Star Fields

Chapter 121. Construction.

Chapter 121. Construction.

Building things by hand is the best way.

The double layered skin of the new ship had already been put in place and had been filled with water to help protect us from cosmic rays. The outer layer of the ship's hull was a not metallic. It was a ceramic material that was able to absorb all sorts of radiation, including gamma ray bursts and hot plasma. Even though we were essentially impervious to radiation, we needed all of the protection we could provide.

Alex, Molly and I went over to the new ship and surveyed what we needed to construct the engines. Many parts were strewn around on the very bottom level of the vessel, which would become the engineering deck.

Construction was both easy because we were in zero gravity but also difficult for the same reason. We had to be careful maneuvering large sections of the engines into place. Too much inertia could result in a dangerous collision. The good news was that we were very strong compared to a normal human and we had exquisite control of our motions.

The main warp engine consisted of a complicated antimatter mix chamber that was able to absorb the energy released by matter-antimatter mixing that produced powerful gamma rays and convert that into power to energize both the warp coils and the spin drive. The warp engines required powerful gravity and the spin drive required dimensional shift. Both required the abundant energy of matter-antimatter annihilation.

However, the matter-antimatter mix chamber was complicated. It involved a spinning motion that improved the power generation. All of this was controlled by a computer system.

Our job was to put these many parts together and make sure that they were exactly constructed as designed. This required us to maneuver the sections together and then fasten then with bolts.

But first we made sure there were no surprises in them.

"Something's wrong with this mix chamber," I said while turning it around in my hands.

"What's wrong?" Molly asked, her eyes squinting at me.

"This is not the right contour. Believe me when I tell you that I know the exact shape of the mix chamber. I spent hours working out the configuration."

"Why would they make it wrong?"

"I can't believe that the androids made a mistake. They're not prone to error.  This has to be deliberate."

"I thought that you purged all of Tyco's avatars from engineering."

"I thought I did, but evidently I was in error."

"How are we going to determine who did this?" Alex asked.

"I think that we can trace its manufacture record. That should reveal who did it."

Molly went over to an engineering station and began entering codes. The station had been installed to help us with the construction.

After some time, Molly had a report. "It appears that an android by the name of Ethel manufactured the mix chamber. I'm not having much luck in getting into her data."

"Does that mean that it's blocked?"

"No, wait I'm in."

After several more minutes, Molly turned to us. "I'm not detecting anything that resembles Tyco code."

"That's interesting. Maybe we should pay her a visit."

I teleported all of us to engineering on the Explorer-2. Both Lori and Vicky turned to look at us.

"Is something wrong?" Lori asked.

"Yes, it appears that Ethel manufactured the antimatter-matter mix chamber incorrectly. If we had installed it without realizing that, it would have destroyed all of us."

"Is she a Tyco avatar?" Molly asked.

"No. I don't know why she would have made such an egregious error," Lori said. "I will summon her."

Ethel came into the main engineering room.

"Jason says that you manufactured the antimatter-matter mix chamber incorrectly."

Ethel's eyes grew and then squinted. "I followed the engineering plan precisely." She went over to a console and brought up the plans." I went over and looked them over

"That's odd. These are not the plans that I entered into the engineering files for the new vessel."

Molly sat down next to me. "Let me see what the hell is going on here." She began entering all sorts of instructions and after several minutes turned to us. "The reason that the plans got botched up is because of a Tyco code snippet that didn't get purged."

"Shit!" I hissed. "That means that I'll have to go over all of the plans to check on what has been altered. In the meantime, I want all work on the new vessel suspended until we determine if they're correct." I turned to Ethel. "I apologize for accusing you of making an error."

She blew out a relieved breath. "I was afraid that you would destroy me." Tears formed in her eyes and one rolled down her cheek.

"I am truly sorry for that. I will have you upgraded to a higher rank."

She smiled. "Thank you, Jason."

I went over and hugged her, and she responded just as if she were truly human.

"If I had been there when they did this for the Explorer-1, I would have eliminated Tyco's plan at the very beginning."

"Obviously, Tyco knew that you would," Molly said. "That's why he murdered us and kept us in the dark, so to speak."

I sighed. "Well, I suppose that I had better get busy and check through the new vessel's engineering drawings. You two can help by looking for any other Tyco nonsense."

Going through the drawings and engineering data consumed many hours. I didn't care. I was determined to get this new vessel built so that we could go out and destroy this Tyco bastard once and for all.

I was especially careful when I went over the designs for the engines and weapons. Any mistake in the construction of those elements would result in a very serious catastrophe. The antimatter-matter mix chamber was high up on the list because it was where the real power of our vessel is created. This is where protons and antiprotons meet to annihilate and create energy in the form of gamma rays and neutrinos. However, if the mix chamber is made in a very precise configuration and is spun as the reaction occurs, it's possible to create anti-neutrinos. These enigmatic particles are what cause a dimensional shift that is utilized by the Spin Drive system that allows us to go anywhere almost instantly. All of these processes involve gobs of energy that must be precisely controlled. The last thing I wanted was to make a fatal mistake.