Session 113: Give Me Fuel, Give Me Ire
Before the Starfall can make its fateful return to Alterna, the Luminous Engine must be installed. To power the Luminous Engine, the ship's engineer must wire it into the ship's engine. While prepping to do that, Isara Marquez learned of the furious god raging within the Starfall's engine, her prison giving the ship its efficient if disquieting power.
To solve this new problem, Isara outsourced, pitching two solutions. The party elected to go with the one that did not send them back into Cardian airspace, recruiting Jozue and Stella Helder, the friends of Linnet's brother who teleported the party into Saine to help restore her winds.
And solve it they have, or they will, or they are certainly in the process of doing.
We join our brave adventurers aboard the Starfall as most of the crew tries to just stay out of the way...
**
"Wow," Stella says, her eyebrows up around her bangs, as she looks at the data Jozue is holding. "That's... that's a lot of power."
"Enough to run this ship with plenty left over," Isara confirms.
Jozue glances over at the engine. "But what happens if she ever gets out?"
The engine room on the Starfall rarely holds more than one person at a time. The all-time high before today was five, and that was primarily because of Yves giving Cerberus and Fenrir a tour during one of Bast's usual maintenance routines. (The captain did not particularly appreciate Principia's critiques on their way out.) Today the engine room is packed full. Jozue, Stella, and Isara sit in a circle of equipment, spare parts, tools, and snacks. Bast stands nearby, supervising. Yves stands nearby, distracted by rare scientific materials. Linnet sits nearby, distracted by nutritional deficiencies. Orrey sits nearby, distracted by lighting. Isa leans by the door, never distracted by anything. Apoc, Rahel, Bjrn, and Luca occupy the margins, ready to assist however they best can.
Stella rifles through her tools, which are not at all arranged in anything resembling an order. "So you have an ancient airship that emits zero waste because it runs completely on Asura's wrath."
"You know," Yves says to Jozue, "I got the impression that the answer is something like 'attempt to murder everyone in a fit of understandable but unreasonably escalated vengeance,' but we haven't really checked in to ask for details recently."
Bast runs a hand through his already-messy hair. "Something like that. What baffles me is how this setup was anything like stable before we came along and none of the output was getting used."
"It was dormant?" Isa suggests.
"But I'm guessing Asura wasn't. Unless the engine also manages that somehow."
"That's what I said."
Yves makes the hand gesture universally understood among nerds as Gosh, what an exciting mystery! Let's speculate wildly for a while!
"I can say this much," Isara says to Bast. "You can keep running like you have been, and it's going to get worse. Not catastrophically worse, but then again, this kind of thing generally runs well right up until it doesn't and you all die fiery deaths."
Where Isara will be when this happens is anyone's guess.
"The bad news is that we need that power, no matter what you do. The Luminous Engine's not going to be able to run alongside your normal operations with any engine that currently exists." She drums her fingernails on her belt's gothic decorations. "So don't run it if you don't need, I guess."
"So how did the Dawn manage it with their engines?"
"Oh, that sounds like a much safer approach," Yves says, with blithe sincerity. He's mostly busy staring at interesting new materials and tools in the room, anyway.
"The Dawn uses about half the power your ship does," Isara says.
"What is our ship doing that theirs isn't?" Orrey asks.
"...huh." Bast leans back against a wall. "I think I might need to trace some of these conduits, in the next few days."
"I don't know," Isara says. She scoots on the floor closer to Orrey and his sketchbook. "Here's the diagram of the power flow, best as I can lay it out." She hands Orrey the crudest blueprint he's ever seen, full of technical jargon and hastily-scribbled equations on the sides. The shape is the Starfall if one squints, and a series of different-colored lines run throughout the ship.
Yves squints accordingly, edging around another engineering-type to get a view of the blueprint.
Orrey squinches his face up at the "diagram." "Fascinating, but I don't know enough to know what I'm looking at."
"I guess everything is going to the spheres," Yves says, squinting harder as if this will make things even more comprehensible. "Probably? I mean, not all the power, obviously, but a lot of it."
"This is probably a dumb question," ventures Linnet, "but can we install multiples of some engine that currently exists?"
(She hands around fresh cinnamon rolls and leaves one in front of the engine as a talismanic sort of offering.)
"Synchronizing multiple engines isn't easy," Isa contributes.
Bast, looking at the blueprint from under one of Orrey's arms, finally claims it for himself and spreads it out on the floor so all of the engineers can poke at it. His green pom bobs pensively over the chart as his finger runs down the margin notes - once quickly, then another, slower pass, almost in disbelief. Finally, Yves' comment sinks in, and he looks up with an odd expression.
"If this is right, the other sphere can draw...five, six times what it does now? That's about the carrying capacity of those conduits, anyway. Assuming that's just not massively overbuilt as a safety margin, th'hell is that for?"
"Rapidly diminishing returns," Isara says. She's dismissive, but also easy with the explanation. "You can't just hook up three inputs into one receptor and expect it all to distribute evenly throughout the ship. You could build a ship where there are multiple engines all running different routines on a ship, but unless it's already designed for it you've got one hell of an expense, especially retrofitting a ship of this size. Says nothing of the labor involved, too. You'd be grounded for... six, eight months, depending on Q&A."
"Thank you for shooting that down clearly." Linnet looks on in mild bewilderment.
"It can draw how much more?" Stella exclaims, clambering across Jozue's lap to get closer to the blueprint.
