Left at Eden - Chapter 14

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Left at Eden

They walked down the path towards the colony. It was a well worn path however. “There’s no real continents , there’s islands here, some are pretty darn large though.” Hailey said.

“I joined the girl scouts and a rock climbing club, just so I’d have excuses not to go home,” Amber laughed, adding, “I’m even a cheerleader. Or was.”

“Cheerleaders are snots.” Hailey grinned.

“Yeah, I got kicked off the squad for refusing to get rid of my naval piercing. Not my fault they wanted me to wear an outfit that showed it off.” She laughed and made a diamond shape with her hands. “Like literally, the skin was shown like this around the bellybutton, and I’m the one at fault.”

“Did it embarrass you?” Candy asked, “That sounds a little too clothed for my tastes..”

“Nah,” Amber laughed. “I wear midriff bare shirts all the time. I was even willing to put up with being an aerial and flashing my undies every time I dropped down off a pyramid.”

Candy giggled, “My Race doesn’t wear underwear, we know what it is. Sounds like they were just arrogant though. There’s nothing wrong with body piercings. I think they’re beautiful, like all body art.”

“Right?” Amber said, nodding her agreement. “It’s not even like it was tacky or ugly. I had it long before they ordered those stupid new uniforms. I think they just wanted me off the squad.”

“I thought about getting my belly button done.” Hailey said. “But I hate needles. Did it hurt?”

“Only when I rolled over in bed the first night. They gave me some mild anaesthetic for the actual piercing. My cousin’s girlfriend Maria, though, she got her tongue pierced with a barbell. She said it hurt like a mother.”

Candy slowly stuck out her tongue and stared at it, wiggling it around briefly, as if trying to imagine what it would be like to have a piercing there. She shivered. “Let me amend that to, I find body art pretty as long as it’s not me.” She giggled.

“You have piercings in your ears.” Hailey giggled.

“That’s different. Ear cartilage has practically no nerve endings. The tongue has billions, especially a Furran tongue.”

“And there’s all that muscle to get through, too,” Amber said, grinning as Candy shuddered.

“We have to introduce this girl to Vanessa and Fran,” Hailey laughed. “Vanessa’s the total classic goth girl, and Fran is more the old school punk goth type. They’re both awesome.”

“Sounds like,” Amber laughed. “I went through a bubblegum goth phase. Tons of pink. I’m over it now, but I still appreciate the whole subculture.”

“Hey there!” Ella called from a high tree branch, waving down at them as they passed. “New arrival?”

“Hey Ella.” Hailey called back, “Yup, we’re taking her to the colony.”

“Oh, wow, another human,” Amber giggled a bit as Karen came around the base of the large tree. Ella casually dropped down off the branch, landing on her feet with a loud thud, and a very small crater.

“Yep,” Ella laughed. “They’re everywhere. I’m Ella, and that’s my girlfriend Karen.”

“Amber.” the new girl smiled. “Nice to meet you both.”

“The aliens formerly known as Overseers dropped her right into our laps - almost literally,” Candy giggled softly, and held up the rainbow shell for Ella and Karen to see. “Look, they even warned us this time.”

Karen leaned closer. “Watch... the... sky,” she read slowly. Her Furran wasn’t exceptional, but it shared root characteristics with Ella’s native language, which she was fluent in. “Wow, Candy that’s amazing! Nobody’s ever communicated with them before!”

“Yeah, it was really cool they replied in my language.” Candy said.

“But um,” Ella said, “Why a shell? That just seems so random.”

Candy giggled. “Oh, that’s easy. I wrote my message on a shell just like this one, and tossed it out to the ocean.”

Ella stared blankly for a moment, and then laughed. “Only a Furran would find such a simple, elegant, and damned brilliant way to get their attention. I love it. We’re on our way back as well. We collected a couple of samples for Brie and Wendy to look at, but that weird star thing made us kind of bug out.”

Hailey giggled, “It was very pretty. We found some hot springs: 12 of them to be exact.” she was still holding her clothing.

“Well, that explains them dropping Amber on a mountain top,” Karen laughed. “They only drop you in water. It’s like a weird rule of theirs. Usually it’s the ocean, though.”

Candy laughed, “It was kind of amazing, she was headed for another pool so if we didn’t catch her, she would have been safe.”

