Thanks to us providing ultra-jacks to all employees who had to work on computers, the meeting with the yard was achieved short and painlessly.
Still, I was the first to arrive. I was not surprised, as I had already been in VR, and had just switched to this viron, which was a large, airy meeting room, with an empty cavernous void in front of the tables.
Even in their most grumpy moments, the three ship designers agreed that this design viron was lightyears beyond any real design room.
And grumpy they were. In a way, I could understand them. They were artists. This yard had been a creator for exclusive yachts after all.
And without the sunburn addiction of the owner, it would have been profitable. And now Travis and I insisted on boring, practical warships. They did their jobs nonetheless though, that had to be said. Not happy campers or eager beavers, but they delivered what Travis, Naveen, and I agreed were dang good warship designs.
It was thus no revelation that when Botont, Crombie, al-Jamal, and their team appeared, they were… less than enthusiastic.
While they all trudged to their seats, Victor sighed, and asked me:
“Are there any problems with the corvettes? Or do we have to rework the destroyer design?”
I shook my head.
“Neither. The corvettes are world-class as far as I have been informed, and the destroyer looks good so far.”
His shoulders sacked down.
“Please don’t tell me that it is time to work on the cruiser design. I thought it would be a couple of years before we needed to even start with that.”
“Not quite. We think it will be a couple of years before we lay it down, and the design should be done by then. That still leaves us roughly a year before we have to start on that.”
Now he looked a bit confused, and I decided to put an end to his misery.
“No… we have another job for you folks. And… I think you might like this one a bit better.”
He tentatively looked up at me while I continued:
“I have been informed we need a corporate yacht by December. And, while I can get the technical parts just fine, my… sense of aesthetics is… let’s call it improvable.
So, that is your new job. Design a corporate yacht for us. It should be elegant, impressive, and screaming money.
If you do a good job it will probably revitalize that side of the yard business so that you can design beautiful ships again.”
Most of the designer team was grinning madly, al-Jamal was literally squealing in glee. Botont though frowned.
“What… I thought you were so much against having Enki-ships being beautiful.”
“Enki-warships. In ships where every single cubic centimeter wasted on making the ship pretty is a cubic centimeter that is no longer available to help the crew survive.
Where every intricate and complicated structure could cost the crew the deciding couple of seconds they need to not be blown into a mononatomic cloud.
Where efficiency and maximized usage are the difference between life and death.
In this case, we are talking about a ship whose primary function is to represent, to wow. In short, to look good.
Where elegance and beauty are the main focus. So yes, do your worst and have fun. I know where my strengths are, and making something beautiful is not among them.”
Slowly, a tentative smile emerged on Botont’s face, and his next sentence was way more chipper:
“So… we seriously can design to our heart’s content?”
“Well, mostly. I do have a few requirements, security-wise, but in general, this will be your baby.”
Immediately, his smile flagged a bit, and he asked with some suspicion in his voice:
“What… requirements?”
“In terms of general design, only three that will impact you I think. First, every single point on the surface has to be covered by at least two point defense grav guns. And before you argue that this will break the lines, they can be retractable. But in the case this ship is attacked I want it to be able to take out any danger.
The second is similar. Every point has to be covered by a defensive disruptor.
The third is probably the hardest for you. There will be no windows.”
Botont raised his hand and opened his mouth in protest, while the others were murmurring among themselves about this last requirement. I stopped Botont from asking and continued:
“Yes, I know, windows are important, but they are also a weakness. Especially as the hull is otherwise made from 1m thick SUC.
Instead, we will use Q-links and the onboard computer system to make it look like it has windows.”
“Fake windows? Those always look… well, fake. Cameras simply do not convey the same… perspective as a real window.”
“Not the case with Q-links. If we cover the surface of the ship with nano-scale Q-links, then each of them acts as a tiny camera. Every single Q-link on the inside can act as a nano-scale display emitting the light exactly as the corresponding Q-link on the outside receives it.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
With a bit of computer magic, we can even make it seem like glass panes. Heck, we can even make the floor and ceiling seem to vanish and have the passengers seemingly walking straight in the void.”
“Are you sure that it will work out that way?”
“You tell me. Have you noticed the new ‘window’ in the yard gallery? That is no window, but the exact same technique.”
“Wait, that is not a window? It is crystal clear. I always wondered what the material is to be so… clear towards the vacuum.”
“As I said, the passengers will not notice any difference. And to top it off, we can use the Q-links on the outside to simulate the windows as well, displaying what is happening on the inside.”
Now Botont frowned.
“Why would we do that? That seems like an unnecessary effort.”
“To sell the illusion of windows of course. For one, I agree that windows are an important part of the aesthetics. Another reason is that anybody attacking the ship will think those ‘windows’ are weak points, while they instead are the same 1m SUC as everywhere else.”
“But otherwise, you give us free reign?”
“On the design, yes. I have put together the technical specifications. I am sure you can work with them, as only the three points I already mentioned impact the design aspect.”
I loaded up the specs I had compiled previously and it was reassuring how attentive the designers looked over it.
One of them, a woman of mixed east-asian and middle-eastern ancestry named Antonia Jahangiri looked at the fusactors and asked in confusion:
“Huh? What are dual-pinch fusactors?”
Most of the crowd groaned and/or rolled their eyes, and Lemar Crombie hissed:
“Toni, did you sleep the last few months?”
“No, I didn’t. But this is the first that I heard about these dual-pinch things.”