"Is that going into containment, perhaps? Would we be able to eliminate it if we didn't need the containment?" thinks Linnet out loud.
Bast gestures at the relevant notes, making room for yet another interested reviewer of the Starfall's technical oddities.
"Though if we do need the containment," Yves murmurs, eyeing the diagrams, "that's its own sort of problem, maybe."
"Captain, read me the first sixteen figures in the sixth line on the right," Isara says on her way back to the engine itself. "I'll see what data this thing stores over time."
Bast gives a quizzical look to Isara's back, but begins reading as requested.
Isara jots down more notes, watching the sparkle of color and various lights flickering on and off. "If it's containment," she says finally, "there hasn't been a single fluctuation in the last... six, seven years."
"Doesn't really square with the idea that the current engine is unstable," Isa observes.
"I only pulled data on the circuits the Captain identified," Isara replies. "It hasn't drawn any additional power. It's not containment for Asura, at least."
“Do we have any idea what’s in the second sphere?” Orrey asks.
"That was not a request to go check," clarifies Linnet.
“Shouldn’t we check?” Orrey asks. “If we can figure out how.”
"We should totally check," says Yves.
"Godsdamnit, people, are we going to replicate the experiment with the first one, where something fell off and we all ran around in a panic?" Linnet doesn't sound particularly frustrated.
"No, of course not," Yves says. "This time, we won't panic."
"On the subject of a crystal-based engine," Jozue says once there's space. He picks his spots carefully, unless Stella's already speaking, at which point he slips in alongside her conversations with practiced ease. "I believe it would be feasible for typical ship operation, but there is the matter of expense."
"Let's save poking at it until we're on the ground, at least," Isa requests.
Linnet snorts at Yves' comment. "Well, if anyone's going delving in the engine, you're not doing it without me."
"Expense? Wouldn't they--" Stella starts.
"Unaffiliated, remember?" Jozue says gently.
"Oh, right." Stella makes a face. "Seems like a terrible way to live."
"I know, it's hard to get used to." Linnet pats Stella's hand.
Isa sighs her agreement with Linnet.
"We've managed so far." Bast's face yields no clear opinion on the subject.
"We have all sorts of options," Yves points out, and then, on considering everyone in the room, does not go on to detail them.
"Lemme see." Isara snatches the paper out of Jozue's hand and then sits down next to him to look it over. She mumbles a few numbers aloud as she does so, leaning casually against Jozue's arm to Stella's growing indignation. The numbers get larger and larger until they roll back around into small numbers again. "Shit. Yeah. That's a bad number." She hands the paper back. "Not impossible, but you'd need to either get really into running bounties, hauling shit around, or find some benefactor willing to cover your costs."
“Are any of those possible for us?” Orrey asks Bast and Isa.
"We've got room to step up the first and second. Third's chancier," replies Bast shortly.
"But probably not what we want to be spending all our time on. So that's more of a longer-term plan." Linnet stares at the paper without seeing the contents.
Isa frowns. "Finding someone to foot the bill's not hard. It's just a question of what they'd want in return."
"...can we go poke into the other sphere? As soon as we land, I mean. I know I was grumbling about it, but my curiosity is piqued." Linnet and curiosity are a dangerous combination, as about half the room's occupants know.
"And how much they'd want to know about what they're paying for. We don't exactly run up standard expenses, here," Bast continues, dry as stale bread.
“You could get a noble sponsor out of Cardia, or work for one of Saron’s guilds, or get a Caerwynian benefactor with their own wealth, or see if one of the churches will take you on, but that will remove your autonomy. You could just steal the crystals from someone who already has them, like a university, a research facility, a government, or someone who’s just done that themselves. That’s a risk to everyone’s health, and will get us labeled as pirates in due time. Or you can try to get your own mining operation set up, but I bet the crew didn’t sign on for manual labor in a crystal mine.” Isara doesn't sound like she minds the idea of being a pirate, but there are others in the room who do not share her lack of judgment.
"With the right accountant, they could look like standard expenses," Yves points out. "I knew this one chemist who--on second thought, never mind."
"We haven't found a way into the large sphere," Apoc tells Linnet.
Linnet buries her face in her hands and mumbles, "Yves, can we please not start a crime syndicate this week."
"Well, finding a way into the other one was kind of an accident, wasn't it? Go poke the unopened one until some bit of it falls off." To Linnet, this is just a matter of course.
“Are there any other options for powering the ship as is?” Orrey asks.
"I mean, we could ask Asura how she feels about it." Linnet shrugs uncomfortably. "...and if she knows anything about where all the extra power is going."
"Did she seem in a particularly cooperative frame of mind last time?" Bast's look at Linnet seems to be about equal parts skepticism and concern.
"I didn't ask about continuing her service, so, no answer."
"Maybe we can talk her down to, like, writing really angry letters to newspapers, as a form of revenge..." Yves speculates.
"If we decide I need to go back in, just give me five minutes to prep."
"Again, something to do when we aren't risking falling out of the sky," Isa submits.
"I understand that I fly on a ship rife with issues of self-preservation, but must we do this dance a second time?" Apoc grumbles.
"But it's important to get the input of people being affected by our decisions," Yves points out to Apoc, not without sympathy for the 'Let's not die' position being expressed.
"You don't have to be there this time," Linnet points out to Apoc. "And besides, people-ing is what I do here."
Apoc elects not to respond further.
