cold,” Cynthia suggested.
“The surface is cold; too cold for human life-forms to exist. In fact, I am unaware of any life-forms that can exist at that temperature. But that is part of the benefit of Demeter. Energy weapons have to recharge to be effective. Those weapons recharge through proximity to stars. So the best weapons in the galaxy are limited to a single charge. Of course starships have other weapons, but the effectiveness of the energy bursts are diffused by the strategic location of Demeter. In reality, if you could get eight Per-Sian Juggernauts in the right positions, and if they fired simultaneously, they could crack the shell of Demeter. At least current theory suggests that it is possible.”
“So what’s to stop them from doing that?” Becky asked worriedly.
“Well for starters, logistics. Getting halfway across a galactic arm, say Sagittarius, to the next galactic arm, in this case Perseus, is challenging. Second, I’m unaware of more than three Juggernauts ever being in a single battle. They are expensive to construct. For either the Slicks or the Pervs, excuse me, Sagittarius League and Per-Sian forces, to concentrate that much force would deplete defenses in several sectors. Third, we have a fleet stationed at Demeter. The Slick fleet would only have to take out one Per-Sian juggernaut and the plan would be doomed. Not a very good strategy.”
“So we’re going to be stuck in dome cities, like they talk about putting on the moon?” Cynthia asked.
“Not exactly. Demeter does have eighty dome stations scattered around the surface. They are more like observatories and military watch stations. We actually live inside Demeter.”
“You mean we’re going to spend a year living in a cave?” Athena sounded disgusted.
“It’s hard to describe, although you have seen pictures of the interior of Demeter before. I had a mural of the islands off Arion in your classroom. But I think the best way to understand what Demeter is like is to see it for yourself. We’ll be doing that soon enough.” Miss Li smiled cryptically.
For dinner that evening they had a salad and pizza. Instead of a milkshake, Ryder had his standby beverage, Diet Coke. He went straight for the pizza, but Miss Li interrupted, sounding a lot like his mother “Salad first, then you can have all the pizza you want.”
Ryder didn’t mind salad, but the pizza sounded better. Once he got to the pizza, he found the cheese both flavorful and the way he liked it with every bite dangling long strands of mozzarella. The pizza sauce had a sweet tang to it that he wasn’t used to. He also tried a slice of the chicken and artichoke pizza with the white sauce. “I could get used to this,” he thought. But after five slices he started to have second thoughts, realizing he’d gone one too far.
As he started getting drowsy he realized that as comfortable as his seat was, it was not going to be that comfortable for five days. But he got another surprise when he went back to the bathroom. The entire room had expanded. Along with several stalls, there were also two shower stations. The room seemed to have stretched to nearly twenty feet.
Stepping back out of the bathroom, he noticed the interior starting to expand. His seat was shifting into a box. He was a bit disappointed that he hadn’t been sitting in his seat to watch this occur. Each chair had transformed into a small stateroom. His seat could be either a very comfortable lounge chair, or with the press of a button, it could fold down into a full-sized bed. The overhead bins, had shifted into compact closets inside the small, private room.
Mr. Small and Miss Li, took the next hour, explaining how the rooms worked. The main point that Ryder got out of the explanation was that the materials the ship was built out of were multi-layered, and could shift in size. If needed the captain could turn the Pegasus into a full-sized football field. The chameleon fabric panels were constantly
“The surface is cold; too cold for human life-forms to exist. In fact, I am unaware of any life-forms that can exist at that temperature. But that is part of the benefit of Demeter. Energy weapons have to recharge to be effective. Those weapons recharge through proximity to stars. So the best weapons in the galaxy are limited to a single charge. Of course starships have other weapons, but the effectiveness of the energy bursts are diffused by the strategic location of Demeter. In reality, if you could get eight Per-Sian Juggernauts in the right positions, and if they fired simultaneously, they could crack the shell of Demeter. At least current theory suggests that it is possible.”
“So what’s to stop them from doing that?” Becky asked worriedly.
“Well for starters, logistics. Getting halfway across a galactic arm, say Sagittarius, to the next galactic arm, in this case Perseus, is challenging. Second, I’m unaware of more than three Juggernauts ever being in a single battle. They are expensive to construct. For either the Slicks or the Pervs, excuse me, Sagittarius League and Per-Sian forces, to concentrate that much force would deplete defenses in several sectors. Third, we have a fleet stationed at Demeter. The Slick fleet would only have to take out one Per-Sian juggernaut and the plan would be doomed. Not a very good strategy.”
“So we’re going to be stuck in dome cities, like they talk about putting on the moon?” Cynthia asked.
“Not exactly. Demeter does have eighty dome stations scattered around the surface. They are more like observatories and military watch stations. We actually live inside Demeter.”
“You mean we’re going to spend a year living in a cave?” Athena sounded disgusted.
“It’s hard to describe, although you have seen pictures of the interior of Demeter before. I had a mural of the islands off Arion in your classroom. But I think the best way to understand what Demeter is like is to see it for yourself. We’ll be doing that soon enough.” Miss Li smiled cryptically.
For dinner that evening they had a salad and pizza. Instead of a milkshake, Ryder had his standby beverage, Diet Coke. He went straight for the pizza, but Miss Li interrupted, sounding a lot like his mother “Salad first, then you can have all the pizza you want.”
Ryder didn’t mind salad, but the pizza sounded better. Once he got to the pizza, he found the cheese both flavorful and the way he liked it with every bite dangling long strands of mozzarella. The pizza sauce had a sweet tang to it that he wasn’t used to. He also tried a slice of the chicken and artichoke pizza with the white sauce. “I could get used to this,” he thought. But after five slices he started to have second thoughts, realizing he’d gone one too far.
As he started getting drowsy he realized that as comfortable as his seat was, it was not going to be that comfortable for five days. But he got another surprise when he went back to the bathroom. The entire room had expanded. Along with several stalls, there were also two shower stations. The room seemed to have stretched to nearly twenty feet.
Stepping back out of the bathroom, he noticed the interior starting to expand. His seat was shifting into a box. He was a bit disappointed that he hadn’t been sitting in his seat to watch this occur. Each chair had transformed into a small stateroom. His seat could be either a very comfortable lounge chair, or with the press of a button, it could fold down into a full-sized bed. The overhead bins, had shifted into compact closets inside the small, private room.
Mr. Small and Miss Li, took the next hour, explaining how the rooms worked. The main point that Ryder got out of the explanation was that the materials the ship was built out of were multi-layered, and could shift in size. If needed the captain could turn the Pegasus into a full-sized football field. The chameleon fabric panels were constantly
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