Hellfire (THEIRS NOT TO REASON WHY) by Jean Johnson

addition to FTL.”
    Spyder choked. He wasn’t the only one to cough on his own spit at that, but he was the nearest, and the first one to rasp out, “—Choo gotta be
kiddin’
me, Lieu—er, Captain,” he corrected himself, staring up at his former fellow Marine. “OTL, onna ship
this
big? ’S’bigger than th’
Liu Ji
, an’ y’know bloody wellwhatchoo did t’
that
ship, three years back. Beggin’ pardon, an all tha’, sir, but tha’s
shakkin’
crazy.”
    “I don’t deny that the
Hellfire
is longer than the
Liu Ji
, Lieutenant Spyder,” Ia admitted with a dip of her head, acknowledging his concerns. “But it is not
fatter
than the
Liu Ji
. In fact, its radial cross section is considerably skinnier. When it comes to hyperrift travel, the single most important physical consideration is the diameter of the ship in relation to the hyperspace rift’s aperture when combining other-than-light interstellar travel with faster-than-light-sized ships. There is, of course, an upper limit on what the
length
of even a skinny ship can be, but our current vessel does not exceed it.”
    “If you say so, sir,” he muttered. “’S’long’s it’s not comin’ outta
my
pay cheque…”
    Ia grinned, amused by the reference. “Nor, indeed, out of General Sranna’s pay cheque this time around.” She sobered a bit and turned back to the rest of their Company. “…The incident Lieutenant Spyder refers to is how my old Company arrived at the Battle of Zubeneschamali fast enough to effect the rescue of our commanding officers and fellow sergeants, back in my Marine Corps days. Rest assured, most of the OTL-FTL surfing
we
will be doing will be done under much more controlled circumstances.”
    “I’m surprised Commander Harper wasn’t the one choking.” The muttered dig came from Doctor Mishka, seated on the other side of Bennie from Ia. With Spyder breaking the silence of the officers, she apparently felt it was alright to speak up as well. “Since he’s supposed to be the chief engineer, shouldn’t he be more concerned about you mangling this ship?”
    Harper gave Ia a sardonic look before leaning forward just enough to look past her and address the other woman. “I’ve already seen it working properly, Doctor, via the Captain’s precognitive efforts. This ship
can
take it, once properly retrofitted.”
    He did not say anything more, let alone anything about how or when. Harper just sat back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. Like most of the other officers, he was clad in Dress Greys with his full glittery of service pins, awards, and medals—most of them Compass Roses for outstanding feats of engineering—pinned to his chest. He looked well, if sullen. Dangerous, where her concentration was concerned.
    Pulling her attention back to her work, Ia continued. “In terms of sheer tonnage, approximately forty percent of this ship consists of fuel compartments. In that regard, we are the equivalent of one of the Beluga-Class tankers. However, we have as many hydrogenerators as a high-end battle cruiser, or a low-end battleship.”
    Those sections of the ships turned blue, revealing that much of the ship was indeed dotted with storage containers and pipes for carrying purified water to the ship’s hydrogenerators, displayed in a darker shade of blue. Most of the tanks were clustered around the edges of the ship, just beneath several layers of hull plating, sensory equipment, the L-pods and P-pods, and the projectile-weapons bays. Most of the hydrogenerators were clustered around that curiously blank inner core, which ran most of the length of the ship—far more hydrogenerators than what a ship of similar size should have needed.
    After a moment, Ia electrokinetically shifted the schematic colors from the blues of hydrotechnology to the bright reds of projectile weapons and the darker reds of laser cannons. There were a lot of red dots on the hull.
    “Some of our energy requirements will feed the