“I um...” Amber said sheepishly, “I can’t swim.”

“We were there.” Hailey shrugged.

“I think she means you saved her,” Ella giggled softly as they started walking together. “I guess it depends how deep the pools are, though.”

“Not too deep.” Candy said. “There’s one that has a natural ledge you can sit on that’s purrfect.”

“Oh, Hailey,” Ella said. “You’re from earth. Settle a bet.” She took out a plant sample that, on the outside, looked like an ear of corn, but then Ella peeled it back, revealing dark purple kernels. “Is this corn?”

“It looks like Maize.” Hailey nodded, “Hand it here.”

Hailey pulled one of the kernels out and ate it to give it a taste, “Sweet Corn!”

“Damn,” Ella laughed. “I was sure it wasn’t because it’s so... berry-looking.”

“Corn changes color, in the sun.” Hailey spoke. “If it’s dried to a kernel, it can even be popped into Candy’s favorite Snack.”

“Oh!” Candy squeaked excitedly. “I love popped corn! Especially with butter, or a little caramel sauce and mmmm...”

Hailey giggled, “Sweet Corn is a little different than regular corn, but it’s pretty much the same stuff. I’m not sure if you can make popcorn from it.”

“I just happened to remember Wendy asking for corn or maize when she was talking to Brie this morning,” Ella nodded. “Karen said she was sure this was some variety of what she was looking for.”

“And now that I think about it,” Karen said, “ I swear I’ve seen it growing on one of the islands. I’ll ask Tera when we get back, if she remembers where.”

“She’ll probably need large quantities of it.” Hailey nodded.

“Well,” Good news, “Ella laughed. “This stuff grows like tangleweed, one small circle of it, but as soon as we picked one, a new one grew.”

“Wait,” Amber said, “So it was a circle... of crops... put there by an alien?”

Hailey nearly doubled over laughing. “Oh God,” she managed to squeak out between giggles.

Ella and Candy looked confused. Amber giggled. “Back on Earth there’s this phenomenon, a hoax really, called crop circles. People go out into fields and make big circle designs in crops, and other people see them and immediately assume aliens have nothing better to do than to make these things - even after the hoaxers admitted they did it.”

Hailey nodded, “But it’s good that they grow like that, We can ask Wendy how much she needs.”

Candy smacked Hailey on the butt, “You should atleast get dressed a little. Not that I mind.”

“Nobody else is complaining either,” Hailey giggled as she pulled on her skirt and top finally.

“I wasn’t complaining, I’m just not sure how the colony will react.” Candy giggled.

Hailey laughed. “I’m kidding. The truth is I was just so distracted with helping Amber that I forgot to get dressed.”

“Yeah,” Amber laughed, “Amber not dying to a loose rock is a good thing.”

“We haven't lost anyone yet, no plans on ever losing someone.” Ella nodded.

“Well,” Karen said, “Eventually the straight folks will probably pass of old age at least.”

“Well that’s fine. Natural death is fine.” Ella laughed. “When we die we return to the universe to be reborn; that’s a scientific fact and a religious belief shared by many cultures. But to have one’s life cut short unnaturally is still cruel.”

“At least until we crack the nano enigma,” Candy giggled. “But as far as I know, even Sartori haven’t figured that one out.”

“Oh,” Amber said, “You mean eternal life? Yeah some guy from Google says we’ll have that figured out by 2027. Something about using molecular nanomachines to repair DNA and keep it from breaking down in the first place” She shrugged. “Sounds like science fiction to me.”

“Unfortunately,” Candy nodded. “Nanomachines can do amazing things, but they can’t replicate fast enough to keep up with cellular decay in the advanced stages. They can prolong life, though.”

“We’re still not sure how the aliens that brought us here, made those of us who don’t reproduce, able to live forever,” Ella laughed.

“Really I won't die of old age?” Amber looked stunned.

Karen giggled. “Wow, another one? You know we’re supposed to be rare,” she teased.

“What being lesbian is not rare.” Amber laughed.

“It is here,” Ella laughed. “It’s not looked down upon or anything. It’s just unusual for the aliens to choose non-b over b, in my understanding. But yes. The oldest member of the larger colony has been here sixty years, and she looks 20 still.”

