Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Kharius nodded. "I heard these were supposed to be experimental, too?" He didn't like the idea of captaining a ship that was so much of an experiment - felt a lot to him like flying around on a time-bomb. The crewman nodded.

"Yes, sir. Brand new concept. You'll love it, sir!" He turned and punched in a code, that unlocked the first massive door, then the second, which slid open respectively. When the two stepped over the threshold, Kharius felt as if he stepped into some sort of modern painting. The room was breath-takingly large, with the majority of it taken up by enormous rings, one inside another, inside another, inside another, and so on. From these rings emanated a blinding light and, around the rings balls of light whirled and darted. Tending to these spinning rings and lights were men in environmental suits, floating around in zero-gravity. It wasn't until he noticed them that Kharius realized there was no gravity in this room - he'd been too taken aback by the incredible sight.

"This engine, sir," the tour-guiding-crewman explained "is a fusion engine. Only . . . with multiple engines. It's hard to explain it all, sir, as I'm no engineer. But I can tell you that, obviously, with more than one fusion engine in operation this ship has an abundance of unending power."

Kharius, who had no idea how fusion even worked, nodded in acceptance. So the ship could go really, really fast. One simple thing he did understand, however, was that machines get very hot when in use. The more you use them, the hotter they get. He looked around for coolant tubes, which would have been found on any other ship in the fleet, and saw none. Without looking away from the spinning rings and swirling lights, he asked: "What's keeping my crewmen," he gestured to the engineers floating around the room, "from being cooked if we have to make a fast getaway?"

"Ah." The young man pointed to one of the lights that shot about the room. "The biggest adaptation to this new engine concept is the cooling system. Instead of a freezing liquid keeping the outside surfaces from overheating, this engine is cooled by lasers."

"Lasers?" Weapons used to prevent damage? Now Kharius was becoming truly uncomfortable with this ship.

"Yes, sir. Lasers. The excess heat that the engine gives off is absorbed and turned into cooling lasers that not only ensure the safety of your personnel, but also the integrity of the entire engine, inside and out. In fact, this new cooling system allows the engine to run at a maximum of 300% power before the ship actually begins to tear itself apart." The young man used one of the nearby railings to spin himself around and push himself towards the door through which he entered. Still confused, but now very impressed, Kharius followed suit.

With the double doors locked safely behind them and his heavy, steel-plated boots thunking against the deck in normal gravity again, Kharius was the one leading the way this time. He stepped into the elevator and looked to the crewman, who followed eagerly. "Take me to my bridge."