My shuttle approaches the derelict hospital building, likely the only ‘safe’ place to land in the area, and I see a tall, wiry girl standing next to the building’s access door. She’s just as pretty as she was in our virtual meeting room, which I take as a good sign that her mental image of herself is similar to her actual self. As we land I see her confidence faulter as her shoulders start to slump.
Not wanting to prolong her nervousness, I blip over to her and the surprise in her posture reminds me to dial back my reactions. The discussion proceeds well enough until I mention I need to ramp up production of her gunpowder and panic springs across her face. The discomfort I cause her punches me in the chest.
She’s not your child, Penny, get a grip. I step forward and hug the struggling teen. Not the grip I meant! When her stiff posture relaxes to hug me back, I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. I launch back into my proposal, tease her about how much she’s bitten off crafting wise, and ultimately offer her the leasing deal and a percentage of my production of her product. Long term, this isn’t sustainable for my manufacturing as I am repurposing instead of building, but for now, I can pick up production for what I need.
Reminder, you have a meeting with Daniel on Ganymede for construction concerns on your new Cutter.
Ugh, it’s always something.
I don’t want to leave Kimber while she’s looking unstable, but what can I do? Maybe she just needs someone to talk to. I have a daughter that often complains that she’s bored, and she’s got a lot of varied life experience . . . that could work.
I offer Zia’s comms ID to Kimber and the spark of interest I see warms the vortex that replaced my heart. B A flash of thought sends a thought to my middles: I want another kid. Maybe this time my baby won’t want to leave me, but that’s a slim hope as passion and development run in my family’s blood. I’ll have no excuses not to spend time with her either. Not like Zia and Isabelle. Jack and James, names they chose for themselves at tier 1, are my twins and I haven’t seen them since they left home. Zia’s the only one that sees me regularly, but I believe it’s more because she hasn’t found her calling than any true desire to be around me. Not that I would really know because I’m afraid to ask.
I excuse myself and blip Kimber to a safe place before taking off to talk to my ship builder in the outer Sol system.
***
I ruminate on the idea of another child in the hours it takes to land on the large Jovian moon. Despite jumping and warping, safety protocols keep interplanetary travel in the realm of hours, no matter how close or far things are. Well, once you get out of the single jump range, it can turn into days and weeks depending on mana situation, or for Galilei their AM-inventory and capacitor cooling. My new AM-reactor should solve several of the time-lag issues and after Orem and Alaris discovered that annihilation reactions also release aether, having a thermos-electric and aetheric generator for long-distance space travel will be a game changer. But that’s not the engine that’s going to be on these cruisers, so I wonder what the issues are.
The skies of Ganymede are blanketed in industry. Orbital forges and foundries, the leading shipyard in the Empire, and a surprisingly advanced farm barge. Since we swapped over to aether-driven ripple drives to get to orbit, the energy costs aren’t prohibitive, but saving two percent charge on your batteries and a flotilla of shuttles verses a few shuttles for crew rotations turns into a significant long-term cost.
I have the rudimentary AI on my personal shuttle dock with the main shipyard complex and blip to David’s office after having warned him of my arrival.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Must you insist on the teleporting?” David asks.
“It’s quick and fun, why not do it? I suppose startling friends could be a hassle, but that’s amusing too.” I give him a beaming grin and he shudders at the jagged mess of teeth in my mouth.
“Beside that, it doesn’t seem possible to keep you from doing it, despite the technology I’ve tried.” He brings up some menus, sighs, and dismisses them.
“I suppose it is possible, but you’d have to use foreign tech at this point and that invites its own risk.” I’m not about to actually tell him how to keep me from teleporting to a place. Plus, it wouldn’t work against my transpositioning anyway. “You have concerns about my cruisers?”
He nods and walks over to a holographic projector. “I’m having issue with the backup nuclear reactor. You haven’t been focusing on this area of technology, so it has not miniaturized as much of the rest of your power systems. There are some options being developed on Earth, and several Andromedean races that have built smaller nuclear reactors with adequate safety ratings.”
“I take it you’re suggesting this because the rest of the ship is finished?” He nods.
“I have one that everything is finished and furnished forward of the engineering spaces, and the hull framework is laid for the engine compartments. Two more are equipment in, unfurnished. I can finish three ships in eight months and deliver the first in twelve if we decide on your auxiliary powerplant today.”
“Any of the choices at our current safety rating?”
“The one I want to slot in, is one percent worse, and the hardest to slot is three percent better.”
“Ugh, one percent is fine. If you haven’t scrapped the emergency diesel, you can do that. We can use a magitech conversion or an aether dynamo.” I’m not happy settling for a non-Astorian powerplant, but he’s right, I haven’t worked on normal powerplants in years. Might have to change that for my project shuttle.
“Good, I’ve already scrapped the diesel tanks and planned to use the compartment to shield the new reactor. I also need you to send me your updated dynamo and the schematics for that marauder hull you’re building if you want it any time in the next two years.”
My face brightens up. “I can definitely do that. I think I’m past the last major hurdle on my new AM powerplant!”
“And it fits in a Marauder?”
I rotate my open palm. “Light frigate maybe? But I still want a dozen marauder hulls. Delivered without powerplants is fine.”
“So, you want me to build 12 completed hulls with no engineering equipment?” I can hear the confusion in his voice as it is one of the oddest things I’ve asked him to do.
“I want the control consoles and watchstation equipment, but not connected to anything.”
Daniel wipes his face and ruffles his hair in frustration. “Am I going to have to re-design all of my ship lines for this powerplant?”
“Eventually, maybe, but I don’t see anything like it on the Exchange, so I don’t think we’re within 100 years of mass-marketing these beasts.”
He looks up at me with shock and disgust on his face. “You’re going to hold an important advancement for a hundred years!?! How can you justify that kind of behavior?”
I want to growl at the man, but he’s earned the right to bare his thoughts to me, kind or not. “Daniel, this is AM-tech. Not only does it efficiently use it, but very safely creates it. No kilometer-wide accelerator or anything. It’s not completely power neutral as it requires more aether than it produces, and that’s my biggest concern. If people are negligent the whole thing will likely cause an un-guided warp!” I sit down on the edge of a table and continue. “I don’t know If I’ll ever mass market the drive for ships. Space stations, long-range ship portals, maybe, but there are a lot of personal secrets tied into that machine and I’m not ready to reveal them all yet!”
“Maybe after a decade of testing, I’ll bring you in on the project, but for now, I’m going to keep it close.”
Daniel studies my expression for nearly a minute before responding. “Well if you won’t be convinced, you owe me a re-design on a shipboard nuclear plant. Something smaller than a shuttle.”
I grin at that, having some old ideas collecting dust, it shouldn’t take too many years to get to a prototype. “Any restrictions I should note?”
He smirks for the first time this meeting, “no active aether effects, and any enchantment has to last the re-fueling life of the reactor.”
That last restriction is pretty lame, but I can surely figure it out. I help build a collider AM engine with no aether afterall. With Alaris and Orem helping out, I’m pretty confident that I can get it prototyped before I order another line of ships.