"If the angry Asura decides that she likes you better in pieces, we don't exactly have a good way of getting you back out," points out Bast.
"I have nothing to contribute on the issue of fuel, so this is about the only way I know how to help." With good grace, Linnet backs away to check if anything has changed with the cinnamon roll offered to the engine.
“Could we ask some other entity to power the ship in place of Asura?” Orrey asks.
Linnet turns back with an idea. "Actually. Do we have any natural power sources we can take advantage of? Wind or sun or something like that?"
...then she catches up to Orrey. "Eugh. Dubious at best, but I suppose if Yves has a friend..."
“In a voluntary basis, and potentially cycle those willing in and out?” Orrey continues to muse.
"There's nothing wrong with going traditional," Yves says, "if we can sort out the materials and funds and all that. Though--" He considers Orrey's suggestion. "...I mean, maybe, but who? I was thinking about having volunteers in there if we found the right sort of people, but that has to be a really boring job, and possibly, uh, deadly? For regular people? Or even irregular people..."
“They wouldn’t necessarily have to be unpaid volunteers…” Orrey says.
"I appreciate your work ethic there, Orrey, but "hey, would you like to take a turn converting all your life energy to power this giant ship" seems like a hard sell. Especially when we don't know what most of that energy is for." Linnet's pacing. "...can I please go kick the sphere and see what falls out?"
"As soon as we've landed," Yves reminds Linnet. "...but then yeah let's totally kick it."
"Way I see it," Bast leans over the schematic again, "we could splice most anything into the grid here as a supplemental power source, take some of the load off the current engine. Problem is, nothing I know matches it on total output - not without some serious refitting of the entire ship, that's money and time we don't have - and how quickly it can spike the output to match an increased power draw. Which...seems a likely thing, in dealing with Alterna.
So we've got a range of things that could help, but we don't have a fix here."
"So we're either jury-rigging together a bunch of untried possibilities, or going into Alterna with Asura," Linnet concludes. "In which case, it seems like an even better idea to...either get her support or absolutely not tell her where we're going, and I can't decide which."
"Hailstorms. I thought I had a solution, but I'm just doubling back on myself. Sorry, all."
"I've been tinkering with bluespirit dust. It's not what I'd call a stable process, so far." Bast grimaces.
Linnet: "...what did you blow up." Yves: "Did you take notes on what blew up?"
Bast holds his hands a couple of feet apart. "Model engine about this big? Pistons punched through the casing, probably a problem with the feed."
"Ok, keep working on that, I guess. Is bluespirit any more usable if it's not in dust form?" She continues tossing ideas at the wall. "...would any sort of traditional sails do anything for the ship? Somewhere, people still use those, right?"
"Not a ship this size," Jozue says.
"...or as of right now, is the plan to go into Alterna for the power source that we need? For which we need a plan for a pre-source power source?"
"I feel like I'm asking dumb questions here, but someone has to be the token non-engineer in the room." Linnet shrugs uncomfortably.
"...what is the Heart of Sabik, anyway?"
"Or to get funding for a traditional absolute fungus-load of crystals to power things the regular way," Yves adds. "I hope we don't have to write a grant. I've heard stories."
"For the bluespirit, bigger chunks mean bigger explosions. More power, less control - harder to get an even output that way, would need a lot more reinforcement on the pieces, more of a chance of ending up with a bomb instead of an engine."
"Sweetheart, who exactly would we be writing a grant to?" Linnet points out. "...so, longer-term solution at best."
"Okay, so for now I think we're going in with Asura, but we have assorted plans after we're done. Do we tell her, or do we keep this very separate from the engine with a mind of its own?"
"...and where exactly on this ship were you testing explosives?" Linnet racks her brain for anywhere that's been more of a singed mess than usual lately.
"How much work would it be to strengthen the containment?" Isa inquires.
"Is that something Artemicion could help with, if we have the materials?"
"Probably." Bast shrugs. "But that feed would still need work, that much variance in the force on the pistons would wreck them in no time even if the casing holds up better."
"Honestly, no idea," Isara says in response to Linnet's question, confident in her vote of no confidence. "No idea what form that actual prison takes, or how they got her in there in the first place. You found the ship in Alterna, right? Dig around for information on it while you're there."
"Absolutely a plan, once we get there and survive." Linnet nods firmly.
Isa sighs. "So we can't safely get into Alterna until we have a stable power source, but we can't stabilize the power source until we get into Alterna, unless we somehow become fabulously rich."
"Which we probably need to fix the engine situation to do, so, uh. Hm." Yves attempts to think of easy ways to become fabulously rich.
"Ship hasn't blown up yet," Isara says helpfully.
"I mean, we can get into Alterna as is, we're just running a little more risk of Asura waking up and demanding to be let out. I think." Linnet looks like she's thinking hard on too many tracks at once. "Did we have any immediate 'oh shit' indicators?"
"No cracks in the casing, to sum it up," Stella chirps.
"Stella, nothing about that comparison works," Jozue sighs.
Orrey shrugs. "Seems to me like it'll be worth the risks, then, to continue as is into Alterna. What do you all think?"
Isa frowns a bit. "Or, we can't really mitigate the risks, which turns out the same way." She looks at Isara. "How long to get the....thing installed?"