“In the last four days,” Hailey giggled, “We’ve had four lesbians and one convert that we thought for certain wasn’t, all of whom joined or were already a part of our expedition team.”

“In Brie’s defense though,” Ella nodded, “She never really talked about herself in that sense. That one was on me for just assuming because she seemed more anxious around males. I misinterpreted it as interest instead of disinterest. Normally I can tell just by cruising surface thoughts, but Brie is like trying to read a blank slate, covered in prickly spines.”

“Her species.” Candy nodded. “We’re easier to read than hers.”

“Not by much,” Ella laughed. “You share similar defenses, but Furrans make psychic races just plain not want to read any deeper,” she teased. “Not that I ever go below the surface, either. I’m a Praelian Guard. We’re taught to respect others’ privacy, and only read their emotions to help mediate peace.”

“Soo you’re a Jedi,” Amber giggled. “Awesome.”

“Clear the path!” someone yelled, “We have an injured newcomer! I think she’s pregnant too!”

“ She’s Furren,” Ella said quickly as they ducked off the path.

“I’m going with them then,” Candy said. “I helped deliver 6 of my sisters’ litters and two of my sisters-in-law’s.”

“WE have no clue how many she’s having the one medic spoke, I heard your kind can have 2-6 even more.”

Candy nodded. “Furran labor can last for weeks on end. We may need to prep the Victory to take her back to the big colony.”

“Jesus Christ,” the human medic said. “I agree. We’ll do what we can for her here, but by all accounts your colony’s better equipped to handle this than we are.”

“What are her injuries?” Hailey asked.

“Looks like she was beaten really bad.” one of the other medics stated

“Fell...” the woman groaned quietly. “Fell do... down... stairs try...”

“Shh,” Candy cooed softly. “You’re going to be okay. Does anyone have some water from the ocean? The medicinal properties may ease her pain.”

“Got some here.” A young 10 year old girl handed Candy a wine skin. Candy uncorked the top and poured just a tiny amount in the woman’s mouth, letting her drink it, before giving her a tiny bit more.

“I los... lost consciousness on th.. the stairs,” the woman said weakly. “Woke up here.”

“How many Kits are you having?” Candy asked.

“Seven,” the woman said with a wry laugh. “Oooh, hurts to laugh.”

“What’s your family name?” Candy asked the woman.

“Atross,” she answered. “I’m Mileena Atross.”

Candy smiled and kissed Mileena’s forehead, “My name is Candy. We are family.”

“You’re-” she paused to flinch, “You’re the galactic peace prize nominee. Congratulations,” she said, still smiling despite her pain.

Candy laughed, “No congradulations to you for becoming a mother.” she said, “You will be ok.”

Mileena laughed, “I’ve had kits before.. A liter of 10, but they were all taken..”

“Taken,” Hailey said, looking at Candy. “What does she mean?”

“Taken,” Candy repeated with a certain strength behind it. Hailey frowned.

“Oh... I’m so sorry.”

Mileena nodded. “And now I may... May lose these too.”

“You won’t we’ll make sure of it.” Candy said reassuringly.

Ella slowed back a bit and pulled Hailey aside. “She’s lying about her injuries,” she said quietly, knowing Furran hearing, even under duress, was keener than most.

“What do you mean she was lying?” Hailey asked.

“I mean,” Ella exhaled slowly, “She didn’t just fall down some stairs. I believe someone didn’t want those kits to be born.”

“Why wouldn't they?” Hailey sighed, “Makes no sense.”

Ella shook her head. “Who can say, but her injuries are not consistent with a simple fall, and she said her last batch were taken as well. I just wanted you and Candy to be aware. This is technically, an internal Furran matter, since I can’t do anything about it from this planet.”

“Well whatever was going on, it doesn’t matter anymore, they will be born here.” Hailey said. Ella nodded and gave Hailey a hug, before letting her catch up with Candy again.

~oOo~

Hailey waited around outside the clinic, she wasn’t very useful, but she stuck around for Candy. They had taken the ship back to the main island to induce birth, so they could treat the mother.

“Heard anything?” Wendy asked as she approached Hailey. Her breath reeked of sour apple bubblegum.

“You know that stuff’s going to be a nightmare to get out of your fur,” Hailey laughed.

“Old habits die hard,” Wendy giggled.

