Chapter 20: Chapter Sixteen The Belt

She sighed, as she listened to the latest announcement. That cyborg was certainly busy. It was clear propaganda, but attractive propaganda. It was going to be harder to get people to see what she saw. Cyborgs could not be trusted but for some strange reason, few people seemed to understand that. It was so plainly obvious to her that they were less than human, and that computer in their head made them dangerous.

At least now she had a position that would help her mitigate the damage. She could bide her time, and wait. Sooner or later that machine would slip up, and she could take the reins to fix the damage he had done. In order to do that she would need friends. Unfortunately, she had made a mistake earlier approaching Richards. It had put the machine on alert, and now she had extra training to deal with.

She thought about the meeting. It had been finished without the machine thanks to the current situation pulling him away, but that hadn’t helped her with her own case. Williams had tried to make her case about why he should not be kept in command after he left. The others weren’t the most receptive to it, unfortunately. It was painfully obvious that right now he had more friends on the newly formed Officer’s Council than she did. The question was how to fix that?

---

Ruri blinked and rubbed her eyes. She even pinched herself before looking again. This had to be a dream right? There was no way this happened! It wasn’t even her birthday! Hell Christmas was a long way off as well. Yet no matter what she did the sight before her eyes remained unchanged. The port hanger was filled with salvage taken from the two most intact Cathamari cruisers. What she was most stunned about were the components right in front of her. She was familiar with some of them, having worked with broken and sometimes fried pieces of these magnificent devices.

Right before her eyes was in fact not one, but two fully intact Cathamari warp engines. Something she had never been able to lay eyes on before, they had captured plenty of Cathamari ships. However the engines were usually damaged in some fashion, and the shield grids were always fried to hell. The same was true here, no shield grids in perfect condition for her. These warp engines however were in remarkably good shape. As neither cruiser took much damage to her drive sections, even though the one had been completely vented by cutting beam.

She glanced at Countryman who had brought her down to see this. “I can’t believe it. Two engines in practically mint condition. This will be invaluable towards furthering our studies on warp propulsion.”

“I know. If things go to plan you will have a few months to study them before we reach Proxima Centauri. We will be staying in that system for a few more months to work on finishing the Warp Four project.”

She nodded, “That would be great. Being able to work on this in peace for once would be a welcome change.”

She glanced at a crewman and said “I want this transferred to lab 15, and be very careful about it. I want you to treat it the same way you would treat your fine china.”

The young woman nodded, and said, “I’ll get right on it ma'am.”

That crewman turned to direct a few other crewmen to start work on moving the salvaged engines to the lab. Lab fifteen was one of the larger labs on the ship, and was one of the few big enough to actually house those engines. They weren’t small components afterall. As such she had chosen one of the bigger labs that rivaled a cargo bay in size. Those large labs were even designed with this in mind, and certain experiments would require a lab of that size anyway. When not in use the lab could be repurposed as well. Most spaces on a ship were designed to be either multipurpose or easily converted. Very few sections were dedicated to serving only one function. The fact that the Enterprise was a capital ship, and a large one at that didn’t change that fact.

Countryman commented, “Lab 15? That is a good choice for the project.”

“I thought so myself. I’ll find some good engineers and scientists to begin work on the engine. In meantime I would like to continue my work on the cooling systems.”

Countryman seemed curious, “Hmm? Anything you care to share on that.”

She nodded, “The biggest limitation of warp drive would be the amount of heat it generates. As we get faster that heat is only going to increase. We will need a more effective cooling system if we want to sustain a cruising speed of warp four, and frankly, no Cathamari engine will help us with making a better cooling system.”

He chuckled, “I doubt it would, they use a rather bulky radiator setup for cooling instead of the absorber arrays we employ.”

Ruri smiled, “Yep different systems and all that. Besides I don’t want to copy their drives all that closely, anyway.”

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“I don’t blame you, they aren’t particularly efficient.”

She knew what he was talking about. The Cathamari engines were faster than theirs, but they were lacking in fuel efficiency. A factor that quickly became apparent even with the partial drives they had studied before. They knew enough about their engines to have a rough idea of how far they could go without refueling. Calculations varied depending on which assumptions the person in question made when making it, but they had determined a maximum range between eighty to a hundred fifty lightyears. She figured the actual range was somewhere in the middle.