"Jozue, you can be the pragmatist here and Stella the cockeyed optimist," Linnet volunteers. Voluntells. "Bast, definitely run a few casing ideas past Artemicion, and before we go in I'd really like to kick the metaphorical wheels of that other sphere. Which means stopping at least once on our way, but we could probably stand a grocery run. And beer."
"Well," says Yves tentatively, "we probably wouldn't explode, and we would probably find things there that could keep us from exploding going forward..."
"It's getting installed right now," Isara replies to Isa.
Linnet looks quizzical. "Am I allowed to ask about the thing?"
Isara rolls her neck. "Luminous Engine, I assume. I wrote up instructions for your crew and they're doing it."
Linnet looks alarmed, then ponderful, then alarmed again, and slips out of the meeting during the next argument to go supervise and/or talk to Jasper.
(She returns a couple of minutes later to report that nothing has been installed visibly backward, nobody's dropped anything on their foot to the point of impairment, and Jasper is yelling, but it's his Progress Yell.)
(Which is distinct from his Lack Of Progress Yell and his Genuinely Stressed Out Yell.)
"Do we need to give the new engine a test run before taking it for the big spin?"
Isara never sticks around past the end of a set. "It'll work," she says. "I made it, after all."
...Linnet bites back a comment about field testing and rehearsal.
"Besides, it's not like there's a whole lot of angry magical terrain that will try to kill us outside of Alterna," Bast replies pragmatically.
"Hence the idea to test it somewhere a little quieter before the environment starts trying to kill us. But never mind." Linnet sighs.
"So far as we know!" Yves sounds a little too excited about that.
"Isara, what's your timeline on that? And what's our timeline on..." Linnet has completely lost track. "...wherever the heck we're going?" (This isn't much different from Linnet's general head-in-the-clouds approach to directions. And time. And large concepts of that sort.)
"You'll be in Alterna by the end of the week." Isara waves as she walks out of the engine room. "I'm off."
"Right, well, at least one of us is sure." Linnet groans and covers her face again. "Twelve save me from overconfident design teams."
Isa looks at Bast. "End of the week means we've got other preparations," she says.
"Yves, I'm feeling the need to grill Principia about Alterna, but I suspect that would be better left to you. Do you think you could see if you can extract anything useful from...them? Her?" Eventually, Linnet will remember.
"So, our best shot at a supplemental engine is out of reach for the moment due to expense and materials. And wouldn't replace the current engine. Which we don't know enough about to replace anyway, and would probably need to dig around in Alterna to learn more about. And the longer we wait, the more chances it goes badly for us."
Bast breathes out slowly, looking grim. "Not liking any of that, but sounds like waiting isn't going to fix it. Let's prep what we can, and see if we can figure out the second sphere before we have our hands full with Alterna again."
"I don't know how much more Principia can come up with, since that whole archive was lost, but I can certainly ask," Yves says seriously.
Isa looks around at the remaining crew in the room, and pins Luca in her gaze. "You," she says rather than remember their name, "find Lily and Brandt and tell them to step up the drills. They'll complain that they need more help. Help them."
Luca doesn't respond for four full breaths. "Aye, captain," they then say, and politely excuse themselves.
(Linnet makes a mental note to soothe Luca's ego after the meeting.)
"I'd appreciate that very much, Yves. I think everything else we have to go on is our own limited experience and half-baked theories. Orrey, we don't happen to have any future sight among your connections, do we?" "Yves - before I forget - ask about the Heart of Sabik. I think it's key to this whole puzzle."
"Rahel, care to join me in making sure Shaul is set for the journey?" Apoc asks. "Seems our new lookout will be put to test sooner rather than later."
"I'm going to go brief Marina," Isa says after watching Luca go. "I flew us out of Alterna and I'm sure she'll do a better job getting us back in but I want her to have some warning."
"I don't think future sight, but I might be able to get some advice. Did you have anything in particular you'd want to know?" Orrey asks, adjusting his holy symbols.
"...a little more detail about what would be trying to kill us there. But I can't think of a yes/no way to phrase that."
"I'll ask about the Heart of Sabik too," Yves says. In fact, he gets out his notebook to jot down the questions--well, the two names--to ask more about.
"We don't have any sort of lightning shields, do we? That's the biggest thing I remember."
"Bast, can you rig the ship with a few extra conductive wires or something?" Linnet makes vague sciencey hand motions.
"'Trying to kill us' is probably most of Alterna. Where to find some answers about Asura's current living arrangements would be nice. And yeah, I can probably arrange some grounding."
"Well, yes, but specifically what bits of Alterna. Or hell, what bits won't be trying to kill us. Like that book about the Lost Continent and 'some of the sheep.'" Linnet surveys the blank looks. "Never mind."
"I feel like we're going in less than half-cocked and will need our improv skills on high alert. Isa, maybe see if Celeste has dug up anything?"
Isa nods. "Sure. Let's see if we can up to completely half-cocked."
"I believe in us," Yves says. "We'll make it to three fifths."
"...is that better than completely uncocked or..." Linnet shakes her head. "Idioms are not the highest concern right now, Lin."
She stands up and claps her hands. "RIGHT! We each have our various side projects and interviews and stuff to conduct. Isa - Marina and Celeste, Yves - Principia, Bast - Artemicion, Orrey - um, whoever you feel like talking to? And I'm going to go make several days' worth of travel rations and have a quiet panic attack in the kitchen."
