Throttle Thirty-Four

Diana was humming to herself as she floated leisurely back down the airlocks to the Slow and Steady. Her attention wasn’t drifting as much as she was though. In her mind, she was modifying and adjusting schematics, with ChaOS following after her changes and either streamlining them or pointing out places that would need further attention.

“Are you certain this kind of hybrid design is wise?” the AI asked aloud.

“Hybrid? No, I want it to split three ways,” Diana said. “You heard the big cat guy, the race needs different kinds of ships for different tasks. We can’t really go in there with multiple vessels, so we’ll just need one that can do everything.”

“I understand the underlying logic, I’m merely worried that this might not be the most effective way to go about it. It will also require much more materials than simply building one very advanced vessel.”

“Yeah, you’re right, but you know that this whole race will be watched by those Federation guys, right? We don’t want to rock up to the starting line with something too crazy. That’d be like showing up to the first Milwaukee Mile in a Formula One. It wouldn’t make for a fair race, and it wouldn’t be fun either.”

“I understand. Still, the technologies in this current design aren’t too far from being out of the reach of the manufacturing standards and capabilities we have seen.”

Diana frowned and had the image of the ship she was designing spin in mind. “Alright, then let’s build it so that anyone in the Federation with the right tech and know-how… and I guess heaps of credits, could build something like this. It won’t be impossibly high-tech, just a weird idea brought to its logical extreme.”

“Should we do the same for the weapons platforms?” ChaOS asked.

Diana nodded. “Makes sense to me. Maybe we can buy bulk ammo here? It’ll make things a bit less suspicious.”

“I will see what we can do,” ChaOS said. “We will also need large quantities of raw materials that we simply don’t have at the moment.”

Diana shrugged her good shoulder. “We can ask Ahvie to buy some cargo. I bet we can get most of the things we’ll need as part of some stuff that needs shipping.”

She slowed her flight down and paused before the Slow and Steady’s airlock. Setting her boots down so they clamped onto the floor, she waited for the airlock to cycle, then stepped into the ship.

They found Ahvie in the ship’s engine bay, quietly hovering next to the large pumps that fed liquid hydrogen into the ship’s main thrust assembly. She had a pad floating next to her, the display covered in shifting graphs and detailed readouts.

“Hey Ahvie,” Diana said as she came over. “What’s up?”

“Ahvie found that the Slow and Steady’s bottom-most thruster was using twelve percent more fuel than the others, but it wasn’t producing that much more thrust.”

“A leak?” Diana guessed.

“Some seals need to be replaced, but Ahvie thinks the problem comes from somewhere else. Ahvie hasn’t found it yet. Ahvie’s worried she will need to undo the entire pump assembly to discover where all the fuel is going.”

“Huh,” Diana said. “That does sound like a pain in the ass. Want ChaOS to help you? He can install sensors around, maybe fish through the entire loop and see where the loss is coming from.”

“Ahvie will figure it out, thank you,” Ahvie said. She smiled over at Diana. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

“And more! Got the low-down on the race and what we’ll need to do for it. Going to need to build a ship just for the race. Was going to ask if you could help get us raw materials for it.”

“Isn’t the race in a couple of days?” Ahvie asked.

Diana nodded. “Yeah. But we can feed the raw materials to my current ship and the nanofabricators will build the entire thing for us in one go. We’ll have to start sooner than later or else we’ll be starting the race with only half a ship.”

“Oh, right,” Ahvie said. She was clearly still a little uncomfortable with the idea of nanomachinery. “Ahvie can get a few things if you have the credits. Do you know what you need?”

Diana nodded. “Yeah, got a tablet or something? I’ll send you the material list.”

Ahvie abandoned her current project for a moment to fetch a small portable computer that Diana sent her list to. The little mirian looked over the long list of raw elements and various chemicals for a while before glancing up. “Ahvie isn’t sure she can get all of these here, but some of these things we have already. The forwardmost cargo hold has a section with spare parts in it. Most of them are broken. Ahvie hasn’t been to a place where she can sell off the parts for a good price yet.”

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“Oh, that might be helpful. They’ll be broken up in either case. It’ll give us something to start with right away.”

Ahvie nodded along. “What kind of ship are you building?”

Diana grinned and sent a three-dimensional model to Ahvie’s computer so that she could see it.

The mirian looked at the ship, head tilting this way and that. “It looks strange, but not that strange. It won’t fit in the Slow and Steady’s hold though.”

“Oh, right,” Diana said. “We’re going to need to build it off-station then. Or build parts of it, then have them assemble together. ChaOS can build all the tugs and such for that, I think. We’ll have to leave a bit before the race starts, then show up in person on the day-of.”

“That’s making things complicated,” Ahvie said. “But Ahvie thinks that we can manage. How long will it take to build the ship once you have all the materials?”

“The ship’s about… Uh, ChaOS, do you have Federation ship classes somewhere? I don’t know exactly how to phrase this one.”

“Certainly. Uploading now,” ChaOS said.

Diana received a packet with a list of ships by size and use. She noted the size of corvettes, since Abatrath mentioned he would be using something in that range, then guesstimated her own ship’s size compared to those on the list. “We’re talking about a well-armed frigate here,” Diana said. “Maybe a very light destroyer?”

“The Slow and Steady should be bigger, then,” Ahvie said.

“Yeah, like I said, we might be able to fit this in the hold if we chop the ship up into bits.”

Diana started to cut the ship apart in one mental partition. It was going to be a tight fit, but they’d manage, she was sure. Once the entire ship was put back together, they’d be able to leave it tucked away somewhere until the day of the race.

“Mistress,” ChaOS said, cutting her off mid-work. That was unlike the AI, who could usually tell when she was focused on something. “We have someone asking for you by the airlock.”

“Oh? We have a guest?” Diana asked while pulling her handgun out and checking the safety. Ahvie stared, eyes wider than usual.

“Indeed. One being, a ktacha. Their face is partially covered, so I am unable to identify them fully. They are likely female, according to the species’ physical signs of sexual dimorphism.”

“Is it that journalist we ran into?” Diana asked.

“Negative.”

Diana shrugged and gave Ahvie a quick nod. “Stay here. I’m going to go say hi, see what’s up.”

She travelled back across the ship, only stopping once she was on the other side of the airlock, and ChaOS joined her with his droid body.

She tapped the controls next to the airlock and stood firm while the air in the ship shifted as it equalised with the air just outside.

Standing in the entrance was a ktacha wearing a form fitting suit with plugs on the chest and a shawl over her shoulders and head. Her face was partially covered by a mask, but Diana could still see her eyes. “Hey?” Diana tried.

“You’re Diana Slowbane,” the ktacha said.

“That’s me,” Diana said. She tried a smile, then recalled that maybe that wouldn’t be understood by the alien across from her, so she returned her face to a more neutral position. “Can I help you?”

The ktacha nodded. “I’m Zil Rossi. We raced together and against each other at the Overflow Cup.”

Diana gasped. “You! With the purple ship.”

“Yes, that was me,” Zil Rossi said.

Diana stepped forwards, but the ktacha raised her arms defensively. “Please. I’m still healing.”

“Right, right,” Diana said. “What are you doing here? What’s going on?”

“Oh, I just wanted to talk, that’s all. When I discovered you were here, I thought that I didn’t have a choice but to reach out.”

Diana nodded. “Sure, sure, do you want to come in or… you know what, I haven’t had lunch yet. Wanna grab something? We can bring Ahvie along too.”

“I… suppose?”

“Brilliant!”

***