Botont sighed and tried to calm Crombie down a bit:
“Remember, Toni is the specialist for galleys. She only worked on the food provision side of things for the corvettes and the destroyer.”
Crombie rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“I know Vic, but let’s be real, we talked about dual-pinch fusactors for weeks.”
Toni tilted her head and looked exasperatedly at Crombie.
“So I am a bit unattentive about things that don’t fall into my resort. That still does not tell me what a dual-pinch fusactors is.”
Before anybody could explain it to her, another of the designers exclaimed:
“What the fuck! Four fucking ten kilokeppler coils? What are you planning to do, get this thing going FTL?”
I did not notice who called that out, but almost immediately, Toni and her confusion about the dual-pinch fusactors was forgotten, and the designers argued among themselves in obvious exitement.
It was al-Jamal who then approached me.
“Sorry, but… are you a bit unhinged? Do you have any notion how much 10 kilokeppler coils will cost?”
I chuckled.
“Better than you, Mr. al-Jamal, better than you. Keep in mind we are talking about the new coils. I know that 10 kKe Kobachigawa-coils would cost in the triple digit millions, maybe even in the billions.
But the new ones… they are somewhat cheaper. Those 10 kilokeppler coils will cost us around ITB 10000 each. Not exactly, but in that region.”
“Fuck, that thing will be fast! I know that racing ships at best are built around two kilokeppler coils. Shit, even the big boys, the battleships, and the megafreighters are only in the four to five kilokeppler range. Until we sell these coils, this ship will be the fastest in existence.”
I chuckled again.
“That was the plan, Mr. al-Jamal. But you got one thing wrong. We won’t be selling these. I think we will limit the coils we sell to five to six kKe. And any ship we sell will have at most eight kKe coils.”
“So… this thing will remain the fastest there is? Well, you’re the boss, but I like it.”
It was at this moment that Toni spoke into the group:
“And I still don’t know what dual-pinch fusactors are.”
I rolled my eyes but then sighed:
“Do you know the difference between old style fusactors and fusion reactors?”
“Uh, only roughly. I know that fusactors are way smaller, lighter and produce more energy compared to fusion reactors.”
“The big difference is that old-style fusactors use Kobashigawa coils to generate a gravitation field to force the hydrogen to fuse, which is called grav-pinch, while fusion reactors used big magnets to do the same.
The difference in efficiency comes from one of the secondary effects of the Kobashigawa coils. Any fusion reactor or fusactors has to overcome the electro-static repulsion of the nuclei in question.
The sideeffect of the K-coils reduces that repulsion, so the fusactors need way less force to initiate fusion, while for fusion reactors the magnets need to overcome the full power.”
“Oh… ok, but that still does not explain dual-pinch fusactors.”
“I’ll get there, just a bit of patience. The reason the interplanetary ships and the mining stations use fusion reactors instead of fusactors is that they are not in a deep enough gravity well to use grav coils to ignite fusion.
In interplanetary space, or around even the big asteroids and dwarf planets, old-style fusactors simply don’t work.
With the new coils though, they don’t have all those side-effects of the K-coils. They don’t reduce the electro-static repulsion, they don’t convert the high-energy neutrons into electricity.
That threw us for a loop, until we created additional components that do those things. The important thing here is that those additional components are not part of the grav-coils, and work independently from them.
And it gets better. The K-coils reduce the repulsion between four and nine percent, while the new system can go up to 100%, though I would advise against it.
It is similar to the netron trap. Way more effective, reducing the needed maintenance significantly.
But as these systems are independent from the grav-coils, there is no reason to not include large magnets to also make mag-pinch possible. At least for any ships that may at some point or another be transported through interplanetary space, as unlikely as that is.
The magnets increase the volume of the fusactors by around 2%. I personally think that is an acceptable price for it to work also in interplanetary space.”
“That is nifty. But… why did we not use that tech on the corvettes?”
Boton sighed, let his head fall forward, and shook said head.
“Toni, we did. That is why everybody was so… surprised that you did not know what dual-pinch fusactors are.”
“Oh… my bad.”
Botont looked at her for a moment before he turned back to me.
“I could not help but notice that you specified a hanger for four assault skimmers?”
“Or gunships. Those hangars also can fit four Sirens. Or a mix of both.”
“And you want it concealed.”
“Yes. Let’s be frank, Enki, and Enki-personnell will be high threat targets for many people. And while the yacht itself will only be armed defensively, I see no reason to not provide a punch as well.”
“But you did not specify internal security or quarters for guard details…”
I recoiled when I realized he was right.
“Oh… well, I am human. Please include that as well. I would say include hidden disruptors and PACs in the corridors as security.”
“Will do. You are aware that this thing will be the size of a small destroyer, right?”
I sighed and shrugged my shoulders.
“We have to do what we have to do. Oh, before you ask, I left the number of staterooms, cabins and crew quarters to you. That is your expertise.”
“I appreciate it. Don’t worry, we will take care of it. To be frank, this is what we all have become ship architects to do for, so thank you for the opportunity.”
“As I said, when it is done, it might rekindle the yacht business of the yard. Though this one will be unique.”
“Well, if the size of those coils becomes known, it will at least give us a big chunk of the racing yacht business.”
“Does that seriously matter? I can’t believe that the racing business is very big.”
“It is not, but it is a big money business. And the same people who buy racing yachts also buy normal yachts. If we get a decent footing in the racing business, it will give us a decent position in the yacht business.”
“Well, I leave that to you, and Ms. Rouhani.”
With that, I took my leave, and left the designers to their dream job.