"Company dismissed! Thank you all for coming, and may we collectively muster somewhere around half the confidence of our lead engineer." Linnet glances over at Jozue and Stella. "Jozue, maybe go with Bast and rethink the engine casing? Stella, come with me, please. I think we're each going to need a sounding board for some half-baked ideas, and also I need tea."
To solve this new problem, Isara outsourced, pitching two solutions. The party elected to go with the one that did not send them back into Cardian airspace, recruiting Jozue and Stella Helder, the friends of Linnet's brother who teleported the party into Saine to help restore her winds.
And solve it they have, or they will, or they are certainly in the process of doing.
We join our brave adventurers aboard the Starfall as most of the crew tries to just stay out of the way...
**
"Wow," Stella says, her eyebrows up around her bangs, as she looks at the data Jozue is holding. "That's... that's a lot of power."
"Enough to run this ship with plenty left over," Isara confirms.
Jozue glances over at the engine. "But what happens if she ever gets out?"
The engine room on the Starfall rarely holds more than one person at a time. The all-time high before today was five, and that was primarily because of Yves giving Cerberus and Fenrir a tour during one of Bast's usual maintenance routines. (The captain did not particularly appreciate Principia's critiques on their way out.) Today the engine room is packed full. Jozue, Stella, and Isara sit in a circle of equipment, spare parts, tools, and snacks. Bast stands nearby, supervising. Yves stands nearby, distracted by rare scientific materials. Linnet sits nearby, distracted by nutritional deficiencies. Orrey sits nearby, distracted by lighting. Isa leans by the door, never distracted by anything. Apoc, Rahel, Bjrn, and Luca occupy the margins, ready to assist however they best can.
Stella rifles through her tools, which are not at all arranged in anything resembling an order. "So you have an ancient airship that emits zero waste because it runs completely on Asura's wrath."
"You know," Yves says to Jozue, "I got the impression that the answer is something like 'attempt to murder everyone in a fit of understandable but unreasonably escalated vengeance,' but we haven't really checked in to ask for details recently."
Bast runs a hand through his already-messy hair. "Something like that. What baffles me is how this setup was anything like stable before we came along and none of the output was getting used."
"It was dormant?" Isa suggests.
"But I'm guessing Asura wasn't. Unless the engine also manages that somehow."
"That's what I said."
Yves makes the hand gesture universally understood among nerds as Gosh, what an exciting mystery! Let's speculate wildly for a while!
"I can say this much," Isara says to Bast. "You can keep running like you have been, and it's going to get worse. Not catastrophically worse, but then again, this kind of thing generally runs well right up until it doesn't and you all die fiery deaths."
Where Isara will be when this happens is anyone's guess.
"The bad news is that we need that power, no matter what you do. The Luminous Engine's not going to be able to run alongside your normal operations with any engine that currently exists." She drums her fingernails on her belt's gothic decorations. "So don't run it if you don't need, I guess."
"So how did the Dawn manage it with their engines?"
"Oh, that sounds like a much safer approach," Yves says, with blithe sincerity. He's mostly busy staring at interesting new materials and tools in the room, anyway.
"The Dawn uses about half the power your ship does," Isara says.
"What is our ship doing that theirs isn't?" Orrey asks.
"...huh." Bast leans back against a wall. "I think I might need to trace some of these conduits, in the next few days."
"I don't know," Isara says. She scoots on the floor closer to Orrey and his sketchbook. "Here's the diagram of the power flow, best as I can lay it out." She hands Orrey the crudest blueprint he's ever seen, full of technical jargon and hastily-scribbled equations on the sides. The shape is the Starfall if one squints, and a series of different-colored lines run throughout the ship.
Yves squints accordingly, edging around another engineering-type to get a view of the blueprint.
Orrey squinches his face up at the "diagram." "Fascinating, but I don't know enough to know what I'm looking at."
"I guess everything is going to the spheres," Yves says, squinting harder as if this will make things even more comprehensible. "Probably? I mean, not all the power, obviously, but a lot of it."
"This is probably a dumb question," ventures Linnet, "but can we install multiples of some engine that currently exists?"
(She hands around fresh cinnamon rolls and leaves one in front of the engine as a talismanic sort of offering.)
"Synchronizing multiple engines isn't easy," Isa contributes.
Bast, looking at the blueprint from under one of Orrey's arms, finally claims it for himself and spreads it out on the floor so all of the engineers can poke at it. His green pom bobs pensively over the chart as his finger runs down the margin notes - once quickly, then another, slower pass, almost in disbelief. Finally, Yves' comment sinks in, and he looks up with an odd expression.
"If this is right, the other sphere can draw...five, six times what it does now? That's about the carrying capacity of those conduits, anyway. Assuming that's just not massively overbuilt as a safety margin, th'hell is that for?"
"Rapidly diminishing returns," Isara says. She's dismissive, but also easy with the explanation. "You can't just hook up three inputs into one receptor and expect it all to distribute evenly throughout the ship. You could build a ship where there are multiple engines all running different routines on a ship, but unless it's already designed for it you've got one hell of an expense, especially retrofitting a ship of this size. Says nothing of the labor involved, too. You'd be grounded for... six, eight months, depending on Q&A."
"Thank you for shooting that down clearly." Linnet looks on in mild bewilderment.
"It can draw how much more?" Stella exclaims, clambering across Jozue's lap to get closer to the blueprint.
"Is that going into containment, perhaps? Would we be able to eliminate it if we didn't need the containment?" thinks Linnet out loud.