“Furran labor can last for weeks,” Hailey said. “They’re trying to balance helping her through, with treating her injuries, so they’re trying a new birthing technique. It sounds crazy to me, but I’m no doctor, so...”

“Whatever works, I guess,” Wendy nodded.

“I hope she survives and I pray to the overseers that she does.” Hailey said.

“If I ever get my claws on who did this to her,” Wendy growled, “They’ll wish for death. But knowing the Overseers’ sense of humor, I like to think that they dropped that person into some kind of specially tailored personal hell.”

“If they even know who did it.” Hailey shrugged.

At that, a single flower petal drifted down seemingly out of nowhere. It landed right on the tip of Hailey’s nose, and the pigmentation pattern seemed to have a message written right into the petal’s surface. A semicolon, followed by a dash, and then a closed parenthesis thusly:

;-)

Hailey sneezed, causing the petal to fall to dust before her as Karen poked her head out of the clinic. “Guys, it’s working!” she announced excitedly. “The aquatic birth tank is helping ease her pain and it’s making the birth process easier - three born so far, and all healthy.”

“So the kits are safe?” Hailey said.

“Yes and one has taken to your girlfriend.” Karen said.

“Uh oh,” Wendy giggled. “Someone’s going to be a godmother.”

Hailey giggled and stuck out her tongue, “Someone's Jelly.”

Wendy laughed and shook her head. “If maternal instinct was a mouse, then I am the 750 pound lion who accidentally steps on it prowling through the jungle.”

“I’m so not good with kids either.” Hailey laughed, “Remember when Greg brought his little niece to the bug out meeting?”

“Oh, God,” Wendy laughed. “I remember you said you had to wash that shirt three times to get the pee smell out.”

“Yeah.” Hailey sighed, “It was my favorite shirt too, I can’t believe I swore at her for that too.”

“So,” Wendy giggled, “You and Brie neglected to tell me we had regular gasoline here,” she teased Hailey, and then giggled. “But Brie did explain how it’s not as combustible either. I understand why the scientists have struggled with the problem. We need a higher octane fuel, as it were.”

“Sorry about that, will it be helpful for you in that pursuit?” Hailey blushed.

Wendy giggled. “It’s Brie’s fault for not telling me. But I can’t blame her. We’ve both been... preoccupied,” she teased Hailey. “But yes, actually, being able to study the molecular structure on the fly, comparing the new biofuel to gasoline will be extremely useful. And the regular gasoline isn’t useless, either. Just not strong enough to power a jet engine as we’re planning.”

“Ella found a ton of Sweet Corn like stuff, I hope that will help too.” Hailey said

Wendy nodded. “We managed to collect some samples before we left, and we’re having Expeditionary 1 collect even more for us, as much as an experiment to see how much it will replenish itself,” she giggled out.

“Hope they don’t kill it off, but we do have enough we can plant more if needed.” Hailey giggled.

Wendy nodded. “They’re using one plant as the control, and monitoring it closely. If they see any signs of wilting or nutrient drain, they’ll stop immediately, per Tricia’s direct orders. We’re scientists, after all, not monsters.” She giggled again. “God it is so great to be able to talk to you about this sort of thing though.”

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A common misconception

TheCropredyKid's picture

...is that higher-octane gasoline has more potential power.

Higher octane means that the gasoline is harder to ignite, so that it can be used in higher-compression engines without knocking or detonation.

 
 
 
x

Not so.

High octane gas is harder to ignite. This allows the engineers to design an engine with a higher compression ratio, which makes for a more efficient engine. It also allows for the use of superchargers, which make for a more powerful engine.

But the actual energy content of 89 octane gas is the same as the energy content of 104+ octane gas.

Fuels

The various hydrocarbon fuels have pretty much the same energy content per pound (or kilogram or whatever.)

The energy content varies with the hydrogen to carbon ratio, and the amount of energy in the bonds. Still, they are all similar.

As far as rocket fuel goes, we have pretty much hit the peak efficiency in our designs. Still, chemical rockets can only get us into orbit if we use two or more stages.

In the early days of rockets, they tried all kinds of fuels. Red fuming nitric acid makes a dandy oxidizer, but it's tough to handle. The Nazis wanted to use chlorine trifluoride, which is crazy even for them. Just google on 'the most dangerous chemicals in the world,' and you'll be sure to find that listed near the top.

