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energy
reactor.  And then run diagnostics and put the systems through their
paces.”
    “Power switched, the tests will take fifteen minutes.”
    I nodded and looked over at Kristi.  I could tell she
was deep in VR, probably trying to get the weapons to work.
    “Any luck?”
    Kristi shook her head slightly, “Not yet, I have some ideas
but they’re too impractical.”
    I nodded and started going over the data as it came
in.  The anti-mass and EM fields were about twice as strong due to the
higher energy availability.  That meant they could make it across the old
Knomen empire space in a day, instead of two.  Across the galaxy in just
four days.  That was insane.  I also saw that it would be hard on the
equipment, the converter was capable of more power, but those systems would
fail if any more was applied.  Unfortunately, the plasma cannons were
already operation at their limits.
    It also meant the ship could take about twenty missiles
before the EM field failed, at least twenty of the ones currently in use. 
    I looked down at the percentage of power being used verse how
much was possible.  It was sitting at point zero zero five percent.  My eyes widened, this much from a micro singularity?
 I couldn’t imagine the power surplus if we made it even bigger.
    Well, that’s not true, I could calculate it, but it would be
a number so large as to be meaningless to a human perspective.  The power
of stars.
    “Impractical?” I finally asked.
    Kristi frowned, “Well the only thing that concentrates or
attracts dark energy is a black hole.  Even a collapsed dwarf star, or
something with close to the gravity of a black hole isn’t good enough to affect
vacuum energy.  So… a dark energy weapon would have to create a
singularity, and have powerful enough emitters to push it out at another
ship.  Considering most battles happen at thousands of miles, to millions
of miles, it’s flat out impossible.”
    I nodded, “Well, running the ship twice as tough and fast,
we still have ninety-nine point nine nine five
percent power available.  Can we redesign the plasma turrets to be… I don’t know, a whole bunch more powerful?”
    I frowned at my next thought, “We could probably make dark
matter torpedoes, but let’s not.  Sounds like overkill.”
    She shook her head, “They’d be too big, it would take a
fairly large fusion reactor to create a singularity.”
    I nodded, “Unless we armed them as they went in the
tubes.  The ship could connect and provide power to form the singularity,
then the missile would be self-sufficient if it used that power until it came
time to explode.”
    She snorted, “Okay, I’ll buy that, but it’s still a bad
idea.  I can design plasma weapons that make the current ones look like
pop guns against artillery.”
    I frowned, “Also, I’m thinking the attack shuttles, Shield missiles, and missile boats need to stay the
same.  The former lands on planets, the latter are recalled to the ship,
and for some reason having sixty-one dark matter reactors on a ship makes me
very nervous.”
    She nodded and grinned, “Me too.  So we have a lot of
power to burn, I’ll design those plasma cannons, you start working on a wormhole
drive.”
    “I almost forgot about that, I’ll see what I can do, we
definitely have the power, and if not we can double the size of the
singularity.”
    She tilted her head, “Is there a practical reason? 
From what you said we move pretty damned fast already.”
    It only took me a moment to think of it, “Sure, if the
Seltan attack Leira again, getting there in five minutes is a whole lot better
than a day.”
    Kristi looked a little sobered at that comment, “And I call
you the naïve one?”
    I grinned, “Does it feel like to you, that we just put an
eight-cylinder engine on a tricycle?  I keep trying to think of something
to add to eat up that energy.  Maybe you can not only update the strength
of the plasma cannons, but add a bunch more to the