Henry Gallant Saga 2: Lieutenant Henry Gallant by H. Peter Alesso Page B
Authors: H. Peter Alesso
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began to evaluate the sublight and FTL engines.
The Higgs containment field, required to maintain dark matter at negative temperatures and pressures, had ruptured, releasing their entire supply of dark matter.
The sublight fusion engine consisted of simple antimatter fusion reactors using an ordinary plasma containment field to drive the ship during normal planetary travel. The antimatter engines normally shot antiprotons into the nucleus of deuterium atoms, which caused a release of energy under the fusion process. However, even a small number of antiproton reactions could start a chain reaction which would otherwise have required a much larger mass of deuterium and tritium to sustain. With antimatter catalyzed reactions, only one gram of heavy hydrogen was required along with a microscopic amount of antiprotons. However, the antiprotons had to be kept isolated in plasma bottles surrounded by powerful superconducting magnetic coils.
The antimatter plasma containment field had also ruptured, thereby requiring more antimatter as well.
Howard said, “The fusion reactors are badly damaged; one critically so. The faster-than-light drive was also seriously damaged. A new inventory of exotic dark matter has to be acquired, or else we’re not going any place.”
After their brief physical inspection, Gallant went into the engineering control room located in the middle of the upper level of the engineering compartment. He pulled on his man-machine neuron interface headgear. This allowed him direct access to the ship’s Artificial Intelligence or (AI), nicknamed GridScape. The dozens of tiny silicon probes touched his scalp at key points, sensitively picking up wave patterns emanating from his thoughts and using the AI to translate his thoughts into physical commands for operating the engineering machinery and reactors. The physical controls were still available, but only as a backup.
Controlling machines with thoughts is faster, he reflected.
Gallant was uniquely qualified to be engineer on the Intrepid because of his exceptional neural abilities. Despite being a Natural, non-genetically engineered, his performance had been proven to be far superior to officers who were specifically engineered to use the neural interface. His exceptional talents were also his burden of responsibility.
Genetically enhanced officers, like Neumann, were altered to have the hormones and enzymes necessary for this operation, while he was uniquely born with them. In the past Gallant had been able to successfully interface with the neuron headgear, but he had not been able to maintain a high intensity of concentration for sustained periods. Now, however, he had developed far beyond the abilities of officers like Neumann.
Using the interface, he felt the engineering plant open up to him. He could visualize reactor controls and equipment. He spatially oriented himself then felt the controls for regulating reactor control rods and hydraulic valves and pumps. By merely visualizing the operations, he could manipulate instruments.
Mentally, he visualized the pneumatic-hydraulic plasma discharge valve for the starboard antimatter engines. There he cast the light onto the automatic control setting and checked it was in the closed position. The green status light indicated the automatic closure feature was operating normally as well.
Chief Howard had done a splendid job in getting things started, but there was so much more to do.
“I guess we should start with setting up a rotating work schedule and set repair priorities,” said Gallant.
Methodically, he went through the status of the rest of the equipment and began going over a general repair schedule including validation tests. The list of tasks to be accomplished seemed endless. He set up a long-term personnel work schedule identifying key expertise requirements.
He concentrated and visualized the ship, its controls, and the system failures, as one image. He then tuned his senses to see the path
The Higgs containment field, required to maintain dark matter at negative temperatures and pressures, had ruptured, releasing their entire supply of dark matter.
The sublight fusion engine consisted of simple antimatter fusion reactors using an ordinary plasma containment field to drive the ship during normal planetary travel. The antimatter engines normally shot antiprotons into the nucleus of deuterium atoms, which caused a release of energy under the fusion process. However, even a small number of antiproton reactions could start a chain reaction which would otherwise have required a much larger mass of deuterium and tritium to sustain. With antimatter catalyzed reactions, only one gram of heavy hydrogen was required along with a microscopic amount of antiprotons. However, the antiprotons had to be kept isolated in plasma bottles surrounded by powerful superconducting magnetic coils.
The antimatter plasma containment field had also ruptured, thereby requiring more antimatter as well.
Howard said, “The fusion reactors are badly damaged; one critically so. The faster-than-light drive was also seriously damaged. A new inventory of exotic dark matter has to be acquired, or else we’re not going any place.”
After their brief physical inspection, Gallant went into the engineering control room located in the middle of the upper level of the engineering compartment. He pulled on his man-machine neuron interface headgear. This allowed him direct access to the ship’s Artificial Intelligence or (AI), nicknamed GridScape. The dozens of tiny silicon probes touched his scalp at key points, sensitively picking up wave patterns emanating from his thoughts and using the AI to translate his thoughts into physical commands for operating the engineering machinery and reactors. The physical controls were still available, but only as a backup.
Controlling machines with thoughts is faster, he reflected.
Gallant was uniquely qualified to be engineer on the Intrepid because of his exceptional neural abilities. Despite being a Natural, non-genetically engineered, his performance had been proven to be far superior to officers who were specifically engineered to use the neural interface. His exceptional talents were also his burden of responsibility.
Genetically enhanced officers, like Neumann, were altered to have the hormones and enzymes necessary for this operation, while he was uniquely born with them. In the past Gallant had been able to successfully interface with the neuron headgear, but he had not been able to maintain a high intensity of concentration for sustained periods. Now, however, he had developed far beyond the abilities of officers like Neumann.
Using the interface, he felt the engineering plant open up to him. He could visualize reactor controls and equipment. He spatially oriented himself then felt the controls for regulating reactor control rods and hydraulic valves and pumps. By merely visualizing the operations, he could manipulate instruments.
Mentally, he visualized the pneumatic-hydraulic plasma discharge valve for the starboard antimatter engines. There he cast the light onto the automatic control setting and checked it was in the closed position. The green status light indicated the automatic closure feature was operating normally as well.
Chief Howard had done a splendid job in getting things started, but there was so much more to do.
“I guess we should start with setting up a rotating work schedule and set repair priorities,” said Gallant.
Methodically, he went through the status of the rest of the equipment and began going over a general repair schedule including validation tests. The list of tasks to be accomplished seemed endless. He set up a long-term personnel work schedule identifying key expertise requirements.
He concentrated and visualized the ship, its controls, and the system failures, as one image. He then tuned his senses to see the path
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