stretch our legs. It’s only a hundred meters or so.”
Absen led the two, Tobias trailing along, to an open door and onto a ramp downward, that is, deeper into the ship. The slope quickly became a floor as the gravity adjusted, undoubtedly due to Desolator’s attentiveness. The cart followed obediently behind the Steward. A minute later they walked into another control room.
“Are these centers backups?” Ekara asked. “I mean, everything can be fired from the bridge, right?”
“Weapons are usually targeted from the bridge, but there is a central weapons control room for redundancy, then one for each major weapon, mostly for damage control. They can take detailed manual charge of every aspect of the system. My bridge officers have to fight the whole ship. They can’t be trying to optimize every gun.”
“Point taken. So what is this control room for?”
Unlike the other ones, this center was not tucked into the corner of some massive installation. As it was not yet operational, there was very little to see – just three consoles, three doors, and spaces where other things would go. The floor of scuffed metal had not even been surfaced yet. Only the lighting seemed to have power.
“This is Exploder Control.”
“Exploder?”
“That’s how the Ryss word translates. The most powerful single weapon Desolator has. Antimatter bombs big enough to vaporize everything within ten kilometers of detonation, and cause damage out to one hundred in vacuum – and when I say vaporize, that’s not exaggeration for effect. The blast fuses particles, strips electrons from their shells, and causes fission in normally inert elements. Given the right conditions it can set up a chain reaction to continue fusing and consuming matter.”
“The Destroyer-killer bomb Desolator demonstrated,” Nightingale said. “One weapon and pfft . Gone.”
“If properly placed. But they’re expensive – not in money, but in time to make. We’ll only have a handful of them. We’re limited by the amount of antimatter Desolator can collect off the magnetic belts of New Jove, and it’s a rare commodity. It takes months for his array to get enough for one Exploder. He’d given us all he has for the trip.”
Ekara cleared his throat. “Antimatter would make one hell of a power source. Seems a shame to waste it by blowing it up.”
Nightingale drew a breath to protest when Absen held up a hand. “That idea has been proposed. There’s an R&D team working on an experimental auxiliary antimatter reactor, but using it as a controlled power source seems infinitely more dangerous than chucking it at an enemy and detonating it.”
“I’d like to look into that anyway,” Ekara replied, eagerness in his eyes.
“I’d expect nothing less,” Absen said.
“How are the Exploders delivered?” Nightingale asked.
“The warheads are stored securely within magazines deep inside the ship, and are sent up to be mated with a drone missile body right before launch. This is their weakness, in my opinion. The warheads can’t take the acceleration of a railgun launch, as the antimatter is suspended inside triple-redundant magnetic bottles, so they must be mounted on a missile.”
Nightingale nodded. “Which is then vulnerable to being shot down, not to mention it has to get well away from us before it can be detonated or it will take us with it. Kind of limits its usefulness.”
“Yes, they have to be handled with care, but at least we have them.”
A faraway look in Ellis Nightingale’s eyes alerted Absen that the man was chewing on an idea, but he didn’t press him. A month remained before earliest departure, and he was sure to have to referee at least a dozen good ideas in the next week, if the thoughtful faces of these two engineers were any indication.
“That will do it for this evening, gentlemen. Let’s hit the mess and then you can go your ways.” Absen gestured at the cart.
“You eat at the crew mess, sir?” Ekara asked,
Absen led the two, Tobias trailing along, to an open door and onto a ramp downward, that is, deeper into the ship. The slope quickly became a floor as the gravity adjusted, undoubtedly due to Desolator’s attentiveness. The cart followed obediently behind the Steward. A minute later they walked into another control room.
“Are these centers backups?” Ekara asked. “I mean, everything can be fired from the bridge, right?”
“Weapons are usually targeted from the bridge, but there is a central weapons control room for redundancy, then one for each major weapon, mostly for damage control. They can take detailed manual charge of every aspect of the system. My bridge officers have to fight the whole ship. They can’t be trying to optimize every gun.”
“Point taken. So what is this control room for?”
Unlike the other ones, this center was not tucked into the corner of some massive installation. As it was not yet operational, there was very little to see – just three consoles, three doors, and spaces where other things would go. The floor of scuffed metal had not even been surfaced yet. Only the lighting seemed to have power.
“This is Exploder Control.”
“Exploder?”
“That’s how the Ryss word translates. The most powerful single weapon Desolator has. Antimatter bombs big enough to vaporize everything within ten kilometers of detonation, and cause damage out to one hundred in vacuum – and when I say vaporize, that’s not exaggeration for effect. The blast fuses particles, strips electrons from their shells, and causes fission in normally inert elements. Given the right conditions it can set up a chain reaction to continue fusing and consuming matter.”
“The Destroyer-killer bomb Desolator demonstrated,” Nightingale said. “One weapon and pfft . Gone.”
“If properly placed. But they’re expensive – not in money, but in time to make. We’ll only have a handful of them. We’re limited by the amount of antimatter Desolator can collect off the magnetic belts of New Jove, and it’s a rare commodity. It takes months for his array to get enough for one Exploder. He’d given us all he has for the trip.”
Ekara cleared his throat. “Antimatter would make one hell of a power source. Seems a shame to waste it by blowing it up.”
Nightingale drew a breath to protest when Absen held up a hand. “That idea has been proposed. There’s an R&D team working on an experimental auxiliary antimatter reactor, but using it as a controlled power source seems infinitely more dangerous than chucking it at an enemy and detonating it.”
“I’d like to look into that anyway,” Ekara replied, eagerness in his eyes.
“I’d expect nothing less,” Absen said.
“How are the Exploders delivered?” Nightingale asked.
“The warheads are stored securely within magazines deep inside the ship, and are sent up to be mated with a drone missile body right before launch. This is their weakness, in my opinion. The warheads can’t take the acceleration of a railgun launch, as the antimatter is suspended inside triple-redundant magnetic bottles, so they must be mounted on a missile.”
Nightingale nodded. “Which is then vulnerable to being shot down, not to mention it has to get well away from us before it can be detonated or it will take us with it. Kind of limits its usefulness.”
“Yes, they have to be handled with care, but at least we have them.”
A faraway look in Ellis Nightingale’s eyes alerted Absen that the man was chewing on an idea, but he didn’t press him. A month remained before earliest departure, and he was sure to have to referee at least a dozen good ideas in the next week, if the thoughtful faces of these two engineers were any indication.
“That will do it for this evening, gentlemen. Let’s hit the mess and then you can go your ways.” Absen gestured at the cart.
“You eat at the crew mess, sir?” Ekara asked,
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