Bast gestures at the relevant notes, making room for yet another interested reviewer of the Starfall's technical oddities.
"Though if we do need the containment," Yves murmurs, eyeing the diagrams, "that's its own sort of problem, maybe."
"Captain, read me the first sixteen figures in the sixth line on the right," Isara says on her way back to the engine itself. "I'll see what data this thing stores over time."
Bast gives a quizzical look to Isara's back, but begins reading as requested.
Isara jots down more notes, watching the sparkle of color and various lights flickering on and off. "If it's containment," she says finally, "there hasn't been a single fluctuation in the last... six, seven years."
"Doesn't really square with the idea that the current engine is unstable," Isa observes.
"I only pulled data on the circuits the Captain identified," Isara replies. "It hasn't drawn any additional power. It's not containment for Asura, at least."
“Do we have any idea what’s in the second sphere?” Orrey asks.
"That was not a request to go check," clarifies Linnet.
“Shouldn’t we check?” Orrey asks. “If we can figure out how.”
"We should totally check," says Yves.
"Godsdamnit, people, are we going to replicate the experiment with the first one, where something fell off and we all ran around in a panic?" Linnet doesn't sound particularly frustrated.
"No, of course not," Yves says. "This time, we won't panic."
"On the subject of a crystal-based engine," Jozue says once there's space. He picks his spots carefully, unless Stella's already speaking, at which point he slips in alongside her conversations with practiced ease. "I believe it would be feasible for typical ship operation, but there is the matter of expense."
"Let's save poking at it until we're on the ground, at least," Isa requests.
Linnet snorts at Yves' comment. "Well, if anyone's going delving in the engine, you're not doing it without me."
"Expense? Wouldn't they--" Stella starts.
"Unaffiliated, remember?" Jozue says gently.
"Oh, right." Stella makes a face. "Seems like a terrible way to live."
"I know, it's hard to get used to." Linnet pats Stella's hand.
Isa sighs her agreement with Linnet.
"We've managed so far." Bast's face yields no clear opinion on the subject.
"We have all sorts of options," Yves points out, and then, on considering everyone in the room, does not go on to detail them.
"Lemme see." Isara snatches the paper out of Jozue's hand and then sits down next to him to look it over. She mumbles a few numbers aloud as she does so, leaning casually against Jozue's arm to Stella's growing indignation. The numbers get larger and larger until they roll back around into small numbers again. "Shit. Yeah. That's a bad number." She hands the paper back. "Not impossible, but you'd need to either get really into running bounties, hauling shit around, or find some benefactor willing to cover your costs."
“Are any of those possible for us?” Orrey asks Bast and Isa.
"We've got room to step up the first and second. Third's chancier," replies Bast shortly.
"But probably not what we want to be spending all our time on. So that's more of a longer-term plan." Linnet stares at the paper without seeing the contents.
Isa frowns. "Finding someone to foot the bill's not hard. It's just a question of what they'd want in return."
"...can we go poke into the other sphere? As soon as we land, I mean. I know I was grumbling about it, but my curiosity is piqued." Linnet and curiosity are a dangerous combination, as about half the room's occupants know.
"And how much they'd want to know about what they're paying for. We don't exactly run up standard expenses, here," Bast continues, dry as stale bread.
“You could get a noble sponsor out of Cardia, or work for one of Saron’s guilds, or get a Caerwynian benefactor with their own wealth, or see if one of the churches will take you on, but that will remove your autonomy. You could just steal the crystals from someone who already has them, like a university, a research facility, a government, or someone who’s just done that themselves. That’s a risk to everyone’s health, and will get us labeled as pirates in due time. Or you can try to get your own mining operation set up, but I bet the crew didn’t sign on for manual labor in a crystal mine.” Isara doesn't sound like she minds the idea of being a pirate, but there are others in the room who do not share her lack of judgment.
"With the right accountant, they could look like standard expenses," Yves points out. "I knew this one chemist who--on second thought, never mind."
"We haven't found a way into the large sphere," Apoc tells Linnet.
Linnet buries her face in her hands and mumbles, "Yves, can we please not start a crime syndicate this week."
"Well, finding a way into the other one was kind of an accident, wasn't it? Go poke the unopened one until some bit of it falls off." To Linnet, this is just a matter of course.
“Are there any other options for powering the ship as is?” Orrey asks.
"I mean, we could ask Asura how she feels about it." Linnet shrugs uncomfortably. "...and if she knows anything about where all the extra power is going."
"Did she seem in a particularly cooperative frame of mind last time?" Bast's look at Linnet seems to be about equal parts skepticism and concern.
"I didn't ask about continuing her service, so, no answer."
"Maybe we can talk her down to, like, writing really angry letters to newspapers, as a form of revenge..." Yves speculates.
"If we decide I need to go back in, just give me five minutes to prep."
"Again, something to do when we aren't risking falling out of the sky," Isa submits.
"I understand that I fly on a ship rife with issues of self-preservation, but must we do this dance a second time?" Apoc grumbles.
"But it's important to get the input of people being affected by our decisions," Yves points out to Apoc, not without sympathy for the 'Let's not die' position being expressed.
"You don't have to be there this time," Linnet points out to Apoc. "And besides, people-ing is what I do here."
Apoc elects not to respond further.
"If the angry Asura decides that she likes you better in pieces, we don't exactly have a good way of getting you back out," points out Bast.