While their own version was still mostly experimental preliminary testing had already found it to be much more efficient than that. There were two major factors contributing to that. Warp engines achieved FTL through folding space, but there was also the sublight component. Ships at warp still moved through normal space, and thrust was provided by the sublight drives. The warp field surrounds the ship with a bubble of distorted space and this produces a pressure wave on the hull as she travels that would act to slow the ship. Forcing the main drives to produce thrust continuously in order to maintain speed.

Cathamari sublight engines were horrible fuel guzzlers, and they used up a lot of fuel because of that. Earth’s pulse wave engines were much more efficient and didn’t use anywhere near the fuel they did. The Cathamari drives also lost energy due to their radiator setup. They also configured their drives differently. Part of that was largely due to the differences in ship design and propulsion between the two races.

Ruri had done the calculations of the end result, but conservative estimates put their own range with the same amount of fuel at roughly two thousand lightyears possibly more. The Enterprise was currently carrying significantly more fuel than that. She was designed with four primary fuel cells that ran the length of the saucer, and two more fuel cells in the secondary hull. All six were high-density cells that could store a significant amount of fuel that using conservative energy usage calculations would allow for a range of some five thousand lightyears. 

“No they aren’t. Although more than enough for interstellar travel, I just think we can do better. In fact, we already are at least at warp three and below. I figure an improved cooling array would let us do the same at warp four.”

“I concur, and that technology is used with a lot of other systems onboard. Including the weapons and the hull plating. I look forward to hearing the results of your project.”

She nodded, “speaking of the weapons, I’m also working on improving the compression of our particle cannons. It would improve the particle yield of the cannons, and hopefully, make them more effective.”

“Interesting. If I have time I might just stop by and take a look at what you have then. In the meantime I’ll leave you to your projects.”

She nodded, and turned to observe the crewmen working to move the salvaged engines. They seemed to be doing alright and were treating it carefully. That was good it meant it would reach the lab in as good of a condition as the team who removed them left them in the bay. She figured it was time she got back to the lab herself. Her projects were not going to complete themselves.

---

Countryman left Ruri behind happy with the results of their recent salvage operation. The rest of the fleet by now were getting close to Mining Sector 23. If the Enterprise left now they would catch up with them at the same time they were arriving. That would be important because the Enterprise would be needed to help maneuver the station through the dense irradiated debris fields in that region of the belt. Not only was that sector home to several large mineral-rich asteroids that had once been home to prosperous mining colonies, but it was the site of several major battles during the war. As such the wrecks of quite a few capital ships, littered the areas. Ships that had hence been trapped and the area was even mined. Not to mention the debris was used to conceal quite a few weapon platforms. Those weapon platforms included some fairly high-yield energy weapons and fusion torpedo launchers. They were automated, but not something to worry about, the friend-foe recognition protocols would identify them as friendly ships.

As for the Cathamari, he had already observed their remaining ships making the jump to warp. At least all of the ones in sensor range had made the jump. If any were left in the system they were outside his scanner range, and therefore no longer a threat. Especially since that meant they would not be able to see what they were doing. Star Tech One was now safe from prying eyes. He would have been happier if they could get rid of the entire fleet, but this was good enough. At least for now. 

Them not being around also meant that they would be free to make the jump to warp without prying eyes. They would be able to reach Proxima without incident which he felt was more important. As the Cathamari not knowing they could travel faster than light meant they would be less likely to go looking for them in nearby systems. It was the Cathamari coming back looking for another fight that worried him most. This whole war was such a pointless waste of life in his opinion. Peace however was never an option, not with those lizards. Every attempt to end the war had failed. Enterprise was now their last hope, and as he saw it they were going to need more time to make sure she was properly ready for the demands of finding a new homeworld. A world far enough from Cathamari space, and isolated enough that they could defend it and rebuild.

At the moment none of that mattered merely dropping off that station, and getting underway. The sooner they were underway, the happier he would be. So many problems so little time. Perhaps things will change soon, and he will be able to properly plan their journey. They needed to consider where they would go after Proxima after all.

---

As it would turn out, their visit to the belt went as planned. The Enterprise caught up with the other ships just before they arrived, and together they guided the station into the irradiated region of the belt. The shields did their job perfectly and protected the crews of all three ships from the harmful effects of the radiation generators trapping the zone.

They were there for only minutes, just long enough to maneuver the station into position and leave it behind on an automatic defensive setting. As soon as they were on the other side of the belt, and in the clear they ran one last sensor scan. When it returned with no ships in range, they made the jump, their destination, the nearest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri.

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