The Saturn V rocket used kerosene in its first stage. The Space Shuttle used liquid hydrogen in its upper stage. Kerosene has a great energy density per unit volume, while liquid hydrogen has a great energy density per unit mass. It's extremely light, just 7% of the density of water. It's great as a rocket fuel, but its lack of density means that you need a bigger (and heavier) tank.

The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere makes absolutely no difference with rockets. After all, we used rockets to lift off of our airless moon.

The oxygen level in the atmosphere can be compensated for by compressing it. That's why high altitude planes often use turbochargers (if they use piston engines.)

If there is enough oxygen for the various humanoid species to breathe, there is plenty for any engine you want to build.

As far as advanced space craft are concerned, I would be extremely surprised to see chemical power being used. I expect our advanced spacecraft, once we start actually building them, to be powered by fusion energy, or maybe antimatter. I'm also not averse to using, in my fiction, antigravity, tractor and presser beams, reactionless thrusters, and the like. Or maybe something that burns dark matter or dark energy. The more vague you are, the more you can get away with. And generations later, everyone will assume that you were a visionary genius.

Or, they'll smile placidly when they read the old space operas where the pilot uses a slide rule to plot his course, and talks on a radio that uses vacuum tubes.

Of course, as a science fiction author, I'm not averse to using some unspecified source -- zero point, quantum, or whatever. Remember 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? The author used an unspecified power supply that we now assume to be nuclear. In fact, the very first nuclear sub in the US Navy inventory was the Nautilus.

Chlorine trifluoride is

Brooke Erickson's picture

Chlorine trifluoride is nothing. Try oxygen difluoride. Usually referred to by its structural formula: FOOF

Because that's pretty much what happens to anything exposed to it.

But the oft overlooked bit with rockets is that you want to maximize "burnt velocity". Which means that not only do you want a high energy reaction, you also want a low molecular weight exhaust.

That's why liquid hydrogen is so popular. It gives a nice, safe molecule (water), and is about the lowest weight gas you can get by using oxygen as the oxidizer.

Heinlein cheated and had rockets using "single-H". That was stabilized (by a carefully unspecified means) mono-atomic hydrogen. So in the engine the hydrogen atoms combined into hydrogen molecules, releasing a fair bit of heat and giving hydrogen gas as the exhaust.

As I recall, if it was possible to use the stuff, it'd have an Isp of over 800! That's getting into the same territory as the early NERVA rockets!

We *could* build that sort of nuclear rocket with modern tech. and they'd be pretty safe. After all the exhaust is hydrogen, and it wouldn't be radioactive. And we could build the reactor (engine) to be able to survive any reasonable crash, and have the pieces from an *unreasonable* one be fairly safe.

But it's nuclear! Eeek! Run away. *sigh*

And rockets aren't the only way to get to orbit. Beanstalks (materials science isn't quite up to that yet). Lofstrom Loops (aka "Launch Loops") take a fair bit of ocean near the equator and a fair bit of power. And, of course, laser launch systems (which can double as ABM systems).

None are suitable for the folks in your story though.

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

The thing is, they don't want

The thing is, they don't want to get into space, also your forgetting extremely large linear magnetic accelerators, better for non-organic matterial, and costs a ton of energy, but it could work

Reactionless Drives

erin's picture

Nasa and other entities are now experimenting with the macro-effects of quantum/relativistic manipulations of energy. There are two forks of this so far, both apparently using the Mach effect which depends on the fact that moving energy near lightspeed changes mass. One is based on assymetrically oscillating electric currents and the other on microwaves.

Neither has been proven not to work, despite some very good minds making the effort. And there is evidence that they do work. The math is complex but it appears such drives work and avoid Newton's laws by pushing against the entire universe. So you would only need fuel for energy and nothing to throw away. This, btw, is the theory behind the drives in the Star Trek engines.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Microwave drive

On the 'Cody's Lab' YouTube channel, Cody played with it. He actually built a laser drive to see how much light pushes things.

His tentative conclusion is that the microwave drive is the same as a light drive. It uses the mass of the photons as reaction mass. It takes a whole lot of energy to get a tiny bit of thrust.

Another way out science fiction technology being played with is anti gravity. It is done by spinning a superconductor.