"I have nothing to contribute on the issue of fuel, so this is about the only way I know how to help." With good grace, Linnet backs away to check if anything has changed with the cinnamon roll offered to the engine.
“Could we ask some other entity to power the ship in place of Asura?” Orrey asks.
Linnet turns back with an idea. "Actually. Do we have any natural power sources we can take advantage of? Wind or sun or something like that?"
...then she catches up to Orrey. "Eugh. Dubious at best, but I suppose if Yves has a friend..."
“In a voluntary basis, and potentially cycle those willing in and out?” Orrey continues to muse.
"There's nothing wrong with going traditional," Yves says, "if we can sort out the materials and funds and all that. Though--" He considers Orrey's suggestion. "...I mean, maybe, but who? I was thinking about having volunteers in there if we found the right sort of people, but that has to be a really boring job, and possibly, uh, deadly? For regular people? Or even irregular people..."
“They wouldn’t necessarily have to be unpaid volunteers…” Orrey says.
"I appreciate your work ethic there, Orrey, but "hey, would you like to take a turn converting all your life energy to power this giant ship" seems like a hard sell. Especially when we don't know what most of that energy is for." Linnet's pacing. "...can I please go kick the sphere and see what falls out?"
"As soon as we've landed," Yves reminds Linnet. "...but then yeah let's totally kick it."
"Way I see it," Bast leans over the schematic again, "we could splice most anything into the grid here as a supplemental power source, take some of the load off the current engine. Problem is, nothing I know matches it on total output - not without some serious refitting of the entire ship, that's money and time we don't have - and how quickly it can spike the output to match an increased power draw. Which...seems a likely thing, in dealing with Alterna.
So we've got a range of things that could help, but we don't have a fix here."
"So we're either jury-rigging together a bunch of untried possibilities, or going into Alterna with Asura," Linnet concludes. "In which case, it seems like an even better idea to...either get her support or absolutely not tell her where we're going, and I can't decide which."
"Hailstorms. I thought I had a solution, but I'm just doubling back on myself. Sorry, all."
"I've been tinkering with bluespirit dust. It's not what I'd call a stable process, so far." Bast grimaces.
Linnet: "...what did you blow up." Yves: "Did you take notes on what blew up?"
Bast holds his hands a couple of feet apart. "Model engine about this big? Pistons punched through the casing, probably a problem with the feed."
"Ok, keep working on that, I guess. Is bluespirit any more usable if it's not in dust form?" She continues tossing ideas at the wall. "...would any sort of traditional sails do anything for the ship? Somewhere, people still use those, right?"
"Not a ship this size," Jozue says.
"...or as of right now, is the plan to go into Alterna for the power source that we need? For which we need a plan for a pre-source power source?"
"I feel like I'm asking dumb questions here, but someone has to be the token non-engineer in the room." Linnet shrugs uncomfortably.
"...what is the Heart of Sabik, anyway?"
"Or to get funding for a traditional absolute fungus-load of crystals to power things the regular way," Yves adds. "I hope we don't have to write a grant. I've heard stories."
"For the bluespirit, bigger chunks mean bigger explosions. More power, less control - harder to get an even output that way, would need a lot more reinforcement on the pieces, more of a chance of ending up with a bomb instead of an engine."
"Sweetheart, who exactly would we be writing a grant to?" Linnet points out. "...so, longer-term solution at best."
"Okay, so for now I think we're going in with Asura, but we have assorted plans after we're done. Do we tell her, or do we keep this very separate from the engine with a mind of its own?"
"...and where exactly on this ship were you testing explosives?" Linnet racks her brain for anywhere that's been more of a singed mess than usual lately.
"How much work would it be to strengthen the containment?" Isa inquires.
"Is that something Artemicion could help with, if we have the materials?"
"Probably." Bast shrugs. "But that feed would still need work, that much variance in the force on the pistons would wreck them in no time even if the casing holds up better."
"Honestly, no idea," Isara says in response to Linnet's question, confident in her vote of no confidence. "No idea what form that actual prison takes, or how they got her in there in the first place. You found the ship in Alterna, right? Dig around for information on it while you're there."
"Absolutely a plan, once we get there and survive." Linnet nods firmly.
Isa sighs. "So we can't safely get into Alterna until we have a stable power source, but we can't stabilize the power source until we get into Alterna, unless we somehow become fabulously rich."
"Which we probably need to fix the engine situation to do, so, uh. Hm." Yves attempts to think of easy ways to become fabulously rich.
"Ship hasn't blown up yet," Isara says helpfully.
"I mean, we can get into Alterna as is, we're just running a little more risk of Asura waking up and demanding to be let out. I think." Linnet looks like she's thinking hard on too many tracks at once. "Did we have any immediate 'oh shit' indicators?"
"No cracks in the casing, to sum it up," Stella chirps.
"Stella, nothing about that comparison works," Jozue sighs.
Orrey shrugs. "Seems to me like it'll be worth the risks, then, to continue as is into Alterna. What do you all think?"
Isa frowns a bit. "Or, we can't really mitigate the risks, which turns out the same way." She looks at Isara. "How long to get the....thing installed?"
"Jozue, you can be the pragmatist here and Stella the cockeyed optimist," Linnet volunteers. Voluntells. "Bast, definitely run a few casing ideas past Artemicion, and before we go in I'd really like to kick the metaphorical wheels of that other sphere. Which means stopping at least once on our way, but we could probably stand a grocery run. And beer."
