't going to fine me or shoot on site for having the Scanner installed. I suppose, eventually, I'll need to register in Bretonia as well, but, for the time being, my work will be in other places in the sector.
As is so often the norm, life is a case of an old military axiom, "Hurry up and wait."
Given OSI's favorable response to my request for the Scanner, I decided to go visit mom while I was waiting for them to finish up. It's been the better part of two years since I saw her last, and a little down time is not a bad thing; besides, it lets me get out and play with the new ship.
Mom is getting older, although I guess that is true of all of us. She has decided that she wants to move over to Corinth station. I bought the house and the land from her, and will be taking her over that way to get an apartment. She's decided to take a position they offered her as a theoretical physicist. She never came out and said anything specific, but I think she is looking to get away from Omega-49 and dad's memory.
I also know from some questions she asked that she is thinking about the prolong effects of cardamine. I was the only child in my family, and she is past bearing so I think she is hoping to be closer to the Orange trade. Oddly, it doesn't matter to me one way or the other, except in that I won't be running it for her. I just want her to be happy.
In other news, I neglected to get a copy of Silk_Road's nav data before she flew away under new ownership, so I am having to start fresh. That being the case, I went on a survey of Omega-49. Ganesha handled well, the survey was fine, but I don't recall the Coalition having the kind of presence I encountered in the clouds today. They actually had a destroyer in the northern cloud bank. Every one of them was aggressive as hell, too. Odd thing is, there is a corresponding uptick in Bounty Hunters, so it seems things continue on.
It did remind me that a lot of my research is going to take me to places where the natives will be restless if not outright unfriendly.
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Hellfire Legionnaire conversation![[Image: 59wVWyh.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/59wVWyh.jpg)