I remain hopeful. I would also love to see the Alcubierre drive made into a reality.

Not exactly

erin's picture

The drive that NASA is experimenting has a contained asymetric chamber in which microwaves bounce around producing relativistic quantum effect resulting in a net push in one direction. The microwaves are not released and are not being used as reaction mass. To quote an article: "Turns out, the EmDrive is capable of producing 1.2 millinewtons per kilowatt of energy, according to the authors’ estimates." That's 200 to 600 times as much as you would get from using the photons as reaction mass. It's not a lot compared to an ion thruster, 1/20th to 1/200th as much BUT you won't run out of reaction mass and don't have to bring any with you saving a hell of a lot of energy.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/nasa-impossible-e...

And here's a page on the Woodward drive that uses capacitors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodward_effect

The Alcubierre drive is based on the second derivative of the Mach/Einstein equation, which could create a warp achieving translight speeds. It would require some horrendous amount of energy if it would work. The third derivative would open a stargate but would require the energy of a small sun by current calculations. :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Alcubierre drive

Someone refined the drive. Now, instead of taking the energy equivalent of the mass of Jupiter, it just takes a few times the total energy output of all of the power plants in America. That, at least, is something that we can conceivably produce.

As for the EM drive, thanks for the link. I'll take a look at it.

Hmmm... I have this disassembled microwave oven in my junk collection... 1.2 millinewtons, eh?

Alcubierre equation

They are constantly trying to refine the math to lower the energy requirement, but it still will probably require antimatter in the power plant.

Getting spacey

You forget about the ultra cool ORION drive. lol

Beanstalks might be able to be done with carbon nanotubes. I remain hopeful.

The Flying Crowbar would be great for a lower stage, since it's air breathing. You just need to find a way to heat the air without rendering it radioactive. The fusion reactor that Lockheed-Martin is developing would do a wonderful job. If they manage to make that reactor, they could take the fuel tanks out of existing passenger jets, install the reactor, and use the heat to run modified turbofans. And it would be safe.

re: NERVA -- I wonder if a thorium reactor would work. It's considerably safer than a uranium reactor.

The fact is that if they had started building thorium reactors back at the dawn of the nuclear age, we would currently be enjoying the much promised 'electricity too cheap to meter.' Our cars would run on hydrogen that we make out of tap water. Global warming would be a total non-issue.

We could still do it, but "Oh no! Eeek! Nuclear energy is dangerous!"

No, I didn't forget about

Brooke Erickson's picture

No, I didn't forget about Orion. Short of a major asteroid heading for Earth the odds of getting *that* approved for use are pretty much nil.

The nuclear ramjet was a fun idea. But Project Pluto (I actually encountered a USAF book about it that had gotten misfiled in the SF section of the base library when I was a kid) was less ambitious. Steam turbines to drive props (or turbo fans is a lot easier to build.

But the big problem is that shielding is *heavy* so the designs used shadow shielding (basically put the reactor in the back of the plane and have the shielding be a bulkhead with crew and any passengers forward of that bulkhead.

Saves weight, but means you have to back the plane into a shielded "hangar or take stringent measures to prevent people from getting near the back part of the plane on the ground.

Not sure if thorium reactors would be any safer, but there are lots of reactor designs that (regardless of fuel used) are safer and easier to maintain than PWRs.

Heavy water based reactors like the Canadian CANDU design are fairly common (but not in the US).

Pebble bed reactors probably aren't good for planes and rockets, but ought to be fairly good for power plants and things. And they *can't* meltdown.

One oddball design that has it's points use a solution of uranium or plutonium salts in water. Probably work with thorium salts too.
Not sure if it uses heavy water or regular water.

Either way, the inherent safety bit in it is that the presence of the water lowers the critical mass from around 20 kilos to *2*. So if it gets too active, the water boils away and quits acting as a moderator. So the reaction stops.

Only real safety concern is that since the salts *are* water soluble, you need to take major precautions to contain leakage.

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

How about an NSWR?

But first, imagine project Pluto, but powered by a nice, safe fusion reactor like the one that Lockheed-Martin is designing.

But the nuclear salt water rocket... Wow! Elegant simplicity in design, and oh so reliable.