"Well," says Yves tentatively, "we probably wouldn't explode, and we would probably find things there that could keep us from exploding going forward..."
"It's getting installed right now," Isara replies to Isa.
Linnet looks quizzical. "Am I allowed to ask about the thing?"
Isara rolls her neck. "Luminous Engine, I assume. I wrote up instructions for your crew and they're doing it."
Linnet looks alarmed, then ponderful, then alarmed again, and slips out of the meeting during the next argument to go supervise and/or talk to Jasper.
(She returns a couple of minutes later to report that nothing has been installed visibly backward, nobody's dropped anything on their foot to the point of impairment, and Jasper is yelling, but it's his Progress Yell.)
(Which is distinct from his Lack Of Progress Yell and his Genuinely Stressed Out Yell.)
"Do we need to give the new engine a test run before taking it for the big spin?"
Isara never sticks around past the end of a set. "It'll work," she says. "I made it, after all."
...Linnet bites back a comment about field testing and rehearsal.
"Besides, it's not like there's a whole lot of angry magical terrain that will try to kill us outside of Alterna," Bast replies pragmatically.
"Hence the idea to test it somewhere a little quieter before the environment starts trying to kill us. But never mind." Linnet sighs.
"So far as we know!" Yves sounds a little too excited about that.
"Isara, what's your timeline on that? And what's our timeline on..." Linnet has completely lost track. "...wherever the heck we're going?" (This isn't much different from Linnet's general head-in-the-clouds approach to directions. And time. And large concepts of that sort.)
"You'll be in Alterna by the end of the week." Isara waves as she walks out of the engine room. "I'm off."
"Right, well, at least one of us is sure." Linnet groans and covers her face again. "Twelve save me from overconfident design teams."
Isa looks at Bast. "End of the week means we've got other preparations," she says.
"Yves, I'm feeling the need to grill Principia about Alterna, but I suspect that would be better left to you. Do you think you could see if you can extract anything useful from...them? Her?" Eventually, Linnet will remember.
"So, our best shot at a supplemental engine is out of reach for the moment due to expense and materials. And wouldn't replace the current engine. Which we don't know enough about to replace anyway, and would probably need to dig around in Alterna to learn more about. And the longer we wait, the more chances it goes badly for us."
Bast breathes out slowly, looking grim. "Not liking any of that, but sounds like waiting isn't going to fix it. Let's prep what we can, and see if we can figure out the second sphere before we have our hands full with Alterna again."
"I don't know how much more Principia can come up with, since that whole archive was lost, but I can certainly ask," Yves says seriously.
Isa looks around at the remaining crew in the room, and pins Luca in her gaze. "You," she says rather than remember their name, "find Lily and Brandt and tell them to step up the drills. They'll complain that they need more help. Help them."
Luca doesn't respond for four full breaths. "Aye, captain," they then say, and politely excuse themselves.
(Linnet makes a mental note to soothe Luca's ego after the meeting.)
"I'd appreciate that very much, Yves. I think everything else we have to go on is our own limited experience and half-baked theories. Orrey, we don't happen to have any future sight among your connections, do we?" "Yves - before I forget - ask about the Heart of Sabik. I think it's key to this whole puzzle."
"Rahel, care to join me in making sure Shaul is set for the journey?" Apoc asks. "Seems our new lookout will be put to test sooner rather than later."
"I'm going to go brief Marina," Isa says after watching Luca go. "I flew us out of Alterna and I'm sure she'll do a better job getting us back in but I want her to have some warning."
"I don't think future sight, but I might be able to get some advice. Did you have anything in particular you'd want to know?" Orrey asks, adjusting his holy symbols.
"...a little more detail about what would be trying to kill us there. But I can't think of a yes/no way to phrase that."
"I'll ask about the Heart of Sabik too," Yves says. In fact, he gets out his notebook to jot down the questions--well, the two names--to ask more about.
"We don't have any sort of lightning shields, do we? That's the biggest thing I remember."
"Bast, can you rig the ship with a few extra conductive wires or something?" Linnet makes vague sciencey hand motions.
"'Trying to kill us' is probably most of Alterna. Where to find some answers about Asura's current living arrangements would be nice. And yeah, I can probably arrange some grounding."
"Well, yes, but specifically what bits of Alterna. Or hell, what bits won't be trying to kill us. Like that book about the Lost Continent and 'some of the sheep.'" Linnet surveys the blank looks. "Never mind."
"I feel like we're going in less than half-cocked and will need our improv skills on high alert. Isa, maybe see if Celeste has dug up anything?"
Isa nods. "Sure. Let's see if we can up to completely half-cocked."
"I believe in us," Yves says. "We'll make it to three fifths."
"...is that better than completely uncocked or..." Linnet shakes her head. "Idioms are not the highest concern right now, Lin."
She stands up and claps her hands. "RIGHT! We each have our various side projects and interviews and stuff to conduct. Isa - Marina and Celeste, Yves - Principia, Bast - Artemicion, Orrey - um, whoever you feel like talking to? And I'm going to go make several days' worth of travel rations and have a quiet panic attack in the kitchen."
"Company dismissed! Thank you all for coming, and may we collectively muster somewhere around half the confidence of our lead engineer." Linnet glances over at Jozue and Stella. "Jozue, maybe go with Bast and rethink the engine casing? Stella, come with me, please. I think we're each going to need a sounding board for some half-baked ideas, and also I need tea."
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