Back in the hall, he found the sign pointing towards the engine. It was the door at the end of this hall but oddly enough it was close to the front of the ship. Engines were normally at the back of the ship. He had seen the blueprint and shape of the entire ship on the bridge so he had a general gist of what was the front and back despite it being invisible. The engine being so close to the front meant that the thrust had to travel through the ship, losing power and needing way more pipes and maintenance. That led Brighand to believe that the engine room was more of a diagnostics center that had the life support systems required for keeping the crew alive.
He knew right away that his conjecture was partially wrong as soon as he entered. There was an engine the size of three of his ships and innumerable pipes leading off in every direction. He could see water dripping off some of the pipes, either leaks or condensation from cold fluids in the pipe reacting to room temperature air on the outside. There was not a single computer in sight, just tools and more pipes. Every pipe had a colored label every few sections that marked what they were with very faded text.
“Captain Brighand. State situation report,” ordered the computer.
Brighand felt himself freeze up for a moment before he opened his mouth against his will, “The anti-rust coating on the pipes is worn off, contaminating the water supply and making rations inedible due to reactions with the preservatives. Since similar piping is used for air and fuel lines, but of a different material to prevent reactions, it should be assumed that both are also contaminated and in need of major repairs to prevent gumming and jamming. Current body has too much hand shakiness to use downloaded programs to fix and replace piping and a real engineer is required to make repairs without docking at a military facility. As the One Part Democracy no longer exists, there is no suitable docking facilities. There is also a mess from reacted rations in the cafeteria to be cleaned.”
“Understood. New objective is to infiltrate nearest space port to see if emergency repairs can be done or to conscript an engineer for the ship,” said the computer.
“What was that?” asked Brighand as he rubbed his face and neck after regaining control over his body.
“Standard issue military implant. While you might find it uncomfortable when it reports things against your will, there are many benefits to it such as the ability to quickly learn how to use most of the ship, from the navigation consoles to the weapon controls. It also helps with recognizing fellow soldiers of the One Part Democracy and their ships to prevent friendly fire. I have suppressed this part of the implant seeing as there are no friendlies out there and it might be abused by the successor states to bypass our stealth. Think of it as a way to bridge any gaps in knowledge from not being properly educated on how to captain a ship in the academy,” said the computer.
“Then are we done here? Was I just brought here to spout some lines from an implant you probably already knew about? And why didn’t I report about the refiner being able to implant smells but not flavors?” asked Brighand.
“You misunderstand, as the ship’s onboard computer I have a general sense of the place as a whole but lack the capabilities to see the smaller details. I cannot even access the hallway cameras unless asked for or if there’s an emergency there. The implant interfaces with your brain, your information, not mine, to come to those conclusions. As for removing taste from the refiner, that’s standard during rationing. As the captain, you have the authority to override rationing constraints and can have taste added back. It is ill advised once you gather a crew to do this only for yourself and set the constraints back after getting your own food. A captain must suffer the same hardships as the crew to be respected. Now could I direct your attention to the lead lined window on the engine,” said the computer.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“That seems reasonable I guess. What exactly am I looking for through this window?” asked Brighand as he used his sleeve to wipe the dust off the window.
“The pirate ship that was destroyed luckily had nuclear fuel, the same as the main power for the engine. While this ship has been in low power mode and the engine itself is incredibly efficient to the point it can draw power from C-14, fresh fuel is always welcome. It is tradition that new captains come to the engine room and watch as new fuel is added and the power is maxed temporarily as a stress test," said the computer.
A chunk of yellowish green ore was pushed by a small rover drone to the middle of a space filled with silver-ish grey ore marked by speckles of green. They were both uranium. The older pile had its half life drastically sped up via the power production process, slowly turning into stable lead. The drone set down the fresh uranium before going around the larger pile and breaking off pieces of lead. It took multiple trips going back and forth before most of the silver exterior was stripped away to reveal more green but still quite a bit of silver-ish metal.
"In lower power mode, it is ideal to let the lead build up and reduce the exposure of uranium and radium. If left to its own devices uranium takes billions of years to give off radiation and fully convert to radium and lead. When used for power, that time is cut short to tens of years, hundreds when in low power mode. After we max out the power, we should be able to tell the condition of the pipes and do some quick fixes on the most pressing areas or anything that breaks. It'll also recharge the plasma cannon fired at the pirates. Now that it's over, we'll shift back to low power mode or rather a power mode just above low since some of the lead was removed," said the computer.
"Wait, that's it? You already maxed the power?" asked Brighand in confusion.
"Yes, did you expect a glowing green or heat? There are several layers of specially tinted lead glass between you and that uranium. Any visible sign of radiation or feeling would mean catastrophic failure and you'd be dying. We can have the drone throw a piece of lead at the uranium if you'd like something fancy to happen?" asked the computer.
"No, I'm good. Just wondering why it's tradition if it's so underwhelming," said Brighand as he stepped away from the window.
“There’s normally an engineer reading out the power levels climbing up while stating that all the pipes were functional alongside cheering crew members,” said the computer.
“That would have been a bit interesting I guess. Oh well, glad it works. Speaking of pipes being functional, why is the engine here instead of the back of the ship? Doesn’t that make it so a lot more pipes are needed?" asked Brighand as he reached his hand out to tap on a pipe.
“The opposite. More pipes would be needed if it was in the back. Rather than a singular engine, this ship has dozens of smaller engines for faster turning and more possible maneuvers so pipes will be needed no matter where the main engine is. The biggest power draws other than these smaller engines connected to propulsion are the life support systems generating air for breathing and the stealth system that turns the ship invisible which are both located here. Perhaps the successor states to the One Part Democracy have a more advanced version of this prototype ship with a different engine location that allows for less piping. Perhaps the center of the ship would be more efficient than the front or back. The main reason why it’s in the front for this prototype is that there’s more armor at the front of the ship so it’s safer in battles. Grand Sol Consulate’s battle doctrine focused on getting behind warships with small agile ships to disable their engines,” said the computer.
“Well they no longer exist just like the One Part Democracy, they’re called the Consulates of Sol now. They demanded equal representation in the name from Sol and Sol split off from them but threatened to declare war if they removed Sol from the name. Funnily enough, wasn’t the whole war between the One Part and Grand Consulate over control of Sol? Neither side ended up getting it in the end,” said Brighand with a slight chuckle.
“I would consider that a win for the One Part Democracy as the aim of the war was a free and independent Sol that all humans could freely come and go,” said the computer.
“I mean, I guess that is sorta true. A few things happened since then but that is essentially correct right now. Maybe we’ll go visit there someday if we can fix the water pipes and secure more fuel,” said Brighand as he left the engine room.