Start with a tank full of distilled water with a neutron absorbing matrix inside. Add some salts of uranium or plutonium. Pipe the water into the reaction chamber. The water immediately flashes into steam and is exhausted with great speed out the nozzle.

It only has one teenie tiny little problem. It's probably the dirtiest rocket known to man.

The gasoline should be

The gasoline should be perfect for a jet engine, on that world. It's a misconception that jet fuel is more combustible than car fuel. In fact, it's the opposite. With a jet, you want a continuous flame, not a detonation. _Rocket_ fuel is more combustible, because you WANT a big detonation (just controlled). In fact, kerosene is basically what jet fuel is. (Model T Fords could run on ethanol, kerosene, and gasoline)


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

I am guessing it doesn't burn

I am guessing it doesn't burn with enough energy for them, and leave the octane rating as a terminology mishap, it isn't burning with enough energy, so what it needs is a higher oxygen content, it needs to at least partially self oxidize, rather than take all of the oxygen from the air, or react with the inert gasses to help it out, there's a balance between the reaction being tame, and having enough energy, also consider that the planet has a denser atmosphere and higher gravity, not enough to notice generally, but both those factors mean that in order to get lift they will need more thrust, your wings will be more efficient i think, once you are in air but take off and gaining airspeed to generate lift will be much harder, low combustion works in a jet engine because you have lots of Atmospheric oxygen, to burn it up more completely, here that won't work they don't have enough Atmospheric O2 to burn it, theres way more inert gas than O2, in other words the gasoline they have would be good as a liquid heating fuel but it isn't burning fast enough for any form of thrust.

I'd say that they probably

I'd say that they probably -can- use the gasoline, but only in a jet. You compensate for oxygen levels in the air by adjusting the fuel-air mix. That's old technology - both carburetors and fuel injection operate on that principle. What they couldn't do is use it for a propeller driven aircraft, in this particular case. Higher gravity is likely to take longer runways, but a denser atmosphere simply makes it easier to get aloft and stay aloft.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Not wanting the kits

Renee_Heart2's picture

It sounds like the new furin's mate is at fault and knowing the overseers the mate will be punished severly. As far as sexual orentation goes it happens. But everyone is taking it in stride

Love Samantha Renee Heart

You know I am kinda surprised

That none of them said that they find the corn to be aMAIZEing. As to the fuel arguments, it also depends on the kind of jet engine, a pulse jet for instance, you want detonations, but yeah with their atmospheric conditions, they want it to carry an oxidizer component, or better yet a component that will aid in separating the oxygen from the inert gasses, or cause the off gasses to after burn easily as well, they want something that doesn't fizzle out easily, from what I understand most of their atmosphere is acting like a non-harmful diluted halon gas (not a perfect analogy due to density), stuff burns, and you can breath in it, but its hard to sustain a burn particularly as you gain altitude where the oxygen content drops, you can get around that at sea level by increasing the air intake and exhaust thru-put, and underwater by using electrolysis to supplement the O2, in air they cant do that, instead they have to consider 90% or more of their intake as inert, and only useful as reaction mass, as opposed to free oxidizer, so the main difference between their jet engines and rocket engines is that the fuel stored will not represent the total reaction mass, but it will contain most of the oxidizer. Interesting problem. Obviously some of the air is O2, but in this situation it might not react readily enough unless its already compressed and superheated, so if they run the initial CO2 exhaust through a catalyst or even an electric field to pull off one the oxygen atoms (to reintroduce at some point, possibly the start of the system ) and inject the CO into the compressed hot air, they could get a secondary reaction, to improve thrust to weight. The hydrocarbons are the easy part of the reaction here, they are running into the same sort of issues as developing a craft that can leave the surface of Mars, only with higher gravity, higher drag, rarefied O2 instead of no O2, need for re-usability and a fully fluid fuel, solid and hybrid wont do unless the solid portion is dissolved in the liquid, also it doesn't have to escape the atmosphere at all. Another thing to consider is that simple gasification wont work, but they can gasify what they dont use for oil..

