(eng) Orlando A. Sanchez - Blackjack 01 by The Dread Warlock

Author:The Dread Warlock [Warlock, The Dread]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

“I RELOCATED THE EDEN device to the Shadowjump engines,” Crank said when he saw me. “It should be impossible to find.”

“Can you replicate the signature?”

“Night is working on the signature and I have the printer creating another sphere. That’s going to take about thirty minutes.”

“We should have time,” I answered. “Tell me about the Charybdis.”

“Pleaid-Class ships aren’t nimble or designed for surface battles,” Crank replied, pointing to a screen. He and Frost were analyzing the data from Frost’s dance with the Charybdis. “They excel in space where atmosphere and gravity aren’t an issue, but this data should help.”

“How much of a difference in zero gravity?” I asked.

“Weight obviously isn’t a factor, and those things are bristling with guns.” Crank punched some keys on a keyboard. “The Warlock is nimble and faster, but the Charybdis would be a tough opponent in space.”

“So we don’t want to face them in space.”

“We don’t want to face them at all,” Crank answered. “In space it would come down to the pilots.”

“Someone felt the need to demonstrate her piloting skills.” I glanced over at Frost, who was conveniently looking away. “In addition to how awesome the Warlock is.”

“She’s an awesome ship, alright.” Crank placed a hand on a bulkhead. “You won’t find a better vessel out here.”

“Tell me about this,” I said, holding up the metal case. “Why don’t you want me to open it?”

“Right.” Crank refocused and snapped his fingers. “The coils.”

I nodded and placed the case on one of the nearby worktables. “What exactly is in that thing?”

“Night and I had to modify the coils since we retrofitted the reactors to our new specs.” Crank punched some keys on another keyboard. He pointed to the image on the monitor in front of us. “There, see that?”

It was a schematic of the fusion reactors in an exploded view. He pointed to a flashing section, which I assumed were the coils.

“Are those the Z-Tokamaks?”

Crank nodded. “Normally if these were regular CFRs we’d just place the coils in and we’d be good. But since we reconfigured them, we had to modify the coils, and that’s when I found these.”

Crank punched some more keys and a new image came up on the screen. It looked like a simple molecular diagram.

“What is that, hydrogen?”

“Anti-hydrogen,” Crank said, punching up another image. “The coils were encased with it. Once we engaged the Q-Drive, the outer shell would degrade. After two folds, maybe three, they would cause a chain reaction within the CFRs.”

“Which would do what, exactly?”

“The Z-Tokamaks are not antimatter driven, they’re fusion reactors,” Crank answered in his professor voice, and I mentally settled in for the lecture. Frost gave me the ‘you had to ask’ look and stepped away.

“So antimatter in the drives would be bad?”

“Extremely,” Crank answered quickly. I noticed he was getting excited, which always happened when he discussed his favorite subject: the Warlock.

“Okay, break it down for me. Is something wrong with the coils? Do we need new ones?”

I noticed Frost shake her head in my peripheral vision.

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