Read Wandering Engineer 6: Pirates Bane for Free Online Page B

excited by theory, too
much has not panned out over the years. Wild haired schemes tend to come to an
abrupt halt when reality set in.”
    “True,” Sprite reluctantly admitted.
    “Can we do any real world studies?”
    “No,” Sprite said slowly. “I mean, we could in theory, maybe in
the small cargo bay if we did this corner to corner, but fire the weapons? Not
a chance.”
    “I thought so,” the Admiral replied.
    “You don't sound too disappointed,” Sprite said.
    “No, that's because reality smacked me in the face. I thought
about what we were playing with when I went to sleep.”
    “Playing with fire?”
    “Yeah,” the Admiral drawled.
    “Hmmm.”
    “I'm wondering about other applications to force emitters though.
Some we might be able to try. Small ones.”
    “Oh?”
    “Molecular blades?” The Admiral asked as he punched in a command
for breakfast. The replicator lit as he turned away and crossed his arms once
more. “What about that? There are all sorts of applications there, from small to
large.”
    “You mean from a scalpel to a sawzall?” Sprite asked thoughtfully.
    “Or a blade for a weapon.”
    “Interesting.”
    “I can see all sorts of applications for this. Say, oh, cutting
through decking or bulkheads to get to equipment in a hurry, or to get out of a
bad situation. Or oh, medical yes, but also weapons... even a show of force.”
    “Hmmm,” Sprite replied.
    “You are sounding more human every day,” the Admiral teased.
    Sprite turned flashing eyes his way. “Bite your tongue!” she said.
He chuckled, smiling. “That's not funny! You take that back!”
    “Sorry,” he chuckled, shaking his head. She looked like she was
ready to say something else but then sighed.
    “I suppose you are ready for another round of growth,” the Admiral
said.
    “Possible,” the AI replied. She had gone through several builds
since they had awakened in Senka. She was overdue for a molt. But the downtime
involved could be substantial. And there was no telling what level her sanity
would be when she came out of it. If she came out of it. With the hole in her
memory... anything was possible.
    “We can do this,” the Admiral said as his plate finished
replicating. He had replicated scrambled eggs with a side of toast and bacon.
He picked off some herbs and sprinkled them on top of the steaming food and then
picked up a plastic fork. “Low power tests. Micro or nano amps if necessary.”
    “Drop the field and do it in zero G?” Sprite asked.
    “Can't,” the Admiral said as he picked at the eggs. “Inertial
dampeners are tied into the gravitational field. So, no, that's out.”
    “Okay,” Sprite replied.
    “So, we'll have to take that into account,” Irons said, holding up
his right arm and looking at it thoughtfully.
    <----*----*----*---->
    Exploring the force blades led to more thoughts on gravitational
lenses. That led to speculation about a cloak. When they took the force blades
as far as they could the AI switched to running simulations of possible
cloaking methods.
    The Admiral's idea of using his shield emitters to bend light
around him was one method, though it was energy intensive and difficult to
maintain. Simulations found that there was a high load and strain on the system
if he attempted to move while cloaked. It also gave away a massive
gravitational and energy signature.
    “So, that's out,” the Admiral said. “Pity, I had this idea of
projecting a field in front of me to hide myself or others.”
    “We could do that with a hologram. Which is another cloaking tech
we can explore,” Sprite replied.
    “Holograms are only as good as the lighting and surrounding area.
In broad daylight; Sunlight?” the Admiral asked, shaking his head.
    Sprite pursed her virtual lips and then put her hands on her hips.
“You know, it's not nice of you to dangle something shiny in front of a lady
and then snatch it away like that,” she mock pouted.
    The Admiral chuckled, doing that very