*ergh* They _cannot_ have

*ergh* They _cannot_ have lower oxygen levels, not and be able to be as active as they are. Different mix of gases? Sure. Something that might suppress detonations? I can kind of see it, at least with unaltered air. Hydrogen won't be much lower either - not and have as much water as they do. (I wonder if it's higher in deuterium) People that live in the Andes mountains, for example, are adapted with much larger lungs to extract what oxygen is available; even so, they aren't running marathons. I can see a higher density of air causing its own problems, however. You'd have to look up carburetor adjustments between, say, Houston and Denver to get a good idea of what that extra density might cause. (That's part of why jets _are_ jets. Propeller driven craft are definitely not good at high altitude. )


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

lower O2 to inert gas ratio

lower O2 to inert gas ratio and yes they can, modern scubba tanks, submarines and spacecraft use higher than normal levels of inert gas, to make the O2 last longer, you have enough to sustain yourself, and think clearly, but its mostly nitrogen and related gasses, and there is about as much O2 as you get at extreme altitudes, which is to say, not much.

Note how I said - and be as

Note how I said - and be as active as they are. Mostly, they remove nitrogen from the air in high pressure environments, to avoid the bends. That's the entire reasoning behind it, as far as I've ever discerned. Not to stretch oxygen. Folks in submarines can't move that quickly, and I can guarantee you that deep sea divers do NOT rush _anything_. (I knew a guy while I was lifeguarding. He paid his house off in 3 years by doing rig diving)


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Gas mixes

Deep sea divers have to reduce the nitrogen content of the air that they breathe to prevent nitrogen narcosis -- a condition similar to what you get when you breathe nitrous oxide (laughing gas.)

You can get the bends with a pure helium/oxygen mix. I understand that it's different, but definitely the bends.

As the pressure goes up, you need to reduce the oxygen content in order to keep the same oxygen partial pressure. Multiply the pressure by ten, and you need to go from 20% oxygen to 2% oxygen in order to prevent oxygen toxicity.

Unless the humans and humanoids were somehow modified, the air on the planet needs to have an oxygen partial pressure of around 3 PSI -- similar to what you are breathing right now.

I suppose there could be some kind of non toxic flame retardant gas in the mix, though it beats me what it could be. Unobtanium, perhaps. ;-)

Hey, they ARE the overseers.

Well then will go with the

Well then we'll go with the flame retardant, for story sake it doesn't matter what it is, only that fuels don't work easily, higher octane would mean higher compression, so the air needs to be heavily compressed to mix well with the fuel, it also means that one of biggest problems the V-22 Osprey had in development, the fuel line fire control, wont be an issue, because the air is partially fire retardant, it might not actually be the gas, it could be a massive deionisation field, carried by the gas mix or some of the gasses in certain conditions cause an endothermic reaction, and they have to bypass said conditions. all that really matters is that conventional fuel doesn't work well, wood does, i don't know about plant char. Obviously there is something in the native plants that allows them to burn better than ethanol or octane, and acts as a counter agent to whatever is stopping ordinary hydrocarbons from being effective, and they need that agent in their fuel mix.

edit and we KNOW they are all modified in certain ways, some significantly, would it be that surprising if they were modified to handle a lower O2 pressure. they all age slower (or not at all) so what if they metabolize O2 much more efficiently?

;-)

Jamie Lee's picture

So the overseers know who pushed Mileena down the stairs or caused her to fall, since she blacked out.

Seems this happening was just a matter of time. Someone who was dropped on the planet had to have an objection to someone else. They just never realized the payment for their actions.

Others have feelings too.

New elements? I mean:

New elements? I mean:

There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium,
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium,
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium,
And gold and protactinium and indium and gallium,

And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.

There's yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium,
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium,
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium, and barium.

There's holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium,
And phosphorus and francium and fluorine and terbium,
And manganese and mercury, molybdenum, magnesium,
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and cesium.
And lead, praseodymium, and platinum, plutonium,
Palladium, promethium, potassium, polonium,
And tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium,

And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium.

There's sulfur, californium, and fermium, berkelium,
And also mendelevium, einsteinium, nobelium,
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc, and rhodium,
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper, tungsten, tin, and sodium.

What others do you need?


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Great story!

I look forward to reading it every week. I love the characters. When do I get to go? I would have to take the family with me, since they need me. But still, I wanna go!

Wow, Just wow.

I just finished reading the whole story and wow, the world you have built here is just amazing and imaginative and it constantly leaves me wanting to learn more about it and the races that live there and the mysterious overseers. This is a truly amazing story and I really loved reading it, cant wait for more.